Essential Defenders Vol. 2

Now here's where things start getting nutty.

Longtime Marvelites know that one of the kookiest brains cooking up stories for the company in the seventies was Steve Gerber, he of Man-Thing and Howard the Duck fame. What's not discussed nearly as often is that he also lent his talents to a wide range of the decade's superhero books, and it's on Defenders where that gift for the odd and offbeat is served incredibly well by the gimmick of a team that is itself odd and offbeat.

Check out the lineup, alone; by this volume, the core group had evolved into Doctor Strange, Valkyrie, and Nighthawk of all people. "Who's Nighthawk?" you ask, quite reasonably. Nighthawk was a former villain turned hero and the Batman allegory in the Squadron Sinister, a thin ripoff of the Justice League played as inter-dimensional villains. So he's this low-level hero and slightly weird playboy who has his own thing for Valkyrie, just like Hawkeye did in Volume 1.

And let's not forget the Hulk, who ends up palling around with this motley crew simply because they're the only heroes who will hang out with him and not try to punch him in the face. It's hard to tell if it's endearing or merely annoying every time Hulk calls Nighthawk "Bird-nose," but hey, that's the joy of the Defenders--you're just a little bit uncomfortable the whole time you're reading, because all the typical Marvel tropes play out, but they don't fit this group quite as well as they do, say, the Fantastic Four. Because again, the FF fit together and genuinely enjoy their time together, while the Defenders switch off between barely tolerating one another and feigning interest in each other's lives.

This second Essential sees some trippy tales, including a Steve Gerber epic involving a magical harmonica and a dead bum, and the premiere of the Headmen, villains with weird heads. Seriously. A fun time is had by all.