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Defenders Epic Collection #3
Defenders Epic Collection: World Gone Sane
Collects Defenders (1972) #26-41 And Annual #1, Giant-Size Defenders #5 And Marvel Treasury Edition #12.
Presenting the greatest and most anarchic Defenders saga of all time! Marvel has never had a bigger team of misfits than the Defenders - and the Defenders have never had a more exciting and innovative writer than Steve Gerber. Known as a "non-team" book, DEFENDERS left room for experimentation that other titles lacked. From the Elf with a Gun to Bambi and the Bozos, Steve Gerber used that space to push boundaries and craft a challenging critique of the era's culture. His stories are brought to life by the art team of Sal Buscema and Klaus Janson as the Headmen Saga reaches an action-packed and insightful conclusion. This collection of classics is topped it off with MARVEL TREASURY EDITION #12's much-adored Defenders/Howard the Duck team-up!
Presenting the greatest and most anarchic Defenders saga of all time! Marvel has never had a bigger team of misfits than the Defenders - and the Defenders have never had a more exciting and innovative writer than Steve Gerber. Known as a "non-team" book, DEFENDERS left room for experimentation that other titles lacked. From the Elf with a Gun to Bambi and the Bozos, Steve Gerber used that space to push boundaries and craft a challenging critique of the era's culture. His stories are brought to life by the art team of Sal Buscema and Klaus Janson as the Headmen Saga reaches an action-packed and insightful conclusion. This collection of classics is topped it off with MARVEL TREASURY EDITION #12's much-adored Defenders/Howard the Duck team-up!
- GenresComics
408 pages, Paperback
Published April 1, 2025
About the author
Steve Gerber
650 books66 followersSteve Gerber graduated from the University of Missouri with a degree in communications and took a job in advertising. To keep himself sane, he wrote bizarre short stories such as "Elves Against Hitler," "Conversion in a Terminal Subway," and "...And the Birds Hummed Dirges!" He noticed acquaintance Roy Thomas working at Marvel, and Thomas sent him Marvel's standard writing test, dialoguing Daredevil art. He was soon made a regular on Daredevil and Sub-Mariner, and the newly created Man-Thing, the latter of which pegged him as having a strong personal style--intellectual, introspective, and literary. In one issue, he introduced an anthropomorphic duck into a horror fantasy, because he wanted something weird and incongruous, and Thomas made the character, named for Gerber's childhood friend Howard, fall to his apparent death in the following issue. Fans were outraged, and the character was revived in a new and deeply personal series. Gerber said in interview that the joke of Howard the Duck is that "there is no joke." The series was existential and dealt with the necessities of life, such as finding employment to pay the rent. Such unusual fare for comicbooks also informed his writing on The Defenders. Other works included Morbius, the Lving Vampire, The Son of Satan, Tales of the Zombie, The Living Mummy, Marvel Two-in-One, Guardians of the Galaxy, Shanna the She-Devil, and Crazy Magazine for Marvel, and Mister Miracle, Metal Men,
The Phantom Zone
, and The Immortal Doctor Fate for DC. Gerber eventually lost a lawsuit for control of Howard the Duck when he was defending artist Gene Colan's claim of delayed paychecks for the series, which was less important to him personally because he had a staff job and Colan did not.
He left comics for animation in the early 1980s, working mainly with Ruby-Spears, creating Thundarr the Barbarian with Alex Toth and Jack Kirby and episodes of The Puppy's Further Adventures, and Marvel Productions, where he was story editor on multiple Marvel series including Dungeons & Dragons, G.I. Joe, and The Transformers. He continued to dabble in comics, mainly for Eclipse, including the graphic novel Stewart the Rat, the two-part horror story "Role Model: Caring, Sharing, and Helping Others," and the seven-issue Destroyer Duck with Jack Kirby, which began as a fundraiser for Gerber's lawsuit.
In the early 1990s, he returned to Marvel with Foolkiller, a ten-issue limited series featuring a new version of a villain he had used in The Man-Thing and Omega the Unknown, who communicated with a previous version of the character through internet bulletin boards. An early internet adopter himself, he wrote two chapters of BBSs for Dummies with Beth Woods Slick, with whom he also wrote the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, "Contagion." During this period, he also wrote The Sensational She-Hulk and Cloak and Dagger for Marvel, Cybernary and WildC.A.T.s for Image, and Sludge and Exiles for the writer-driven Malibu Ultraverse, and Nevada for DC's mature readers Vertigo line.
In 2002, he returned to the Howard the Duck character for Marvel's mature readers MAX line, and for DC created Hard Time with Mary Skrenes, with whom he had co-created the cult hit Omega the Unknown for Marvel. Their ending for Omega the Unknown remains a secret that Skrenes plans to take to the grave if Marvel refuses to publish it. Suffering from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis ("idiopathic" meaning of unknown origin despite having been a heavy smoker much of his life), he was on a waiting list for a double lung transplant. His final work was the Doctor Fate story arc, "More Pain Comics," for DC Comics'
He left comics for animation in the early 1980s, working mainly with Ruby-Spears, creating Thundarr the Barbarian with Alex Toth and Jack Kirby and episodes of The Puppy's Further Adventures, and Marvel Productions, where he was story editor on multiple Marvel series including Dungeons & Dragons, G.I. Joe, and The Transformers. He continued to dabble in comics, mainly for Eclipse, including the graphic novel Stewart the Rat, the two-part horror story "Role Model: Caring, Sharing, and Helping Others," and the seven-issue Destroyer Duck with Jack Kirby, which began as a fundraiser for Gerber's lawsuit.
In the early 1990s, he returned to Marvel with Foolkiller, a ten-issue limited series featuring a new version of a villain he had used in The Man-Thing and Omega the Unknown, who communicated with a previous version of the character through internet bulletin boards. An early internet adopter himself, he wrote two chapters of BBSs for Dummies with Beth Woods Slick, with whom he also wrote the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, "Contagion." During this period, he also wrote The Sensational She-Hulk and Cloak and Dagger for Marvel, Cybernary and WildC.A.T.s for Image, and Sludge and Exiles for the writer-driven Malibu Ultraverse, and Nevada for DC's mature readers Vertigo line.
In 2002, he returned to the Howard the Duck character for Marvel's mature readers MAX line, and for DC created Hard Time with Mary Skrenes, with whom he had co-created the cult hit Omega the Unknown for Marvel. Their ending for Omega the Unknown remains a secret that Skrenes plans to take to the grave if Marvel refuses to publish it. Suffering from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis ("idiopathic" meaning of unknown origin despite having been a heavy smoker much of his life), he was on a waiting list for a double lung transplant. His final work was the Doctor Fate story arc, "More Pain Comics," for DC Comics'
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 20, 2025
Giant-Size Defenders #5 - Kicking this volume off is the next “chapter” in the Guardians of the Galaxy saga was also a prologue, of sorts, to the sequence that would end their initial quest. Steve Gerber wrote and Don Heck provided the artwork, but as Heck has never been a particular favorite of mine, this story didn’t grab me as much as the earlier GotG appearances did. Gerber’s usual sense of the absurd is present and the cliff-hanger surprise ending goes a long way to overcoming any shortcomings in the artistic department, although to be fair as I’m looking back on this now (many years later) it’s a lot better than I gave it credit for in my youth. The early mainstays of the non-team (Doctor Strange, Hulk, Valkyrie and Nighthawk) are present and all have interesting contributions to make, and it never once feels overcrowded with all these heroes. (3/5).
Defenders #26-29 - The follow-up story picks up right where the Giant-Size issue ended and quickly propels the Defenders into the dystopian future to aid their new friends in defeating the Badoon. Sal Buscema is back and Gerber is completing the story arc he’d already begun. This a wonderful 4-part adventure that is a great example of how good this era of the Defenders was, and we get the introduction to the character, and mystery, of Starhawk in these pages as well. And while the ending is abrupt and just what seems like it was supposed to be an epic that could have been twice as long, it makes sense that the Defenders shouldn’t be present at the actual liberation of Earth from the big bad Badoon. (4/5)
Defenders #30 - Having returned to the present, this first adventure seems like a huge disappointment, and with the epic that is about to begin in the next issue, this fill-in is almost as forgettable as a reprint. With one exception, it deals with Kyle Richmond (Nighthawk) being kidnapped and that is also the launching point of the epic in the next issue. Bad timing. (2/5)
Defenders #31-40 - The only thing I want to call this arc is The Headmen Saga or maybe Fiasco instead of Saga (it all depends on where you put your emphasis and perspective), and it is one of my all time favorite runs from the Defenders series. Whatever you want to call it, this is a real magnum opus for Gerber’s run on this title. There is so much going on, so much social commentary going on, that it is almost impossible to describe. The “musical minds” plot that sets everything in motion is hilarious, and that it took MONTHS to resolve when originally published only adds to the absurdity of it all. But it does not end there. There’s a revolving villains bit that starts with The Headmen, then we add Nebulon the Celestial Man, then Plantman, Eel, and Porcupine, and let’s just call him Jackhammer. There’s also brief appearances by the Son of Satan, Clea, and Daredevil, Power Man and the introduction of the new Red Guardian. And let’s not forget the Elf with a Gun. It’s all just a wild ride into the absurd. (4/5)
Defenders Annual #1 - The BIG conclusion to a nearly year long epic, and where this volume takes its title from. All the absurd surrealism is brought to a head (pun intended) as the Headmen’s scheme is revealed and Nebulon is confronted simultaneously by the Defenders. And this three way conflict is nothing but chaos. Insane, absurd, delicious chaos. (4/5)
Defenders #41 - There isn’t much to this one, but it does accomplish two important narrative conclusions. The first being that it serves to illustrate that the deficiencies that Doctor Strange was suffering from during some of the chapters of the previous epic story arc have been resolved. The second being that it functions as a reintroduction of Trish Starr, wrapping up her storyline since it was virtually abandoned after the events of Giant-Size Defenders #4. But otherwise, there’s not much here. (2/5)
Marvel Treasury Edition #12 - Howard the Duck joins the Defenders, whether he likes it or not. When it first came out, I was quite thrilled with this particular Treasury Edition. It contained the first appearances of Howard the Duck in the pages of some Man-Thing stories, Howard’s first solo appearances in two issues of Giant-Size Man-Thing and the first issue of Howard’s own solo title, guest-starring Spider-Man; but best of all was the brand new story featuring Howard, Beverly and the Defenders: Doctor Strange, Valkyrie, Hulk and Nighthawk. New stories in the Treasury Editions were not the norm, but they were usually among my favorite releases. The only thing included in this particular volume is the new material. Looking back on it now, it’s not that great, but it’s still loads of fun. (3/5)
Defenders #26-29 - The follow-up story picks up right where the Giant-Size issue ended and quickly propels the Defenders into the dystopian future to aid their new friends in defeating the Badoon. Sal Buscema is back and Gerber is completing the story arc he’d already begun. This a wonderful 4-part adventure that is a great example of how good this era of the Defenders was, and we get the introduction to the character, and mystery, of Starhawk in these pages as well. And while the ending is abrupt and just what seems like it was supposed to be an epic that could have been twice as long, it makes sense that the Defenders shouldn’t be present at the actual liberation of Earth from the big bad Badoon. (4/5)
Defenders #30 - Having returned to the present, this first adventure seems like a huge disappointment, and with the epic that is about to begin in the next issue, this fill-in is almost as forgettable as a reprint. With one exception, it deals with Kyle Richmond (Nighthawk) being kidnapped and that is also the launching point of the epic in the next issue. Bad timing. (2/5)
Defenders #31-40 - The only thing I want to call this arc is The Headmen Saga or maybe Fiasco instead of Saga (it all depends on where you put your emphasis and perspective), and it is one of my all time favorite runs from the Defenders series. Whatever you want to call it, this is a real magnum opus for Gerber’s run on this title. There is so much going on, so much social commentary going on, that it is almost impossible to describe. The “musical minds” plot that sets everything in motion is hilarious, and that it took MONTHS to resolve when originally published only adds to the absurdity of it all. But it does not end there. There’s a revolving villains bit that starts with The Headmen, then we add Nebulon the Celestial Man, then Plantman, Eel, and Porcupine, and let’s just call him Jackhammer. There’s also brief appearances by the Son of Satan, Clea, and Daredevil, Power Man and the introduction of the new Red Guardian. And let’s not forget the Elf with a Gun. It’s all just a wild ride into the absurd. (4/5)
Defenders Annual #1 - The BIG conclusion to a nearly year long epic, and where this volume takes its title from. All the absurd surrealism is brought to a head (pun intended) as the Headmen’s scheme is revealed and Nebulon is confronted simultaneously by the Defenders. And this three way conflict is nothing but chaos. Insane, absurd, delicious chaos. (4/5)
Defenders #41 - There isn’t much to this one, but it does accomplish two important narrative conclusions. The first being that it serves to illustrate that the deficiencies that Doctor Strange was suffering from during some of the chapters of the previous epic story arc have been resolved. The second being that it functions as a reintroduction of Trish Starr, wrapping up her storyline since it was virtually abandoned after the events of Giant-Size Defenders #4. But otherwise, there’s not much here. (2/5)
Marvel Treasury Edition #12 - Howard the Duck joins the Defenders, whether he likes it or not. When it first came out, I was quite thrilled with this particular Treasury Edition. It contained the first appearances of Howard the Duck in the pages of some Man-Thing stories, Howard’s first solo appearances in two issues of Giant-Size Man-Thing and the first issue of Howard’s own solo title, guest-starring Spider-Man; but best of all was the brand new story featuring Howard, Beverly and the Defenders: Doctor Strange, Valkyrie, Hulk and Nighthawk. New stories in the Treasury Editions were not the norm, but they were usually among my favorite releases. The only thing included in this particular volume is the new material. Looking back on it now, it’s not that great, but it’s still loads of fun. (3/5)
Displaying 1 of 1 review