BHOC: DEFENDERS #67

As a series, DEFENDERS had never entirely hooked me. I didn’t really entirely click with any of its cast of characters, particularly in a team setting, and its supposed “non-team” format didn’t appeal to me. Frankly, I barely understood it, as the members of the Defenders seemed to spend an awful lot of time hanging out together and behaving like a typical Marvel super hero team. And the fortunes of the series were about to decline, heading into an extended period where I found the series tough to get through every month. But somehow, because it was a Marvel title that featured mainstay characters, I bought it every month regardless. As a 35 cent buy-in, it wasn’t all that difficult.

This is about the transition point where the helming of DEFENDERS shifted from outgoing writer David Anthony Kraft into the hands of artist and would-be writer Ed Hannigan. Kraft’s run had been a bit haphazard, but he was able to tap into some of the strangeness and impishness of his predecessor, Steve Gerber, and he was a solid enough craftsman, though as with so many writers in this period, very much at the mercy of the skill of his artistic collaborator. Hannigan was one of the best designers in the business, he’d go on to execute or at least come up with designs for a number of noteworthy covers in the years ahead. But as a writer, at least on this title, I didn’t find him especially enthralling. In this particular issue, he’s simply dialoguing over Kraft’s plot, so it isn’t a hugely big problem. But left to his own devices, he’d often come up with story concepts that I thought were a snooze.

This issue opens up focusing in on the most popular member of the Defenders, the Incredible Hulk. Here, as usual, he simply wants to be left alone to enjoy nature, but he’s attacked by an army battalion tasked to hunt him down, afraid of his destructive potential. What follows is a short action-filled skirmish in which the Hulk displays his great physical power against the military. And then, all of a sudden, in mid-leap, his heart stops beating and he plummets to the ground, dead. In only a few years, the fact that this issue featured the death of the Defenders would have been touted loudly on the cover as a sales draw, but at this point, nobody had yet worked out that death = sales.

From here, we cut back to Asgard, where Ollerus, the would-be god of death and apiring ruler of Hela is guiding his mountain citadel towards a confrontation with Hela’s forces led by Harokin, He’s got Valkyrie’s original Asgardian body in lock-up, though it is at present inhabited by the insane spirit of Barbara Norris, whose mortal form Brunnhilde is currently within. Confusing? Sure, but just go with it. Ollerus and his minion Poppo intend to use Valkyrie’s form for some nefarious purpose. Meanwhile, back on Earth, Hellcat and Nighthawk are in the midst of a joyride when Patsy makes an error and their car cascades off of the mountain road while trying to avoid a tractor trailer. While both heroes appear at first to be none the worse for wear for their experience, they are horrified some time later to see E.M.T.s pulling their dead bodies out of the wreckage. Nighthawk and Hellcat, like the Hulk, are also now dead.

What’s more, the two Defenders are startled by the arrival of Valkyrie, who tells them that she is here to escort them to their final reward in Valhalla. Nighthawk thinks that this entire thing is nuts, apparently never having faced his own mortality before, and Val replies that they’re actually bending the rules a bit to let him in–Valhalla is meant only for the honored dead who perished in battle, a condition that neither Patsy nor Kyle meet. But Val needs allies in her far-off fight, and so she’s going to let them in anyway. But it turns out that this isn’t Brunnhilde at all, but rather Barbara Norris acting as Ollerus’ pawn. He and Poppo are remotely killing people on Earth and harvesting their spirits to serve as soldiers in his army as they attempt to overthrow Hela and claim the Realm of the Dead for their own. So Nighthawk, Hellcat and presumably the Hulk are allied unknowingly with the bad guy’s side.

Elsewhere in Ollerus’ moving mountain, we find that the actual Valkyrie is locked within a chamber whose door has been mystically sealed. But that doesn’t say anything for the walls, and so after swiping a long spear from one of her guardsmen, Brunnhilde smashes her way through the outer wall in a bid for freedom. But there are a pair of flying dragons circling the tower–which proves small challenge for Valkyrie, especially now that she’s armed. She also has back-up, it turns out, as Harokin has noticed her fight and come to lend a hand in her liberation astride her own winged steed Aragorn.

As Valyrie and Harokin fly off back to the lines of their forces, elsewhere on the grounds, Barbara Norris materializes with the Defenders in tow. They’re all reunited with the Hulk, whose spirit got here sooner, but they’re all in time to hear Ollerus make a deceptive proclamation. He claims that their sudden demises were due to Hela misusing her divine powers, but that he is rebelling against her rule, and only by aiding his attempt to unseat her from her throne can justice be done! And so the stage is set for the final chapter, with most of the Defenders on the wrong end of the conflict. To Be Continued!