Secret Defenders #18: No Soul For You!

Secret Defenders #18
“A Tiny Little War”
Writers: Tom Brevoort and Mike Kanterovich
Penciler: Bill Wylie
Inkers: Donald Hudson and Tony DeZuniga
Letters: John Costanza
Colors: Jim Hoston
Cover: Michael Bair
Editor: Craig Anderson
Editor in Chief: Tom DeFalco
Released: June 21, 1994

This issue starts off with a full page... of Doctor Druid's scowling face, looking right at the reader and proclaiming, “You have no soul!” I took this a little personally until I turned the page and saw that he was speaking to his new associate Cadaver, floating in some mystical mist.

It seems that while Cadaver occupies the body of the late Cody Fleisher – killed by a lethal liplock from Malachi in issue 16 – and has access to his attitude and memories, the real essence of Cody has left the building. The exam over, Druid lets Cadaver get dressed while he... summons Jillian, aka Shadowoman, from the small statue she'd been inhabiting (trapped in?) though she doesn't seem to know it.

I'm not sure what the status quo is for Shadowoman, having just met her three issues ago, but this seems like a departure. Still, we know Jillian doesn't understand the full extent of her powers nor the changes caused by her close encounter with a demon. Druid apparently does and warns Cadaver not to tell her what he saw.

They're soon greeted by Mathieson, the head of a secret government agency that tries to combat bizarre occurrences and sweep them under the rug. That's got to be an uphill battle in the Marvel Universe, but Mathieson claims multiple successes (“Ever hear of the Kree? No? That was me.”). Knowing Druid and his connection to nature, Mathieson asks for his help investigating a series of insect-related deaths we learned about at the end of last issue.

Rather than consulting a deck of Marvel-licensed tarot cards, Druid simply tells Mathieson he needs Hank Pym, going by Giant-Man again at that point, and his expertise with insects on the case. They all head down to Houston, where there's been a shift in insect migration patterns near where the Rand-Meachum corporation is about to do some major science with a super-collider. Once there, Pym meets with the company's CEO, Danny Rand, aka Iron Fist. Druid and his associates skulk off to the side with the help of a psychic screen since he's on the outs with the Avengers.*

Before anyone can say “jinkies,” Pym finds a clue, a harmonic signal being sent by all insects in the area. Druid senses the source of it, and Cadaver plucks his rib bone out, extending it to a magical sword he uses to dig deep into the Earth. The trio is soon attacked by a swarm of bugs, with the guys separated from Shadowoman. They wind up prisoners of Swarm, the former Nazi whose consciousness inhabits a swarm of bees. Speaking in the first-person plural, Swarm monologues about human-made energy emissions disrupting the lives of insects, then talks a big game about destroying humanity's technology.

Druid's buying the threat, using the information he gleaned from an attempted telepathic contact with Swarm to track down heroes that defeated him before – Iceman and Angel (now Archangel), who got the villain to buzz off while they were members of the Champions. Despite neither being on the cover, Druid summons them to Texas by psychically posing as Professor X.

Meanwhile, Pym and Iron Fist are trying to protect the lab's personnel from a swarm of killer insects, but Pym's getting stung and Rand apparently cut class on the day they went over insect fighting in K'un L'un. Pym grants them a brief reprieve while Mathieson calls in a nuclear strike on the facility in the event the heroes can't stop the bugs from getting out.** At this point, the World Security Council that made the call to nuke Manhattan in “The Avengers” – even the ones that turned out to be Hydra – would be raising their eyebrows.

The story doesn't flow very organically from the previous issue. Druid examining Cadaver makes sense, but Jillian's situation seemed to come out of left field, unless it was elaborated on in pre-Secret Defenders appearances. If that's the case, I may have to check out some issues of “Quasar.”

But the mysteries about Cadaver and Shadowoman, and Druid's reluctance or outright unwillingness to reveal what he knows about them make for interesting subplots, the sort of thing we couldn't really get when the title featured Doctor Strange, who had his own series, and a rotating cast of guest stars. Ditto for Shadowoman's failed attempt to pick up Cadaver's bone sword, due perhaps to its defenses being triggered by the demonic nature of her shadow form and the tall, dark and evil-looking form that emerges from her statue after the team departs Druid's headquarters.

Swarm's plot and Mathieson's response seem a bit disproportionate, but the goal here is to establish conflict and a ticking clock to facilitate more superhuman fisticuffs next issue. I do appreciate stories that seem plausible, but over-the-top storytelling is part of the fun of comics, so I can't nitpick too much.

I also appreciate melodramatic dialogue like Cadaver's “The Sword of Bone is ill-equipped to deal with such myraid, miniscule antagonists!” Shadowoman discovering her imprisoned allies and quipping that they must be in some “new-wave bondage place?” Not so much, though we were well beyond the idea that comics were primarily for kids at this point.

There are no lineup pitches on the letters page, but how about we consider who Druid might have had to recruit if his first choices hadn't been available? Maybe Scott Lang, the second Ant-Man, for insect communication and non-Avenger ex-Champions Ghost Rider (Johnny Blaze) and Darkstar, plus Spider-Man for good measure could be our Suggested Secret Defenders of the Week.

* - A situation I've heard or read about elsewhere but never gotten to read myself.

** - So the public doesn't find out about Swarm? Wait, is he the guy who shut down “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark?”