Introducing the Unbelievables

The reality-bending events in Tarot #3 placed the Defenders and Avengers in a dimension occupied by "funny animals" … including a super-powered team called the Unbelievables.

Although the Unbelievables weren't direct counterparts to specific superheroes, they drew upon a variety of tropes. For example, the green-skinned Mighty Martian could read as a nod to the Martian Manhunter of the Justice League.

The character Devil Dawg, meanwhile, initially resembled the Harvey Comics character Hot Stuff until transforming into a powerhouse able to hold his own against the Hulk. Other members of the Unbelievables were Vampire Vixen, Sun Wukong and Sha Wujing.

Bet on Diablo

The prominent role that Diablo plays in the Tarot mini-series brought back memories of Alpha Flight #21 (April 1985). The cover of that issue featured Canadian heroes Sasquatch and Aurora battling the villainous alchemist. Text on the cover announced this ominous warning:

Bet on Diablo--
--He's been doing this for centuries!

The story itself did not include any fight scenes between Diablo and Alpha Flight, however. Rather, the inside flashed back back to the Transylvanian Alps in 1875, when Esteban Diablo was already 1,000 years old. Superstitious villagers destroyed his alchemy lab and trapped him in a tomb until freed in Fantastic Four #30 (Sept. 1964)

Tarot: The Devil in the Details

A number of heroes and villains have used Tarot cards to harness their superhuman abilities. One of the characters most worthy of discussion was the Hellion code-named Tarot. Like the other Hellions, Tarot was a student at the Massachusetts Academy and taught by the White Queen.

Introduced in New Mutants #16, Tarot used her mutant power to animate images from a Tarot deck, from the Knight of Swords to the Devil. Although Tarot ascribed mystical meaning to the cards, was her power truly bound by the 78 cards in the deck? Seeing how her power was mutant in nature, I suspect that Tarot had the potential to animate any picture she might see but didn't recognize the full scope of her abilities.

The above image come from New Mutants #16 (June 1984).

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.

Turning to Tarot

Since the time I started this blog twelve years ago, I've witnessed numerous attempts to revamp the Defenders. None impressed me as much as Tarot #1.

Bringing together Hulk, Namor, Valkyrie, Silver Surfer, and Dr. Strange, the mini-series features five of the earliest and most iconic members of the original non-team … with a seasoned sense of camaraderie.

The premiere issue found the heroes facing Cyrus Black, one of the team's oldest foes. Within the story, Namor remembered a surprising moment in 1944 when Captain America turned into a green-skinned Hulk. A visit to Avengers Mansion, however, found that Captain America had no memory of this dubious event.

Pual Renaud illustrated this variant cover of Tarot #1 (March 2020). Alan Davis wrote this issue.