Leadership Leanings

Before he began vying to lead the Defenders, Beast gained some practical experience in X-Men #137. During a showdown against the Imperial Guard, the mutant heroes split into two teams, with Beast leading Colossus, Storm and Wolverine. While Beast had demonstrated his ingenuity on plenty of occasions, this may have been his first time acting as a group leader.

Introduced in X-Men #107, the initial Imperial Guard consisted of thinly veiled stand-ins for the Legion of Superheroes from DC Comics. Not until #137 did the Imperial Guard add a handful of unique members.

This panel from X-Men #137 (Sept. 1980) shows the mutants' first encounter with Warstar, a symbiotic addition to the Imperial Guard.

Defenders: Apocalypse

What if? X-Men Age of Apocalypse #1 brought solo adventurers and the surviving members of other super teams into a new version of the Defenders. When leading these heroes into battle against the forces of Apocalypse, Captain America (Steve Rogers) cried out, "Defenders Assemble!"—borrowing from the historic catch phrase for the Avengers.

Brother Voodoo (Jericho Drumm), a secondary character throughout most of his career, replaced Dr. Strange as the Sorcerer Supreme of this alternate reality. In retrospect, it's surprising that the mystical hero had never joined forces with the Defenders until this point.

The most ironic addition to the apocalyptic Defenders was Sauron (Karl Lykos), a long-time foe of the X-Men. A mutant with the power to transform into a vampiric pterosaur, Sauron deliberately lifted the name of an evil wizard from J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.

The Defenders in this story also included Captain Britain (Brian Braddock), Colossus, Thing, Wolverine, and the otherwise villainous Molecule Man.

What If? X-Men Age of Apocalypse. No. 1. February 2007. Rick Remender (writer), Dave Wilkins (artist), Anthony Washington (colorist), Nate Piekos (letterer), Marko Djurdjevic (cover artist), Brad Johansen (production), Nathan Cosby (assistant editor), Mark Paniccia (editor), Joe Quesada (editor in chief), Dan Buckley (publisher).

The above image of Sauron comes from X-Men #60 (September 1969).

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.

Who's the Strongest of Them All?

When an extraterrestrial boxing champ wanted to go one-on-one against the super-strongmen of Earth, the competition that ensued told as much about the heroes' personalities as it did about their powers (Marvel Two-In-One Annual #7).

During the training period before the first match, Doc Samson was eliminated for lacking the stamina of the rest. Immediately afterward, the Prince of Atlantis announced that he would not participate in the competition. A coincidence? I think not.

Since the early days of Marvel Comics, Sub-Mariner was heralded as the strongest man of the sea. In this case, Namor's uncooperativeness may have spared him the embarrassment of being deemed too weak to compete on dry land, without a nearby water supply to replenish his strength against the alien Champion.

Usually described as the strongest man on Earth, with his strength increasing with rage, the Hulk was expelled for precarious reasons.

Hulk: Hulk hates puny alien! Hulk smash.

Champion: No! I shall not waste my time on a mindless brute!

In other words, the Champion wouldn't fight the Hulk because the Hulk could have won. Thor, meanwhile, was disqualified for using his hammer during his boxing match.

Sasquatch, Colossus, and Wonder Man each fared reasonably well, but Thing ultimately held out the longest against the Champion.

The Avengers, Fantastic Four, and X-Men made guest appearances this issue. Even with Hulk and Sub-Mariner summoned into the competition, the rest of the Defenders did not guest star. As a non-team, they sometimes were overlooked.

Marvel Two-In-One Annual 7. 1982. "And They Shall Call Him … Champion!" Tom DeFalco (script), Ron Wilson (pencils), Camp, Esposito, Giacoia, Green, Gil, and Stone (inkers), Jim Novak (letters), George Roussos (colors), Jim Salicrup (editor), Jim Shooter (referee).