Defenders

History

The origin of the Defenders can be traced back to two crossover story arcs by Roy Thomas prior to the official founding of the team. The first, in Doctor Strange #183 (November 1969), Sub-Mariner #22 (February 1970), and The Incredible Hulk #126 (April 1970) occurred when the Dr. Strange series was cancelled and the storyline was completed in the other series. Dr. Strange teams with Sub-Mariner, then the Hulk to protect the Earth from invasion by Lovecraftian inter-planar beings known as the Undying Ones and their leader, the Nameless One. Barbara Norriss, later the host of the Valkyrie, first appears in this story. In the second arc (featured in Sub-Mariner #34 and #35, February and March 1971), Namor enlists the aid of the Silver Surfer and the Hulk to stop a potentially devastating weather control experiment (and to inadvertently free a small island nation from a dictator) and face the Avengers. These two story arcs were reprinted in the first Essential Defenders volume.

The Defenders first appeared as a feature in Marvel Feature #1 (December, 1971), where the founding members gathered to battle the alien techno-wizard Yandroth and remained as a team afterwards. Due to the popularity of their tryout in Marvel Feature, Marvel soon began publishing The Defenders. The best-known and most prominent Defenders are Doctor Strange, the Hulk, Namor the Sub-Mariner, the Silver Surfer, Nighthawk, Valkyrie, and Hellcat. Many other heroes worked with the team in its original incarnation, and several became "official" members. Other notable members include Hawkeye, Devil-Slayer, Son of Satan, Clea, Moondragon, the Gargoyle, the Beast, Iceman, and The Angel.

Secret Defenders

In 1993, Doctor Strange organized a new "team" called the Secret Defenders, whose membership varied for each mission. A number of then-popular heroes appeared in this series; the first group organized consisted of the membership of "New Fantastic Four" (Spider-Man, Wolverine, the Hulk and Ghost Rider), who battled the Human Torch in Fantastic Four #374-375. The supervillain Thanos also organized a team of "Secret Defenders" during this period, though that team had nothing to do with Strange's group. Eventually, leadership of the Secret Defenders passed to Doctor Druid, who faked his own death in Secret Defenders #25, the series' last issue.

Original Reunite & The Order

In 2001-2002, The Defenders reunited in Defenders (volume 2) #1-12 created by Kurt Busiek and Erik Larsen, immediately followed by The Order #1-6, in which Yandroth manipulated Gaea into "cursing" the primary four Defenders (Doctor Strange, the Sub-Mariner, the Hulk and the Silver Surfer) so that they would be summoned to major crisis situations. These members were then mind controlled by Yandroth into forming the world-dominating "Order"; once the Order were freed from this control by their fellow heroes (including their teammates Hellcat, Nighthawk and Valkyrie), the Defenders apparently disbanded.

A Defenders five-issue miniseries debuted in July 2005, by Keith Giffen, J. M. DeMatteis and Kevin Maguire (as a team, best known for their work on DC's Justice League), featuring Doctor Strange attempting to reunite the original four Defenders to battle Dormammu and Umar. This series focuses mostly on humor as the characters spend most of their time arguing with and criticizing one another.

The Last Defenders

Joe Casey wrote a new mini-series with a new line-up of Defenders as a result of the Super-Human Registration Act and the events of the Civil War. The line-up is being led by Nighthawk, with Blazing Skull, Colossus and She-Hulk also as members. The Defenders are assigned to New Jersey under the Fifty State Initiative, because the proximity to New York City demands more experienced warriors than can just be recruited from the ranks of Camp Hammond. The team is disbanded for incompetence but Richmond eventually founds a team with the Son of Satan, She-Hulk, Krang and SHIELD agent Joaquin Pennyworth.