What the D’ast? Sundragon

(Editor’s note: This is another in a series of irregularly-scheduled columns by Managing Editor Byron Brewer, mainly dealing with Marvel Cosmic and its many denizens. Mr. Brewer’s opinions do not necessarily reflect that of CosmicBookNews.com. He welcomes both raves and opposing views.)

By Byron Brewer

For those who thought the Douglas family was that crazy farm-dwelling Oliver and Lisa from New York on Green Acres (“I get allergic smelling hay!”), I have news for you: The nuts are out of Hooterville!

There is another crazy Douglasclan which has taken hold right here in Marvel Cosmic. We are talking about Art (he of the purple cowl and cape, AKA Drax the Destroyer), his daughter Heather (bald lesbian psi, usually in green, last seen battling both the evil in herself and alongside the Guardians of the Galaxy) and – more to our concern here – Heather’s little-known Cousin Pam (Sundragon, of course), who got to know more about her family than she cared to!

Once upon a time in the 616 U., the Earth girl known as Pamela Douglas suddenly found herself suffering from unexplained verbal outbursts as she scribbled “Hate them” repeatedly on notepads. These fits of anger were very out of character for her. She later started to become delusional, believing that her live-in boyfriend Tom did not love her due to her ongoing craziness. While in the washroom one night, she decided to shave her head bald (hint), and was soon placed under a doctor’s care. Believing that her condition was caused by stress of some kind, the doc recommended she take a vacation. En-route to her destination, she saw a billboard depicting a fetus and crashed her car.

Pamela had now become convinced that her condition was a result of her being in the early stages of pregnancy, although when she saw the doctor for the second time he was not able to confirm her suspicions. This new information escalated her fears and, to make matters worse, one night she was attacked by a “giant hand” which resulted in her jetting from her apartment into the streets outside. There, she was contacted telepathically by her cousin Heather, the Avenger called Moondragon. Heather informed Pamela how she gained her powers on Saturn’s moon, Titan, and how she had succumbed to the extraterrestrial creature she once admired, the Dragon of the Moon.

Moondragon further told her cousin that the Dragoon had corrupted her mind, setting a course for destruction that resulted in her body being destroyed while battling the Defenders. Her adopted family, the Eternals of Titan, had cloned a new body for Heather on the far-off satellite, but Heather’s soul had hidden itself within Pamela. Heather asked Pamela to enter her ship, Sensia II, which would take her to Titan.

Pamela was attacked once again by the entity that was responsible for her initial “madness,” and it turned out to be (to the shock of loyal Defenders readers) Isaac Christians, formerly Moondragon’s ally Gargoyle and a member of the non-team. His soul was now confined to a mystic crystal, it seems. Heather, speaking through Pamela, convinced Isaac to stand down and come with them to Titan. The hope was that they could find a new life for him as well, ala The Wizard of Oz. He agreed, and Pamela placed the crystal around her neck.

On Titan, Christians and Pamela saw the rebirth of Moondragon. On their way back to Earth, Moondragon awakened Pamela’s latent psionic powers to save them from attacking aliens. Taking the name Sundragon, she traveled through space for a time with Moondragon, Cloud, Gargoyle and the Eternal Demeityr, who had become Sundragon’s lover. (It was Cloud, also a former Defender, who created a new body for Christians, with the ability to change back and forth between his gargoyle and human selves.)

As Sundragon, Pamela possessed the ability of flight, could survive in the cold vacuum of space without life support and cosmic awareness, which she used to sense the hardships of those in distress. She was a novice telepath and had various energy manipulation powers that enabled her to fire bolts from both her hands.

Although Moondragon has been seen, morphed, killed and resurrected in recent years, not a word from Cousin Pam. Then again, it is a big Marvel Cosmos out there!