Customer Reviews

Defenders: Indefensible (Defenders (Marvel Comics))

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I love what Keith Giffen & friends have done with 4 of Marvel's more blustering, hot-tempered characters in this hilarious tale of the "other regions". Can you picture 2 more egocentric, long-winded characters than Dr. Strange and Prince Namor, forced to work together with the Hulk to keep another hothead, Dormammu, from destroying the universe. Meanwhile, Silver Surfer, who's supposed to be helping them, is busy getting all gnarly with the California (?) surfing crowd. The writing and artwork are superb, and I heartily recommend this to anyone who's tired of hearing Namor blowing his own whistle about how regal and superior he is...blah, blah, blah , woof, woof.... or hearing Dr. Strange going on with one of his numerous incantations. And wait until you see what the Hulk's role is in all of this! Just brilliant insanity!

...is amplified to the extreme in this collection.
The creative team of J.M. DeMatteis, Keith Giffen and Kevin Maguire, best known for their slap-stick humor on DC's Justic League International, head back to Marvel and take the strife, struggle and humor that was known in the 1970's Defenders run and put their own spin on it.
The demonic brother and sister duo of Dormammu and Umar have put aside their differences long enough to try and take over the Earth, leaving Dr. Strange to convince his former comrades-in-arms to try and stop them. Unfortunately, reuniting as the Defenders is the last thing any of them want to do.
This series is full of one-liners familar to casual and long-time fans alike, and is also heavy on exposition, something today's comic books seem to be lacking.
Also, the art by Maguire is pefectly suited for the mood of the book, especially in the instance where Bruce Banner asks the Sub-Mariner about whether or not he had found little Nemo.
A fun read...

This book is surprisingly entertaining in parts. It is written tongue-in-cheek and tells the tale of four of Marvel's superheroes getting together to defeat Dr Strange's nemesis The Dreaded Dormammu and his sister Umar (who?). Exactly. The writers have created an older sister for Dormammu and the siblings have this rather funny on-going dialogue exchange and practically steals the whole series. Funny in parts only because the section with the Silver Surfer and beach bums is just a waste of time.

The artwork complements the humorous treatment in this series. Goofy and campy, it doesn't always hit the mark but entertaining overall.

In this surprising book writers Keith Giffen and J. M. DeMatteis along with artist Kevin Maguire take 4 of marvel's most over-the-top characters and poke gentle fun at them.

Dr. Strange, the self-style sorcerer supreme, must once-again unite his quarrelsome, melodramatic and self-important teammates the Hulk, Prince Namor and the Silver Surfer to prevent the evil Dormammu from destroying universe. Superhero clichés are on full display here and are duly mocked. We have armies of demons, evil duplicates, foul villainy and of course a last minute victory.

Maguire's expressive art is great for everything from subtle facial expressions to designing a demonic New York City. While Giffen and DeMattheis' scripts might not be as funny as some of their other work it's still good for grins and chuckles.

This is really the sort of story comic companies should do more of, top writers and artists telling a story about classic characters. No great continuity changes, no cross-overs, no bloody deaths, just solid superhero story-telling.

Give it a read you won't be disappointed.

I should have looked into this more closely before buying it. Ignorant me, I thought I was buying the first story arc of the Defenders from the 70s, instead, it's a goofy limited series published fairly recently that has very little to do with the old Defenders.

The series is a tongue-in-cheek look at some of the most pompous and over-blown characters around, but as What The-?! proved years ago, comic book writers are not necessarily comedy writers. Parts of it are funny, but most of it is pretty banal, sort of like a fifth grader's attempt at an irreverant "post-modern" deconstruction of an old comic book.

Dr. Strange gets made fun of by everyone for his grandiose, comic-book style speech, the Silver Surfer spends the entire series giving long-winded speeches about his search for meaning (obviously parodying the Surfer's typical portrayal), and Namor and the Hulk trade insults the entire time (which isn't too bad). The result is four heroes who seem in no way heroic or even interesting. They're just cardboard cutouts poking fun at the older versions of the characters. The villains, a clueless and utterly befuddled Dormammu and an over-sexed Umar, aren't any better.

The series wasn't BAD, but it wasn't particularly good, either, and it certainly wasn't anything like I expected it to be. I was hoping for high, campy 70s comic melodrama about different worlds, but I got a goofy little story making fun of the comics of the 70s.

I picked this up solely on the fact that I loved their work on the Bwa ha ha league (JLI/Formerly Known as the Justice League) but this lacked all of the chemistry that past books had in spades. It really should have been titled Dr. Strange and Namor because the surfer was in the background rambling for the whole series and the Hulk was a very minor character.

The characters sick to one joke and remain very 1 dimentional though all 5 issues. By the end of the series I just wanted it to be over and I'll go back and read some good JLI for a great funny book.