Showcase Presents Ambush Bug

For another special look...

Wait! Don't start without me!!

Oh. Hello Ambush Bug.

Hey isn't this a Marvel focused site? What am I doing here?

From time to time I take a look at some of DC's output. It makes for an interesting contrast. And after doing a couple of team-up volumes it was time for something a bit different.

You mean there isn't a team-up title focused on Wonder Woman. But hey, I got her for my cover.

Yes, quite an achievement. Anyway shall we press on?

Sure. I want to know what you think about my adventures.

Well here goes. So today I'm going to have a look at Showcase Presents Ambush Bug.

Showcase Presents Ambush Bug? What, no volume number?

No. I guess someone saw that question coming. The back cover even declares "...his one and - we promise - only Showcase Presents volume."

"Only"? "Only"? "ONLY'"! Where's Mackiewicz? I want words!

Who's Mackiewicz?

Don't you ever read the credits page on these things?

Oh yeah. Sean Mackiewicz, the "Editor-collected edition".

That's an odd title. "Editor-collected"?!

I guess he's not the typesetter. But he's not here to explain so shall we get on with this?

Oh very well.

Okay first off the contents list.

Do we have to?

Yes - if I'm going to talk about it, it helps to know what's in it.

Okay, just get on with it.

I'm trying. But we've wandered a long way from the cover so as a reminder here it is again, and this time it's bigger.

Look how I turned those heroes green. That didn't happen on the original cover. The printers mucked it up.

It's strange to be talking about colour correction on a black and white reprint. But shall we just get on with it?

Go ahead, I'm not stopping you. 

Really? No on second thoughts let's not have that argument and so here goes... It's the Ambush Bug stories from DC Comics Presents #52, #59 & #81, Supergirl #16, Action Comics #560, #563 & #565, Ambush Bug #1 to #4, Ambush Bug Stocking Stuffer, Son of Ambush Bug #1 to #6, Secret Origins #48 and Ambush Bug Nothing Special.

All those limited series and specials. Those were great days.

And those team-ups. I first encountered you when some of the DC Comics Presents issues were reprinted in the UK Superman title back in the early 1990s.

Wait a minute! I had British reprints?! Nobody told me! Where are my royalties? Who published this series?

From memory at the time of the first one they were still called London Editions Magazines but they soon changed the name to Fleetway Editions after a merger. They were an imprint of EgmontUK. I don't know if you were entitled to overseas royalties.

So who do I have to talk to?

Erm... I'm not sure, but it might be a problem at DC's end rather than LEM's. Have a chat with their overseas reprint department. Otherwise former LEM editor Martin Gray is online. But don't tell any of them I sent you.

So what do I say if they ask how I found out about these?

Isn't Google a wonderful thing? Anyway let's get on with the credits.

Do we have to?

Yes. The creative talent deserves to be acknowledged. Anyway the main creative force on this volume is your creator Keith Giffen who plots and pencils nearly everything, with Robert Loren Fleming doing the scripting.

You mean Robert transcribes my words.

Erm... let's not have this argument now. There's some other folk to acknowledge as well. Except where mentioned, it's Keith and/or Robert on everything. Your first appearance in DC Comics Presents is written by Paul Kupperberg and your second is scripted by Paul Levitz. The Supergirl issue is written by Paul and drawn by Carmine Infantino. There's a brief sequence during Son of Ambush Bug drawn by Steve Bissette whilst Keith replaces the pencil you broke.

Do you have to remind me?

Moving onwards. Finally some extra pencilling on Ambush Bug Nothing Special is by Chris Sprouse and Bill Wray.

I know you don't normally do this but can we give Bob a shout out?

Sure why not? Nearly everything is inked by Bob Oksner.

Bob, what a guy. And sadly no longer with us.

It's amazing how often the Keith-Robert-Bob team appears given how many years these stories were produced over.

I got lucky and largely left to my own creator. I guess Keith was able to call the whole team together whenever he wanted.

It's nice when that happens and can allow for consistent presentation. Which brings me onto the first thing I noticed.

Oh heck, I know where this is going.

Yes your first appearance. You're a bit different from what you've since become.

Hey lots of characters have an inauspicious beginning. You wouldn't judge them solely on their first outings now would you?

Did they begin their careers as murderers?

Some did.

Who?

Erm...

It's no good looking around. There isn't a copy of Who's Who in the vicinity. Or a Marvel Handbook. There's a reason I chose this venue for this.

I was beginning to wonder.

Don't keep changing the subject. You started off as a clear villain, if a somewhat bonkers and frustrating one. Yet somehow your villainous side got forgotten and you instead became a generic pest.

It happens to some of the best of us - look at the Joker's early years. Or Catwoman's redemption. I just took it one step further.

Yeah your second appearance is different. A reprint of it was when I first saw you, nearly twenty-five years ago now. And I just have to ask: The Legion of Substitute Heroes. Why? Why? WHY?

The Legion of Super-Heroes were unavailable that day. And I've never worked out which day it was. You know what DC team-up comics are like when it comes to continuity.

Yes but the Legion of Substitute Heroes?! Was Superman trying to help you?

Come again?

I mean tying you to a lamppost or just telling you to stay put would have been a safer bet than entrusting you to the Legion of Substitute Heroes.

Aww come on. They're not the worst group ever. What about their Auxiliary? You know, the heroes who weren't quite ready for membership in the Substitute Heroes yet!

Not... ready... for... membership... in... the... Substitute... Heroes...

You have got to stop lifting dialogue and reusing it without properly quoting it.

You started it.

No I didn't.

Oh yes you did.

Oh no I didn't.

Oh yes you did.

Oh no I didn't.

Oh yes you did.

Oh no I didn't.

What is this, pantomime?

What is this pantomime?

You don't know?

Not really.

Erm... erm... erm... Shall we just go with "it's one of those British things that we just can't find a way to clearly explain to Americans"? Like cricket. And it's appropriate for this time of year.

And they say I'm the mad one.

Anyway, back to the stories and here's the cover again. Now we have this slapstick adventure and I guess that's what moved you into full wacky mode. And it's had slightly more reprints than your first appearance so clearly that image stuck.

Hey I'm not complaining.

And then the silliness increases when you encountered Supergirl - who you thought was Superman?!

How was I to know there was more than one sole survivor of Krypton? That doesn't make much sense.

Thank you John Byrne.

Please don't swear.

But despite not being able to tell the Supercousins apart you were able to deduce their identities.

One of them thinks a pair of glasses is a disguise. The other thinks a wig is. The only question is which is the more absurd disguise.

Or maybe you had inside information? We never actually see the point at which you gained awareness of your fictional status. Instead it just pops up as side comments in some short pieces in Action Comics which otherwise start satirising everything from Superman's origin to Spider-Man's two new costumes in 1984.

Hey it wasn't all satire. I got enhanced powers and the ability to teleport anywhere without relying on my little bugs.

Whoever had that idea must have quickly regretted it.

I've used it for good. Heck I even used it to take on Batmite.

Oh that was actually you in the cartoon and not some non-canonical alternate depiction?

Who do you think you're talking to? A DC Comics character?

...

Haven't you got anything further to say?

Oh yes, quite a bit. You didn't dive straight into satire though - your final DC Comics Presents appearance was a classic chaotic Superman story even if you and Kobra did know where you where.

Kobra? Who was Kobra?

The evil mastermind in the story.

I though that was Lex Luthor.

Not every bald evil genius in a Superman story is Lex Luthor.

You live and learn.

And then you got your own limited series after just a few years.

Woohoo! It's great isn't it?

It's... bizarre. It's not a coherent tale but rather a collection of random ramblings about comics and other bits and pieces, with a lot of the humour coming from highlighting the silliness of Silver Age DC comics.

I wanted to do something more substantial but first Cheeks got killed off then business was slow then Jonni DC came to try and sort out the continuity then...

Enough already! It's really turning into a satirical commentary on the comics industry rather than the adventures of one of its wackier characters.

Hey don't blame me! I wanted an all-star extravaganza but all the stars said no. And then Keith and Robert (I can't call him "Bob", that's too confusing here) decided to try something different.

How did they get the idea past Julius Schwartz?

Julie went to his grave wondering the same thing.

I guess editors don't always set direction.

No, indeed.

But here's the problem I have. Just what's the point of wasting limited space with such digs at old material? Surely it would have been better to focus on critiquing the modern direction of the industry?

You have to start somewhere and build up. Who was going to go into battle about Ace the Bathound or the Flash's true origin?

Indeed. But it's still not the most substantial is it? Anyway, next we have Ambush Bug Stocking Stuffer.

Don't open it before Christmas Day!

Erm it is Christmas Day.

Oh yeah.

Although what a zombie story has to do with Christmas is beyond me.

I like breaking conventions. And how else was I to get Cheeks back?

And also trying to refight the Vietnam War and take on Hukka. I had to look him up. Just what was Atari Force?

I couldn't understand either and I was there.

And that cliffhanger. Did you go to the actual Arkham Asylum class reunion?

What do you think I am, mad?

Well the Joker thought so.

There's a reason Batman always beats him.

Indeed. So instead you just did a puppet show. Now this next limited series came out in 1986. Is it pre Crisis or post Crisis?

Crisis? What Crisis?

You mean you transcend even different incarnations of the DC Multiverse?

I'm Ambush Bug. Need I say I any more?

Well I'm hoping so otherwise I'll have to fill the rest of this post by myself.

Okay I'll help.

You may regret that.

How so?

To be absolutely blunt, neither of your limited series really excites me. They're both rather incoherent, veering off all over the place and making a lot of the same jokes that get repetitive after a while.

Well they weren't intended to be read all at the same time.

True but the logical conclusion to that line of argument is that they should never have been collected together in this edition at all. And where would you get your royalties?

I don't get any. Should I?

Maybe a trip to the DC reprint office to sort this all out? But they'll be closed today so anyway these two limited series plus the Stocking Stuffer were all released in a period of just eighteen months so the jokes would have been only slightly less repetitive at the time.

Don't you like them at all?

Oh there are some good individual moments - Argh!yle! is especially funny as is the decision to correct his omission from Who's Who? But the vague general narratives of dealing with the Interferer, dying, coming back to life, going on trial, trying to get your super-villain licence back and the return (again) of Cheeks all keep getting lost under a whole string of not too funny moments that are either saying the same old things again and again (and again...) or making obscure cultural references that are both dated and geographically locked.

Well it was published in another country. And unlike Marvel it didn't even pretend to be global with some foreign prices printed on the cover.

Not true - DC did two cover variants in this era, presumably newstand and direct market versions. The one not used in this volume has Canadian and British prices on it. And more recently the back cover of the Showcase Presents edition has a Canadian price on it.

But no English one?

British. The adjective is "British"!

Is that a touchy subject?

Yes. We don't call the US "Texas" do we? Or Canada "Ontario"? So why do Americans consistently fail to call my country by its name? The scene setting captions in your adventures are just as bad.

Is it even worth arguing with you about this one?

Quite simply no.

Okay then...

Let's move onwards. But wait - how did you get away with Mitsu Bishi?

I never could understand. The lawyer mumbled something about intellectual property, parody, different spheres and then I screamed "ENOUGH!!!" and paid her there and then. She was charging by the minute. By the minute! BY THE MINUTE!!

Disgraceful isn't it? But surely DC were covering your expenses?

I have a feeling I'm going to have to go to an awful lot of offices once this is over.

They'll all be closed today. And tomorrow. And the next day.

Will they ever open?

Do you have a substitute Bank Holiday for Boxing Day?

Boxing Day? What's that?

The day after Christmas Day. It's full of traditions up to and including chaos in the sales.

We do that on Black Friday. Do you know it?

The day after Thanksgiving?

Yeah that's it.

Yeah we have it too. Despite not having Thanksgiving.

That's ridiculous!

I know. But the retail industry often makes silly decisions.

It's the same in the States.

How did this all begin?

There are many different stories. It's a multiple choice origin.

Like yours.

I'm one of the few characters to have agreed to do Secret Origins who actually realised what the title means.

It's handy. And somehow you managed to duck out of the National Bureau of Origins's attempts to extract it.

It helped that Keith had been a bit busy at the time. Have you ever read Invasion?

Only the Justice League International tie-ins. Fleetway Editions felt that running the main story would take far too long when Superman and the Justice League was bimonthly. It would also have meant there wasn't room to reprint one of your earlier adventures in the final issue before a relaunch.

Couldn't you have gone to your local comic shop?

We only briefly had one in Epsom and it was around that time it got hit in an arson attack.

An arson attack on a comic shop? Are you kidding me?

No, but as this was in 1992 it's hard to find details on the internet - the local paper doesn't have all its old stories online. But it was called Trojan Comics so keep an eye out with Google from time to time.

Okay I'll have to take your word for it. Did it ever return?

I'm not too sure - there was another a year later but it was above another shop and I can't remember its name or if it was the same people. And it seemed to be out of date compared to other comic shops - looking back I suspect that by the time I found the shop it had fallen in debt to the distributor who had retaliated with delayed shipments. It folded after a few months.

Gee that's too bad. How did you keep up with comics?

I was lucky enough to have a rail season ticket that allowed me access to the whole of London and so could access other shops there. But anyway we have one final issue in this volume - Ambush Bug Nothing Special.

It's horrible the way the legal information fuses the title into that.

I believe you wanted it to be an annual?

Yes - but it would have to have been part of the "Eclipso" crossover that ran in them all.

Amazing that DC kept trying with that format years after Marvel abandoned it. And you even tried to have a crossover issue as well.

Only to get Brownouto, Eclipso's third cousin twice removed. I ask you, is that any way to treat the star?

But your real enemy was elsewhere. And I don't mean Argh!yle!

No it was always Julie. A man who would defy even death to hold his position forever.

Sounds like Kim Il-sung.

Come again?

North Korea's head of state is the Eternal President of the Republic, Kim Il-sung, the grandfather of the current day to day leader Kim Jong-un.

So the head of state is a dead guy?!

Yeah - he's sort of President for After-Life.

Now I get it. Yeah Julie was always the ultimate problem but I did my best.

I particularly liked the sequence where you had ridiculous muscles, physically impossible poses and no coherent dialogue whatsoever. Now I wonder what that could have been parodying?

I wonder!

But overall it was a bit of the same old, even if a single special meant all the effort had to be focused on just the one issue. I guess my problem is that if I want rambling incoherent narratives I'll look to old Image comics.

Well I did the best I could. But I guess your tastes weren't for it.

Maybe. But you did still have some nice moments. For instance at the very end of the book we get a special feature - a "Where's Irwin?" doublepage in the style of Where's Wally?

You mean Where's Waldo? What's all this Wally stuff?

That's his original name in his original market.

Who's bright idea was that?

Wally? His creator's? Waldo? His North American publishers.

Why can't they leave things the way they are?

I know. But it happens on both sides of the Atlantic and the consumers rarely get a say. You were lucky - in different circumstances you could have been renamed!

Me?! But Ambush Bug is an amazing name! I'm named after an insect. Why would anyone want to rename me?

Because the ambush bug insects (called Phymatidae or Phymatinae by those who understand classification naming and can explain what those different spellings mean) aren't native over here so a lot of the joke is lost on a British audience.

A pity but hey it hasn't stopped my fan club growing.

No - and I see I'm an honorary member thanks to this book.

We wanted to offer more than any other book delivers.

And it works. Let's see that cover just one more time - and it's even bigger than ever. It's interesting to see your evolution from villain to extraordinary pest to commentator. I guess I was just expecting much more of your pest era as that's all I saw of you all those years ago.

The curse of limited foreign reprints.

Yeah. Still it wasn't the end even if Batmite did declare you "a pretty obscure hero even for this show" when you turned up on Batman: The Brave and the Bold.

What would he know in his own dimension?! I may not have saved the show but I helped save the people of Gotham from being turned to bananas, got Batman to reassert his core identity, made a Scrappy disappear, organised a great party, talked to Ted McGinley and had the most appropriate voice artist ever to fight jumping the shark - Henry Winkler.

How many of the show's target audience even got that joke?

Who cares? The episode was for the fanboys!

And your greatest moment.

Thank you.

I notice your speech style is different across appearances.

It's multiple choice, like so much else about me.

Ambush Bug - A character for all circumstances. And a great sport for coming to contribute to this even when I wasn't always the biggest fan.

It's good to get multiple perspectives.

Indeed. Thank you for this.

Thank you.

Rocket Raccoon: Guardian of the Keystone Quadrant

Another look at a series that is not touched by the Essentials.

Rocket Raccoon: Guardian of the Keystone Quadrant is a Panini pocket book that reprints the four part Rocket Raccoon limited series from the 1980s plus the story introducing Groot from Tales to Astonish #13, Rocket's first appearance from Marvel Preview #7 and another Rocket tale from Incredible Hulk #271. Everything is written by Bill Mantlo bar the Tales to Astonish story, which is written by Larry Lieber. The limited series is drawn by Mike Mignola, the Tales to Astonish story by Jack Kirby, the Marvel Preview tale by Keith Giffen and the Incredible Hulk issue by Sal Buscema.

I first encountered the limited series as a back-up strip in back issus of Marvel UK's Transformers. There it suffered the fate of a lot of strips that when broken down into five or six pages an issue the flow can be jarring and I dismissed it as a piece of silliness. Reading it altogether brings a very different perspective. It's quite a good take on one of the traditional themes of science fiction - the long isolated planet that has evolved from its mission without really understanding it. Halfworld in the Keystone Quadrant is a strange planet, half a lush paradise occupied by anthropomorphic animals looking after the mentally ill, half a technological dystopia occupied by robots who manufacture toys the aforesaid mentally ill whilst also perpetually building a giant spaceship to breach the "Galacian Wall" barrier surrounding the system.

How this state of affairs came about is a mystery that is only slowly resolved when the inventor and scholar Pyko steals and deciphers the Halfworld Bible. In the meantime Ranger Rocket Raccoon gets caught in a power struggle between rival toy manufacturers Lord Dyvyne and Judson Jakes, the latter being the guardian of Rocket's girlfriend Lylla and proprietor of her firm, Mayhem Mekaniks. Dyvyne seeks to kidnap and marry Lylla as part of a hostile take-over, but his agent Blackjack O'Hare proves uncontrollable with ideas of his own. Rocket and his first mate Wal Russ, who is also Lylla's uncle, set out to rescue her aboard the ship Rakk 'N Ruin.

This is a tale that works well on two very different levels. On one, it's a simple adventure tale that uses animals instead of humans as its characters but otherwise presents a classic story of rescuing the girl and saving the world with Rocket himself as the hero. On another, it's a strong piece of social commentary, both about the intense rivalry and take-over business culture but also a plea for the plight of the mentally ill. Here they have been abandoned and left to be indulged for many generations, yet it's thanks to Rocket and Pyko that a true cure is found. The use of the term "loonies" may now seem insensitive but otherwise this is a strong plea for understanding the mentally ill and not writing them off. All in all this is quite a good little tale that would have been overlooked but for Rocket's later incorporation into the Guardians of the Galaxy.

Three additional stories are included as well. Groot's first appearance is a simple monster tale of its era where the hero is an intellectual who shows to his wife there's more to being a hero than being physically strong. Groot himself is just a strange alien that grows his body by absorbing wood and the main mystery is why a monarch is personally collecting specimens for examination. Rocket’s own debut in the pages of Marvel Preview is equally unmemorable bar for the very different location from what is to come. This black and white tale of Prince Wayfinder, "a modern Ulysses", sees a space wanderer come to Witch-World, a forest planet of wild trees and strange creatures, ruled by its own Kirke. On the planet he encounters a hunter in the form of Rocket, a talking racoon. It's very hard to fit this appearance with what's revealed in the limited series.

Also difficult to fit is Incredible Hulk #271, which sees the Hulk land on Halfworld and meet many of the characters in their first appearance but it's a slightly different set-up from the later limited series. There are no mentally ill on the planet and many of the item and company names are different. As a one-off tale of a strange planet visited by the Hulk it works but it's easy to see why more had to be added for the limited series to tell a mini-epic.

Despite exposing the continuity differences, this is a nice little collection that was released to tie in with the sudden new popularity of Rocket Raccoon and Groot when the Guardians of the Galaxy movie came out. It's a nice showcase of their early adventures and nearly thirty years after Marvel UK's split printing it's nice to see the limited series now reprinted here in one go.

Essential Defenders volume 3

Essential Defenders volume 3 reprints issues #31-60 and Annual #1. Bonus material consists of Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe entries for Doctor Strange, Hellcat and Valkyrie and the team entries for the Defenders and Zodiac. Most of the writing is by Steve Gerber, who also does the annual, and David Anthony Kraft with contributions Gerry Conway, Roger Slifer, John Warner and Chris Claremont and back-ups by Naomi Basner and Scott Edelman. The art is mainly by Sal Buscema, who also does the annual, and Keith Giffen with other work by Dave Cockrum, Michael Golden, Carmine Infantino, George Tuska and Ed Hannigan with the back-ups by Sandy Plunkett and Juan Ortiz. Inevitably there's a separate post for some of the labels.

It's amazing that this is volume 3 of a series and yet it begins as early as issue #31 without a preceding substantial run under another title. This been mainly been down to a combination of the Giant-Sizes and the crossover with Avengers, but it has also meant that previous progress has been slow for the team. Now we get a run of thirty issues with only an annual for additional material and so the team can develop more quickly. And it's increasingly clear that the Defenders aren't really a "non-team". It's clear who's a member and who is a guest star, with Devil Slayer's arrival having some trappings of a formal initiation with welcomes and handshakes, putting lie to the idea that any hero who hangs around for even a single adventure is a Defender. There may not be a formal constitution or salary scheme - Nighthawk finds himself covering just about all expenses from damages to Power Man's fees - but there's a recognised post of leader, which changes hands in this volume, and a flow of recruits.

Of the new or returning members, Power Man has the weakest ties and soon leaves, feeling he's more of a loner and just not suited to being on a team. As he was initially called in by Jack Norriss as reinforcements to protect Nighthawk in his hospital bed from Plantman whilst the other Defenders are overwhelmed or busy elsewhere, his attachment to the team was never that strong. Devil Slayer joins right near the end and so it's not possible to see here how he will last. The new Red Guardian seems to have more staying power but is soon blackmailed into returning to the Soviet Union where she is captured and subject to experiments by the Presence who is seeking to enhance his own power with nuclear energy and has selected her to be his mate. After this she remains under Soviet custody. An interesting hero who combines a day job as a top neurosurgeon and a secret role as a street champion of the ordinary people who has taken up the identity previously used by an Avengers foe, Tania Belinsky offers some potential but falls into the same problems so many female heroes have of having her powers changed fairly early on whilst her identity isn't original. Consequently her departure isn't that big an impact on the series, especially as other women are coming to the forefront with Doctor Strange's girlfriend Clea now playing a role in several adventures and even getting her own solo story when the series briefly switches to a two story format, allowing her to defeat the sorcerer Nicodemus.

But by far the most significant new recruit is Hellcat. She actually opts to hang around with the Defenders instead of taking up a longstanding offer to join the Avengers, and offers a delightful approach to heroing. She has a light hearted, fun loving adventurous approach and talks like - well maybe not a normal person in the real world of the late 1970s but certainly much less formal than many a hero. She is a welcome addition to the team and it's already easy to see she will become one of the core Defenders in the long run. Not acknowledged at all is her past as Patsy Walker, star of multiple teen soap comics that were Marvel's answer to Archie, bar references to her ex-husband Buzz's attitudes, but that doesn't seem to matter at the moment. Appearing as clear guest stars are the likes of Moon Knight and Ms. Marvel, whilst the Sub-Mariner returns but very much in guest star mode.

The first third of the volume is taken up with a length saga involving the Headmen - who have recruited a fourth member, the female Ruby Thursday with an artificial shape changing head - and Nebulon, now operating through a strange cult devoted to "Celestial Mind Control". The early issues have the pretty outlandish idea of the Headmen capturing Nighthawk and replacing his brain with that of Chondu of the Headmen in order to infiltrate the Defenders. It gets more complex when Jack Norriss's spirit is put into Nighthawk's body whilst Chondu's spirit is displaced to "Bambi", a young deer the Hulk has befriended. Whilst a disembodied brain Nighthawk relives his past and we learn about how he grew up monetarily rich but emotionally poor, sadly an all-too common combination, and see a succession of tragedies that made him the man he now is. Eventually Jack's spirit and Nighthawk's brain are restored to their own bodies, albeit with Nighthawk experiencing a crisis of awareness as he wonders just what is and isn't real, but Chondu ends up in a new composite body at the cost of "Bambi". Elsewhere Valkyrie is arrested and sent to a women's prison, with the other Defenders unaware of her fate. Inside the jail she faces bullying from other inmates, made worse by her inability to harm another woman, and a warden who tries to rape her. However she grows in popularity with other prisoners to the point that a riot starts for better conditions and her work in diffusing it helps to get her released with all charges dropped. Meanwhile Nebulon, leading a race of fish-like lizards called Luberdites, has set up the Celestial Mind Control cult to take over and "liberate" the world through advancing humanity. Amongst those drawn in are the old Marvel foes the Eel and the Porcupine. The CMC movement seeks presidential endorsement and a United Nations posting but the Headmen try to take it over for their own scheme. In the end the Defenders beat the Headmen and show Nebulon how his movement would undermine humanity's will. It's a complex story that lasts nearly a year, with the climax placed in the annual; one of the first times Marvel resorted to such a method in the superhero titles. It's also almost the last story by Steve Gerber on the series though he does one further issue with Doctor Strange's old foe Shazana reappearing; this feels like a fill-in idea being used up in a hurry.

In general Gerber's issues don't show much of his often used overt social commentary beyond the contemporary fad for cults that took an alternative mental approach, and whilst Tania's presence is used for occasional contrasts between the way things are in the United States and the Soviet Union but it's more of an aside to reinforce her outsider character rather than either propaganda about the superiority of the west or an exploration of alternatives. Instead the focus primarily on weird action, bar a brief use of a female presidential candidate as an alias for the Headmen's activities. However there's a brief scene in the annual that is set in New Delhi and the captions feel highly polemical, portraying India as a backward, illiterate and superstitious country, criticising the capital as primitive and expressing outrage that such a country can be a nuclear power. This is beyond a critic of nuclear weapons in general and feels very much a piece of American superiority pouring scorn on other countries for daring to raise themselves to a similar level of defence and independence. And nothing in these captions is remotely relevant to the story at hand.

Gerber's departure leaves one particular subplot still unexplained - the mysterious Elf with a gun who pops up at random to kill random people. And the new writers don't explain why. Instead issue #46 sees the Elf about to shoot the paper boy at the Richmond Riding Academy when suddenly a lorry thunders down the road and runs over the Elf. Consequently we're left with an unexplained and somewhat random chain of events that show that in life not everything has an explanation and instead we sometimes only get to glimpse a bigger pattern without ever knowing the reason why. It's a good little metaphor for life though it's the kind of approach that doesn't satisfy all comic readers so it remains to be seen if any later writers will instead seek to explain the Elf. All in all Gerber's run on Defenders has been solid though not spectacular and he has made the series quite distinct.

Some of the distinctiveness remains with successive writers as the threats remain a mixture of the unusual and off the wall but there are some stock ideas in use, especially in the middle of the volume when it takes some time to settle a new writer.  Egghead founds a team of existing villains called the Emissaries of Evil, including the Rhino, Solarr and the Cobalt Man, but it doesn't last and is ultimately consumed by infighting. Then Doctor Strange succumbs to the control of the Star of Capistan and assumes the villainous identity of Red Rajah. After his defeat he opts to leave the team for the time being with Nighthawk taking over as leader and the team's de facto base shifting to the Richmond Riding Academy on Long Island. Both Doctor Strange and his Sanctum Sanctorum return within this volume but it's a sign of how the series has grown strong enough to no longer rely on the good doctor and his villains as the core of the series.

Nighthawk's leadership faces a baptism of fire in another mini-epic as the villain Scorpio - actually Jake Fury, the S.H.I.E.L.D. director's brother - tries to create a new Zodiac society, this time with the other eleven as artificial lifeforms. However not all are "born" successfully and he's especially distraught at the "still birth" of Virgo. Feeling lonely, old, unachieving and depressed he opts to take his life. Suicide should always be handled carefully in media and reasons never casually given, making this downbeat ending a rather dubious move. After this we get a string of new foes in short tales, such as the Ringer, a fighter who can expand and throw constraining rings, Lunatik, a vigilante attacking people on the university campus, and a cult worshipping the demon Belathauzer. The main extended foe in this period is the aforementioned Presence. There's a guest appearance by Ms. Marvel as the Defenders go against AIM in a sequel to one of her solo adventures and it feels as though the issue was written as a potential fill-in that could be dropped into either series as and when necessary.

The other main character developments come with Valkyrie as she continues to adapt to the unfamiliar world. Jack Norriss remains devoted to her but she is increasingly unable to return the emotion and has to forcibly explain she just isn't his wife despite occupying her body. Her unfamiliarity with the world around her shows, especially during her time in prison, and on Nighthawk's suggestion that she enrol at a local university under Barbara Norriss's name, enduring the mess of bureaucracy and bringing further culture clashes whilst she proves rather bad at keeping her identity a secret. Jack proves unable to stay away, even when Nighthawk tries to buy him off, though near the end he accepts an offer to join S.H.I.E.L.D. and goes looking for the spy organisation.

The supporting cast has a few additions, including the first appearance of Kris Keating, a police lieutenant who would go on to be a recurring pain in the Spider-Man titles. (Well actually it may not be afterall but that's for another time.) Valkyrie's enrolment at university brings her into contact with fellow students "Ledge" and "Dollar Bill"; the latter is a film buff who starts hanging around the Defenders and taking over Jack Norriss's role as non-powered helper. Bill even brings along a film camera only to curse the shots he can get. Otherwise he provides a degree of comic relief.

 In general this volume shows a series that's trying hard to offer up a distinctive approach that combines seriousness, alternative looks and comedy. The problem is that a lot of it feels rather flat and just going through motions rather than really setting things on fire. Apart from Scorpio's suicide there are no moments that feel especially badly handled but something seems to be keeping the volume just a few steps above mediocre.

Essential Super-Villain Team-Up volume 1 - creator labels

Once again we have a volume with a lot of creators, so here's a separate post to carry the labels for some of them.

Essential Killraven volume 1 - creator labels

Once again there are a lot of creators in this volume, hence a separate post to carry the labels for them.