Eighties August 8 part I: Best Debuts Of The 1980s

By Jef Willemsen (clarmindcontrol.blogspot.com)

With only eight days left til the end of August, yours truly figured a fitting way to count down to the fall season would be through various 1980s related top 8 lists. So for the next 8 days, we'll be covering a variety of Marvel Comics related topics. From best 80s writer and artist to best moments and more. In this initial entry, we'll start things off with the best debuts of the decade*.

8) - HYDRO-MAN (Debut: Amazing Spider-Man I#212, January 1981)

Now hear me out... Spider-Man has very few enduring, thriving villains that Stan Lee and Steve Ditko did not create. Most of the wallcrawler's band of baddies hail from the 1960s. The haul from the 1970s is pretty forgettable and nowadays most of them are treated like throwaway joke characters (I'm looking at you Stegron, Mindworm and Big Wheel). Not so much with Morris "Morrie" Bench, created by Dennis O'Neill and John Romita Jr. In many ways, his is a classic Marvel origin: a not too smart guy accidentally gets his powers and goes on a rampage.

Bench initially blamed Spider-Man for being turned into a living being of water (guess no one told him he was made of about 70 percent fluid to begin with) and hunted him through sewer drains and water spouts until he was finally defeated. After he got merged with the Sandman for a while (in one of those classic "it hadda happen!" encounters), he expanded his horizons and became a mercenary for hire. After joining the Sinister Syndicate, the Masters of Evil and even the Frightful Four, Hydro Man has become a Marvel mainstay with a great, versatile set of powers but not enough brain juice to fully exploit them... No worries Morrie, the Absorbing Man, the Wrecker and your old frenemy Sandman have the same problem.

7) - GARGOYLE (Debut: Defenders I#94, April 1981)

Leave it to J.M. DeMatteis to think out of the box. Still a relatively new writer when he took over the long running Defenders title in the early 80s, DeMatteis envisioned a storyline that pitted the oddball band of heroes against the cabal of demons known as the Six Fingered Hand. One of their servants was a ghastly looking demon calling himself Gargoyle. However, beneath the monstrous appearance was Isaac Christiansen, the kindly, geriatic mayor of Christiansboro who made a deal with the devils in hopes of restoring 'his' city to its former glory.

In a surprise twist, Gargoyle joined the Defenders and stayed on even after he helped them defeat the demonic threat. Over the years, he became a mainstay of the team and one of its most recognizable members. DeMatteis and his (New) Defenders successor Peter B. Gillis fleshed out Isaac, making him both a tragic and a likeable character. He even became romantically involved with the Defenders' housekeeper Dolly Donahue.

Gargoyle proved popular enough that Marvel okayed a limited series, written by J.M. DeMatteis in 1985. The four issue series proved to be a deeply psychological tale, examining the depths of Isaac's psyche and the terrible guilt issues he struggled with.

Back in early 2013, while covering the Six Fingered Hand storyline for this blog, I had the pleasure of interviewing Mr. DeMatteis. He had the following to say about Gargoyle: "As the storyline progressed, Gargoyle became more and more important to the team. I loved that character; in fact the Gargoyle mini-series I did with Mark Badger remains one of my favorite projects out of all the stories I've done for mainstream Marvel. "

6) - SHE-HULK (Debut: Savage She-Hulk I#1, February 1980)

Speaking of characters already covered extensively on this blog... It's Bruce Banner's cousin Jennifer Walters who occupies the 6th place on this particular ranking. Considering the She-Hulk was such a vital part of Marvel throughout the 1980s, she really should be in the top three... But this list is all about the way characters made their debut... And Savage She-Hulk was a pretty rough one.

Initially created solely to prevent other companies from copyrighting a female Hulk-type character, She-Hulk spent most of her first solo book semi-mindlessly stomping about, chewing scenery and fighting villains so forgettable I can't even remember them after researching most of 'em. In the end, it took creators like Roger Stern and John Byrne to give Jennifer her proper due, giving her a sense of humor, membership in both the Fantastic Four and the Avengers, not to mention the ability to string together more than two coherent sentences.

5) - APOCALYPSE (Debut: X-Factor I#5, June 1986)

Nowadays En Sabah Nur is one of the most recognized X-Men villains, next to Magneto and Mr. Sinister. But did you know that in his debut, he was "merely" the shadowy mastermind responsible for organizing the Alliance Of Evil? The who? Oh, erm... a semi-thinly veiled Brotherhood of Evil Mutants rip off that X-Factor fought during their first few issues.

X-Factor's original scribe Bob Layton intended to reveal that the Alliance's secret leader was actually the old Daredevil villain the Owl, but incoming writer Louise Simonson dreamed up another, arguably better, idea for the character. Who Apocalypse eventually became is a far cry from what he started out to be, though every legend has to start somewhere which is more than enough to warrant him a spot on this list.

4) - WHITE QUEEN (Debut: Uncanny X-Men I#131, March 1980)

Unlike their Distinguished Competitors down the street, Marvel never had that many enduring female supervillains. For every Enchantress, Viper, Umar and Moonstone over the years there were dozens of masculine menaces. Heck, Karla Sofen didn't even gain her powers until she stole the alien gem from the original, male Moonstone. Chris Claremont, always a proponent of strong female characters, did his best to change that status quo. He created Mystique and Deathbird in the late 70s Ms. Marvel title and continued that trend in Uncanny X-men. Well before he introduced such (fe)menaces as Rogue, Dark Phoenix and the Goblin Queen... there was Emma Frost, the White Queen.

An imposing, seductive telepath not afraid to use both her sexuality and powers to get her way, Emma was a character that pushed the bounds of the Comics Code Authority. And let's not forget the outrageous way she dresses. Chances are, that isn't fake fur.

Frost is in many ways a quintessential Chris Claremont creation. Dressed in leather, favoring an S&M type style of both clothing and villainy, not to mention her telepathic prowess which allows for mind control. Even though Emma Frost has more or less been on the side of the angels for over two (!) decades now, for most of the 80s she was an unavoidable thorn in the X-Men's side.

3) - VENOM (Debut: Amazing Spider-Man I#299, April 1988)

So much has been said about Venom, that most of what I could add would be superfluous at best. A legacy character of 1984's first Secret Wars when Spider-Man returned with a new costume that turned out to be a living symbiont out to bond (mate) with him, the Venom entity eventually merged with defamed reporter Eddie Brock who openly accepted the alien creature's overtures. Together, as Venom, they became the anti-Spider-Man decades before a seemingly unending torrent of tales turned Eddie into Anti-Venom.

Still, the original Todd McFarlane design remains an instant classic. Spider-Man's black costume was far more imposing than his original red & blue PJ's but between Venom's weird, warped eyes and the alligator like maw, he became a true nightmare. 1990's Amazing Spider-Man I#316 & 317 scared the heck out of the then 8 year old me.

2) - BETA RAY BILL (Debut: Thor I#337, November 1983)

What's the best way to make your mark on a decades old book? Walter Simonson answered that question on the very cover of his first Thor issue. #337 introduced Beta Ray Bill, the horse faced alien who proved noble enough to lift Thor's hammer and transforming into an Asgardian storm god as well. Bill eventually curried Odin's favor and received Stormbreaker, an elemental hammer forged by the dwarves that once crafted Thor's mallet.

Seeing an imposing, unlikeable and possibly evil looking alien pick up Mjolnir must have been a big shock at the time. Beta Ray has since proved himself a valued ally to both Asgard and Midgard... Even serving with Canada's ill fated government team Omega Flight. Now thát's commitment.

1) - CAPTAIN MARVEL (Debut: Amazing Spider-Man Annual I#16, 1982)

Oh Captain, my Captain!

If ever there's a character more symbolic of the 1980s, it has to be Monica Rambeau, the second person to carry the name "Captain Marvel". Only a few months prior to her debut, the first C.M., rogue Kree officer Mar-Vell, had succumbed to cancer... And here was New Orleans born Monica ready to take the superhero world by storm.

Her creator Roger Stern very unapologetically took Ms. Rambeau under his wing. Not only did he write her first appearance, he also didn't miss a beat bringing her to the Avengers, a book he happened to be writing at the time. Rambeau was admitted to Earth's mightiest as a trainee, she learned to use her magnificently broad energy spectrum based abilities over the course of several years, fighting menaces like the Enclave, the Beyonder, Kang and two incarnations of the Masters of Evil. She even proved capable of calling the continuously quarreling Hercules and Sub-Mariner to order.

Rambeau grew, evolving from an unsure recruit to a more than competent full fledged member... Eventually, she was even elected Avengers chairman with the support and blessing of charter members like Captain America and the Wasp.

Of course, comics being the way they are, higher ups at Marvel eventually decided it would be best if Captain America resumed command of the team, in order to increase his standing as a solo property. Stern was asked to start writing Monica as an imcompetent leader, thereby facilitating the desired change. Roger refused however and quit, forcing both Ralph Macchio and new, incoming writer Walter Simonson to get rid of Captain Marvel. Monica has languished in Limbo for close to two decades, mostly relegated to crowd scenes and fill in appearances. But for a fair chunk of the 1980s she shined.


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*Naturally, these picks are solely based on my own, anything but unbiased preferences. Think I'm wrong or an absolute idjit for leaving out your particular fave? By all means, join the conversation!

1985 - Anatomy of a Cover - Gargoyle #4

Interview with J.M. DeMatteis

You might have already seen Jef's posts on the 1981 Defenders. We thought it would be fun to post up Jef's full interview with J.M. DeMatteis.

Jef: How and when were you approached and persuaded to take over the Defenders?  What was the team’s appeal for you at the time?

JMD: I’d always been a big fan of the series—especially the Steve Gerber era—because of it’s barrier-crashing, “anything goes” sensibility.  That said, I certainly didn’t lobby for the gig—Ed Hannigan was writing the book at the time and doing a fine job of it—so I was very surprised when I walked into Jim Shooter’s office one day and he told me I was taking over Defenders:  “Because,” he said, “I know you like Doctor Strange.”  Which is true:  I love Doctor Strange!

Jef: A propos your writing style at the time: was the Six Fingered Hand arc all planned out in advance or did the editor allow a certain amount of improvisation as you went along?

JMD: Even when you’ve got plans and plans and more plans, there’s always improvisation involved; and, back then, being a newbie still finding his way in the business, there was plenty of improvisation going on.  I had a general sense of the story and where I wanted it to go, but it was no carefully planned out epic.  I still love to write that way:  You have your destination in mind, your general themes and character arcs, but you remain open to happy accidents and spontaneous creativity.  The best stories write themselves and, in order for that to happen, you’ve got to get yourself—and your carefully-laid plans—out of the way.  My editor, Al Milgrom, was a great guy who allowed me to follow my story yet was always there to backstop me if I was going off the rails,

Jef: Don Perlin was the artist during your entire run. Could you briefly describe your working relationship? Did you provide full scripts or was it the brief plot summary aka ‘classic Marvel style’? And: did he offer any suggestions or input on the stories?

JMD: By the 80’s the Marvel plot-first style wan’t a “brief plot summary”:  plots were, for the most part, lengthy and detailed.  There was still room for the artist to pace and play with the story but the writer was in firm control of the material.

Don Perlin was one of the nicest people, and hardest working artists, I’ve ever worked with.  He was passionate about the book and about my stories and put everything he had into it.  More than that, he was willing to experiment, leave his comfort zone and grow as an artist—which he really did throughout our run.  I loved working with him.

As I recall, we spoke on the phone regularly and discussed the stories; but, for the most part, he left the plotting to me and concentrated on the visual interpretations.  I’m sure he had suggestions along the way (and I think there were a few issues he co-plotted, too) and I was always open to them.

Jef: What were some of your initial feelings about the team (Strange, Hulk, Valkyrie, Nighthawk, Clea and Hellcat) at the time? Who did you feel most comfortable with?

JMD: My motto was:  the more obscure the characters, the better.  That gave me room to really push characterization and make them my own.  That’s one of the reasons you saw characters like Devil Slayer and Son of Satan come into the book.  You didn’t have to worry about anyone else complaining about their evolution; you could do what you wanted.

That said, I liked the group I was handed at the start—especially Doc Strange.  The only one I wasn’t all that comfortable with, as I recall, was the Hulk.  He was phased out along the way.  I liked the character, but he didn’t seem to fit with my Defenders.

Jef: Why paralyzed Nighthawk? It seemed to come out of left field at the time, despite its tying into established early Defenders continuity. And, considering you’d have him sacrifice his life in # 106, is it unfair to say you had it in for poor ol’ Kyle Richmond?

JMD: I think I was playing to his name:  Nighthawk.  Thus he only functioned at night.  During the day he was paralyzed and when the sun went down he came alive.  I thought it was a fun idea.  I still do.  Whether I executed it well is another story!  As for “having it in for him”—no, I thought Kyle Richmond was an interesting character and I was just following where he, and the stories, led me.

Jef: How did you come up with the concept of the Six Fingered Hand, and how did you flesh out the six demons? With names like Avarrish (avarice), Hyppokri (hypocrisy) and Unnthinkk (ignorance), can it be considered an homage to DC’s Captain Marvel and his Seven Deadly Sins?

JMD: No Captain Marvel connection whatsovever.  As for where the concept came from—to be honest, I don’t recall; beyond the idea that I wanted to take the book in a supernatural direction and a six-fingered hand was a creepy concept.

Jef: What prompted Hellcat's reveal as Satan's daughter? It was played up as a big deal during the Six Fingered arc, while a year and a half down the road you have Patsy learn Satan lied about it after all. While that is not uncommon for the lord of lies, from a story perspective it does feel like a bit of a cheat. What's the real story behind this bait 'n switch?

It wasn’t a cheat for me.  It was a way to take Patsy down an intense, character-revealing road; a way to dig deeper into her character, to turn her relationship with Hellstrom on its head, and a perfect piece of manipulation of Satan’s part.  Again, you can fault the execution—I was a young writer, still learning my craft—but I don’t see it as a cheat at all.

Jef: Certainly during the early 80s, the character of Isaac Christiaans the Gargoyle was more than a little unusual. What inspired the notion of an elderly gentleman/ mystic/worrywart locked in the form of an immortal demon?

JMD: It was just one of those ideas that popped into my head.  This horrific, demonic figure that’s really this sweet, gentle old man.  Don P came up with a great design for the character and, as the storyline progressed, Gargoyle became more and more important to the team.  I loved that character; in fact the Gargoyle mini-series I did with Mark Badger remains one of my favorite projects out of all the stories I’ve done for mainstream Marvel.

Jef: In retrospect, isn’t the character of the Gargoyle a prime example of quintessential DeMatteis characterization? Isaac Christiaans starts out as a basically noble, well meaning character that falls prey to his own human fallibilities, in the end becoming, however cruelly that what he loathes the most?  One might see shades of Vermin, Kraven the Hunter and Harry Osborn during the 1990s ‘Child Within’ arc?

JMD: Yes, up to a point.  But Isaac, after giving in to temptation, almost instantly regrets his fall and, from then on, remains the same decent and compassionate man he was before.  The tension between the horrific outer shell and the sweet person beneath it is what I love about the character.  I don’t think he’s as dark as Kraven or Vermin.

Jef: What urged you to bring in the relatively unknown character Devil Slayer? Certainly at the time, a former Vietnam vet turned hired killer/demon vanquisher couldn’t possibly have been Comics Code Approved? Did his inclusion go off without a hitch, or did you have to argue to get him in?

JMD: No arguments at all.  Milgrom, as noted, let me follow my muses where they led.  Devil-Slayer had been used in Defenders before and, being another obscure character with a fascinating back-story (war vet, hit-man, demon-hunter), I thought he was ripe for exploration.  The story in Defenders #110, “Hunger,” is one of my favorites of my run.

Jef: Speaking of the Code… The Six-Fingered Hand empowered  David Kessler to become the healing guru known as 'the messiah'… An obvious Jesus Christ analogy if ever there was one. Back in the 70s, Tony Isabella caught considerable flack when he introduced Ghost Rider to ‘The Friend’ who for all intents and purposes was Christ as well. Did you receive any comments on this new ‘son of God’?

JMD: I didn’t see David Kessler as a Jesus stand-in.  He was a cult leader, a spiritual figure, but he was essentially a flawed human like the rest of us,

Jef: In issue # 100, Hellcat shortly returns to her demonic form from # 94. Was it always your intention to revert Patsy back to normal, or did you consider exploring the notion of having a true ‘hell cat' on the team?

JMD: I don’t remember!  I’m sure I played with every outcome in my mind.

Jef: Defenders #101 feels like a coda, with the Defenders in need of spiritual renewing. Val, Patsy and Isaac’s visiting Dolly in a hospital’s cancer ward was particularly striking. Jim Starlin’s 1982 graphic novel The Death of Captain Marvel  is generally considered to be the first Marvel publication dealing with the disease head on, yet Defenders  # 101 came out a year earlier and was even more graphic in its depiction of the illness. Was there any in house trepidation about featuring a young, bald cancer patient?

JMD: Again, no trepidation at all.  One of the best things about Defenders is that it wasn’t a high-profile book.  We were off in a corner and I could get as weird and personal as I wanted to without worrying about stepping on anyone’s toes.  And, yes, that story was very much intended as a kind of spiritual cleansing after the literal hell the team went through in the Six-Fingered hand story.

Jef: With the Six Fingered Hand arc over 30 years old, how do you look back on it? Were you satisfied with it then and has it stood up to the test of time?

JMD: I have no idea if it’s stood the test of time. I’m the last person who’d know!  Looking back I see my younger self:  a writer, with a lot to learn, who poured his heart and soul, every bit of passion he had, into that series.  Defenders was my training ground, a way to explore telling more personal stories in the commercial context of the Marvel Universe. I didn’t realize it at the time, but writing Defenders got me ready for Moonshadow and the other creator-owned, personal projects I’ve done over the years.

Having come a long way as a writer, when I read these stories I see all the warts, all the stumbles, all the errors DeMatteis the Younger made; but I also see how much I cared about that book.  And what a good time I had working with Don Perlin.  So I look back on my Defenders days with great fondness.

Guest Blog: 1984 - The New Defenders (Part Two)

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

In the Spring of 1984, The New Defenders got a new writer in Peter B. Gillis who took the anything-but-non-team in entirely new directions.

Taking over with issue # 132, Gillis quickly changed the tone of the title, adding a new layer of horror and suspense previously absent from the book. Even the art by longtime Defenders penciller Don Perlin reflected these changes as it got a darker, grittier and slightly abstract feel.

In his opening tale, Gillis delivered a done-in-one story that smoothly showed how his run would unfold as the Defenders fought a rather unexpected threat. Ephraim Soles was an ordinairy man down on his luck, wandering across the New Mexico desert when he came across some plants. Looking for a meal, the hungry Soles devoured the vegetation that was actually growing on a fragment of the gamma bomb that had exploded there years earlier. Catching a fatal dose of radiation, Soles didn’t exactly die. After falling down, he got up and resumed his wandering, eventually turning up at New Defenders headquarters.

“Good Lord! What’s happening to him?!”

Soles mutated into a gamma powered spore creature that quickly expanded in size, threatening the team and their base. Despite their best efforts, the Defenders proved largely ineffectual in beating back or even containing Soles. The mood of the book quickly turned from run of the mill superhero comic to horror movie, as the heroes desperately fought a threat that continued to evolve, adapt and survive. In the end, Iceman used his powers to drain all moisture from the creature and killing it. Or did he?

This story really set the tone for Gillis’ first year on the title. Everyone and anything could turn dark on a moment’s notice. A relatively light hearted tale of the team helping out wacky oriental expeditors Cutlass and Typhoon against crimelord Ozu in # 133, set up the next issue when Ozu hired the insane, telepathic serial killer Manslaughter to rub them out.

New Defenders # 134 reads like a suspenseful slasher movie, with the Defenders cooped up in their New Mexico headquarters, paranoid and on guard against their new, mysterious foe who managed to infiltrate their base, leaving mocking messages announcing their inevitable demise.

Manslaughter actually makes good on his threats, ambushing and killing off Iceman, Cloud and Angel. He even manages to nab Valkyrie’s sword Dragonfang. After dipping the blade in poison, he taks the Asgardian out with a simple cut. Manslaughter even gets under Moondragon’s skin, as he uses his low level telepathy to invade her mind and spread his madness around. Moondragon was ready to kill Manslaughter for that, but the team rallied to defeat the villain and stop Heather from killing him. And then, Gillis had Cloud drop one heck of a bombshell…  

“Please don’t cry, don’t hurt… Moondragon. I love you…”

Oh my. Lesbians in the 1980s? Well played, Gillis, well played indeed. So, who was Cloud anyway? She was the final team member added by DeMatteis before he left. Introduced as a villain in issue # 123, this beautiful blonde girl was able to become, well, a cloud. By issue # 127, she turned out to be an unwitting pawn of the Secret Empire and joined her former adversaries in getting revenge. Rehabilitating villains is hardly a new move, but what made Cloud’s inclusion especially interesting was the intense interest Moondragon showed in the young girl’s well-being.

After her initial profession of love, Cloud was wracked with guilt and shame, not able to understand how she could have these wrong thoughts and feelings. But she still grew closer to Moondragon and a resolution of sorts was inevitable. But this is still 1984, Marvel Comics or the Comics Code Authority would never allow an openly lesbian couple in comics. So, Gillis came up with another twist. Cloud had every reason to be confused about her feelings, as issue # 136 proved…

Problem? Problem solved. The Moondragon/Cloud relationship never really went anywhere after Moondragon turned down all overtures and simply moved on. But others had far more difficulty accepting Cloud’s dual nature. Iceman lusted after Cloud when he thought she was just a woman, but when the male version popped up, Bobby was left rather confused.

Ah, ever so subtle discussions of sexuality and how uncomfortable heterosexual men tend to get when there is even the slightest doubt they might be anything but straight. You’d think that after running around in little more than a speedo for most of his superhero career, Iceman would be the one superhero most secure about his orientation. Sadly enough, he wouldn’t learn from this mistake repeating the same immature homophobic behavior when Northstar admitted he had the hots for him during Chuck Austen’s Uncanny X-men run.

By the by, wonder where the New Defenders are flying off to as they were having this heart to heart? Well, remember how Manslaughter was taking out the team one by one? During that crisis, one New Defender was left unaccounted for: Gargoyle, who vanished mysteriously.

At the time, the team figured it was another one of Manslaughter’s traps but he had nothing to do with Isaac’s disappearance. As it turned out, an old Afghani mystic was to blame. Tired of the Mujahideen controlling his lands, the man used his powers to summon a demonic servant to deal with them. And Isaac’s body, still demonic in nature, obeyed the summoning chants and  brought Gargoyle to Afghanistan where Isaac was forced to kill the soldiers that bothered the mystic.

Growing power hungry after this swift victory, the mystic decided to use his dark servant’s vast powers for personal gain. Still, Isaac’s mind was able to subtly influence the demon’s actions… first teleporting them to New York, hoping Doctor Strange would show up to free him. Sensing betrayal, the mystic ordered Gargoyle to take them away from the city that never sleeps… So he landed them in the Rocky Mountains where Moondragon was able to pick up Isaac’s cries for help.

A fearful fight ensued between the Defenders and the vastly more powerful Gargoyle. Isaac had to watch helplessly as his body grew to giant size and threatened the lives of his teammates. In the end, Valkyrie had no choice but to stab Gargoyle, while the Beast wielded Dragonfang to lob off Gargoyle’s hand.

In the end, it was Moondragon who used her powers to make contact with Isaac’s mind,  buried deep within the demon’s brain. The two Defenders touched souls and Moondragon deduced a way to break the mystic’s hold over Gargoyle… simply blind him and knock him out. No sooner said than done. But Isaac had seen a terrible, hidden truth about Moondragon when he was inside her mind. So, while the victory might seem a little easy, Gargoyle’s revelation in the cliffhanger would set in motion the final chapter of Gillis’ run…

Sometimes, captions say it all.. In the third and final part of Anyone Remember The New Defenders…  Moondragon’s secret origin is revealed as the headband comes off and, despite everyone’s best efforts…they’re all dust in the wind.

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.

1985 - Anatomy of a cover - Defenders #141

http://romitaman.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=12735&ArtistId=987

1985 - Gargoyle

Gargoyle #1-4

June 1985 - September 1985

Writer: J.M. DeMatteis

Artist: Mark Badger

I've never really been a Defenders fan, but I did try the title when it introduced the new Defenders. I liked the original X-Men and was interested in seen how Angel, Beast, and Ice Man would fare as Defenders. Unfortunately, I was disappointed. I found that the Defenders lacked substance and that there was really no character depth. The art didn’t really do much for me and contributed to my dislike of the title.

One of the characters I did like was the Gargoyle and although I stopped picking up The Defenders, I was more than happy to try this miniseries. I picked up The Gargoyle limited series in a sale bin and was pleasantly surprised. Mark Badger's art, which currently seems indecipherable (see Excalibur #37-39 for example), does a rather find job especially with the magic usage and its effects.

"In parts charming and wistful, particularly when dealing with Christians' [Gargoyle's alter ego] past and lost love, and offering some interesting theological theories, the whole never quite gels."

     - The Slings & Arrows Comic Guide

Grieving over the death of his beloved Elaine, Christians (the soul that inhabits the body of the Gargoyle) returns to his hometown where he's confronted by his old body, which he learns is inhabited by the Gargoyle's soul. Christians is tricked into giving the Gargoyle back his body. The Gargoyle then goes on a rampage and Christians, with the help of an ancient druid, Derwyddon, must stop him.

The series has a nice moody, gothic feel to it and Badger's art style is well suited to the character and story. DeMatteis, who I find is either a hit or a miss with me, does a good job with the plot and script. He reveals the Gargoyle's dark origins and details Isaac Christians (the human soul trapped within the Gargoyle's form). I found the story a bit long winded and drawn out. It's could have easily been a 3-issue series.