Dr Strange Sorcerer Supreme 13 - Acts of Vengeance

The final Dr Strange issue of the crossover is once again divided in two.

Dr Strange: Sorcerer Supreme #13

Writer: Roy Thomas (all)
Writer: Dann Thomas (main)
Writers: Jean-Marc Lofficier and Randy Lofficier (back-up)
Artist: Jackson Guice (main)
Artists: David Day and Dan Day (back-up)
Lettering: Janice Chiang and Michael Heisler (main)
Lettering: Joe Rosen (back-up)
Colours: Max Scheele  Tom Vincent (all)
Assistant Editor: Mike Rockwitz
Editor: Ralph Macchio
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

The back-up story is a further chapter from "The Book of the Vishanti", continuing the story of the Darkhold and the Montesis guarding it, along with the rise of both the Ancient One and Dracula. It feels a more coherent piece than the previous chapter, not least because of the easily recognisable elements of the existing mythology.

The lead story follows on from the previous issue and sees the Enchantress force Arkon, the ruler from another dimension, to attack Doctor Strange. Arkon is additionally motivated by a desire to make Clea his queen, allowing him to add the Dark Dimension to his realms as well. This leads to a somewhat unlikely hand to hand duel with Doctor Strange, who has never been much of a physical fighter and although his survival is explained at the end it just seems bizarre that he would ever agree to such a fight. Much of this issue, and indeed the previous one, has focused on the strength of the relationship between Stephen and his wife Clea even though they are usually dimensions apart. Each faces an alternate admirer of a kind and each rushes to the defence of the other in their own ways.

Arkon's motivations are also easily understood - he's two stages removed from the central "Acts of Vengeance" conspiracy and thus isn't motivated by that at all but rather simply by the fact the Enchantress has stolen his thunderbolts that can get him home. Still it solves the general problem of finding foes who can present a sufficiently powerful challenge to Doctor Strange and at the same time come under the direction of a conspiracy of distinctly mortal villains.

Overall this is an uptick after the previous issue but not the most dynamic and there's increasingly a sense that this is a series that wants to hurry up and finish its part in the crossover and then get back to telling its own stories. It's a reminder that with such a sweeping event not every creator is always enthusiastic all of the time.

Dr Strange Sorcerer Supreme #13 has been reprinted in:

• Acts of Vengeance Crossovers Omnibus (2011)

Dr Strange Sorcerer Supreme 12 - Acts of Vengeance

One of the unfortunate things about this sort of crossover is that it's often better to read several issues of a particular title in close proximity rather than leaping backwards and forwards. Just about every order I've seen for "Acts of Vengeance" does this for at least some issues.

Dr Strange: Sorcerer Supreme #12

Writer: Roy Thomas (all)
Writer: Dann Thomas (main)
Writers: Jean-Marc Lofficier and Randy Lofficier (back-up)
Artist: Jackson Guice (main)
Artists: David Day and Dan Day,
Lettering: Janice Chiang (main)
Lettering: Joe Rosen (back-up)
Colours: Gregory Wright (all)
Assistant Editor: Mike Rockwitz
Editor: Ralph Macchio
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

Once again, we have an issue of the series with the cover lacking the full title. And once again we have a breach of the crossover's premise, as Doctor Strange has encountered the Enchantress before and acknowledges it. (For those wondering where, they clashed in Defenders #4, which introduced the Valkyrie, and again in Defenders #107 to #109, which set out to untangle the mess of the Valkyrie's continuity.) With Doctor Strange having been the anchor for the original Defenders, who in turn battled many a magical and mythical entity, it does become a problem finding existing villains on his power level who can be sent against him for the first time.

The story itself is pretty straightforward, with the Enchantress seeking to seduce Doctor Strange to steal his magic but Strange's disciple Rintrah does everything he can to protect his master. The Enchantress's motives are believable and she's often been shown to partake in various mortal criminal endeavours (most notably the Masters of Evil) when she can secure her own ends in the process. The presence of the Executioner may surprise many as he had died by this point, but a suitable explanation is given. Otherwise this is a relatively quick character piece that helps develop both Rintrah and Clea, Strange's wife, without doing too much wider in the broad scheme of things.

There's also a back-up story, another chapter of "The Book of the Vishanti", telling here how the Darkhold scrolls came under the protection of the Roman Catholic Church and specifically the Montesi dynasty. It's not as compelling as the previous chapter and on the last few pages the story seems to realise its dullness so resorts to recapping how the Darkhold contains the spells that could clear the Earth of all vampires for good and how the latter tried to get hold of it.

All in all this a rather dull entry in the overall crossover and suggests that perhaps not every issue of every month needed to be given over to it (and indeed we'll see some series which only have one or two entries). The fact that it resorts to a villain Strange has encountered before just adds to the padding nature of it.

Dr Strange Sorcerer Supreme #12 has been reprinted in:

• Acts of Vengeance Crossovers Omnibus (2011)

Dr Strange Sorcerer Supreme 11 - Acts of Vengeance

The title on the cover of this issue is a little confusing as the phrase "Sorcerer Supreme" is missing; nevertheless this is part of the series's full title (and hence causes a lot of confusion for people trying to navigate the various different Doctor Strange series). Back in the day further confusion was caused by this series being a direct market only one, allowing it a higher price tag, artwork right up to the edges and fewer adverts, but at the cost of a lesser prominence. In universe, the lead character would no doubt like such a lower profile.

Dr Strange: Sorcerer Supreme #11

Writer: Roy Thomas (all)
Writer: Dann Thomas (main)
Writers: Jean-Marc Lofficier and Randy Lofficier (back-up)
Artist: Jackson Guice (main)
Artists: David Day and Dan Day,
Lettering: Janice Chiang (main)
Lettering: Joe Rosen (back-up)
Colours: Tom Vincent (all)
Assistant Editor: Mike Rockwitz
Editor: Ralph Macchio
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

The issue focuses on Doctor Strange first trying to deal with the consequences of his younger brother having become a vampire, including a flashback detailing Stephen's dirty secret about how he neglected his family, leading to Victor's death. The problem is that this is a very awkward addition to the hero's backstory. As he himself admits, the accident that killed his brother didn't lead him to remorse about his attitude, and instead he paid to have his brother's body cryogenically preserved, paid for by a trust fund that wasn't affected by his later descent into alcoholism. The idea that a top surgeon would put his faith in the possibility his brother could one day be brought back to life, or even just pretend as a way to avoid his guilt, doesn't ring true. Nor does the idea that Stephen was careful enough with his finances to ring-fence the arrangements to keep Victor on ice, yet drank everything else away after the accident that ruined his hands. The result is a bodged continuity implant that in the long run can only really be justified if something sufficiently interesting is done with Victor.

The other part of the story focuses on a sensational biography of Doctor Strange recently written by Morgana Blessing, leading to both author and subject winding up on a late evening chat show with Strange hoping to be dismissed as a fake and have the attention disappear. The tactics of the show in getting both guests onto the set are somewhat dubious as is the instant publicity, but this is the hook to draw in the villain of the piece, the Hobgoblin. This is the second Hobgoblin, widely dismissed by other characters, writers and readers as a joke sullying the Goblin legacy, and recently he received a curious power upgrade during "Inferno" when he was given demonic powers that also transformed his appearance. As a result he is now a stronger match for the magician than the latter assumes, able to evade a number of the spells. However he's true to his mercenary roots, having been sent by Doctor Doom to dispose of Strange, and the resulting battle feels more balanced than it might otherwise have been. It also has some consequences for the fall out from Blessing's biography. As a result the wider crossover easily fits into the ongoing flow of events without any significant disruption to the ongoing flow of the series, instead enhancing it.

There's also a back-up story, "The Book of the Vishanti: The Curse of the Darkhold Part III - Dawn of Blood". This is another piece of mythology building and refining that explains some of the key mystical forces and books through the ages. It's a decent piece but, as is often the case with these sorts of back-ups, it has no bearing on the main strip.

Dr Strange Sorcerer Supreme #11 has been reprinted in:

• Acts of Vengeance Crossovers Omnibus (2011)

Essential Doctor Strange volume 4

Essential Doctor Strange volume 4 is made up of issues #30-56 plus Man-Thing (volume 2) #4 and a story from Chamber of Chills #4. The writing is mainly by Roger Stern and Chris Claremont with contributions by Don McGregor, Ralph Macchio, Bill Kunkel, David Michelinie and J.M DeMatteis. The art is mostly by Tom Sutton, Gene Colan and Marshall Rogers with contributions by Ricardo Villamonte, Alan Kupperberg, Kerry Gammill, Paul Smith, Brent Anderson and Michael Golden. The Man-Thing issue is written by Claremont and drawn by Don Perlin whilst the Chamber of Chills story is written by Gardner Fox and drawn by Howard Chaykin. And yes, a separate post is needed for some of the labels. A bonus is a 1981 house ad for the series announcing the creative team as Roger Stern and Frank Miller but the latter doesn't seem to have made it to the title.

As always this is a difficult series to write and generate excitement about. There have been periods in the character's history when a creator has successfully grasped Doctor Strange and managed to make the elements work in such a way to produce a grand tapestry that has a real buzz to it. And there are other periods when the title wanders from writer to writer in a search for something to do. Unfortunately this volume exclusively covers the latter period. Both Roger Stern and Chris Claremont are highly successful writers with much acclaim for their work elsewhere, yet here they join the long list of creators who have tried and failed with the character. It's a wonder that this series lasted so long, especially considering it was bimonthly for the entire of the period covered here (and would stay so for the rest of the title's run, lasting long enough to generate the contents for a fifth volume). Some of the art is quite spectacular, and the reproduction is especially sharp, particularly in reproducing nuanced greys that help to distinguish astral forms from the solid. But the overall narrative is dull and so consequently this is the weakest of all the Doctor Strange Essentials if not one of the dullest in the whole Essential series.

That's not to say there aren't attempts to build something big, starting with a protracted saga involving the Dweller in Darkness that brings in some new lesser villains such as the mystic Alaric and the Dream Weaver, as well as pre-existing foes such as Ningal and D'Spayre. There's also a team-up with Namor the Sub-Mariner and another with the adventurer Murdoch Adams, whose sole previous appearance in Chamber of Chills is reprinted here in order to establish both him and his longstanding foe, the demon Ludi. The ending is awkward with the Dweller declaring victory as he has succeeded in making Doctor Strange doubt his abilities. It might have been followed up on but the arrival of a new writer immediately takes the series in a different direction.

One storyline sees Baron Mordo return as he seeks to destroy the Earth by opening Chaos Gates near the Nexus of All Realities located in the Florida swamps. En route he turns Stephen's old colleague Julian Phyffe into Azrael, a demon with the power to rapidly age people and things to death. The story leads to a crossover with Man-Thing, who sacrifices his chance of being restored by Mordo to human form to save the day and not even Stephen's magic can deliver the deserved reward. Meanwhile Clea and Wong have been captured and taken to another dimension populated by barbarians and wizards where Wong's ancestor's actions have led to the state of this world, including the transformation of the Princess Shialmar into the Shadowqueen. It's a tale of longstanding vengeance that helps to add to Wong's character but it's also a trip into the realm of sword and sorcery long after the fad had passed.

There are some lighter tales as well, including one in which Doctor Strange has to handle a nosy journalist who soon learns the importance of Stephen's work or an encounter with a demon at a highly traditionalist North Carolina university founded by the man who captured a bell that could summon the demon. The result sees a shattering of the traditionalist policies as the students start challenging them. Doctor Strange also teams up with Brother Voodoo to free the latter's brother's spirit from Damballah; the adventure also serves to underline the differences between the two heroes.

The volume sees Clea go through a cycle of uncertainty and doubt to advancement and optimism about her position with Stephen. Their relationship is developing strongly but she is unsure about her effectiveness as a disciple, often needing to be rescued by him. And her doubts are not helped by the return of various women from his past including Victoria Bentley and the previously unseen Madeleine St. Germaine, who under different circumstances might have ended up marrying Stephen years before. More troubling for her is Morganna Blessing, a writer in whom Clea detects great romantic feelings for Stephen. A pair of epics with Baron Mordo, Dormammu and Nightmare establishes that Morganna has been reincarnated multiple times throughout history. Stephen encounters several of Morganna's previous incarnations first as he pursues his foes through time to wartime Britain where Mordo has been manipulated by his grandfather and Dormammu as part of a scheme to bring the latter to Earth in the past. In battling this and encountering Sergeant Fury and his Howling Commandos, Stephen discovers that Morganna is a reincarnation of nurse Lady Pamela Hawley, Nick Fury's wartime girlfriend. Later as Stephen travels back through time in pursuit of a portion of Morganna's soul that has become detached and threatens human history and the realm of Nightmare. In the course of this he encounters further incarnations of Morganna and thus by predestination he creates the bond between them.

Doctor Strange's quest finally ends in Ancient Egypt as he finds himself caught up in the events of the Fantastic Four's visit to the kingdom of Rama-Tut way back in the earliest days of their title. There is no direct interaction between them and Stephen, whose body is captured and so has to spend most of the issue in his invisible astral form, with the result that early Marvel history isn't altered in any way. However Stephen's actions in focusing the sun upon the Thing are now the reason for the latter suddenly reverting to his human form at the oar of a galley, a moment of plot convenience in the original story that could have been simply dismissed as just a typical piece of Silver Age logic. But since neither Ancient Egypt nor Rama-Tut (better known as Kang and Immortus) have been significant forces in Doctor Strange's adventures, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that this setting was chosen simply for the opportunity to retcon away Ben's reversion and reduce the perceived silliness of the Silver Age. There is frankly no need to constantly revisit the Silver Age and tinker with the stories in order to explain away the odder plot elements, and it's certainly not a priority for Doctor Strange to be running around clearing up incidents from the Fantastic Four.

Eventually Clea decides that as a being from another dimension she is unsuited to be the disciple of the Sorcerer Supreme and that she should not stand in the way of another's feelings and so opts to return to the Dark Dimension to lead a band of rebels. This throws Stephen into a prolonged despair, moping around his house for a while including time to work off a standby fill-in issue featuring the couple that would otherwise no longer be useable in an emergency. (At seventeen pages it's also now too short as the series, and regular Marvel titles in general, had recently increased to twenty-two story pages, but this allows space for a longer framing sequence than usual.) He is then subject to an attack by D'Spayre that throws him into a succession of ever more bizarre realms in which first he died in the car crash and then he is just a fictional character in comics created by "Ted Tevoski" and "Les Tane". It's a crisis that also serves as an opportunity for Stephen to come to terms with his place in the universe and begin to move on. The final issue in the volume sees him back on form as he faces down three of Mordo's former demons who seek to invade the Sanctum Sanctorum under the guise of being a film crew for an interview conducted by Morganna. We get a recapping of the origin and also the potential starting of something as he and Morganna agree to start as friends and see how things develop.

There are a few other developments to the supporting cast with Wong given an ancestor in the form of Kan, a warrior monk whose actions in defeating the Wizard Kings have led to each successive generation of the family seeking to atone through serving mystics. The household staff is expanded with the introduction of neighbour Sara Wolfe who finds herself stuck in the house for a protracted period and ends up sorting out Stephen's bills, leading to her accepting the job of Business Manager and Social Secretary. She is the great-granddaughter of a Cheyenne shaman but her role in the series is limited to providing personal and business support, with the occasional humorous moment such as her attempts to declares items like Eye of Newt as a tax deductible expense. There is, however, a hint that something could develop between her and Wong in the long run.

Just occasionally there are unusual experiments in storytelling, with issue #53's summation of previous events being delivered by Gnit, an annoying beast that is literally the nightmare of Nightmare, who thus cannot dispose of it whilst his realm is threatened. It's a change from the usual dwelling upon a key character's thoughts and makes for a bit of comedy at an otherwise deeply serious time.

Beyond the inexplicable detour into the events of an old issue of Fantastic Four there are no individual issues in this volume that stand out as real stinkers. But as a whole it's just slow and stilted, showing how difficult it is to make this series exciting. It may avoid overusing the same villains again and again and it's not really retreading old ground but at the same time it all feels like it's going through the motions. All creators have their weaker moments and this is most definitely some of those.

Essential Doctor Strange volume 3

Essential Doctor Strange volume 3 collects issues #1-29 of his second series plus Annual #1 and the crossover issues of Tomb of Dracula #44-45. Bonus material includes Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe entries for Doctor Strange, his Sanctum Sanctorum, Eternity and Dormammu, plus a pin-up of Doctor Strange and Dracula from a Marvel calendar and an extra page used in a previous reprint of Tomb of Dracula #45. Most issues are written by Steve Englehart with shorter runs by Marv Wolfman, Jim Starlin and Roger Stern, and individual writing or plotting contributions by Frank Brunner and Roy Thomas. The art sees runs by Frank Brunner, Gene Colan and, right at the end, Tom Sutton, plus other contributions by Alan Weiss, Alfredo P. Alcala, Rudy Nebres, Dan Adkins, Jim Starlin and Al Milgrom. One issue sees a framing sequence around a reprint of Strange Tales #126-127 drawn by Steve Ditko and scripted by Stan Lee. The annual is written by Englehart and co-plotted & drawn by P. Craig Russell whilst the Tomb of Dracula issues are written by Wolfman and drawn by Colan. That's a lot of creators so there's a separate post for some of the labels.

Doctor Strange is a character and series that a lot of writers have struggled with over the years. Some seem to have very little idea as to what to do with the character beyond yet more rounds of battles with the likes of Baron Mordo, Dormammu, Nightmare and other foes from the original stories along with yet more encounters with Eternity for the sake of it, continuing to wallow in the legacy of Steve Ditko and Stan Lee but only really offering more homages of the same old. Others try to ignore all those elements and instead thrust the good doctor into new environments, taking him away from all of that but again it can be ultimately unsatisfying. Part of the problem is the lack of clarity around Doctor Strange's powers with his power level especially volatile to the point that stories can be resolved with deus ex machina endings. It's unsurprising to find that in this volume there are multiple attempts to contain his power, whether by temporarily depowering him whilst in a specific environment or else overtly trimming his wings when he gives up the role of Sorcerer Supreme, although he gets it back later on under a new writer.

The early issues do a lot for the mythology with the introduction of Silver Dagger, the fanatical ex-Cardinal who has become on of Doctor Strange's most recurring of foes, but otherwise we get an epic retread of familiar themes. But there's a real effort to build on what has come before rather than merely retelling the same kind of adventures. There's a return of Dormammu but as a reincarnation no longer bound by his previous vow to spare Earth and so opening up new dangers. At the same time we learn a great deal more about the Dark Dimension including the revelation that Clea is the daughter of Umar and Orini, and thus the true heir to the throne. Elsewhere Doctor Strange is thrust into the Orb of Agamotto and into the realm where he encounters Agamotto himself. (Although he is not yet explicitly named but it's pretty clear who this giant caterpillar is meant to be.)

There's a growth in the cosmic elements and a willingness to both define and shake up the universe, seen most obviously in the encounter with the personification of Death. Here the entity is presented as male though the female presentation would subsequently come to be the norm. Death and Eternity are now set out as the two fundamental forces in the universe, marking the very brief start to attempts to rationalise the many different seemingly all powerful cosmic entities who have shown up in Marvel comics over the years. Such is the boldness on the cosmic scale that the end of issue #12 sees the Earth itself destroyed by Mordo's madness. And it isn't an illusion or reversed but instead the planet is recreated by Eternity, with accelerated evolution to restore it to the exact moment. However Doctor Strange has to live with the knowledge of what happened, that everyone around him is a duplicate whilst he is the sole survivor of the original planet.

It's surprising just how close to modern religion this run gets. There's explicit acknowledgement of God and where He sits in the cosmic hierarchy with Eternity clearly below him. Later Doctor Strange battles a being who is presented explicitly as Satan. Although he acknowledges other names such as "Lucifer", "Mephistopheles", "Beelzebub" and "Old Nick", there is nothing here to suggest that he is in fact one of the many demons. Truly the Devil is the most inconsistently portrayed character in the Marvel universe.

One of the recurring themes sees Doctor Strange thrust into a variety of worlds in which he encounters aspects of himself and/or his life. One of the most memorable comes in a realm populated by duplicates of Stephen though the ruler is masked. And it seems Steve Englehart's hostility to Richard Nixon continued unabated even a year after the resignation because the ruler is hiding behind a Richard Nixon mask.

This mixture of the fantastic and the personal works well with some good development of Clea. She and Stephen demonstrate a mixture of uncertainty and disagreement over exactly what their relationship is, though given the age of these issues it's surprising that they're all but actually showing us the couple sleeping together. (For that matter the flashback depicting the one night stand between Clea's parents, Orini and Umar, is also quite close to explicit.) The two aren't always on the same wavelength about when they are being master and disciple and when they are a couple, leading to some unfortunate moments. Clea's insecurities are played on by a number of beings, and ultimately she is subjected to a spell by Xander that leaves her amnesiac and angry, attacking even Doctor Strange. Although the spell is short-lived and Clea soon returns to Stephen's side, it's clear by the end of the volume that there are still issues to resolve.

The United States's bicentennial is marked with an aborted saga called "the Occult History of America" in which Doctor Strange and Clea travel through the nation's history to investigate Sir Francis Bacon's New Atlantis. In the course of the journey they encounter Stygyro, who is presented as the perfect contrast to Strange, being a long-lived and powerful sorcerer from a previous era, travelling across the ages and even seducing Clea whilst in the form of Benjamin Franklin. Unfortunately both the saga and Stygyro fall victim to changing writers, with the Occult History hurriedly abandoned whilst Stygyro later turns up as one of the Creators. The Creators are the main focus of the rear of the volume as they and their agent Xander work to undermine Doctor Strange, even manipulating him into decisions that remove the Sorcerer Supreme title from him. They are a group of sorcerers working with the In-Betweener to reform the universe through the odd method of swapping places with the stars and remoulding the now human stars in their own image. At one stage the Earth has become a place occupied by anthropomorphic animals, including the boar Doctor Stranger Yet who provides for an interesting confrontation between the two counterparts. The epic climaxes in a showdown with the In-Betweener at the Wheel of Change.

The annual serves as a side-step from this storyline as Doctor Strange hunts for Clea but gets dragged into a power struggle in the realm known as Phaseworld, where the Empress Lectra battles both her sister Phaydra and the angel Tempus. However the revelation of Lectra's lies and illusions in luring Stephen ultimately result in the destruction of the whole realm and all who live within it. It's a curious little tale but ultimately it doesn't amount to much and it's easy to see why it would later be rewritten as the 1990s one-shot Doctor Strange: What is it that Disturbs You Stephen?

The crossover with Tomb of Dracula may be significant in the long run for the first interaction between the two lead characters but here it feels like a step out of the comfort zone and into a crossover for the sake of a crossover. It doesn't add much to either series and feels like it was done just to boost sales on the weaker selling title, though I'm not sure which one that was.

This run shows a few deadline problems that led to reprints; oddly both of the original stories are included in full here. In issue #3 Doctor Strange is on a journey through the Orb of Agamotto to confront Death and remembers the events of how he first met Clea and Dormammu. Here there's a brief framing sequence to tie things together, with the final page combining both modern and classic material so it would have been hard to present just the frame as sometimes happens when the Essentials come to a reprint issue. Still it's a surprise and delight to see a Ditko-Lee story again even if the contrast between the original artwork and the-then modern style is all too clear. Issue #21 sees a reprint of "The Coming of... Dr. Strange" from issue #169 of the previous series. It's odd that it's included here as the story is presented straight up as a reprint without any effort to incorporate it into the ongoing narrative. Due to a reduced page count a bit of the story has had to be trimmed and, using volume 2 side by side with volume 3, it's possible to compare the two to see what has been change. Most of the loss is in individual pages but occasionally two pages have been cut up to produce one condensed version. As the most substantial version of Doctor Strange's origin to date it's easy to see why it was chosen but it's harder to understand why it was included in this reprint volume unless someone in production failed to spot it was a reprint until it was too late.

Another issue that feels like a deadline problem is #29 which carries a team-up with Nighthawk as they battle Death-Stalker, the old foe of Daredevil. The whole thing feels odd and a little out of place in the run despite being by the regular creative team. Either this was an attempt by a newish writer to go in a different direction from before or else it was prepared as an emergency standby that could fill-in a gap in either this series or the Defenders. Either way it's a rather unsatisfactory ending to it all.

Overall this volume is solid but not always the strongest. The first two thirds show a good attempt to combine the traditional Doctor Strange mythology with some new elements and new takes on the existing ones, and it broadly works to make the series interesting. However there's still some repetition of themes and it continues in the last third of the volume which shows all the signs of multiple writers struggling with the situation they have inherited, with some going in a clearly different direction from what was previously planned, and the result is an unsatisfactory mess. Doctor Strange is a tricky series to get right so it's a pity when such periods don't last for longer.

Essential Man-Thing volume 2

Okay let's deal with the usual laughter straight away. This volume contains more Giant-Size Man-Things. Pause for laughter.

[Lengthy pause.]

Essential Man-Thing volume 2 contains issues #15 to #22 of the character's first series, the complete #1 to #11 of his second, Giant-Size Man-Thing #3 to #5, plus what may be a leftover issue from the first series run in Rampaging Hulk #7, wilderness years appearances from Marvel Team-Up #68 and Marvel Two-in-One #43 and a crossover from Doctor Strange #41. That's a lot of issues so here go the credits. All the issues from the first series are written by Steve Gerber and drawn mainly by Jim Mooney with individual issues by John Buscema and Rico Rival. The Giant-Sizes are from this period and all are written by Gerber and drawn by Alfredo Alcala, Ed Hannigan and Ron Wilson. The Rampaging Hulk issue is written by Gerber and drawn by Jim Starlin. The second series is written first by Michael Fleisher and then by Chris Claremont, with one issue by Dickie McKenzie and a short back-up story in another by J.M. DeMatteis. The art is mainly by Jim Mooney then Don Perlin with individual issues by Larry Hama and Val Mayerik and the back-up by Ed Hannigan. The Marvel Team-Up is written by Claremont and drawn by John Byrne, the Marvel Two-in-One is written by Ralph Macchio and drawn by Byrne "& Friends", and the Doctor Strange issue is written by Claremont and drawn by Gene Colan. That's an awful lot of labels so naturally some have been put in a separate post.

The first series ends with leaps between the sword and sorcery fantasy that the title has often experimented with to the down to earth social commentary that Steve Gerber is more normally associated with. I've never really felt the former style is a good match with the Man-Thing and the material here continues to confirm that view, though it's less of a struggle to get through compared to the first volume. This one kicks off with a Giant-Size Man-Thing with a battle to liberate the homeworld of Korrek the barbarian from the sorcerer Klonus. In the process Dakimh is killed but the world is liberated.

The sword and sorcery is then put aside for a number of issues that instead deal with social commentary about changes in society and those who seek to resist them, starting with a tale of Sainte-Cloud, an ex-girlfriend of Ted Sallis's who persuaded him to move into more values based research. Using a hallucinogenic candle carved in the shape of the Man-Thing she seeks inspiration for her writing, leading to events becoming more real than they seem. Then there's the introduction of the Mad Viking, a forcibly retired man disgusted at what he sees as a decline in masculinity so he adopts a costume in commemoration of their perceived manliness and launches a crusade against modern "wussy" men, including slaughtering a rock singer and many of his groupies. Meanwhile a school pupil has died and his friend is about to publish his diary, revealing his loneliness and misery at the hands of bullies both at school, including on the staff, and in his family for being different and fat. The Man-Thing gets caught in the confrontations and burns the school coach to death. These events spark terror in Citrusville and a house wife decides the problem is rooted in what is taught in schools, having glanced at a text book and panicking that it discusses Communism and sex education. The result is a book burning riot outside the school where the Mad Viking is so blinded that when his granddaughter tries to stand up for the freedom of the young to make their own choices in life, he hits her so hard she falls and cracks her head, dying.

Rory has been a rare voice of reason in the town, for which he gets the sack from his radio station job, and he leaves in disgust, taking with him Carol Selby, the daughter of the town's Mary Whitehouse, and the Man-Thing, who thanks to an extended dip in chemicals is now able to move away from the swamp. The last few issues see a move to Atlanta for a more magical storyline, with Rory written out when he discovers Carol is underage, making him legally a kidnapper. She is injured in a car accident and returned home whilst Rory is arrested, leaving the Man-Thing alone for the end of the run.

Issue #22 marks the end of Steve Gerber's run on the title, a point acknowledged in the strip, and also for the series itself, which is not acknowledged in the strip, which was cancelled and revived only four years later. This was just a few months before the launch of Howard the Duck so it's not hard to see why the writer was moving on but was this also a very early example of a publisher linking a series so heavily to an individual creator that they opted to end it when that creator left rather than replace them? It was a practice that happened more commonly in later decades but I'm surprised that it could be even considered at this early stage. And it's particularly ironic given the disputes Gerber would later have with Marvel that included his removal from the Howard the Duck series and comic strip. Of course Marvel was notoriously disorganised at this stage in its history so it may be overreading the situation to assume the end of the series was linked to the end of the run. Nevertheless it's a sign of how prominent creators were becoming, with appearances moving beyond the odd scene as a nod and wink to the audience to a much greater point of participation.

The issue is not as well known as one of Gerber's Howard the Ducks but it deploys an interesting narrative approach, presumably suggested and approved as a way to economically incorporate more events than usual in order to wrap up existing storylines whilst the writer was still on the book, rather than leaving them for another writer to take on, usually at very short notice and without any real idea as to what had been planned. But it also seeks to establish the authenticity of the stories through the appearance of Gerber himself, with much of the issue an illustrated letter to Len Wein. Jim Mooney's depiction confirms what many had suspected, namely that Richard Rory is based on Gerber himself. Within the letter Gerber explains how he wrote the series at the instigation of Dakimh, and how this continued even after the sorcerer’s apparent death. There's a summary of most of the incidents from Gerber's run and then an extended explanation of Thog's plans and methods before a final showdown in which the fate of the universe hangs in the balance. Finally Dakimh gives his blessing to the writer's departure. As an exercise in concluding the storyline in a limited space this issue works. As a comic less so, with three of the eighteen pages resorting to prose text with illustrations, a format I've never liked to see in Marvel comics. It's also not really a Man-Thing issue with the monster only coming into the action near the end, and again suggests that the writer's priorities were elsewhere. Still as an experiment that both pushes at the barriers of convention whilst also harking back to the conceit of the Lee-Kirby days, it's a sign of a willingness to do things differently and expand the frontiers of the medium.

The only non-Gerber authored issue from this period is the final issue of Giant-Size Man-Thing, in which a young Ted Sallis and his wife Ellen visit a carnival fortune teller and witness three visions of the future, all of which involve horror and despair including a cult trying to sacrifice a baby, a young couple coming to grief because of their families' disapproval and mercenaries in the swamp turning on each other. It's an interesting way to showcase what are ultimately fill-in pieces from a variety of creators but overall the issue doesn't add much.

The second series shows a title setting out to be a bit different from its predecessor but rapidly retreating into some of the old tried and tested methods and then ending in a similar way. Although the social commentary is notably almost completely absent, there's once again a book that starts off as a reasonably conventional monster series but which steadily dips into the world of magic and swords - although this time it's cutlasses. Also there's an early attempt to enhance the Man-Thing but it's largely gone by the second issue.

At the start there's a short-lived effort to stick to science and monsters, starting off with a tale as a scientist is recruited by what claims to be the CIA to restore the Man-Thing's mind in the hope of recovering the Super Soldier Serum. However before the monster can be coaxed to adulthood the FBI attack, accidentally killing the scientist in the process. At first it seems the Man-Thing has retained his rudimentary intelligence but by the second issue the effects have worn off. What's also surprising is that the nature of the group representing itself as the CIA is never explored beyond the FBI statement that they're "enemy agents". Could this in fact be a squabble between agencies? Or was that idea too radical in 1979? We then get a change of location when another scientist accidentally teleports the Man-Thing to the Himalayas, where we find the old stereotype of a party of two men and a woman with one of the men sending the other to his death and making moves on the grieving widow. Add in an encounter with a tribe of Yeti - here established as an offshoot of Cro-Magnon Man who have survived in the mountains - plus a high priest figure foretelling doom and the clichés are complete.

A crossover with Doctor Strange brings a new writer to the series and another round of magic as the Man-Thing and Elaine, the woman from the Himalayas, get swept back to the Florida swamp to find Baron Mordo's latest scheme. After this we finally get a recurring supportive cast in the form of Barbie Bannister, a spoilt rich girl who finds she has to fend for herself when her parents are killed by modern day drug smuggling pirates, and John Daltry, the local sheriff. After Daltry and the Man-Thing deal with a bunch of college students trying to destroy the monster for kicks and fame, we get the first and only epic of the series as Captain Fate returns with his sky pirates. Fate is ultimately freed from the curse of immortality but instead the curse engulfs Daltry and nobody seems able to break it leading to Barbie searching for anything to do it. After a couple of one-off tales of the Man-Things encounters with those who find themselves in the swamp, including a tragic young couple who flee their parents and give birth to a child, only to die of poisoned water whilst the grandparents confront the Man-Thing, and a isolated boy who joined a cult and then got "deprogrammed" by his parents. The latter is a short story by J.M. DeMatteis and in its take of the obessiveness of some religions it's about the only sign of social comment in the run. The main plot gears up with the arrival in the swamp of John Kowalski, a mysterious man who is the personification of Death and who offers to free Daltry if Barbie will join him.

The final issue is once again told in flashback by a writer to his editor, although this time it's done in the pub and we see not just editor Louise Jones but also assistant editor Danny Fingeroth and editor-in-chief Jim Shooter. Chris Claremont relates how he got taken away to a realm for a final battle with the force behind Daltry's curse, Thog. Once more Thog is destroyed and everyone returns home with Barbie freed from her Death obligations but the Man-Thing proves impossible to cure. Claremont announces his resignation as writer and Shooter agrees to cancel the series. As they leave we discover that once more Dakimh has been directing the writer.

This second series is brief and ultimately unsatisfying. There was clearly an attempt to do something different early on but it fizzled out and we're left with a relatively mundane series that eventually winds up wallowing in the memory of the first, as shown most notably in the final issue. It feels like it was being written by numbers and just didn't know where to go. The end of the first series included here has the reverse problem - it's trying to go to almost too many places, riding waves of fantasy and realism at the same time. But it does at least try to say something. All in all this volume and the series as a whole is rather inessential. The central problem is that very little can ever be done with the main character and most of the events around him don't easily fit the genre. This is not one to search high and low for.

Essential Tomb of Dracula volume 2

Essential Tomb of Dracula volume 2 collects issues #26-49 plus Giant-Size Dracula #2-5 (a renaming & refocusing of Giant-Size Chillers hence no #1) and Doctor Strange #14. The regular issues are all written by Marv Wolfman and drawn by Gene Colan. The Giant-Sizes are written by Chris Claremont then David Anthony Kraft and drawn by Don Heck then Nestor Redondo. The Doctor Strange issue is written by Steve Englehart and drawn by Gene Colan. Bonus material includes an extra page produced for the reprint of issue #45, and Dracula's picture from the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe.

The original release of this volume was surprisingly fast, coming less than six months after volume 1. Was it a fast attempt to ride the Buffy wave, albeit after that series had ended? Or was there some now-forgotten major vampire movie in 2004 that Marvel were trying to feed off the interest? Or were the rights limited forcing a speedy release programme before they lapsed? Or was it just down to someone in the Marvel office with a sense of humour noting both the series's British ancestry and Michael Howard's leadership of the Conservative Party? (Now there's a reference that will leave my international readers scratching their heads.)

Whatever the reason this volume is a letdown after the promise of the first. Gene Colan's art remains great but the general direction of the series is rather meandering, with several plotlines taking an eternity to resolve. The Giant-Size issues are standalone and two of them are even set in the past rather than the present. Whilst it leaves Dracula in the present under the control of a single creative team, their placement here just add to the mess by intruding upon the flow. There's a small amount of crossover with the monthly series with Inspector Chelm of Scotland Yard popping up in both and later supplying the regular vampire hunters with information. Other than this and a brief use of Quincy Harker the characters and situations are all original, with Dracula encountering some especially scary examples of the occult such as the Devil's Heart, a giant disembodied organ that is possessing a small town in the American mid West. Other tales are more downbeat such as Dracula's pursuit of a French government agent across Europe or the vampire's own pursuit by Elainne, the daughter of one of his medieval victims who has gained immortality and assembled a militia to gain revenge. The one character of seeming long term significance introduced here is Inspector Katherine Fraser, a Scotland Yard detective with psychic powers, but she doesn't make the leap over to the monthly. All in all the Giant-Size series is a disappointment and shows that it takes more than the character's name to make a good spin-off series.

Over in the main series things are really dragged out by a long running plot involving Dracula's powers steadily weakening, which ultimately turns out to be the manipulations of Doctor Sun. A disembodied brain may not seem the obvious rival to a vampire, although the name is fitting, but Sun's technology and cunning offers a good counterpoint to a primeval creature, upping the tension. Adding to the counterpoints is Sun's henchman Juno, who has a silver lance in place of a hand. The hunt eventually brings Dracula to the United States via an experimental spy plane and into a protracted showdown in which Quincy Harker and his vampire hunters find they need Dracula more than they realise, forcing them to take some drastic steps.

In the meantime, the vampire hunters are scattered across the globe. Taj has returned to India where his son has become a vampire, forcing Taj and his estranged wife to face the horror of having to kill their child before the local mobs do. Eventually he realises he can't but can only look on in horror as the mobs surge past him and perform the task. After this Taj drops out of the series as he opts to stay in India and rebuild his life with his wife. Perhaps somebody also realised how much of a stereotype a strong, silent Indian manservant is. Frank Drake is lured to South America by a friend who turns out to be working for Dracula who wants his descendent out of the way. This leads to encounters with zombies who are about to kill him when he is saved by a gratuitous guest appearance by Brother Voodoo. The crossing of genres just doesn't work and leaves the characters' presence all too exposed as a promotional puff piece, more so than the average guest appearance. Elsewhere Rachel van Helsing is reassessing her relationship with Drake whilst Quincy Harker is looking back on his long years of fighting the vampire and the huge cost to him both financially and personally. He remains ever resourceful, with his home containing no end of booby traps against Dracula, exploiting crosses, garlic, stakes and more, even right down to the crosses on the collar of his dog, appropriately named Saint. Quincy proves highly resourceful in luring the vampire to his lair and almost slays him but is forced to back down and save his foe when the nearly dead Dracula reveals he has had two other vampires take Rachel hostage.

Elsewhere Blade is used sparingly throughout much of the volume as he continues his own quest to track down and destroy Deacon Frost, the vampire that killed his mother, but this does eventually lead to his crossing paths with Dracula once more, actually allying against Doctor Sun. He then joins with Hannibal King, a detective vampire who refuses to feed on humans, to track down Frost, with the situation complicated by Frost's ability to create duplicates of those he bites, with Blade's duplicate actually absorbing him.

Arriving in Boston Dracula soon meets two more recurring cast members. Harold H. Harold is a hack writer suffering long term from Writer's Block when the appearance of a true-life vampire offers the prospect of an interview. He is also trying, with limited success, to date Aurora Rabinowitz, his editor's secretary. Both characters are played somewhat for laughs but Aurora defies expectations when she shows her resourcefulness when the pair raid the Harvard hospital blood bank to obtain supplies for a weakened Dracula. Harold nearly does get his interview from an amused and grateful Dracula, but the attempt is interrupted by Juno. However when it is all over Harold is able to overcome his Writer's Block and publish "True Vampire Stories" based on his adventure. But Aurora also produces a book called "I Loved a Vampire" and still takes a long time to see yes when Harold repeatedly asks her out on a date.

In the showdown with Doctor Sun, Dracula is actually killed by Juno's lance and then the corpse incinerated. For a few issues it seems as though the vampire is truly gone and all that remains is his legacy, with the vampire hunters left to stop Sun's plans to take over the world. But it soon becomes clear that only Dracula has the power to stop Sun, leading to debate about whether they should resurrect him or not. Soon Aurora's tears prove to be the ingredient they need and Dracula returns to the fight, allying with Blade and seemingly destroying Doctor Sun for good.

There's a continuation of the rewriting of Dracula's history since the events described in the Bram Stoker novel, with the establishment of a greater history of encounters with Blade, backdating them to the 1960s. Although the retcons may allow for a greater cast interaction with Dracula, it gets ever more confusing to try to understand just how long he has been out of operation and just what the consequences are of his actions. It might have been better to follow the lead of the Monster of Frankenstein title and start the series at some point in the past after the famous novel, then slowly bring the lead character to the present day with the back story more clearly set out.

Dracula is also forced to face up to the consequences of his actions when he meets Shiela Whittier, the owner of a castle he settles in during the day. Initially he hopes to use his host as a hypnotised slave to perform actions whilst the sun is up, but after banishing the ghost of her uncle (secretly actually her father) from the castle the two find themselves drawn together. However she subsequently discovers his true nature and turns instead to David Eshcol, a practising Jew and son of the owner of a pawnshop that contains an important magical artefact. David and Shiela fall for each other and flee Dracula after a defeat of Doctor Sun, but David is scared of reprisals and sets out to kill the lord of vampires, only to himself die in the process. Shiela then chooses suicide over servitude, leaving Dracula with two corpses and facing the very dark impact of his nature and actions. Later Dracula finds the pointlessness of revenge as he battles the Faceless Man, the reanimated corpse of a murder victim seeking his killers. Dracula gets caught up in the murders but the Faceless Man disintegrates before either his mission is complete or Dracula can gain his own revenge.

There are some nods to wider trends in society, most notably the encounter with Daphne von Wilkinson, a fashion designer and arch feminist who despises all men, especially her business rivals. She cuts a deal with Dracula to provide information on the location of Doctor Sun in exchange for the elimination of her main rivals. Dracula complies though starts to wonder if he's wasting his time, but both parties deliver their side of the deal. Only there's a twist as all the victims are now vampires who come to feed on von Wilkinson. Later on the 1970s growth in Satanism is reflected when Dracula takes over a cult and marries Domini, one of the followers, planning to create a child to be born on December 25th. Meanwhile the previous cult leader, Anton Lupeski, is secretly plotting to destroy Dracula.

The crossover with Doctor Strange is not especially memorable, being motivated by Dracula's attack on Strange's servant Wong. This leads to a battle as the magician tries to force the vampire to help resurrect the servant, in which Strange's body is transformed into a vampire though his astral self remains free. Eventually he seemingly destroys Dracula and cures both himself and Wong of the vampire curse, making in total for a rather slight crossover that doesn't really add anything to this volume.

The volume ends at a point when many of the story threads are still ongoing, with both Blade and King's battle against Frost's duplicates and Rachel, Frank and Harold's battle against the cultists in mid action. Dracula's plans are ongoing as well. Whilst there are often times when there's no simple clean point to bite off a chunk of a series for a collected edition, this one feels more ragged than most. When combined with the sheer tediousness of the Doctor Sun storyline that takes seemingly forever to resolve, the result is a rather disappointing volume that tries to do things with its main characters but doesn't really feel suitably spectacular. The series has a reputation as a great epic but a lot of epics have turgid middle sections and this is clearly one of them.

Essential Defenders volume 2

This month will see the release of the Guardians of the Galaxy film. In the absence of any dedicated Essentials for any version of the team, let alone the modern one, I'm going to take a look at a volume containing one of the original's earliest storylines.

Essential Defenders volume 2 reprints Defenders #15-30 and Giant-Size Defenders #1-4 plus Marvel Two-in-One #6-7, Marvel Team-Up #33-35 and Marvel Treasury Edition #12. The regular Defenders issues are written first by Len Wein and then by Steve Gerber, with one by Bill Mantlo. Wein and Gerber write most of the Giant-Sizes with Tony Isabella writing a framing sequence in the first that carries reprints of past stories by Stan Lee, Bill Everett and Denny O'Neil from the likes of Incredible Hulk #3, Sub-Mariner Comics #41 and Strange Tales #145, representing solo tales from each of the three founders. The Marvel Two-in-One issues and the Marvel Treasury Edition are by Gerber whilst the Marvel Team-Up issues are by Gerry Conway. The regular issues are all drawn by Sal Buscema, as is the Marvel Treasury Edition, all of the Marvel Team-Ups and one of the Marvel Two-in-Ones, whilst the Giant-Sizes are by Jim Starlin, Gil Kane and Don Heck with the reprints carrying the art of Jack Kirby, Everett and Steve Ditko. The other Marvel Two-in-One issue is drawn by George Tuska. Inevitably the creator labels are in a separate post.

This volume suffers badly from the momentum being interrupted by various extra issues being included. Whilst the Marvel Two-in-One issues are part of a crossover with Defenders, and the Giant-Sizes invariably get collected with the regular series (though only the last one's storyline flows directly into the regular series), the Marvel Team-Up issues are utterly inconsequential to the ongoing series and feel as though they've been included solely to make up the numbers with guest appearances. And the Marvel Treasury Edition is a Howard the Duck special in which he teams up with the Defenders, but the entire tone of the piece is very much that of Howard's series rather than the Defenders, in spite of the two sharing the same writer, and once again it feels rather out of place here. Wouldn't it have been better to advance the regular title a few more issues rather then including these diversions that drag things out? But in spite of them the series has now got a clear sense of its purpose and cast.

By now there's a clear core membership consisting of Doctor Strange, the Hulk, Valkyrie and Nighthawk, but with a good number of other heroes passing through the pages. It isn't always clear in issues themselves with other heroes as to who is a temporary member and who is merely a guest star, but in Giant-Size #4 captions mention the wider heroes Doctor Strange could perhaps call upon and lists the Sub-Mariner, the Silver Surfer and "...perhaps even Power Man ... Daredevil ... Daimon Hellstrom ... Hawkeye" in what is effectively the first canonical list of all the team's "members". But the nature of the beast is such that only the core regulars can be clearly identified. Still it's the heroes on this list who are turned to when most of the regulars plus Yellowjacket are captured by the Sons of the Serpent. Notably steps are taken such that contact methods are cut before the Sub-Mariner, Silver Surfer or Hawkeye can be reached. It would also seem from these lists that Professor X, the Thing and, in the previous volume, Namorita all fall firmly on the guest star side of things, as do the Guardians of the Galaxy and Howard the Duck who pop up later on in the volume. On a different level Valkyrie's sort of ex-husband Jack Norriss winds up aiding the team more than once, even getting transported to the future, but his presence, though useful, isn't really desired either.

Instead we have a clear core membership, and even ex-membership, though the team hasn't taken on the hassle of constitutions, approval processes and formal initiations. The four core members are clearly happy to work together in spite of their disparate origins, powers and personalities. Namor the Sub-Mariner and the Silver Surfer have both left the team and in spite of the volume's cover, reproducing that of Giant-Size Defenders #1, they don't actually show up in the present. Their sole appearances are confined to reprints of past solo adventures in Giant-Size #1, though curiously whilst Namor's is incorporated into the issue's narrative, and thus represented here, the Silver Surfer's reprint was separate and is thus left out. Oddly the introductory blurb that appears on each issue until #25 continues to list Namor as a part of "the greatest NON-TEAM in history", suggesting someone failed to notice that he had left in issue #14 or that his motivation was precisely because the Defenders were now clearly becoming a coherent team.

Of the regulars, it's inevitable the two without their own titles who get the most character development. Valkyrie is steadily coming to terms with being an artificial construct with no past of her own, placed in the body of a mortal woman, and trying to discover more about Barbara Noriss's life of which she has no memory. This leads to a trek to Barbara's home town and encounters with first old friends and then her father, all the time being unable to return their feelings for her. The worst comes with Barbara's husband Jack, who just cannot comprehend that it's not actually his wife in her body and he often acts the devoted, defending husband to a woman who neither asks for it nor needs it. Despite the problems of her past, Valkyrie makes the best of her situation and more than proves herself in battle. Her only weakness is one that feels rather out of place for a Marvel hero and especially a Bronze Age hero - she is unable to fight another female, whether human, alien or robotic, without succumbing to crippling pains. It feels more at home with a vulnerability to fire or crumbling at the sight of a green rock or the inability to use a power against the colour yellow rather than the personality flaws, power limitations or physiological factors that usually restrain Marvel heroes. But in spite of this Valkyrie serves well as an equal member of the team. There are hints early on that she and Nightcrawler might become an item but it never comes off. However at one point he buys an ex-riding school to serve as a stable for Valkyrie's horse Aragorn. Otherwise Nightcrawler is steadily building himself up in his heroic role but also finding that things in his company aren't always in line with his orders. He may be a rich socialite but he also has his vulnerable side, especially when he and girlfriend Trish Starr are caught in a car explosion that costs her her left arm and then he declines to offer sufficient commitment and she leaves him. Meanwhile the Hulk is in one of his best periods, having finally found the permanent friends he has been looking for for so long and seems calmer than usual. He's also getting better at remembering things and realising other points such that his own skin makes him a target of the Sons of the Serpent. Doctor Strange is very much in his traditional form, though at times his powers are used a little too easily to resolve a situation. However this is rare and otherwise he serves well as the team's leading hand.

The various additional issues offer a variety of adventures, ranging from the needless such as the Marvel Team-Up fights with the Meteorite Man, formerly the Looter, or Jeremiah, a religious fanatic mutant, to the team building such as the Giant-Sizes. The first fills out details on the founding Defenders and then subsequent issues introduce the team to a range of guest stars including Daimon Hellstrom the Son of Satan, Daredevil, Yellowjacket and then the Guardians of the Galaxy. The foes in these issues are just as diverse, including individual Defenders' old foes such as the demon Asmodeus from Doctor Strange, Nighthawk's former villainous team the Squadron Sinister or Yellowjacket's old foe Egghead. There's also more general Marvel foes such as the Badoon, the Grandmaster or the Prime Mover, as well as new ones of whom the most significant is Korvac. Over in the Treasury Edition the Defenders and Howard tackle the Band of the Bland, a group of deliberately unoriginal villains made up of Dr. Angst, Sitting Bullseye, Black Hole, Spanker and Tillie the Hun.

Over in the regular issues there's a succession of epics against a mixture of established and new foes, with quite a few ramifications for the wider Marvel universe. We kick off with one of the last X-Men appearances from their wilderness years as Professor X sides with the Defenders against Magneto and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants; Magneto's hubris leads him to create Alpha the Ultimate Mutant who judges the Brotherhood unworthy and deages them to babies. (Now there's at least an interim solution to the problem of Magneto being tied to real world history without noticeably ageing.) Then a team-up with Luke Cage, Power Man brings the first ever appearance of the Wrecking Crew as the Wrecker acquires a team around him. Notably the team's black member, Thunderball, is the most intelligent of them, being a nuclear physicist. Valkyrie's quest for her past brings both a crossover with the Thing's title Marvel Two-in-One and also a battle with the Enchantress and the Executioner then with the Nameless One. Then there's an extended clash with the Sons of the Serpent, Marvel's stock group of racists with elements of the Ku Klux Klan about them. This adventure brings the return of several heroes including Yellowjacket, Daredevil, Power Man and the Son of Satan, but also the revelation that the Sons are led by a black man trying to "escape 'my own people'" and to enhance Nighthawk's company's profits. There are also some one-off issues including the introduction of the Headmen, a weird group of villains with distinctly odd heads whether Gorilla Man, a human one grafted onto an ape, Shrunken Bones, whose skeleton has reduced leaving the flesh loose, or Chondu, a mystic whose head has been grafted onto other bodies. And there's Tapping Tommy, who wants revenge for a succession of failures including the musical genre and takes it out on Nighthawk for buying an old studio to turn into housing, using robots in the process.

One of the biggest epics comes near the end as the Defenders meet the Guardians of the Galaxy and travel with them into a dark future where mankind has overcome self-inflicted disasters and invasion to build an empire with bio-engineering diversifying the human form, but the human race has now been conquered by the Brotherhood of the Badoon. It's a tale that incorporates time travel, including Major Vance Astro meeting his younger self, multiple worlds, the fierce gender divide amongst the Badoon, various alien worlds, the mysterious Starhawk and a showdown that begins a revolution. The story shows real epic and ambition, helping to expand the original Guardians mythology and roster no end without feeling like an intrusion on the Defenders. Nor does it end neatly, with Doctor Strange transporting his team back in time upon realising that Starhawk embodies the human race and its hope.

Steve Gerber's writing takes on both a distinctly odd turn and a degree of social commentary, though it's not as pronounced as his work on Howard the Duck. In the Sons of the Serpent story there's also a look at the horrors of the slums and signs of hope when Jack Norriss's surge of courage to save "his wife" spurs a watching crowd of whites to attack the Sons. Later there's an extended history of the Earth from the present day until the 31st century, taking in not only the continuity of Killraven but also ecological collapse, the dangers of unfettered capitalism destroying the environment, colonialism from both ends and much more. Elsewhere we get the odd situations and characters, with the first appearance of the mysterious Elf with a Gun who pops up to shoot a random person for seemingly no reason at all. However one thing I don't like about Gerber's work is the resort to a page of mainly text with a single drawn panel and the story advanced in narration, a device he resorts to more than once. It feels like the issue in question was poorly paced and this was an effort to rectify it.

When the regular series is in full flow then this volume is generally quite good and fun to read, with a wonderful diversity of scope and characterisation, not to mention the weirder elements. However when the series gets interrupted by numerous specials, crossovers and guest appearances then it the momentum frequently fails and the volume grinds to a halt. It would have been much better to leave out all the Marvel Team-Ups and the Marvel Treasury Edition and just concentrate on the core Defenders a bit more.

Essential Doctor Strange volume 2

Essential Doctor Strange volume 2 charts the rise and fall of the character's first attempt at an own title and then his attempts at a comeback. It contains Doctor Strange #169-178 & #180-183 (#179 was a reprint of Amazing Spider-Man annual #2; the cover isn't included here) plus the crossover issues Avengers #61, Sub-Mariner #22 and Incredible Hulk #126. Doctor Strange had a brief back-up strip in Marvel Feature #1 that's included here as part of the return of the character for the Defenders' launch. Then a couple of years later he got a solo strip once again which was run in another tryout book, Marvel Premiere #3-14. Everything before Marvel Premiere, including all the crossover issues, is written by Roy Thomas and then Marvel Premiere is by, variously, Stan Lee, Archie Goodwin, Gardner Fox and Steve Englehart. Art is more mixed - the Doctor Strange issues are mainly drawn by Gene Colan, with contributions by Dan Adkins and Tom Palmer. The Marvel Feature story is drawn by Don Heck then Marvel Premiere has a variety of artists such as Barry Windsor-Smith, Irv Wesley, Frank Brunner, P. Craig Russell and Jim Starlin. Of the crossover issues the Avengers is by John Buscema, Sub-Mariner by Marie Severin and Incredible Hulk by Herb Trimpe. That's a lot of labels so inevitably a separate post has been created for some of them.

In the early days of the strip it was notable for doing things rather differently from the standard Marvel approach at the time. However after Steve Ditko's departure the series meandered without a clear sense of direction. This volume starts at the point where Doctor Strange got his own title, but this was clearly a consequence of Marvel expanding en masse thanks to a change in its distribution arrangements (a change that I've noted in more detail in previous reviews) rather than a specific decision to break out the character. The series only lasted fifteen issues (carrying forward the Strange Tales numbering, although a later revival of that title would confuse things by doing the same), with the last three seeing the series go bimonthly, always a sign of problems, and demonstrates the same lack of certainty about what to do with the character, with a drift towards several of the conventions of more traditional superhero titles such that we get variously a masked hero, a secret identity and even a step towards a romantic triangle with one woman pining for the hero but realising he only has eyes for another. Just to add to the mess, some of these developments come out of the blue and offer little. The series is also beset by retreading a lot of familiar ground.

The first issue is devoted to a retelling of Doctor Strange's origin before we get a succession of issues focusing mainly on the return of past foes with some familiar settings. Amongst the returns are Nightmare, Dreamstalker, Dormammu, Umar and Tiboro. A guest appearance by the Black Knight against the Sons of Satannish and Tiboro leads to an epilogue in the pages of Avengers as Doctor Strange works with Earth's Mightiest Heroes to tackle Ymir the frost giant and Surtur the fire demon, both from the pages of Thor. Meanwhile, in his second appearance in this brief run, Nightmare becomes the latest entity to challenge Eternity, with the Juggernaut thrown into the mix. The resolution includes the deus ex machina revelation that Eternity has slightly altered the universe to give Doctor Strange a secret identity as "Stephen Sanders", with all records and memories now reflecting this.

There are a few additions to the mythology in these issues, with the most significant debut being the entity Satannish. Other issues feature followers such as Lord Nekron and the Sons of Satannish, Asmodeus and Marduk. Satannish is another of many demonic beings in Marvel comics who appear to be the Devil in some form (and who go many years without clarity as to what the relationship between them is); his debut actually just slightly predates Mephisto's by a month. The last issue starts a storyline with new foes the Undying Ones, ruled by the Nameless One; however the series came to an abrupt halt and so the story was wrapped up first in Sub-Mariner and then in the Incredible Hulk with additional conflict with the Night-Crawler, the ruler of the neighbouring Dark Dimension. At the end of the Incredible Hulk issue, Doctor Strange decides to retire, abandoning his role and powers, and would not be seen again for a year and a half. However he would then reappear, without his mask or "Stephen Sanders" secret identity, when the Defenders launched in the pages of Marvel Feature and a back-up solo story restores his power and position, with yet another clash with Baron Mordo.

These issues also develop Doctor Strange's romantic life by bringing Clea to Earth and making more use of Victoria Bentley. Victoria has strong feelings for Stephen but is saddened to discover he has eyes only for Clea; however unlike some Marvel heroes he's not a dick who acts nasty in order to scare Victoria off. She may be disappointed but is perfectly willing to help him rescue Clea from another realm when she is the only one who can do so, a more sophisticated solution to the situation than some approaches that might have instead had Victoria jealously refusing and forcing Doctor Strange to find an alternative solution. Clea is brought to Earth where she's given her own apartment (showing an unmarried couple living together might have been too bold a step that Marvel didn't want to take in 1968) and there's some comedic asides as she comes to terms with the strange world around her and Stephen has to react quickly to handle the mess when she tries to use her magic. But aside from the culture clash there's a clear rapport between the two. However she gets largely forgotten when the series suddenly ends with no mention of her as Stephen ditches his role and powers, though once the Marvel Premiere strip gets going she appears as though nothing significant has happened in the interim.

With only fifteen issues, one of which is taken up by the retelling of the origin and another by a reprint, there's not too much time for the solo series. However it seems to squander even what is available, in part because many issues have oversized panels that allows the artwork to show off but which also slows down the narrative. Since the series is also going over a lot of old ground the overall result is rather disappointing and it's hard to get upset about it coming to an end so soon. It just reiterates the standard problem that it's often hard to know what to do with Doctor Strange and so a rest and then restricting his appearances to a team title was probably a good prescription. When he once again got an ongoing solo feature there was both an influx of new ideas and a wider changed environment at Marvel.

Initially it seems the new strip might be yet more of the same, with the first issue containing yet another confrontation with Nightmare. But then under the pen of first Gardner Fox and then Steve Englehart the series gets much more original with a strong sequence of stories that see Doctor Strange face off against a host of monsters and demons, putting him in difficult and novel situations. A trip to the town of Starkesboro reveals the population have been transformed into reptilian humanoids, worshipping the snake demon Sligguth, with its priestess Ebora and the Spawn of Sligguth upping the ante. The defeat of Sligguth only leads to the emergence of another monster, N'Gabthoth the Shambler from the Sea. Meanwhile the Shadowmen of Kaa-U kidnap the Ancient One as part of their worship of Shuma Gorath. Doctor Strange's search brings him into conflict with the demon Dagoth and then the living planet Kathulos. The defeat of the latter sees Doctor Strange stuck on a dead planet though he eventually finds a way to fly home, taking four days. When he finally reaches Kaa-U, he fights the Shadowmen's leader the Living Buddha, before the ultimate confrontation with Shuma Gorath. In the process Doctor Strange finds himself facing the ultimate dilemma when the only way to defeat Shuma Gorath is to kill the Ancient One - something that goes against all his medical and mystical oaths and his mentor to boot. Some of the monsters and concepts encountered in this saga are drawn from the works of Robert E. Howard, best known as the creator of Conan.

Gardner Fox is so heavily associated with his herculanen output for DC over the decades that it's always a surprise to discover his name on a Marvel comic. Fox's Marvel work was amongst the last of his comics career (although he also wrote many novels) and to both his and editorial's credit he didn't try to recreate his superhero magic at his new company but rather showed his diversity and worked mainly on westerns and horror. The 1970s horror trend may well have been to Doctor Strange's advantage, allowing a greater use of the occult than before and tapping into a prevailing trend in the market. Fox's run may be brief but it really shakes up the character and series, showing that there is so much more to do and exciting us, helped by a succession of strong artists who defy the usual rule that a different artist each issue invariably means fast, poor results. Fox and the rotation are succeeded by Steve Englehart and Frank Brunner who conclude the Shuma Gorath saga and then present a daring saga that confounds expectations and amazes me that they got away with it.

After an emergency reprint (with a new framing sequence) of Doctor Strange's origin, we see the now Sorcerer Supreme seek to end his long-standing rivalry with Baron Mordo, which at first had me worried that we would get yet another retread of all ground, with a battle with the Living Gargoyle en route. But instead both Strange and Mordo get caught in the scheme of the time-travelling sorcerer Cagliostro, real name Sise-Neg, who travels backwards in time absorbing ever more power with the intention of reaching the start of time and influencing creation. He is even open about wishing to become "God" and as the three head backwards through the ages Sise-Neg is responsible for the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (here shown as a place of general hostility to all strangers rather than a place practising sodomy), and then, in an earlier period, he creates a garden for two surviving apes. Finally at the start of time Sise-Neg concludes that man cannot be improved upon and so allows things to be created as before. It now seems incredible that a story could see print that effectively portrays its antagonist as the inspiration behind the understanding of God, and gives alternative explanations to some of the best known Biblical stories. Marvel in the mid 1970s was often daring, and highly inconsistent, on religious themes and I doubt they would be able to make such bold moves today.

This volume ends immediately before Doctor Strange was once again transferred to his own title and so comparisons with his first volume naturally arise. Both experience the problems of the Essential format automatically bundling together everything in sequence with the result that two distinct periods are presented in a single volume. And they both show the lengthy search to find a direction and purpose for the character after the initial burst of creation. Here we get the rather dire first solo series which just presents more of the same with greater space for the artwork and it drags. But the cancellation proves to have been beneficial as when the character got a solo strip once more there was now a new approach to magic and horror that allowed for some original and highly magical adventures. The strip once more regains a sense of daring and excitement, and so by the end of the volume things have come almost full circle.

A few Sub-Mariner previews

Whenever I complete a full set of Essential volumes for any particular series and character I intend to take a look at any later issues reprinted in other volumes. Other than the Spider-Man and Daredevil titles, Sub-Mariner is the first such series that qualifies, as there is just one solitary volume out so far.


Sub-Mariner #20 written by Roy Thomas and drawn by John Buscema, reprinted slightly abridged in Giant-Size Super-Villain Team-Up #1, reprinted in turn in Essential Super-Villain Team-Up volume 1

It's my understanding that the abridgement consists of panels in adjacent pages amounting to the equivalent of one whole page. It doesn't seem to have affected readability. This is a fairly straightforward tale in which Namor, who has lost both his power of flight and the ability to breathe underwater, flees though New York until he stumbles upon the Latverian embassy where Dr. Doom tries to recruit him as an ally, first by persuasion and then by coercion. It's easy to forget that there was a time when Namor rivalled Doom as the Fantastic Four's greatest foe and the two briefly allied. However they have each gone a long way since and this issue shows how far apart they now are, with a renewed alliance well and truly off the cards. The issue is very much a character piece as it shows the different outlooks and approaches of the two. Ironically it was reprinted at the start of Giant-Size Super-Villain Team-Up despite being a strong indicator as to why a permanent teaming of the two can never work. Doom attempted to overcome the problems, but the story wound up as a premature obituary for that series.

Sub-Mariner #22 written by Roy Thomas and drawn by Marie Severin, reprinted in Essential Doctor Strange volume 2 and also in Essential Defenders volume 1

This was the middle part of a storyline run across Doctor Strange, Sub-Mariner and the Incredible Hulk, wrapping up the leftover threads from Doctor Strange's series. Namor returns to Atlantis where his ability to breathe is restored but then he gets summoned to Boston by Doctor Strange to help in the struggle against the Undying Ones. The crossover is structured reasonably well so that it's possible to just read this issue by itself, but other than the opening scenes in Atlantis this does feel much more like a Doctor Strange issue than a Sub-Mariner one. As a key issue in restoring the title hero's abilities it probably shouldn't have been combined with a wider crossover; an approach that was unfortunately used all too often in later years. There's the start of a strong understanding between Namor and Doctor Strange that would come to the forefront in the Defenders, but as yet no hint of any regular teaming between them.

Sub-Mariner #34-35 written by Roy Thomas and drawn by Sal Buscema, reprinted in Essential Defenders volume 1

These two issues see Namor in search of allies to neutralise a human device that accidentally  threatens the world. In recruiting the Hulk they come into conflict with the military forces of San Pablo, yet another Latin American military dictatorship. Their battle devastates the military forces such that rebels are able to overthrow El General. Then the group, dubbed "Titans Three", head to the island where the device is along with Dorma and the Atlantean scientist Ikthon. Titans Three clash with both the army guarding the device and a squad of Avengers sent in, until Ikthon repairs a flaw and everyone realises the danger that has been averted. These two issues were clearly testing the water for the concept that became the Defenders and show how Namor can assemble some allies when needs be but his confrontational approach isn't always the ideal solution. I find Latin American military dictatorships an excessively used cliché in Marvel comics from this era, especially when they come with rebels seeking to overthrow them. Titans Three is an interesting idea for a team made out of hot-headed loners often at odds with the human world, but such character types are inevitably not team players and some additional unifying element is needed if the group is to work on a regular basis.


By coincidence these issues between them show Namor interacting with nearly all the characters he's best known for teaming up with; the main exception is Captain America. (His interaction with the Fantastic Four over the years is rather more complicated.) There are signs of just how prickly he can be but also how well he works with those he respects and/or needs. Otherwise the issues show glimpses of wider developments in the series such as his temporary power restriction or steps towards marriage to Dorma, and wet the appetite for another Essential Sub-Mariner volume.

Essential Defenders volume 1

The Defenders were very different from the teams that came before them. They weren't a formal gathering of heroes drawn together into a regulated organisation like the Avengers or the All-Winners Squad. They weren't a family of adventurers like the Fantastic Four. And they weren't an outgrowth of a school for training the powered like the X-Men. Instead they were a "non-team", a disparate group of individuals with no real organisation and no clear definition of membership, working together as needs be.

The original Defenders ran from 1971 until 1985, almost exactly matching the traditional dates for the Bronze Age of Comics. In a further twist the set-up stories included here cover the years 1969-1971 where the beginning of the Bronze Age is unclear, whilst at the other end of the run the last twenty-seven issues, running in 1983-1985 when the Bronze Age was winding down, saw the team heavily transformed into the "New Defenders". Few titles so perfectly match the period and show the various trends that ran through it.

Essential Defenders volume 1 reprints Defenders #1-14, plus Doctor Strange #183, Sub-Mariner #22 & #34-35, the Incredible Hulk #126, Marvel Feature #1-3 and Avengers #116-118 plus an extract from issue #115. The Doctor Strange, Sub-Mariner and Incredible Hulk issues feature first a crossover and then a team-up between different combinations of the three title characters and the Silver Surfer before they were made a regular team which was tested in the pages of Marvel Feature, one of Marvel's many try-out titles (later in its run it carried Ant-Man and then team-ups involving the Thing before the latter spun off into Marvel Two-in-One), before being given its own series. Early on in the run the Defenders clashed with the Avengers in what was at the time a lengthy crossover, and the issues from both series are included here.

The Marvel Feature issues are written by Roy Thomas and drawn by Ross Andru, then the Defenders issues are written first by Steve Englehart and then by Len Wein, and all drawn by Sal Buscema. The Doctor Strange issue is written by Thomas and drawn by Gene Colan, the Incredible Hulk issue is written by Thomas and drawn by Herb Trimpe, the Sub-Mariner issues are all written by Thomas and drawn by Marie Severin or Buscema, and the Avengers issues are all written by Englehart and drawn by Bob Brown.

So what precisely is a "non-team"? The Defenders differ strongly from most Marvel teams in that there is no real formal organisation. There's no home or base for the members, no formal rules of incorporation, no regular meetings replete with rigid meeting protocol, no clear definition of membership or criteria for who actually is and isn't a "member" and so forth. At this stage it's just a group of heroes drawn together when needed, who work with others they encounter in the course of such gatherings. But even here there's also the start of disagreements over just how organised the Defenders should be, with Namor being very firm until the end that there are no members whilst the Valkyrie wishes to join. Doctor Strange may see himself as the "leader" of the Defenders, but he commands far less authority over the others than the likes of Mr. Fantastic or Professor X over their respective teams.

Despite the protests of Namor and the traditional "non-team" status of the Defenders, it is possible to identify some clear members. At this stage the members are all amongst the heroes most commonly associated with the team. A popular image has built up of the Defenders having four founders, Doctor Strange, Namor the Sub-Mariner, the Incredible Hulk and the Silver Surfer. But this volume is a revelation of how that isn't quite the case as the four don't all appear together until Defenders #2, which is the fifth issue to go out under that title (Marvel Feature also included the individual strip's logo on the cover) and the tenth in the volume overall. It's questionable as to how far the Titans Three teaming of all bar Doctor Strange counts as a proto-Defenders story - they don't use the team name and, as we'll see, the good doctor is the initial keystone of the team. The initial Undying Ones crossover with Strange, Namor and the Hulk is on firmer ground here as it is revisited early on in the series. So the Surfer is really an add on, even if he has subsequently been included in many a founders' reunion, even within the original Defenders run itself (but that comes in much later volumes). The cover to this volume reuses that of Marvel Feature #1 and so we get just the other three heroes, thus doing a little bit to correct latter day revisionism. It's significant that all four heroes are strong loners, with Namor, the Hulk and the Surfer traditionally hostile to being pulled in to help others, a hostility that recurs throughout these issues making for some tense situations when the heroes are drawn together once more, with Namor in particular angry with the way he's drawn in. However over time Doctor Strange steadily works on developing a friendship with the Hulk to the point where at the end the Green Goliath is becoming more trusting and willing to stay around and work with the others. In contrast Namor is increasingly losing the battle against the Defenders becoming an ongoing team and being summoned against his will to help on missions, and so he withdraws altogether for the time being.

Several other heroes fight alongside the Defenders in these issues. The Valkyrie is a sort-of new character, the result of a fusion of an alter ego previously used by the Enchantress with a mad human woman. There's some initial discomfort amongst the others about this arrangement but the ethical side and any attempt to undo the spell are quickly forgotten and the Valkyrie becomes the first real committed recruit to the team who actually wants to be there. At the end of the volume Nighthawk works with the team and joins on the very last page, taking the place of Namor and showing the first signs of the Defenders becoming a slightly more coherent team. Namorita pops up but only for a single issue when her cousin is transported away and she helps find him. Hawkeye works with the Defenders for several issues, but his own comments at first place him clearly as a guest star rather than a "member" and when he departs he comments on having only stayed around for a specific job rather than anything permanent. That job involves the Black Knight who is even more firmly in the guest star category, encountering the Defenders on an adventure where he gets turned to stone. Later his spirit is sent back in time and the team go after him, but he opts to stay in the past and so never really becomes a Defender in any way. The volume also contains a couple of encounters with the Avengers, but the two groups are clearly delineated throughout.

The Defenders-Avengers conflict kicks off in earnest in Avengers #116, which starts with a note that it's the tenth anniversary of the start of the Avengers. It's an odd way to celebrate what is admittedly only a small milestone. The storyline itself was groundbreaking in being about the longest crossover to date in terms of both the number of issues and the publication time. Alongside the Undying Ones crossover that first brought Doctor Strange together with the other two founders, it was a sign of the way the comics industry would steadily develop to the stage where more and more storylines would require readers to buy additional issues from series they didn't normally read in order to get the whole story. It's great for providing extra material to fill collected editions decades later, but at the time it could lock out readers who for one reason or another didn't have access to the other title(s) on their local newsstands, and I don't know if subscribers got advance warning or special offers to receive the other issues as well. The storyline itself is relatively simple with one villain tricking the Defenders into a quest for a powerful item and another villain tricking the Avengers into fighting them, with each team assuming the others have impure motives. A significant chunk of the adventure is then taken up with fights between individual members of the team in different locations around the world before they realise they've been duped and team up to confront the villains and save the world. When summarised it does feel a bit like a standard Justice League of America plot. The emphasis is very much on the characters, with opportunities to see some clashes that hadn't been done for a while, such as Hawkeye against Iron Man or Namor against Captain America.

The Defenders face many villains in the course of these adventures. The Undying Ones debuted in Doctor Strange but in the final issue #183, which starts this volume off. The Nameless One and the Nightcrawler each debut in Sub-Mariner #22 and Incredible Hulk #126 respectively but these issues were tying up Doctor Strange's story after his own title was cancelled. The Titans Three story sees the trio fight first El General, the (oh what a surprise) military dictator of a Latin American country (also later on during the Defenders/Avengers clash there's a visit to an ex-Nazi's castle in a Latin American country) and then a clash with the Avengers in order to prevent a new device from inadvertently destroying the Earth. Once the Defenders proper get going, they fight a mixture of new and pre-existing foes. The New foes include Omegatron, a magical computer with a doomsday nuclear weapon attached, Necrodamus, a dark sorcerer, Calizuma, the leader of a group of warrior wizards, Cyrus Black, another evil sorcerer with a longstanding grudge against Doctor Strange, Chandu, a twelfth century mystic, and Nebulon the Celestial Man. Note just how many of these foes could easily have debuted in Doctor Strange had it still been running. Foes from other series include Yandroth and then Dormammu, both from the Doctor Strange strip in Strange Tales, Xemnu, who first appeared in Journey into Mystery in the pre-superhero era, the Giant Squids and later Casiolena, both having debuted in Avengers, the Enchantress, the Executioner and later Loki, all of whom are originally from the Thor strip in Journey into Mystery, Attuma and the Red Ghost, both from Fantastic Four, Mordred, from the 1950s Black Knight, and the Squadron Sinister, also from Avengers. The latter are evil copies of the Squadron Supreme and both are a deliberate erm... "homage" to DC's Justice League of America, allowing for substitutes for inter-company crossovers before they actually happened. The Squadron members shown here are Hyperion (based on Superman), Doctor Spectrum (based on Green Lantern) and the Whizzer (based on the Flash) plus renegade turned good Nighthawk (based on Batman). Overall there are rather fewer pre-existing Doctor Strange foes in this volume than I'd come to expect, but many of the new creations could have been cut from his series's cloth. Invariably with the Defenders initially consisting of two physically very powerful heroes and one of the most powerful magicians, the threats they face have to be similarly strong and this doesn't really change with the addition of extra members and guest stars. Instead, the team continues facing predominantly magical and mythical foes, with a smattering of other fantastical and cosmic types.

The threats the team face are a mixture of the small and personal as well as the grand scale to the Earth or even the entire dimension. At the end of the team's first story in Marvel Feature #1 Doctor Strange suggests the name "Defenders" - "A fitting name for such a grouping as we -- if we've need to meet again." The name is convincing, especially as it is initially picked for a team assembled just in emergencies. And the team may increasingly congeal as the series proceeds but there is still a lot of defending going on. On the smaller scale the members do look out for each other somewhat, with an ongoing plotline as Doctor Strange tries to find a cure for the Black Knight's stone form. This leads to a small personalised adventure in issue #11 as everyone is transported to the twelfth century Middle East during a Crusade. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to have been a great deal of research with both "King Richard the Lion Hearted" and Prince John out there, fighting the "Mohammedeans" or occasionally called "Arabs" - not the most sensitive terms to use. It's not the more nuanced and sensitive view of the Crusades that was emerging at the time.

As mentioned above, Defenders ran for the duration of the Bronze Age. Looking at just the early issues here there are some signs of the changes but others would come later. The team itself is structurally very different from the more grand and formalised teams established in the Silver Age. The crossover with Avengers began a trend that would grow over times. And there's a brief sign of some of the growing trend towards more socially aware comics, primarily in the form of the Valkyrie's feminism. But whilst she demonstrates her worth as a member of the team holding her own when she destroys the Omegatron early on, she's not the best representative of liberated women as after all she's one persona occupying another's body and was created by an Asgardian goddess (although that would get retconned later on) and so lacks actual experience of the human world. Otherwise much of the emphasis of the series is on fantastical adventures rather than on more down to earth affairs.

This is a volume that encompasses the team going through three different writers as one sets up the series, a second then has a year and a half long run (albeit only eleven issues as the series was initially bimonthly) before a third takes over for the last few issues. It surprising how the changing writers aren't particularly noticeable with the series maintaining its themes and not veering off in a new direction and having everything changed under a new regime. Consequently momentum is maintained and there's a good clear sense of what the Defenders are, even if there isn't a precise definition of membership, and how they carry out their objectives. The team contains quite a diverse set of individuals but manages to hold together and they're a believable force. The team was very different to much of what had come before, but that works to its advantage and it wasn't just another variation of already tried themes. It had a good strong start.