Comics / Comic Reviews / Marvel Comics

The Defenders # 1

By Koppy McFad
December 22, 2011 - 01:00

The Defenders reunite to face some undefined threat.

Dr. Strange, Sub-Mariner, the Silver Surfer and some new additions join forces to fight some threat involving the Hulk in some roundabout fashion.

THE DEFENDERS used to be a rather radical book for Marvel: a 'non-team" made up of all the outsiders among the Marvel superheroes, reluctantly joining forces. Of course, now that Marvel has loners like Spider-Man and Red Hulk as members of about nine different teams, the Defenders need a new raison d'etre to come together. Sadly, the latest attempt to revive the title fails to provide that reason. In fact, it largely fails to provide much of anything.

The Hulk asks Dr. Strange to bring the team together and Strange proceeds to do that..... veeerrrrryy sssllloowwwly. Whole pages are devoted to the team riding a train or whining in the snow. The one action sequence, a fight scene involving Iron Fist, is so flat the reader would not even know it happened unless he read the captions explaining the details. The creative team shows off the characters engaging in casual sex and heavy drinking in an attempt to make them look 'kewl' and edgey. They only end up looking stupid and shallow. Even the 'cliffhanger' ending, with the bad guy revealing himself, has very little excitement and makes very little sense.

The art is lavish and well-illustrated but it is also static and dull and fails to convey any excitement or movement. Maybe that is why they no longer refer to this team as "the Dynamic Defenders."

There have been various attempts to revive the Defenders in recent years. So far, none have been successful. This version may be the most pretentious and least exciting version yet. Maybe we can find Len Wein and Sal Buscema again and just have them do a good rousing story about a fight with the Wrecking Crew.

Rating: 4 /10

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12