1985 - Anatomy of a Cover - The Defenders #149 by Kevin Nowlan

The New Defenders by Carl Potts

1983 - The New Defenders Ad

From Amazing Heroes #32

1985 - Anatomy of a cover - The New Defenders #129

 

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1984 - Anatomy of a cover - New Defenders #127

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1985 - The New Defenders (Part Three)

The New Defenders: Teaming up the non-team part III
By: Jef Willemsen (clarmindcontrol.blogspot.com)

Wrapping up this three part look at The New Defenders, one conclusion already seems obvious. It should really have been titled ‘Moondragon… featuring the New Defenders’.

Both Peter B. Gillis and his predecessor J.M. DeMatteis were rather taken with Moondragon, featuring the arrogant telepath prominently during their runs. Gillis especially seemed determined to mine her backstory for all it was worth. Hinting at a deeper darkness growing underneath Moondragon’s exterior, Gillis revealed how young Heather Douglas grew from an innocent little girl to be the haughty high priestess of the mind.

As it turns out, Moondragon took her codename after beating an evil entity known as the Dragon of the Moon. This immensely powerful, immortal, and subversive creature tried to corrupt her, planting part of his evil inside her head. Refusing his offerings, Heather fought valiantly to remove his presence from her mind. Thinking she had succeeded in defeating the Dragon, her confidence quickly grew to borderline arrogance. In reality, the Dragon had left its permanent mark on her, an ever present and increasing temptation to give in and accept his power.

This approach allowed Gillis to show a new side to Moondragon. She had always been portrayed as a stuck up snob who was in love with her own power, which of course she was. But by having her resist the Dragon’s influence, rightly believing it would corrupt her, she became something of a lamentable anti-hero. At least, that’s what she considered herself to be.  She felt she was fighting hard and doing the right thing and grew increasingly frustrated over the fact she didn’t receive any credit for it. A tragic notion that added a new layer to an otherwise one note character and led to an unexpected breakdown.

This outburst was her first step on the path to humility. Remember how Odin had placed that headband on her to dampen her powers, forcing Moondragon to relearn the ways of man? It finally came off when the Defenders were forced to go up against a band of Asgardian trolls who were planning an invasion of Midgard. The team was captured and the trolls offered to remove Moondragon’s headband. Despite being tempted by both her own desire to be free ánd the Dragon of the Moon, she outright refused and redeemed herself in the eyes, well, eye of the All-Father.

Freed from the headband, Moondragon’s full powers returned with a vengeance. Luckily, recent experiences had indeed tempered her arrogant behavior and she actually became a valuable and willing member of the team. Alas, disaster soon struck when the gamma spore creature formerly known as Ephraim Soles returned to threaten the Defenders again. After their initial fight in Gillis’ first issue, the creature escaped as a handful of tiny spores that infected the grass of a local cattle farm. When a rather unlucky cow ate the spore grass, it became pregnant… the eventual birth resulted in a revolting scene that somehow made it past the Comics Code Authority.

Quickly mutating into a massive, uncontrollable form, the spore creature made its way to the New Defenders base where it infected and invaded all it could find. The team defeated it, thanks to an ingenious combination of Moondragon and Gargoyle’s powers. But Moondragon didn’t escape unscathed, as subsequent issues revealed. She had been infected by the sentient spores who were slowly mutating her body into a new host… a process she would not survive. Faced with certain death, Moondragon finally succumbed to the Dragon in a moody, foreboding tale told in issues #143 & 144.

“I am free again, young ones.”

Over the course of # 144, the vastly more powerful Moondragon cleaned the New Defenders’ collective clocks. Blinding Angel, turning Gargoyle’s demon body against him and casually teleporting Valkyrie away, the Dragon seemed assured of victory. That is, until Brunhilda dramatically returned with her fellow Valkyries in tow. Odin had been aware of the Dragon’s presence in Moondragon, that’s why he released her in Valkyrie’s care, in preparation for the creature’s reemergence. In final combat, it was Cloud who delivered the apparent deathblow to Moondragon, but her remains were never found.

In the months that followed, Gillis dealt with the impact of the Moondragon controversy. Angel’s blindness proved incurable, Cloud was revealed to be a sentient nebula that assumed the forms of two teens who were both left comatose following a car accident, the team got a visit from the former Ghostrider and also gained a new member in the Atlantean warrior woman Andromeda. They also finally got around to electing an official leader: Angel’s girlfriend Candy Southern who didn’t have any superpowers but proved quite adept at handling the non team’s official team business. And while all of this was going down… In Siberia a mysterious stranger decided to go for a walk.

All in all, the New Defenders finally seemed ready to have another go at being a proper superhero team. Alas, there were two threats about to end their existence altogether. Moondragon had survived, still possessed by the Dragon and ready for revenge… But there was a far more lethal threat on the horizon: imminent cancellation. The year was 1986, the 25th anniversary of Marvel Comics and then-editor in chief Jim Shooter decided to celebrate a quarter century of established and beloved characters by starting a completely New Universe.

To make room in the company’s publishing schedule, several struggling titles received the axe. Power Man and Iron Fist was cancelled and the New Defenders shared their fate. Under the gun, Peter B. Gillis rushed to wrap up the book… and what better way to end things than by having Moondragon return to kill the team once and for all?

The New Defenders’ swansong was told in issues # 151 and the double sized  152, which was jam packed with the biggest wrap up and deck clearing exercise of the 1980s. The mysterious stranger turned out to be the Interloper, an Eternal who was the Dragon of the Moon’s arch enemy. Interloper revealed he had trained the insane telepathic hitman Manslaughter, who popped up wanting to join the team and actually proved invaluable during the final confrontation with Moondragon...

Gillis gives an impressive final showing in his portrayal of Manslaughter’s madness. Trying to preserve her sanity, Moondragon flees the scene in an attempt to exorcise the demons that just got pumped into her mind. And who would show up during this struggle but… The Beyonder?

Heck, this was still 1986 after all, there had to be a Secret Wars II tie-in at some point, right? The Beyonder did what every other jerry curled deus ex machina does best: show up and mess things up. Not recognizing Moondragon’s deeper issues, the one from beyond falls for her line that she wants to be his disciple… He grants her a fragment of his vast powers and departs, leaving her to head straight back to Defenders headquarters for a final showdown.

It turned out to be a brutal battle, one that only ended after Valkyrie, Andromeda, Manslaughter and the Interloper gave up their very lives to stop Moondragon. Only Beast, Angel and Iceman were left standing when the…dust… settled.

Ashes and dust… all that’s left of the once noble and proud New Defenders… AngelBeast and Iceman were the only ones left alive. They would soon join Cyclops and Jean Grey to form the first incarnation of X-Factor. And what of their fallen comrades? Apart from the Interloper, most of them would eventually return from the dead in a series of tales Gillis wrote for Solo Avengers #16,18, and 20. But those are stories best left for another time.

On a closing note: despite the rush of impending cancellation, Gillis brought Moondragon’s story full circle on the book’s last page. In spite of her being juiced up by the Beyonder’s power, let alone the Dragon’s corruption, she used her final moments to do the right thing. She restored Angel’s sight, cured Cloud’s comatose templates and even healed Chris Larmouth, a largely forgotten victim of the gamma spore creature’s second attack.

More importantly, she performed these Samaritan acts not as Moondragon, mistress of the mind or high priestess of the soul… but as Heather Douglas of Earth. Finally, she had learned just what being human meant… No longer did she seek to impose her will on her fellow man, all she did was give them the chance to live their lives. Heather Douglas triumphed over all her flaws and inherent evil, proving herself at long last to be the most human of us all.

Guest Blog: 1983 - The New Defenders (Part One)

The New Defenders: Teaming up the Non-Team Part One
By: Jef Willemsen (clarmindcontrol.blogspot.com)

Anyone remember the time some of the founding X-Men fought crime alongside a demon? On a team led by a woman with no super powers?

No, not the Champions of Los Angeles…. The New Defenders. The year is 1983 and J.M. DeMatteis decided to reinvent the non-team by turning it into… well, a team. And what a team it was! Having Beast, Iceman and Angel team up with Valkyrie, the demonic geriatric Gargoyle, the  hermaphroditic Cloud and  a rather reluctant Moondragon? It should have bombed horribly. But it didn’t. Reason enough to take a fond look back at the New Defenders…

So, how did this new and improved Defenders team come about? DeMatteis had been writing the title for a number of years, penning his usual psycho-analytical stories on the meaning of life and the human condition, when he slowly started working towards ridding himself of the team’s founding fathers Hulk, Doctor Strange, Namor and Silver Surfer.

This resulted in a convoluted storyline that convinced the four of them that their continued adventuring together would lead to the inevitable destruction of Earth. Buying into this, the foursome showed up at the end of issue #125, to dovetail a tale that also saw long-time Defenders Hellcat and Hellstrom married off. They were right on time to give the new team their blessing.

This left a new core team consisting of Angel, Beast, Iceman, Valkyrie, Gargoyle and, of all people… Moondragon. It soon became clear DeMatteis clearly was most fond of this snooty bald telepath and she quickly became the breakout character of the book.

Most of her appeal came from the fact she didn’t even want to be there. Moondragon had been judged by the Asgardian ruler Odin himself after she had enslaved an entire alien race over in Avengers. Odin’s verdict was simple: Moonie was to relearn humanity and the meaning of humility. Not exactly an easy process.
He created a mystical headband that severely limited her mental abilities and caused great pain whenever she tried to use more of her powers. The headband would only come off once Moondragon had been taught humility.

Making sure  she would learn this lesson, Odin placed her in the care of long-time Defender Valkyrie. Returning to Earth with Val, Moondragon reluctantly joined the team. Her trademark arrogance quickly became a bitter sort of comic relief when her abilities proved no longer equal to her notorious bluster and bravado.

Fortunately, the mistress of the mind was determined to make the best of the situation. Sure, she was no longer able to control the minds of the masses… but all she needed was a few good men. She began to subtly alter the minds of the male members of the team, trying to make them  fall in love with her so she might persuade them to remove the headband.

Speaking of the Defenders’ male members… The presence of so many founding X-men on the team, allowed DeMatteis to examine just how they had evolved since the early days at Xavier’s school for gifted youngsters. The Beast, the eldest of the three, was looking for new ways to reinvent himself as he had matured beyond the blue-furred class clown. Angel was also looking for a deeper meaning to life, having grown tired of the playboy millionaire shtick. And under DeMatteis’ tutelage, Iceman was reinvented as a graduated accountant who found his chosen line of profession dull beyond words and felt forced to crunch numbers in order to appease his parents who simply couldn’t stand his superheroing.

DeMatteis wrote the three mutants as older, more experienced people. They were the best of friends thanks to their shared experiences as X-men, but their individual paths in life had showed them being a superhero wasn’t necessarily the be all and end all of existence. A refreshing change of pace at the time.

Complimenting the roster was the Gargoyle, aka Isaac Christiaans, an old Defender and one of DeMatteis’ original creations. He proved an excellent vehicle for the writer’s interest in introspective tales on ageing, regret, the despair of roads not taken and accepting the inevitable. After all, if a 78 year old man sells his soul to the devil and gets trapped in the body of an immortal gargoyle, there are quite a few stories to tell. Yet, it was a change he actually took in stride. Gargoyle even found new love with the Defenders’ housekeeper Dolly… Yet even Isaac got the hots for Moondragon.

This subplot was ever present during the team’s first adventure.  A mysterious force was causing trouble for Nick Fury and SHIELD, so Beast, eager to prove the new Defenders’ worth, volunteered to help Fury out. They soon discovered the culprits were  Professor Power and the Secret Empire. But before the Defenders got to Power himself, they had to face off against Mad Dog and his Mutant Force, the gargantuan Leviathan and even the Mandroids. During all this, Moondragon took every opportunity to shine and impress…

Eventually, they confronted Power and the Empire… And lost. Capturing the team, Power decided to use them as pawns in his ongoing revenge against professor Xavier. Power still believed Xavier was responsible for the fate of his son Matthew, a young man who was rendered comatose during a fight Xavier had with the evil telepath Mentallo.

Power, his mind transferred to the fit body of his son, planned to take Xavier’s ‘children’ from him as well by having the Defenders kill the New Mutants. Still, Power hadn’t considered Moondragon’s powers, trying to control someone who once ruled several billion minds is like trying to drown water. She saw through the ruse and was essential in Power’s eventual downfall... Crossing a line few heroes ever dared cross.

On a sidenote: thematically, DeMatteis was able to tie this plot point into the storyline of Beast, Angel and Iceman pondering  how their lives had changed since their days at Xavier’s. They were no longer teenagers let alone students or young heroes in training. For better or worse, they had come into their own…

This realization could have provided DeMatteis with plenty of new stories to tell, but he actually left with # 131, handing over the reigns to Peter B. Gillis. Existing subplots like Moondragon’s scheming were taken into new, unexpected territories as the tone of the book shifted from the introspective to the bizarre and horrific. More on that in part two of The New Defenders: Teaming Up The Non-Team.