Issue(s): Defenders #133
Published Date: Jul 84
Title: "The Pajusnaya consignment!"
Credits:
Peter Gillis - Writer
Alan Kupperberg - Penciler
Kim DeMulder - Inker

Review/plot:
This is a very strange issue. The Defenders go to San Francisco and wind up helping out a pair of detectives called Cutlass and Typhoon who act as if they stepped right out of a pulp detective novel.

Despite the fact that they seem totally crazy, they're actually very successful at ferreting out a drug deal that is actually just a cover that a corrupt DEA agent uses to smuggling sensitive defense information.

It's a well written and often funny story, but it's got that Steve Gerby zany quality that i don't associate with Peter Gillis. Of course, i said the same thing about Defenders #131, didn't i? Hmmmm.

The Beast is still not with the rest of the Defenders. He is off on the lecture circuit, and making friends with a Professor Frye, an expert in the works of William Blake.

The last panel of this issue shows a silhouette of Manslaughter. He's getting sent after the Defenders because of their interference this issue.

Quality Rating: B-

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: This issue begin with the Defenders outside of the Angel's headquarters while a decontamination crew cleans up the place after the gamma-plant attack from last issue.

References:

• When we first see the Beast, he's in the middle of an anecdote he's sharing with some college kids. He says, "--so then I thought 'Why Not an Edward G. Robinson mask?". That's a reference to Avengers #137, when the Beast shows up at a recruitment drive wearing that mask.
  
• When some goons don't recognize the Defenders, Gargoyle says, "Don't you watch David Letterman?". I guess that could be a reference to Avengers #239, where the Beast announced that he was forming the new group.

Cross-over: N/A

Continuity Implant? N

Reprinted In: N/A