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Posted December 8, 2011 by Earl Maghirang in Comics
 
 

COMIC BOOK REVIEW: The Defenders #1

The Flipgeeks team reviewing The Defenders # 1 by Matt Fraction and Terry Dodson.

Earl’s Take

The new book by Matt Fraction and Dodson spins directly from the events of “Fear Itself”. Rather than focusing on the Serpent, we see the Hulk returning to America to seek the help of Doctor Strange in dealing with a new, evil menace.

And that menace’s name is Nul.

As a fan of Matt Fraction’s Marvel work (from the X-Men all the way to his Iron Man work) I found this book to be different from the standard Fraction work. Its a light hearted book but at the same time deals with the more sinister parts of the Marvel universe. A CBR review was right in calling this the “Justice League International” for Marvel. It’s got humor and heart and certainly a lot of muscle to boot.

It’s too early to say if the book has a staying power because as early as now we still very little clue about the mission statement of this new team. What we do know about this is that they are going to be fighting menaces that should be kept under wraps. Think of “Uncanny X-Force” or “Secret Avengers” but on a universal scale.

In a way I would call this as Marvel’s way of emulating last September’s Justice League # 1 in the sense that it takes a page or two before a cool introduction for each character. Yes, its slow but given that its Terry Dodson who’s working on this project, its kinda okay.

There are some plot elements that I couldn’t wrap my finger around and left me scratching my head. I mean, at the opening were seeing the Hulk’s hulk but by the end of the first issue, a member of the new team gets taken down by a completely different character.

While that was a minor bummer, the sillier and impossible parts of the book was really cool such as Iron Fist developing his own fighting style while in zero gravity which is later dubbed as “zero g kung-fu”.

Overall, its a fun romp. If you’re starting to tire of reading X-Books or Avengers related stuff from Marvel, then The Defenders must be your cup of tea.

Norby’s Take:

I miss him wearing the cape… Doctor Strange oin Sorcerer’s Supereme cape that is. However, I haven’t read any Defenders stories yet, but their reputation are well known. Reading Defenders #1 was a fun and nice read.

Matt Fraction’s individual monologues of the new Defenders cast: Doctor Strange, Iron Fist, Red She-Hulk, Silver Surfer and Namor, were a good way to introduce each member to the reader. Yet from his entertaining and hypnotic words, the plot seemed ridiculous. Terry Dodson did a pretty looking book. But, there are some slight mishaps here and there. This scope of comic fits with his style.

With my negativity aside, Defenders #1 is a nice book and hopefully in the next couple of issues, the plots and next future arcs get better and better.

You might want to order your copy HERE
The comic book used for this review was sponsored by:


Earl Maghirang