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Marvel Masterworks: The Defenders #2
Marvel Masterworks: The Defenders, Vol. 2
Marvel Masterworks #143: The Defenders, vol. 2.
298 pages, Hardcover
First published January 26, 2011
14 people are currently reading
65 people want to read
About the author
Steve Englehart
1,396 books97 followersSee also John Harkness.
Steve Englehart went to Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. After a stint in the Army, he moved to New York and began to write for Marvel Comics. That led to long runs on Captain America, The Hulk, The Avengers, Dr. Strange, and a dozen other titles. Midway through that period he moved to California (where he remains), and met and married his wife Terry.
He was finally hired away from Marvel by DC Comics, to be their lead writer and revamp their core characters (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, and Green Lantern). He did, but he also wrote a solo Batman series (immediately dubbed the "definitive" version) that later became Warner Brothers' first Batman film (the good one).
After that he left comics for a time, traveled in Europe for a year, wrote a novel (The Point Man™), and came back to design video games for Atari (E.T., Garfield). But he still liked comics, so he created Coyote™, which within its first year was rated one of America's ten best series. Other projects he owned (Scorpio Rose™, The Djinn™) were mixed with company series (Green Lantern [with Joe Staton], Silver Surfer, Fantastic Four). Meanwhile, he continued his game design for Activision, Electronic Arts, Sega, and Brøderbund.
And once he and Terry had their two sons, Alex and Eric, he naturally told them stories. Rustle's Christmas Adventure was first devised for them. He went on to add a run of mid-grade books to his bibliography, including the DNAgers™ adventure series, and Countdown to Flight, a biography of the Wright brothers selected by NASA as the basis for their school curriculum on the invention of the airplane.
In 1992 Steve was asked to co-create a comics pantheon called the Ultraverse. One of his contributions, The Night Man, became not only a successful comics series, but also a television show. That led to more Hollywood work, including animated series such as Street Fighter, GI Joe, and Team Atlantis for Disney.
Steve Englehart went to Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. After a stint in the Army, he moved to New York and began to write for Marvel Comics. That led to long runs on Captain America, The Hulk, The Avengers, Dr. Strange, and a dozen other titles. Midway through that period he moved to California (where he remains), and met and married his wife Terry.
He was finally hired away from Marvel by DC Comics, to be their lead writer and revamp their core characters (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, and Green Lantern). He did, but he also wrote a solo Batman series (immediately dubbed the "definitive" version) that later became Warner Brothers' first Batman film (the good one).
After that he left comics for a time, traveled in Europe for a year, wrote a novel (The Point Man™), and came back to design video games for Atari (E.T., Garfield). But he still liked comics, so he created Coyote™, which within its first year was rated one of America's ten best series. Other projects he owned (Scorpio Rose™, The Djinn™) were mixed with company series (Green Lantern [with Joe Staton], Silver Surfer, Fantastic Four). Meanwhile, he continued his game design for Activision, Electronic Arts, Sega, and Brøderbund.
And once he and Terry had their two sons, Alex and Eric, he naturally told them stories. Rustle's Christmas Adventure was first devised for them. He went on to add a run of mid-grade books to his bibliography, including the DNAgers™ adventure series, and Countdown to Flight, a biography of the Wright brothers selected by NASA as the basis for their school curriculum on the invention of the airplane.
In 1992 Steve was asked to co-create a comics pantheon called the Ultraverse. One of his contributions, The Night Man, became not only a successful comics series, but also a television show. That led to more Hollywood work, including animated series such as Street Fighter, GI Joe, and Team Atlantis for Disney.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
July 28, 2023
Still very much a comic looking for a reason to actually exist. The big draw in this volume is the “Avengers-Defenders War”, the first - well, according to Steve Englehart, who wrote both books - multi-part multi-title crossover. It’s… fine, a heroes fight then team up affair which takes advantage of the Defenders being a bunch of unaffiliated weirdos who nobody’s quite sure they trust. It’s the best thing here, but that’s a low bar. The rest of the volume is taken up by Len Wein and Sal Buscema cranking out competent 70s Marvel slugfests - there’s a Squadron Sinister story, an Atlantis story, a Magneto story (which ends up being weirdly important to his overall continuity, but that’s honestly no reason to bother reading it). In the background people join and quit the Defenders on a monthly basis, despite Dr Strange’s weak protestations that they aren’t That Kind Of Comic. A core, Defenders-exclusive cast of sorts is starting to form, even though we’re still put through the formalities of summoning a pissed off Namor and Hulk for each new tale. For the non-team, a volume full of non-events.
October 17, 2017
The second Marvel Masterworks collection of the Defenders reprints the next ten issues in the series (7-16), an excerpt of the first Giant Sized issue, and three issues of the Avengers (116-118) with an excerpt from issue #115. The first majority of these stories were written by Steve Englehart with the exception of issues 12-16 of the Defenders which were written by Len Wein and the Giant Sized issue which was basically a compilation of earlier Silver Age Marvel stories about members of the Defenders.
The first two issues (#7-8) introduces the Defenders newest addition, Hawkeye (who left the Avengers a few months before) who is anxious to join a new team. They eventually get involved in a battle where Namor, Valkyrie, and Hawkeye are taken prisoner and Strange calls on Silver Surfer to help out. Doctor Strange also has found a way to contact the Black Knight (currently a statue somewhere on another plane of existence). Unfortunately for him, this is used to trigger the next big Defenders storyline.
At the closing of issue 115 of the Avengers (included here) and issue 8 of the Defenders there are two brief comics that constitute the beginning of a 6 issue crossover (3 issues of The Defenders and The Avengers) event called Avengers/Defenders War, which is the meat of this collection. It's quite a good storyline (written entirely by Englehart who at the time was doing double writing duty with the two comics) featuring Dormammu and Loki as the major villains pulling strings to get the Avengers and the Defenders to fight each other. This doesn't happen as a large scale battle, but rather in several skirmishes between one or two rival characters (the Thor/Hulk one is of course the centerpiece here and the best one). After these skirmishes they team up and battles the villains in outer space where things get really crazy. In issues 118 of the Avengers you'll see cameos from a lot of Marvel Super-Heroes and by the end of issue 11 of the Defenders, Hawkeye, Silver Surfer, and Namor will have left the team.
Issue 1 of Giant Sized Defenders is up next, it's basically an anthology of older stories to give context to the characters of Doctor Strange, Hulk, and Namor with framework of Clea accidentally using a spell the wrong way while explaining their pasts to Valkyrie. It's decent enough, but nothing stands out here really.
The rest of the collection is issues 12-16 of The Defenders and it's decent enough, but there doesn't seem to be much direction for them here. There is 2 issue storyline formula here where they battle a big villain and his minions and someone either joins or leaves The Defenders. Considering this follows on the heels of the awesome Avengers/Defenders War arc, you could say that maybe this series was in a rut at this point. Luckily for us that rut doesn't last long much longer because by issue 20 Steve Gerber takes over writing duties and his run of the Defenders is legendary.
All in all this is decent collection made great by the Avengers/Defenders War arc (which is also being released next year as an Epic Collection that includes that storyline as well as the follow-up issues of The Avengers). The Defenders are a pretty fun read and these early issues will really evoke some nostalgic Marvel feelings from even casual readers. Very highly recommended.
The first two issues (#7-8) introduces the Defenders newest addition, Hawkeye (who left the Avengers a few months before) who is anxious to join a new team. They eventually get involved in a battle where Namor, Valkyrie, and Hawkeye are taken prisoner and Strange calls on Silver Surfer to help out. Doctor Strange also has found a way to contact the Black Knight (currently a statue somewhere on another plane of existence). Unfortunately for him, this is used to trigger the next big Defenders storyline.
At the closing of issue 115 of the Avengers (included here) and issue 8 of the Defenders there are two brief comics that constitute the beginning of a 6 issue crossover (3 issues of The Defenders and The Avengers) event called Avengers/Defenders War, which is the meat of this collection. It's quite a good storyline (written entirely by Englehart who at the time was doing double writing duty with the two comics) featuring Dormammu and Loki as the major villains pulling strings to get the Avengers and the Defenders to fight each other. This doesn't happen as a large scale battle, but rather in several skirmishes between one or two rival characters (the Thor/Hulk one is of course the centerpiece here and the best one). After these skirmishes they team up and battles the villains in outer space where things get really crazy. In issues 118 of the Avengers you'll see cameos from a lot of Marvel Super-Heroes and by the end of issue 11 of the Defenders, Hawkeye, Silver Surfer, and Namor will have left the team.
Issue 1 of Giant Sized Defenders is up next, it's basically an anthology of older stories to give context to the characters of Doctor Strange, Hulk, and Namor with framework of Clea accidentally using a spell the wrong way while explaining their pasts to Valkyrie. It's decent enough, but nothing stands out here really.
The rest of the collection is issues 12-16 of The Defenders and it's decent enough, but there doesn't seem to be much direction for them here. There is 2 issue storyline formula here where they battle a big villain and his minions and someone either joins or leaves The Defenders. Considering this follows on the heels of the awesome Avengers/Defenders War arc, you could say that maybe this series was in a rut at this point. Luckily for us that rut doesn't last long much longer because by issue 20 Steve Gerber takes over writing duties and his run of the Defenders is legendary.
All in all this is decent collection made great by the Avengers/Defenders War arc (which is also being released next year as an Epic Collection that includes that storyline as well as the follow-up issues of The Avengers). The Defenders are a pretty fun read and these early issues will really evoke some nostalgic Marvel feelings from even casual readers. Very highly recommended.
October 4, 2017
Valkyrie
Valerie was my favorite. The other characters acted like you expected them to to. But any statement might set her off. and other statements that seem as bad no reaction from her.
Valerie was my favorite. The other characters acted like you expected them to to. But any statement might set her off. and other statements that seem as bad no reaction from her.
June 9, 2017
Awesome
Great it was a great book I missed a lot of those comments when I was growing up and it was good to catch up again
Great it was a great book I missed a lot of those comments when I was growing up and it was good to catch up again
September 11, 2018
Again, these Defenders issues are interesting, but not as interesting as they will be once Steve Gerber comes on board. Solid, but very much a product of their time.
October 20, 2020
Great collection, and one of the first Marvel crossovers with the Avenger/Defenders War which is an absolute classic. Highly recommended.
January 11, 2017
Not really the young Len Wein's best work, nor Steve Englehart's, and the art is a little on the rubbishy side as well, despite a variety of Marvel stalwarts. The collection includes a return visit from Xemnu, and a two-part story where Magneto is defeated by being turned into a baby.
November 24, 2014
More of the same.
July 5, 2015
#15 & #16
Professor X enlists The Defenders to help fight Magneto. Magneto creates a mutant called Alpha, who then reverts Magneto into a baby!
Professor X enlists The Defenders to help fight Magneto. Magneto creates a mutant called Alpha, who then reverts Magneto into a baby!
March 27, 2017
I am really enjoying reading these old stories from the 70s. The Avengers/Defenders war was the classic good guys misunderstanding each other and fighting before teaming up to stop the real bad guys. Nighthawk also joins the team in this volume as he defects from the Squadron Sinister.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews