The Order (2002) #1: "The Best Defense..."

I read some time ago that Namor appeared in a book called The Order but my source misidentified the book. Marvel released a series by that name in 2007 but, that I know of, Namor never appeared in it.

He did, however, appear in a book called The Order in 2002 which I only recently stumbled upon. It was yet another Defenders reunion, for all intents and purposes, under a different name.

We begin with Nighthawk freezing his ass to death in the Himalayas. He's talking to himself and indicating that more powerful colleagues have left him behind. Intriguing!

We then cut to the Arabian Peninsula where soldiers from a country called Murkatesh are staging an invasion. But the Defen...huh...The Order is there to put an end to those shenanigans!

The next few pages are dedicated to each member showing what he can do. And as they leave the devastated military behind, they cryptically state that America is next.

Then things get a little confusing. Even though this is the first issue of a mini-series, it feels as though I've missed an awful lot.

In their civilian identities, Valkyrie and Hellcat are telling Valkyrie's folks about their superhero identities when the group is visited by a little dude named Papa Hagg who, apparently, we're supposed to know.

Hagg (in the Hawaiian shirt below) expresses concern about Nighthawk's whereabouts until being reminded that he actually has to ability to teleport him to them. Oh yeah!  And so he does.

That's a hell of a thing to forget.

Once recovered, Nighthawk explains that the four members of the Defenders were livid at a curse that the scientist supreme, Yandroth, set on them that forced them to come together when the earth was in danger. 

 

...to the Himalayas. He followed, heard them swear an oath, they took off and he got stuck there. Taht teleportation ring he mentions malfunctioned.

When the Order attacks the US Navy, as they promised to do earlier, we find out that Doctor Strange actually knew of Nighthawk's presence in the Himalayas and prevented him from returning. Harsh.

The trio of Defenders attempts to stop the Order's attack on the navy but are easily repelled after which Strange makes this declaration.

This was a pretty interesting book, if a little unclear for someone who hadn't been following these characters very closely at the time. It appears that the Order members are being manipulated, as you might expect, yet it seems odd that they would take the time to take an oath of some sort if that were the case.

Either way, seeing the less powerful (with perhaps Valkyrie as an exception) Defenders take on the team's heavy-hitter should be entertaining.