I was just perusing this issue recently for kicks and giggles. I’d forgotten it was the precursor to Marvel’s Contest of Champions, which, in turn, was the precursor for the original Secret Wars and then, again, the recent Secret War that revamped the entire Marvel Universe.
Thus, GSD#3 is one of the most important comics in history!
Written by the great Steve Gerber, along with Jim Starlin and Len Wein, illustrated by Starlin, and colored by Len’s wife, Glynis, the story is basically Grandmaster (the big blue guy) playing against Prime Mover, and using various superheroes from Earths one and two as gamepieces. The story is just the engine to drive big superhero battles. But it’s awesome.
I’m going to make an argument that Giant Sized Defenders #3 is one of the most influential comic books of all time.
The book was plotted by Len Wein, Steve Gerber, and Jim Starlin. Starlin did the layouts, Gerber scripted, and several artists provided the finishing touches.
Wein’s was hired by Marvel for his ability to write superhero stories–by which I mean, stories about superheroes. Action. Adventure. But his real gift was an editor. In this book, he helped establish the basic premise for several Marvel “events” that would follow in the future: Grandmaster hijacks some heroes and forces them to play a game. Yeah, it’s the direct plot of Contest of Champions, which, in turn, was the foundation for Secret Wars. But more fun:
Steve Gerber writes entire half pages of text. Like a novel. He’d famously do similar text-heavy comics in the pages of Howard the Duck–the title where Marvel really let the creator off the leash.
And as for Starlin…Check out this scene, in which a hero is beaten by a villain’s tail:
Look familiar? If you’re a Starlin fan, it should. He used a similar layout for one of the most impactful (no pun intended) stories of his career, Dreadstar #10, in which the titular hero beats a villain to death with a chain:
(Okay, maybe it’s not THAT similar–but I’m trying to make a point. Don’t let the facts get in my way.)
There’s also this scene, which I swear has a parallel somewhere:
Am I right? Isn’t there a big coin toss sequence with a very similar layout somewhere else?