Merge:Defenders

The Defenders are a Marvel Comics superhero group - usually presented as a "non-team" of individualistic "outsiders" each known for following their own agendas - that usually battles mystic and supernatural threats.

Its original and most popular incarnation is led by Doctor Strange and also includes The Silver Surfer, Namor the Submariner, and the Hulk, all popular superheroes in their own right. They first appeared as The Defenders in Marvel Feature #1 (December 1971).

The group was featured in a series with a rotating line-up from 1972 until 1986, retitled near the end of the run as The New Defenders and featuring none of the original line-up. The concept was modified in the 1993-95 series Secret Defenders, in which Dr. Strange assembled teams on a single mission basis. Marvel recently published a new miniseries featuring the classic line-up.

History
Two members of the Defenders, the Hulk and Namor the Sub-Mariner, appeared in two crossover story arcs prior to the official founding of the team. The first, (in Doctor Strange #183 (November 1969), Sub-Mariner #22 (February 1970), and The Incredible Hulk #126 (April 1970)) also featured Doctor Strange, with each individual future Defender drawn together to protect the earth from invasion by Lovecraftian inter-planar beings known as the Undying Ones. In the second arc, (featured in Sub-Mariner #34 and #35, February and March 1971), Namor enlists the aid of the Silver Surfer and the Hulk to stop a potentially devastating weather control experiment (and to inadvertently free a small island nation from a dictator).

The Defenders first appeared as a team in Marvel Feature #1 (December, 1971), where the founding members gathered to battle the alien techno-wizard Yandroth and decided to remain as a team.

The best-known and most prominent members of the Defenders are Doctor Strange, the Hulk, Namor the Sub-Mariner, the Silver Surfer, Nighthawk, Valkyrie, and Hellcat. Though the team was founded by Strange, Namor, and the Hulk, the others are generally considered to be core members of the team. A large number of other heroes worked alongside the team in its original incarnation, with a number becoming "official" members. Other notable members include Devil-Slayer, Son of Satan, Clea, Moondragon, the Gargoyle, the Beast, Iceman, and The Angel.

As of issue #125, Defenders was retitled to New Defenders as the "big four" (Doctor Strange, The Silver Surfer, The Hulk and Namor) were forced to leave the team. This was the result of an alien prophecy that stated that these four, operating as a group, would be responsible for destroying the world. (It was later revealed that the prophecy had been falsified.) The remaining group of Defenders finally disbanded in New Defenders #152, as a number of the members had apparently died and several others left the team to join X-Factor. Several of these seemingly-deceased members later returned as the mystical Dragon Circle. This team only appeared once, in issues #3-4 of the relaunched Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme series.

Several years later, Doctor Strange organized a new "team" called the Secret Defenders, whose membership varied for each mission. A number of then-popular heroes appeared in this series; the first group organized consisted of the membership of "New Fantastic Four" (Spider-Man, Wolverine, the Hulk and Ghost Rider), who battled the Human Torch in Fantastic Four #374-375. The supervillain Thanos also organized a team of "Secret Defenders" during this period, though that team had nothing to do with Strange's group. Eventually, leadership of the Secret Defenders passed to Doctor Druid, who faked his own death in Secret Defenders #25, the series' last issue.

The Defenders briefly reunited in Defenders (volume 2) #1-12, in which Yandroth manipulated Gaia into "cursing" the primary four Defenders (Doctor Strange, the Sub-Mariner, the Hulk and the Silver Surfer) so that they would be summoned to major crisis situations. These members were then mind controlled by Yandroth into forming the world-dominating "Order"; once the Order were freed from this control by their fellow heroes (including their teammates Hellcat, Nighthawk and Valkyrie), the Defenders apparently disbanded. A Defenders five-issue miniseries debuted in July 2005, by Keith Giffen, J. M. DeMatteis and Kevin Maguire (as a team, best known for their work on DC's Justice League), featuring Doctor Strange attempting to reunite the original four Defenders to battle Dormammu and Umar. This series focuses mostly on humor as the characters spend most of their time arguing with and criticizing one another.

Membership
For detailed information, please see List of Defenders members.

"True" Defenders
Defenders membership was remarkably fluid, yet a few members were somewhat recognizable, most noticeably the three founders (Doctor Strange, Namor the Sub-Marinner and the Incredible Hulk), the Silver Surfer, Valkyrie, Nighthawk, Hellcat and Gargoyle. A secondary tier of Defenders might include such members as Moon Knight, Daredevil, Luke Cage and even Professor X.

"Defenders for a Day"
A storyline in issues #63-65 of the original Defenders run had dozens of new applicants attempting to join the Defenders. All of them left shortly after for various reasons, mostly disappointment with the existing members. Among them were the Falcon, Quasar (then named Marvel Man), Captain Mar-Vell, Miss Marvel, Torpedo, Stingray, Havok, Polaris, Black Goliath, White Tiger, Captain Ultra and Tagak the Leopard Lord.

Fake Defenders
The same storyline also had a number of villains attempting to present themselves as new Defenders members in order to confuse the authorities and the public as they commited robberies. Members included android versions of Libra and Saggitarius, as well as the Beetle, Batroc the Leaper, the Shocker and others.

Secret Defenders
This group is sometimes counted as an extension of the original Defenders, despite being largely different in composition and goals. Its composition was perhaps even more fluid than that of the original Defenders, but typically included either Doctor Strange or Doctor Druid as leader, joined by a custom selection of heroes chosen for the mission at hand. At various times, War Machine, Darkhawk, Thunderstrike, Wolverine, Spider-Woman II, Ant-Man, Iceman, Nomad and many others were members.

At the tail end of its existence, the group had a somewhat regular composition based on Cadaver, Shadowoman, Joshua Pryce and Doctor Druid.

Television
The team proper has never been depicted in other media, but a disguised version has. This appears in the animated television series Justice League and Justice League Unlimited, which each have an episode that feature a subgroup of DC Comics superheroes who play the equivalent roles of their Marvel Comics version.

Their members include (and their Marvel counterparts):
 * Doctor Fate - (Doctor Strange)
 * Aquaman - (Namor The Sub-Mariner)
 * Hawkgirl - (Valkyrie/Nighthawk)
 * Solomon Grundy - (The Hulk)
 * Amazo - (Silver Surfer)

In one episode, Grundy called Hawkgirl "Bird-Nose", which is what the Hulk called Nighthawk.

Video Games
All four founders of the Defenders will each play a role in Marvel Ultimate Alliance. Dr. Strange is known to be playable from the beginning of the game, Silver Surfer is known to be unlockable, and Namor and Hulk will at least have significant appearances.

Ultimate Defenders
In the Ultimate Marvel universe, the Defenders are a group of amateur vigilantes who dress up as super-heroes. None of them have superpowers, although they claim to be experienced in crime-fighting. Henry Pym is invited to join them, and he accepts, adopting a new identity - Ant-Man. The Defenders are thrilled at the prospect of having an actual superhuman join their team, and convince Pym they are a serious project. Their first mission together is a disaster, and Pym, who wanted to remain out of the spotlight, is forced by the Valkyrie to reveal himself to save them, humiliating himself in the process. Their members include Ultimate versions of Luke Cage, Hellcat, Nighthawk, Valkyrie, Black Knight, and Son of Satan. They are later joined by Whiz-Kid, a wheelchair bound boy suffering from polio. He claims to have the ability to vary the temperature of certain inorganic materials.
 * The Valkyrie claims to be a martial arts expert, then admits that she can't even pass her orange belt.
 * Nighthawk injures himself during an apprehension of a cigarette raid.
 * The Defenders travel the city via taxi and are often late. Later we see that they also use a Pontiac Firebird owned by the Black Knight.
 * To convince Pym that they are a real super-hero team they claim Dr Strange is a member, and that two X-Men (Iceman and Angel) will show as soon as the Defenders get corporate sponsorship. All of this is untrue.
 * Son of Satan is revealed to be a S.H.I.E.L.D spy.

The members of the team seem genuinely perplexed as to why characters such as Spider-Man are considered heroes and they are not, even though the group has not defeated any villains or saved anyone's lives from danger. When Pym points out that "you have to do something heroic," Nighthawk misses the point and insists that Pym is right: "it's all about marketing." The Defenders here appear to be much more interested in becoming celebrities as a self described super-hero team rather than actually going out and stopping crimes or saving lives. Even their eldest member, the Black Knight, when witnessing Iron Man flying towards a fire, is more concerned about him "stealing all the glory," while the Defenders try to hail a cab to get to the same fire.

Bibliography of Defenders titles

 * The Defenders (1972 series) #1-152 (August 1972 - February 1986)
 * Giant-Size Defenders (1974 series) #1-5 (July 1974 - July 1975)
 * The Defenders Annual (1976)
 * Secret Defenders (1993 series) #1-25 (March 1993 - March 1995)
 * Defenders, The (2001 series) #1-12 (March 2001 - February 2002)
 * Day of the Defenders (March 2001) #1 (reprint book)
 * The Order (2002 series) #1-6 (April 2002 - September 2002)
 * ''Defenders #1-5 (July 2005 - January 2006)
 * Essential Defenders Vol 1. (2005) collection reprinting the classic 70s series

Trivia
The character names Henry Crun, Minerva Bannister and Hercules Grytpype-Thynne, appearing or mentioned in Issue 148, were lifted from the classic 1950s BBC Radio comedy, The Goon Show.