Peace on Earth, God Will to Man

This story continues from Defenders #104…

One Week Ago

Kyle Richmond and his fellow Defenders — Hellcat, Valkyrie, and the Gargoyle — have been taken prisoner by the Central Intelligence Bureau. With his allies drugged, Kyle Richmond is taken away so the CIB’s leader, August Masters, can show Richmond his grand scheme. He doesn’t see Kyle as much of a threat since he is paralyzed from the waist down during the daylight hours.[1] As he is shown around the facility, Kyle recalls how he uncovered the CIB’s involvement in experimenting with the telepathic powers of his ex-girlfriend, Mindy Williams. Although he thwarted this scheme, the CIB later kidnapped Mindy, Kyle, and his fellow Defenders.[2]

Now

In New York, Steve Rogers and Bernie Rosenthal are returning home from seeing a movie together. The action film didn’t sit well with Steve who thinks the hero of the story was too self-centered, not like the film characters he saw as a kid. As they head to Bernie’s car, a middle aged man on the street recognizes Steve but can hardly believe it.[3] Before heading for home, Bernie tells Steve that she loves him and gets upset when he doesn’t say it back, making the ride home awkward.

Back in his apartment, Steve finds himself troubled over the fact that he doesn’t feel the same way about Bernie yet. Suddenly, he is struck by a powerful headache and screams so loud that both Bernie and their neighbor Josh Cooper come rushing into his apartment to see if he is ok. Steve assures them that he is fine and after they are gone he changes into Captain America because the “headache” was the result of a telepathic distress call from Ursula Richardson, the telepath he recently rescued from Morgan MacNeil Hardy.

As he recovers his motorcycle and races off to rescue Ursula, Steve recounts how Hardy tried to use a group of telepaths to restructure reality to fit his ideal of the “perfect America”.[4] The distress call from Ursula showed that a group of armed men had kidnapped both her and Phillip le Guin, another telepath who Cap saved from Hardy.

Unable to get a clear picture of where they were taken, Captain America heads to SHIELD headquarters. There he has a technician named Gail Runciter to run a mental probe on him to uncover more information about the telepathic distress call. While they learn where Ursula has been taken, the strain on the mental probe causes the machine to overload.

One Week Ago

August Masters continues showing Kyle Richmond around the facility. He explains that the CIB is not a real government organization but they still have a vested interest in the wellbeing of America. Kyle is taken to a room where they are keeping Mindy and torturing her with more experiments. Kyle tries to do something about it, but Masters warns Richmond that if he interferes with them in any way, he will order the other Defenders killed. Kyle agrees to be compliant and demands to know what the CIB is doing. August explains that they are preparing for World War III.

Now

Captain America has gone undercover to investigate the small Colorado town from Ursula’s mental distress. Going into a bar he asks the bartender if he knows of anything weird that has happened in the area. A local offers to show him the site where he saw strange men dressed in Roman armor doing maneuvers in the mountain. Steve agrees to pay the man for the lift and ends up being driven into a trap as this man was a CIB plant. Changing into costume, Captain America fights through his attackers and forces his way into the secret facility. On the inside he runs into August Masters and an army of soldiers who order him to surrender.

Ursula and Phillip detect this telepathically and use their powers to revive the Defenders so they can save Captain America. Hellcat, Valkyrie, and Gargoyle fight through the guards. Meanwhile, Captain America learns from August that the CIB are a clandestine organization made up for former members of the military, SHIELD, and the government who want to destroy Russia and create the what they view as the “correct vision” for the United States. August hopes that Captain America will support their cause, but the Avenger is horrified by their plan and begins fighting to get free. He is joined by the Defenders who hold off the guards while Cap goes after Masters.[5] However, the Avenger is forced to abandoned to surrender when August threatens to blow up the facility.

When everyone surrenders, Kyle Richmond wishes he could somehow contact Doctor Strange for help. Hearing his thought, Mindy Williams sends out a telepathic call to the Sorcerer Supreme for assisance.

… This story is continued in Defenders #106.

Recurring Characters

Captain America, Defenders (Nighthawk, Valkyrie, Hellcat, Gargoyle), August Masters, Bernie Rosenthal, Josh Cooper, SHIELD (Dum Dum Dugan, Gail Runciter, Arnie Roth), Ursula Richardson, Phillip le Guin, Mindy Williams

Continuity Notes

1. Kyle Richmond’s daytime paralysis is somewhat of a complicated event. When he turned against his old allies the Squadron Sinister to help the Defenders he was gravely injured and they restored him to full life using their combined life forces in Defenders #12-14. Eventually, this began to fail on him resulting in Kyle becoming paralyzed by day and being full mobile at night, see Defenders #93-95.

2. The whole Mindy Williams saga was chronicled in Defenders #102-104.

3. This man is Arnie Roth who grew up with Steve Rogers as a kid, as we’ll learn in Captain America #270. We’ll get into the problems with that in my summary for that issue.

4. Captain America’s clash with Hardy happened in Captain America #264.

5. Here, Hellcat states that she was once a member of the Avengers. That’s not entirely accurate. She fought alongside the team from Avengers #144 through 151. However, when they decided to make her an official member, Moondragon convinced her otherwise so she could train Patsy herself.

Topical References

• The movie that Steve and Bernie go to see is Raiders of the Lost Arc, the first Indiana Jones movie which was released in the summer of 1981. This could be considered a topical reference unless you want to believe they went to go see an old movie. The Indiana Jones franchise is now owned by Disney and they’re all about brand synergy so this reference could go either way.

• Bernie also states that the cost of admission to see a movie when she was a kid was fifty cents (must have been nice). This of course is a topical reference since going to the movies costs a hell of a lot more now.

• What most assuredly is a topical reference is the fact that Bernie drives a 1980s model Volkswagen Beetle.

• Russia is referred to as the USSR in this story. This should be considered topical as the the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991.