Issue(s): Defenders #116
Cover Date: Feb 83
Title: "Two by two"
Credits:
J.M. DeMatteis - Writer
Don Perlin - Penciler
Many Hands (inc. Michael Mignola) - Inker
Al Milgrom - Editor

Review/plot:
UHBMCC: M. Mignola given in Wizard: The Comic Magazine #190 (he inked 5 pages)

The Overmind helps Dr. Strange continue to feel better about his break-up with Clea...

...by insisting that Strange mystically spy on the relationships of the other members of the Defenders. Scenes include a brief bit scene with Vision and the Scarlet Witch leaving the team...

...the Beast and Vera working out their relationship...

...Valkyrie and Namor briefly exploring their feelings for each other before Namor ultimately cuts things off...

...Hellstorm running off after he expresses feelings for Hellcat...

...and Dolly Donahue and the Gargoyle forging the beginnings of something.

Since it's somewhat more down-to-earth, this is one of DeMatteis' better issues.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: Must take place after Doctor Strange #55. Much of this issue is a flashback that occurs directly after Defenders #115. There's an unresolvable continuity problem in this issue. In the flashback, Vision & Scarlet Witch reference needing to get back to New Jersey. During this time period, the Hulk is still unintelligent. But in Marvel Two-In-One annual #7, Vision & the Scarlet Witch are still living in a hotel in New York City. The Hulk has Bruce Banner's intelligence in that issue. The only way to fix that is to assume that the "back to New Jersey" reference here doesn't specifically mean to their house. It'd be nice to think that they're going house shopping, but the Two-In-One annual seems to indicate that Vision is about to broach the subject of buying a house for the first time. However, in that issue he's interrupted before he finishes his sentence so we don't know exactly what he's going to say. So i guess we'll go with that. Ugh. This Defenders run has caused me no end of trouble (see the continuity note in Contest of Champions, for example, as well as what we've had to do with the Hulk comics).

References:

• Dr. Strange is still contemplating his break-up with Clea, but since Doctor Strange #55 he's not despairing.
  
• During the Beast's conversation with Vera, he references the time he left the X-Men to strike out on his own from Amazing Adventures #11.
  
• Namor is attracted to Valkyrie, but he's not over the death of Lady Dorma from Sub-Mariner #37.
  
• Hellcat tells Damien Hellstorm that she's been attracted to him since he first joined the Defenders in Defenders #92.
  
• Three more references during the conversation between Hellcat and Damien: When Satan took Damien back to Hell in Defenders #100, and Damien and Hellcat's quests to find themselves in Defenders #105 and Defenders #111 respectively.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

I think Namor's blowing off Valkyrie because of his undying love for Lady Dorma is just him avoiding a relationship with a woman who's taller than him. Certainly later depictions of Namor make him more of a player, one who certainly didn't embrace a life of celibacy out of memory for a lost love.