Issue(s): Defenders #41
Cover Date: Nov 76
Title: "Intruder in the sand!"
Credits:
Steve Gerber - Writer
Sal Buscema - Penciler
Klaus Janson - Inker

Review/plot:
This is Steve Gerber's last issue, which is a shame. As such, it's a standalone issue that doesn't deal much with subplots or anything interesting. Dr. Strange and Nighthawk go to a desert commune to investigate the disappearance of Nighthawk's old girlfriend Trish Starr.

It turns out that she's been kidnapped by an old Dr. Strange foe named Shazana.

Clea teleports in the rest of the Defenders, including the Hulk...

...and they easily dispatch the sorceress and her minions.

This may have been an inventory issue that was pulled out now that Gerber is quitting. Defenders annual #1 ought to be viewed as the real conclusion to his run.

It's not the first time they've been paired up, but the Buscema/Janson art team is a bit of a mismatch.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: Placing this after Defenders annual #1 based on its relatively context free plot and the fact that the Hulk seems to be a regular member of the team again.

References:

• Shazana previously appeared in Strange Tales #133.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

When I first started reading Marvel regularly was right at the Trial of Hank Pym, and with Trish Starr appearing a lot, and a lot of her back story given in Avengers #217, it's interesting that I never once realized that she had been Nighthawk's love for a while.

I haven't asked if this was, in fact, an inventory story-it doesn't quite feel like a wrap-up of Steve's attempts to work with Kyle's character. I love the offbeat touches of real life, especially from the counter culture- those observations define all the best Defenders stories. This time through, Trish's friend "David Anthony" sticks out to me as an affectionate cameo of Gerber's friend, DAK. He even takes a dig at DAK's love of gab.
Trish reminds me of a character we've been trying to launch properly since 2006. Fashion model tied to communes and mystic powers- a kind of synchronicity made me shiver when I finally read this one in '09!
Trish Starr was the kind of character that really made the Marvel Universe seem textured and vaguely realistic in those days.

In the introduction to the Marvel Masterworks volume collecting Gerber's last Defenders work, Stuart Moore suggests that this story was intended for the annual but was compressed here, and that the Headmen/Nebulon stuff was intended to last a few more issues. Notably, a few plot ideas in the Annual -- ruby Thursday running for president, the mysterious disappearances in India -- show up with minimal setup.

At a guess, this is another case like Englehart's Avengers where Gerry Conway pushed off the creative team to make himself the writer, but then vanished within an issue or two.

I was just reading that same Masterworks volume, & Moore says that Gerber was removed due to editorial politics. Sean Howe's book says this was to fill Conway's quota of books.

A real shame, this is one of my favourite runs of the '70s, so it's a pity the end of it was mangled, rather than at least letting him finish off that story properly.