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New Defenders Series

 
 
Jake, Colossus of Clout
22:48 / 17.02.05
I read about this in Wizard :

"The Hulk will be kind of like Bluto Blutarsky, The Sub-Mariner will kind of be like Niles Crane, Dr. Strange will be kind of like Bob Newhart. We're just going to stick them in a room and watch it melt down." -Keith Giffen

I can't get enough of these guys (just got done extolling their virtues in another thread, actually) and this should be good stuff. Apparently Dormammu is in an ambiguous relationship with his sister.

"I think it will be a Dormammu you've never quite seen before," says DeMatteis.

This can't be anything but good.
 
 
Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo
16:15 / 19.02.05
I think they are able to get their hands on the Silver Surfer as well, OORC.

I was always hoping that they could bring their way of treating super-heroes to Marvel, because Marvel's characters are a little more inherantly silly when you strip away all of the angst and drama. I have yet to see a treatment of the Sub-Marniner that make me think he was anything more than a goofball of a character.

It's also great to see Maguire back creating comics again. His art is just amazing in its simplicity AND detail. He makes every character he draws seem like a real person, not be putting in muscles and doing a Neal Adams, but by drawing such wondfully expressive faces and mastering body language.

I hope it's a success so that the team gets to stay together an dmake more books like their Justice League.
 
 
doctorbeck
14:43 / 22.02.05
didn't dematteis write this for a while years back, but when he was a SERIOUS COMIC WRITER

i really liked their JLA and am sure this will be fun, have much fondness for the team from the black and white weekly reprints in the mid-70s, don't think their JLA was ever popular with fandom though it was with me. think the art helped a lot.

wonder if son of satan will turn up too?

a
 
 
DavidXBrunt
19:56 / 22.02.05
I'd say their version was pretty popular with fandom.

Apart from the superlative sales (as evidenced by the numerous spin-offs - unpopular books don't get spin offs), the fact that there's been a return series is a plus point (otherwise we'd be getting a mini-series reuniting the Gypsy/Vixen League), and the fact that when the powers that be put the team membership to the reader vote after Giffen left the same old faces were chosen (if the team weren't popular the votes would have been in favour of other members).

I'll be buying this series because...well I'm very fond of them. Great creators.
 
 
matsya
21:15 / 22.02.05
who's bluto blutarsky? Is that the guy from popeye? And is Kevin Maguire illustrating?

If he is, I'm there. Been reading some interviews with Giffen lately. Picked up his Hero Squared (not great, not terrible, kind of at the same level as the Heckler) recently. In a giffen kind of mood.

If I'm right, it was Giffen who used to work on the Defenders, as an illustrator. It was one of his earlier jobs with Marvel.

m.
 
 
Mr Tricks
21:20 / 22.02.05
here's an article on them with a bit of art too
 
 
Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo
00:37 / 23.02.05
DeMatteis wrote the comic from 91 to 125 when he was in his "Gee, I want to be Steve Gerber" phase, and Giffen drew the comic around #50 for a while in his "I can trace Jack Kirby" phase.

As a teenagers, I loved DeMatteis's work on the comic. It has not aged well.
 
 
matsya
04:00 / 23.02.05
so what were the sigificant events from matteis's defenders run? I have a nostalgic fondness for it that I assume will turn to ash if I ever re-read the overblown pomposity of the old issues...

m.
 
 
gridley
15:36 / 23.02.05
who's bluto blutarsky?

John Belushi's character from Animal House
 
 
Mr Tricks
17:48 / 16.06.05
thought some of you might enjoy a preview.
 
 
Yotsuba & Benjamin!
21:35 / 16.06.05
That's the most adorable Silver Surfer I've ever seen. Gotta pick up the rest of those Justice League's that came out this year.

God damn it.
 
 
Billuccho!
22:47 / 16.06.05
Well, I'll buy *anything* by Giffen/DeMatteis/Maguire, so I'm definitely in for this Defenders series.
 
 
Rachel Melmoth
15:09 / 17.06.05
*reads preview*

*wipes drool*

Anyone know when is this scheduled to start?
 
 
Mr Tricks
15:46 / 17.06.05
looks like it hits the stands on the first week of july
 
 
FinderWolf
19:51 / 12.07.05
coming sooon... (maybe tomorrow?)
 
 
Billuccho!
19:57 / 12.07.05
I think it comes out tomorrow.

Regardless, I'll probably be buying it in mid-August.
 
 
Mr Tricks
21:28 / 12.07.05
Diamond's got it listed as July 20, 2005...

next week then.
 
 
Jake, Colossus of Clout
03:22 / 18.07.05
"I play to the audience. And if they're more interested in melodrama than Vaudeville... That's what they get."

"Made a pretty good case for this dimension's paranormals being potential weapons of mass destruction aimed at the heart of pandimensional sovreignity."

This is going to be so brilliant.
 
 
Billuccho!
03:18 / 21.07.05
Ooo, got it today. Anybody else read this? I quite liked it. Perhaps it's thinly-veiled JLI (Dormammu is Manga Khan, Dr. Strange is J'onn J'onzz, etc.) but that's why I picked it up in the first place. Fun stuff.
 
 
rabideyemovement
03:50 / 21.07.05
This was great. I also saw the parallels between this and his JLI run. Dormammu was very Manga Khan.
 
 
FinderWolf
13:00 / 21.07.05
Pretty good stuff upon a cursory read. The Silver Surfer feeling the call of surfer dude 'friends' at the beach was great.
 
 
Haus of Mystery
18:20 / 21.07.05
Yeah I liked this. I'm such a sucker for ther schtick, and it's nice to see some lightheartedness in the Marvel Universe. That said, much as with the Justice League re-treads it did feel slightly like they were trading on past glories. It just didn't seem all that fresh. But no, fuck it, it was a fun read with gorgeous artwork. And that's good enough sometimes.
 
 
FinderWolf
18:49 / 21.07.05
I didn't need those weird icons of the characteres over the title on the cover, though...kind of pointless. The Silver Surfer's icon being the universal alien face you see on stickers and skateboards struck me as being a bit odd...
 
 
Yotsuba & Benjamin!
18:55 / 21.07.05
Yeah, very light but I loved it. Also seemed strangely tighter, artwise, than ICBINTJL. I think some of that had to do with the lettering to be frank. Either way, fun stuff.
 
 
Hallo, Paper Spaceboy
19:12 / 21.07.05
Namor and Doc Strange seemed spot-on, but it seemed like Bruce Banner was making an awful lot of cultural references for a man on the run - since when would he have time to take in celebrity gossip?

Liked the Banner/Namor antagonism otherwise, and Strange was really good. Surfer seemed unnaturally naive and a bit airheaded for some reason.

But, really enjoyed this and look forward to more...
 
 
Axolotl
10:30 / 22.07.05
I really enjoyed this - I've not read much, if any of Giffen et al's work - but this was really good. The Namor-Strange argument about morality was brilliantly played. I also enjoyed the Surfer's reaction to the surfers which managed to be true to the character and to poke fun at him at the same time.
I'm not sure I agree with them about the shitness of the New Defenders - Gargoyle, Cloud, Hellcat & so on, but each to their own I guess.
 
 
doyoufeelloved
13:11 / 22.07.05
it seemed like Bruce Banner was making an awful lot of cultural references for a man on the run

That bugged me too! Though I guess if you're on the run in the Southwest, you'd try to duck into air-conditioned theatres as often as possible. I quite like the idea of smelly, sunburnt Bruce Banner watching MR. AND MRS. SMITH and struggling to keep the Hulk inside.

On the whole, I actually found this to be kind of eh. Enjoyed the JLA:C arc a lot more; Maguire's change in art style for the different universe was interesting, but I actually thought the Silver Surfer gag was completely lame, and a lot of the rest was uninspired too. (There was one joke that made me snort out loud on the subway, which was embarassing and probably made me look like a security risk, but I don't remember what it was so it can't have been *that* good.)
 
 
Axolotl
12:12 / 30.09.05
Anyone still reading this? I picked up the new issue yesterday (#3) and I'm not hugely impressed. The dialogue between the characters is quite funny, but the plot fails to really do it for me; possibly it's a bit too dark for what is supposed to be a more light hearted book. But then I guess that might be a deliberate choice to stop the book setting too silly.
 
 
FinderWolf
12:26 / 30.09.05
I bought the first issue and wasn't sufficiently into it to continue - since then I've been reading them in the store and I think the series is pretty mediocre.
 
 
Mr Tricks
20:07 / 30.09.05
I'm still reading it, I've certainly lost my tasted for this humor and couldn't finish reading FKATJL and never bothered with the JLA:C

For some reason I like this better. Enjoying the art style and updated designs for the Baddies.
 
 
Planet B
19:24 / 26.01.06
Damn, that was entertaining. Anyone else stick with it? It seems the humor was totally within the characters, and actually most stemmed from Namor being such an unrepentant prick. Good stuff. AND the Hulk can now get some interdimensional nookie whenever he wants.
 
 
COBRAnomicon!
19:41 / 26.01.06
I liked it a lot, too. Nothing earth-shattering, but a fun series. I enjoyed the wait/payoff for the other shoe to drop with the Silver Surfer... that was nicely done.
 
 
DavidXBrunt
05:59 / 27.01.06
It grew on me. I've been giving the issues away after reading them but it was entertaining enough to keep me spending my money. As is often the way with Keith Giffen books the credits were often the funniest thing in them, which is damning it with praise.

Hard not to see why the team would jump ship if you think of how many of their J.L.I. cast are out of bounds cause they're being used elsewhere (Power Girl, Metamorpho, Captain Atom, Martian Manhunter, Guy Gardner), or have been killed off by other writers (Ice, Sue Dibney, Blue Beetle, Max Lord, Rocket Red). That leaves them who? The Elongated Man, Booster Gold, and Fire. Now whilst I still think there's mileage in a story about those three crawling from the wreckage of I.C. it's unlikely to ever see print.
 
  
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