The fifty-year-old comic book referred to in the title line of this blog post presents the second chapter of a four-part storyline. And, seeing how we didn’t feature a post about Defenders #22 here in this space last month, regular readers of the blog know what that means: we’ll be covering that issue before moving on to our ostensible main topic, i.e., Defenders #23. But wait, there’s more! Because, although the story chronicled in another half-century-old comic, Giant-Size Defenders #4, isn’t technically part of the same arc, its events do preface those of the main Defenders title’s “Sons of the Serpent” saga in some significant ways. For that reason, we’ll be spending a little quality time with it before proceeding even as far as Defenders #22. It’s a three-fer today, folks.
So, let’s get started. Behind a cover pencilled by Gil Kane and inked by either Mike Esposito (according to Mike’s Amazing World of Comics) or Frank Giacoia (according to the Grand Comics Database), GSD #4 gives us the 30-page-long “Too Cold a Night for Dying!”, pencilled by Don Heck and inked by Vince Colletta, and scripted by regular Defenders writer Steve Gerber… although, per a belated acknowledgement in in the letters column of Giant-Size Defenders #5, Gerber had “the plotting assistance of Don McGregor and Roger Slifer” on this one.
As the story begins, wealthy man-about-town Kyle Richmond (who of course is secretly Nighthawk) is departing from the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts after taking in a concert with his date, famous model Trish Starr (whom we readers had previously met in Defenders #21, published one month before); first, though, he has to deal with a mob of reporters trying to find out how serious things are between the couple. Kyle lightly notes how unlikely it would be for a guy like him to marry Ms. Starr — “a hippie who intends to give up modeling as soon as she has the funds to open an artists’ commune upstate”. Trish is quite the prodigy, as it turns out — a painter, a musician who plays at least four different instruments, and the holder of “a masters in social psychology”, to boot. So why is she working as a model? “Because she was born female,” Kyle tells the inquiring reporter. “You can figure out the rest yourselves.”
The Richmond Enterprises employee mentioned in the first panel above, Pennysworth, had been introduced by the Defenders’ previous regular writer, Len Wein, back in the 15th issue of the team’s main title. I’ve seen it speculated online that the character’s name was intended by Wein, a veteran freelancer for DC Comics, as a nod to Alfred Pennyworth, the butler and aide-de-camp to Bruce Wayne/Batman — the latter of whom had, of course, himself provided the original inspiration for Kyle Richmond/Nighthawk. And that’s certainly possible; on the other hand, Alfred had only received that surname five years earlier, in Batman #216 (the character’s original, rarely-used family name had been Beagle), and it still wasn’t turning up all that often in stories published circa 1974, if my aging memory serves. Plus, the two characters play very different roles in their employer’s lives; Pennysworth is an executive who runs Kyle’s business affairs, rather than a domestic worker, and he has no knowledge of, let alone any active role in, his boss’ superheroic exploits. So it seems just as likely to me that the similarity in names was coincidental as that it was intentional.
It looks bad… and it is bad; Kyle and Trish are both rushed to the hospital with life-threatening injuries. But it could have been even worse; bizarrely, Kyle’s car had no gas in its tank, which prevented a more extreme, and almost certainly fatal, conflagration.
Kyle’s fellow Defenders soon arrive at the hospital, and at least one — ex-surgeon Dr. Stephen Strange — is actually able to be of practical help, lending his expertise as a consultant during his friend’s operation. Meanwhile, elsewhere in the city, Hank and Janet Pym see a TV news bulletin about the car bombing, and Hank recognizes Trish as “Trixie” — the niece of his old enemy, Egghead. Trixie had helped Hank against her uncle back in Marvel Feature #5 (Sep., 1972), and he’s determined to come to her aid now… though not in partnership with his wife Jan, who is of course also the Wasp. “This is a personal fight,” he declares.
For what it’s worth, I’m pretty sure my younger self was happy back in ’75 to see Dr. Henry Pym return to his Yellowjacket identity; I’d never really understood his resumption of the Ant-Man role almost four years earlier (in Avengers #93); as far as I could tell, YJ could do everything Ant-Man could do, plus he could fly and shoot sting-blasts. So why the heck would Hank want to be the other guy? Years later, of course, Hank’s flitting between costumed identities would become retroactive “evidence” of his psychological problems. But in 1975, this change seemed to make sense, in-story as well as out.
Although Egghead had seemingly died at the end of their last battle, Hank suspects him of the attempt on Trish’s life, and he turns out to be correct. When the hero goes to the hospital, his friend (who’s going to live, though the doctors may have to amputate her badly mangled left arm) tells him that her uncle managed to survive the fire that destroyed his mad-science lab and all its equipment. Since then, however, he’s become destitute and homeless — and when he tried to hit her up for cash recently, she rebuffed him.
A furious Yellowjacket goes searching for his old foe; and, as it happens, the down-and-out villain has just been thrown out of a Bowery flophouse after causing a disturbance, so he’s out on the mean streets, ready to be spotted by YJ as he flies overhead…
That’s about it for Egghead,.. but not, of course, for the end of this story. Because while Yellowjacket has been doing his thing, Kyle has come out of surgery relatively unscathed; and in discussing what happened with his fellow Defenders, they’ve all decided not only that the bomb must have been set by one of Nighthawk’s enemies, but also that the most likely suspects are the only other people that know that Nighthawk and Kyle Richmond are one and the same: his old partners-in-crime, the Squadron Sinister. Of course, they had apparently been thoroughly disintegrated at the end of Defenders #14, but you know how that kind of thing usually works out, and so do our heroes. By the time Hank Pym returns to the hospital, Dr. Strange, Valkyrie, and the Hulk are well on their way to the villeins’ old HQ.
And so it is that, having reported in to Trish regarding the disposition of her evil uncle — and discovering that she has, indeed, lost her arm — Yellowjacket accedes to her request to check in on her friend Kyle…
So, as it turns out, it’s just as well that Kyle and company did incorrectly finger the Squadron Sinister for the car bombing, since they had in fact escaped getting blown up real good back in Defenders #14 (as had their alien ally Nebulon, evidently); though, as Steve Gerber’s footnote indicates, we’ll have to wait a while — almost a year, actually — to learn the full particulars.
The Defenders would seem to have the drop on their enemies, here. But the shiny new weapon that Dr. Spectrum had just been showing off, based on the advanced science of the mysterious Ludberdites, proves to be an ace in the hole; when Spectrum fires it at the Hulk, it drains the energy from the gamma-powered behemoth, reverting him to Bruce Banner and rendering him unconscious. After that, the three “Sinisters” work together to quickly subdue and knock out Doc and Val; and the next time we see our heroes, it’s in a less than pleasant setting…
Valkyrie’s own limbs are held fast in a block of adamantium alloy, which is, as you all know, strong stuff. But all is not lost; upon reawakening, Dr. Strange senses “a friendly presence” somewhere above the dungeon, and sends his astral body upwards to investigate…
Doc and Yellowhacket agree that fuller explanations can wait until everyone is freed; and so, YJ proceeds downstairs, where he uses his celluar-disruptor gun to jump-start Banner’s changing back into the Hulk. Hulk breaks everyone else loose, and then the whole group heads after the Squadron Sinister… who have themselves learned that their ex-partner is in the hospital and have gone there to kill him. Long story short, the Defenders arrive in time to rescue Kyle, and with Yellowjacket’s help, the Defenders triumph over their opponents in the second round. It’s a clear win for our heroes, although Valkyrie frets over the fact that she left most of the fighting to the guys while she saw to Kyle’s safety…
On the other hand, it’s definitely not a win where Trish Starr is concerned…
Kyle tries to assure Trish that what he feels for her is more than pity; but, when she challenges him to prove it with a proposal of marriage, he tells her that he’s not ready to make that sort of commitment to anyone…
We’ll move on now to the Defenders’ next adventure, as chronicled in Defenders #22 — which, like Giant-Size Defenders #4, was originally released in January, 1975. (For the record, this comic actually came out a week before its plus-sized companion, but its events clearly come later in the series’ internal chronology.)
Behind another reliably fine cover by Gil Kane, this one inked by Joe Sinnott, we have another story written by Steve Gerber (evidently without plotting assistance, this time), with art by Sal Buscema (layouts) and Mike Esposito (finishes).
“Fangs of Fire and Blood!” opens with the Valkyrie walking the streets of New York City alone at night, ruminating over her recent discovery that her “host body”, Barbara Denton Norriss, is a married woman. Lost in her thoughts, she wanders into a severely economically disadvantaged neighborhood, where she hears a woman’s scream. Charging into the tenement building from where the scream came, Val encounters a distraught young woman who tells her that something is about to kill her baby. Val then follows the sound of the infant’s cries until…
Having dispatched the immediate threat, Valkyrie soon learns that the woman and her child face other challenges that, if not quite as dangerous as rabid rats, are still daunting enough — the most serious of which are a lack of heat in their building and not having enough to eat. Uncertain how to help, but unwilling to simply walk away, Val invites the mother, Elena, and her infant daughter to come home with her.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in Manhattan — specifically, at a party on the Upper East Side, where the lavish extravagance on display provides about as stark a contrast to the squalor of Elena’s home as can be imagined — poor little rich boy Kyle Richmond (who’s inexplicably colored his hair blond since the last time we saw him) is trying to get over Trish Starr, and not having much success. Kyle’s blue mood is not improved when he’s cornered by another guest, a real estate mogul named Harold Holliman…
Soon afterwards, Kyle leaves the party and hails a taxi to take him to Greenwich Village, where he hopes to have a nice, quiet convo with Dr. Strange. Of course, he has no idea that things are currently a little livelier at the Sanctum Sanctorum than they are most nights…
Giving up on catching the apparent “peeping Tom”, Kyle proceeds on in to Doc Strange’s place, where he’s nonplussed to discover he’s basically exchanged one party for another…
Our story’s villains have introduced themselves in just about the most brutal way possible, with a callous, vicious murder motivated by nothing but hatred. Meanwhile, back at the Sanctum, Elena wants to accept Dr. Strange’s offer for her and her baby to spend the night, but says she needs to get some things from home first. Kyle is the first to offer to escort her back — although in the end, all the Defenders decide to go, so they can get a look at the conditions in Elena’s building for themselves.
When they arrive, however, they find that the building has just burned down; the FDNY are on the scene, hosing down the brick shell that’s all that’s left…
As regular readers of this blog know, I’m a definite admirer of Steve Gerber’s writing; in the case of the second-from-last panel above, however, I think he’s made a mistake in not trusting his story’s artists to convey all the necessary information visually. Gerber’s very wordy third-panel caption doesn’t tell us anything about the rage building within Holliman’s tenant that we can’t readily see for ourselves in what Sal Buscema and Mike Esposito have drawn; nor, in my opinion, does it add anything substantial to the scene’s dramatic impact.
Chaos now ensues, with not only Valkyrie and Nighthawk joining the Hulk in wading in against the Sons of the Serpent, but the ordinary citizens at the scene as well. Dr. Strange, however, fears that as the violence escalates, so does the likelihood of the loss of innocent life. He begs his teammates to stop fighting…
Re-reading this last page for the first time in decades, I have to admit that Dr. Strange’s final admonition to the Serpent-Sons — which may be fairly paraphrased as “Get outta here and don’t come back, you jerks!!” — strikes me as a little weak. Does Doc intend to let these scumbags skate for the murder of Amos Ferret, not to mention all the other damage they’ve done, as long as they’re quiet from now on? But, otherwise, this is a solid finale to the story arc’s initial chapter.
Which brings us to the story’s second chapter, as, behind the fine cover by Gil Kane and Klaus Janson we’ve all already perused at the top of this post, Defenders #23 opens with a one-and-a-half page recap of #22… then segues seamlessly into this episode’s first new event, the fearful flight-by-chauffeured-limousine of the odious Harold Holliman…
Not only is Yellowjacket back, but, as you’ll note from the credits above, so is inker Vince Colletta…
“Maybe even just an ex-Avenger”? Really? That sure sounds like Hank is giving some serious thought to applying for (non-)membership in the Defenders. Has he discussed this with Jan, at all? Honestly, I’m not entirely sure where Gerber was planning to go with YJ in regards to our favorite non-team (as we’ll see in a future post, his tenure here will prove as brief as it is intensive), but this is another one of those erratic moves on the part of Dr. Pym that, in retrospect, might be taken for a symptom of a somewhat disordered mental state.
Speaking of disordered mental states… I’m not sure that the interpretation of the Hulk’s personality Gerber favored in Defenders — childlike and naturally friendly, as long as he doesn’t feel threatened — would necessarily be the best for centering a solo series around (as opposed to simply being one of the Jade Giant’s multiple “alters”, as depicted in Al Ewing and Joe Bennett’s 2018-21 Immortal Hulk series). But it sure worked great in the context of a team book; at least, it did for me.
Anyone out there who didn’t see this coming? Either now, or whenever you may have first read this story? I didn’t think so.
Anyway, everyone goes back inside, including Jack Norris, and gets ready to watch some television. Val, after first running upstairs to her room to regain her composure, is the last to rejoin the group in the parlor; she insists she’s fine, but it’s fair to assume that no one is buying it…
And here we have another of Steve Gerber’s experiments with large blocks of typeset prose. Like the other examples we’ve looked at on the blog to date (most recently in last week’s Giant-Size Man-Thing #4 post), this one works for me. In this particular case, the heavy use of text allows the Serpent Supreme to have his full, odious say, without taking up multiple pages of art and story to do so.
Also worthy of note on this page is the banner hanging in the background; it’s a bespoke version of the Gadsen flag, whose origins date back to the American Revolution, and which has had a complicated history as a political symbol ever since.
While there have been strong indications prior to this scene that the Sons of the Serpent aren’t exactly a new menace in the Marvel Universe — e.g., the blurb on Defenders #22’s cover stating that the group might be unstoppable “this time”, and the line from the fight between Yellowjacket and the Sons earlier this issue regarding the Avengers being after the group “again” — Yellowjacket’s dialogue in the third from last panel above is really the first direct reference to any of their previous appearances. And even here, we don’t get a proper footnote… so I guess it’s up to me to let you know that the Sons of the Serpent have shown up in two previous storylines, each spanning two issues of Avengers. And, for what it’s worth, Hank Pym was present for both of them — as Goliath in the first go-round, and as Yellowjacket in the second.
Cover to Avengers #32 (Sep., 1966). Art by Don Heck.
Panel from Avengers #33 (Oct., 1966). Text by Stan Lee; art by Don Heck.
The first encounter between the Avengers and the Serpent-Sons occurred in the summer of 1966, in Avengers #32-33. In this one, the group declared its enmity for “foreigners”, as well as for people of different “creeds” and “heritages” (if I’m not mistaken, neither the word “race” nor any of its derivatives ever appears once in Stan Lee’s script for either issue, though Black people are clearly shown as being prominent targets of the Sons’ hatred). But while the organization’s rank and file appear to be made up mostly (if not entirely) of ordinary white American bigots, their leader — the original Serpent Supreme — is ultimately unmasked as General Chen, the representative of “a hostile Oriental nation”, who has been cynically using them to turn Americans against each other in the interest of his own, presumably Communist country.
Cover to Avengers #73 (Feb., 1970). Art by Marie Severin and either Sam Grainger or Frank Giacoia.
Panel from Avengers #74 (Mar., 1970). Text by Roy Thomas; art by John Buscema and Tom Palmer.
Things had changed somewhat by the next time the Sons of the Serpent slithered back into view, at the tail end of 1969 — not all that surprising, given the social upheavals that had gone down in the United States since 1966. By this point, the Avengers themselves had been joined by a person of color, the Black Panther, and Roy Thomas’ scripts for Avengers #73 and #74 duly make liberal use of words like “black” and “white”, as well as “racist”. Still, in the end, the storyline’s resolution parallels that of the Sons’ debut outing, as the two men directing the hate-group behind the scenes are revealed to be motivated by something other than “mere” bigotry; this time, the unmasked Serpents Supreme turn out to be a couple of television personalities — one white, one Black — who have been flaming the fires of racial conflict in pursuit of higher ratings for their own wholly fabricated on-air rivalry. As the Black man of the pair, Montague Hale, sneers: “Did you truly think we cared for anyone — any cause — except power for ourselves??”
Both of these “twist” endings appear to have been motivated, at least in part, by their authors’ wish to illustrate how easily people’s prejudices can be cynically manipulated by someone else for their own, unrelated ends.. a valid observation, certainly, and one that’s perhaps even more timely in 2025 than it was when these stories first appeared. That said, these endings’ revelations also seem to reflect a certain reluctance on the authors’ part to recognize white supremacy as sufficiently evil and dangerous on its own to be worthy of a superhero team’s attention.
Will this pattern hold true for this third appearance of the Sons of the Serpent? We’ll need to postpone the ultimate answer to that question for a future post; but we can already see a glimmer of it in how both Yellowjacket and Nighthawk have already started looking for some other motivation for the Sons’ actions beyond simple hatred, as when YJ asks, “who’d benefit from such a disruption this time?” Of course, before the Defenders can follow up on Kyle Richmond’s suspicions concerning his fellow filthy-rich guy Harold Holliman, they’ll have to attend to the more immediate crisis represented by the startling explosion that just shook the foundations of the Sanctum Sanctorum…
I guess it makes sense that Yellowjacket’s long experience working in a team setting would make him a natural leader… though I wonder if the Hulk would be quite so willing to follow his “new” friend’s commands if someone told him this was the same guy who used to get tiny and fly around on the back of an ant, back in the brief period when ol’ Greenskin was himself an Avenger.
Unsurprisingly, Holliman lets the three Defenders in — and submits to their interrogation — with no more fuss. But even though he admits that he’s glad the tenement building burned down, he insists that he had nothing to do with it. Somewhat to his own surprise, Dr. Strange finds that he believes the real estate magnate; and so, the group departs Holliman’s estate, heading back to lower Manhattan to rejoin their comrades. Upon their arrival, however, they find that while the Hulk is easily located, Yellowjacket is nowhere in sight. “Where is he, my friend?” Dr. Strange asks.
Following their leader’s orders, the Sons of the Serpent gather up the inert forms of Dr. Strange, Valkyrie, and Nighthawk so that they can haul them, along with Yellowjacket, back to their secret lair — where, one of the Sons speculates, the Serpent Supreme will likely make example of them via a public execution. “But”, another Son asks, “what about that big green gumball? We gonna let ‘im go free?”
Did you read that “Next” blurb? Three, count ’em, three guest stars next month! And since, if things go according to plan, we’ll be looking just at not just Defenders #24 in March, but at this storyline’s concluding chapter in Defenders #25 as well, we can also look forward to seeing if Steve Gerber follows his predecessors’ example by tossing us a big twist before this whole thing wraps up… and if he does, how well it works. As always, I hope to see you all then.
https://tombrevoort.com/2018/08/05/this-is-another-older-comic-book-that-i-had/
Today the Sons of the Serpent probably wouldn’t just be a white supremacy group for a very sad reason: It’d be too depressingly realistic for escapist media.
Fifty years (and a month) ago, upon first reading Defenders 22, I hadn’t previously heard of the Sons of the Serpent. And, as usual, I hadn’t gotten the G-S mag, so issue 23 was also my introduction to Hank Pym’s Yellowjacket identity! I’d gotten one issue of his solo Ant-Man series from a couple of years earlier, and seen him as first Giant-Man and then Goliath in the pages of Marvel Triple Action. I’m not sure if I’d yet even heard of his Yellowjacket identity yet, but, hey, by this point in my comicbook geekdom, I’d learned to just roll with these sort of thngs!
More importantly, Gerber was on a roll with these stories. I did get the GS issue years later, and, interestingly to me, Don Heck’s art, at least in the first part of the story, looked very good, far better than just about anything else I’d seen from him in years not to mention the art he provided for GS Avengers #4, which to my eyes looked like just about the worst art I’d ever seen from Heck. Back to the Defenders, it strikes me that Heck’s art looked much better on the mostly non-superhero part of the story than in the later battle of the Defenders against the “Sinisters”. Which, truth to tell, the issue’s big fight just couldn’t really hold a candle to the traumatic events of the first section wherein Kyle & Trish’ pleasant night out is brought to a horrific close by Egghead’s desire to “maim” his niece. I am curious as to why Gerber decided to include Henry but not his wife & partner Jan in this story, as well as in the main issue arc. I don’t get the sense that Gerber intended to make Yellowjacket a regular member of the Defenders but rather was maintaining the tradition of bringing in temporary members of the non-team, as the Silver Surfer and Hawkeye had been for several months, as well as Professor X, Power Man, and Ben Grimm, among others as special guest stars. The Avengers usually had more regular members, but the Defenders had more temps to give a unique flavor to the proceedings.
Onto the Sons of the Serpent saga, even after reading those earlier stories in the Avengers, I think Gerber’s tale holds up much better as showing more clearly their genuine racist savagery and murderous activity more akin to many of the activities of the real world Ku Klux Klan than in Lee’s and Thomas’ stories. Your note about Dr. Strange’s desire for them to just crawl away also struck me as out of character for the good mage, although maybe we can put that down to him being overly weary – or more likely Gerber was when he put those words in Doc’s mouth! Clearly, Doc should have been much more concerned with not only preventing the Sons from committing more horrors but also to see that they were brought to justice for the insidious crimes they’d already committed. All that aside, however, Gerber’s morality saga had my 12 year old self hooked and eager to get that next issue with even more guest Defenders to take part in the fracas, including one guy in a devil costume and another who was the son of the devil himself! Oh, not to mention having that son in conflict with these other symbolic “Sons” of a character who was supposedly his father in disguise in the ancient religious myth, at least in one interpretation. Not to mention, the one superhero who lived among the people the Sons were striving to drive out or kill. Lots of intriguing things Gerber has going on and coming up in the 2nd half of this tale.
Another memorable flashback and musings on it all, Alan!
I’m amazed that the Comics Code let Valkyrie’s costume be printed as such: a solid black one piece “bikini” with stainless steel boobs. The concentric circles from the “aureolas” outwards only further draw attention. I suspect many a pubescent male reader took note as well.
Steve Gerber wanted Elena to be the Valkyrie’s guide to a world she had to discover. He never used her again after *Defenders* #23.
While I normally like to think that she opened the wrong door in the Sanctum Sanctorum and became the Duchess of the Dayglo Dimension, I now see Jaka confronting Cerebus. She vowed to wait for him to remember and to come back to her even if it took the rest of her life.
Well, you remembered, she said, but you never came back.
And the Earth-Pig knew he’d done wrong.
Gerber also decided that Jack Norris’s name needed a second “s,” and that he was actually Jack Norriss.
Elena shows up in issue #24 just long enough to call the heroes’ attention to the TV, but otherwise, I believe you’re right, A.S.
I’d forgotten about Elena being in #24. Thank you for the correction.
Gerber could throw a lot at his readers in his scripts. Still, I liked the idea that Elena would show Valkyrie what Earth had to offer…maybe she could have introduced her to ice-skating, as Dr. Strange introduced Clea to snow.
Mighty God King used to do regular “If I wrote Dr. Strange” blog posts. One of them was that with the Defenders and people like Elena dropping in, he’s had to separate some of the more magical parts of the house from the place where his guests hang out, just to avoid someone opening the wrong door.
If memory serves me correctly, in *Strange Tales* #147, a building inspector calls Doctor Strange to complain about some noisy ghosts (maybe Stephen retained Wolff & Byrd in later years).
From *Marvel Feature* #3, we know that there’s a television set in the Sanctum Sanctorum.
I don’t think the issue was ghosts but yes, “From the Nameless Nowhere Comes … Kaluu” (Stan Lee and Denny O’Neil writing) did slap Strange with real-world problems — he hasn’t paid his bill at the butchers, the house isn’t up to code — which didn’t fit Dr. Strange the way it did Spider-Man so that approach died almost instantly.
I loved the Defenders, especially on Gerber’s watch. The stories were dynamic with high stakes and fraught with peril, while the personal, soap-opera-ish elements created a more three-dimensional character for each team member that made you care about them even more. I often wonder why, when I never really cared about Doctor Strange or the Hulk in their own books, I loved them in the Defenders and I believe it’s for that very reason. Not just showing us Kyle Richmond and his life outside the group or Val’s on-going drama with the fact that she’s living in a body not her own, but the little stuff, like when the Serpent guy at the end of issue #22 refers to Strange as “whoever you are,” reminding us that while Doc might be well-known in the “tights and flights” community, most others have never heard of him at all. Great stuff.
As for GS Defenders #4, I’m always quick to voice my dislike of Don Heck’s pencils, so let me join the group in saying he does a really good job here. Yeah, the action sequences could have seriously used some work to make them more effective and vital to the story, but the drawings themselves were solid, probably due to Colletta’s inks. Vinnie’s another one who takes a beating (not from me) for his work, but while his inking style may not benefit every penciller’s work, it certainly does here and should be mentioned. As for Sal Buscema’s work on Defenders 22 and 23, Sal is the penciller I associate most with the non-team, and even if his work isn’t on the level of Big John’s and others, he always did a great job bringing the Defenders to life. Thanks, Alan!
That is definitely Giacoia inking on the GS Defenders 4 cover, or I’ll eat my copy of the issue.
This Defenders story’s a childhood favourite ( minus the ending – which I bought years later! ) of mine. I read it in the UK’s Rampage Weekly. I’ve written a long summary/review of the tale, which I’m currently proofreading!
Moral ambiguity, with a delicate touch. Pistols defined villains, never heroes, in the 70s ( Frank Castle’s not a ‘proper’ 70s hero, in my book. ) So, for children seeing a superhero ( Yellowjacket ) gun somebody through a window ( even if only stunned). . . .”What’s going on here?” Later, Jim Shooter incorporated Yellowjacket’s disrupters into his gloves. To say the Avengers # 59-60 Yellowjacket is morally ambiguous is an understatement. And much later beating up Jan – a serious false note! This is more subtle, though!
A pistol-wielding superhero’s an interesting/subtle moral ambiguity. Not like the snarling faces of the terrible 1990s “morally ambiguous” characters, inspired by Wolverine’s popularity.
That framing sequence for Yellowjacket’s quite clever. It implies YJ’s wings allow him to rapidly close distance to his opponents – as well as fly, in the conventional sense.
Thinking on…Paladin had a pistol, as did Dominic Fortune. But, neither are superheroes, exactly.
Phillip
Jan in 59-60 is hardly any better, though annoyingly she gets a free pass from a lot of people. She knows Hank’s gone nuts but decides she’ll let him marry her as Yellowjacket once she confirms it’s legal even if he doesn’t use his Hank Pym name. Not even a suggestion of getting him help first.
I know Don Heck is the credited artist in Defenders 23 but I sure see a lot of Tuska and even a little Perlin in these pages . I wonder if these were deadline assists?
Excellent bold inking by the always versatile Vince Colletta. Heck’s pencils were thin and needed a strong inker to enhance them.
Joe – Defenders # 23’s credited artist’s Sal Buscema. Don Heck’s drew a Defenders story prefacing Defenders # 23, in this piece.
Phillip
My mistake but I stand by this remark but it’s issue 22 not 23
Just to clarify, Don Heck drew Giant-Size Defenders #4, while Sal B. drew Defenders #22 and #23, all of which I featured in the post. Like I said at the top, this one was a three-fer. 😉 Sorry if that created confusion for anyone.
As to whether Tuska or Perlin could have helped Heck out on GSD #4, I guess it’s possible, though nothing’s really jumping out at me as a dead giveaway. That may be partly due to the inking of Vince Colletta, who, as Spirit of 64 says in his comment elsewhere on this page, was a “leveller” who tended to give everything the same homogenized look.
I wonder if Mike Friedrich’s use of Ant-Man and the Wasp in CPT Marvel reminded Steve Gerber 5 Steve Englehart that the Pyms were there for use (and re-invention)?
I suspect that either Englehart or Gerber had a lot more of an idea of how to use the character than either Conway or Shooter had.
Yellow Jacket was a better design (and a better power set)..
Heck did a scene in GS-Defenders #4 with YJ flying through a snowstorm that was a nice dynamic layout. Heck was not a natural super-hero artist, but he had moments and several of them came with Hank Pym.
I liked that issue. The Sub-Mariner reprint predated the Invaders and sort of casts the Sub-Mariner as Balto (a heroic dog that carried flu serum to a village in Alaska); still it was fun and an early Timely reprint at a time those were rare.
I wondered at the time if GL/GA would not have done better if it had been dome like this, in a more clearly super-hero context, but I did not realize some of it was. I liked Gerber’s experiments with text and art. I thought it helped present complex ideas. He was ahead of his time.
I liked Steve Steve Englehart’s idea from The Avengers later in ’75 to just give YJ all the powers Pym ever had: shrink; grow; command ants; cellular disruption; and flight.
It arguably made YJ at least as powerful as Iron Man or The Vision. This was even more notable where it was publicly known that YJ was one of the world’s most brilliant minds (unlike Iron Man, at that point).
Oddly, even a writer as talented and influential as Kurt Bosick (working with the late George Perez) was not able to fix the character in their late 1990s-early 2000s Avengers run.
The IP seems permanently broken . . . .
I have nothing to add to Allan’s analysis, though I agree with Fred that the Serpents here are indeed closer to their real-world counterparts.
That said, it’s hard to believe they even exist in the MU. A white supremacist group that first became puppets to a Chi-Com, then partly run by a black guy? Who’s going to take them seriously?
I think Stan showing the original group as the creation of that general was a CYA maneuver — American racism is bad but at least these racists are the fault of outside agitators! There’s a similar feel to the Hate-Monger’s debut story in FANTASTIC FOUR.
Thank you once again Alan for an insightful post.
Gerber’s take on the SOS was certainly less flawed than either Lee’s or Thomas’s. And it was formative for me growing up in 1970s Britain, which was in some ways even more racist than the USA – comedians were telling racist jokes on prime time television and far right parties were marching on the streets. This storyline, when I read it in Marvel UK’s Rampage Weekly, was one of the few alternative viewpoints out there.
GS Defenders 4 never made it across the pond and is new to me. It’s another example of Gerber’s determination to examine the real life effects of violence which were pretty much skated over by most of his contemporaries.
In Adventures into Fear #18, featuring Man-Thing, Gerber also dealt with some terrible consequences of drunk driving, which to my knowledge hadn’t been dealt with before in any mainstream comic.
Another great article, Alan, and (as always) some thoughtful and insightful comments.
I am particularly intrigued by the references to Marvel UK’s Rampage weekly… because I quite simply don’t remember it; or, to put it another way, I have no recall of reading anything featuring The Defenders back in ’75 in the UK. I can recall The Titans, Mighty World of Marvel and The Avengers / Conan comics (as well as the war one – Fury, I think it was called), but Rampage draws a total blank.
Ah well, I guess fifty years is a long time… and why your blog is such a delight on a Sunday morning.
Rampage was one of the slightly later British Marvels. It came along in late ’77, I recall. My own interest in British Marvel was in ’73 to about ’75, so I had already moved on to the US titles (managed to find a reliable and regular supply from a Cleethorpes newsagent) by the time of Rampage, but if memory serves, it started out reprinting Defenders and Nova.
On the subject of Uk Marvel and remembering stuff from 50 years ago – did anyone remember seeing a TV advert for when Mighty World of Marvel was launched with brief cartoon clips of the FF introduced as individuals? eg “The Rubbery Reed Richards, the spectral Sue Storm” etc . I have never found it posted online since – I keep thinking I imagined it as a 9 year old –
I didn’t see that advert myself, but I recall a friend in school, who knew I was into comics, asking me if I’d seen it. Wow, haven’t thought about this in years…
Hey, Alan, it’s getting very Brit-heavy in the comments this go-round:)
No worries, mate. 😉
Another great post Alan.
Is this the first time Don Heck has been featured on this blog? Some fine work, especially on the non-superhero parts, although I feel that a dramatic part was missed when Kyle informs Yellowjacket of his secret identity. Heck seems to have become the regular ‘Giant-Size’ guy, as Marvel struggled to schedule the regular feature artists onto the quarterly GS books. I liked Heck’s 70s work more than his 60s work, with some nice runs on Avengers & Iron Man. I also find that Heck’s work for Marvel a step up on what he produced for DC. Colletta also did a reasonable job here. I used to like his work back in the day; he was a good leveller…no issue ever looked too bad under his input (ok except for his work over Kirby’s FF); but it was almost criminal to place a really top job under his brush.
I have yet to re-read #s 22 and 23. I note though that the poverty and dilapidated apartment scenes at the start of #22 were quite impactful on me, similar to Kirby’s bowery scenes of FF#4 for Alan Moore. Gerber was at his peak, as was ( in my opinion) Marvel, with Gerber, Moench, McGregor and Englehart ( plus, at times, Thomas, Wolfman, Wein and Conway) regularly producing exceptional, thought provoking and often very personal work.
The Kane covers are nice, although GS#2 is a bit too similar to Defenders#13, and #23 looks slightly odd…the faces don’t look like the normal Janson embellished faces and the toddlers’ ultra short hair was quite unusual for the day.
ps I still have some of the old Rampage’s somewhere hidden in the house!
Don Heck’s been featured here a number of times, Spirit, beginning with my Avengers #45 post from 2017 (https://50yearoldcomics.com/2017/08/06/avengers-45-october-1967/). I have to say, he’s never been one of my favorites — still, given that A #45 was my very first Marvel comic, and I came back for (lots) more, his artwork there obviously didn’t send me fleeing for the hills! 🙂
I lucked out in April of 1975 when I walked into a drug store and found Defenders # 23, 24 & 25 all at the same time, so even though I missed the first issue I got to read through the entire serial all in one long sitting. A few things jogged my memory when reading your review, Alan. This was my very first exposure to Yellowjacket, after only seeing Hank Pym in only one previous comic, Avengers # 91 (acquired when I was only 5 years old), his costume having been destroyed in the previous issue. I found this costume and weaponry to be much more appealing than his previous three incarnations. This was also the very first time that I encountered Jack Norris, who I found to be very sympathetic in these early issues before he morphed later on into an insufferable jerk. Lastly, in reading the caption of General Chen from Avengers # 33, I almost laughed out loud as I imagined hearing his cartoon voice muttering, “And I would have gotten away with it if not for you meddling Avengers”! I’m very much looking forward to your next posts about this storyline over the next two months, as well as those for two of Marvel’s last Giant-Size issues.
FYI, Jay, I’ll be covering both Defenders #24 & #25 in a single post next month. And while I’m not planning to devote a full post to G-S Defenders #5, I do expect to hit the high points as part of a Defenders #26 post in May. (Not sure which other Giant-Size book you were alluding to — but if you meant G-S Avengers #4, you’re in luck! Look for that one in the next couple of weeks. 🙂 )
As usual, another great post Alan. I enjoy these trips down memory lane, having read most of the issues you have covered when they came out.
I liked how Yellowjacket got involved with the Defenders, by knowing Trixie/Trish, though I thought it odd that YJ didn’t know about the Defenders. Surely he was keeping up to date on Avengers missions and the Avengers/Defenders clash was a big deal.
I agree with you that it really made no sense for Hank to show up as Ant-Man in Avengers #93, even using a jet pack to fly, instead of his YJ costume. Seems like that is what Adams drew and Thomas had to work with that, another reason I have always disliked that whole sequence.
Kyle wasn’t the only one mis-colored as blond, so was Clea.
Don’t get why YJ was carrying a gun, he has had stingers in his gloves since his first appearance. I know he said it was new tech, but incorporating it into his gloves would have simple and easier to use.
Still don’t buy that the Sons had enough firepower to take down an angry Hulk.
Looking forward to your next post.
I realize that the worst time to weigh in on an old post is right before Alan posts a new one, but here goes:
I showed a number of people, including on Facebook, the Steve Gerber text page with the speech from the chief serpent and people seemed as shocked as I was that you could get a bunch of people without masks today who are in the Executive and Legislative branches to say the exact same things. 🙁
Steve Gerber was never really my glass of Kool-Aid in the 1970s as I was a more serious type in my fiction reading (at least until Douglas Adams came around) but I did enjoy this particular story arc. However, a couple of things disturbed me then and now.
The thing that most disturbs me is, if I recall correctly, Jack Norris willingly and happily gave up his wife Barbara to mate and merge with the Undying Ones. I would find that a) completely incompatible with him loving his wife and b) it would make him the most heinous and untrustworthy of people, who can certainly be described as evil. Didn’t Jack Norris get his wife to join the cult in the first place? The whole concept to me is very reminiscent of “Rosemary’s Baby” and I don’t think that Guy (Rosemary’s husband) would act the same way at all in Jack’s position. Or am I misremembering?
Second, and this is a problem whenever a strong super-powered group like the Defenders faces an earthly mortal menace, but the strongest heroes forget the powers and tactics they regularly use in other situations. In this story, if Dr. Strange wanted information from Holliman, he didn’t have to chase Holliman into his house using an astral form and scare him out. All he needed to do was whip out the old Eye of Agamotto which always forces the truth out of people.
Finally, somewhat off-topic, I actually was riding with my wife somewhere when suddenly for some reason I do not know, it popped into my head if Marvel sued D.C. for the use of the villain Egghead in the Batman TV series (played by Vincent Price)? Anyone here know?
Gerber consistently writes Dr. Strange as “whatever powers the story needs him to have,” true.
I haven’t read the early Defenders stories but that sounds like an interesting point about Jack
Stu, to the best of my knowledge, Jack and Barbara were supposed to have joined the cult together “for kicks”, sometime before the events of Hulk #126. Then, in that issue, the cult leader Van Nyborg ordered Barbara thrown into the Undying Ones’ dimension along with Hulk — but it seemed to have been a spur of the moment decision, and we weren’t shown at that time how Jack felt about it. So I think that gave Gerber just enough wiggle room for his characterization of Jack in these issues.
Thanks Alan. However, while your explanation may clear Jack from being guilty in the dirty deed, it does not get Gerber off the hook. Assuming that Jack did not want Barbara thrown to the Undying Ones, it would be only natural if when Jack finds out that Barbara is alive, he (1) would be joyously grateful and relieved, 2) want to know how she escaped (and, at the very least, the change that he sees in Barbara he must have tied to that event) and 3) apologized to her for what happened. At least in this story arc, one never has any inkling at all that Jack and Barbara were both in the coven and the Jack was there when Barbara was thrown to the Undying Ones. Worse, the people who were there at the time or know what happened (i.e., Dr. Strange or the Hulk in his own simple way) don’t bother explaining it to Jack either.
Those are good points, Stu. It’s like Gerber wanted to put all that Undying Ones cult stuff behind him, and write about the Norrisses as though they’d been an ordinary married couple. But seeing as how he’d actually began his Defenders run with an Undying Ones-focused story, I can’t see how he expected that to work.
The Sons of the Serpent text page from that issue seems sadly prescient.
This storyline is one of my favorite Defenders stories, as they actually get involved to defend normal people who need help.
Defenders# 23 is a extremely solid, entertaining and enjoyable comic. Of the team books, I think the Defenders was the leader of the pack in ’75, which is high praise as the FF and Avengers were really good in this period.
I liked the way that Gerber handled Yellowjacket, and it’s a real difference compared to the Avengers storylines I am concurrently reading (by the classic team of Thomas & Buscema back in ’68) where Yellowjacket, then as Goliath, shows the same unfortunate knee-jerk, action before thought, tendencies as Hawkeye. I liked Jack Noriss, mostly because I tend to have empathy with outsiders, or underdogs. Whatever happenned to him? Was the character jettisoned after Gerber was taken off the comic?
The art is really smooth, and I have no quibbles about Colletta here. Colletta is highly simpatico with Sal’s pencils, more so than some of the better inkers then around, such as Palmer and Sinnott. It’s a shame that the Buscema/ Colletta partnership ended in the not to distant then future with Colletta becoming DC’s art director.
The comic is not quite perfect however. The defeat of the Hulk does work in isolation by itself, but not in relation to the Hulk’s actual power. Indeed how could the Serpents achieve in the battle what the US Army, with all its resources and technology, could not? Also would you really leave a baby in the hands of the Hulk ( in the get together in Doc’s home, a scene which you don’t show)? That scene would be really upsetting to most mothers ( and some fathers too)!
Apologies for the late post, but I am mostly 2-3 months adrift from you Alan, as I am following what was available ( and read by me) by month in the UK. I also want to add that the May cover dated Marvels were extremely strong ( as were the April ones). I am strongly re-evaluating Wein as a editor. Of course a lot of credit goes to Thomas given he brought in and nurtured all the writing talent that did so fantastically well in ’75. May’75 cover dates also had my favourite Gil Kane cover. Kid Colt #194. https://www.comics.org/issue/28571/cover/4/ Kane was a great western artist, and also did animals particularly well.
He showed up in Nomad several years later: http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix4/norrissjackdef.htm
Thanks Frasersherman!