You may recall that Peter Gillis revived four of The New Defenders in the pages of Doctor Strange, that he had killed off three years previously at the end of his Defenders run. Simultaneously to this revival, he also brought back the other two dead Defenders in the back of Solo Avengers, namely Gargoyle and the deeply complex woman who caused their deaths in the first place, Moondragon. Solo Avengers was chiefly a vehicle for Hawkeye, with the back up strip featuring rotating characters and creators. Gillis somehow secured the first multi-part back up, telling the tale of Moondragon's revival over three acts, which were serialised every other issue for some inexplicable reason.
Solo Avengers #16 (1989) - Moondragon
Pencils: Don Perlin
Inks: Jack Abel
The first part focuses on a new character, Pamela Douglas, whose ordinary job and stuffy boyfriend life is thrown off the rails by a mysterious presence in her head. This causes her to go a bit nuts, quote Monty Python and cut most of her hair off. Predictably this all turns out to be the mental influence of a cousin she was previously unaware of, Heather Douglas (aka Moondragon). As only happens in superhero comics looking for a get out of death clause, Heather had implanted her subconscious into her nearest living relative at the moment she perished. Also, the nightmarish figure shadowing Pamela turns out to be possessed by The Gargoyle, whose soul is trapped in a ruby Isaac stole from Dr Strange's Sanctum back in New Defenders #147 (how's that for foresight on PBG's part?).
As Pamela succinctly sums up the needfully convoluted premise at the end of a rollercoaster 11 pages:
"My name is Pamela Douglas. I work for a trade journal in Manhattan and I'm going to go on a spaceship to Saturn to give birth to my cousin. I have a gargoyle's soul in my hand."
It's an inspired way of reviving characters from the grave, sidestepping the usual cheats. Plus it makes for a great little creepy mystery tale in of itself. The unsettling atmosphere is aided by Gillis re-teaming with Defenders artist Don Perlin, plus fellow industry veteran Jack Abel does a solid job on inks. It's a real shame Perlin didn't get to draw the other two chapters in the story, for reasons unknown.
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| Another awesome splash page design from Perlin. |
Solo Avengers #18 (1989) - Moondragon
Pencils: James Brock
Inks: Roy Richardson
The middle act time jumps to a few months later on Titan. Wide eyed space tourist Pamela seems to be having the time of her life, playing chess with Thanos' daddy Mentor, dating some himbo Eternal named Demeityr and yukking it up with the priests overseeing the rebirth of Heather. Pamela may be playing the mother role to her own cousin, but essentially her role is to transfer Heather's consciousness into the new child body Mentor is cloning for her.
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| Brock and Richardson's art is nicely detailed and attractive. |
Pamela decides to depart for the stars with telepathic baby Heather grousing in her arms. They fall foul of a bizarre alien race dreamt up by PBG, The Dance. They look like overgrown stick insects and specialise in doing weird and random things in aid of some grand cosmic plan that only they can understand. They're terrific creations, who serve their purpose of unlocking latent power within Pamela, never to be seen again (well except for in one later ropey story we'll get to.)
Solo Avengers #20 (1989) - Moondragon
Pencils: James Brock
Inks: Roy Richardson
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| Topical Batman movie joke. |
Gargoyle Isaac trapped in a jewel and Moondragon, trapped in a 4 year old body, briefly catch up with sentient sex changing nebula Cloud. A real PBG sentence if ever I heard one. The reunion is short lived, as Heather's in a grump about being stuck in this young, but extremely fast growing clone body. She projects a full grown illusion of classic Moondragon (bit of a stretch, but I'll roll with it) and tries to seduce Demeityr, not because she wants him, but purely down to jealousy that her cousin Pamela is in the spotlight, not her. When confronted by the others, she expels them outside the spacecraft with a thought (more of a stretch, her mental powers don't come with a side order of wish fulfillment). Cloud reappears to save Pamela and Isaac from being toasted by a sun, giving Isaac his Gargoyle body back and transforming Pamela into Sundragon, basically a nicer well adjusted yuppie version of Moonie. Gillis' bang up job making Pamela a likeable, well rounded character inside 33 pages is quickly undone by an utterly dreadful Starlight Express reject costume design, plus saddling her with a giant green space dragon. A little too on point.
The story ends with the gang off to explore the stars on the back of said conspicuous space dragon, while Heather pulls off yet another costume change (a really cool green and black ensemble that I don't believe was ever seen again), then heads back to Earth alone. Has Heather learned any lessons, or received any commupance for her tendency to attempt to kill her only friends? Not as far as I can tell. It's better to view this superb three act arc as an origin story for Sundragon, with the top billed Moondragon in an antagonist role. Sadly, Sundragon only made one more Marvel appearance, forgettable filler in the pages of the equally long forgotten Cosmic Powers Unlimited. The Dance made their only other appearance there too, so I can only presume writer Mariano Nicieza enjoyed this Moondragon story as much as I did.
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