1988: The Dreadful Druid part IV: The Doctor Is Out... Of His Mind

By Jef Willemsen (clarmindcontrol.blogspot.com)

Remember that old saying "if it ain't broke, don't fix it?"Well, in 1988 Marvel decided to break the Avengers in order to fix them. Walt Simonson was brought in to wreck Earth's mightiest and he picked Dr. Druid as the tool to do it. Marvel was so happy, they even took out an ad.

They were Earth's mightiest heroes. Nothing lasts forever"

The end begins in Avengers I#291, but before we get into the story... Let's consider the ad for a moment. This line up never actually served together. Thor was absent for most of their tenure, Namor was basically an estranged member and his wife Marrina an Avengers associate at best. Still, this particular assemblage of heroes was what longtime Thor-scribe Simonson started out with. And in the first few pages, he started to work on Druid.

"I feel as though the heart has been cut out of me!"

Truer words were seldom spoken, Doc. To fans of Roger Stern's Avengers, reading Simonson's debut felt like Druid waking from his mysterious dream. Something felt off, even though everything looked the same. Avengers I#291 still sported the comforting, reliable art duo of John Buscema and Tom Palmer. Yet, even without reading the in house ad, we knew an ill wind had begun to blow.

"What evidence have I of the impending doom that seems to haunt my sleeping hours?
A moment's meditation will restore my calm and refresh my spirit."

That's right, the first thing this self proclaimed savior of mankind does after waking up from a potentially prophetic dream is take another restorative nap. And it's during his REM-cycle that the Doc is having the most problems. His dreams are being invaded by Nebula, a mysterious woman who clearly adores him and considers Druid to be the savior of all that is. Which is only fodder to Anthony's already considerable ego. 

Now, on to the actual deconstruction of the team. Though Simonson starts on a positive note by having Edwin Jarvis return as butler to the Avengers following his injuries during the Mansion Siege, things take a turn for the worse when the heroes attend a New York City gala and Marrina suddenly goes wild. 

"My love!"

For unknown reasons, except for the obvious, plotdriven ones, Marrina is overcome by berserker rages, eating goldfish and slamming her hubby the Subby before transforming into a massive sea serpent. Now known as a/the Leviathan, she begins to literally terrorizes the seven seas. Namor goes after his spouse and for the next two weeks, the Avengers simply sit back as reports of Leviathan's destructive attacks come in. Simonson cleverly ties Druid's ominous dreams to Ralph Macchio's established storyline about Captain Marvel's apparent incompetence as Avengers chairperson. 

"If this is truly the beginning of those events, perhaps someone else might be better suited for the chairmanship here."

The issue ends with the Avengers catching up with Namor just as the Leviathan is getting ready to charge Florida. The heroes try to stop Marrina, but Namor refuses to let them hurt his wife and tries to fight off his fellow Avengers. The ensuing melee helps prevent the Leviathan from decimating the entire Florida coast. Namor escapes after what has become of his wife while Simonson makes sure we know the internal struggle for power over the Avengers is alive and well.

"A good suggestion, Dr. Druid.
Should I ever decide to step down as the Avengers' chairperson...
There will be a ready candidate at hand."

... Ya can't even consider this foreshadowing anymore. But Simonson wasn't done being "subtle". While piloting the Quinjet, Druid gets another vision, courtesy of Nebula. It only helps to convince him he's to be the one, true savior of all.

"... You, my lord and master... You are the leader they have been waiting for"

All this subliminal deification only feeds Druid's conviction that he indeed is the man who would be king. That's why he openly starts questioning Captain Marvel's stance on the Leviathan. As a former Monster Hunter, Druid is the first to suggest the rational, though all but popular, option of killing Marrina for the greater good of mankind. Monica is vehemently opposed to this and is backed up by Thor who rallies the team by siding with whatever the Avengers chairman decides.

Monica Rambeau decides not to opt for lethal force, which leads to the Leviathan attacking the US navy, sinking several battleships in the process. The Avengers try to help, but the military gets understandably steamed when they learn that the team had kept the fact Leviathan was Namor's wife a secret. 

"While Captain Marvel fails to make the tough decisions, men die.
The Avengers must be convinced that the Leviathan,
whatever her form or origin, must be killed!"

Avengers I#293 opens with Druid using his hypnosis and mentalism to subtly guide matters along. He tricks the Sub-Mariner into believing Leviathan was now attacking Atlantean cities, thereby instilling the need for lethal force. He also fools the sea serpent with an illusory cargo ship to guide it to a place he finds convenient. By that time, Namor had rejoined the Avengers to help end the menace of Marrina. All this led to an inevitable, final confrontation between Earth's mightiest and the Leviathan. During the fight, Namor used the Black Knight's ebony blade to slash into their foe, which triggered the sword's blood curse. But by the issue's end, this was the inevitable conclusion....

 "Where's Captain Marvel?"

In the space of three issues, Simonson had managed to jettison three main characters: Namor, Marrina and Monica Rambeau, while seriously handicapping the Black Knight who was suffering the effects of the blood curse. In Avengers I#294, we learn just where Captain Marvel had gone. During the fight against Leviathan, Monica had combined her energy form with Thor's lightning intending to hit the sea serpent with a double whammy. That worked, but water and electricity don't really mix and Monica was a living bolt of lightning that found herself spread across the ocean. It took Rambeau all of her will power to gather her body back together and to reappear at Avengers Mansion, but she'd paid the price for her heroism.

"Captain Marvel yet lives. But she is in the final stages of exhaustion."

And with that, the road was cleared for Druid to take command of the team. After making sure Monica received the medical care she needed, even bringing her parents along from New Orleans, Druid maneuvered the meeting in Monica's hospital room to the next phase: electing a new chairman while she was entering a much needed period of convalescence. But the good doctor was no fool, this time around he used his mental powers to assure his favored outcome.

 "Our new chairman must be Doctor Druid!"

And that, as they say, was that. Using his mental powers, Druid influenced the vote to make sure he became the leader of a sorely depleted Avengers squad. Now down to a foursome, with Black Knight slowly turning into a living statue because of the blood curse, the team's future appeared more insecure than ever. But it was still morning in Druid's America... thanks in no small part to Nebula's machinations.

"Our enemies are gathering and the time is coming when we must face them together as a team.
All of us!"

You just know this won't end well, and that's just what the fifth and final installment of The Dreadful Druid will prove. Hardly a spoiler alert, still worth checking out, though.

Posted in: 1980s Comics