From the amazon.ca entry:
Elves, Gods, and Over-Minds - oh my! What else can you expect when your team's starting lineup consists of a sorcerer, a gargoyle, a Valkyrie, a pair of X-Men, a former model, the Son of Satan, and more of Marvel's wildest warriors? Far out fantasy the likes you've never seen, that's what! Guest-Starring Odin, the New Mutants and more! 256 pages.
COLLECTING: DEFENDERS (1972) 122-124; NEW DEFENDERS 125-131
"I remember always wanting to like this book, but the interior art never appealed to me. I was drawn in by the amazing covers, but the interior art paled in comparison."
ReplyDeleteRight there with you. Most of this run (all of it?) was included in a few boxes of comics I bought at auction a few years ago, but I still haven't read them, because it was so painful to get through the art on the first few.
Kind of a shame.
Same here... interiors did nothing for me...
ReplyDeleteTotal shame!
Totally agree! The NEW Defenders just looked so cool on the covers! Angel/Red, Beast/blue, Moony/green, Iceman/white, Gargoyle/orange+purple......
ReplyDeletebut the stories were as lame as the int. art.
Manslaughter?? WTF was up with that loser?
The Interloper? Stupid name, stupid look, just stupid.
The only decent villains I remember the New Defenders fighting were Mad-Dog and Prof.Power, and they were pretty lame, too, i just liked their costumes.
starfoxxx
well said starfoxxx well said!
ReplyDeleteThe Defenders was always a favorite title of mine. Who doesn't like writers like Englehart and Gerber. Kraft was an excellent writer. One thing that I think makes the "New Defenders" a less satisfying read, is that Peter Gillis was following JM DeMatteis. Gillis' stories on this title just weren't as good as DeMatteis'. Still, I did enjoy them... even the gender-bending Cloud stuff.
ReplyDeleteIn regard to the art, I don't think Don Perlin was ever a fan fave. Certainly, I never bought a comic simply because he was drawing it. However, he was professional who met his deadlines and, on occasion, turned in some nice stuff.
I had a subscription to this title and remember being so ticked off when it was canceled, so the Beast, Iceman, and Angel could be written in the new X-Factor comic.
I was hoping they would continue with the Essential series of this book, which ends at these issues.
ReplyDeletePerlin was a good, reliable penciller, though never a flashy artist. I've learned to appreciate him more since seeing these issues when I was young.
Recently, I was reading a interview with Mr. Perlin(who I didn't realize lives here in Jacksonviille Florida, even contributes to the local paper) that he changed his style when working on the title. He had seen the style of the Hernandez bros. and tried to emulate that.
I started reading this book when I found out via the Marvel Handbook that Angel and Iceman were joining the team. And at the time I was really into the old X-men. Unfortunately the art, and in many cases the stories, just weren't that great in my opinion. Yeah the covers were great, but the villains and supporting characters were uninspired. Some that I remember...
ReplyDelete- that giant guy in the yellow jumpsuit, Leviathan?
- a wannabe bodybuilder who turned into a plant creature alien thing
- The Walrus
- Hotspur
- Cutlass and Typhoon (just horrible!)
- the magician who turned Gargoyle evil
- Candy Southern becomes team leader, and putting on a costume as Southern Belle
It almost seemed like the writer wasn't allowed to really use anything substantial in the book. At the time X-Men and the Avengers had awesome villains and stories, but it always felt like New Defenders was excluded from the rest of the Marvel Universe. It's too bad, I hoped the book would get better, but I eventually gave up. It wasn't until later, while reading X-Factor #1 I found out that all the non X-men members had been "killed off". So I quickly tracked down the final issue of New Defenders. A rather bittersweet end...until they came back as the Dragon Circle (which just seemed too convoluted for it's own good).
In recent years I'm revisiting the bronze and copper age of marvel comics, and discovered the New Defenders. It was fun to see something from that time period that I didn't know at that time.
ReplyDeleteI think the Defenders were always wacky and very 70s, and I for my part really enjoy the second-string and campy characters. It all feels very copper age, and I'm so tired of the over-hyped "big three" that I find it quite refreshing to read about "lame", more obscure characters.
I thought the interior art is quite solid, but of course the covers were really nice, too!
Hey THE BEHOLDER, thanks for the comment!
ReplyDelete