Silver Surfer returns to the group when, while flying over Manhattan, he sees that Dr. Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum has been covered by a psychedelic cube.
The culprit is a wizard’s dreams–a wizard named Cyrus Black.
During the fight, we are reminded that Black Knight is still a stone statue.
Fairly simple story, but well-told, well-drawn, and a fun read.
I totally, absolutely agree, all except in the rating. “The Dreams of Death” IS a “fairly simple story, but well-told, well-drawn, and a fun read.” ( it’s becoming exceedingly difficult to find comics that are a ‘fun read’, anymore, unless they came from the 1970’s, or are a part of John Byrne’s 1980’s ‘Fantastic Four’ run, or his 1999-2001 ‘X-Men: The Hidden Years’ run, or Roger Stern and John Buscema’s run on ‘The Avengers’ ) A refreshingly straightforward superhero story with only a minimum of “weird elements”, ( otherwise it wouldn’t be ‘The Defenders’ ) and a couple or three nice touches, such as the establishment that the Silver Surfer ( ALWAYS a welcome sight in these-or any-pages ) is far from the being of sheer omnipotence that he sometimes comes across as, ( especially in his series’ later 1980’s-1990’s iterations ) as he struggles with all his power to assist the Defenders in this issue against a fairly-prosaic antagonist. The Valkyrie is in her optimum form in these issues, which for me is her ‘Barbara Denton-Norriss mode, because Mrs. Denton-Norriss, vegetable though she may be, is still a damn sight cuter than Brunhilde. ( her true form ) I can’t get turned on by chicks-even funnybook chicks- who tower above me, and weigh 500 pounds of solid bone and muscle. I like my ladies a tad softer than that, and while the Valkyrie even in her “Barbara” form, is certainly no one to trifle with, I would still prefer to date “Barbie-Doll Val” as opposed to “Big Brunhilde Val”. Marvel’s original version of the Valkyrie- “Barbie-Doll Val”- is, arguably and debatably a “Stan Lee Girl”, with her relatively-token abilities as compared to the mighty men around her. Remember, as of the time of these particular ‘Defenders’ tales, Chris Claremont and his “Claremont Girls” were still a couple of years out on the horizon. I love Storm and Psylocke and ‘Spectrum’ ( the sobriquet the Monica Rambeau character is going by these days ) but the Stan Lee Girls did have a certain little charm to them that has become totally extinct in these days of post-Claremont ultra-feminism. But I enjoyed this story. A simple, twenty-page all-in-one that gave us some great characters, great character development, and not requiring it’s audience to invest itself into a year-long Magnum Opus. We would have the upcoming ‘Avengers-Defenders War’ to look forward to that. I say this issue- “The Dreams of Death”- rates a full “B”!! So there!
“it’s becoming exceedingly difficult to find comics that are a ‘fun read’, anymore”
Completely agree. Marvel’s gone completely corporate and has too many boring, generic books. Even when they try to be fun, they’re just flat.