New Defenders, The (1983 series) #132

Ephraim Soles drags himself across the desert, dying of thirst, when he comes upon a lichen-like plant and, unaware it is radioactive from a long-ago Gamma bomb test, devours it and collapses to the ground, dead…and then he rises and continues to walk, under a different power….

At the Defenders’ mountain-top HQ, the teammates (minus Beast) are hanging around on a sunny day. Warren and Bobby are trying to explain to Cloud that sunbathing at that altitude can cause a nasty sunburn. This devolves into a playful spat between Cloud and Iceman, trading shocks for chills and Moondragon scolding Bobby for his misogyny, which excites him as much as it insults. An alarm signal a visitor and the screen reveals a sickly old man. They bring him in and he apologizes for his odor while Dolly Donahue steps out to get him some clothes—and then the man morphs into a huge dragon-like plant monster. The Defenders are confused so Moondragon confronts the visitor—and tentacles lash out from his mouth and attach to her head. Valkyrie leaps forward and severs the tentacles with Dragonfang while Cloud, Angel, and Iceman try various attacks that have no effect as the monster continues to change. Gargoyle suggests to Cloud that they combine their attacks and once they have it coordinated they let loose, killing the creature. The heroes speculate on whether he could have been a mutant, as Angel tries to wipe slime off his hands. Isaac takes Dolly aside to keep her from seeing the mess, assuring her that they will clean it all up. Val informs them that she was able to sense what their visitor was, a human long dead. To convince them she chops the creature open with her sword, revealing…pink flowers. They reason that the human was completely consumed by the plant. Cloud takes a closer look and the flowers shoot out on tendrils and fasten onto her body but not to worry she shifts into her cloud form and Iceman freezes the flowers, choosing to watch over it to make sure it is safe….

Warren takes a shower to remove the slime from his body while pondering the team’s future. He then notices a plant spore attached to his back and panics, crashing through the skylight and flying up into the sky. Meanwhile, Bobby wonders how the monster was able to mutate so quickly. He decides to phone Hank at Cornell University but they don’t know where to find him on campus (despite his being just a few feet from the office, posing for a photo with a stone gargoyle as a gift for Isaac). And then the monster evolves into a huge ball of green with multitudes of tentacles and tendrils and breaks through the ice prison. But now it expels bits of slime, each one growing into a tentacle. Meanwhile, Angel flies further and further up until the ultraviolet rays cause the spore to drop off…but Angel also passes out….

As the creature seems to multiply the more they fight it, they are tempted to despair until Bobby has an idea. He has Isaac break a small hole in the window and sticks his arm through, deicing the parts of him inside. He employs his lesser-known power to drain all the moisture from the room, finally killing the creature. Bobby is revived and Warren suggests that Bobby should be leader of the Defenders but the humble Iceman says that next time it might be someone else who has the great idea, claiming that as long as they have trust in one another the Defenders will come out on top every time. Moondragon says nothing….

Meanwhile, spores are carried off by the winds….