Remember Dread, both Surfer and Stardust are heralds of Galactus at the moment, so the potential for view and counterview is there. If handed to the right people, and I believe D&A are, they could move Surfer's story into an interesting area.
He would have to work through his decision to bond himself to Galactus again. They could show how even though he's harder and a bit darker, he still tries to do the right thing when it comes to steering Galactus in a direction that does less damage, all while stuck in a morality battle with Stardust (Who if you remember, sacrifised the last of his race to Galactus in a bid for heraldship.)
Surfer and Stardust would be the proverbial yin and yang with Galactus as the centerpoint.
I think it would prove to be quite an interesting story to tell.
I forgot about Stardust. You have a point there. Least that angle is there. I recall both showed up during McDuffie's FF run, but, yeah, I kind of blocked that story for the whole Wakandan arm-grappling thing.
To be honest, I really never cared for the Surfer. At least enough to collect a solo with him. I didn't read his mini for ANNIHILATION, either.
Well, reader reception was poor on Hercules for years. Same with Nova, and many would have considerd GOTG a cruel 90s joke on par with Holographic foil embossed covers a couple years ago.
I think , as much as we nickel and dime ideas and directions, well drawn, well written, well launched, books will be succesful.
Nothing wrong with the concept of Defenders. Most of the characters right now have struggling ongoing status. Hulk's book is chaos. Silver Surfer has no ongoing despite being one of Marvel's most recognizable heroes. Many would argue Dr.Strange needs a pick up. Valykarie is poised for a good comeback. Namor is probably doing the best...but with some duds.
In any event I know its not happening dread..not with the impasse of hot shot writers who have creative control of all the players.
But we're talking about a mini here..original-ish defenders...I'd buy it.
You have a point about INCREDIBLE HERCULES and NOVA. Neither are great sellers, though. NOVA has a small but steady audience at about 25-28k a month, but INCREDIBLE HERCULES has started to skid and can barely support 31k an issue these days. Still, both have likely lasted longer than many expected; NOVA will soon surpass issue #25, which was the longest his solo title lasted in the 70's, and while swapping INCREDIBLE HULK into INCREDIBLE HERCULES may not have worked forever, it has allowed Hercules to have an ongoing title for a longer period than if he just had a HERCULES #1, I imagine. GOTG's average sales are about 27k, which now makes it one of the best selling of the space line aside for WAR OF KINGS or the last Starjammer mini.
To play Devil's Advocate about the Defenders, Marvel has tried to revive that franchise a few times during the Joe Q tenure. Kurt Busiek and Erik Larson had an ongoing that lasted a year in 2001-2002 (and around then, Busiek would have still been known for his run on AVENGERS). A five issue mini series from the classic JL team of Giffen, DeMatteis, and Maguire failed to light the sales charts aflame in 2005. Granted, by then all of them were not as hot as they once were, and "funny" comics are sadly the kiss of death. Just last year, or from 2007-2008, Joe Casey wrote another mini, THE LAST DEFENDERS, that barely sold within the Top 100 at the start.
Aside for the Hulk, none of the Defenders characters alone are terribly popular or well selling right now. The Hulk also has not been able to support more than one title for quite a while now. His son's book is selling about 28.5k but slipping and Hulk has rarely been able to sustain two titles for long. It has been quite a while since he was on a team book long term; he and Dr. Strange out of the four "founding" members of that team usually were involved with the team the longest, though. Honestly, having the team show up in HULK, which for some reason is selling very well despite being reviewed as being bemusing rubbish at best, may be the best way to test buzz about the team.
Technically, Moondragon was a member of the Defenders towards the end of the first volume, when Beast had reorganized the team alongside his X-founders Iceman and Angel. She's currently popping up in GOTG. Valkyrie has also been showing up in the "Lady Liberators" team that has been revived and popped up in SHE-HULK and HULK. I read and wanted to really like Joe Casey's LAST DEFENDERS mini, but while it was entertaining, it was a bit all over the place. That book reset the Defenders with a roster of a new Nighthawk, She-Hulk, Krang, Damian Hellstrom, with Kyle Richmond, having been banned from acting as Nighthawk, acting as sponsor. They're based in New Jersey; supposedly HAMMER had the team disbanded as of MARVEL ZOMBIES 4 #1. They might have been better off when all the Newsarama articles took the roster with Blazing Skull and Colossus seriously.
The schtick of the Defenders was them being "a non-team" or at least an informal one that was always swapping 1-2 members. The real question is if this is unique anymore. NEW AVENGERS did that for scores of time. Dysfunctional teams have become the norm. The Defenders often fought magical threats, which was more popular in the 70's than it has been now. Plus, to be fair, a lot of that book was written by Steve Gerber, who made all sorts of wonky premises work, least for his day. A premise of "random superheroes team up and fight something every month" hasn't worked for a while; MARVEL TEAM-UP has struggled since the 80's even if it relaunched usually once or twice a decade. AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE is the closest thing to that kind of format, but it also has a regular cast and a lot of newer characters being introduced. Defenders, for much of it's history, has seemed to be Marvel Team-Up as a Team; basically, instead of "random superhero teams up with Spider-Man every month", often it was "a few random heroes team up with Hulk and/or Dr. Strange every month". The market won't sustain a book with a team of B-List characters regardless of quality; just look at CAPTAIN BRITAIN AND MI-13, starring a slew of characters who haven't supported a solo title either ever or for a very long time. It's a great book in sales free-fall.
Personally I wouldn't mind another go at Defenders, and sadly even a good relaunch with a solid creative team doesn't guarantee sales. Marvel got all the right things down with AGENTS OF ATLAS and that debuted at 30k, which is not good (although a little better than the 2005 mini debuted). The problem is that if you removed the "swapping member" gimmick and had a stable team, they are "Just Another Team", and in this market that may not sell easily.
