Defenders #48-51Issue(s): Defenders #48, Defenders #49, Defenders #50, Defenders #51 Review/plot: Having successfully tricked the Defenders into giving up Jack Norriss, Scorpio debates his philosophy with Jack. It's an interesting conversation even though it essentially boils down to "everyone sucks". Scorpio attempts to ransom Jack back to Kyle, but Kyle shows up as Nighthawk and gets captured instead. Issue #49 contains the worst abuse of the Hulk that i've seen. The Hulk decides that he's tired of getting into fights and he decides to have a picnic (with, um, other people's picnic supplies). When Val, Hellcat, and Moon Knight show up to recruit him to rescue Nighthawk, the Hulk says he's tired of rescuing the dumb bird-man and he doesn't want to fight today. Anyone ought to see that as a major development for the Hulk, but instead the Defenders attack him... ...making him chase them all the way across New York and into New Jersey where Scorpio is situated. No wonder when the Hulk gets his intelligence back he doesn't consider these people his friends. It's a good thing the Defenders did have the Hulk, though, because otherwise they'd be pretty badly outclassed by Scorpio's new Zodiac robots. However, they do prevail. More importantly, three of the robots didn't come out successfully. One of them was Virgo, who Scorpio intended as a real doll girlfriend. Defeated by the Defenders and bereft of his made-to-order bride, Scorpio kills himself, to the dismay of his Nick Fury LMD and no one else. I'm not so sure about bringing back Scorpio, and i'm not sure if this issue is introducing revisions into his origins or what, but overall this was very good. Kraft does a great job of really developing Scorpio's character. He makes him human, with his middle age depression and his love of beer, in a way that just hasn't been done for any villains to date. His political rants, and even the fact that Jack points out that they aren't entirely sensical, are also... different than that the usual ranting we get. In some ways, Kraft's Defenders are even better than Gerber's. In other ways, they're a bit more clunky, especially in the occasional dialogue or plot point, but certainly overall it continues in Gerber's direction of making this a more mature superhero book. Good stuff. The real Nick Fury shows up in the aftermath of the Scorpio battle. While he's mopping up, he offers Jack Norriss a position in SHIELD, which is just wrong. Jack was supposed to be the ordinary guy who could comment on all the wackiness going on in the Defenders; he shouldn't be qualified to be an agent of SHIELD. Afterward, Kyle encourages Valkyrie to enroll herself in college, and she finds that process more challenging than a battle, but eventually meets two friendly students (one named Dollar Bill) who help her get acclimated. One of the friends gets killed without the others knowing. The murderer will turn out to be the villain Lunatik. Meanwhile, Nighthawk fights a thief named Ringer who is robbing Kyle Richmond's estate. Not realizing that Kyle is Nighthawk, the Ringer spouts a lot of anti-capitalist rhetoric to justify his theft. Despite the fact that Nighthawk beats the Ringer, the rhetoric cuts him deeply. This is not the first time we've been down this route with Kyle, but last time nothing really changed. Police Lt. Kris Keating runs the SWAT team responding to the Ringer's attack. Giffin's art is kinda of messy but also has a Kirby-esque quality that i like. Quality Rating: B- Chronological Placement Considerations: Wonder Man's appearance can take place between any break in his Avengers appearances before his costume change in #161. Defenders #51, which isn't really part of the same story arc, is included here because the opening scene takes place in the aftermath of the Scorpio battle. The Scorpio battle takes place concurrently with Nick Fury's appearance in Marvel Two-In-One #26-27. As Mark notes in the comments, Moon Knight's pilot Frenchie is behind-the-scenes in this issue in a way that counts as an appearance. References:
Crossover: N/A Continuity Insert? N My Reprint: N/A Inbound References (12): show CommentsThe Ringer's face mask can't be good for his depth perception. Dollar Bill is wearing a Cheech Wizard shirt; that was an underground comix character created by the late Vaughn Bode, who died under very bizarre circumstances. The panel referencing Sgt. Fury #68(in Defenders #49) is strange. It alludes to some kind of horrible experience suffered by Jake Fury, but all it shows is a scene in a shower with a guy's arm poking in at the panel side. I'm guessing this is some kind of reference to a gay sexual assault, but I doubt that Sgt. Fury issue(which came out in 1969? 1970?) would have dealt with anything like that, being a late Silver Age book. Posted by: Mark Drummond | July 16, 2011 6:10 PM In addition, the fake swearing in these issues is hilarious. "Tough Ditty!" "Spit or get off the spot!" Ugh... Posted by: Mark Drummond | July 16, 2011 6:13 PM The last page of #48 credits Don McGregor for scripting assistance. Posted by: Mark Drummond | August 27, 2011 11:21 AM Nice catch; even the UHBMCC didn't list that. I've updated the credits. Posted by: fnord12 | August 27, 2011 11:37 AM Dave Kraft's Defenders was generally praised at the time of publication, though the Scorpio issues tended to have less approval per this quote from the Comics Journal: "...much of the blame should fall on the shoulders of artist Keith Giffen, who seemed to alternate between drawing with his hands one month and drawing with his feet the next". David Kraft quit the Defenders and Marvel over the work-for-hire contract. Posted by: Mark Drummond | August 26, 2012 4:54 PM Giffen later stated that he redesigned the Zodiac because he "just couldn't do" the originals. Posted by: Mark Drummond | June 16, 2013 5:23 PM Back Issue #65 states courtesy of Kraft that Scorpio was gay, but he was too subtle about it. That explains the "last chance to be normal" line and that shower panel. Posted by: Mark Drummond | August 3, 2013 2:03 PM This marked the end of my collecting of the Defenders. I had bought these brand new and later sold them and just kept my Defenders collection from 1-38. Keith Giffen's art is a huge step down from Sal Buscemas's, and the above "Dynamic Defenders" splash page was a tremendous letdown. The faces, the body poses, what a complete mess. And turning one of my favorite super villain groups into robots was a travesty. This was a total disappointment. Grade F. Posted by: Mike | June 23, 2014 11:26 AM It's interesting how some artists change and others don't. Look at Carmine Infantino's work in the 50's and it's easy to see he's the same artist that did Howard the Duck #28. But look at this and look at Keith Giffen's work on Legion less than a decade later. I had to read this three times to be certain I was reading it right. Posted by: Erik Beck | March 22, 2015 1:14 PM That may just be an issue of an artist developing his skills. Infantino broke into the business in the 1940s, so his work in the 1950s represents a decade where he developed his craft and settled into his style. Giffen did the same. To see if Infantino actually developed, we'd need to look at examples from his forties work. But Giffen is very different here. Like Barry Windsor Smith, he is much more of a Kirby clone at this point. Posted by: Chris | March 22, 2015 2:27 PM Hellcat references her fight with Hulk during the Red Rajah conflict as "only yesterday," as affirmed by Valkyrie, in #49, so #44-50 are virtually unbroken by that logic. Posted by: Cecil Disharoon | April 26, 2016 2:07 AM Back Issue #65 states courtesy of Kraft that Scorpio was gay, but he was too subtle about it. That explains the "last chance to be normal" line and that shower panel. There's also Scorpio wanting to listen to a recording of "Somewhere over the Rainbow" by stereotypically gay icon Judy Garland just before he kills himself. Though if Kraft was hinting that Jake Fury was gay, it doesn't really fit with the Virgo LMD, does it? This story also threw a monkeywrench into Scorpio's continuity that was eventually tied up by Steve Engelhart in West Coast Avengers; Jake claims he wasn't the original Scorpio, and that the original died in SHIELD v.1 #1 and that Jake stole the identity to attack his brother in #5. But Steranko's stories make it clear that it's the same Scorpio in both SHIELDS #1 and #5; moreover, Nick using the Scorpio ID to infiltrate Zodiac would seem to rely partly on Jake Fury being the actual Scorpio. Was Kraft was trying to preserve the mystery Steranko had set up in some way, or what? Otherwise, it seems pointlessly convoluted to have Jake as the "second" Scorpio. Posted by: Omar Karindu | June 17, 2016 6:09 PM There's also Scorpio wanting to listen to a recording of "Somewhere over the Rainbow" by stereotypically gay icon Judy Garland just before he kills himself. Though if Kraft was hinting that Jake Fury was gay, it doesn't really fit with the Virgo LMD, does it? It probably does if the point of the Virgo LMD was for Jake to try and make himself "normal", like a closeted gay guy in denial who marries a woman to try and turn himself straight or live the way he thinks he 'supposed' to live. Posted by: Dermie | June 19, 2016 5:29 PM I reread this story today and i'm still confused over exactly what Scorpio's long term plan was. Posted by: Entzauberung | August 2, 2016 3:49 PM Though if Kraft was hinting that Jake Fury was gay, it doesn't really fit with the Virgo LMD, does it? It probably does if the point of the Virgo LMD was for Jake to try and make himself "normal", like a closeted gay guy in denial who marries a woman to try and turn himself straight or live the way he thinks he 'supposed' to live. Yep, Gay Jake can't connect to any real woman, so he makes himself one, thinking that will solve his "problem". As seen in this monologue, from the scans above: "You were my last chance to beā¦normal. I loved you, Virgo, even though I never really knew you." As a later lettercol points out, part of Jake's depression may stem from the fact that while he, as the younger brother, keeps aging, Nick is at this point essentially immortal, thanks to the Infinity Formula. So it's doubly ironic that he's pouring out his heart (and eventually going suicidal in front of) a LMD of his seemingly eternal brother. Posted by: Dan Spector | June 14, 2017 3:53 PM The gay angle for Scorpio doesn't really work because clearly Kraft didn't know anything about the what it would feel like to be gay in America at the time. It was just an idea Kraft threw into the mix of general existential angst. What I find funny/sad on re-reading these issues is the number of times Scorpio announces he's 52, like it means he's on the precipice of death or something. Being 52 as of this writing, I can say I'm certainly not young anymore, but I certainly don't feel like my life is almost over either. Posted by: Andrew | June 14, 2017 8:27 PM In #49, Jack of Hearts appears on a billboard in one panel, probably sneaked in by Giffen. The "Diz-Busting" line in #49's cliffhanger is a Blue Oyster Cult reference(evidently Kraft was starting on that early). Also in #49 Frenchie is said several times to be piloting Moon Knight's ship as it carries the Defenders around. Even though we never actually see him, doesn't that count as an appearance? Posted by: Mark Drummond | June 1, 2018 6:26 PM Andrew, the idea is that he's having a mid-life crisis, not that he thinks he's going to die. And yes, men going through a severe mid-life crisis do in deed go into "My life is over" stuff and can fixate on their mortality. As other commentators here have noted, Scorpio's experience of being gay seems to be a kind of self-denying closeted experience; part of the emphasis on his age is that he's of the WWII generation, and the story itself suggests that he's internalized homophobic attitudes from the days of his youth. That's why there's the whole bit about the female Virgo android being his "last chance to be normal." He's internalized the idea that being gay isn't normal; there are certainly plenty of unfortunate real-world examples of people who do that, and such examples can be found well past the 1970s. Posted by: Omar Karindu | June 2, 2018 8:49 AM Yeah, Omar, but the problem is the way Kraft wrote this, I thought that Scorpio's problem was he was a selfish jerk nobody could stand(which is why he never married), not that he was a gay man with internalized homophobia. Now, the two aren't necessarily mutually exclusive but if you can't tell the difference between selfish and gay, there's something wrong with the writing. Posted by: Michael | June 2, 2018 9:00 AM Kraft's depiction of Scorpio was hampered by the Comics Code, which wasn't exactly gay-friendly for its entire existence. Posted by: Mark Drummond | June 2, 2018 12:54 PM Well, yeah, Scorpio's a jerk -- he builds android killers, blames everything wrong in his life on his brother, kidnaps people. His little speech at the beginning of issue #48 is pretty much him swerving between "self-help" talk and supervillain insanity, and it's clear that he's decided that he'll bring the world to heel...to feel better about himself. Nighthawk spells it out in issue #51 after his fight with the Ringer, when he worries that he's like Scorpio, merely using his misfortunes and his resentment of others to justify violence and self-centeredness. There's a deliberate contrast here: the Defenders in general are a bunch of weirdoes and nutcases who've found each other and try to deal with the world as it is; Scorpio's reaction to not fitting in is to hide from the world for seven years and scheme ways to manufacture one he likes, keeping around an effigy of the brother he envies and resents just so he has someone to blame for his own shortcomings. He's spent his whole life running away from himself and trying on new "s;elves" that he thinks will win him everyone else's esteem. And in the process, he's refused to mature or reflect. And when he can't run away from himself any more through power fantasies, he kills himself. Posted by: Omar Karindu | June 2, 2018 12:57 PM Funny how this thread caught on during DAK's b'day celebration. Good analysis. And everytime I see 'Omar Karindu', I think of the Headmen. Posted by: Cecil Louis Disharoon | June 2, 2018 1:11 PM @Mark, thanks for pointing out that Frenchie should be tagged. Posted by: fnord12 | June 2, 2018 3:12 PM I enjoyed Giffen's Kirbyesque artwork. Not so much the ones inked by Klaus Janson whose style is not right for it. The biggest problem with the Defenders is that it wasn't a very good book overall. Posted by: KevinA | June 3, 2018 10:00 PM Comments are now closed. |
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