I’m a fan of The Defenders. I’m a fan of Joe Casey. Sadly, though, I am not a fan of this miniseries. Kyle Richmond gets a team license from Tony Stark picks out a typically esoteric crew to represent New Jersey: Himself and Gargoyle.
They battle Sons of Serpent early on.
The Sons have become a paramilitary group, and SHIELD is also involved. Above is agent Joaquin Pennysworth’s first appearance. He is a constant castmember.
Nighthawk’s team does a terrible job and is disbanded by Stark, replaced by a lineup of Tony’s own choosing: Blazing Skull, She-Hulk, and Colossus.
But the team-members keep shifting. Paladin…
…Junta…
and Erik Josten…
…all rotate through.
And there’s over a dozen guest stars.
Thereafter, the unsanctioned Kyle Richmond takes on U-Man, gets thrown across time, and we get a (pretty typical for any Defenders series) convoluted plot involving time travel.
Yandroth is the major enemy.
Yandroth creates a fake version of Squadron Sinister (that’s always fun).
Son of Satan and Krang join the team to help.
Hellcat, Son of Satan’s wife, has already had her redemption arc. Joe Casey attempts to give Damon his own arc here.
But like everything else in this series, it doesn’t really work. There’s lots of interesting elements here, but Casey can’t hold them together. And the art doesn’t help. It’s very cartoony.
To save the day, Kyle teams up with a future version of the Defenders (the titular “last” Defenders team) to fight Yandroth.
At the end, Kyle is forced to stop being Nighthawk and his role is taken over by SHIELD agent Joaquin Pennysworth.
And he leads a new team.
Oddly, though, he never appears again. And the next time we see Nighthawk, it’s Richmond.
There’s lots of attempted humor here, but for some reason it just never clicks.