Issue(s): Defenders #133
Cover 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 smuggle 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.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

One thing I took from this lousy issue was that Angel has a lot more real estate than I ever knew he had.

Really hated this one. Comes far too early in the run and is enough to turn someone off completely. When Gerber did the zaniness, there was still a connection to the Defenders somehow (or it was brief non-sequitur ala the Elf). Here they just tag along with these two annoying characters on a boring mission that they contribute pretty much nothing to. I think Moondragon has 1 line in the entire issue.

Pains me to say so, but should the significance rating be bumped up for the first appearance of Manslaughter? He does end up being significant to the run and the end of the series. And managed to make a tiny few appearances afterwards.

I gave points to issue #134 for the first "full" Manslaughter, since this one is just a silhouette.

Professor Frye is Northrop Frye-- his first book, Fearful Symmetry was a huge deal in Blake studies for a long time. I'd say this is probably his only Marvel appearance but I think Vivisector miiiight be shown reading a book of his in X-Statix.