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Post by codystarbuck on Jan 30, 2019 15:30:54 GMT -5
Defenders #106 Apparently, the defenders are under attack by the back cover advertisement...  (The late, great Russ Heath!) Creative Team: JM DeMatteis-writer, Don Perlin, Sal Trapani, Rick Magyar. Jack Abel and Al Milgrom-art, Shelly-Lefferman-letterer, George Roussos-colors, Al Milgrom-edits. That many artists, you know it has to be great! Synopsis: We first have to read Captain America #269, 'cause would we start a Defenders story without beginning it elsewhere? So, over in Cap #268 (written by JDM and drawn by Mike Zeck) the missing Defenders turn up, as prisoners of a new Secret Empire, for whom August Masters is acting.  They are exploiting the telepaths seen in the previous Defenders issue, including kyle's old girlfriend. Steve Rogers gets a summons from the telepaths, checks in with SHIELD and traces the Secret Empire base, where he frees the Defenders. However, Masters threatens to blow the place sky high.  Now, this issue: Dr Strange gets a telepathic message, then calls up Daimon, Beast, and a guest star Daredevil (Matt Murdock was there when the Defenders were kidnapped, after Kyle's court win), who converge in the Sanctum, before heading to investigate. Somewhere, inside a hidden base, in the Colorado Rockies, Masters tells Kyle that the telepaths are a weapon to launch a psychic strike on the USSR and end the Commie Menace, once and for all. Sounds like one of Stan's old generic plots, when Kirby and Ditko weren't around.  The Defenders trace the base and beat up some Romans and infiltrate in disguise. Beast is discovered when he answers roll call, in the place of Gaius Maximus Kowalski (or just Kowalski, as in the issue) and a fight breaks out. Doc finds the control room and does his Jedi mind Trick on a guard and then gets bashed in the head for his trouble. Daimon finds Kyle, who is in a weird trance, then Daimon gets revealed. DD runs into Beast and they release the prisoners. Kyle turns up in the command center, acting under control of the telepaths, who subconsciously rebelled, and he sets off the destruct mechanism. Doc gets everyone out, except Kyle. Cue harps... Thoughts: Um.......................should be better but isn't. It's just kind of .....meh. There is a decent premise; but, it doesn't really come together. Art is serviceable, if unspectacular. Had I seen this on the stands and didn't already have Cap #268, I'd probably put this one back and look for a better comic.
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Post by Rob Allen on Jan 30, 2019 17:31:15 GMT -5
The group of captured telepaths reminds me of the Nexus story with the telepathic decapitated heads. Did this issue come out before or after that Nexus story?
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jan 30, 2019 17:38:12 GMT -5
(...) Kyle turns up in the command center, acting under control of the telepaths, who subconsciously rebelled, and he sets off the destruct mechanism. Doc gets everyone out, except Kyle. Cue harps... Thoughts: Um.......................should be better but isn't. It's just kind of .....meh. There is a decent premise; but, it doesn't really come together. Art is serviceable, if unspectacular. Had I seen this on the stands and didn't already have Cap #268, I'd probably put this one back and look for a better comic. I couldn't believe they offed Nighthawk so casually for such an unimportant story. I liked Nighthawk!!! |
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Post by chaykinstevens on Jan 30, 2019 18:26:01 GMT -5
The group of captured telepaths reminds me of the Nexus story with the telepathic decapitated heads. Did this issue come out before or after that Nexus story? According to GCD, the Heads appeared in Nexus v1 #3, cover dated October 1982. I don't know whether this was their first appearance. Defenders #106 was cover dated April 1982. |
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Post by berkley on Jan 30, 2019 18:51:22 GMT -5
(...) Kyle turns up in the command center, acting under control of the telepaths, who subconsciously rebelled, and he sets off the destruct mechanism. Doc gets everyone out, except Kyle. Cue harps... Thoughts: Um.......................should be better but isn't. It's just kind of .....meh. There is a decent premise; but, it doesn't really come together. Art is serviceable, if unspectacular. Had I seen this on the stands and didn't already have Cap #268, I'd probably put this one back and look for a better comic. I couldn't believe they offed Nighthawk so casually for such an unimportant story. I liked Nighthawk!!! So that's what happened to Nighthawk. Always wondered why he wasn't around any more. Yeah, you'd think they'd have made more of a big deal of his death, if they thought it was so necessary to kill him off. Even though he might not have been an "important" - as in popular or commercially valuable - character in the MU at large, he certainly was an important member of the Defenders. And yes, comics characters can always be brought back from death, but that's besides the point. |
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Post by Rob Allen on Jan 31, 2019 1:53:27 GMT -5
The group of captured telepaths reminds me of the Nexus story with the telepathic decapitated heads. Did this issue come out before or after that Nexus story? According to GCD, the Heads appeared in Nexus v1 #3, cover dated October 1982. I don't know whether this was their first appearance. Defenders #106 was cover dated April 1982. Thanks for the info! I guess it's remotely possible that Mike Baron read this issue and immediately put his spin on the idea of capturing telepaths and linking them together. |
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Post by brutalis on Jan 31, 2019 7:38:13 GMT -5
(...) Kyle turns up in the command center, acting under control of the telepaths, who subconsciously rebelled, and he sets off the destruct mechanism. Doc gets everyone out, except Kyle. Cue harps... Thoughts: Um.......................should be better but isn't. It's just kind of .....meh. There is a decent premise; but, it doesn't really come together. Art is serviceable, if unspectacular. Had I seen this on the stands and didn't already have Cap #268, I'd probably put this one back and look for a better comic. I couldn't believe they offed Nighthawk so casually for such an unimportant story. I liked Nighthawk!!! Nighthawk had so much potential being the Marvel Batman but the writers seemed to not care about Kyle at all. He started as such a bright spot in the team and little by little each writer in Defenders broke him as a character a bit more until he is crippled and dies on a low point barely noted without any fanfare. I REALLY liked Nighthawk and his costume was pure 70's visual greatness. I liked the "swashbuckler" style Kyle who stepped away from villainy as a Squadron member becoming a dashing/heroic flying fighter of injustice. Maybe if he had ever received a mini-series or monthly from a writer who wanted to do greater things with him then he might have become a bigger name. |
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Post by badwolf on Jan 31, 2019 13:15:11 GMT -5
There is more to the Nighthawk story coming up... I found it a bit confusing as a kid.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jan 31, 2019 16:04:47 GMT -5
Defenders #107 Creative Team: JDM and Don Perlin; Sal Trapani, Mike Esposito, Chic Stone and Al Milgrom on art, Leferman and Roussos, Milgrom and Shooter. Too many artists spoil the sequential narrative, to adapt a phrase. Synopsis: The newly freed and saved Defenders (and Cap and DD) are realizing that Kyle didn't make it and Cap gives one of his speeches, which sets Patsy off. She considers it cold, in light of how well they knew Kyle. Then she spots Daimon, who was still in Hell, last she knew. They head out to go mourn, when one of the Roman dudes pops out of a manhole and shoots a straggling Val, in the back (bushwhackin' sidewinder!)...  Beast loses his s@#$ and kicks the guy into the next county. Patsy wails, as now Val is dead. The scene shifts to the brownstone that Kyle bought for everyone and Patsy is still railing at the injustice of things, as Beast and Daimon offer her comfort. It then shifts to upstate New York, where heroes gather to light an eternal flame in honor of Kyle and Val. Even Hulk turns up and various Avengers and former Defenders...  Back at the brownstone, Patsy sees Val's ghost. She freaks out and thinks she has gone bonkers. We cut to Asgard, where Amora asks Karnilla, Queen of the Norns, about the whereabouts of the Rose of Purity, a flower she needs for a spell. Karnilla first says, "Step off, b!@#$!", but, soon gives in when Amora selects the correct magic word....."Please?" She is shown the way and magics to anther dimension, where she meets up with a faceless, robed figure. Back in NYC, the heroes return for the wake and see Val's ghost. Daimon holds a seance over Dragonfang and Val's spirit appears and retcons, yet again, what happened to her form and we find out that she is alive and held prisoner, by Amora. Speak of the devil, as she shows up and tells the defenders to do her bidding or Val gets it, in finest Alexis carrington tones. Thoughts: Patsy is living up to her name as she is hissing at everyone. We get Thor, Spidey, Hawkeye, Luke Cage, Namor and Surfer joining the Defenders, Cap, Beast and DD, which is really jamming things up. The sheer number of artists involved prevents this from having much visual flair. Not sure why so many hands were needed, for two issues in a row. If deadlines were that bad, someone should have been fired. May have been due to number of characters or some other mess; but, it doesn't do much for the story.
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Post by beccabear67 on Jan 31, 2019 16:16:34 GMT -5
Filling in some blanks as I didn't really become an every issue regular Defenders reader until #123 (Beast, Iceman, The Scarlet Witch and The Vision appearing grabbed me).
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Post by codystarbuck on Jan 31, 2019 16:16:41 GMT -5
Defenders #108 Creative Team:Same, with Joe Sinnott and Hillary Barta replacing Esposito and Stone. Synopsis: Basically, Val's spirit inhabits Dragonfang, to free her, the Defenders have to nab the Rose of Purity, Enchantress has brought back Love, the faceless figure. Patsy balks at killing the rose, and the guys stop short of beating up a god and then turn the tables on Enchantress. Love frees Val and takes Barbara Norriss' soul to its final resting place. By the end, Val is pissed!  Thoughts: Lot of exposition and retcon, as we see how Enchantress first trapped Brunnhilde, Val's true self. The whole thing ends up like Dynasty or any other soap opera, with Enchantress in the Joan Collins or Ruth Warrick (Phoebe Tyler, on All My Children and Mrs Kane, in Citizen Kane) role. The art looks really crappy, with a lot of styles at odds.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jan 31, 2019 16:41:39 GMT -5
Defenders #109 Creative Team: The rest of the artists are gone, leaving Perlin & Sinnott; everyone else remains. Synopsis: Val and Amora face off and Dr Strange becomes acting commissioner, as he decrees that their fight will be a cage match, surrounding them in a mystical Thunderdome. Doc and the gang handle Amora's hench-demons while Val kicks ass. Ultimately, Enchantress' soul is sealed within the same crystal and left in Doc's care. However, Namor, Damon and Hulk have disappeared. Val goes and confronts Odin, about leaving her in Amora's care, for so long. he makes excuses about Celestials and other happenings, from the pages of Thor and asks for forgiveness and Val makes nice...  Doc & Patsy return home, where Patsy finally starts grieving and is convinced by Dolly that Satan lied about being her father, and she heads off to find the truth, while saying goodbye to Kyle's memory. Doc goes in search of the MIAs and ends up in another dimension, where he finds the ang, plus a surprise...  Thoughts: Better recovery from the previous mess, especially artistically. It's still kind of bland; but, looks much better than when drawn by 5 pairs of hands. Lots of emotional stuff in the issue, which works better than the action.
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Post by badwolf on Jan 31, 2019 23:56:39 GMT -5
Filling in some blanks as I didn't really become an every issue regular Defenders reader until #123 (Beast, Iceman, The Scarlet Witch and The Vision appearing grabbed me). If I hadn't already been a regular reader, the cover would have grabbed me... |
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Post by berkley on Feb 1, 2019 3:10:09 GMT -5
Was there some interplay of any kind with Thor's own comic at the time? What was going on with the Thor book back then anyway?
From comics.org, I see that that was the Moench era but for some reason I was no longer following the series, even though Moench was a favourite writer and I had been reading it steadily through Roy Thomas's Ring and Celestials epics. Maybe it was just part of my general and growing disappointment with Marvel's product around then. I might go back and look at them sometime, though - I see Pollard and Gene Day were still doing the artwork, on some issues anyway.
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Post by badwolf on Feb 1, 2019 13:28:07 GMT -5
Was there some interplay of any kind with Thor's own comic at the time? What was going on with the Thor book back then anyway? From comics.org, I see that that was the Moench era but for some reason I was no longer following the series, even though Moench was a favourite writer and I had been reading it steadily through Roy Thomas's Ring and Celestials epics. Maybe it was just part of my general and growing disappointment with Marvel's product around then. I might go back and look at them sometime, though - I see Pollard and Gene Day were still doing the artwork, on some issues anyway. Not that I can recall. When Moondragon joins the team later on, it follows on from her punishment for what she did to Thor in the Avengers series, though. |
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