Nebulon: By Popular Demand

"The MARVEL-Phile" column in Dragon magazine complemented the Marvel Super Heroes role-playing game from the 1980s by providing ability ranks and power descriptions for comic book heroes and villains. Dragon #163 included a game conversion for Nebulon, a quintessential foe of the Defenders.

The well-researched column noted how Nebulon jumped from a modest Popularity score to Monstrous worldwide popularity as head of the Celestial Mind Control Movement).

The section on Nebulon's powers detailed the game mechanics that might cause the shape-shifting Nebulon to revert back into his six-tentacled true form.

Lastly, the section on the character's history alerted readers that including Nebulon in a game adventure would require explaining how the would-be world conquerer survived his apparent death (Avengers Annual #11).

The above image of Nebulon appeared in Dragon #163 (November 1990). That issue also provided game information about the villain Solarr, a member of the Emissaries of Evil from Defenders #42-43.

Tigra, the Were-Woman!

Greer Grant had been the costumed heroine known as Cat for only a short while when agents of HYDRA set out to kidnap Dr. Tumolo, the scientist responsible for giver her superhuman powers (Giant-Size Creatures #1). While protecting her mentor from HYDRA, Cat was shot in the back by a pistol that fired alpha radiation. The heroine was doomed to die unless she received help from a hidden society of Cat People. Combining science and magic, the Cat People cured Greer Grant by transforming her into Tigra. Back on the tails of HYDRA, she encountered Jack Russell in his alter ego as Werewolf by Night. Regarding the fur-coated female as a kindred spirit, the Werewolf helped Tigra. To stop the evil organization from learning the secrets of the Cat People, Dr. Tumolo exposed the agents of HYDRA to a modern dose of the Black Plague.

Within the issue, a column by editor Roy Thomas addressed how changes in the Comics Code beginning in 1971 now made room for werewolves and vampires, which were banned under the original version of code from 1954.

Roy Thomas ended the column with the following remarks concerning the billing of Tigra, the Were-Woman!

One final footnote: Yes, we know that the Germanic word "were" actually means "man"—so that the term "were-woman" is actually something of a misnomer. However, in everyday parlance, people have come to attach the prefix "were-" to something when they want to indicate an element of lycanthropy—so we've no real fear of being misunderstood. But, for those linguistic experts out there in Marvelland, we just had to et you know that we do read things besides comic-mags.

Honest, we do.

Giant-Size Creatures. Vol. 1. No. 1. July 1974. "Tigra, the Were-Woman!" Tony Isabella (writer), Don Perlin (artist), Vince Colletta (inker), Artie Simek (letterer), P. Goldberg (colorer), Roy Thomas (editor).

Old Mutants

Fearless Defenders #9 featured several male heroes who were one-time romantic interests of the female members of the team. In the mix, Sam Guthrie (better known as Cannonball) found himself caught in a love triangle with Danielle Moonstar (who was affiliated with this fearless version of the Defenders since #3).

Sporting their original yellow-and-black school uniforms, the likenesses of Cannonball and Moonstar appeared in New Defenders #129, when the Secret Empire forced the New Defenders to (appear to) battle the five earliest members of the New Mutants at Charles Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. Though only a mental illusion, the sequence nonetheless illustrated how poorly the teenage heroes fared against the relatively seasoned members of the New Defenders.

With the passage of time, of course, the original New Mutants have long been experienced enough and capable enough to hold their ground.

This image comes from the opening page of New Defenders #129 (March 1984), published three decades before Fearless Defenders #9 (Nov. 2013).

Hard-Rock Heroes

With unique stage costumes and face makeup to mask their identities, Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley, and Peter Criss of the rock band KISS became comic book heroes in Marvel Comics Super Special #1 (1977).

The foursome gained their super-powers from the Box of Khyscz, which held mystical properties understood by a man identified as Dizzy.

At the Sanctum Sanctorum, Dizzy met with Dr. Strange and a group of the Defenders consisting of Daredevil, Nighthawk, Valkyrie, Son of Satan, Hulk, and Red Guardian. The Defenders, along with other established super teams, decided not to intervene as the members of KISS embarked on an inter-dimensional adventure that pitted them against Dr. Doom.

KISS returned in Marvel Comics Super Special #5 (1978). This go-around the group encountered the infamous Elf with a Gun while entering the Land of Leftovers, where symbolic figures of the 1960s lived out that decade indefinitely. Stever Gerber wrote Marvel Comics Super Special #1 and #5 after his tenure as writer of the Defenders.

Valhalla Can Wait

Slain by Valkyrie (a.k.a. the Doom Maiden of Rage in Fearless Defenders #6), archaeologist Annabelle Riggs would spend her afterlife among the honored dead in Valhalla. Whereas others might have felt at home, Riggs felt out of place and despondent among the Norse warriors who too died in combat.

Back to her senses, Valkyrie sought to remedy the predicament by asking a favor of an old friend. Would Clea magically return Riggs to the land of the living? Though sympathetic, the sorceress was reluctant to interfere with matters of life and death. She warned Valkyrie that such a request would come at a cost (#7).

As a result of the sorcery, Valkyrie could dematerialize to allow Riggs to return in her place (and vice versa). But the two women could not exist at the same time (#8). Having previously shared her existence with Samantha Parrington and Barbara Norriss, Valkyrie was undoubtedly prepared to make this sacrifice.

Written by Cullen Bunn and illustrated by by Stephanie Hans, the above scene comes from Fearless Defenders #7, the strongest issue of the new series.