The Defenders #89

The team faces personal upset when Kyle’s pending court case uproots his life and Hellcat gets a devastating call about her mother.

Hellcat and Valkyrie bring an unconscious Bruce Banner to Kyle Richmond’s apartment to recover from his recent activities as the Hulk. However, Kyle’s money and possessions have just been seized by the IRS due to the allegations about his finances. The feds throw them all out. As they leave, they get a call, and find out that Patsy’s mother has just died.

They go to Dr. Strange’s house to get dressed and ready for the funeral. On Patsy’s request, Val decides to switch back to her original black and blue costume for the funeral, as a way of providing the dignity of the Valkyries to the recently departed.

Meanwhile, Matt Murdock visits Kyle’s recently-vacated apartment to help out, and is instead attacked by the Mandrill’s Fem-Force. They capture him.

After the funeral, Patsy and the other Defenders go with her mother’s housekeeper, Dolly Donahue, to her mother’s home in Montclair, NJ, which she left to Patsy. She fills them in on her challenging relationship with her mother. When Patsy was a kid, and against Patsy’s will, her mother turned her into a teen romance idol, star of hundreds of comics books. Patsy was famous, but unhappy. She rebelled and married Buzz Baxter, who abused her until their eventual divorce. Ultimately she found a role in the Avengers and Defenders, but never really reconciled with her mother.

Dolly sends Val off to the supermarket in their new suburban surroundings to get some food for dinner, but realizes that Val doesn’t know anything about groceries or money, and sends Bruce Banner after her to help. Their neighborhood isn’t such a suburban paradise after all, and Banner is mugged on the way, which results in him turning into the Hulk and then continuing on to the market. There, yet another robbery is taking place, and hijinks ensue as the Hulk and Valkyrie break it up and then try to complete their shopping. They leave with a shopping cart full of beans.

The Defenders make a not-so-delicious meal of pure bean and try to settle into their new de factor base of operations with difficulty. Richmond leaves early the next morning to try to iron out his differences with the IRS, while Daredevil awakens in a bank vault.