Ah, the Defenders, Marvel’s other superhero team. While the Avengers are the ones who get the most publicity, the Defenders have their place in a lots of fans’ hearts and minds. The team is actually kind of quaint. Which is probably the main drawing point behind writer Matt Fraction’s new take on the Defenders, which launched its first issue this week. Led by Doctor Strange, Defenders #1 is basically just a ‘gathering of heroes’ issue as he puts his team together to face a monstrous threat! A sense of whimsy and humor is at the forefront of the issue, though its not without a little action and adventure. The art of husband and wife team Terry and Rachel Dodson is as amazing as always, and is a huge boon to the first issue.

The Defenders #1

So overall, we’re looking at a pretty good start to what could be a very good series.

Comic rating: 4/5: Good!

While the Avengers may be the ones getting a movie next year, the Defenders have been around almost as long. But whereas the Avengers was always a solid team, the Defenders is usually made up of more independent heroes who just happen to team up for the sake of a bigger fight. The team is usually composed of B and C-List obscure characters like Valkyrie or Gargoyle. But the most famous members of the Defenders are the four that Fraction reunites for this series: Doctor Strange, Namor, Silver Surfer and the Incredible Hulk, as badass a team as you’re ever likely to get.

Like I said, this is mostly the story of how Doc Strange gathers together his team and a few new faces. Most of the characters get a little internal monologue, so it looks like everybody’s going to get some focus instead of this just being Doctor Strange & Friends. Fraction is clearly having fun with this series, and I’m more than willing to join him for the ride.

Spoilers after the jump.

The issue opens with warnings of bad mojo in Bucharest. Electronics are failing, people’s eyes are bleeding and a whole bunch of other mystic mumbo-jumbo, like a crossword puzzle having all the same answers for every entry. There is definitely some bad voodoo in Bucharest. That reminds me of a girl…anyway. It’s all the result of one bad motha’ named Nul, Breaker of Worlds. You may remember him from Fraction’s recent Fear Itself story…or you may not.

So...we'll just call him Black Hulk?

If you recall from Fear Itself, the villainous Serpent infused half a dozen Marvel characters with the spirits and powers of his lieutenants. One of them was the Hulk, who was infused with the power of Nul. For reasons I won’t get into here (they involve Dracula!), Nul wasn’t defeated alongside the Serpent and the rest of his lieutenants. Instead, Nul and Hulk simply became separated, leaving both Nul and the Hulk in the world. Well Nul’s still kicking around, and somebody’s got to take him out!

Enter Doctor Strange, who just shagged some super cute medical student in glasses.

Stephen Strange = Pimp Supreme

I can’t say as how I’ve ever really thought of Doctor Strange as a sexual being. Let alone one who can nail cute college students. I’ve always seen him as something of an older gentleman. Doesn’t he still have the gray streaks in his hair? Anyway, she tells him it was a mistake and they go their separate ways. Hopefully she’ll play a part in the book, otherwise this was just a shocking way to introduce Doctor Strange. I guess it lends him street cred as something of a playboy, which as I said, I’d never considered him before.

For anyone who doesn’t know, Doctor Strange is Marvel’s resident Sorcerer Supreme. He’s got magic that can allow him to do almost anything by casting the right spell. Strange has a lot of fans, and may even be getting a movie, but for some reason he’s been unable to support a full ongoing series in the modern age. Though that lends him to more artistic mini-series and stories. He’s the kind of guy who is awesome when used sparingly. I will also refer everyone to the blog MightyGodKing for his examples of the sorts of awesomeness that Doctor Strange could do.

So after a shower, Doctor Strange goes out on the town to distract himself from some mystical problems that have been bugging him lately. He’s convinced that there’s some trouble in the air. He does a simple divination spell with his tea and the morning newspaper to see what might be coming his way, and the answer he gets is: ‘anger’.

Cue the Incredible Hulk!

Don't forget to leave him a tip

Back home, while still pondering the mystical trouble he feels, Strange is visited by the Hulk. As I mentioned, Strange and Hulk are old frenemies, having worked together on the Defenders throughout the years. Hulk tends to hate everybody, but he needs help with Nul, so he’s come to Doctor Strange. I hope I don’t need to explain the Incredible Hulk to anyone, but just in case…Doctor Bruce Banner was a genius in the field of radiation. When testing an experimental gamma radiation bomb for the government, Banner got caught in the blast, and that unleashed the Incredible Hulk from within him. Now every time Banner gets angry, his rage manifests by turning him into an angry, green giant. As he is prone to tell you, the Hulk is the strongest being on the planet, and the angrier he gets the stronger he gets.

This launches the recruitment phase of the book. Strange and Hulk go and find the two other classic Defenders: Namor, the Sub-Mariner and the Silver Surfer. Namor is the King of Atlantis (kind of like Aquaman) and the Silver Surfer is a space-faring hero embued with the Power Cosmic and a flying surfboard. Everybody is generally pleased to get the band back together.

Collect the whole set!

For the purposes of this issue and this review, we’re going to ignore each character’s current status quo. It’s hard to tell how big of a deal they are. Just take these characters for how they normally are and don’t worry about it.

But the recruitment isn’t finished just yet!

The Hulk tells everyone that he can’t go up against Nul and risk bonding with that monster again. So he’s out. To replace his muscle though, he recommends the remaining three go and recruit the Red She-Hulk. She’s…going to take a long time to explain in full. So I’ll be brief. Basically, the last few years of Incredible Hulk stories have been about everyone in Hulk’s supporting cast becoming some kind of Hulk. Former antagonist General Thunderbolt Ross is now the Red Hulk (and an Avenger!), Rick Jones got powers, and Hulk’s longtime love interest Betty Ross is the Red She-Hulk. I’m pretty sure that’s the name she’s going with to differentiate her from the normal green She-Hulk.

As to why they’d put Red She-Hulk onto the team instead of normal She-Hulk, it’s probably just to spice things up a little.

Get it? Because the bulls normally chase people? C'mon, it's funny!

Red She-Hulk is in Spain chasing the bulls and trying to get drunk. Again, I don’t know her status quo and I’m sure it doesn’t much matter. There’s some discrepancy over whether Bruce Banner suggested they recruit her or whether it was the Hulk. As we’ve seen, it was the Hulk. I guess we’ll have to find out later why that matters, if at all. I don’t know if Bruce Banner and Betty Ross are currently in love or not. Red She-Hulk jumps at the chance to be involved and Fraction makes a quick joke about superheroes having to take the train.

He's just showing off

But they don’t like taking the train, so the Defenders decide they want to go by plane. Which brings us to the next member of the team: Iron Fist. This is a pretty inspired choice. Iron Fist had an amazing solo series a few years back, co-written by Fraction. So it’s good to see him writing Iron Fist again. Since that series, Iron Fist has mostly hung out with the Avengers to no particular degree. So the Defenders is a good place for him. For those who don’t know, Iron Fist is Daniel Rand, a trillionaire playboy who also happens to be a martial arts master. He’s imbued with the spirit of a mystical dragon, and can turn his first ‘UNTO A THING OF IRON!’ He also appears to be something of the comedy relief.

Rand is taking part in the maiden voyage of his new multi-billion-dollar space plane, which will simulate zero gravity. He’s getting into the commercial spaceflight business. Everything appears to be going well…until the assassination attempt. But Rand kicks butt, and invents zero gravity kung fu while he’s at it.

Or Kung Fu in SPAAAAAAAAACE!

But since it’s not good enough that Doctor Strange visit him on the super-plane, we cut to a scene of Rand in bed with a beautiful woman. She’s sleeping and Strange visits Iron Fist via spectral form to invite him along. The Defenders want to use his multi-billion-dollar space plane for their quest. Iron Fist is in!

So the team is together flying towards their destination: Wundagore Mountain. This is a classic location from Marvel Universe lore, where the High Evolutionary created a race of animal people. It’s a weird, mystical and mysterious place, so it’s the perfect location for this series. The team chat back and forth about the quest, and how Iron Fist is reading comic books and Strange is reading something that has to do with all the mystical concerns he has. Not much time to banter or really get to know everybody, in my opinion.

Then the super plane gets shot at and blows up. That leaves everybody falling or flying for their lives.

Nah, that's OK, nobody catch She-Hulk

This is a pet peeve of mine. Billionaires and trillionaires are fairly common in the world of comic books. You’ve got Batman and Iron Man as two of the major ones, but then there are guys like Iron Fist who are also insanely rich. But are all of these guys really so insanely rich that they just don’t give a shit when their multi-billion-dollar super planes get blown up? Rand is very bothered, though at first he’s falling to his death. Did Fraction really have to go through all the trouble of introducing this super plane, only to blow it up and show Rand’s disinterest in losing all that money?

I’m just annoyed by characters being that rich.

Oh, well I guess that takes care of that then

So yeah, Iron Fist gets shot and some of Wundagore Mountain’s animal people show up with weapons. A guy calling himself Prester John, who looks human, tells the Defenders that he has traveled through time and space to herald Nul’s arrival, and he’s not going to let anyone get in his way. Cool, I guess?

I dunno, not a very interesting cliffhanger. I Googled ‘Prester John’ and all I got was some stuff about religious folk heroes of old. I don’t think he’s an actual Marvel character from the past, I think he’s new. Either way, he’s not very exciting, nor are his troops. Silver Surfer alone can destroy them with just the blink of an eye. So the ending leaves a bit to be desired, but the rest of the issue was pretty good. The tone is fun, the characters are so far entertaining and the art is, of course, phenomenal.

I’ll probably keep picking it up, especially if the teasers are true and Ant-Man joins the team. I love Ant-Man!

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What were your thoughts about The Defenders #1? Tell me in the comments!