Introducing Power Man

When Defenders #17 reprinted in Rampage #16, the cover art changed significantly. Instead of picturing Hulk alongside Nighthawk and Dr. Strange, the reprint showed the green goliath deserting his comrades. Of the two versions, the cover of Rampage #16 was more accurate. Within the story, Valkyrie left the non-team (temporarily) to learn about her alter ego as Barbara Norriss. A saddened Hulk then blamed Dr. Strange and Nighthawk for Valkyrie's departure and leapt off to be alone. Only afterward did Dr. Strange and Nighthawk meet Power Man.

Rampage #16 also modified the original cover verbiage to introduce the guest star as "The Menace of Power Man!" Within the story, the hero for hire was guarding Richmond Enterprises and mistook the Defenders for intruders.

Lawful Good: Jack Norriss

Jack Norriss was stubborn and obstinate when he met the Defenders. At first, he could not accept that Valkyrie was independent from his wife, Barbara. He also took time to warm up to the unconventional non-team. Dedicated to fighting crime, however, he assisted the Defenders on occasion and became an agent of S.H.I.E.l.D. Given his combination of personal qualities, the hard-minded Jack Norris would fall under the Lawful Good alignment from Dungeons & Dragons.

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

This image of Jack Norriss comes from Defenders #87, when he testified before the mysterious Tribunal.

Fun and Games

Fun and Games Magazine #4 (Dec. 1979) had a lot to offer Defenders fans. The opening page featured Nighthawk above a bird-word puzzle. Among the hidden words were other characters with bird names, including Falcon (of the Defenders for a Day) and Lady Lark (from the Squadron Supreme).

Red Guardian appeared a few pages later with a fill-in puzzle of words beginning with red, plus these similarly named characters: Red Ghost, Red Rajah, Red Raven, and Redwing (Falcon's pet bird).

Another activity used a grid to show readers how to draw Hellcat. A two-page wedding game asked readers to match the first names of various couples, including Buzz and Patsy (Hellcat's alter ego), Jack and Barbara (Norriss), and Glenn and Betty (Talbot).

The wedding image of Patsy Walker and Buzz Baxter shown on the cover of Fun and Games Magazine #4 originally appeared as a flashback in Avengers #144, as the couple had already divorced.

Two In One

Feeling out of his element, the curmudgeonly Thing accompanied the Defenders on a paranormal investigation that shed light on the background of Barbara Norriss (née Denton), the young woman tragically intertwined with the persona of Valkyrie (Marvel Two-In-One #6-7; Defenders #20).

At the heart of the drama was Alvin Denton, a destitute man who believed his wife, Celestia, had died in an automobile accident. Celestia Denton, however, not only survived the automobile accident: she also joined the cult of the Nameless Ones responsible for sacrificing her daughter, Barbara, to another dimension. Since Dr. Strange had led the Defenders in rescuing Barbara, and the Enchantress had tied Barbara to the spirit of Valkyrie (Defenders 3-4), the cult intended to balance the score by sacrificing Dr. Strange and Valkyrie.

To make matters more complicated, Alvin carried a magical harmonica sought after by the Enchantress and her loyal henchman, the Executioner. The harmonica's magic was limited, however, and of no use to the Enchantress by the time she claimed the item. Toying with Alvin and the heroes, the Enchantres temporarily transformed Valkyrie back to the persona of Barbara Norriss, who remained in a state of madness as a result of her time trapped in another dimension. After Valkyrie's mind returned to Barbara's body, the heroine learned that Barbara was married to a man named Jack Norriss, spurring interpersonal concerns for both characters.

Red Ghost of the Sea

Defenders #7-8 creatively repurposed an establish character. Red Ghost, who had demonstrated the ability to mentally command apes after bombarding them with cosmic rays, found them increasingly difficult to control. As a result, the villain decided to try out his power on porpoises—also highly intelligent mammals and perhaps more responsive to his commands. Red Ghost's new modus operandi found him an ally in the Atlantean conquerer Attuma.

Red Ghost tried to expand his powers even more, using advanced technology to mentally command Sub-Mariner, and then Valkyrie and Hawkeye (during his short time with the Defenders). The mental tampering had a side effect for Valkyrie, who as already internally conflicted with the mind of of Barbara Norriss, causing her to hallucinate monstrous images (foreshadowing events in Defenders #64).

Dr. Strange ultimately freed the others from the influence of Red Ghost by creating a mystic shield to prevent cosmic rays from reaching Earth.

This panel of Red Ghost comes from Defenders #7 (Aug. 1973).

Defenders Dialogue: Lost Souls

What made the Defenders a team was always fodder for debate. This letter from Defenders #31 nicely summed up why four of the earliest members stayed together.

Dear Defenders Dynamoes,

I hate to tell you this, but the Defenders aren't going to work. The original idea of a group that is a non-team and doesn't really exist isn't going to last because as long as the four main Defenders (Hulk, Dr. Strange, Valkyrie, and Nighthawk) live and fight together, they will become a team in almost every sense of the word, and not a non team.

In FOOM #7; the Avengers' butler Jarvis states that there is no interdependency which binds the Avengers together as a team. But there is an interdependency which holds the Defenders together. There must be. All the Defenders are really "lost souls" (Dr. Strange might be the exception to the rule) who have found their place in life as Defenders.

Hulk and the Valkyrie are most obvious as "lost souls" because of their pasts. The Hulk has been tortured and persecuted his entire life, with only a few friendships, none of which have lasted. He has finally found friends and he realizes it, so why should he leave? Who would?

Valkyrie is really a lost soul. She was, as we all know, created by the Enchantress into the body of Barbara Denton Norriss. She has managed to scrape up Barbara's past, including an unwanted husband, but she has no real past of her own to build on. So she stays with the Defenders, where she belongs, and where she has friends who care about her. Let us not forget the relationships that she has built with the other Defenders. With Dr. Strange I see a sister and brother relationship. She is carrying on a troubled romance with Kyle. The most interesting of these relationships is that which I see has developed between herself and the Hulk. I would say that the Hulk almost has a crush, of sorts, on Val. And Val has grown quite found of this greenskinned goliath with the mind of a small child. Nighthawk has gone from an aimless millionaire to an aimless villain. He has finally found his aim in life and his fulfillment as a Defender. What more can be said?

Dr. Strange is almost the exception. He has fulfillment and aim elsewhere. He has a past, he has a future. For all of these years he has been operating very well, he does not need steam.

Except, he is a loner of sorts. Even though he saved humanity, he has remained apart from it. Very few humans even know of his existence. His relationship with Wong is strictly business. Clea is a loner. Other than those two, and besides the Defenders, he has no other human relations. Now perhaps, isn't he remaining with the Defenders because he needs other people? Because he can't exist as an island any longer? The others need their individual forms of fulfillment; he needs other people.

So there is an interdependency which holds the Defenders together. I say fine. Let their relationships grow and evolve as they must. It will be these relationships which decide who comes and who leaves the Defenders. But let it be natural. Don't foresee anything because you think so-and-so would look nice in this magazine.

I would like to see one or two new members though. Four isn't a very big group. Especially when two of the characters have their series and can't do much developing here. Let Steve Gerber create a new female character. I'm very much in favor of that.

Larry (Fooman Torch) Twiss
King of Prussia, PA

Visions of Valkyrie

Of all the examples of similar cover designs throughout the course of the Defenders, the most deserving instances of parallelism honored turning points for Valkyrie.

Defenders #4 marked the introduction of Valkyrie into the team. With the horse Aragorn at her command, there was no mistaking this Valkyrie (Barbara Norriss) for the previous incarnations of the character. Defenders #66 appropriately reworked the cover layout to reintroduce Valkyrie during a milestone trip to Asgard (where she left the troubled mind of Barbara Norriss behind).

	#130 wasn't a landmark issue for Valkyrie, but the striking surrealism of the cover conveys her depth of character just the same.

Who Was Barbara Norriss?

Long before she was physically and mentally restored as one, an ongoing burden faced Valkyrie. She was living in the body of someone else.

The armored adventurer joined the Defenders with her mind mystically bonded to the body of Barbara Norriss, a woman rescued from another dimension, but driven mad by the netherworldly imprisonment (Defenders #3-4).

With no memory of this other woman, and only a general sense of her own self, the spirited Valkyrie found friendship and acceptance among the Defenders.

But there was still one problem. Barbara Norriss was married. And explaining the situation to her husband was an uphill battle (Defenders #21).

Valkyrie: Must I remind you again, Mr. Norriss? This is your wife's body--but I am not your wife. And my name is Valkyrie--not "Barbara." The personality of Barbara Norriss has been submerged 'neath my own by the magic of the Asgardian Enchantress. I am what I am--the woman warrior. The Defender. And you, Mr. Norriss, are a stranger to my eyes and to my heart.

Out of obligation, Valkyrie tried to play the role of wife to Jack Norriss. But he disapproved of her life as a hero, and she did not love him. The feminist subtext played out topically in the 1970s, with Valkyrie symbolic of a woman forging her own identity amidst social expectations to be someone she was not.

Because of the fragmented nature of her psyche—with the madness of Barbara Norriss and the manipulative intentions of the Enchantress in the mix—Valkyrie often swung her sword when men behaved chauvinistically, only to second-guess her rash behavior afterward.

The inner conflict came to a head in Defenders #64. While fighting a minor villain named Joe the Gorilla, Valkyrie began to hallucinate that all of the nearby Defenders for a Day were Norse trolls. When she realized what had happened, Valkyrie knew she could not continue this way.

An initial trip to Asgard seemed to remedy the situation, with the mind of Barbara Norriss resting safely in Asgard and Valkyrie returning to Earth (Defenders #66-68). But not until Defenders #109 was Valkyrie back in her own body, with her full sense of identity intact.

Along with peace of mind, Valkyrie also gained more strength. The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (1983) ranked Valkyrie with the power to lift 45 tons (in her restored Asgardian body).

Though not precisely recorded, her strength level in the human body of Barbara Norriss was much less than that.

Defenders vs. Avengers

The cover of Avengers Annual #11 asked a good question: Why do the Avengers battle the Defenders?

In this case, the heart of the conflict was a lovers' quarrel between Nebulon and wife Supernalia, who tired of Nebulon's ongoing attempts to take over the Earth (since his debut in Defenders #13-14).

While Nebulon psionically influenced four Avengers to come to his aid, Supernalia persuaded four Defenders to prevent Nebulon's latest scheme.

When the super teams faced each other in battle, they seemed destined for a stalemate, with each pair of combatants about evenly matched.

• Valkyrie vs. Thor
  
• Silver Surfer vs. Iron Man
• Beast vs. Captain America
• Gargoyle vs. Wasp

Alas, the Defenders and Avengers finally stopped fighting each other and joined sides against Nebulon when Supernalia revealed the Ennui Device that Nebulon intended to use to conquer Earth. The issue ended with Nebulon and Supernalia struck by a deflected beam from the energy-draining machine. The attack was fatal.

The couple's last words revealed that Nebulon finally saw the error of his ways, and Supernalia believed that by sparing the Earth they were dying for a higher purpose.

As a back-up feature, this annual printed the never-before-seen charter of the Avengers, signed by the founding members, with two pages of accompanying by-laws. The informal Defenders, of course, never drafted such a document.

Avengers Annual #11 marked an important turning point for one of the Defenders. Following a trip to Asgard in Defenders #109, Valkyrie returned to Earth near the start of the story in her true Asgardian body (instead of the body of human Barbara Norriss, where her mind had resided since Defenders #4). Now aware of her place as leader of the valkyries, she re-introduced herself as Brunnhilde (her previously-unknown real name). For years the Defenders had treated "Val" as her de facto first name.

Avengers Annual. Vol. 1. No. 11. 1982. "In Honor's Name." J.M. DeMatteis (scripter), Al Milgrom (penciler), Jack Abel and Crew (inkers), Janice Chang (letterer), Carl Gafford (colorist). Mark Gruenwald (editor), Jim Shooter (editor-in-chief).

Valkyrie, the Determined Defender

Of all the heroes to call themselves Defenders, Valkyrie was the most dedicated to the team. Yet she joined their ranks in the most roundabout way.

Realizing the malevolent intent of a secret ceremony, Barbara Norriss sacrificed herself into another dimension to spare an innocent man that fate. That man was Bruce Banner (The Incredible Hulk #126). Hulk and his non-teammates later rescued Norriss from her otherworldly imprisonment. But they were saddened to find that the horrors she experienced there, in the clutches of the Nameless One, had driven Norriss mad (Defenders #3).

Immediately afterward, the Defenders encountered the unscrupulous Enchantress, who had magically enslaved the Black Knight. The Asgardian sorceress placed the spirit of a valkyrie into the body of Norriss, expecting to control her as well. Yet the reborn valkyrie proved to have a mind of her own. The Enchantress fled, turning Black Knight to stone as she left (#4; Dr. Strange reversed the spell in #11).

Valkyrie assumed custody of Black Knight's winged horse, Aragorn, and sought membership into the Defenders.

Namor: One minute now! The Defenders have no "members." We have only fought together for common causes. This is not the Avengers!

Dr. Strange: Further--with all due modesty, we are three of the most powerful people in the world. What could we possibly need you for?

Valkyrie didn't take long to prove herself. When Omegatron (from Marvel Feature #1) unexpectedly returned, Valkyrie's combination of magical origin and physical force injured the mystical robot in ways the others could not, finally laying the creature to rest (Defenders #5).

Valkyrie was the only early Defender to stay with the team through the creation of the New Defenders (#125) and the end of the series (#152).

Defenders. Vol. 1. No. 5. April 1973. "World Without End." Steve Englehart (author), Sal Buscema (artist), F. McLaughlin (inker), Charlotte Jetter (letterer), Glynis Wein (colorist), Roy Thomas (editor). The illustration of Valkyrie at the top appeared in the fourth issue.