Fifty years ago, the cover of Defenders #34 (produced by Rich Buckler and Dan Adkins, but giving off strong Jack Kirby-Chic Stone vibes to your humble blogger) let any regular reader who’d somehow managed to miss the previous issue in on the big news: Nebulon, the Celestial Man, who (in league with the Squadron Sinister) had almost destroyed the Earth by flood back in #13-14, was back, and he meant business.
With the book’s opening splash page, the ongoing Defenders creative team of writer Steve Gerber and artists Sal Buscema and Jim Mooney reinforced that initial impression, as Nebulon took center stage here as well (albeit in a different, less Defender-filled setting):
For those who might be counting, we’ve now arrived at the fourth chapter of what we may now without undue confusion refer to as the “Headmen/Nebulon Saga” (although if you wanted to count the issue from over a year earlier that introduced the Headmen, #21, this might be considered the fifth installment; for what it’s worth, this reader prefers to think of that one as a “prologue”, rather than a proper chapter).
And for those interested in this sort of thing, the title of this specific episode is directly derived from the title of a 1971 comedy album by the Firesign Theatre. While my eighteen-year-old self of January, 1976, had never heard the album (to be honest, my sixty-eight-year-old self of right now never has, either), I was familiar with its cover and title from seeing it in my local record stores, and so “got” at least that much of the joke.
From Defenders #14 (Jul., 1974). Text by Len Wein; art by Sal Buscema and Dan Green.
Intriguingly, Nebulon’s brief recap of the events of Defenders #13-14 doesn’t mention the really big reveal that came at the story’s climax, when the golden, sparkly “Celestial Man” was shown to actually be a slimy, slithering, decidedly non-human alien life form. Nor, as we’ll see, is that fact mentioned at any later point in this issue. For now, at least, it doesn’t seem to be pertinent to writer Gerber’s purposes.
Oh, George. You just had to tempt the Marvel Universe fates, didn’t you?
There’ve been a few developments at the ol’ Sanctum Sanctorum since Dr. Strange and his Defending companions were last on the scene — most notably, that the once-adorable fawn now housing the consciousness of Chondu the Mystic busted out of it through a window, which explains the presence of the two workmen in that last panel.
After getting the lowdown from Wong, Doc, Hulk, and Valkyrie head upstairs, where the presently consciousness-free body of Jack Norriss lies inert. Doc attempts to use his Orb of Agamotto to locate any of the various components of their friends that have inexplicably gone AWOL — including, of course, both Kyle “Nighthawk” Richmond’s body and his unattached brain — but comes up short. At this point, the Hulk — who’s really only interested in tracking down the fawn, aka “Bambi” — grows impatient, and takes his leave.
It occurs to Nebulon that, if his goal is to gain humanity’s trust, one way to do so might be “by disposing of the gamma-ray-born plague Earth has suffered, lo these many years”…
Cover to a 1977 manual for the Silva Mind Control lecture series.
Nebulon’s “Celestial Mind Control” is reminiscent of a number of self-help programs associated with the Human Potential Movement that had arisen out of the counterculture of the 1960s; among the most obvious are Silva Mind Control (likely to have been Steve Gerber’s direct source for the name) and Erhard Systems Training, aka EST. Gerber was evidently not a fan of these systems, as will become ever more clear as our story progresses.
The guards order Val to open her jacket, which she does — and the spell of concealment Dr. Strange has placed on her sword Dragonfang keeps the weapon invisible to their eyes. The men remain unconvinced, however…
To this day, there’s no single image which epitomizes Steve Gerber’s run on Defenders for me quite as well as does the last panel above. Dr. Strange, Valkyrie, and the Hulk in Bozo the Clown face masks? You really can’t get more “Gerberesque” than that.
Naturally, Dr. Strange and Valkyrie recognize Nebulon (as of course did Hulk — but since he couldn’t remember the guy’s name, he couldn’t properly forewarn them). As the Sorcerer Supreme revokes the spell disguising their costumes (and Hulk’s skin color), he demands that the Celestial Man explain what he’s up to…
With four chapters now under our belts (okay, five, if you insist), we’re not quite at the halfway marker for the Headmen/Nebulon Saga — there are still six regular issues and one oversize annual left to go — but, even so, this feels like the spot where, if this were a television series, the producers would be most likely to schedule a mid-season break. Not only have all the main players been introduced (at least on the villainous side), but the immediate crisis that has driven the storyline since issue #31 has been more or less resolved — since, as Valkyrie correctly observes, “at last we have all Kyle’s parts together in one place!” (Granted, one of those parts is still floating in a punch-bowl, but why quibble over details?) With the following issue, our story will enter a new phase, in which we’ll see (among other things): one new member and one old member join the Defenders’ ranks (to the extent that a non-team can have ranks, that is); the plans of both the Headmen and the Celestial Man advance along parallel, occasionally converging tracks; and even a special guest appearance by the President of the United States. Providing a visual cue for this new demi-arc (albeit one that probably wasn’t specifically intended as such), Jim Mooney will be turning the inker’s brush over to an embellisher with a markedly different style, Klaus Janson.
Having just recently re-read the entire saga through for the first time in decades, your humble blogger has been a little surprised to find that the first chunk of it — i.e., the stuff we’ve just finished going through — is probably the most satisfying. I’m not sure exactly why that is, given that Gerber can hardly be said to slow down in the absurdity department over the next few issues (just wait until you see what’s next for poor Chondu), not to mention the fact Janson is one of my favorite inkers (especially over Sal Buscema). Maybe it’s that most of the villains that join the story going forward are fourth-tier at best (yes, that’s probably the main reason Gerber decided to use them in the first place, but it doesn’t make ’em any more interesting). Another may be that Jim Mooney’s style is simply better suited than Janson’s to making the outré seem somehow mundane (something that can also be said to work in the favor of other Gerber-Mooney collaborations, such as Man-Thing and Omega the Unknown).
Or maybe it’s just that there’s not nearly as much Bambi in the issues to come. Who knows?
Whatever the case, while we will continue to cover the Headmen/Nebulon Saga all the way to its end, our posts about it will be a little less frequent from here on out. For that reason, you’ll have to wait until March not only to learn the fate of the unfortunate Chondu (assuming you don’t already know what’s coming) but also to meet the Red Guardian again for the first time. I hope to see you then.
UPDATE, 1/27/26: Yesterday, the official Sal Buscema Facebook page posted: “It is with a heavy heart that the Buscema family confirms the rumors that Sal Buscema passed away Saturday 1/24 in his home, 2 days before his 90th Birthday.”
“Our Pal Sal” was a talented and prolific graphic storyteller whose visuals helped define the look and feel of the Marvel Universe for at least a couple of generations of comic-book fans. That said, I find it especially appropriate to commemorate his passing in a post about one of his Defenders issues, since his body of work on this book is probably my personal favorite in all his impressive oeuvre. I talk a lot on this blog about “Steve Gerber’s Defenders run” — but, of course, whenever I think about these stories and their bizarre cast of memorable characters — Ruby Thursday, Evil Bambi, the Elf with a Gun, et al — it’s the indelible imagery of Sal Buscema that I see in my mind’s eye.
RIP, Mr. Buscema.
As Firesign Theatre albums go, I’ve always preferred the title side of How Can You Be In Two Places At Once When You’re Not Anywhere At All? – an inspired bit of lunacy that starts as a used car commercial before morphing into an adventure in Egypt with WC Fields then a World War 2 propaganda melodrama and eventually James Joyce’s Ulysses. It doesn’t make a lick of sense, but you can definitely see the Firesign Theatre’s influence all over Gerber’s 70s output.
That’s one Firesign Theater album I do have! Very whacky and absurdist.
Alas, I missed this issue when it was new, but did get it in the early ’80s – one of those holes in my collection I filled in short order after I became an adult with more spending money and access to comics shops with a lot of back issues! It was through the later letters pages that I first became familiar with Firesign Theatre and I actually did get a couple of their albums, although not the particular one that inspire this issue’s title. In any case, this issue was perhaps the most bonkers Gerber ever did on a mainstream super-hero mag – and I loved it! I enjoyed the remainder of this saga too, as it continued to take some surreal turns. But, yeah, couldn’t really match the sheer madness of the first 4 chapters (I’d count #21 as a prelude too). Even with their distinct styles as pencilers and inkers, I enjoyed both Mooney’s and Jansen’s inks over Our Pal Sal’s pencils/layouts; they each brought something unique to the mag so the switch didn’t make that big a difference to me. As to the upcoming Grade C villains, until they showed up here, I hadn’t gotten any previous comics featuring the Plant Man and the Porcupine, but had caught the Eel when he showed up as part of the Serpent Squad Mach II under Madame Hydra/Viper taking on Steve Rogers in his debut as the Nomad. Gerber was taking these heroes and villains and us readers on a very twisted journey on perhaps one of the weirdest and grandest superhero epics ever.
Enjoyed reading your take on the proceedings thus far, Alan, and looking forward to whatever comes next!
I’m a little surprised Marvel allowed Steve Gerber to use the name and general likeness of Bozo the clown, a copyrighted character since 1946 (or 1949). A slightly altered name would have been a safer choice. Interesting fact: actor David Arquette now owns the Bozo copyright, having purchased it in 2021.
I wonder if the copyright holder in 1976 even took notice or responded to the use of the Bozo name and image.
If I’m not mistaken (and I could be quite easily), “bozo” was an expression that meant “fool” or “idiot” long before it referred to the name of a clown. Sure, the clown popularized it, but I’m not so sure it was a trademark that could be registered. I’m sure the image of a clown, who looked a particular way and went by the name Bozo was trademarked, but I’m not sure just the name was actionable. I think Marvel would have gotten in much more trouble from the likeness of Bozo represented by the masks everyone wore than by the name.
And there’s also the Grateful Dead (let’s see) after Firesign Theater but before the comic. https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/grateful-dead-big-railroad-blues-clown-masks/
Telling his audience they’re bozos is, I believe, very much in the EST style.
I do remember this as a high point in Gerber’s run, even though as I’ve said, it never quite worked for me.
As I look back, lo those fifty years ago, I only remember the title of this one, and to be honest I don’t know if I’m remembering the title of this story or the title of the Firesign Theatre album. I’d started my first radio job in late 75 at our college radio station and one of my fellow DJ’s used to peruse Firesign Theatre and National Lampoon albums to find stuff to play on his radio show. I don’t know that I ever listened to an entire Firesign Theatre album, but I listened to what I was told were the best parts of all of them–repeatedly. And it was funny stuff.
As for this issue of the Defenders and Gerber’s riff on the Mind Control movement, I remember hearing about EST more often than Silva. I’m not sure how much I believed in Nebulon’s change of heart (then or now); he still seemed too anxious to destroy the Defenders, rather than reason with them and still seems to perfer subjugation over empowerment.
I was more interested in Gerber’s push to make Valkyrie what we’ve always been told she’s not, a reconfigured form of Barbara Norris, rather than a separate entity of her own. Englehart told us from the get-go that what little was left of Babs was wrapped in madness and completely cut off from Val, yet you can tell, especially here, that Gerber very much wants that not to be true. I wanted Nighthawk to get his mind and body back together, but couldn’t we lose Jack Norris somehow? Or how about put him in Bambi? ‘Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
All in all, while this can definitely be considered a “chapter” in the Nebulon/Headmen saga, it’s not one that does much to drive the story forward. It’s funny and sardonic and enjoyable, but that’s about it. Thanks, Alan!
“Man is prone not to question too closely a system which promises so many benefits at so little cost.”
Well, that’s a line that has not aged at all in the half century since Steve Gerber wrote it. Seems even more relevant in 2026 than it would have been in 1976.
I can only wish it wasn’t so.
More than anything else, this issue of The Defenders exemplifies for me the expression “Be careful what you wish for…” I say that because, as a high school freshman, I was starting to tire of the bizarre twists and turns in this book. My 15-year-old mind couldn’t get past the illogic of Kyle Richmond’s brain sloshing around in a dish or that Nebulon was really a huge, slimy monster or that anyone would willingly wear a Bozo mask. I started to yearn for the “standard” villains more akin to Len Wein’s brief run. What I didn’t realize was not how those out of place those established (moldy?) villains would be in this book, but also how quickly I dropped this series once Gerber did leave.
On a similar note, it wouldn’t be long before all of Marvel’s team books hit substantial potholes with Englehart soon to leave The Avengers and Roy Thomas making an exit from The Fantastic Four. That opened the field for my favorite, The X-Men, to take center stage. But being a bi-monthly at that time worked against them.
On a final note, I would be curious as to any controlled substances that helped inspire Gerber to have a scene on a NYC stage with Grecian temples, Bozo masks, a brain in a bowl and cheerleaders.
Thanks again, Alan!
I liked Jack Norris as a character and while I didn’t want Val to be Barbara in any way or her to get with Jack, I thought he was a nice addition to the cast. I lost track of him when he left the book.
I also enjoyed the new member coming in next issue and hate everything done to them after she stopped being a regular. No one recognizing her lack of consent once abducted bothers me as much as no writer ever addressing the fact that Spiral only exists because an innocent woman was tortured ino madness.
While the “Valkyrie can’t hit a woman” thing bothered me at the time, in hindsight, yeah, Gerber treating her as “Barbara with amnesia” contributed to my not liking the way he wrote her.
I’d go with frasersherman regarding Gerber’s run, that ‘it never quite worked for me’ (also agree about treating Val as ‘Barbara with amnesia’, but that’s another topic).
All those years ago (50?! Really?) I never really felt like Gerber hit the mark in quite the way he hoped. Still feel that way today. Even back then, I appreciated that he was trying to do and say something outside the generic formula that Marvel/superhero comics were falling into, but it always felt to me like he never really nailed it the way he wanted to. Maybe sometimes with HTD and Man-Thing he was closer to making the points he was trying to make, but his run here on Defenders mostly fell flat for me.
I think it’s also been mentioned here before, but Gerber had a bad habit of ignoring plot lines and situations after he’d made the point he wanted to make. What happened to George Teekle, who’d lost his house twice through no real fault of his own? Would it have killed Gerber to add a line when the Defenders ‘depart this scene of suburban madness’ suggesting that Doc rebuilt his house for him? How is it that the Hulk meekly tolerates clothes, and a bozo mask, and sits quietly waiting for a call to action without kicking off? You can invent all the after-the-fact rationales you want, but shouldn’t the writer be providing these explanations?
In case I sound too negative, I would still say that with the limited funds I had back then, I would still have been more likely to buy a book by Gerber than anything written by most of Marvel’s stable of writers (excepting Steve Englehart, who was a favourite back then). A unique voice like Gerber that tries but maybe doesn’t always succeed was still preferable to the ones that never even tried.
Apropos of nothing 1: Roy Thomas met Mrs Thomas #2 at an est meeting (for some reason, it’s always been lower case whenever I’ve seen it mentioned). If est ever made its way Down Under, I’m not aware of it.
Apropos of nothing 2: Gerber seemed to like having his criminal types stage public events – that whole “Learn Mind Control” meeting scene reminded me of an early Gerber-scripted Marvel Two-In-One wherein Matt Murdock attends the premiere of a play which turns out to have been a Black Spectre operation.
I bought the entire #1-50 run over a 18 month period for my son (who was 10 years old at the time) and I can confirm – reading the Gerber series out of order as I was buying them was an exercise in confusion! I was so much happier when I sat down and clean & pressed the entire run for him and then sat down and read Gerber’s run in order, much better!
For those of you buying them off the rack at the time it must have been really frustrating if you missed an issue!
Thinking about the whole Val/Barbara thing, brought to my mind the varieties of duality in so many super-heroes beginning with Superman himself. Supes was an alien who magically travelled however many light years away Krypton is supposed to be to land safely on Earth while still an infant, raised to be a good boy with the best in American values by his Earthly adoptive parents and in his normal persona adopts the identity of the superheroic Superman, protector of his adopted planet and people, but adopting a separate persona as a meek, awkward but earnest reporter Clark Kent. Then Batman comes along, devoting his life to criminal riff raff while out of costume pretending to be a playboy layabout as Bruce Wayne, albeit with plenty of money to both keep up the pretense and fund his passion to beat down criminals. But the original Captain Marvel was the first to magically transform himself back and forth from a relatively puny human to a much bigger, smarter, more powerful superhero capable of flight even before Superman was given that capacity in his own comics; but Captain Marvel was still somehow supposed to be Billy Batson transformed from a child into a super-heroic adult who would transform back into his child form after the baddie of the moment had been vanquished — or the plot otherwise required it. In the Silver Age, Ben Grimm was changed into the Thing but still retained the same persona and intellect, just capable of causing a lot more damage when he lost his temper. However, when Bruce Banner transformed into the Hulk, his alter ego had a very different personality and persona and, for the most part, a very primitive intellect with none of Banner’s scientific capabilities.
More puzzling was the transformation of Donald Blake into Thor — initially, with the same persona and knowledge and speech patterns – Blake had the power but not the mind of the mythic Thor. But then, Thor’s father, Odin was introduced, along with Loki, in an incarnation as Thor’s adoptive brother, and Blake/Thor reacted to Odin as his genuine father and Loki as his genuine adopted brother, with no thought as to having any mortal father, mother or siblings. And within another year or so, Thor’s manner of speaking became very different from that of Donald Blake but they still appeared to share the very same memories although Thor was never shown to have Dr. Blake’s medical skills.
Finally, coming to the transformation of the mentally unhinged Barbara Norris into the powerful Valkyrie, under Englehart, Val’s persona was nothing like Barbara’s but she routinely suffered mental flashbacks to Barabara’s insanity, indicating Barbara’s persona somehow still existed within Valkyrie. Also, to my perception,Val’s face was no more drawn by Sal Buscema or any other artist to look much like that of Barbara Norris, not anymore than Thor’s face was ever drawn to look like Donald Blake’s. So the one big buggaboo I ever had about Jack Norris was how he could possibly have looked at Valkyrie and immediately recognized her as a transformed version of his wife. About as looney as no one who closely knew Matt Murdock and had multiple encounters with Daredevil never recognized that they had the same voice and it just so happened that Matt was never around whenever Daredevil was present. Ok, that trope was old even before Superman, but still …. Anyhow, while I found Jack Norris often irritating, I can look upon him as sort of akin to JJJ in Spider-Man, a thorn in the side of the hero fans could love to hate, although Gerber was gradually transforming Norris into a sort of useful thorn, coming to a grudging understanding of the heroes and helping them as best he could. I’m curious as to what, if any, long-range plans Gerber had for Norris, as well as for his relationship with Valkyrie. For all intents and purposes, as the situation stood in 1976, the person Jack knew as his wife was permanently gone, even before she was transformed in Valkyrie, although Gerber never wrote a scene wherein Dr. Strange explained that to Jack. That may have been an interesting scene, especially if Doc was forced to acknowledge his own role in the circumstances that led to Barbara’s derangement – and Jack having to acknowledge his own part in that as well. And, thus far, as things stood 50 years ago, there was no explanation as to where the Valkyrie persona came from and no hint that it had existed prior to being grafted onto Barbara’s transformed body. As with the Hulk’s own personality as depicted in Hulk # 1, Val’s persona appeared to come from nowhere, freshly born when the Enchantress made her spell. And as of 50 years ago, Val was never shown to have any memories of an existence prior to the transformation, just as Hulk never reminisced about any event prior to the first time Banner transformed into him. In both instances, they simply came to be and went about doing what they felt needed to be done with no thought as to how they came to be or what they may have been before. Of course, one of the first things Gerber did upon taking over the mag was to have Valkyrie probe into the life of the woman whose transformed body she inhabited and trying to figure out the riddle of her own existence.
“although Thor was never shown to have Dr. Blake’s medical skills. ” Actually a late Silver Age story has Blake declaring he’s a great surgeon because he has Asgardian surgical skills … which wasn’t necessary for the story and doesn’t make any sense (as you say, Thor has never been shown to be any sort of medic).
When did Englehart’s Valkyrie have a flashback to Barbara’s insanity? I don’t recall that at all.
“Val’s persona appeared to come from nowhere, freshly born when the Enchantress made her spell.” Yes, I think it was implicit that Valkyrie was, as originally conceived, a complete fabricate, partly reflecting Amora being pissed off at men because her boyfriend dumped her.
From what we see, I doubt Jack Norris remembering he’d been part of the same cult as Barbara was ever in Gerber’s plans — it would spoil Jack’s role as the token normie in the team.
There was one scene during the Defender’s battle with Attuma under the sea when Val started seeing everyone around her as monstrous beings, as Barbara would have seen them after her derangement and, I think, at least one other episode, but then that subplot was dropped. So not really a big thing but a big hint that an aspect of Barbara’s mind still inhabited her new body.
Yes, I’d forgotten that.
Just heard news today of the sad passing of Sal last Friday. He will be sorely missed. 😥
Ah nuts, I hadn’t heard that. Condolences to his family and fans.
He was three days away from turning 90. Still, a long run.
I’ve updated the original post with a short note to acknowledge this sad news.
Very sad news. “Our Pal Sal” drew many of my favorite comics from the time I started reading them in 1968.
As I’ve mentioned before in comments on Alan’s blog, Sal Buscema had his own “secret identity” (or identities) because he had a very successful run in the Northern Virginia community theater scene during at least the 1980s and 1990s. He played lead roles: Tevye in “Fiddler on the Roof” at least twice (I posted a review here once, but unfortunately, it’s not on the internet anymore), Fagin in “Oliver!”, The King in “The King and I” and John Adams in “1776!” to name the ones that I’ve heard about.
I never saw Sal perform or met him. I didn’t know that he was living in my area and performing just across the Potomac River even after I had started doing community theater myself in Montgomery County, Maryland. However, today on Facebook I have been seeing a lot of comments talking about Sal’s theater career. In 1997, a friend suggested that I audition for “Fiddler on the Roof” in Alexandria, VA, but I told her that I didn’t do shows in Virginia because of the traffic on the Capital Beltway. Had I known that Sal Buscema would be cast as Tevye in that production or even that he was auditioning, I would have flown there (by plane or–otherwise?) just for the chance to work onstage with him.
Sal was locally famous in the shows he performed in by giving his castmates (and I would wager to all of the crew) autographed drawings of the Hulk for free. I have a photo of Sal playing Fagin in “Oliver!” in 1990, complete with costume and makeup (very fitting for a superhero artist) that a friend sent me and if I knew how to post a copy of a photo here, I would do so.
By the way, I continue to truly enjoy Alan’s blog posts and everyone’s comments here even though I rarely post comments anymore.
I’m glad to know you’re still out there reading, Stuart! Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be any good way to share images in the “comments” section any more — at least, not the way I have WordPress configured for my site.
Good-bye Sal, I will always remember your 1969 Avengers, your 1970 Sub-Mariner, your Son of Satan, your Defenders, your Captain America, your covers and your (1968?) Marvel try-out page featuring the Hulk. I recall drawing and re-drawing Sal’s faces from Subby #35, particularly that of Thor. My favourite Sal issue, probably Avengers #71, the Avengers vs the (non yet named) Invaders in WW2 Paris, with the Black Knight saving the day in the future. Favourite cover probably Defenders #9, Iron Man vs Hawkeye. Sal always drew a great Iron Man. But then there is the classic Avengers #89 cover, with Captain Marvel!! I could never turn down a 70s comic cover drawn by Sal…they were just screaming to be bought! Amazing work, and a life well led. Thanks and rest in peace.
Sal B sadly gone. Can only think of Larry Lieber and Steranko as the last remaining major Marvel Silver Agers.
Roy Thomas, Gary Friedrich. Would we consider BWS a silver-ager? For DC I can only think Sergio Aragones. Would we consider Gerry Conway, Mike Friedrich and Marv Wolfman? Really bronze age but had things published very late silver age.
Alas, Gary Friedrich passed away in 2018… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Friedrich