Issue(s): Defenders #65
Cover Date: Nov 78
Title: "Of ambitions and giant amoebas"
Credits:
David Anthony Kraft - Writer
Don Perlin - Penciler
Bruce D. Patterson - Inker

Review/plot:
The majority of this issue is about the Red Guardian and the Presence fighting a giant amoeba.

After they defeat it they decide to live together in the amoeba's old stomping grounds.

For the main cast of the Defenders, it's basically a downtime issue. The Valkyrie is continuing to have berserker-like rage issues (this started during the last arc, but that story was too wacky to know for sure that this was a legitimate problem).

She takes off alone at the end of this issue.

Hellcat responds to an invitation to visit Millie the Model.

Millie is now the head of her own corporation. Hellcat - formerly Patsy Walker, remember - is offered a job as a model. She doesn't entirely refuse.

After last issue's terrible story, i have to confess i only really skimmed this in my first reading, and then just scanned it over again briefly for this review. That last arc really turned me off to this series; if Kraft isn't taking this 'seriously', why should i?

The reprint also includes Millie the Model #100 (Jan 61) by Stan Lee & Stan Goldberg. Oddly, it doesn't include the times when Millie met Patsy, but instead includes the story of how Millie first met her rival from her own book, Chillie. The Millie stories are actually quite entertaining, especially compared to the Defenders issue.

Police lieutenant Kris Keating, who appeared previously in Defenders #44-46, appears in this story as well..

Quality Rating: D+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: This issue starts in the aftermath of the last arc, with a few of the temporary Defenders and villains still milling about. None of those characters (Hercules, Blob, Gemini, Porcupine, Havok) should appear in between these Defenders entries.

References:

• A footnote informs us that the Red Guardian's story can be found in Defenders #35 through Defenders #56.
  
• Aragorn received a wound from Lunatik in Defenders #60, but it is healing well.
  
• The Presence has more trouble with the amoeba than he did with the sea monster from Defenders #55 because it eats atomic energy.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Marvel Millie-Stones: Millie the Model and Patsy Walker