Reading with White Tiger

Of all the Defenders for a Day, White Tiger had the most recognizable dialogue, as the hero often incorporated Spanish words into his speech. This pattern was similar to the way the villain Batroc used French, as evidenced when the characters fought one another in Defenders #63-64.

When White Tiger appeared in Spidey Super Stories, his use of Spanish served as an educational tool, with footnotes translating each Spanish word into English. This editorial decision was in keeping with the "Easy Reader" intentions for the series.

Footnotes in Spidey Super Stories #57 (March 1982) told young readers that señor was Spanish for mister and amigo was Spanish for friend.

Greenpeace

Public Service Announcements aren't commonplace in comic books, but an interlude from Defenders #75 read like a PSA for Greenpeace.

While walking along the shore of Long Island, Hulk spotted a beached whale. Muttering that he wanted to be left alone, the green goliath pulled the marooned animal back into the water, where it swam away safely. A footnote at the bottom of two panels contained the following message about Greanpeace, plus the organization's mailing address at the time.

*IF YOU WANT TO HELP THE WHALES, TOO   WRITE: GREANPEACE

That same whale later rescued Bruce Banner when he fell overboard a ship in Defenders #88. Dr. Banner suspected that the whale sensed that he and the Hulk were the same person and was responding perhaps out of gratitude.

The Defenders. Vol. 1. No. 88. October 1980. "Lord of the Whales." Ed Hannigan (writer), Don Perlin and Pablo Marcos (artists), Joe Rosen (letterer), George Roussos (colorist), Al Milgrom (editor), Jim Shooter (leader of the pack).

The Daring Defenders

During the 1970s, early adventures of the Defenders ran as reprints in Rampage, a weekly series published with a large-size format in the United Kingdom.

Rampage #5 (November 15, 1977), for instance, reprinted Defenders #4 along with an early issue of Nova.

Modifications to the original Defenders story were limited to changing the words armor and favor to the British spellings of armour and favour. Footnotes from Defenders #4 were updated in Rampage #5 to cite U.K. reprints rather than the U.S. comics where the stories first appeared. The original interior art reprinted in black-and-white.

Rampage covers ran in full-color with new text that regularly billed the non-team as the daring Defenders, whereas promotional material in the United States described the heroes as the dynamic Defenders. Although dynamic might describe the eclectic nature of the team, daring certainly sounds more heroic.

The Slayer

Politics took center stage when Captain America (Steve Rogers) and Nomad (Jack Monroe) faced the Slayer in Captain America #294.

Wearing Devil-Slayer's costume (stolen from Project: PEGASUS *), the Slayer was remarkably adept at using the mysterious Shadow Cloak to teleport and draw arsenal from other dimensions.

Yet this wasn't the real Devil-Slayer (Eric Payne). Defenders #110 had closed with an epilogue indicating that Devil-Slayer had turned himself into the authorities for crimes he'd previously committed.

Instead, it was David Cox, a conscientious objector who was brainwashed by super-villains into attacking the heroes. Even under this mental manipulation, the Slayer's deep-rooted principles as David Cox did not allow him to kill Nomad when given the chance.

With reflection, Captain America noted that becoming a pacifist can require more courage than choosing to fight. This was a perspective that Nomad hadn't considered.

* A government energy research center. (That's how the footnote within the issue identified the project, rather than spelling out Potential Energy Group/Alternate Sources/United States.)

Captain America. Vol. 1. No. 294. June 1984. "The Measure of a Man!" J. M. DeMatteis (writer), Paul Neary (penciler), Josef Rubinstein (inker), Diana Albers (letterer), Bob Sharen (colorist), Mark Grunewald (editor), Jim Shooter (editor-in-chief).

Through the Eyes of Agamotto

In place of the asterisks and footnotes traditionally found in comic book panels, Defenders (Volume 2) took a different approach to citations. Appearing on the letters page, a box titled Through the Eyes of Agamotto included reference information for certain issues. Some of the endnotes from that section appear below.

	Defenders #3 PAGE 16 Strategic Hazard Intervention/Espionage Logistics Directorate. Made you look!
	Defenders #4 PAGE 20 Attuma attacked in #2, the bum.
	Defenders #5 PAGE 12 The Headmen first appeared—as a group, at least—in DEFENDERS vol. 1 #21.

Missing in Action

At a time when the extraterrestrial Dire Wraiths became a matter of international concern, most costumed super-teams headquartered in the United States could not be reached for help. At the bottom of an image of the missing heroes (Rom #53), a footnote asked readers to turn to the Secret Wars limited series for details.

But not all of the heroes pictured as missing actually participated in the Secret Wars. The New Defenders, rather, were in the clutches of the Secret Empire while numerous other heroes were away during Secret Wars.

The same issue the New Defenders escaped from the Secret Empire, interestingly enough, they received official government clearance as a super-team (New Defenders #130). One can only imagine how the inability to reach the Fantastic Four, the Avengers, and the X-Men during a crisis time of might have factored into this decision.

New Defenders #130 and Rom #53 both had a cover date of April 1984. It's worth noting that Kitty Pryde (lower right) also was not involved in Secret Wars.

Tigra, the Were-Woman!

Greer Grant had been the costumed heroine known as Cat for only a short while when agents of HYDRA set out to kidnap Dr. Tumolo, the scientist responsible for giver her superhuman powers (Giant-Size Creatures #1). While protecting her mentor from HYDRA, Cat was shot in the back by a pistol that fired alpha radiation. The heroine was doomed to die unless she received help from a hidden society of Cat People. Combining science and magic, the Cat People cured Greer Grant by transforming her into Tigra. Back on the tails of HYDRA, she encountered Jack Russell in his alter ego as Werewolf by Night. Regarding the fur-coated female as a kindred spirit, the Werewolf helped Tigra. To stop the evil organization from learning the secrets of the Cat People, Dr. Tumolo exposed the agents of HYDRA to a modern dose of the Black Plague.

Within the issue, a column by editor Roy Thomas addressed how changes in the Comics Code beginning in 1971 now made room for werewolves and vampires, which were banned under the original version of code from 1954.

Roy Thomas ended the column with the following remarks concerning the billing of Tigra, the Were-Woman!

One final footnote: Yes, we know that the Germanic word "were" actually means "man"—so that the term "were-woman" is actually something of a misnomer. However, in everyday parlance, people have come to attach the prefix "were-" to something when they want to indicate an element of lycanthropy—so we've no real fear of being misunderstood. But, for those linguistic experts out there in Marvelland, we just had to et you know that we do read things besides comic-mags.

Honest, we do.

Giant-Size Creatures. Vol. 1. No. 1. July 1974. "Tigra, the Were-Woman!" Tony Isabella (writer), Don Perlin (artist), Vince Colletta (inker), Artie Simek (letterer), P. Goldberg (colorer), Roy Thomas (editor).

Footnote

Perhaps the most footnoted item in the history of comics has been the full title of the organization S.H.I.E.L.D. Traditionally, when a character would pronounce SHIELD as a word of dialogue, the footnote would spell out that the six letters stood for Supreme Headquarters International Espionage Law-Enforcement Division.

Defenders #9 turned the convention on its ear. Here, Dr. Strange stated the full name of the organization in a conversation with Nick Fury, and editor Mark Paniccia placed the acronym S.H.I.E.L.D. in a footnote.

A Fistful of Fury

A supporting character at various times throughout Defenders history, agent Nick Fury starred in his own back-up adventure in Defenders #54.

Taking place within S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters, the solo story found Nick Fury under attack by a group of his own Life Model Decoys, now dubbed the LMDs of Doom!

After battling several of the androids, Nick Fury discovered that the hooded figure commanding the LMDs was in fact yet another decoy of himself. Having apparently developed the capacity for independent thought, the malevolent android intended to kill the real Nick Fury, then take his place as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.*

* Supreme Headquarters, International Espionage, Law-Enforcement Division.

Defenders. Vol. 1. No. 54. December 1977. "Fury Times 5!" Scott Edelman (writer), Juan Ortiz (penciler), Bruce Patterson (inker), Howard Bender (letterer), Ken Klaczak (colorist), Archie Goodwin (editor).

The main story that issue, "A Study in Survival" by David Anthony Kraft, continued an ongoing saga against the Presence.