Origin

After a previous version of the Defenders disbanded, Doctor Strange decided to try a new way of recruiting members. He would use a tarot deck to let fate decide which heroes he would need for any catastrophe he happened to track. He would teleport the new members where ever they needed to be. When Strange got busy with the War of the Seven Spheres, he passed his duty on to a reluctant Doctor Druid.

Creation

The Secret Defenders first appeared in Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme (1988) #50 by Len Kaminski and Geof Isherwood.

Major Story Arcs

Druid's Team

Druid would have more regular members on his team rather than a revolving one like Strange's. Those members were fellow cursed beings, Sepulchre and Cadaver. They worked out of Druid's sanctum in Boston. Together, they would protect the Moebius Stone.

When Druid was manipulated into summoning the demon, Slorioth, Joshua Pryce summoned some of the original Defenders to stop him and allied with Druid's two teammates. Unfortunately, Druid was tired of his responsibility to the team, so he used the opportunity to fake his death just to get out of it. Meanwhile, his teammates needed the help of The Living Tribunal to contain Slorioth, who was a threat to reality itself. His team fell Druid's ruse but committed to be available for each other if any of them ever needed the help of the rest.

Cobolorum

When New York City is invaded by a role playing game with innate magic, called Cobolorum, Doctor Strange is forced to bring together a new team of Secret Defenders to stop it from altering all of reality. Having faced it once before, Strange knew that he needed to play by the rules of the game in order to stop it. That meant putting together the right gaming party. He needed a thief, a priest, and a fighter. He chose:

• Black Cat
• Hunter's Moon
• Taskmaster

They ventured to the center of the reality warped landscape and the mesmerized children who had started the game, but these Defenders are stopped by Baron Mordo, who had given the game to the kids in the first place. As the gamemaster, Mordo summoned a dragon to occupy Doctor Strange and then set a scenario where Taskmaster and Hunter's Moon were old rival enemies. While Mordo was preoccupied with them, Black Cat managed to steal the Coboloum guidebook and give it to Strange.

Strange had used the dragon entity to talk directly to the sentient game, which hated Mordo but required players to live. Strange made a new deal with the game for a single player, General Strange, who was imprisoned in the Sanctum and had plenty of time on his hands to play.