Fantastic Treasury

The first comic book I remember perusing was Marvel Treasury Edition #2 (1974). It must have been a gift from my parents. Starring the fabulous Fantastic Four, the oversized publication reprinted the team's early encounters with Dr. Doom, Sub-Mariner, the Impossible Man, Silver Surfer, Galactus, and the Watcher. I was just starting to read at the time, however, and had a hard following the stories collected inside. Even so, the visuals introduced me to some science fiction themes and two foundational members of the Defenders.

Star Jaws

Spidey Super Stories #31 paid homage to the 1977 film Star Wars by retelling the story with an unlikely cast of characters drawn from various media.

In this version, Dr. Doom held Moon Dragon captive aboard a space station called Star Jaws. Moon Dragon's robot companion SAM (a recurring character from Sesame Street) escaped in a rocket ship to Earth, where he enlisted the help of Spider-Man and Marvel Boy (a hero originally from the 1950s).

Once rescued, Moon Dragon used her Mind Force (or Force for short) to create an illusion that tricked the Star Jaws space station to swallow one million tons of T.N.T. instead of engulfing the Earth.

Spidey Super Stories. Vol. 1. No. 31. February 1978. "Star Jaws." Kolfax Mingo (writer), Winslow Mortimer (pencils), Mike Esposito (inker), A.J. Hays / Julie Mishkin (editors), David Kraft (consulting Marvel editor), John Romita (art director).

Though a number of villains from the live-action Spider-Man segments of The Electric Company would appear in Spidey Super Stories, the comic book series did not have inherent ties to Sesame Street, making SAM an anomaly. This image of SAM (short for Super Automated Robot) comes from an early episode of Sesame Street.

The Mighty Defenders

The multiverse was destroyed!

The heroes of Earth-616 and Earth-1610 were powerless to save it!

Now, all that remains is Battleworld!

A massive, patchwork planet composed of the fragments of worlds that no longer exist, maintained by the iron will of its god and master, Victor von Doom!

Each region is a domain unto itself!

Something was amiss in Yinsen City well before a costumed figure called Captain Britain illegally entered the walled metropolis. Like Captain Britain (Dr. Faiza Hussain), the Defenders who protected that domain had vivid dreams that they were in fact following in the footsteps of deceased heroes (Captain Britain and the Mighty Defenders #1).

Spider Hero (Hobie Brown), for example, had a vision that he gave up his pervious guise as the Prowler following the death of the original Spider-Man (Peter Parker).

Rescue (Ho Yinsen, baron of the city), dreamt that he had invented his suit of technological armor with a dying Tony Stark. (In the original Marvel continuity, it was Yinsen who died after helping Stark build his Iron Man armor in Tales of Suspense #39.)

Other Defenders in this timeline included Kid Rescue (Antonia Yinsen, the baron's daughter), White Tiger (Ava Ayala), and She-Hulk (Jennifer Walters). Also the Thor if this domain, She-Hulk carried a gavel instead of a hammer (suggesting her former career as an attorney).

As an aside, Prowler and the original White Tiger (Hector Ayala) were both Defenders for a Day.

Captain Britain and the Mighty Defenders. No. 1. September 2015. "Theres Is a Land with a Wall Around It …" Al Ewing (writer), Alan Davis (penciler), Mark Farmer (inker), Wil Quintana (colorist).

Beware the Over-Mind

Breaking his oath of noninterference, Uatu the Watcher warned the Fantastic Four of the impending threat of Over-Mind (Fantastic Four #113).

The Watcher later described how Grom, champion warrior among the extraterrestrial Eternals, underwent a scientific procedure long ago to gain the mind power of one billion people and become the evil Over-Mind (#115).

Soon after arriving on Earth, Over-Mind telepathically coerced Mr. Fantastic to turn against his teammates before they could formulate a plan to stop Over-Mind's wave of destruction.

Intent on conquering the world himself, Dr. Doom became an unlikely ally to the remaining members of the Fantastic Four. Yet even the psionic-refractor that Dr. Doom invented did little to halt Over-Mind.

A form of deus ex machina occurred with the arrival of the mysterious Stranger. A composite being from the planet Gigantus, whose ancient inhabitants were enemies of the Eternals, the Stranger had power enough to shrink down and imprison Over-Mind within a mote of dust (#116).

Archie Goodwin wrote Fantastic Four #113-116. John Buscema pencilled those issues.

The Defenders Remembered

When dangerous radiation levels mysteriously contaminated parts of the ocean, Prince Namor returned to the Earth's surface to seek help from scientific genius Reed Richards (a.k.a. Mr. Fantastic). But the preoccupied Atlantean wasn't quite himself. Although he recognized Hulk when they crossed paths on the street, only after a memory-jogging conversation with Nighthawk did Namor recall that he had once been a member of the Defenders and agree to accept their assistance instead (Defenders #52).

The Defenders last saw the Prince of Atlantis when he came to the aid of Nighthawk in Giant-Size Defenders #3. But what had he been doing ever since?

During that interim, Giant-Size Super-Villain Team-Up #1-2 and Super-Villain Team-Up #1-13 featured the unlikely pairing of Prince Namor and Dr. Doom, ruler of Latveria. Reasoning that he needed the help of another monarch to successfully overthrow the rest of the world, Dr. Doom had tried to both entice and coerce Prince Namor in assisting him.

The Age of Doom

When read outside the Age of Ultron crossover event, the Fearless Defenders tie-in issue held up as a stand-alone story just the same—with the heroes in an alternate reality addressing the threat of Dr. Doom.

Even in the company of Hippolyta (a.k.a. Warrior Woman), the Defenders in this divergent timeline had little connection to the all-female team appearing regularly in the Fearless Defenders series. Instead, the Defenders featured in this issue were Hulk, Wolverine, and Colonel America (Captain America with an eyepatch).

Fearless Defenders. No. 4AU. July 2013. On the cover, Hippolyta held up a decapitated Doombot, not the head of the real Dr. Doom. The pages inside revealed that Dr. Doom was the father of criminal mastermind Carolyn Le Fay. Her mother was legendary sorceress Morgan Le Fay.