{"id":32935,"date":"2025-05-22T08:00:52","date_gmt":"2025-05-22T08:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=32935"},"modified":"2025-05-22T10:31:53","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T10:31:53","slug":"the-defenders-epic-collection-volume-2-enter-the-headmen-1974-1975","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2025\/05\/22\/the-defenders-epic-collection-volume-2-enter-the-headmen-1974-1975\/","title":{"rendered":"The Defenders Epic Collection volume 2 – Enter: the Headmen (1974-1975)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy Len Wein<\/strong>, Steve Gerber<\/strong>, Tony Isabella<\/strong>, Chris Claremont<\/strong>, Jim Starlin<\/strong>, Stan Lee<\/strong>, Bill Everett<\/strong>, Steve Ditko<\/strong>, Dennis O\u2019Neil<\/strong>, Larry Lieber<\/strong>, Paul S. Newman<\/strong>, Sal Buscema<\/strong>, Gil Kane<\/strong>, George Tuska<\/strong>, Don Heck<\/strong>, Jack Kirby<\/strong>, Bob Powell<\/strong>, Angelo Torres<\/strong>, Doug Wildey<\/strong>, Klaus Janson<\/strong>, Mike Esposito<\/strong>, Vince Colletta<\/strong>, Jack Abel<\/strong>, Al Milgrom<\/strong>, Dan Green<\/strong>, Sal<\/strong> Trapani<\/strong>, Dan Adkins<\/strong>, Jim Mooney<\/strong>, Don Newton<\/strong>, Bob McLeod<\/strong>, Dick Ayers<\/strong> & various (MARVEL)
\nISBN: 978-1-3029-5531-1 (TPB\/Digital edition)<\/p>\n

This book includes Discriminatory Content<\/strong> produced in less enlightened times.<\/em><\/p>\n

For kids – of any and all ages – there is a simple response to and primal fascination with increased stature, brute strength and feeling dangerous. It surely goes some way towards explaining the perennial interest in angry tough guys who break stuff\u2026 as best exemplified by Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner<\/strong> and The Incredible Hulk<\/strong>. When you add the mystery and magic of Doctor Strange<\/strong>, the recipe for thrills, spills & chills becomes utterly irresistible\u2026<\/p>\n

Last of the big star conglomerate super-groups, The Defenders<\/strong> would eventually number amongst its membership almost every hero – and quite a few villains – of Marvel\u2019s Universe. No real surprise there then, as initially they were the company\u2019s bad-boy antiheroes: misunderstood, outcast, often mad and actually dangerous to know. For Marvel, the outsider supergroup must have seemed a conceptual inevitability… once they\u2019d finally published it. Back then, apart from Spider-Man<\/strong> and Daredevil<\/strong>, their superstars regularly teamed up in various mob-handed assemblages and, in the wake of the Defenders, even more superteams comprising pre-existing characters were rapidly mustered. These included the Champions<\/strong>, Invaders<\/strong>, New Warriors<\/strong> and more – but none of them had any Really Big Guns\u2026<\/p>\n

They never won the fame or acceptance of other teams, but that simply left creators open to taking more chances and playing the occasional narrative wild cards. The genesis of the team derived from their status as publicly distrusted villains, threats or menaces. This scintillating selection offers in whole or in part Defenders<\/strong> #12-25, Giant-Size<\/strong> Defenders<\/strong> #1-4, Marvel Two-in-One <\/strong>#6-7, and material originally from Mystery Tales <\/strong>#21, World of Fantasy <\/strong>#11 and Tales of Suspense<\/strong> #9 as itself reprinted in Weird Wonder Tales<\/strong> #7 (December 1975): stories spanning February 1974 to July 1975…<\/p>\n

Coming off a groundbreaking team up saga now known as the Avengers\/Defenders War, the first tale here signals a major change in direction as new writer Len Wein joined resident illustrator Sal Buscema & inker Jack Abel for a return clash with an insidious alien enemy. Beginning a run of more traditional costumed capers, mindbending Xemnu<\/em> sought again to repopulate his barren homeworld with abducted earthlings in \u2018The Titan Strikes Back!\u2019<\/em>, but flopped even against the pared-back cast of Stephen Strange, Valkyrie <\/strong>and Hulk<\/strong>.
\n\"\"
\nA bona fide hit, the \u201cnon-team\u201d were part of a grand expansionist experiment in extra-value comics that began with Giant Sized Defenders<\/strong> #1 (July1974): a stunning combination of highly readable reprints wrapped in a classy framing sequence by Tony Isabella, Jim Starlin & Al Milgrom and co-starring Strange, disciple Clea<\/em> and major domo Wong<\/em>. The vintage thrills commence with Stan Lee, Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers\u2019 \u2018Banished to Outer Space\u2019<\/em> from Incredible Hulk<\/strong> #3, followed by amagnificent 1950s Bill Everett Sub-Mariner<\/strong> horror-tinged fantasy-feast entutled\u2018Bird of Prey!\u2019 <\/em>From there focus switches to Dr. Strange <\/strong>and Denny O\u2019Neil\/Steve Ditko\u2019s mini-masterpiece \u2018To Catch a Magician!\u2019<\/em> (Strange Tales<\/strong> #145) before the concoction concludes with a blockbusting battle as the star trio, sorcerer\u2019s apprentice and valiant Valkyrie dispatch a self-inflicted mystic menace. The treat is topped with Roy Thomas\u2019 editorial extract \u2018Good Evening! This is the Eleventh-Hour Bullpen\u2019<\/em> and contemporary ads prior to a splendid double-page pin-up by Sal B, before the regular epics resume in a spectacular Saves-the-World struggle.<\/p>\n

Defenders<\/strong> #13 found the obscure assiciates battling against the villainous Squadron Sinister<\/em> (The Whizzer<\/strong>, Doctor Spectrum<\/strong> & Hyperion<\/strong>) in \u2018For Sale: One Planet… Slightly Used!\u2019<\/em> (featuring an early inking job for Klaus Janson) before concluding in the Dan Green-embellished \u2018And Who Shall Inherit the Earth?\u2019 <\/em>as Marvel\u2019s Batman<\/strong>-analogue Nighthawk<\/strong> turns traitor and unites with the Defenders to defeat his murderous former teammates and their aquatic overlord\/alien marauder Nebulon, the Celestial Man<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Wein, Buscema & Janson, #15 initiated a 2-part duel with manic mutant messiah Magneto<\/strong>,who first institutes a \u2018Panic Beneath the Earth!\u2019<\/em> prompting the X-Men<\/strong>\u2019s mentor Charles Xavier<\/em> to enlist the unsung heroes\u2019 aid. The concluding clash envelopes the insidious Brotherhood of Evil<\/em> and \u2018Alpha, the Ultimate Mutant\u2019<\/em> (inked by Mike Esposito) as well as the apparent end of a true master of evil…<\/p>\n

Giant Sized Defenders<\/strong> #2 (October 1974) delivers a superb supernatural thriller from Wein, fabulously limned by master craftsman Gil Kane and rising star inker Janson. \u2018H… as in Hulk… Hell… and Holocaust!\u2019<\/em> pits the eternally-embattled Jade Giant against sinister cult the Sons of Satanish<\/em> and their currently-dead leader Asmodeus<\/em>, before the Defenders (core-group Doctor Stephen Strange, Valkyrie and reformed Nighthawk) call on Daimon Hellstrom<\/em> AKA the Son of Satan<\/strong> for some highly specialised assistance…
\n\"\"
\nIn Defenders<\/strong> #17 the heroes set up housekeeping in a converted Long Island Riding Stables, courtesy of billionaire Nighthawk\u2019s civilian alter ego Kyle Richmond<\/em>, just as displaced Asgardian soul Valkyrie leaves in search of the truth about the human body she is trapped in. The main plot of \u2018Power Play!\u2019<\/em> (Wein, Sal B & Dan Green) sees the remaining heroes engage with and then enlist the aid of Hero for Hire\/Power Man<\/strong> Luke Cage<\/em>, as superstrong Asgardian enhanced thugs The Wrecking Crew<\/em> topple a number of Richmond\u2019s New York buildings. whilst hunting for a hidden superweapon. The spectacular \u2018Rampage!\u2019<\/em> reveals their object to be a pocket gamma bomb, with the search finishing in a furious finale from Chris Claremont, Wein, Buscema & Janson, as everybody frantically ferrets out the location of a deadly \u2018Doomball!\u2019<\/em> that has already been whisked away by some foolish bystander…<\/p>\n

Immediately afterwards Strange, Clea and Fantastic Four<\/strong> lynchpin The Thing<\/strong> chance upon a disharmonious cosmic challenge in Marvel Two-In-One <\/strong>#6\u2019s \u2018Death-Song of Destiny!\u2019<\/em> (by Steve Gerber, George Tuska & Esposito) which concludes in MTIO <\/strong>#7 with \u2018Name That Doom!\u2019<\/em> (Sal Buscema pencils) wherein Valkyrie joins the melee just in time to cross swords with egregious Asgardian exiles Enchantress<\/em> and The<\/em> Executioner<\/em>, who are behind a cosmic scheme to reorder the universe…<\/p>\n

The aftermath of that eldritch encounter spills over into Defenders <\/strong>#20 as Gerber took on the non team as regular scripter, beginning a landmark run of stories. \u2018The Woman She Was…!\u2019 <\/em>(art by Sal B & Vince Colletta) begins unravelling the torturous backstory of Valkyrie\u2019s human host Barbara Norris<\/em> during a breathtakingly bombastic battle that also reanimates the diabolical threat of the<\/em> Undying Ones<\/em>. Late arriving, Strange & Nighthawk almost perish at the hands of the demons\u2019 human worshippers…<\/p>\n

Steve Gerber was a uniquely gifted writer who combined a deep love of Marvel\u2019s continuity minutiae with irrepressible wit, dark introspection and immeasurable imagination, all leavened with enticing surreality. His stories always occurred at the extreme edge of the company\u2019s intellectual canon and never failed to deliver surprise and satisfaction. With Defenders<\/strong> #21, he commenced a long, intricate and epically peculiar saga as \u2018Enter: The Headman!\u2019<\/em> (illustrated by Buscema & Sal Trapani) exposed a trio of thematically linked scientists\/savants, all originating in Marvel\u2019s pre-superhero fantasy anthologies, and opened an insidious campaign of conquest and vengeance by driving New York city briefly insane (… arguably and more correctly, more<\/em> insane…).
\n\"\"
\nBefore the next chapter, however, a brace of extended sagas play chronological catch-up: firstly, for Giant-Size Defenders<\/strong> #3 Gerber, Jim Starlin & Wein (with art from Starlin, Dan Adkins, Don Newton & Jim Mooney) detail \u2018Games Godlings Play!\u2019 <\/em>as Daredevil<\/strong> joins Strange, Valkyrie, and Prince Namor in saving the world from Elder of the Universe The Grandmaster<\/em>: a cosmic games-player whose obsession with gladiatorial combats pitches the heroes into deadly contests with intergalactic menaces from infinity… and beyond. Next follows a more down-to-Earth tale as occasional Avenger Yellowjacket<\/strong> (AKA Ant-Man<\/strong>, Giant-Man<\/strong>, Goliath<\/strong> et al) pops by to help crush insane criminal genius Egghead<\/em> and Nighthawk\u2019s old gang the Squadron Sinister<\/em> on \u2018Too Cold a Night for Dying!\u2019<\/em> (Giant Sized Defenders<\/strong> #4, by Gerber, Don Heck & Colletta).<\/p>\n

The return to monthly action resumes with Gerber, Sal Buscema & Esposito in Defenders<\/strong> #22\u2019s \u2018Fangs of Fire and Blood!\u2019<\/em>, with sinister white supremacist secret society the Sons of the Serpent<\/em> launching another hate-fuelled, racist terror-pogrom, and forcing the outcast champions into an uncomfortably public response. Stakes are raised in \u2018The Snakes Shall Inherit the Earth!\u2019<\/em> with Hank Pym<\/em> – still in his Yellowjacket persona – rejoining the Defenders to confront his most reviled old enemies. Even with his aid, the Defenders are defeated in combat and left \u2018…In the Jaws of the Serpent!\u2019<\/em> (inked by Bob McLeod inks), necessitating a nick-of-time rescue by Daredevil<\/strong>, Luke Cage<\/strong>, Clea and the Son of Satan<\/strong> before the epic ends with a stunning and still sickeningly realistic twist as Jack Abel inks \u2018The Serpent Sheds its Skin!\u2019<\/em>…
\n\"\"
\nFor the longest time The Defenders<\/strong> was the best and weirdest superhero comic book in the business, and this bitty, unwieldy collection was where that all started. The next volume will see that inspirational unconventionality reach even greater heights of drama and lunacy, but before that this compendium concludes with the Atlas Era short tales that originally introduced Gorilla Man Arthur Nagan<\/em>, human horror Dr. Jerold Morgan<\/em> and Chondu the Mystic<\/em> who comprise the heinous Headmen tantalisingly introduced in Defenders<\/strong> #21. The vignettes had all been recently reprinted in horror anthology Weird Wonder Tales<\/strong> #7 (December 1974) and the cover of that issue opens a selection of added extras…<\/p>\n

Nagan debuted in \u2018It Walks Erect!\u2019<\/em> by Paul S. Newman & Bob Powell from Mystery Tales<\/strong> #21, September 1954: a obsessive surgeon driven by ambition to perform appalling transplant research on gorillas who ultimately took unholy revenge upon him, whilst biologist Jerry Morgan<\/em>\u2019s matter compression experiments terrified – but saved – a city in \u2018Prisoner of the Fantastic Fog\u2019 (<\/em>by an unknown writer & Angelo Torres from World of Fantasy<\/strong> #11, April 19580). Tales of Suspense<\/strong> #9 (May 1960) then revealed how stage magician Chondu<\/em> – AKA Harvey Schlemerman<\/em> – was far more than he seemed in mini-thriller by Stan Lee & Larry Lieber, wonderfully rendered by the miraculous Doug Wildey.<\/p>\n

Other extras include a full cover gallery by by John Romita, Gil Kane, Sal Buscema, Jim Starlin, Frank Giacoia, Joe Sinnott, Ron Wilson, Al Milgrom, Dave Cockrum & Janson, more house ads, relevant sections of the Mighty Marvel Calendar for 1975 by Roy Thomas amd artists Frank Brunner, Romita, Sal B & Janson and original art pages\/covers by Kane, Giacoia, Romita, Sals Buscema & Trapani.<\/p>\n

If you love superheroes but crave something just a little different these yarns are for you… and the best is still to come.
\n\u00a9 2024 MARVEL.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Len Wein, Steve Gerber, Tony Isabella, Chris Claremont, Jim Starlin, Stan Lee, Bill Everett, Steve Ditko, Dennis O\u2019Neil, Larry Lieber, Paul S. Newman, Sal Buscema, Gil Kane, George Tuska, Don Heck, Jack Kirby, Bob Powell, Angelo Torres, Doug Wildey, Klaus Janson, Mike Esposito, Vince Colletta, Jack Abel, Al Milgrom, Dan Green, Sal Trapani, Dan … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The Defenders Epic Collection volume 2 – Enter: the Headmen (1974-1975)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[222,351,85,175,158,332,389,98,117,146,79,213,107,157,39,144,155,231,70],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ant-man","category-apes-monkeys","category-daredevil","category-defenders","category-dr-strange","category-gil-kane","category-hellstorm-son-of-satan","category-hulk","category-jack-kirby","category-marvel-horror","category-marvel-superheroes","category-iron-fist","category-science-fiction","category-silver-surfer","category-spider-man","category-steve-ditko","category-sub-mariner","category-the-thing","category-x-men"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-8zd","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32935"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32942,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32935\/revisions\/32942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}