This issue starts with Hulk wanting to help Sub-Mariner and Namor being a dick. Always a promising start for a story!
So they fight.
Namor is in New York to seek the help of the only humans he trusts. No, not The Defenders. The Fantastic Four.
A Russian nuke is in a base underwater, radiating an area that is under Sub Mariner’s protection. That’s why he’s in NY. Red Guardian has been kidnapped, because she’s a girl, by the Russian operators of the underwater base, who are also cult followers of The Presence.
The rest of the Defenders show up to the Hulk/Namor fight and Namor “remembers” them.
Why does he have amnesia this time? I don’t know. I don’t understand and it doesn’t seem to be explained.
The team gets on a submarine to go help Sub-Mariner.
Back the Red Guardian story, where The Presence has finally appeared.
Time to fight. And after they win the battle, they get radiation poisoning from The Presence, so Banner uses science to cure them.
The story starts strong, but ends up feeling thin. There are a lot of artists sharing the chores as well, which makes the whole thing feel jumbled. It’s also not entirely clear what happens to The Presence at the end. Red Guardian is freed, and he’s gone, but where?
There’s a sub-plot with Val meeting Lunatik, who we see for the first time out-of-shadow. Issue #56 focuses on the Val/Lunatik battle, so that there can be some action sequences while Banner does his science stuff.
Val was lunching with Clea, who is also featured in a beautifully drawn back-up story in #53, by Naomi Bisner and Sandy Plunkett. This is the first Plunkett art I’ve seen for Marvel.
Issue #54 has a Nick Fury back up by Scott Edelman and Juan Ortiz.
It’s a short story that is used to show that his Life Model Decoy program is becoming self aware.
The same thing will be happening to Doombots. This is a real lost opportunity–Marvel could have tied the concepts together for a very cool event.
I don’t really object to Defenders having back-up stories. Or to a bunch of different artists working the book. In this one, the art is by David Anthony Kraft and Keith Giffen (#52-54), Dave Cockrum (#53), Michael Golden (#53, 54), and Carmine Infantino (#55-56).
The Defenders is a non-team book about a team, so having a ton of characters and subplots is par for the course. I don’t really undesrtand putting Fury in the mix, but whatever. It’s still fun.
I don’t have anything good to say about this particular period of “The Defenders”, ( the Kraft/Giffen phase ) and since they say that if you can’t say something about people, things, etc., then you should just be quiet about them. The only thing GOOD I can think of to say about these particular issues is, the title of issue#52 was particularly bright: “Defender of the Realm”. Very bright. This was in reference to the return of the Sub-Mariner, sans his bitchin’ blue and gold disco suit, of course, who had been conspicuously absent from this series for around three years. I can actually buy the idea of Namor’s not remembering the Defenders, for three reasons: 1) This is actually the first time that the Sub-Mariner has seen Nighthawk in HIS own new, cooler blue suit. Unless Namor remembers what Nighthawk’s voice sounds like, he only has Nighthawk’s word that he is who he says he is. And considering Namor’s capacity for amnesia, I would seriously doubt that Namor would remember Nighthawk’s voice. 2) The intervening years since Namor left the Defenders have been EXTREMELY busy for the Sub-Mariner- an AWFUL lot has been happening, what with Namor’s ( mis ) adventures with Dr. Doom in ‘Super-Villain Team-Up’, fighting the Avengers, getting his people restored to life, etc., etc., etc. Some years in people’s lives are more hectic and chaotic than others, and this was the case for the Sub-Mariner during this period of time. For instance, the year 1975 felt like an entire decade for me, simply due to everything that happened to me, and with me, that particular year. Very busy year. 3) Namor does have an established history with amnesia, as well as other mental problems, which were diagnosed-and cured-! in the very first issue of his relaunched series in 1990. ( ‘Namor the Sub-Mariner’- “Marvel’s First-and Mightiest-Mutant!!!”- a total John Byrne production, incidentally ) So, I’m not having any trouble buying the whole ‘Namor barely remembers the Defenders’ situation- the only thing about it that I don’t understand is that, once Namor realizes who he’s dealing with- four Defenders- the Hulk, Nighthawk, Hellcat, and the Valkyrie- he has to realize that there is no one in this non-team quartet that can help him with his particular problem at this time- why didn’t he just thank Nighthawk and the Valkyrie for trying to help, and push on to the Baxter Building-??! He needed Mr. Fantastic, not Nighthawk, the Incredible Hulk, or “Sword-Girl”! But, I guess, as we say-brain damage! But, that’s an awful lot of reflection on a period of a comic-book series that I certainly did not enjoy, so I will leave it at that! Thank you for the honor of your time! Word!