Issue(s): Defenders #89, Defenders #90, Defenders #91
Cover Date: Nov 80 - Jan 81
Title: "A death in the family! / Suburban nightmare" / "Mind over Mandrill!" / "Defiance"
Credits:
Ed Hannigan - Writer
Don Perlin - Penciler
Pablo Marcos - Inker

Review/plot:
Kyle's apartment gets possessed by the IRS. And Patsy is informed that her mother has died. The upside of that is the Defenders can move into Patsy's mom's old house. And it's here that we learn that the Patsy Walker comics were fictionalized accounts of her life created by her mother. Note also the appearance of Millie the Model in the flashback.

Of course, super-heroes in the suburbs is a favorite theme of the Defenders. It's been a while, but these scenes make up for it:

Meanwhile, Daredevil gets captured by the Mandrills' Fem-Force.

Hellcat also gets captured while the other Defenders (Hulk & Valkyrie) are at court watching Kyle's defense against the IRS. Hellcat gets brainwashed and shows up at court with her shadow cloak and leading Fem-Force.

Nighthawk frees Daredevil...

...and un-brainwashes Hellcat but the Valkyrie gets brainwashed and she and the Mandrill get away.

After the attack in the courtroom is over, we've got a scene with all the super-heroes plus the captured members of Fem-Force lined up in front of the judge who tries to detain everyone.

I don't see how she, a judge presiding over a tax fraud case, would have any jurisdiction over a crime scene that has just occurred. But i guess i'm being nitpicky.

Mandrill heads to a nuclear plant where his mother and father work.

He attempts to cause it to go into meltdown but the Defenders show up and stop him, freeing Val. The Mandrill's mother shoots him, apparently killing him.

She says that his actions pretty much justify the feelings she had about him when she and her husband abandoned him. That may be putting effect before cause, and it's left an open question.

This is Ed Hannigan's last arc. The Defenders is a weird book, and Hannigan's run on it had the same type of inconsistency as David Anthony Krafts. The Tunnelworld arc was just terrible, and overall it wasn't a great run, but there were a lot of good moments. By contrast, J.M. DeMatteis' run will be much more consistent, but also more generic.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 3 - revelation about the Patsy Walker comics. First Dolly Donahue, a minor supporting character that would go on to remain an associate? housekeeper? for the Defenders even after Hellcat leaves the team.

Chronological Placement Considerations: This arc starts with the Valkyrie carrying an unconscious Bruce Banner to Kyle's apartment. Dr. Strange only briefly appears in these issues, to lend Bruce Banner a (purple) suit.

References:

• Patsy asks Valkyrie to wear her old costume to Patsy's mom's funeral, because having a valkyrie at the funeral is almost like having an angel. Patsy saw Valhalla personally in Defenders #67-68.
  
• The Valkyrie is concerned that Kyle might have to go to jail. She knows how harrowing jail can be thanks to her own incarceration in Defenders #39.
  
• The prosecution brings up the fact that Nighthawk defied a court order to not engage in any super-heroics in Defenders #81-83.
  
• The prosecution also says that the stock fraud aspect of the case also involves the Shocker. It's an element i must have missed during the madness of Defenders #63.
  
• Clea magically transformed Valkyrie's costume in Defenders #47, so Clea has to transform it back.
  
• The Defenders faced the Mandrill's Fem-Force in Defenders #85.
  
• We get a little retrospective of Patsy's history, including the period where her mother commissioned the comics that depicted a fictional account of her teen years, and when she became Hellcat in Avengers #144.
  
• The Mandrill's origin was shown in Daredevil #110.
  
• Hellcat retrieves her Shadowcloak from Kyle's apartment despite it being locked up by the IRS. She gained her Shadowcloak in Defenders #58-60
  
• The Hulk remembers Daredevil from Daredevil #163. He remembers that DD fought the Hulk and then tried to help the Hulk, and that he thought DD was dead. On balance, he decides not to smash him.
  
• Mandrill tried to take over the White House in Daredevil #112.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Fuuny, Hulk has money when Valkyrie doesn't.

Of course the Hulk had money! He was a big TV star back then!

the Mandrill could team up with Purple man and be the skeeviest supervillain power combo.

Mandrill, Mesmerized, and the Purple Man are all rapists. Do you really want these guys to team up?

I meant Mesmero not Mesmerized. Stupid autocorrect.
By the way, Hulk + beans = YOU DON'T WANT TO BE IN THAT HOUSE!!

that was kind of implied when I called them skeevy.

Don Perlin apparently slipped the word shit into a panel from #89.

www.cbr.com/comic-book-urban-legends-revealed-70

I would not want to be in the house with the Hulk once those beans kicked in. That would be like the bean-eating scene in "Blazing Saddles" on steroids!

This is the issue that retcons that the Patsy Walker comics were fictionalized accounts of her life written by her mother.

Added some scans at the top of the entry about the Patsy "magazines". Thanks Michael.