Defenders 92 “Eternity...Humanity...Oblivion!” So, Defenders #92 becomes the first regular superhero series assignment for John Marc DeMatteis, who had taken over Conan The Barbarian for a few issues. J.M. went on to write ‘Kraven’s Last Hunt,’ script the wildly-popular and hilarious Justice League series starting in ‘87, and pen many original, thoughtful tales, from his novice Marvel Team-Up efforts to this year’s Augusta Wind: The Last Story series for IDW Publishing (where novice me joins the ranks of pro comics writers with Hero Duty). He’s written cartoons like Justice League Unlimited, Teen Titans Go!, and somber comics like Mercy, one of the first Vertigo Comics, and Savior 28. And I do believe I saw his son Cody’s name in the credits for Rick and Morty last night, a William St. Production Manager. J.M. took over for Ed Hannigan, whose last story in #91 was probably my favorite from his run, along with the intriguing ‘Inquest’ from #87. Ed’s tale involved nuclear pow...

Here's an exercise I'm personally using to open up a new storytelling idea, to help me try to give Integr8d Soul Comics at least one title that appeals to superhero fan? I think, in playing this game, Joe and I have uncovered a lot of cool ideas that just maybe await our own unique characters of our own creation? Continuing our creative brainstorm re: the Mystic Order of the Defenders C Lue's reply to Devil Slayer Joe (see previous posts): 1. Those cult assassins sometimes double cross one another if they cross paths, and sometimes they work in tandem. You could introduce, one by one, a potential team of them. The Devil Slayer Revenge Squad would be a combination of altered cult members, trained Agents of Fortune, who are the materializers; Agents of Death, the assassins, and demons in human form for the possibility of infiltrating human society...like, say, masquerading as the richest man in the world, and controlling Mexico's telecommunications. Masquerading ...

Braband/ Disharoon Defenders of the Order Mystic I sent my Defenders fan friend Joe some rough ideas for re-vamping one of his favorite comics, complete with the obscure Devil-Slayer as the enigmatic team leader and Sif, fresh from the new THOR movie. I gave him my list of characters and some ideas, and quickly he shot back a plot for the fresh start. When I saw how the after effects of the Illuminati/ Hulk struggle might spell the end of the traditional Defenders, even as Nighthawk tries to reassemble a team, I recognized plenty of big guns to kick off at least the first issue, where we assemble Nighthawk and Hellcat before Devil-Slayer arrives needing help (possibly testing them to see that they are who they say). He may at this point bring in Sif, as well. I told Joe: “Your plot to assemble the non-team is perfect. I'll contribute what I can, but the first story seems like your show!” (I do have a villainous cat’s paw in mind from my own creations, but basically the ...

I was wrapping around my head around nuggets such as this, from objective reductionist theory (OR). For some reason, reading this caused a second train of thought in my mind to record an interesting insight, though I can't reasonably explain how, just some similar terminology. Quoth Stuart Hameroff: Every superposition is considered a separation in the underlying structure of spacetime, or fabric of the universe, with each branch of the separation evolving separately—resulting in two different universes. The universe divides like a living cell into two nearly identical copies. Roger (Penrose) agreed that superpositions are indeed separations in the underlying spacetime fabric, or geometry of the universe. He pointed out that Einstein’s general relativity meant that matter was equivalent to curvature in spacetime, so that a particle in two places is the same as simultaneous spacetime curvatures in opposite directions—a bubble in the underlying fabric of reality. But in Roger’s view...

These details remain from #31: they begin and continue subplots . What I forgot to mention was that the Hulk befriends a deer and its fawn. Two hunters shoot the deer. "Men shoot Bambi's mother!! says the very, very angry Hulk. Run as they might, these men are born to fly...from the hands of the Hulk. But what, now, will he do with the fawn, "Bambi"? He decides Magician will know what to do. He takes the fawn under his arm and bounds towards New York, Greenwich Village, to see Dr. Strange and co. Jack and Val try a date at the carnival, just like in the old days, before he talked Barbara into joining the cult of the Undying Ones, and before she became host to the spirit of the ancient Valkyrie, Brunhilde. He tries to impress her with his shooting skills, but she really doesn't get why a man would win a stuffed bear for a woman. But after Jack tries the old hammer and bell strength attraction, Val decides to heft the mallet herself, to the jeers of the operator. W...

Sponsored by Integr8d Soul Productions, featuring DNA: The Mountain, drawn with crisp, clear story telling by Lue Lyron and the Marc Kane, with scenes and ideas you won't find anywhere else in entertainment!! The comic for those who don't read comics! Black and White, $3 plus shipping each. Available from C Lue Disharoon 542 6th Ave. San Diego, CA 92101 DEFENDERS #31 When you see any reference to Gerber’s Defenders, the words “Headmen Saga” almost always follow. The writer will: pick three hapless inhabitants of the same horror comic reprint that came out, summer of ’74. A cruel scientist named Arthur Nagan has his own head transplanted to a powerful gorilla body by his vengeful simian subjects; Jerry Morgan, the man attempting his own Pym Particles, shrinking his bones, but not his flesh; and finally, Chondu, a carnival mystic, recalled within these stories by Jack Norriss and his wife Barbara. “Remember? You said “chondu” was a good name for the fragrance of his perfo...

Aboard the Captain America, Jack Norriss has awakened, to wander the ship in thought, alone. He finds Doc stock-still, and begins loudly apologizing. Strange returns to his body, catches what he says; Jack offers his aid, and Stephen gives him a chance. They materialize in the midst of the com room invasion on Earth, where Nighthawk’s smacking Badoon in mid-rant while saying, “Oh Shut up! You all LOOK alike---you all talk alike----I’ve had it up to HERE with you!! Val notes Stephen’s arrival (not lost on Jack, who’s armed) as he paralyzes their opponents. As a team, Strange and Jack begin transporting from prison to prison freeing all 50 million remaining humans, who take arms in vengeance. From a parapet, Strange stops to ponder “the necessity of what I’ve done.” Jack points out “you could’ve zapped the Badoon off the face of the Earth all by yourself---why---?” Starhawk arrives to second Strange’s perception: “Freedom must be earned to be valued.” It gets weird. Starhawk s...

DEFENDERS #29 [IMG]http://i56.tinypic.com/2nb4nti.jpg[/IMG] Transported by a power beyond their knowledge from the Sisterhood Swamp World, Vance Astro and the Valkyrie arrive to find Nighthawk, Charlie-27 and Martinex about to die on World Cam as an example of the futility of revolution. No subtle maneuver occurs to Vance before using his psychokinesis to shatter Badoon weapons. Because he explains the shackle exhibit a mind-deadening principle that nullifies their powers, Valkyrie turns her efforts from the Badoon to the shackles. The team flees into reinforcements, frozen by Martinex; as they regroup, Nighthawk passes along the bad news: Doctor Strange is dead. Astral travel can leave a body that way, it seems; Doc’s actually speeding towards Hulk and Yondu’s location, where the Badoon have delivered them to the techno-drunkard world . Mon-tee, host of Super-Death Sweepstakes, sends the freshly-condemned blonde wife of Emperor Goozot and “Mr. Green” to a polar location, at whic...

“My Mother, the Badoon!” (My Mother, the Car, was just a bit before my time) It’s 3015 A.D.: we have Val and Vance Astro stranded with Starhawk on a weird swampworld; Hulk and Yondu marooned “on a planet of drunkards and robot slaves” and Doc trying to find them again so they can resume their liberation mission, just as they’re boarded by the Badoon. Between Marti’s fire and ice projection powers, Charlie-27’s ramrod approach (“with eleven times the mass of his Terran ancestors”) and Nighthawk’s darkness-doubled strength they show well against the Badoon and their mindless “Zoms,” human slaves, which is why the Guardians hold back their full force. But Nighthawk’s stunned and taken hostage; now the Badoon wish to be led to the power source, as Doc probes the likely planets, judging by suns and potentially-habitated planets. He detects a “solar-powered entity” and his friends, in the Capella system, second from the sun. The “One Who Knows” tells her to put away her sword or suffer f...

DEFENDERS #27 [IMG]http://i55.tinypic.com/2nh3ptj.jpg[/IMG] 27 “Three Worlds To Conquer!” Lord Droom of the Badoon Empire decides to wait until the orbiting Captain America ship teleports its payload to the Earth’s surface. As Doc Strange points out, Hulk’s a bit distrustful of technology; “he’s rarely seen it employed for his benefit.” Droom sends a ray “to bisect and deflect the four beams from the ‘Captain America’” and scatters the teleporting heroes away from Earth, “into the trackless void of sub-space.” Now the stowaway Jack Norriss rushes out upon hearing the bad news. “Where is she? Where’s Barabara?!” The answer: a pool of blood red water, amidst purple and gold vegetation, along with “the 1,000 year-old master of pschokinesis,” who figures from the two moons they’ve missed Earth. Now the webbed, hirsute hands reach forth: lizard creatures with no self-control drag Asto into the crimson mire. Valkyrie’s great strength allows her time to fight back, but this has the...

DEFENDERS #26 (spins out of Giant Size Defenders #5) “Savage Time” by Steve Gerber & Sal Buscema, with Vince Colletta The hours before day break find Jack Norriss and Barbara---whose mind is the Valkyrie’s---hashing out what to make of her body’s marriage to him before she became who she is now, as winds sweep the New Jersey Palisades. A kiss proves unwelcome. An earthquake gives her an opportunity to demonstrate the freakish powers now hers, which he fears, to save him with winged Aragon, her steed. Among parties interested in this unusual tectonic upheaval: the Defenders, who review the situation of the futuristic Guardians of the Galaxy, freshly time-crashed in the present, from an alien-invaded 3015 A.D. Their ship, the U.S.S. Captain America, needs repair. Nighthawk notes the weather’s “gone completely haywire” and Dr. Strange concludes “the only explanation can be the temporal displacement caused by our---visitors.” They are: Charlie-27, ultra-dense last survivor of a fu...

We begin with the fate of Son of Satan and Power Man after they vanished into that hole in the air. The splash of Defenders #25 shows Clea as she draws Hellstrom and Cage through the Crystal of Agamotto, to exit from Doc's amulet, before the hanging captive Defenders. Clea manages to make contact with Doc’s mind as he awakens. Cage frees Nighthawk, while the Soulfire Hellstrom ejects from his nethermetal trident frees Doc. Enter Yellow Jacket: “Nighthawk – what's going on here? I heard – what on Earth – ? You're free! But who – how – what?” As he points out, they have as many members as the Avengers, “maybe more”; not bad for a non-team! Doc’s still too weak to teleport them to the surface, but Cage and Hellstrom are aware of Valkyrie’s impending fate: to burn before the frightened masses. Yellowjacket’s analytical probing cannot yield what the inner whispers of Daimon Hellstrom’s intellect do. The Soulfire bursts forth upon the hidden mechanisms, and the platfo...

http://www.imwan.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=69590 Perhaps it’s intuition---or some side effect of the increasing ripple effect of the Transmetamorphosis changing the Earth---but the soldier’s aware of another presence suddenly arrived upon the seen. He has never heard of the blessing of the Vishanti, but across time and space, he is aware that heroes gather---perhaps to stop this change rocking the Earth with change, or perhaps, to make sense of it as chaos has its sway. Holt looks at Blancley, and now both see in their midst a dark stage, figures stabbing the darkness with the lights of their essences, though their bodies assemble from various places across time and space. To stand before such a door way is to immerse one’s self in facing the direction of all one’s fears, and sense, moving forward, your survival’s path, its methods. Now both soldiers become aware of aid, not only from the strange non-team of beings diving with Valkyrie into the perilous recesses of the sprea...

Defenders #23. Kyle reveals to Stephen that he'd met Holliman earlier that night: “He wanted to talk real estate with Kyle Richmond. I wasn't in the mood.” “Perhaps you should have listened more closely, Nighthawk. The forces of karma work in puzzling ways.” How very puzzling---as we’ll see! Whatever reasons drive Kyle to express his exceptionalism through his costumed identity, rather than his millionaire self with its connections, have as much to do with the limitations of a superhero story of the 70’s as the character trying to fit into one. The Defenders are much further from the answers for it. They head back to the Sanctum for tea and pondering---unaware of the remaining three Serpents spying on them. The Serpents, however, find a violent sting awaiting them through Yellowjacket, last seen in GS Defenders #4. Surreptitiously he’s skulked after them over the rooftops, and in a splash page smash he begins to take them down. The first two of them fall to wisecracks a...

DEFENDERS #22 Writer: Steve Gerber Art: Sal Buscema & Mike Esposito The Valkyrie---as Barbara Norriss---walks lost in thought about her recently discovered human identity, through the filthy lower Manhattan streets. Her reverie ends when she finds two men in a knife fight, which she disrupts. When they remain violent, she draws Dragonfang, hung invisibly at her side, triggering the appearance of her costume through a spell. Her speech to the fleeing men is interrupted by a scream, leading Valkyrie to charge into a tenement to investigate. There, a poor woman named Elena desperately tries to remove a huge rat from her baby's crib, which Val does with ease, swiftly. However, Elena's plight and bitterness trouble her, and compassionately, she takes the woman and child to Dr. Strange's Sanctorum. The upper East Side of Manhattan finds Kyle Richmond, a.k.a. Nighthawk, brooding at a fashionable party, still upset over his missing and badly injured former love Trish Starr, to ...