Meditation Practices

The Defenders were no strangers to meditation. Dr. Strange had a Chamber of Meditation within his Sanctum Sanctorum, the original headquarters for the non-team. As one of the New Defenders, Moondragon often meditated as well. For all their differences, both characters were fiercely private and relied on meditation for mental clarity.

Dr. Strange shows Nighthawk and Valkyrie his Chamber of Meditation in Defenders #15; Moondragon meditates (and levitates) in New Defenders #136.

Lawful Neutral: Super-Editor

As a lark during Assistant Editor's Month, New Defenders #127 opened with a two-page story featuring assistant editor Ann Nocenti as Super-Editor of Marvel Comics. After assuming her new role, Nocenti threatened to fire any freelancers who did not meet their deadlines and envisioned all books coming out on time. Though presented ironically, this no-nonsense formula for greatness strictly followed the Lawful Neutral alignment from Dungeons & Dragons.

Lawful Good	Neutral Good	Chaotic Good
Lawful Neutral	True Neutral	Chaotic Neutral
Lawful Evil	Neutral Evil	Chaotic Evil

Marie Severin drew this caricature of assistant editor Ann Nocenti from New Defenders #127 (January 1984).

The Monastic Moondragon

With her mental discipline and open-hand fighting style, Moondragon more or less met the criteria for a Monk from Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. That particular character class was all the more fitting given that she was trained by monks on Saturn's moon Titan. Moondragon's abilities also included an array of psionics, which were available in AD&D to a small percentage of humans with exceptional intelligence, wisdom or charisma—regardless of character class.

This image of Moondragon comes from New Defenders #127 (Jan. 1984).

Waxing Poetic

The opening page of New Defenders #150 included the first stanza of Percy Bysshe Shelley's "To the Moon." Written in the early nineteenth century, the short poem set the tone for the heroes' outer space encounter with the Star-Thief. The full poem appears below.

To the Moon Art thou pale for weariness Of climbing heaven and gazing on the earth, Wandering companionless Among the stars that have a different birth,— And ever changing, like a joyless eye That finds no object like its constancy? Thou chosen sister of the Spirit, That gazes on thee till in thee it pities …

The illustration above comes from New Defenders $150 (Dec. 1985).

Warren's Wardrobe

Warren Worthington III redesigned his costume a handful of times during his heroic career as Angel. Of all his costumes, my favorite was the red-and-white costume with a halo insignia that he began wearing in Champions #8. That costume replaced the open-chested, yellow-and-red costume introduced in Champions #1. The red-and-white costume was in fact a variation of a blue-and-white costume that he began wearing as one of the original X-Men (replacing a costume with suspenders first seen in X-Men #39). After the Champions disbanded, Warren sometimes returned to the blue-and-white costume, but he stayed with the red-and-white version throughout his time with the New Defenders. Because of his wings, Warren was identifiable as the Angel no matter which uniform he wore.

These panesl come from Champions $8 (Oct. 1976).

Uncollected

The New Defenders almost encountered the Collector in Marvel Team-Up Annual #7 (1984). In that issue, the supervillain wanted to expand his collection of extraterrestrials—and he found several prospects residing on Earth. Under consideration were Warlock of the New Mutants and Cloud of the New Defenders. The Collector passed them both up, however, turning his attention instead to Spider-Man (sporting a symbiotic alien costume from Secret Wars) and Marrina of Alpha Flight (and from the Plodex homeworld). Though easy to overlook, the panel featuring Cloud provided an important piece of foreshadowing for the New Defenders, as Cloud's extraterrestrial origin story had yet to be revealed.

In the Wings

Angel was basically benched from the team after New Defenders #143, when an attack from Moondragon left him blind until #152, the final issue of the series. If Angel seemed unfettered while wounded, he had already done his share of soul searching just before joining the New Defenders (#125), when the subterranean band of mutants known as Morlocks kidnapped him and clipped his pin feathers (X-Men #169-170).

No longer a prospective mate for Callisto, leader of the Morlocks, Angel was instead boyfriend to Candy Southern, leader of the New Defenders. This may have helped him maintain his perspective.

In this panel from Defenders #146 (Aug. 1985), Cloud verbally guides Angel as he practices flying without his eyesight.

Close Encounters

Cataclysmic visions of the future would prompt Dr. Strange, Hulk, Sub-Mariner and Silver Surfer to quit the Defenders. According to the mysterious, time-traveling Tribunal, the four heroes would investigate a crashed starship in October 1983 (cover date of Defenders #124). The ship's passengers, followers of saintly Prince Ch'kra from the planet Kamado, would then tragically commit suicide after mistaking the Defenders for agents of King Ch'kri, their planet's warmongering ruler. In the mid 24th century, an armada of Kamado starships would eventually destroy the Earth to obliterate any historical trace of Prince Ch'kra. Only by ceasing to band together could the four heroes hope to avert this fate (#125, which retitled the series as The New Defenders).

Although the Tribunal's warning would prove spurious at best, I'd like to think that Prince Ch'kra's followers managed to safely leave Earth while leaving no evidence behind.

This vision of the 24th century comes from the closing page of Defenders #123 (Sept. 1983).

Neutral Evil: Moondragon

Moondragon makes a compelling subject for the alignment system of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Originally introduced as Madame MacEvil (Iron Man #54), she soon joined the ranks of the Avengers as Moondragon. Even as a hero, though, Moondragon seemed driven to prove her own superiority above all else. For all her claims of transcending the mortal constraints of good and evil, Moondragon arrogantly followed a Neutral Evil alignent long before she joined the New Defenders as a villain under duress.

Lawful Good	Neutral Good	Chaotic Good
Lawful Neutral	True Neutral	Chaotic Neutral
Lawful Evil	Neutral Evil	Chaotic Evil

This image of Madame MacEvil comes from Iron Man #54. As Moondragon, the color of her costume changed to green.

Secret Wars II

Although the New Defenders did not participate in the original Secret Wars limited series, New Defenders #152 was a tie-in issue to Secret Wars II. Telepathically sensing that the Beyonder was on Earth, Moondragon called out to the godlike being. When the Beyonder materialized and offered Moondragon a chance to be his disciple, she accepted. As deeply as Moondragon craved such cosmic validation, she still harbored vindictive thoughts toward the New Defenders, who justifiably regarded her as evil. Immediately after the Beyonder left, Moondragon returned her loyalty to the corrupt Dragon of the Moon as though nothing had happened.

Defenders: Tier D

This month's series of posts comparing the power levels of the Defenders wraps up with Tier D. Candy Southern, the level-headed leader of the New Defenders, would default to this tier as she had no superhuman powers or extraodinary skills. Through her connection to Angel, however, Candy certainly had encountered her share of super-beings before joining the Defenders.

For an example of a costumed hero at Tier D, I'll turn outside of the Defenders and select the original Whizzer when he came out of retirement during the Bronze Age of comics. While Whizzer retained the super-speed he sported as a member of the All Winners Squad shortly after World War II, he now lacked the stamina to hold his own alongside other heroes.

Defenders: Tier C

To continue comparing the power level of Defenders from the original series, this post covers Tier C, which encompasses those heroes who were largely proficient yet did not necessarily stand out among other superhumans. Notable examples would include longtime members Nighthawk and Hellcat. Devil-Slayer functioned here too.

Although Red Guardian had no superhuman powers until she left in Defenders #53, her exceptional fighting skills and athleticism kept her on par with her teammates at Tier C. As a disciple of the mystic arts, Clea remained on the sidelines during much of the original series but her magical powers operated at this tier when she adventured with the non-team.

Among the New Defenders, Iceman and Cloud had powers with great creative potential yet still seemed scaled back to Tier C, in league with Beast and Angel.

These images of the Defenders come from editions of The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe.

Defenders: Tier B

When evaluating the Defenders by their respective abilities, Valkyrie surely rose to Tier B beginning with Defenders #64, as she more fully embodied her true self. The supernatural nature of Son of Satan and Gargoyle also placed them both squarely in Tier B: a notch above most of their crimefighting contemporaries yet still below Tier A.

Even with a headband limiting her mental talents, Moondragon safely landed in Tier B during her time with the New Defenders. Without the headband (as illustrated below), Moondragon would surely slot herself in the loftiest Tier S.

These images come from The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe.

Routine Seven

When battling the Mutant Force in New Defenders #125, Iceman called over to Angel, asking if his teammate remembered Routine Seven—an apparent callback to their training as original members of the X-Men. Acknowledging the reference, the high-flying Angel grabbed the villain Shocker by the arms, flew well above the rooftops, and then dropped Shocker, who cried out for HELLLLP! Iceman used his powers to soften the Shocker's fall by catching the defeated villain in a mound of snow.

The X-Men were known for their intense training in the Danger Room, so one can only imagine what other combat routines the mutant heroes had memorized. Were there only seven? Or were there many more?

Contemplating the Titans

Conceptually, the Teen Titans and the Defenders have little in common. The founding members of the Teen Titans were sidekicks to adult DC heroes, while the founding members of the Defenders were highly powerful and individualistic Marvel heroes. After hearing the podcast Titan Up The Defense, which discusses classic issues of each team on alternating weeks, I decided to look for commonalities between the two super groups. Here are a few examples:

• Aqualad, a founding member of the Teen Titans, has Atlantean parallels to the Sub-Mariner, a founding member of the Defenders.
• Robin (Nightwing), the original leader of the Teen Titans, was the longtime sidekick to Batman; Marvel Comics patterned Nighthawk after Batman.
• Superhuman strength, weaponry, and a mythological background makes Wonder Girl analogous to Valkyrie.
• Daughter of the demonic Trigon, the mystical Raven corresponds to Daimon Hellstrom, the Son of Satan.
• With green skin and the power of transformation, Changeling (Beast Boy) has superficial similarities to the Hulk.
• Three of the New Defenders began fighting crime as teenage members of the X-Men.

The Brave and the Bold #54 (July 1964) marked the beginning of the Teen Titans, when three sidekicks teamed up. The young heroes soon landed their own series, which ran 53 issues, and then found new popularity with the launch of The New Teen Titans #1 (Nov. 1980).

The Defenders at Fifty

This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of Marvel Feature #1 (Dec. 1971), the first appearance of the Defenders. While I enjoy many of their early stories, particularly Defenders #13-16, I'd select #89-138 as my favorite fifty-issue run on the original series.

Given those preferences, it should come as no surprise that I think the preview cover of an upcoming Defenders series looks promising. The image shows the mysterious Masked Raider prompting Dr. Strange to bring together a new team of Defenders. Depicted on Tarot cards, the prospects are largely heroes who were Defenders at one point or another during the original series, including several members of the New Defenders.

As a non-team throughout much of their history, the Defenders attracted mystics, monsters, and iconoclasts while never gaining the foothold of the Avengers, X-Men, or Fantastic Four. In the thirteen years that I've been blogging about the Defenders, I've lost track of the numerous attempts to revamp the team, from Iron Man's vision for the Last Defenders to Heroes for Hire adopting the name Defenders more recently. All that being said, I hope this upcoming incarnation, with its nod to the past, will have some staying power.

Turning Points and Trolls

On two occasions, the appearance of trolls marked turning points for the Defenders. The first instance came in Defenders #64, when Valkyrie entered a berserker rage while imagining that everyone around her was a fiendish troll. The frightening hallucination was a side effect of Valkyrie's internal conflict with the mind of Barbara Norriss. Afterward, Valkyrie journeyed to Asgard in a quest to regain her peace of mind and, eventually, her own Asgardian body.

Valkyrie and teammates eventually faced actual trolls in New Defenders #139. During this encounter, the monsters took a special interest in the Asgardian headband worn by Moondragon. As a form of punishment, the god Odin had placed the headband on Moondragon's head to limit her powers. Although Moondragon desperately wanted the headband removed, she telekinetically kept the trolls from prying it off her; Moondragon's resistance was driven out of concern that others might think she was as evil. With the trolls defeated, the magical headband serendipitously disappeared soon afterward, signifying that Moondragon demonstrated humility (at least for the time being).

This panel comes from Defenders #64.

Introducing Interloper

A series of cameo appearances beginning in New Defenders #147 culminated in #152, when the mysterious Interloper joined the team in a climactic battle against the Dragon of the Moon. Interloper had faced the wicked creature one thousand years earlier and had been living in seclusion ever since.

While keeping much of his history a secret, Interloper revealed a recent regret: he had trained Manslaughter in the use of mental powers … without anticipating how dangerous Manslaughter might become. A fear of making such mistakes, or being judged for them, had contributed to Interloper's overarching decision to stay hidden from the outside world.

This panel comes from New Defenders #152, the final issue of the series.

Fashion Faux Pas

During most of her time as leader of the New Defenders, Candy Southern wore conventional clothing rather than a heroic costume. That changed when the villain Manslaughter captured her, dressed her in a caped outfit with a bell-shaped insignia, and then programmed a holographic image of Candy announcing that her code name was Southern Belle. In the words of the real Candy Southern, however, the costume was "atrocious" (New Defenders #151).

Candy retained the Southern Belle costume throughout #152, with a slight alteration. Her bodice, which appeared consistently blue the previous issue, was now yellow. A reasonable explanation can be found in the credits, which show that a different colorist worked on each issue.

Petra Scotese colored the upper panel from New Defenders #151 (Jan. 1986). Ken Fedunieiwicz colored the lower panel from #152 (Feb. 1986).

Measuring Up to Mantis

New Defenders #138 ended in a cliffhanger, as the team witnessed Moondragon in hand-to-hand combat against the former Avenger known as Mantis. An even bigger surprise came in #139, when the New Defenders discovered that they were merely seeing a mental projection of Mantis that Moondragon had created to face some festering resentments.

Moondragon's bitterness harked back to Giant-Size Avengers #4, when she and Mantis were contenders for the title of Celestial Madonna. Both women were well-versed in the martial arts and had unique psionic abilities. Mantis also had a sense of humility that Moondragon lacked, and that absence of humility was the deciding factor that cost Moondragon the title.

Moondgragon handled the disappointment by eventually proclaiming herself a goddess free the moral confines of good and evil. Moondragon's acts of hubris in Avengers #219-220 led the Norse god Odin to hinder her powers with a mystic headband and sentence her to the custody of Valkyrie effective New Defenders #125.

Silently observing from Asgard, Odin determined that Moondragon finally learned humility in battling the image of Mantis; he mystically removed the headband at the end of #139. The lesson was short lived, however, as Moondragon's thirst for power continued.

This image of Mantis comes from The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe.