Issue(s): Sub-Mariner #22,
Published Date: Feb 70
Title: "The monarch and the mystic!"
Credits:
Roy Thomas - Writer
Marie Severin - Penciler
Johnny T. Craig - Inker

Review/plot:
While Ikthon restores the Sub-Mariner's ability to breathe underwater, Dr. Strange contacts him (Namor) and recaps the plot of Doctor Strange #183. While he's supposed to be recovering from his surgery, Namor heads to Boston to acquire an idol that the Nameless One needs to open a dimensional gate. After fighting a demon and locating the idol, Strange appears and takes it. Namor isn't happy to be manipulated by Strange but seems placated by the sorcerer's explanation. The two team-up to fight a cat and the Nameless One. Dr. Strange stays behind in the dimension of the Undying Ones, leaving Namor to wonder if what happened was real.

Later, Dr. Strange, no longer wearing the super-hero face mask, receives a summons from Yandroth, who is dying. He tells Strange that when he dies, his Omegatron device will destroy the Earth. Strange summons the Sub-Mariner for help, and Namor suggests that they get the Silver Surfer and the Hulk as well. Strange conjures up an image of the Silver Surfer slamming himself repeatedly into Galactus' barrier, and they decide to skip him and just go for the Hulk. Strange seeks the Hulk out in his astral form. When he finds him, he attacks him to get him to follow. Not the nicest strategy, but one that the Defenders and others will use repeatedly. Strange even says "And so it begins" when he starts his attack; not sure what that is meant to refer to but to me it looks like it's the manipulation of the Hulk that is beginning. The Hulk is able to see Strange's astral form, a curiosity about the Hulk that will be explained many years later in the Flashback -1 issue as being due to the Hulk's fear of his dead father and his need to always be on the lookout for ghosts.

When the Hulk arrives at the site where Namor and Dr. Strange's physical form are waiting, they promise him glories in battle if he'll join them. Instead he just asks to be their friend. Ross Andru's shaky pencils sometimes give Hulk a slapstick comedic quality that i don't like. Most of the time it looks OK, though.

The group heads to the Omegatron but as they are attacking Strange finds out that it will be the group's attack that activates the device. Strange uses illusions to trick the Hulk and the Sub-Mariner into fighting each other instead of the device. The crisis is thus averted but the event leaves the group with a bad taste in their mouth and the part ways. Strange says if they ever get together again they should name themselves the Defenders.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 3 - Leads up to the formation of the Defenders.

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References: N/A

Cross-over: N/A

Continuity Implant? N

Reprinted In: Day of the Defenders