BHOC: DEFENDERS #72

This is going to become a common refrain as we move through the next couple of years or so: another blah issue of DEFENDERS came out and was bought by me. It truly is a testament to just how well the mythology that all of the books that were a part of the Marvel Universe were important helped to keep readers like me carrying along even when we weren’t especially enjoying the titles in question–there were a number that I pursued for years out of sheer inertia more than any particular love for them. And yet, with DEFENDERS, as a Marvel team book, I felt on some level obligated to keep on reading it, hoping it might improve. If it did, I didn’t want to miss anything. So my 40 cents a month went to help subsidize this mediocrity in the service of hope.

DEFENDERS was at this point being written by Ed Hannigan, who did much better things as an artist and as a designer. It wasn’t so much that his prose and story sense were bad per se, but he certainly seemed interested in a whole lot of things that I simply wasn’t. Having just gotten through an extended Asgard sequence, the team was now back in some otherworldly fantasy-land as they worked to unravel the mystery of Lunatik, a character whose earliest appearances intrigued me, but the payoff for which pretty well spoiled him. The whole arc is a messy mess of nonsense.

Artwork on the series was being provided by Herb Trimpe, who had ben knocking around the Bullpen for several hears and whose style had taken a bit of a turn towards the stiff and wooden from its initial Jack Kirby-inspired roots. Trimpe could always tell a story visually, though, and it was that skill that made him valuable in this period. Inks on this particular issue were he work of Fred Kida, a cartoonist who had floated around the business dating back to the Golden Age of Comics. He produces a solid effect here, but nothing that helps to sand down the rough corners of Trimpe’s work. The art gets the job done here, nothing more.

So the action this time out is taking place within Tunnelworld, an otherdimensional realm that the Defenders have come to in search of the truth behind Lunatik and his connection to Professor Turk of Empire State University–a sentence that only barely makes sense. Anyway, last time, Turk and a gaggle of Lunatik counterparts made off with the unconscious Hellcat, with Valkyrie hot in pursuit. Meanwhile, the rest of the Defenders repurpose the flying mounts from which they were attacked last issue by the Nilffim, servants of the Unnamable One, so that they can set out in chase towards Valkyrie, Hellcat and the escaping Lunatiks.

Catching up with the escaping Lunatiks, Valkyrie engages them in combat, but despite her battle prowess, she’s hard-set by the band of mocking madcaps. Hannigan includes a line of copy indicating that cold saps Val’s strength as maybe a way of trying to make plausible the fact that she’s having any difficulty with these clowns. It’s far from Val’s finest hour, and things look even more grim when a flight of Nilffim fliers come into sight. But of course, these are the fliers that have been commandeered by the Defenders, and so it’s the Hulk that drops into the midst of the conflict. The Hulk wraps up the fight so quickly that Hannigan and Trimpe don’t even bother to show it to us–a sad day for Valkyrie, who struggled through a bunch of pages of nonsense. But at least Hellcat has been recovered.

For sketchy reasons that aren’t really adequately explained, the reunited Defenders set out for the enclave of the wizard Xhoohx, which is on the opposite side of Tunnelworld. En route, they are set upon by a horde of monstrous creatures, enough to provide more of that necessary ingredient of action without a whole lot of context. To avoid Doctor Strange solving this problem by snapping his fingers, Hannigan has him explain that he needs to keep a low profile, lets the Unnamable One realize Strange’s power and turn his attention directly on the sorcerer. It’s a bit of a cop-out, but it lets everybody else have some quasi-fun punching out flying critters.

The Defenders manage to reach the halfway point across Tunnelworld, an area of zero gravity that Hellcat delights in for a few panels. But then it’s time to being their descent to the opposite side, which is accomplished without incident. At this point, the Defenders decide to make camp for the night and conclude their treacherous journey after an evening’s rest. Here we finally learn that Xhoohx is the Sorcerer Supreme of this dimension and Strange hopes that he can help them all in returning to Earth. Strange is also concerned about the Unnamed One, whose power is so great that he doesn’t want to chance a battle with this foe, even with the Defenders by his side. As the issue closes, we see that the Unnamed One’s spies are watching the Defenders from the shadows, readying to strike. And that’s it. It isn’t much of a story, it has jack-all to do with Lunatik, the TV slogan-spouting vigilante, and it’s all completely divorced from any human situation. So there isn’t a lot to recommend here.