The Defenders (comic book)
The Defenders is a comic book series featuring the team the Defenders and published by Marvel Comics, which debuted in 1972.
Publication history
The Defenders first appeared as a feature in Marvel Feature #1. Due to the popularity of their tryout in Marvel Feature, Marvel soon began publishing The Defenders. Writer Steve Englehart has stated that he added the Valkyrie to the Defenders in issue #4 "to provide some texture to the group." Englehart wrote "The Avengers–Defenders War" crossover in The Avengers #116–118 and The Defenders #9–11. Len Wein briefly wrote the series, and later became the editor for several issues.Steve Gerber first worked on the characters in Giant-Size Defenders #3 and became the writer of the main title with issue #20 the following month. He wrote the series until issue #41. In 2010, Comics Bulletin ranked Gerber and Sal Buscema's run on The Defenders first on its list of the "Top 10 1970s Marvels".
David Anthony Kraft's run as writer included "The Scorpio Saga" and the "Xenogenesis: Day of the Demons" storyline. Kraft later recalled that reactions to the off-beat humor in his "Defender for a Day" storyline in issues #62–64 were polarized: "readers were either wildly enthusiastic or absolutely and very utterly appalled."
Steven Grant wrote a conclusion to Steve Gerber's Omega the Unknown series in two issues of The Defenders, at the end of which most of the original series' characters were killed.
Writer J. M. DeMatteis took over the series with issue #92. Coming from a background of writing eight-page horror shorts for DC Comics, DeMatteis found it a struggle to adapt to writing a 22-page superhero comic on a monthly basis. He and Mark Gruenwald co-wrote The Defenders #107–109. While working on the series, DeMatteis developed a strong friendship with penciler Don Perlin, who would draw the series for nearly half its run. Perlin later commented, "It turned out to be a real fun book because you got a chance to draw almost every character Marvel had at one time or another." He has also stated that Kim DeMulder, who inked issues #122-144 apart from a few fill-ins, is his preferred inker after himself.
During his run, Perlin recalled, he became what he has characterized as "the first guy, unwittingly, to put profanity in
The New Defenders
Suffering from creative burnout on the series, DeMatteis felt a change was needed. As of issue #125, The Defenders was retitled to The New Defenders as the original four members are forced to leave the team. The "New Defenders" concept provided a substantial boost to the series's sales, but left DeMatteis in a creative drought, as he realized in retrospect that "...I created a book that was exactly the kind of the thing that I hated to write. I made it into a standard superhero team..." DeMatteis stayed on for only six issues of The New Defenders before turning it over to writer Peter Gillis.The series's final issue was The New Defenders #152. Penciler Don Perlin recounted " Carl Potts he took me and Peter Gillis to lunch. We went to an Indian restaurant... He said, ‘They canceled the book.’"