Secret Defenders #15: Under New Management

Secret Defenders #15
“Strange Changes Part the First: Strangers and Other Lovers”
Writers: Tom Brevoort and Mike Kanterovich
Penciler: Jerry DeCaire
Inker: Tony DeZuniga
Letters: John Costanza
Colors: John Kalisz
Cover: Tom W. Morgan
Editor: Craig Anderson
Mystic Harbinger in Chief: Tom DeFalco
Released: March 8, 1994

Issue 15 marks a second, or possibly third depending on how you count it, status quo shift for the Secret Defenders. It also starts a segment of the series I wasn't sure existed.

I bought the first six issues of“Secret Defenders” as they came out but fell off after that, for reasons I can't quite remember. But it always stuck in my head and eventually became one of those books I kept an eye out for in back issue bins. I didn't have any trouble finding issues 7-14 – in fact, I may have gotten one or two of them more than once.

I'm not sure when or how I discovered there were issues beyond 14 but I didn't see them in the wild for a long time. And when I finally did, the asking price for #15* was $20.

It stayed in the box.

For the previous eight, I'd generally paid $1 apiece. But I found this one at a show around 2016 – when two of the three cover boys made their debuts in theaters (Deadpool) and on Netflix (Luke Cage). I shudder to think what the price would have been if Kevin Feige had greenlit a Doctor Druid movie around that time.

A year later, I found the same issue at a newly opened local comic shop for $2. That's still twice what I was used to spending for Secret Defenders, but quite the discount from what I'd seen before. I filled in a couple more at that shop. I'm about seven shy of the full run, and will probably have to rely on Marvel Unlimited to complete this absolutely critical read-through.**

But I do have this issue, and I did read it, and the Doctor Druid tags on this blog are about to increase.

In fact, this issue is Exhibit B in my no-longer-a-joke argument that Dr. Druid is the guy you call when Doctor Strange is unavailable. It could take “Captain America” #402's place as Exhibit A considering the guy who calls Druid is Strange himself.***

It seems Strange has some stuff going on in his own series that resulted in him losing the title of Sorcerer Supreme, getting a talking costume, hiding away underground and, most shockingly of all, shaving. But he's still using a Marvel-licensed deck of tarot cards to solve his problems, although this one is less colorful and includes some deeper cuts into the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe.

Strange says he doesn't have time for this because of someone called Salome and something called the War of the Seven Spheres, and I know I could probably find this on a wiki or in the digital pages of his series, but if Strange isn't teaming up with other heroes – or battling Roadkill – I'm not all that excited about reading his stories.

Whatever the reason, Strange passes the magical buck to Druid, but not before actually referring to this venture as the Secret Defenders, the first time the name has been used in-story by someone other than an omniscient narrator. Maybe that's why it was $20...

Anyway, Druid is not thrilled with the way Strange magically force feeds him the knowledge, but he's not going to let that stop him from keeping the remaining shards of the Owen Wilson Stone – sorry, the Moebius Stone from falling into the wrong hands. Helping him in this venture is Shadowoman, a lady named Jillian who seems to have powers that let her cosplay as Spider-Woman, Jessica Drew edition.

They head to Chicago to recover a fragment of the stone at the same time a sorceress named Malachi enchants some thugs from a local bar into stealing it for her as well. The magically enhanced muscle men force their way into the Chicago Museum of Art, where they are met by allies Druid enlisted not with magic and tarot cards but money.

The original Hero for Hire, Luke Cage, was working out of the Windy City at that point and apparently had a job protecting the museum – but not its walls. Druid tipped him off and also hired Deadpool, who was hyper-verbal at this point but not breaking the fourth wall yet. Coming off a limited series that tried to turn him a little bit more toward heroic, the money and a psychic nudge from Druid are enough to convince him to join the cause.

The thugs are dispatched – lethally in Deadpool's case – with little trouble, but just as Druid reveals the hiding place of the Moebius Stone fragment in the hilt of a sword, Malachi attacks. She brings the museum's artwork to life to battle the heroes, disappearing in the fracas along with Druid and apparently the sword.

Meanwhile, Strange monitors from afar, indicating everything is going according to plan and revealing a tarot card we haven't seen before – which proclaim Dr. Druid as the Fool (in fairness, it could be because of the ponytail).

Judging from covers I've snuck ahead and looked at, Druid and Shadowoman may be the beginnings of what some letter writers have suggested in prior issues – a regular cast in addition to the rotating guest stars. Clearly I'm not familiar with Shadowoman, but looking up too much information about her might a) spoil these almost-30-year-old stories I'm reading for the first time and b) prevent me from making that Spider-Woman joke. So I'll hold off for now.

Cage and Deadpool are interesting choices. Cage had just come off a 20-issue revival series, while Deadpool was a hot character but not nearly as big as he is today. I'm a bit surprised they didn't have someone a bit more mainstream, but I complained the Spider-Man/Scarlet Witch/Captain America lineup was too classic, so I'm not going to knock these selections.

Passing the torch from Strange to Druid does provide an opportunity for the book to do more than just be Strange's side hustle. But most of my fascination with Doctor Druid is his status as Strange's understudy and the fact that his last name is actually Druid. I'm not sure if he's a guy that would get many people to follow a book. Fortunately, there will be guest stars.

The art in this is more traditional than Coates' from the first eight issues or Grindberg's from the next six, but the depiction of Cage strikes me as odd. Part of that may be because I'm used to him either having a 'fro or being bald, but some of the musculature is just weird.

No team suggestions in the letters page, but if this is indeed introducing a regular cast to the book, my Suggested Secret Defenders of the Week this time will be my own take on it: How about Rick Jones picking the team based on his experience and superhero connections rather than magic tarot cards? And maybe John Jameson, aka Man-Wolf, helping get the crew where they need to go as the team pilot? Then have classic Defender Nighthawk footing the bills and pulling the strings of a new generation of Defenders. Finally, bring in Aaron “Dollar Bill” English to document the teams' adventures.

* - I'm like 99% sure it was this issue. It had Cage and Deadpool on the cover, I know that much.

** - Are there other blogs that have covered Secret Defenders? How am I supposed to know without Googling?

*** - And they both could be dethroned by “Avengers Spotlight” #37, which an asterisked editor's note referred me to in this issue, but alas, it's not on Marvel Unlimited. To the longboxes!