Defenders #33 (March, 1976)
Fifty years ago, behind a cover by Gil Kane and Frank Giacoia (and maybe Mike Esposito), the latest chapter of the “Headmen” saga opened upon a sight that was strikingly bizarre, even for this series: Read More
Defenders
Defenders #32 (February, 1976)
Last month, we looked at Defenders #31 — the proper beginning to the multi-part “Headmen/Nebulon” saga which would ultimately prove both the apex and the climax to writer Steve Gerber’s memorable run on this title. As regular readers of this blog will recall, that issue ended with our favorite non-team faced with a major mystery — namely, that the sinister sorcerer who’d just ambushed them in the guise of their teammate Nighthawk had, once handily defeated by Dr. Strange and then unmasked, turned out to actually be Nighthawk.
Of course, we fans knew one important fact still hidden from our heroes, which was that the brain of Nighthawk (aka Kyle Richmond) had been removed and replaced with that of one of the Headmen, Chondu the Mystic. But since brain transplants aren’t something you see every day, even in the Marvel Universe, you can’t blame Nighthawk’s fellow Defenders for looking to more mundane solutions first… like, say, demonic possession. And if that should indeed be the cause for Kyle’s condition, who ya gonna call? Read More
Defenders #31 (January, 1976)
Back in Defenders #21 (Mar., 1975), which was published ten months prior to the comic book we’ll be discussing today, writer Steve Gerber had introduced Marvel Comics readers to a new alliance of would-be world-conquering villains called the Headmen — or, if you prefer, reintroduced them, as all three of these bad guys — Dr. Nagan, Jerry Morgan, and Chondu the Mystic — had been plucked from a trio of one-off, completely unrelated comic book stories of the late 1950’s and early ’60s (recently, and randomly, reprinted together in Weird Wonder Tales #7 [Dec., 1974]), before being set to collectively become a major new adversary for Marvel’s premier non-team. Read More
Defenders #29 (November, 1975)
Back in May we took a look at Defenders #26, which ended with our favorite superhero non-team deciding to join the time-traveling Guardians of the Galaxy back to their home century (the 31st, if you’ve forgotten) in the hope of liberating the people of planet Earth (and its colonies and allies) from the tyranny of the Brotherhood of Badoon. That crusade kicked into high gear with the next issue, Defenders #27, whose cover by Gil Kane and John Romita you can peruse at right.
On second thought, maybe you shouldn’t take too close a look at that cover, as its copy gives away a surprise that wasn’t actually supposed to be revealed until the middle of the next issue, #28. Nice going, editor Len Wein (whose culpability would revealed to the world a few months later, in the letters column of Defenders #30)! Read More
Defenders #26 (August, 1975)
The subject of today’s post is the first of four regular issues of Defenders that guest-starred the original Guardians of the Galaxy. But the storyline actually kicked off in the fifth (and last) issue of the non-team’s other vehicle, Giant-Size Defenders, so you can probably guess what that means — yep, we’ll be taking a look at that one first.
Although, considering that we’ve never really discussed the OG Guardians on the blog prior to this post, and given that GSD #5 represented only their third non-reprint appearance overall at the time it was released, maybe we should look at least briefly at the prior history of the team? Sure, let’s do that. Read More
Defenders #23 (May, 1975)
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. Read More
Defenders #21 (March, 1975)
Fifty years ago this month, the Gil Kane-Klaus Janson cover of Defenders #21 heralded the beginning of a new storyline. But as soon as we readers of the time turned to the comic’s opening splash page — not to mention the double-page spread that followed immediately thereafter — it was clear that although the “A”-plot of the recent three-parter that had wound through two issues of Marvel Two-in-One before concluding in Defenders #20 might indeed have reached its end, the series’ new regular writer, Steve Gerber, was in no way ready to drop the plot element that had driven much of the action of that arc — the mystery behind the past life of the superheroine we knew as Valkyrie… Read More
Defenders #20 (February, 1975)
Art by Jim Starlin (and maybe John Romita).
Art by John Romita (and maybe Tony Mortellaro).
Fifty years ago, in November, 1974, Steve Gerber began his tenure as the regular writer of Marvel Comics’ Defenders series with the very issue we’re discussing here today. But, as we’ve covered in a couple of recent posts, Gerber had already been warming up for his new assignment for several months. In October, he’d scripted the third issue of the “non-team”‘s quarterly vehicle, Giant-Size Defenders, working from a plot by himself, artist Jim Starlin, and incumbent Defenders writer Len Wein. But even beyond that, readers picking up Defenders #20 in November found that they weren’t just buying the first issue of the group’s monthly title to carry Gerber’s name in the credits; rather, they were coming in on the third chapter of a continued storyline that had begun back in August in the pages of another Gerber book, Marvel Two-in-One, which regularly featured the Fantastic Four’s Thing teamed up with a rotating roster of guest stars — in this case, the two Defenders known respectively as Doctor Strange, who’d co-headlined with Ben Grimm in MTiO #6, and the Valkyrie, who’d done the same in MTiO #7. Read More
Giant-Size Defenders #3 (January, 1975)
As we’ve discussed in this space previously, Marvel Comics seems to have been in an almighty rush to get as many “Giant-Size” comics to market as possible in the first half of 1974. Along with a multitude of title, frequency, price, and format changes, most seemingly made on the fly, one likely result of this haste was the release of Giant-Size Defenders #1 in April, 1974 as a mostly-reprint package, its only new content (not counting the Gil Kane-John Romita-Frank Giacoia cover) being a 9-page framing sequence. Written by Tony Isabella and illustrated by Jim Starlin and Al Milgrom, that strip unquestionably looked great, and it read just fine; there simply wasn’t enough of it. Read More
Avengers #129 (November, 1974)
When we last saw the Avengers, it was at the end of Fantastic Four #150 — the second half of a crossover with Avengers #127 in which both of Marvel’s premiere super-teams came together in the Great Refuge of the Inhumans to celebrate the wedding of the one-time FFer Crystal to the inactive Avenger Quicksilver.
The next issue of Avengers, #128, picked up directly from that two-parter’s events, as behind a cover by Gil Kane and John Romita, writer Steve Englehart and artists Sal Buscema and Joe Staton opened with a scene of the Avengers and Fantastic Four arriving together back in New York, via Avengers quintet. (Just why the two groups were now traveling together, when Avengers #127 had clearly established that they’d made the journey to Attilan separately, was never explained. Maybe the FF lent their own ship to the newlyweds for their honeymoon?) Read More