Defenders Dialogue: Built by Yandroth

The letters page in Defenders #8 addressed a discrepancy between dialogue from the non-team's first mission and the panel below from issue #5. Acknowledging the inconsistency, the editorial staff awarded one reader with a sought-after no-prize.

Marvel Madmen,

According to DEFENDERS #5, we should not be here now. Observe. Page 18, panel 1: the Omegatron says "I am the Omegatron, built by Yandroth, scientist supreme, to atomically disintegrate this planet." Notice, he said his creator's name. Check.

In MARVEL FEATURE #1, it was explained that when the Omegatron said his maker's name, the world would explode. He said it and the world is still here.

I claim a no-prize.

Also, leave Valkyrie in the DEFENDERS. She would make a good member. I'm glad the Hulk left. Please, Steve, let's keep it that way.

RFO, KOF, FFF Christopher Coleman
Fitchburg, Mass.

Chris, we tried hard to think of a way out of this one, hoping all the while that what Yandroth meant was that his machine would bring doom when it said his name at the correct time—but a quick check of MARVEL FEATURE #1 shows him mumbling "…once, and only once, it shall speak my name…", so we're caught like rats in a trap. You win true believer; the no-prize is yours, right after Roy gets through beating up Steve with it.

His and Hers

A curse from the evil wizard Yandroth that compelled Silver Surfer, Sub-Mariner, Hulk, and Dr. Strange to band together later accentuated the most intimidating aspects of their personalities. Instead of protecting humanity, the four heroes set out to impose their own brand of tyranny as The Order, the title of a six-issue limited series packaged with Defenders (Volume 2).

Dressing the part, Sub-Mariner brought back his jacketed threads from Super-Villain Team-Up, and Dr. Strange returned to the masked costume he wore shortly before forming the original Defenders.

Appropriately enough, the gray-skinned Hulk appeared in The Order #1-4. Yet his hedonism proved so bothersome that Dr. Strange magically transformed Hulk into the green goliath who fought alongside the original Defenders. But when that brutish Hulk rejected the world-conquering ideals of the Order, Dr. Strange turned him into the "Professor" Hulk with the intelligence of Bruce Banner.

Perhaps because Yandroth had once taken the form of a woman (Defenders #119), removing the curse required a female analogue to each member of the Order.

To this end, Nighthawk, Hellcat, and Valkyrie (Samantha Parryington) sought help from Namorita and She-Hulk (cousins of Sub-Mariner and Bruce Banner), along with Clea, who leveraged a magical attack that caused Silver Surfer to "bleed" light, which took the form of a new cosmic heroine called Ardina (The Order #4).

Accompanying the Defenders on their quest to stop the Order was Dr. Christopher Ganyrog, Scientist Supreme on Yandroth's homeworld of Yann, located in the system of Geulischwarz (The Order #5). Furthering the theme of female characters derived from males, Ganyrog referred to his adventuring partner as Romantic Objective Pamela.

Jo Duffy and Kurt Busiek wrote The Order #1-6 (April-September 2002).

Mind Games

A story idea originally kept on hold for a possible fill-in issue of Volume 2 of the Defenders eventually saw the light of day as Defenders: From the Marvel Vault (September 2011).

A curse from the magician Yandroth seemed to transplant the minds of four college students into the bodies of Sub-Mariner, Silver Surfer, Hulk, and Dr. Strange. Making reference to dungeon-crawls and random-encounter tables, the four suspected they were playing a surreal game and that the Defenders were their avatars.

While inhabiting the physical selves of the Defenders, each of the four experienced situations that tugged at the emotions.

• Sub-Mariner (Jerry) reunited with his lost love Dorma on a version of the Earth where the surface world was submerged underwater.
• Silver Surfer (Tyler) reunited with romantic interest Shalla-Bal while retaining the power to explore the cosmos.
• Hulk (Ramona Fischer) discovered that the Abomination and other long-time enemies now wanted to be Hulk's friend.
• Dr. Strange (Morgan Nicholls) felt the wisdom of eternity.

The foursome deduced that they were in fact trapped in a dream-like reality, and Dr. Strange finally returned things to normal with these magic words:

Winds of Watcomb,
embrave you this power,
Sweep through the cosmos,
where'er life doth flower!
Find you the kinsmen of
these that did roam.
Then loft up their fellows, and transport them … home!

Kurt Busiek wrote this story "Mind Games" more-or-less from a plot by Fabian Nicieza.

The Untold Adventure

Told as a flashback story, Defenders #119 read like an issue between issues, situated between #68 and #69.

With the groundwork for the New Defenders underway, this "forgotten" tale gave a last hurrah to early members of the team. The story showed how much the series had evolved over the past 50 issues, while revisiting the group's inception.

The magician Yandroth had physically died in Marvel Feature #1, when the Defenders first stopped his Omegatron machine (only to defeat it again in Defenders #5). Now bent on revenge, the spirit of Yandroth merged with the mind and body of a scientist who felt unrecognized for her genius and honored by the opportunity to acquire power (Defenders #119).

Now equipped with mind-control implants, this revamped Yandroth subdued most of the Defenders, then pitted them against one another. The conflict reached a climax with Valkyrie, Hulk and Dr. Strange facing Clea, Hellcat, Nighthawk, and Prince Namor, under this new Yandroth's influence. But having the evil magician's astral spirit inside her mind overwhelmed the villain. As tensios rose, she collapsed.

Dr. Strange: She thought she was fighting against seven minds when, in fact, eight were raised against her! Had she moved more slowly and consolidated her power, she might have won all our minds! Instead, she lost the single one that mattered most … her own!

Defenders. Vol. 1. No. 119. May 1983. "Ashes, Ashes … We All Fall Down!" Steve Grant (scripter), Sal Buscema (penciler), Jack Abel (inker), D. Hands (letters), George Roussos (colorist), Al Milgrom (editor), Jim Shooter (editor-in-chief), J.M. DeMatteis (invaluable asset).