Random Longbox

TITLE: Doctor Strange #2

PUBLISHER: Marvel Comics

COVER DATE: August 1974

COVER PRICE: $0.25

18 pages


WHAT I REMEMBER...

I love me some good Doctor Strange. Unfortunately, for as long as he's been around there's been a lot more chaff than wheat. Luckily for us, that Randomizer gave us a heaping helping of the good stuff. This was Doctor Strange's first self-titled series, and the first couple of dozen issues are some of my favorites.

The icing on the cake? The first half a dozen of those featured some truly epic art by Frank Brunner. There are three people that tackled the good doctor, that in my opinion are the holy trinity of Doctor Strange artists. Steve Ditko set the stage for Doc and his world in the Silver Age. Frank Brunner then came on and amped things up for the Bronze Age. And for the Modern Age, it doesn't get any better than Jackson Guice. That right there is about all you need as far as Doctor Strange is concerned.

The best of the crop from the 70's run are the issues that verged on the trippy. This issue falls squarely in that category as Doc is trapped in the Orb of Agamotto, fighting for his astral life while his body lies mortally wounded in the real world. The main protagonist for this particular story is the less than threatening Silver Dagger, but he's sidelined for the most part, as Strange desperately searches for a way out of the Orb.

Let's not waste any more time talking about it, and read it already...

A Separate Reality

• Co-Plotters: Steve Englehart and Frank Brunner
• Author: Steve Englehart
• Artist: Frank Brunner
• Inker: Dick Giordano
• Colorist: Frank Brunner
• Lettering: John Costanza
• Editor: Roy Thomas

And for those of you coming in late to the party, here's a recap of what happened last issue, right on page one.

So maybe the Silver Dagger stabbed him in the back instead of beheading him, but the dramatization is for the benefit of Clea who was taken prisoner by Silver Dagger last issue. It's his hope that seeing her beloved mistreated in this fashion, will break her spirit. Clea may be new to the realm of sorcery, but she's no dummy. She knows that if anyone can defeat the Silver Dagger, it's Doctor Strange.

Speaking of Doctor Strange, let's check in with him within the realm of the Orb of Agamotto.

Yikes...a winged, soul sucking space worm! Good thing Clea can't see this, as her confidence in Stephen would be sorely tested as his soul gets sucked up and swallowed whole.

What she doesn't know, is that Doc is about to get some help from some unlikely allies. First among them? The Silver Surfer.

So while the Surfer thinks he has arrived too late to save another victim of the Soul-Eater, what he doesn't realize is that the victim was Doctor Strange. Even without a mortal body, he is far from defenseless. Attacking the central nervous system of the creature, he manages to get himself vomited back to what passes for reality inside the orb.

Curiously, the Surfer does not recognize Doctor Strange. Since they've been team mates for the last two years, that can only mean that the Orb is pulling images from Doc's mind and making them manifest in its realm to interact with him. Their first task? Find his body, which has decided to go on a bit of a walkabout after having the soul sucked from it by the Soul Eater.

Following it's rambling footprints, they trail the mortal shell to a strange castle. What's even stranger is what they find inside the castle.

All right all you heroes, it's time to get crazy drunk on some off the Hulk's tea. And you don't turn down a cup of Hulk's tea, as that would make him angry...and you wouldn't like him very much when he's angry.

Reunited with his body, Doctor Strange is willing to throw caution to the wind and not only refuse Hulk's tea, but decides to leave the party early as well. Bad move, Doc.

Doctor Strange manages a spell or two of obfuscation that has the Defenders attacking phantom versions of himself. That leaves them wide open for a whammy of a spell that knocks 'em all unconscious, right as the Soul-Eater returns.

Luckily for Doctor Strange, not all of orb-created manifestations were quite as reactionary. With the help of the Silver Surfer and Valkyrie, they deduce that the Soul-Eater will keep on coming as Doc is the only one in the orb with an actual soul. To save himself, he must confront death itself at the center of the orb. Only then will he be able to free himself and return to the mortal world to save his beloved Clea.

With Valkyrie's winged horse as his guide, Doctor Strange closes out the issue heading right for the center of the Orb of Agamotto...sure of himself, and his actions, for the first time in a long time.

SO, WHAT DID WE LEARN...

First and foremost, never turn down tea with the Hulk. If he doesn't get his regular dose of caffeine, look out!

Do you think he favors green tea or gray? I guess it depends on what his skin color at the time is. Do they have red tea?

Steve Englehart and Frank Brunner craft a well done tale, putting Doctor Strange through a series of challenges where he must use his mind in a world where the reality is a warped version of his memories. It allows just the right amount of trippyness, while giving him plenty of foes to battle, both familiar and bizarre.

I always love a good Doctor Strange story where he's essentially fighting himself, or manifestations pulled from his consciousness or powers, and this one doesn't disappoint. The use of the Defenders as visualizations of the superhero world as seen through the twisted lens of the Orb is the perfect meta-commentary on the team itself. Strange, bizarre, and seemingly thrown together at random with nothing but a vague sense of camaraderie (or Hulk's tea) holding them together.

Frank Brunner's artwork is just as good as I remember, truly shining when he gets to let loose with dimensions and perspective inside the surreal world of the Orb. It's a shame that we only got five or six issues with him on the art, but it's a testament to his talent that they loom so large in my memory.

All in all, this was a heckuva book and definitely one of the highlights of the Bronze Age. I only wish that they could capture this sense of what makes a good Doctor Strange story and apply it to today's Doctor Strange.

TITLE: The New Defenders #129

PUBLISHER: Marvel

COVER DATE: March 1984

COVER PRICE: $0.60

23 pages


WHAT I REMEMBER...

I've already written previously (and not that long ago) about my history with The Defenders. But this is The New Defenders, so it could only be bigger and better...right?

New Avengers is better than Avengers, right? The New Thunderbolts were better than the genius Thunderbolts of Busiek and Bagley, right? The New Ultimates are better than the Ultimates, right?

Yeah, that train of thought isn't going anywhere helpful. Let's just read this thing and see if being "New" in the 80's was any better than being "New" in the 00's.

Countdown!

• Writer: J.M. DeMatteis
• Artists: Don Perlin & Kim DeMulder
• Letterer: Janice Chiang
• Colorist: Christie Scheele
• Editor: Carl Potts
• Editor in Chief: Jim Shooter

The story starts in the middle of a battle between the New Mutants and the New Defenders. The scene? Professor's School for Gifted Youngsters. Why they're fighting, we're not so sure, but for three fifths of the Defenders it's a reluctant battle.

Angel, Iceman, and the Beast are understandably going easy on the latest crew of young mutants being trained by their old teacher, Professor Xavier. The same can not be said of Valkyrie, who seems to be possessed with a blood lust befitting a true Norse warrior. It's only after she runs her blade through Wolfsbane and is about to deliver the death blow when Moondragon intercedes.

She has been studying the situation and has come to the conclusion that none of this is real.

Using her powerful mental abilities, she shatters the illusion and we find out what has really been going on. The Defenders have been caught by the Secret Empire and are being subjected to their mind ripper machine in what has been so far, a futile attempt to brainwash them.

The leader of the Secret Empire, Professor Power, wishes to use the brainwashed Defenders to hunt down and kill the New Mutants in an attempt to gain revenge against Professor Xavier.

Like any good megalomaniac, would-be world conquering super-villain, Professor Power has more than one scheme going on.

While he pursues his vendetta against Professor X, he also has his sights on something rather larger...the creation of a perfect Utopia on Earth after civilization has been purged in a nuclear war of his prodding.

It all involves the launching of a satellite that will beam subliminal messages, inciting the leaders of the free world into all out nuclear war.

In another part of the Secret Empire's base, a lone figure strides the hallways. Her name is Seraph, and she is a trusted member of the organization. Unfortunately, she's also been working as a double agent for the Soviets as well and the time to disrupt Professor Power's evil scheme is now.

Freeing another captive of the Secret Empire, they manage to wreak enough havoc that the Defenders are able to use the ensuing chaos to their advantage and break free from the mind ripper device.

One short rendezvous later, and they are working together to disrupt the ensuing launch of the brain-washing satellite rocket.

Professor Power, realizing that he is losing the upper hand, disposes of some disloyal society members and makes good his escape. He seems unconcerned about the pending rocket launch, for if the Defenders stop it, he has other plans in motion to achieve his ultimate goal of a perfect society under his control.

Speaking of that same rocket, the Defenders can't afford to be as blase about it's pending liftoff. Racing to the launch pad, they're seconds too late as the rocket begins the final ten seconds of it's countdown.

Valkyrie and Moondragon, determined not to let the rocket take off successfully, do their best Captain America and Bucky impersonation as they are lifted skyward.

SO, WHAT DID WE LEARN...

Like most books that have been around for a long time, the book we're reading in 1984 is a far cry from the issue we've read previously from 1977. Where before, we had a somewhat melodramatic book about a group of misfit superheroes, this time around we have a relatively straightforward team book of B and C list characters. It' a different dynamic, and it loses most of the charm that it had held previously.

That's not to say that issue was bad, it was just kinda boring. The villainous plot by Professor Power was pretty much by the book comic book villainy. The dynamics of the team lacked any real tension, with the only drama coming from the Beast's monologues about having second thoughts about bringing this team together.

The only real highlight of this issue was watching the ladies come to the forefront. Moondragon and Valkyrie are the real strength of this issue, and they make for an interesting dynamic in how they play off of each other. The restrained and controlled demeanor of Moondragon contrasts nicely against the action-oriented and emotional Valkyrie.

I'm still intrigued about the idea of the Defenders as a series, but I think I'm going to stick with the 70's stuff for right now.

TITLE: The Defenders #51

PUBLISHER: Marvel

COVER DATE: September 1977

COVER PRICE: $0.30

17 pages


WHAT I REMEMBER...

So up until a few years ago, I only ever owned one Defenders book. It was #152, which was the last issue of the original series, as well as a Secret Wars II tie-in. I'm pretty sure I bought it because I bought every other Secret Wars II tie-in as well. I can't remember too much about it, and that's the way it stayed for a long time.

There's always been something about The Defenders though, that kind of intrigued me. The idea of a "non-team" of super-heroes seemed like something that, if it was done well, would be really entertaining to read. Unfortunately, everything I had heard was not very encouraging.

So fast forward about twenty years and my brother-in-law informs me that he has come into possession of a comic book collection from the late 70's/early 80's that was given to him by a family friend. Being the resident "comic book guy" of the family, I volunteered to see what he had, and get the collection in order so that his son could have a nice-sized collection. He offered to let me have whatever I wanted from these as well.

All in all, it was a nice little collection of about 1000 books ranging from 1975 all the way up to 1995. Alot of this collection was stuff I already had, so my nephew got a pretty decent collection of books including some Claremont/Byrne X-Men and some McFarlane Spider-Man.

There were a couple of runs that I did end up keeping for myself that allowed me to finish off my Byrne Fantastic Four run and 50 or so issues of The Defenders. My curiosity was finally going to be sated, as far as the The Defenders were concerned.

So what was the verdict? Where they any good? Let's find out...

A Round With The Ringer!

• Writer: David Kraft
• Penciller: Keith Giffen
• Inker: Klaus Janson
• Letterer: Bruce Patterson
• Colorist: Phil Rache
• Editor: Archie Goodwin

The story begins with an epilogue of sorts from the previous storyline featuring a battle against Scorpio. Joining the Defenders on this adventure were Nick Fury and Moon Knight, who are still around as S.H.I.E.L.D. picks up the pieces from the epic battle.

This is a style of storytelling we just don't see anymore. With most books these days being written with the trade paperback collections in mind, it would just be too difficult to work out how to package this epilogue to the previous four issues, and not butcher the next volume.

It does date the book slightly, but I always enjoyed this technique. It makes the title seem more serial in nature, and not just a random collection of 6 issue adventures.

It's during this epilogue that we are reminded that Nick Fury's brother was killed. Whether or not his brother was Scorpio, I couldn't tell from the dialogue. He does seem to be at peace, however, just knowing the final fate of his missing brother.

We also see Moon Knight and Nighthawk palling it up and remarking about how well they fought together, with Moon Knight recapping how he managed to escape certain death with the help of a beer can (see the previous post here for more details).

Everyone soon goes their separate ways, and it's a rather uneventful couple of weeks in the life of the Defenders before we pick up their story again. Kyle Richmond and Barbara Norris (a.k.a. Nighthawk and Valkyrie) are riding in his limo as he is escorting her Empire State University, where he has convinced her to enroll for classes.

Here, Valkyrie encounters a villain more dastardly than any the Defenders have previously fought...the bureaucracy of college admissions. After a full day of standing in the wrong lines, filling out the wrong forms, and missing most of the classes that she wants, her day comes to a close with her application forms being ripped up in front of her. She leaves, vowing to get Kyle for getting her into this, but not before splitting the administrators desk in two with her bare hands.

So that was what the Valkyrie was up to. Let's check in with Nighthawk to see what sort of villainy he is now thrown up against. Arriving at the Manhattan offices of Richmond Enterprises, he finds that it is surrounded by S.W.A.T. teams who are trying to capture a small time villain known as The Ringer.

Without a moment's hesitation, Kyle changes to Nighthawk and bursts into the building to stop the Ringer. Unfortunately, it doesn't go to well for him as the Ringer uses his Rapid-Fire Wrist Rings to snare and constrict Nighthawk, crushing his jet pack.

Nighthawk does manage to get a couple of good shots in, using his damaged jet pack as a projectile, but the relentless barrage of rings is just too much. Reeling in pain and momentarily unable to stop him, the Ringer collects his loot and begins to make his escape.

While Nighthawk attempts to recover in time to stop the Ringer, let's check in with the next member of the Defenders to see how she is coping with the rather hum-drum villainy of ordinary, everyday life.

And apparently it's not going well for Hellcat, who has lost a momentous battle with the coffee pot.

Will this torture never end for our heroes?

Back in the thick of battle, Nighthawk has recovered enough to catch up to the Ringer and cut short his escape. The Ringer continually calls out Nighthawk as a hypocrite for indulging in violence and hero worship, all the while doing it to protect somebody else's money. Little does he know that the man he fights is actually the owner of Richmond Enterprises himself!

A game of cat and mouse ensues within the massive office building, with the Ringer's head games keeping Nighthawk off balance. Again, it looks like our hero is going to be trapped by the wily wrist bands of the Ringer, when fate smiles upon him. Not anticipating to meet any superpowered resistance, he didn't pack enough wrist ring and has now run out. Eager to put a stop to this battle, Nighthawk delivers a swift kick to the jaw of the Ringer.

We'll leave the final fate of the Ringer for a few pages, as we catch back up with Hellcat. She was distracted from seeking revenge on the coffee machine as Valkyrie's estranged husband, Jack Norriss, has arrived at the team headquarters. They take a walk and attempt to work out their feelings for each other, and Valkyrie.

Which finally brings us to the last member of the Defenders that we haven't seen engaged against uncanny villainy from the most mundane of sources. That's right...it's the Hulk!

And who is he pitched in fierce battle with?

A hot dog street vendor, who else. But seeing as how this is the Hulk we're talking about, it's a rather one-sided battle.

Back at Richmond Enterprises for the last time, we catch up with the Ringer as he jumps through a window trying to escape Nighthawk.

Nighthawk picks up the Ringers discarded ring chain and ensnares him as he bursts through the window. A few witty rejoinders about the true nature of jealousy and hypocrisy later, and the Ringer is down for the count.

The issue ends with a rather bizarre scene where we find Valkyrie still on campus, trying to regather her wits at a local coffee bar. She is soon hit upon by a couple of people who I get the impression I should know, but I am drawing a blank. They go by the names of Dollar Bill and Ledge, and they are soon escorting her to the movies.

To make this sequence even stranger, the are being followed in the shadows by a man with a lead pipe who has just assaulted a fellow pedestrian for littering. It's definitely tough living in a world full of vigilante justice.

SO, WHAT DID WE LEARN...

I think I caught the Defenders on an off day, as they seemed to have had no end of problems dealing with the most mundane of ordinary problems and the D-Listiest of D-List superheroes. I get the impression from the epilogue at the beginning that they'd rather be fighting super-villains attempting world domination than stand in line at the D.M.V.

Seriously though, this issue was a blast. I can definitely see how a cult following has built up for this title over the years. It's fun and goofy, while at the same time hitting on some big time themes of loss, responsibility, honor, duty, inequality, and social justice.

Although what exactly the Hulk was trying to teach us by stealing hot dogs, I can't quite figure out. I guess every group needs it's Kramer.

The other thing I absolutely loved about this issue was the artwork from Keith Giffen and Klaus Janson. I've long admired Janson as an inker, but haven't had too much exposure to Giffen as a penciller. Together, I think they make a fantastic team. It's got a great Kirby sensibility to it, without trying to be an outright clone of his style. The storytelling was top notch, and the facial expressions and acting worked perfectly with a touch of humor that balanced everything out.

All in all, this issue was a real winner and definitely one of my favorites that I've reviewed on this blog so far. Unfortunately, most of the 50 issues that I picked up from my brother-in-law are not from this era, but from the early-to-mid 80's. That just means that I have another excuse to go longbox diving and find at least the rest of the Keith Giffen issues of this title, but I can also see myself not stopping with just those.