The Defenders have been called on to save reality itself from being destroyed. Yet, just forming the team might kill them all. Your Major Spoilers review of The Defenders #1, awaits!
THE DEFENDERS #1 (OF 5)
Writers: Al Ewing & Javier Rodriguez
Artists: Alvaro Lopez & Javier Rodriguez
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna
Editors: Wil Moss & Sarah Brunstad
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: August 11th, 2021
Previously in The Defenders: Doctor Strange and the Masked Raider take a non-team of Marvel’s weirdest, wildest heroes on a mission that will uncover the hidden architecture of reality itself.
NO TIME TO WASTE
The Defenders #1 opens up with Stephen Strange doing a bit of tarot reading, but soon he’s interrupted by a gun-toting, mask-wearing, vigilante known as Masked Raider. The two duke it out for a little while before sitting down to talk things out. It’s revealed that The Masked Raider was trying to stop Carlo Zota from enacting an evil scheme, but when things go wrong the villain tries to use a magical book to travel through time. The Masked Raider shoots the book, sending Carlo Zota to an unknown place in time. Possibly to the very beginning, where he can do real damage. Stephen realizes how serious the situation is and fetches The Tarot of The Sacred Flame, which will summon a hero to him depending on the card pulled. The first one summoned is The Silver Surfer, followed by Betty Banner AKA The Red Harpy, then finally Cloud, a living nebula. Unfortunately the nebula isn;t in its human form so suddenly Stephen has a star being borned in his living room. He then does some magicky magic and Cloud takes their human form, but the team is whisked away to an alien planet currently under attack from a very Galactus looking being called Omnimax.
RIGHT INTO THE DEEP END
For an issue that is basically an extended introduction to the team, there isn’t actually a lot of standing around talking. From the minute that The Masked Raider shows up, things are at an excited state. This is partly due to the bombastic art in this issue which makes even simple things like someone appearing in a room look like a massive event complete with cool explosions and effects. While it’s pretty common with Doctor Strange featured comics, this one here is especially dense with magic jargon. In fact, the whole resolution of Cloud being a star that can destroy the world, is tucked away in a series of vague statements about costs, rules, and risk. Which apparently means that Doctor Strange grows a few extra arms and a sun becomes a naked woman. This is the big problem with The Defenders #1, there’s a lot of effort put into the spectacle of what’s happening, but none put into an actual explanation of it or why anything is happening.
THINGS GET WILD
As mentioned before, the art of The Defenders #1 is in your face and bold. Every panel is an explosion of colors, and surreal imagery. It truly is something to see. What’s especially fun about the visuals here are how they’re incorporated into the layout of the book itself. Not that unique panel shapes and borders are a new thing, but rarely are they toyed with to the degree they are here. For example, on one page, the steam from a cup of tea becomes not only the panel borders, but the images within as well, telling a significant amount of backstory.
The Bottom Line: Trudge Through The Jargon To See The Art
There’s nothing wrong with the actual plot of The Defenders #1, even if it’s a bit simple. Unfortunately, a lot of its details are obscured by poor dialog and narration. This also becomes a disservice to the real start of this comic book, the art, by not providing a grounded explanation. The visuals here are wonderful to look at and really push the conventions of the medium to an fascinating place. So if you can put up with not knowing exactly what’s happening, you’re at least treated to a pretty book. 3 out of 5 stars.
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The Defenders #1
The Defenders #1 is a gorgeous book that is somewhat hamstrung by a simple plot that’s muddled by narration overwrought with jargon and vague statements that don’t explain what’s actually happening.
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Writing4
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Art9
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Coloring10
At a young age, Jonathan was dragged to a small town in Wisconsin. A small town in Wisconsin that just so happened to have a comic book shop. Faced with a decision to either spend the humid summers and bitter winters traipsing through the pine trees or in climate controlled comfort with tales of adventure, horror, and romance, he chose the latter. Jonathan can often be found playing video games, board games, reading comics and wincing as his “to watch” list grows wildly out of control.