With this post, we continue our coverage of writer Steve Gerber and artist Sal Buscema’s “Headmen/Nebulon Saga” in Defenders, following our recently established routine of taking on two issues of the lengthy storyline at a time.  This go-round, we’ll be starting with Defenders #37, whose cover by Gil Kane and Mike Esposito heralds the imminent return to this title’s pages of Luke Cage, Power Man — a hero who’d first fought alongside Marvel Comics’ premiere non-team back in issues #17-19, and then had renewed his non-membership when the group battled the Sons of the Serpent in #24-25.

As regular readers will hopefully recall, Defenders #36 had ended with three of our heroes — leader Dr. Strange, veteran Nighthawk (in his civilian guise of Kyle Richmond), and newbie Red Guardian — having been captured by Plantman, who intended to hold the wealthy Richmond for ransom.  But rather than immediately picking things back up with those characters, our creative team (which in addition to Gerber and Buscema includes inker Klaus Janson) start off issue #37’s “Evil in Bloom!” with another Defender, namely the Hulk. 

Hulk has been keeping busy trying to find help for an animal friend — namely, the winged horse Aragorn, who was wounded by the Headman named Chondu back in issue #35.  However, the NYPD considers him a menace to public safety (not without good cause, admittedly) and they descend on the veterinarian’s office where Hulk and habitual Defenders hanger-on Jack Norriss have managed to have Aragorn transported.  After a couple of pages of property-damaging but otherwise casualty-free mayhem, the Jade Giant decides he’s had enough and bounds away — not only out of this scene, but clear out of Defenders altogether, at least for the remainder of this issue and the entirety of the next.

This leaves Jack Norriss at loose ends — at least until he catches news of the shenanigans going on with Plantman.  Assuming that the Defender called Valkyrie (whom he inaccurately considers his wife) must be involved and is thus in danger, Jack calls inreinforcements, in the form of the only Defenders-adjacent superhero with a listed local telephone number, Luke Cage.  Fortunately, Cage is in his office; less luckily, he’s in the middle of a fight with a trio of armed thugs when the call comes in.  But Jack wisely lets the phone ring, and after another couple of pages of gratuitous violence, his patience is finally rewarded by everyone’s favorite Hero for Hire™.

Meanwhile, back at the scene of Plantman’s very public kidnapping of Kyle Richmond, Dr. Strange continues to be puzzled over why his prodigious magical powers don’t seem to be having any effect on what is, after all, just a giant plant…

Luke quickly frees Jack from the branch ensnaring him; meanwhile, the spores trapping Dr. Strange and the Red Guardian are still soaring towards the stratosphere.  Finally, Doc gets his hands free — although RG’s not sure what good that’s going to do, as in they’re in too close quarters for him to fire energy bolts the way he was doing a couple of pages earlier…

The Valkyrie remains in the custody of the state, having been arrested following her battle with Chondu (whose current status remains unknown)… and pretty much as the mercy of her bullying cellmate, since the magical spell that originally imposed her persona upon the body of Barbara Norriss prohibits her from striking another woman.

OK, so the Plantman’s old partners in crime still haven’t been identified by their codenames, and their respective “holographic projections” aren’t exactly in full costume, thanks to their “Bozo” heads.  But last issue’s “Next” blurb has already outed them as the Eel and the Porcupine , so we’re going to pause here to provide the same basic background information we did for their erstwhile companion last time:

The Eel, aka Leo Stryke, had first appeared in Strange Tales #112 (Sep., 1963), where he’d fought the Human Torch (just one issue prior to the Plantman making his debut doing the exact same thing, incidentally).  Porcupine, aka Alex Gentry, had first flourished his quills in Tales to Astonish #48 (Oct., 1963) ,as an enemy of Ant-Man.  My younger self knew both of them best from Steve Englehart’s Captain America run, where they as well as Plantman had been part of the Cowled Commander’s Crime Wave; the Eel had later gone on alone to help found yet another villainous assemblage, the Serpent Squad — in spite of the fact than an eel is a fish, not a serpent (sorry, but I’ll never be able to let that go).

Whatever plans Nebulon might have had for Plantman, we’ll never know — because the hapless villain (aka Sam Smithers) never makes another appearance in this storyline.  Oh, well.

Kyle’s proposal meets with everyone’s approval (well, everyone’s but Dr. Tania Belinsky’s).  With that matter settled, Kyle asks for a little time alone with Doc Strange.  It seems he’s still quite rattled by his recent out-of-body experience (“out-of-body” here referring to the fact that his conscious brain had spent multiple issues floating in a bowl)…

Yeah, it probably would have been “most interesting” to see where Steve Gerber planned to take this particular bit… unfortunately, he’d be off the book in another five months, and none of his predecessors ever picked up on the idea, as far as I know.  So, outside of a couple of later nods in the current storyline (one of which will be coming up later in this post), nothing really ever comes of Nighthawk’s nascent discovery of his “spiritual side”.

And so, the Eel and the Porcupine take center stage at last… sort of.  As you’ve likely already noticed, neither managed to snag a spot on the Rich Buckler-Joe Sinnott cover for Defenders #38 (whereas Sam Smithers got on not just once, but twice; so, take that, you “betters“).  Rather, that privilege went to their mentor, Nebulon, the Celestial Man — who also dominates the issue’s splash page, as shown directly below:

Are you getting a little tired of Dr. Strange’s chronic power fizzles?  Yeah, me too; unfortunately, we’re nowhere near the end of them.  But, moving on… our beleaguered trio manage to find shelter in a nearby cavern, where Doc’s powers at least work well enough to conjure up a small fire.  Alas, that very fire appears to attract another inhabitant of the cave, whose mighty roar suggests it may be less than friendly…

Meanwhile, it’s lunchtime at the women’s prison cafeteria, where Valkyrie has been enjoying a pleasant conversation with the friendliest of her fellow inmates, Shirley — only to have it be rudely interrupted by the least friendly among them…

Back in the other-dimensional cavern, Val’s teammates are fighting for the lives against the alien ape-thing; you see, Doc’s powers have gone on the fritz again (sigh), leaving it to Power Man and the Red Guardian to duke it out with the creature.  Luke gets riled up enough to take up a weapon, in the form of a stalactite he breaks off the cave roof…

Even without a sound effect, that last panel above is some quintessential Sal Buscema “POW!”.  Just sayin’.

Fortunately, the rigors of interdimensional travel have killed off every single one of the tiny bugs that have been bedeviling Tania, allowing her to join the fight against the Bozos.  Less fortunately, the same passage seems to have no effect on the white monkey-monster, who’s regained consciousness and now comes leaping through what’s left of the doorway, eager to join the party.  One step forward… well, you know.

For the record, this is the third appearance of the Elf with a Gun, and the first since the proper kickoff of the Headmen/Nebulon story arc back in issue #31.

Meanwhile, back at Celestial Mind Control Foundation HQ, the battle continues.  Dr. Strange attempts to magically blast the ape-creature, but manages little more than what he himself calls “mere pyrotechnics“.  Elsewhere, Luke Cage evades an electrical zap from the Eel and grabs him in a bear hug, only to find himself immobilized when the villain sends a charge through his entire body…

Hmm, what was that I was saying about the dimensional portal having no effect on our sinister simian?  Maybe I spoke too soon.  Or perhaps it’s the (allegedly) Crimson Bands of Cyttorak that are causing this unexpected phenomenon, despite Doc Strange’s confidence that he’s got back his mojo, more or less.  In any event, I can’t wait to find out what’ll happen next with ol’ Tall, White, and Hairy…

Um, no.  Let me amend that.  I’ll have to wait, and so will you — and not just until the next issue, but apparently forever, since, as best as I can tell, our problematic primate has never shown up again — not once at any time in the last half-century.  Did Steve Gerber just forget all about this loose thread?  Or was the ending to this episode always meant to be taken as a rather mean-spirited joke on the Marvel-Earth version of New York’s Finest, whose members would soon be called to the scene?  Your humble blogger frankly has no idea.

In any event, we’ve come to the end of this particular excursion through a couple of chapters of the Headmen/Nebulon Saga — and, yes, I’m going to continue to call it that, despite the conspicuous absence of any of the four villains who comprise the first part of that label from either of the issues we’ve looked at today… and despite the fact that they don’t have much to do with the next two installments, either.  Perhaps I’ll share my reasoning with you in our next Defenders post — which, incidentally, will be coming your way one month from now, rather than two, simply because I have slightly more room on the schedule to squeeze it in in June than I do in July.  So, be sure and mark your calendars for 6/17/26 for our next appointment with Drs. Strange, Belinsky, and associates.