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Defenders #46: Review

Apr 1977
?, Klaus Janson

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Story Name:

Who Remembers Scorpio? (Prelude)


Synopsis

Defenders #46 Synopsis by Peter Silvestro

Doctor Strange has dropped a bombshell on his teammates: he is leaving the Defenders. Believing his powers are waning because he is adventuring more than studying, he has no choice but to resume his older way of life. Then Luke Cage announces he will also go since being part of a team isn’t for him. And Red Guardian reveals that she must return to the U.S.S.R., causing Nighthawk to freak out. Hellcat and Valkyrie are staying though, and Hulk is confused and irritated at Nighthawk’s anger but he calms down. Farewells are made….

Jack Norriss breaks into an oil refinery in New Jersey, hoping to elude some pursuers; no such luck: he is zapped with a ray gun and rendered unconscious by Nick Fury (actually the rogue LMD who is later called Max Fury but that’s a few decades away)….

The remaining Defenders head to their other headquarters at the old riding academy. There they surprise the villain Scorpio, who is looking for Kyle Richmond. They attack and Scorpio fights them off with the Zodiac Key, able to fire energy bolts and create stasis fields. The baddie hurls Hellcat into Nighthawk, enwraps Hulk in a massive pile of machinery, and, losing the Key to Hellcat, duels with Valkyrie, and, changing himself to water, recovers the Zodiac Key. Seeing the Hulk free himself from the tangle of metal he was wrapped up in, Scorpio decides that escape is the best option, teleporting out of there and leaving the Defenders confused….

Epilogue: A little boy delivers the newspaper to the Riding Academy where papers have been piling up for some time. He is being stalked by the Elf with a Gun—who is struck by a truck and killed. And so it goes….


 

Review / Commentaries

Rating:
4 stars

Defenders #46 Review by (October 5, 2021)

Review: And that’s it for the Elf with a Gun? This goofy but malevolent minor character has popped up several times and now he’s gone, wiped out because he never learned to look both ways before crossing a street. There’s a simple explanation for his sudden demise: he was created by Steve Gerber who was presumably building up to something but his tenure on the title ended before it materialized. Or maybe not; Gerber could very likely have just included EWAG as a symbol of the random, chaotic nature of the universe, because he was that kinda guy. What we have here is a pair of new writers, wrapping up a previous author’s loose plot threads as quickly as possible. It’s been done worse. And they probably didn’t need to do it at all as it was just an occasional oddball item.

Oh yeah, there’s more to the issue. A change in line-up with Nighthawk having a conniption over the changes. After Hulk gets testy and some tearful bye-byes they head to the nearly forgotten alternate HQ and battle a baddie for several pages with no resolution. Oh yeah, and bad guy Nick Fury shows up. The big fight scene is pretty cool though it’s a bit dubious that Hulk can be sidelined for so long by wrapping him in metal. But good enough.

Comments Part one of five parts. If you don’t remember Scorpio, he was an LMD of Nick Fury’s brother Jake, recruited by Zodiac and unaware he was an LMD. And the Nick Fury seen here is actually also an LMD (as revealed in issue #49), who is eventually called “Max Fury” as of SECRET AVENGERS #5.  End of the Elf with a Gun; another of these guys shows up in issues #115-125. Written by David Anthony Kraft and Roger Slifer.



> Defenders comic book info and issue index

Elektra
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Excelsioring your collection:
Diamond Select Toys Marvel Gallery: Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness PVC Statue
Holy smokes, Batman!
(The Boy Wonder)

?
Klaus Janson
Klaus Janson
Dave Hunt
Ed Hannigan (Cover Penciler)
Joe Sinnott (Cover Inker)
? (Cover Colorist)
Additional Credits
Layouts: Keith Giffen. Letterer: Irv Watanabe.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Doctor Strange
Doctor Strange

(Stephen Strange)
Hellcat
Hellcat

(Patricia Walker)
Hulk
Hulk

(Robert Bruce Banner)
Luke Cage
Luke Cage

(Power Man)
Nighthawk
Nighthawk

(Kyle Richmond)
Red Guardian
Red Guardian

(Tania Belinsky)
Valkyrie
Valkyrie

(Brunnhilda)

Plus: Jack Norriss (Jackson Norriss), Max Fury, Scorpio (Jake Fury LMD).