Issue(s): Defenders #126
Cover Date: Dec 83
Title: "State of the union!"
Credits:
J.M. DeMatteis - Writer
Alan Kupperberg - Penciler
Alan Kupperberg - Inker
Carl Potts - Editor

Review/plot:
The Defenders check out the prisoners held by SHIELD after the attack on Hellcat & Hellstorm's wedding. They've got Mutant Force and Mad Dog...

...but not Harridan, Cloud, and Seraph, the three who attacked the Defenders prior to the wedding and were also thought to have been turned over to SHIELD. Turns out they were really released back to Secret Empire agents posing as SHIELD.

Both Angel and Iceman are falling for Moondragon.

Iceman comments to himself about the fact that Angel has Candy Southern as a girlfriend but still can't help put the moves on every girl he meets. I'm assuming that Angel was still dating Candy while he was trying to pick up Dazzler, then; i wasn't sure about that.

The Beast is trying to propose that the Defenders become a more official team...

...with him as the leader. Valkyrie finds the idea of Beast leading a team amusing.

I suspect that both the attraction to Moondragon and the internal team strife are Moondragon's doing.

After the Defenders left SHIELD, Fury discovers that a strange experimental super-soldier had broken free. He's a giant man with low intelligence apparently created by "those in power who feared the plethora of super-humans operating independently; who felt the nation would be better served by super-operatives with more direct governmental ties." The Defenders are able to stop him...

...but during the confusion Mad Dog and Mutant Force escape.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References:

• Angel says that he finally found a sense of purpose for himself while he was in the Savage Land. There's a reference to "Upcoming Marvel Fanfare". There was a similar reference in Defenders #125, but that one didn't reference the Savage Land. I'm confused by this. Of course, Angel did appear in the first 4 issues of Marvel Fanfare, which were Savage Land stories. But they were published Mar-Sep 82 (cover dates), and this comic is Dec 83. So it can't be referring to those issues. However, there are no other Marvel Fanfare issues featuring Angel that i'm aware of that would fit the bill. So i assume this is a reference to a story that never got published.
  
• As Jake notes in the comments, Nick Fury makes a comment about Dum Dum Dugan not yet assuming his deputy director role. Dum Dum was put in that role in Captain America #284 while he was in a hospital bed.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

More evidence that Warren was still dating Candy when he tried to pick up Ali comes from X-Factor 10- Candy says she's ignored his philandering in the past.

Superheroes having dinner in full costume is one of those conciets of the genre you just roll with after a while, but seeing Iceman sitting there in basically just his undies is a bit odd.

Well, Beast is wearing just as little and Gargoyle & Moondragon aren't wearing much more... lol!

True. I guess it's just the weirdness of seeing Iceman in his underpants but not iced-out (Iced on?) that throws me.

"I suspect that both the attraction to Moondragon and the internal team strife are Moondragon's doing."

Yes, because there's no other earthly reason to explain it!

Defenders #140 has Moondragon reveal that was indeed the case.

I think Moondragon affects comment boards throughout Marvel fandom.
Darn you, Titan priestess! melodramatically shakes fist skyward
I am really looking forward to my Essentials volume, shopped for in recent months
on the strength of reviews and discussion here. These just really weren't in the tier
of characters about which I cared much, but as has been the lot with half this run and any other,
it's all about the writing first and foremost- and then, as the quality of the art stands from
competent story-telling to inspired, the creative team makes us care.
I wasn't much on J.M. & the art between 100-110, but here we go!

Since both Iceman's and Angel's thoughts about Moondragon are worded exactly the same and occur in the same panel, it is an easy assumption it is done under some kind of mental influence/mind control!

Moondragon always had one of the worse constume designs. The bald head on a female is very striking, but the monochromatic green is just boring. Her later black and white monk style outfit provides a better aesthetic.

"Defenders #140 has Moondragon reveal that was indeed the case."

AF, yes. My comment was that it obvious in this issue and the other issues it happened in. I can't see any reader needing to wait until Defenders # 140 to think that. It wasn't a revelation to the readers, but to the characters.

It wasn't obvious to me (and probably plenty of others). I thought it was just a joke/being played for laughs that Angel and Iceman both were crushing on here and thinking the exact same things about her.

Which may have even been the case, when you consider DeMatteis does write similar sort of comedy stuff in Justice League and others, and the actual revelation came from the next writer.

Particularly since she's also wearing a headband that is meant to inhibit her powers and ability to do that...

Fury wants Dugan to take over deputy director of SHIELD soon - a job that was given to him in Cap #284.

The fight in this issue with the "we can't beat him alone but when we are an organized team we easily can" lesson is a little heavy-handed.