The Last Defenders

[TheCorpulent1]

Haha, that reminds me of a great episode of Extras with Daniel Radcliffe.

 

[PhotoJones]

The one where he kept his unwrapped "johnnie" in his pocket?

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Heh, I love Extras.

 

[PhotoJones]

I missed the Christmas special.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Oh yeah, me too. Gotta find that.

 

[PhotoJones]

I tried to rent The Wire all weekend, but every rental place near my house didn't have disc 1 of Season 1.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

That blows. You apparently have my luck with Scott Pilgrim. I read volume one and went to my comic shop for volume 2, but they didn't have it. I checked every other bookstore in town but couldn't find it. My shop finally got volume 2, I read it, and I went back for volume 3, but of course they didn't have that either! I just ordered the last two volumes simultaneously from Amazon.

 

[PhotoJones]

That sucks. If I hadn't had all the volumes of Scott Pilgrim at one time, I would've gone nuts.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I know, and my shop had volume 3 the whole time I was looking for volume 2, too. I should've just bought all of them at once.

 

[PhotoJones]

Scott Pilgrim is amazing.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Yes, it is. It was one of the Stack dudes' top 5 indie comics of '07, too.

 

[PhotoJones]

What was listed above it?

 

[TheCorpulent1]

The Umbrella Academy, The Walking Dead, and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier. Hack/Slash somehow made it in after Scott Pilgrim, too. That one perplexed me. Oh, and they didn't include Vertigo, which makes sense.

 

[PhotoJones]

Hack/Slash? That's a piece of ****, though.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I liked the first trade, but I wouldn't call it the best of anything.

 

[PhotoJones]

Does Vertigo count as mainstream, or something?

 

[TheCorpulent1]

It's an imprint of DC, so it's not "indie" in that it's still under one of the big 2 publishers.

 

[PhotoJones]

Scalped better damn well have made someone's list.

 

[Dread]

Thanks for the CBR link, PhotoJones. I'll repost it since we are on a new page:

http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=12742

Joe Casey doesn't reveal anything too specific, other than more inked Muniz art, and I think it looks pretty good. Gargoyle seems to be involved with Nighthawk from the get-go, which makes sense as the pair were longtime Defenders. Casey notes the team is assembled by choice and not "fate", and that is interesting that basically after the launch of New Avengers, super-teams aren't being assembled by chance anymore. In Mighty Avengers, Bendis makes a big deal about it being an Avengers roster NOT chosen by fate, and I doubt it was the first one to do so. Even the Defenders were once specifically organized when Beast decided to lead the then-"New" Defenders in the mid-80's, towards the end of their first volume. But, that is alright. Nighthawk HAS tried to lead and organize the team before, often after Dr. Strange would leave, and it rarely worked for long. Maybe the 3rd time'll be the charm for him.

I do fear Marvel repeating an OMEGA FLIGHT here, launching a mini that is very clearly the first arc for an ongoing and then the creators being pulled elsewhere, but to the best of my knowledge this has been solicted and pegged as a mini since Day 1, whereas Omega Flight shifted from ongoing to mini (and A:TI shifted from mini to ongoing), which essentially pooched OMEGA FLIGHT once it sold over 40k an issue and the creators went elsewhere. But, Joe Casey has been hovering around Marvel for a bit with his Avengers mini's so hopefully if this one takes off, he'll stick around.

The preview art shows Nighthawk & Gargoyle, both members of the Initiative, taking down The Brothers Grim and then meeting with Tony Stark, who likely will either tag Kyle to assemble his Defenders for a given state, or Stark assembles the team himself and Kyle has to play coach. Gargoyle's popped up a few places over the past year; he was in Hellcat's MCP story, as well as being a regular background-poser in A:TI, tagging in with their battle against HYDRA at Bush's Texas Ranch, and he showed up in P:WJ, having been captured and drugged by Al Kravenoff, and in the middle of a battle with Swarm. Least Gargoyle managed to find a bad guy to fight in that melee.

Casey says a lot of good things and with his record, he's perfectly capable of writing a solid team book (even if he has some clunkers in his resume', but who doesn't in this biz?), and I am anticipating this.

The team still feels rather random to me, but I guess that was always part of the Defenders charm. I see no reason why Hellcat wouldn't be on the roster, though. Valkyrie is probably waiting for Thor to revive her, but Patsy Walker's still about. Unless she wanted to take some R & R after her MCP story, which is possible. She's taken leaves of absence before from superhero stuff (most notably to marry Hellstorm, which didn't work out). Patsy started life as Golden Age era "Betty & Veronica" type character and eventually became a superheroine; she's a character with a long history who should remain in the thick of things to me.

Muniz draws a great Gargoyle, and his Nighthawk's pretty cool too, looking iconic and so on. I look forward to seeing him handle Colossus.

This will also be the 500th comic Iron Man has been in within the past year. Don't worry, I know why he has to be there and it makes sense. But, still, he seriously has surpassed Wolverine in appearances since CW. Hell, I might argue he shows up in more books that Batman does.

The big metal russkie's still a major reason why I am getting this as well as the member I angst about the most. He's had so many underwhelming moments in his history and hasn't really contributed much since his resurrection and beating Ord, aside for more spankings by other characters (like the Hulk). He's never been outside of the X-verse before and he's hardly a social character. He was never the life of a party, the "cool" cat or even a rebel, he was the quiet dude who paints. Now, all bets are towards Buffy, I mean Kitty, dying at the end of the Whedon/Cassaday AXM run, or at least being off-Earth or something, which would depress Colossus. The X-Men may also break up after Messiah Complex for the 10th time, which also would leave him aimless. It just seems odd to me that he'd suddenly decide to join a random Initiative super-team. If anything, either he'd want to investigate his sister's seeming re-appearance in NEW X-MEN, or possibly go back to Russia to scoop up what is left of his family (I believe most were killed or something). Casey hinted that this roster "has ties to the past" in his last interview and some posters at Newsarama possibly guessed that Casey might want to have Colossus involved in the Red Guardian/Starlight affair.

Red Guardian was essentially the Russian version of Cap. The original was murdered and they had a new female version who ran with the Defenders for some time, before a menace called the Presence made her a radiation-powered super-being renamed Starlight. At first she rejected him but after a while I guess suffered Stockholm Syndrome and decided to stick with him. Think they last popped up during the Busiek/Perez Avengers run, but I could be mistaken.

Now, this could all be wrong, but posters at Newsarama mentioned it so I thought I would, too.

Considering that She-Hulk has had the outs with Stark, it seems odd that she's be gung-ho for an Initiative team. Blazing Skull's naturally a cynical patriot, having served in the last incarnation of Invaders and such, so he makes some sense.

Still, I hope Casey manages to find some way for Colossus to be dynamic, imposing, and most of all KICK SOME ASS, especially on a roster where he isn't the lone "tanker" and basically has to compete with She-Hulk, much like Wonder Man on any roster with Thor or Hercules. Piotr badly needs it.

 

[PhotoJones]

Jesus Christ.

 

[Dread]

Jesus Christ.

What?

I have a lot to talk about. I really had no reason to bump this topic, but that new interview and you did the trick.

I have a lot of interest in this launch. How is that a bad thing?

 

[PhotoJones]

There's just no way I'm reading all of that. You may have a lot to talk about, and that's fine. Just don't expect me to want to listen...er, read.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I skimmed. And even then, I only skimmed like 3 or 4 random paragraphs. In no particular order.

So what I'm saying is I have no idea what Dread's talking about.

 

[PhotoJones]

Yeah, Dread needs a blog, or something. This is a discussion based message board, not a diary.

 

[Dread]

There's just no way I'm reading all of that. You may have a lot to talk about, and that's fine. Just don't expect me to want to listen...er, read.

I've typed far more about far less interesting topics, man. Don't be a sissy. It isn't like you have a lot to do.

Kidding. Didn't mean to offend you. I was trying to be light hearted.

It is bemusing to me that I basically went on a few pages of debate over Colossus' refusal to wear pants a few pages ago in this topic, and then AMERICAN GLADIATORS comes out and none of the men there wear pants, either (they do wear shorts, though). And naturally no one will call one of them a sissy, because they're angry steroid freaks.

I don't have time for a blog, and only emo sissy teenagers bother with those.