Defenders: From The Marvel Vault (2011)

My little theme of seeking out various instances where the original Defenders have reunited comes to an end with a one-shot from 2011.

Hulk (2008) #10 was great fun, Defenders (2005) #2 was insipid trash. This book is somewhere in the middle.

The story starts in kind of a jarring fashion. All the characters appear to be teleported into a forest setting and are talking like college students. For half the book, we have the Defenders in body only, which is a little disappointing.

Each character encounters something he wants very much. In effect, he is taken to his proverbial happy place. For Namor, naturally, that means encountering his former lady love, Dorma.

Whoever the kid is that's inhabiting Namor's body, when Dorma's advances make him uncomfortable because he's crushing on another girl already, he senses that things aren't right. He rejects the new reality and breaks the mind control spell.

The next part is a little unclear to me. Silver Surfer and Doctor Strange deduce that an alien ship was separated from its fleet and its passengers tried to bond mentally with the people of Earth in order to rebuild their society. This is what caused the "happy place" effect.

Unfortunately for Namor, the first teammate he freed upon breaking the spell was the Hulk. The green giant was none too happy about having his fun ruined (being yanked from his own happy place) so they started throwing down.

pillock
noun
British slang a stupid or annoying person

Don't act like you knew...

While these two pound on one another, Strange and Surfer quite simply solve the problem by sending the aliens home. The experience has had some impact on our favourite prince, however.

And so we end on a tender moment.

Not a bad book overall but by no means a classic. I would be surprised if this story was every referred to again in continuity but I'm sure if you're a fan of The Defenders, it made for a good nostalgic read.

Defenders (2005) #2

This is among the books I'd bought based on the recent news that the Defenders would be reuniting, at least temporarily. The point was to have a look at other times such reunions took place.

I'd already bought the first issue of this series and, well...hated it. This is just not my cup of tea. Comedic books that clash with long-estabished characters' usual personalities don't tend to work, in my opinion. When Doctor Strange and the Silver Surfer became well-known, people were not buying their books for a giggle. You can maybe make it work with the Hulk who, while we're on the subject, graces the cover.

When we last saw the team, they had been whisked away to Dormammu's dimension by Doctor Strange and were preparing to be overwhelmed by the villain's hordes. Namor does not do much in this book, but his first appearance at least demonstrates his power.

Sadly, that's about as much contribution from the avenging son as we're going to get. We are offered page after page of Dormammu and his sister Umar babbling and bickering like children and this kind of "hilarious" filler.

The prince speaks for me here and I wish that command applied to everyone. That's about it for Namor in this particular issue but I can't complain, he gets more face time than the Silver Surfer does. The bulk of the book is dedicated to the Dormammu and Umar comedy show.

Only three more issues to go, but unless they go on sale at some point, I'm going to read a lot of other books before I get to them.