Defensor

Defensor was never a Defender but his similar-sounding name warrants attention. The shield-bearing hero first appeared in Contest of Champions #1, which gathered superheroes from across the globe. During that challenge, Defensor fought alongside She-Hulk and Captain Britain on the side of the Grandmaster. Although Defensor was shown in Argentina immediately before the contest began, he revealed his secret identity as Gabriel Carlos Dantes Sepulveda, of Brazil (#2).

Later, heralding from South America rather than a specific nation, Defensor was among the countless heroes to celebrate amnesty for the Incredible Hulk (#279). But like several other international heroes from this period, Defensor was all but forgotten after this point.

This entry for Defensor originally appeared beside the entry for the Defenders in The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe. That entry told much more about Defensor's origin and weapons than his comic book appearances ever revealed.

Angst-Ridden

Following a jaunt through some of the most absurd corners of the multiverse, She-Hulk and traveling companion Howard the Duck encountered a band of villains who originally battled the Defenders (Marvel Treasury #12).

Led by the mystical Dr. Angst, the reunited team of villains also included Tillie the Hun, Black Hole, Spanker, and Sitting Bullseye—but with updated costumes (Sensational She-Hulk #16-17).

Together, the obscure criminals sought to dominate the Insipiverse, a world of all-pervasive spiritual torpor, aesthetic monotony, and intellectual inertia.

She-Hulk and Howard foiled the plot.

Steve Gerber wrote The Sensational She-Hulk #16-17 (June-July 1990). Bryan Hitch pencilled those issues.

Postmortem Mall

In the midst of a near-death experience, She-Hulk found outside a 67-story-tall purgatory called the Postmoderm Mall (Sensational She-Hulk #53).

Touring this comedic afterlife with Bucky Barnes (Captain America's sidekick during World War II), She-Hulk spotted heroes and villains alike. Mimic retained the iconic powers of the original X-Men, which he had lost by the time of his apparent death (Incredible Hulk #161).

Several adversaries of the Defenders perviously targeted by the Scourge of the Underworld also occupied the entertainment complex, including Ringer, Miracle Man (now working in the mall as a hairstylist), and Melter (taking a fitness class along with Nighthawk, mourned in Defenders #107).

The Sensational She-Hulk. Vol. 2. No. 53. July 1993. "Death Becomes Her." Michael Eury (writer), Darren Auck (guest penciler), Mike DeCarlo (inker), Brad Joyce (letterer), Glynis Oliver (colorist), Renée Witterstaetter (editor), Tom DeFalco (editor in chief).

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).

Through the Shadow Cloak

As Hellcat tried persuading Valkyrie to go with her to a disco, an other-dimensional sorcerer named Lambert opened a magical portal to transport Hellcat from Earth to his homeworld by way of the Shadow Cloak (borrowed from Devil-Slayer in Defenders #60).

On a hunch that She-Hulk was key to saving his ever-shrinking world from obliteration, Lambert reinstated Hellcat's psionic abilities (lost when Moondragon absorbed Hellcat's psionic energy to replenish her own strength in Defenders #77) and convinced Hellcat to use the Shadow Cloak to bring the green heroine into his realm (Savage She-Hulk #13-14).

But Lambert's subatomic universe now metaphysically existed within She-Hulk's own bloodstream, so summoning She-Hulk left her trapped within a paradoxical vortex. There she encountered Man-Wolf (Stargod of the other realm) and eventually used his mystical gem to save the dying world—and return both herself and Hellcat safely to Earth.

Hellcat invited She-Hulk to join the Defenders, but she declined membership at that time. As for Valkyrie, she eventually accompanied Hellcat to see disco singer Dazzler.

The Savage She-Hulk. Vol. 1. No. 13. February 1981. "Through the Crystal!" David Anthony Kraft (writer), Mike Vosburg & Frank Springer (artists), Michael P. Higgins (letterer), Carl Gafford (colorist), Jo Duffy (editor), J. Shooter (ed-in-chief).

The Savage She-Hulk. Vol. 1. No. 14. March 1981. "Life in the Bloodstream." David Anthony Kraft (story), Mike Vosburg & Frank Springer (art), Michael Higgins (letterer), Carl Gafford (colorist), Mary Jo Duffy (editor), Jim Shooter (editor-in-chief).

Runners-Up

The monthly calendars that ran on the back covers of Marvel Age magazine often pictured comic book characters in the squares for holidays—along with many in-jokes.

As a call back to his unsuccessful presidential campaign in 1976, Howard the Duck appeared in the Election Day square for November 6, 1985.

The content in other squares was often random. Meet the Hulks… on November 23, 1985, pictured the Incredible Hulk, She-Hulk (Jennifer Walters), Xemnu (a recurring foe of the Defenders), wrestler Hulk Hogan, and a fifth character who I do not recognize as a "Hulk" from that era.

His and Hers

A curse from the evil wizard Yandroth that compelled Silver Surfer, Sub-Mariner, Hulk, and Dr. Strange to band together later accentuated the most intimidating aspects of their personalities. Instead of protecting humanity, the four heroes set out to impose their own brand of tyranny as The Order, the title of a six-issue limited series packaged with Defenders (Volume 2).

Dressing the part, Sub-Mariner brought back his jacketed threads from Super-Villain Team-Up, and Dr. Strange returned to the masked costume he wore shortly before forming the original Defenders.

Appropriately enough, the gray-skinned Hulk appeared in The Order #1-4. Yet his hedonism proved so bothersome that Dr. Strange magically transformed Hulk into the green goliath who fought alongside the original Defenders. But when that brutish Hulk rejected the world-conquering ideals of the Order, Dr. Strange turned him into the "Professor" Hulk with the intelligence of Bruce Banner.

Perhaps because Yandroth had once taken the form of a woman (Defenders #119), removing the curse required a female analogue to each member of the Order.

To this end, Nighthawk, Hellcat, and Valkyrie (Samantha Parryington) sought help from Namorita and She-Hulk (cousins of Sub-Mariner and Bruce Banner), along with Clea, who leveraged a magical attack that caused Silver Surfer to "bleed" light, which took the form of a new cosmic heroine called Ardina (The Order #4).

Accompanying the Defenders on their quest to stop the Order was Dr. Christopher Ganyrog, Scientist Supreme on Yandroth's homeworld of Yann, located in the system of Geulischwarz (The Order #5). Furthering the theme of female characters derived from males, Ganyrog referred to his adventuring partner as Romantic Objective Pamela.

Jo Duffy and Kurt Busiek wrote The Order #1-6 (April-September 2002).

No Laughing Matter

Compared with other heroes, the Defenders acquired a particularly unusual rogues' gallery. So when Jennifer Walters landed her own comedic series as The Sensational She-Hulk, she inherited some of the non-team's earliest enemies.

With Chondu the Mystic still upset with the new body he received in Defenders #35, the other members of the Headmen surprised their teammate yet again—this time by attaching his head to a cloned body of She-Hulk from the neck down (Sensational She-Hulk #1-3).

She-Hulk also faced Xemnu the Titan, who resurfaced with a new set of schemes to repopulate his home planet, including an experiment to transmogrify the green heroine into his bride (#11).

Be it comedy or tragedy, in a misbegotten effort to subsume the Defenders brand into the Fifty States Initiative, Iron Man recruited Nighthawk, Colossus, She-Hulk, and Blazing Skull into his own federally-sanctioned vision of the team, headquartered out of New Jersey (Last Defenders #1).

Disappointed by his handpicked heroes after only one mission, Iron Man disassembled this version of the Defenders part-way into the six-issue limited series.

On a deeper level, Iron Man had a hard time coming to terms with the original concept of the Defenders. The non-team had long succeeded in making a home for Jennifer Walter's cousin Bruce Banner in a way the Avengers never could (Incredible Hulk #279).

Yet whatever misgivings Iron Man may have had, he the not have the "last" word on the fate of the Defenders.

The Marvel Mediumweights

Two years before The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe stated precisely how much each character could lift/press, Amazing Spider-Man Annual #15 (1981) included a lighthearted back-up feature ranking many popular heroes by their physical strength.

Here's a list of the characters who fell at Spider-Man's strength level and below, along with some of their retorts to the web-slinger. It wouldn't take long for Marvel to establish that Colossus and She-Hulk truly belonged among the Heavyweights.

SUPER-MEDIUMWEIGHTS
Colossus: I am still a teenager, Tovarisch. You wait until I am grown.
Ghost Rider: Blazes to you all!
Giant-Man/Black Goliath: I may not be the strongest hero in town, but I am the biggest.
Power Man: Jiminy Christmas--I've got better things to do than stand around posin' with these turkeys.
She-Hulk: Wait until you know me better, Spider-Man. You'll change your mind about my power.
Silver Surfer: I need not rely on super brute strength, for mine is the power cosmic.
Spider-Man: This is my strength class folks.
Valkyrie: I am the foremost warrior-goddess of Asgard--and you presume to mock my might by ranking me here?

MEDIUMWEIGHTS
Aquarian: The greatest strength of all is the strength to refrain from violence.
Beast: (looking at Spider-Woman) Hubba-Hubba.
Captain Britain: As the embodiment of the fighting spirit of ancient Britain, my power is many times human level.
Nighthawk: By night I'm twice as strong as any human--by day, I'm an invalid.
Spider-Woman: Spider-Man, you have some nerve putting me in a class beneath yours.
Tigra: I'll show you my strength if you'll show me yours.
Werewolf by Night: Grrrr.

A final category included heroes at peak-human strength: Black Panther, Captain America, Daredevil, Falcon, Hawkeye, Iron Fist, Ka-Zar, Moon Knight, Shroud, Wolverine, and Ant-Man (Scott Lang).

This back-up feature carried the title: "Just How Strong Is … Spider-Man?" Script and Layouts: Mark Gruenwald.