Issue(s): Defenders #127
Cover Date: Jan 84
Title: "Cloud hidden!"
Credits:
J.M. DeMatteis - Writer
Sal Buscema - Penciler
Alan Kupperberg - Inker

Review/plot:
This is an Assistant Editors' Month issue but that really just means there's a silly two page cartoon featuring Ann Nocenti in the beginning (as Vin notes in the comments, this section is illustrated by Marie Severin).

The rest of the issue is standard stuff.

Cloud, one of the three super-powered agents who were working for the Secret Empire in a previous arc, shows up at the Defender's brownstone, on the run from Secret Empire robots.

They look a lot like Mandroids but i guess they're just giant flying robots.

It turns out that she was lied to and used by the Empire in some unspeakable way. Moondragon is able to see it in Cloud's thoughts but she doesn't want to talk about it. The Defenders are defeated by the robots and Cloud is taken away.

The Secret Empire is being run by Professor Power, who we've seen in a few issues of DeMatteis' Marvel Team-Up.

Moondragon continues to be difficult...

...and yet all the young males of the group are secretly in love with her.

    

There's a neat scene with Iceman informing his parents that he's giving up his job as an accountant to get back into super-heroing with the Defenders. It's vaguely reminiscent of the second X-Men movie ("Have you tried not being a mutant?").

Better than DeMatteis' previous arc but i'm still just waiting till Peter Gillis takes over.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: This issue ends with the New Defenders in disarray, and the next issue begins with them setting up shop in Angel's mountain home. So the Beast's guest appearance in Avengers #239 must take place prior to this.

References:

• Professor Power first appeared in Marvel Team-Up #117-118
  
• He transferred his brain into his comatose son's body in Marvel Team-Up #124.
  
• Cloud first appeared in Defenders #123.

Crossover: Assistant Editors' Month

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Two observations:

Marie Severin drew the two page Ann Nocenti piece;

Alan Kupperberg homages Kerry Gammil's Professor Power entry above. Good reference, though.

Should Gargoyle have a tag?

Yes, thanks Mortificator.

This is at least the second time two Defenders have had exactly the same thought about Moondragon, pretty definitively establishing that she's messing with their heads. This also happened in http://www.supermegamonkey.net/chronocomic/entries/defenders_126.shtml, and will happen again in http://www.supermegamonkey.net/chronocomic/entries/defenders_128-130.shtml.