With this post, we continue our coverage of writer Steve Gerber and artist Sal Buscema’s “Headmen/Nebulon Saga” in Defenders, following our recently established routine of taking on two issues of the lengthy storyline at a time. This go-round, we’ll be starting with Defenders #37, whose cover by Gil Kane and Mike Esposito heralds the imminent return to this title’s pages of Luke Cage, Power Man — a hero who’d first fought alongside Marvel Comics’ premiere non-team back in issues #17-19, and then had renewed his non-membership when the group battled the Sons of the Serpent in #24-25.
As regular readers will hopefully recall, Defenders #36 had ended with three of our heroes — leader Dr. Strange, veteran Nighthawk (in his civilian guise of Kyle Richmond), and newbie Red Guardian — having been captured by Plantman, who intended to hold the wealthy Richmond for ransom. But rather than immediately picking things back up with those characters, our creative team (which in addition to Gerber and Buscema includes inker Klaus Janson) start off issue #37’s “Evil in Bloom!” with another Defender, namely the Hulk.
Hulk has been keeping busy trying to find help for an animal friend — namely, the winged horse Aragorn, who was wounded by the Headman named Chondu back in issue #35. However, the NYPD considers him a menace to public safety (not without good cause, admittedly) and they descend on the veterinarian’s office where Hulk and habitual Defenders hanger-on Jack Norriss have managed to have Aragorn transported. After a couple of pages of property-damaging but otherwise casualty-free mayhem, the Jade Giant decides he’s had enough and bounds away — not only out of this scene, but clear out of Defenders altogether, at least for the remainder of this issue and the entirety of the next.
This leaves Jack Norriss at loose ends — at least until he catches news of the shenanigans going on with Plantman. Assuming that the Defender called Valkyrie (whom he inaccurately considers his wife) must be involved and is thus in danger, Jack calls inreinforcements, in the form of the only Defenders-adjacent superhero with a listed local telephone number, Luke Cage. Fortunately, Cage is in his office; less luckily, he’s in the middle of a fight with a trio of armed thugs when the call comes in. But Jack wisely lets the phone ring, and after another couple of pages of gratuitous violence, his patience is finally rewarded by everyone’s favorite Hero for Hire™.
Meanwhile, back at the scene of Plantman’s very public kidnapping of Kyle Richmond, Dr. Strange continues to be puzzled over why his prodigious magical powers don’t seem to be having any effect on what is, after all, just a giant plant…
Luke quickly frees Jack from the branch ensnaring him; meanwhile, the spores trapping Dr. Strange and the Red Guardian are still soaring towards the stratosphere. Finally, Doc gets his hands free — although RG’s not sure what good that’s going to do, as in they’re in too close quarters for him to fire energy bolts the way he was doing a couple of pages earlier…
The Valkyrie remains in the custody of the state, having been arrested following her battle with Chondu (whose current status remains unknown)… and pretty much as the mercy of her bullying cellmate, since the magical spell that originally imposed her persona upon the body of Barbara Norriss prohibits her from striking another woman.
OK, so the Plantman’s old partners in crime still haven’t been identified by their codenames, and their respective “holographic projections” aren’t exactly in full costume, thanks to their “Bozo” heads. But last issue’s “Next” blurb has already outed them as the Eel and the Porcupine , so we’re going to pause here to provide the same basic background information we did for their erstwhile companion last time:
The Eel, aka Leo Stryke, had first appeared in Strange Tales #112 (Sep., 1963), where he’d fought the Human Torch (just one issue prior to the Plantman making his debut doing the exact same thing, incidentally). Porcupine, aka Alex Gentry, had first flourished his quills in Tales to Astonish #48 (Oct., 1963) ,as an enemy of Ant-Man. My younger self knew both of them best from Steve Englehart’s Captain America run, where they as well as Plantman had been part of the Cowled Commander’s Crime Wave; the Eel had later gone on alone to help found yet another villainous assemblage, the Serpent Squad — in spite of the fact than an eel is a fish, not a serpent (sorry, but I’ll never be able to let that go).
Whatever plans Nebulon might have had for Plantman, we’ll never know — because the hapless villain (aka Sam Smithers) never makes another appearance in this storyline. Oh, well.
Kyle’s proposal meets with everyone’s approval (well, everyone’s but Dr. Tania Belinsky’s). With that matter settled, Kyle asks for a little time alone with Doc Strange. It seems he’s still quite rattled by his recent out-of-body experience (“out-of-body” here referring to the fact that his conscious brain had spent multiple issues floating in a bowl)…
Yeah, it probably would have been “most interesting” to see where Steve Gerber planned to take this particular bit… unfortunately, he’d be off the book in another five months, and none of his successors ever picked up on the idea, as far as I know. So, outside of a couple of later nods in the current storyline (one of which will be coming up later in this post), nothing really ever comes of Nighthawk’s nascent discovery of his “spiritual side”.
And so, the Eel and the Porcupine take center stage at last… sort of. As you’ve likely already noticed, neither managed to snag a spot on the Rich Buckler-Joe Sinnott cover for Defenders #38 (whereas Sam Smithers got on not just once, but twice; so, take that, you “betters“). Rather, that privilege went to their mentor, Nebulon, the Celestial Man — who also dominates the issue’s splash page, as shown directly below:
Are you getting a little tired of Dr. Strange’s chronic power fizzles? Yeah, me too; unfortunately, we’re nowhere near the end of them. But, moving on… our beleaguered trio manage to find shelter in a nearby cavern, where Doc’s powers at least work well enough to conjure up a small fire. Alas, that very fire appears to attract another inhabitant of the cave, whose mighty roar suggests it may be less than friendly…
Meanwhile, it’s lunchtime at the women’s prison cafeteria, where Valkyrie has been enjoying a pleasant conversation with the friendliest of her fellow inmates, Shirley — only to have it be rudely interrupted by the least friendly among them…
Back in the other-dimensional cavern, Val’s teammates are fighting for the lives against the alien ape-thing; you see, Doc’s powers have gone on the fritz again (sigh), leaving it to Power Man and the Red Guardian to duke it out with the creature. Luke gets riled up enough to take up a weapon, in the form of a stalactite he breaks off the cave roof…
Even without a sound effect, that last panel above is some quintessential Sal Buscema “POW!”. Just sayin’.
Fortunately, the rigors of interdimensional travel have killed off every single one of the tiny bugs that have been bedeviling Tania, allowing her to join the fight against the Bozos. Less fortunately, the same passage seems to have no effect on the white monkey-monster, who’s regained consciousness and now comes leaping through what’s left of the doorway, eager to join the party. One step forward… well, you know.
For the record, this is the third appearance of the Elf with a Gun, and the first since the proper kickoff of the Headmen/Nebulon story arc back in issue #31.
Meanwhile, back at Celestial Mind Control Foundation HQ, the battle continues. Dr. Strange attempts to magically blast the ape-creature, but manages little more than what he himself calls “mere pyrotechnics“. Elsewhere, Luke Cage evades an electrical zap from the Eel and grabs him in a bear hug, only to find himself immobilized when the villain sends a charge through his entire body…
Hmm, what was that I was saying about the dimensional portal having no effect on our sinister simian? Maybe I spoke too soon. Or perhaps it’s the (allegedly) Crimson Bands of Cyttorak that are causing this unexpected phenomenon, despite Doc Strange’s confidence that he’s got back his mojo, more or less. In any event, I can’t wait to find out what’ll happen next with ol’ Tall, White, and Hairy…
Um, no. Let me amend that. I’ll have to wait, and so will you — and not just until the next issue, but apparently forever, since, as best as I can tell, our problematic primate has never shown up again — not once at any time in the last half-century. Did Steve Gerber just forget all about this loose thread? Or was the ending to this episode always meant to be taken as a rather mean-spirited joke on the Marvel-Earth version of New York’s Finest, whose members would soon be called to the scene? Your humble blogger frankly has no idea.
In any event, we’ve come to the end of this particular excursion through a couple of chapters of the Headmen/Nebulon Saga — and, yes, I’m going to continue to call it that, despite the conspicuous absence of any of the four villains who comprise the first part of that label from either of the issues we’ve looked at today… and despite the fact that they don’t have much to do with the next two installments, either. Perhaps I’ll share my reasoning with you in our next Defenders post — which, incidentally, will be coming your way one month from now, rather than two, simply because I have slightly more room on the schedule to squeeze it in in June than I do in July. So, be sure and mark your calendars for 6/17/26 for our next appointment with Drs. Strange, Belinsky, and associates.
It also bothered me that the Eel would be in a team called The Serpent Squad. Perhaps they would have been more appropriately and inclusively dubbed The Sinuous Squad.
My goodness. I know comments (and OPs) here have discussed Gerber’s dropped plot points before but it’s really becoming marked now. I probably didn’t notice as this issue plays into two of the things I disliked about Gerber’s run. One, Dr. Strange’s power levels being whatever suits the plot, two, Valkyrie’s stupid Can’t Hit a Woman weakness. I hated this Babes Behind Bars arc when it came out, don’t like it any better now.
I never read this. I have to say, from Alan’s blog posts about “the Headmen/Nebulon Saga” it feels like Steve Gerber’s writing here is rather meandering, punctuated by moments of brilliance. I understand that Gerber was making it up as he was going along, but this particular “saga” is, as fraser sherman states in his comment above, very much characterized by dropped plot points.
I also agree with Alan, the fluctuating power levels of Doctor Strange seen in these issues are frustrating.
And then there’s the Elf with a Gun popping up again, which we now know that Gerber was not intending to lead into anything and was just his commentary on the randomness of life & death.
Having said that, this exchange from issue #37 made me laugh:
Jack Norriss: Look, skip the amenities. I just wanna know where my wife is!
Luke Cage: Lotta husbands in THAT situation, man!
Anyway, I will note that that artwork by Sal Buscema & Klaus Janson on these two issues is really high quality.
I concur with the quality of the art. KJ really enhanced Sal’s penciling…and that’s not a slam on Buscema!
Sal Buscema is one of my all-time favorite comic book artists, and I agree with you, Klaus Janson’s inking really enhanced Sal’s pencils.
My 15-year-old self and my 60+ self are in complete agreement on our assessment of the Defenders at this point. And it’s one that mirrors the comments shared by everyone else.
Way I saw it then and now is that too many dropped plot points combined with a meandering story had me losing faith in Steve Gerber and losing interest in a title that had been one of my favorites less than a year earlier.
I also struggled with the whole notion of Nebulon being so hellbent on salvation for humanity. I mean the dude’s actually a big slimy monster who initially wanted our little blue marble underwater for he and his race (back in Defenders #13-14). Not sure what those other aliens did to change his mind.
Added to that, are the Plant Man, Eel, Porcupine and a skinny white ape the best villains Gerber could come up with to challenge this team? Then again, with the good Doctor’s fluctuating power levels, I suppose the Toad would have a threat to him at this point. (And yes, that was all later explained.)
And don’t get me started on the “Orange is the New Valkyrie” storyline. Young me and old me both couldn’t wait for it to end.
On the plus side, no quibbles whatsoever about Klaus Jansen’s inks over Sal Buscema! Solid art covered a multitude of sins in these issues. And if I ever have brain surgery, I’m going back in time for that cute Russian doctor to do the job! I mean, less than an issue after stitching Kyle up and he’s delivering impressive Sal Buscema punches! Shame future writers had to ruin her character.)
Lastly, I’d be remiss if I didn’t thank Alan for another excellent review!
Hey Alan, Pedants-R-Us called, they want to know how Gerber’s ‘predecessors’ could possibly have picked up on Nightwing’s future spiritual journey? His successors, maybe… Just sayin’.
I’d never realized until you pointed it out that the Eel has no place in a Serpent Squad. Can’t even agree with Chris Green’s notion of a ‘Sinuous Squad’, seeing as one of the definitions of sinuous is ‘serpentine’. Maybe the Eel needs to start his own aquatic-themed group. The Fishy Felons sounds like a 60s’ beat combo, and I’m not sure who else would qualify for membership – sharks are cartilaginous fish, so Tiger Shark would be a shoo-in. Didn’t Luke Cage fight a piranha-faced character in one of Bill Mantlo’s DDD fill-ins? I’m inclined to think that this idea doesn’t really have any legs (ha, you see what I did there)?
Oh yeah, the Defenders. Not much to say other that agreeing with everyone else. The story, villains, et al, are a little bit ‘meh’, the Sal/Klaus art is nice but nothing we haven’t seen from Sal before, the Dr Strange fluctuating power level is irritating and too obviously a plot device to prolong things to the final page, plot points are raised then dropped…
Nice but flawed, and nothing to shout about?
God help me, but I remember the dreaded Mr. Fish – an embarrassing horrid villain from Power Man #29. So awful, my friends and I laughed about it for weeks! https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Power_Man_Vol_1_29
How dare you and your friends mock that terrifying villain? That story was called ‘No-one Laughs at Mr Fish’.
There’s a throwaway reference to Mr. Fish in Marvels: Epilogue.
“Mr Fish” was the name of a very fashionable boutique in London in the 1960s/70s owned by clothes designer called Michael Fish – such as “dresses for men” worn by Mick Jagger and David Bowie, the velvet jackets for the third Doctor Who , Jon Pertwee and was the designer of the “kipper” tie.
Sounds like a natural ally for the Mad Mod.
I knew none of that. Interesting.
Hey, thanks, Pedants-R-Us! Fixed now. 🙂
Can you also fix me calling Nighthawk ‘Nightwing’? D’oh!!
Hey, it happens to the best of us, Mike!
Got it. Eel, Tiger Shark, Mr Fish, Pirahna, and Captain Barracuda teamed up as… Fishy Business, or Gillty As Charged, or Scales of Injustice… Feel free to join in…
I do have an af-fin-ity for humor that scales such heights as well as for tails that plunge to similar depths. Offer another joke and I’ll bite!
I’m willing to hand-wave the Eel’s non-serpent status. After all, lots of group names don’t make much sense. Emissaries of Evil? Emissaries from who or where?
Absolutely. If any of Magneto’s retconned goodness and reveal as a holocaust victim was true (and he was fighting the good fight for mutant rights), why ‘the brotherhood of EVIL mutants’?
As Marv Wolfman once said, why would any group call themselves “evil” Though Ian McKellan could totally have pulled it off in the movie — “Senator Kelly we’re you’re worst nightmare, the Brotherhood of EEEEVIL Mutants” and laughing at the difference in their perceptions.
Somewhere there’s a group of supervillains who have had to delay their city takover because they were in prolonged ill tempered debate becuause they couldn’t agree on a collective name.
“Brotherhood ? So we are excluding women from the start? Thought we were an equal-ops organisation!”
“Actually you’ll find that belongs to a completely different taxonomy..”
“but I don’t even like snakes!”
Well, as we’ve discussed with almost every other issue of Defenders written by Gerber, the dropped plot points in 1976 didn’t bother me, because I didn’t know they’d be DROPPED. To my 18-year old self in the year of the Bicentennial, Gerber was just setting stuff up for down the road like every other writer worth his stripes. It’s only now, fifty years later, that I can whine and whinge with the rest of you about the various story pieces Gerber left lying on the side of the road. Did Steve-o have any idea where those set-ups might take the different characters they revolved around? Would he have done something with them if he’d hung around for more than five more issues? Who knows? I’d like to think Steve had some idea where Kyle’s spriitual journey would go and just never got the chance to follow it, but one of the major complaints with mainstream comics is the ever-changing roster of creators, writers and raconteurs who constantly move in and out of each book, changing the stories (sometimes massively) with every change in the masthead.
I think Kyle’s spirit quest would have been interesting and possibly would lead to Nighthawk developing powers of his own of one kind or another. Very few Marvel characters were plain vanilla humans (or stayed that way for long), but as Marvel’s Batman surrogate, Nightwing had only been armed with his jet pack and unlimited wealth for longer than most. As Barry Allen asked Bruce Wayne in the JL movie, “What’s your super power, again?” “I’m rich,” was the answer and the same was true for ol’ Kyle.
As has been pointed out before Nebulon’s motivations for trying to take over the Earth are spurious and inconsistent. As is his willingness to work with third tier villains like Plantman, Eel and Porcupine (and if Porcupine’s is not the STUPIDEST costume design I’ve ever seen, I don’t know what is). And yes, Doc’s ever-fluctuating power levels got old fast. You’d think a writer of Gerber’s stature could be more original than that. All in all this is the lowest point (IMHO) of Gerber’s run on The Defenders, and I, for one will be glad when it’s done.
Before I go, allow me to mention that, at this point, it’s clear Gerber believes Val and Barbara Norris are one in the same. Not only does Jack keep referring to Val as his wife, almost everyone else does too! Jack Norriss wore out his welcome for me almost as soon as he arrived and is one plot point I dearly wish Gerber would have dropped.
Finally, shouldn’t the Crimson Bands of the Cytorrak be, I don’t know…red?? Thanks, Alan!
Nighthawk does have powers. He’s stronger at night… usually described as “twice as strong” but I think that with power creep it has come to mean he can lift a ton during the day and two tons at night… or something like that.
Huh. I’d never heard that. Learn something new every day. Thanks, David.
Yes, crimson bands of cytorrak are normally red.
I agree, knowing how things ended reshapes how I react rereading a series. I enjoyed Geoff Johns’ GL first reading; rereading, knowing it spends 90 percent of the time spinning its wheels reminding us Sinestro is awesome and Hal’s clueless, I couldn’t get into it.
Two points: 1)Stephen talking to Kyle about how this could be the start of an awesome spiritual journey is really not reading the room. I guess he was reverting back to his pre-mystic days when we know he had terrible bedside manner.
2)IIRC one of the early letter columns explained Stephen’s ineffectiveness against the Sons of the Serpent as Stephen being effective on the mystical plane, not the physical. While that’s clearly not true, if Gerber had stuck with that consistently I’d have accepted it. But he ignores his own rules whenever necessary for his story.
The Elf with a Gun is a perfect example of what I’m talking about. I didn’t think of it as some statement about the universe when reading the stories — I assumed it was going somewhere. Knowing it doesn’t — and no, declaring “life is meaningless and random” doesn’t cut it — those scenes are annoying.
It’s possible to pull off that kind of randomness. In the Hope/Crosby Road to Rio, we keep cutting away to an approaching cavalry troupe as the movie reaches it’s climax, then Hope and Crosby save the day without them getting there; the leader looks into the camera, shrugs and says “Well you have to admit it was pretty thrilling.” An acknowledgement in the letter column? Not good enough.
I remember actually thinking that would have an interesting pay off.
It was weird enough to be some kind of crazy Gerber thing or other.
Same here.
Another wild ride in the Gerber world. In regard to Dr. Strange’s power fluctuations, to my understanding, that was part of the consequence of Dr. Nagan’s “subtle” changes to Doc, Hulk & Val when the Headmen had them captive. Gerber had discussed the difficulties he had with Dr. Strange, particularly in that his extensive powers as a “Sorcerer Supreme” were a bit of a liability to being able to weave the sort of stories Gerber wanted to tell and maintain some sense of drama when Doc could conceivably conjure up some spell or another that would end the crisis right away. Hence, Gerber often having Doc’s all too human frailties come in to play to keep him out of action. Which I didn’t mind all that much as I certainly didn’t want every story to end in one or two panels after Doc utters a spell, “Sons of the Serpent vanish into the mists of torrent” or some such thing. Sort of a recurring problem with the power creep up of many superheroes from Superman onwards. With Dr. Strange there’s also the common problem of the extent and limitations of his powers. Under Ditko, Strange was much more limited in his capacities than he became under Englehart, but he still couldn’t just do pretty much anything with just a thought. Under Gerber, Strange did seem to be able to do a lot, including instantly transporting himself and others out of trouble or magically transferring a table full of food to a sidewalk for the benefit of starving vagabond. None of that took away from my enjoyment of the overall stories but my older self certainly feels the need to grin at the convenient silliness and bear with it when moving on with the bigger stories. That within it all, Gerber’s stories often dealt with aspects of the human condition in the real world – human bigotries, what we’re doing to the environment, struggles against injustice and cruelty, etc., made it worthwhile for me to overlook some of the ridiculous aspects.
My 13-year-old self had some mixed feelings about Val’s prison time, feeling anxious for her to get out of that horrid situation and empathizing with her deep frustration and anger, being restrained by the Enchantress’s curse in fighting against her female tormentors. I suspect Gerber wanted to more fully humanize Val, to show her in a difficult situation she couldn’t simply fight her way out of by physical force or slashing away with her sword. Sort of akin to the extended period under Lee & Kirby when Thor’s godly powers had been stripped from him by Odin in one of his greater than usual tantrums, and which ended with Thor nearly being slain by the Wrecker. Val’s own powers hadn’t been stripped from her but being in a women’s prison put her in a situation where her powers were mostly useless.
It was interesting to have Luke Cage come back onboard and actually deal with the aspect of him having to make a living from the use of his powers and not being a rich guy who could afford to donate his time for free for the benefit of others. He had to earn money to pay rent, and buy necessities such as food and clothing. Just another aspect of the human condition rarely dealt with in most comics.
On to the bad guys of these issues, Plant Man comes across as a baddie with much potential but rarely used well but made for an interesting side movement within the bigger Headmen/Nebulon symphony. Porcupine and Eel, on the other hand, can’t overcome their basic C-grade baddie Bozo-ness. Porky got a new costume and took on Captain America many years later in an entertaining but hardly epic story. Outside of Strange Tales era Human Torch, I’m not aware of the Eel ever appearing on his own to take on anyone. I quit collecting Captain America while it was in the midst of recurring stories involving the ever-expanding Serpent Society but I would have found it amusing if the Eel was drummed out of the Society due to his powers and name-sake being derived from a fish rather than a genuine serpent and having to find some fish-themed baddies to hang out with. As to the mysterious white ape, appears Gerber had some sort of future plan for him that just never panned out as he left the Defenders sooner than planned. But then, even if that hadn’t been the case, Gerber may never have done a follow-up on that. Then there’s Nebulon and his transformation from having once wanted to drown Earth for the benefit of his own kind to wanting to “save” humanity from our Bozo selfs and become, somehow, self-actualized or whatever. Amusing parody of some of the bizarre trends of the era, of which one prominent strand would come to a grim conclusion a few years later in Jonestown, Guyana.
One aspect of Gerber’s writing which I’ve come to appreciate is that for all the fantastic trappings and characters with incredible powers, he still mostly kept them grounded in interactions with ordinary people, even if some of them were very annoying, but then there are plenty of people like that in our lived reality. In some comics of later years, it seems ordinary people very rarely showed up.
I vividly remember buying Defenders #37 at the 7-11 on my way home from school one Bicentennial afternoon. The Gil Kane cover grabbed me, with its strong use of diagonal perspective depicting Luke climbing up Plant-Man’s plant, dodging thorns along the way. Re-reading these stories now, I wonder what 8-year-old me thought of them. Did Elf with a Gun register with me at all as a comment on the randomness of the human condition? Or did I just take that as one more random thing that happened in comics? As I’ve said before, I think, Gerber’s talents played better the farther he got away from stock super-hero stories, and I do think his Man-Thing, Howard the Duck, and even Son of Satan stories hold up better for me today than does his Defenders work. As we talked about with regard to Omega the Unknown, I find the “ordinary” bits of that book focusing on James-Michael’s day-to-day life vastly more interesting than the Omega bits.
I also have to disagree with the general assessment that Klaus Janson was a good fit with Sal Buscema. Janson’s scratchy style, liberal use of Zip-a-Tone, and overall “gritty” look was a great match with Frank Miller on Daredevil, that goes without saying, but here I find that those qualities of Janson’s work overpower Buscema’s more cartoony and fluid style. It’s like the Reeses’ commercial about “hey, you got your peanut butter in my chocolate,” without the end result being a tasty Peanut Butter Cup.
Looking back, the thing I dislike the most is the great waste that was Tanya Belinsky. I liked her back in the day but knowing how pointless her membership turned out to be and the misogynistic fate she’s suffered for years. I mean, no one questioned her always staying with the man who destroyed her life and sense of self over and over? It’s worse than the comics never acknowledging Spiral started out as a tortured acquaintance of Longshot or it being ignored that Madeline Pryor chose to become the Goblin Queen in what she believed to be a consequence free dream.
It occurs to me that Valkyrie’s extended imprisonment was one with a recurring theme within Gerber’s oeuvre – characters trapped in some condition in which they were expected to conform and adjust to horrid conditions, whether in cults, schools or prisons, dealt with more extensively in one of Gerber’s last works, Hard Times. Even in Guardians of the Galaxy, after having freed Earth from Badoon dominance, the team felt like outsiders on a planet that was the home of their ancestors but was not a world any of them had been brought up. Of course, it was Vance’s home planet but he was not only two thousand years out of time, but also trapped within the costume that acted as his protective shield, keeping him alive, and once he was no longer focused on beating the Badoon, Gerber appears to have used that as a cause for Vance’s increasingly erratic behavior.
I had not really made the connection up until now, but “the randomness of the universe can be quite disturbing” is both the explicit theme of Elf With a Gun (according to Gerber, albeit well after the fact) and my personal perception of what his Omega the Unknown series (which is being published concurrently) is all about – although for the Omega series I also think that we are meant to think of Jean-Michael Starling as our point of view character as well as the protagonist.
Just a wild thought, but maybe at some level the evident love for that theme that Gerber had at this time period manifested also as a dislike for the way Doctor Strange is anathema to that perspective? After all, it feels like at least half of his participations amount to variations on “I see that something here is not how it should be; let me decree that it will now be proper, because I happen to have the means to”.
I “may” be overthinking it, but it may also be something of a defense mechanism for a period of particular intensity of personal problems. People go through those, you know. And this _is_ a period of considerable turmoil in Marvel, IIRC. Particularly at the editorial level.
What I mean here is that this seemingly clash between the plots that are set up and those that are actually followed on panel is IMO far more relatable and realistic than we usually admit. I can definitely believe that a highly intelligent and powerful inhuman alien such as Nebulon might conceivably go through the trouble of having Plantman available for his plans and simply never use him. For some such as him the conquest (sorry, “salvation”) of Earth may well feel like something of a weekend hobby, where is can’t be expected to feel any duty of committing to every single opportunity or even promise that he may have voiced on the thrill of the moment.
Maybe I am just trying to feel better about not being more disciplined about the online courses that I have taken an interest in at some point or another. What are the odds? This is a rethorical question. Don’t feel pressured to answer. Really, I mean it. Do not.
IIRC, Doctor Strange’s constantly fizzling powers at least are _not_ left unexplained for much longer, although it is fair to say that the explanation won’t be very simple nor very orthodox.
In a way this period of Defenders reminds me of Ann Nocenti’s time as Daredevil’s writer: it is enjoyable if you happen to like the general atmosphere, but don’t come expecting some sort of straightforward, conveniently resolved plot. Certainly not in every issue or even every other issue. Here it is all about the experience of seeing things happen in wildly unexpected ways.
Oh, the joys of having lived through a time when comics were an impulse buy with immediate gratification. 50 years ago people might suspect me insane if I ever attempted to describe the idea of “trade waiting”.
Cover looks familiar I may still have this issue, not sure . Remember nothing of it . Probaly an automtic buying legacy from the early Giffen/Janson run which I enjoyed at the time.
The Porcupine costume looks made of straw to me , more like a scarecrow, that’s an actual strawman argument, by the way. The villains look sub standard, a bit “naff” as we would say in the Uk , overall , I suspect that is part of Gerber’s absurdist approach –
and yes, recently when I ordered my new Crimson Bands of Cyttorak, they were the wrong colour due to a manufacturing fault and I had to return for a full refund.
The use of the C-listers does fit with Nebulon’s self-help program — they are unquestionably bozos.
Years later Mike Barr did a Brave and the Bold where one Professor Wye tries to turn Rainbow Raider and Dr. X (Batman foe) into A-listers with a self-help program. Doesn’t go well.
Nighthawk never looked cooler than when Sal and Klaus were portraying him!