Issue(s): Defenders #70, Defenders #71, Defenders #72, Defenders #73, Defenders #74, Defenders #75
Cover Date: Apr-Sep 79
Title: "Catch a falling Lunatik!" / "Stranger and stranger in a strange land" / "Up from the sky!" / "Of wizards, shadows and kings" / "Fools rush in!" / "Poetic justice"
Credits:
Ed Hannigan - Writer
Herb Trimpe - Penciler
Mike Esposito / Jack Abel / Fred Kida / Mike Esposito / Steven Mitchell - Inker

Review/plot:
If the Xenogenesis arc was an incomprehensible mess, and the Everybody's a Defender storyline was an insult to the readers, and Val in Valhalla saga was a drag, these issues are the Voltron of the past Defenders plotlines, merging all of the badness of those stories into one awful plot.

I don't know what's going on here, and i don't really care. Lunatik, a zany street level vigilante type, turns out to be part of some mystical fantasy plotline that makes no sense (i've since learned that he is Arisen Tyrk, from Kraft's Man-Wolf story, but really, it doesn't make this story any better). The Defenders spend, oh i don't know, a hundred issues wandering around an alien dimension only to leave the major threat to that dimension up to the locals once their problems are solved.

Things get better when Hannigan focuses on more down-to-Earth plotlines involving Kyle Richmond getting in trouble for tax evasion and the Foolkiller showing up to kill the Defenders.

The end of this arc also sets up for the long promised resolution to Gerber's Omega the Unknown storyline.

Quality Rating: D+

Historical Significance Rating: 2

Chronological Placement Considerations: We know from Hulk #243 that the Hulk appearance here occurs after that issue and before Daredevil #163.

References:

• When Federal investigators show up at Richmond's estate, Nighthawk first assumes they are more civilians nosing around after Dollar Bill's documentary from Defenders #62.
  
• The investigators are interested in Kyle's tax evasion, stock manipulation, fraud, and his reported death from the Val in Valhalla story in Defenders #67.
  
• Kyle was previously investigated and cleared of similar charges in Defenders #25.
  
• Lunatik easily evaded the Defenders the last time they tried to capture him in Defenders #61.
  
• Lunatik's world was previously depicted in Marvel Premiere #45-46.
  
• Hellcat tries to "find a way to save the day, like when [she] beat Vera Gemini in Defenders #60.
  
• The Lunatiks pay special attention to Hellcat because of her mysterious mental powers, which she was shown to have received from Moondragon in Defenders #44.
  
• The original Foolkiller appeared in Man-Thing #3-4. This Foolkiller took on the role in Omega the Unknown #8-9.
  
• In issue #75, the Hulk helps a beached whale, and a footnote says that if you want to help whales too, you should write to Greenpeace, and gives the address. Not really a reference, but i thought that oddity was worth mentioning.
  

• Hellcat is happy that her shadow-cloak, acquired during the storyline from Defenders #58-60, wasn't burnt in the fire that got set during the fight with Foolkiller.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

The title to #72 references Robert Heinlein's novel "Stranger In A Strange Land", and #73 refers to the song "Up From The Skies" from Jimi Hendrix's "Axis:Bold As Love" album.

Ed Hannigan later stated he quit the book because of low sales and everybody hating his work.