Hey, this ain't a Two-in-One! Gimme my quarter back!

Well, this was continued from Marvel Two-in-One #7. Synopis: "The Thing and Valkyrie stop Enchantress and the Executioner. The Thing saves the world with a supernatural harmonica." Aw, man...from 1975, Defenders #20, "The Woman She Was...!" Written by Steve Gerber, layouts by Sal Buscema, finishes by Vince Colletta.

The Enchantress and Executioner are here briefly, as this ties into what was the current origin for Valkyrie: "...created full grown, without a past, by the Enchantress's magic--and inhabits the body of Barbara Denton--a person she never knew." Amora and Skurge split, although not before the Thing gives him a couple good shots, but their plan had fallen through: Ben figured, the magic harmonica from the previous chapter was probably out of juice. He moves to help Val, who was torn up with grief over the death of the father she didn't know, and she tells him she would do this alone. He's a little hurt, but then decides he might as well go home, until Doctor Strange's astral form appears, to tell him there was still danger. Yeah, yeah, whatever: Ben takes a nap, waiting for Strange and another friend of Val's to show.

Val brings her father's body to the police station, unaware that a local snitch has also seen her. Although it had apparently been a couple years since Barbara Denton had been home, the locals still recognize her and treat Val as such. The police chief seems nice enough, helping her to her old house and letting her in with a spare key; but also lets slip that Barbara had been married! Meanwhile, the Thing is awakened, but not by Reed Richards, but by Doctor Strange and Nighthawk! Ben hadn't met Nighthawk before, and the latter grouses a bit about the non-team team nature of the Defenders, with a roster of whoever felt like showing up that day...and at her house, Val is attacked by a caped figure with zappy-hands. Hey, this copy still has the MODOK Marvel Value Stamp! Nice.

In the front yard of Val's house, the Thing and Nighthawk fall through a trapdoor: the snitch is there, but alarmed that he got those two and not Strange. Still, Ben can't climb out of the electrified walls, and was too big for Nighthawk to carry. Worse, the snitch disappears, and he snagged the magic harmonica! With some mystic force blocking his way, Strange enters the front door, and finds a portrait of a woman who resembles an older Val: Celestia, which was the name inscribed on the harmonica as well. Strange also gets zapped by the caped creep, and trussed up on a sacrificial altar with Val, by worshippers of the Nameless Ones, included the grotesquely deformed Celestia, who was more than willing to sacrifice her daughter for power and beauty.

Ben and Nighthawk get free, and wade into the cultists and Nameless Ones, while the narration explains all of this had been going on since way back in Incredible Hulk #126. (Which I might have a reprint of handy! Sooner or later.) Events had piled up to turn Barbara into Valkyrie and maybe use her power to unleash the Nameless Ones, but nobody planned on the appearance of the Thing! Ben gets the harmonica from Celestia and destroys it, then frees Val and Strange. Celestia turns to ashes, the Nameless Ones don't fully manifest, and Strange hypnotizes the cultists to...leave? Turn themselves in? Jump in a lake? While this might have been deeply traumatizing for everyone involved, Strange still feels like they eked out a win today. This wrapped up pretty quickly, and feels more like a Two-in-One than a Defenders, which might be why I like it a little more? The next issue blurb teases Val's husband, problems for Nighthawk, and the Headmen; so the return to usual.