Issue(s): Defenders #103
Cover Date: Jan 82
Title: "The haunting of Christiansboro!"
Credits:
J.M. DeMatteis - Writer
Don Perlin - Penciler
Joe Sinnott - Inker
Al Milgrom - Editor

Review/plot:
Gargoyle is feeling guilty about abandoning the town that he used to be mayor of, and more generally about the fact that he tried to sell his soul and wound up stuck in a demon's body.

The town is named Christiansboro, which is based on the Gargoyle - aka Isaac Christians - surname. His father was mayor before him.

Clea summons the other Defenders to head back to Christiansboro with the Gargoyle. Nighthawk refuses on the grounds that a) he's in the middle of some legal proceedings, b) he's quit the team, and c) he's crippled.

The trip was meant to cheer the Gargoyle up, but when they arrive they find it's been abandoned and that it's now haunted. The haunting is controlled by a demon-thing called Null - the living darkness.

He's even given an origin, which is a bizarre story about angels living on the moon who all committed suicide on Earth. Null is their collective consciousness.

It's really about giving the Gargoyle a physical symbol of despair that he can fight, which is always the worst sort of comic book plot.

Hellcat gets rid of her shadow-cloak by folding it into itself.

Nighthawk's legal troubles come to an end when the judge rules that his financial inconsistencies were due to neglect and not greed. Matt Murdock is one of Kyle's lawyers. But outside of the judge's chambers, Kyle runs into the scientist from last issue who was experimenting on people with psychic powers, and he claims that it was his string-pulling that got Kyle off easy.

The Beast shows up at Strange's house. Dr. Strange isn't home, but Wong lets him in.

Meh.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - Hellcat no longer has her shadow-cloak.

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References:

• Patsy was visiting her old house, which was destroyed in Defenders #94 when she found and got rid of her shadow-cloak.
  
• In the process she also frees a boy who became trapped in the cloak in Defenders #98.
  

• Devil-Slayer wonders why he answered Clea's call... he'd rather be helping the junkie that he met in Defenders #101.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A