This is their first “old order changeth” issue. The roster of Defenders is constantly in flux, but they’ve never had an issue that was “about” recruitment. In this story every B- and C-list hero in the 616 shows up to play after Dollar Bill (the Defenders’ nonpowered equivalent of Marvin and Wendy from The Superfriends) films a recruitment commercial/documentary.
We get to see regular Defenders hangers-on like Son of Satan and even a few A-Listers like Iron Man and Angel. New-to-the-partiers like Nova, Falcon, Hercules, Power Man, Iron Fist, Stingray, Quasar, Goliath, White Tiger, Jack of Hearts, Torpedo, and others…And lots of similarly middle-class villains: Electro, The Blob, Batroc the Leaper, and, again, many others…
We even see Captain Ultra, who previously appeared in one page in Fantastic Four #177, when he was trying out for the Frightful Four. Ultra actually gets an extended scene…
I do like him calling Jack “poker face.”
If you’re looking for a fun “name the character” arc, this is for you.
And the best part is in the end, when the city is destroyed and the cops are pointing fingers, everyone decides they don’t want to be a Defender after all.
Actually, the best part is watching Hulk play poison frisbee.
Quote,”But the panel I picked (and there were many great ones) was about sports. I love it when superheroes play sports. Someday I hope to do a feature on it.”
THAT would be an interesting post! Look forward to reading it someday. Like this page you picked from The Defenders. Vaguely recall the character who catches the frisbee from Hellcat in the second panel, but this wasn’t one of the comics I collected or read regularly so I’m not very familiar with it (pity that).
This was a fun three issues. Every B lister on both sides of the coin appeared. Everyone was a Defender for a day. Even the bad guys. One of my favorite all time Defender arcs. Watching the Blob take on that arrogant loudmouth Hercules was worth the price of admission. Hercules always did make me want to hurl when he boasted about how tough he was. Nighthawk was kind of a jerk himself but you couldn’t blame him. Loved the assortment of bad guys. Beetle, Boomerang, Porcupine, Plant-Man to name a few lead by the LMD Zodiac Libra and Sagittarius.
The original Defenders is a cult classic comic, like Power Man and Iron Fist.