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Defenders, The #57: Review

Mar 1978
Chris Claremont, George Tuska

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Story Name:

And Along Came... Ms. Marvel!

Review & Comments

Rating:
4 stars

Defenders, The #57 Review by (June 22, 2022)

Review: Interesting tale raises more questions than it answers: the baddies seem to be targeting Carol Danvers while having no interest in Ms. Marvel. They go to a lot of trouble to uncover Carol’s greatest fears and work them into a plot but the plot doesn’t go very far before the villains are vanquished. For all the world, this looks like part one of a two part story but everything ends here, having more plot than it could deal with. Warbot was cool from a 70s standpoint and more use could have been made of Hulk who seemed to figure prominently in the scheme but we’ll never know.

Comments: Hulk mentions meeting Captain Marvel (Mar-Vell) in CAPTAIN MARVEL #21. Dr. Strange was possessed by the Star of Capistan in issues #43-45. Only appearance of Arthur Shaman and Warbot. George Tuska penciled pages 1-6 and 11-30; Dave Cockrum penciled pages 7-10 and 31. Gaspar Saladino did the lettering for page 1. Freelance colorist Francoise Mouly went on to be the co-founder of RAW and art editor of THE NEW YORKER; she is married to Art Spiegelman, author of MAUS. The letters page includes one from future comics superstar Kurt Busiek and one from Peter Sanderson, future contributor to the Official Handbooks and Marvel editor.





 

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Defenders, The #57 Synopsis by Peter Silvestro

Several months ago, Hulk had a vision of Ms. Marvel in the Orb of Agamotto at the Sanctum Sanctorum and became violent, recalling his encounter with the similarly costumed Captain Marvel. It took the combined powers of Doctor Strange and Valkyrie to calm Hulk down. Hulk, his feelings hurt as he was only trying to protect his friends, walks out. Strange wants to look into the incident but Val tells him “Tomorrow” But tomorrow the Emissaries of Evil would attack and Strange would be possessed by the Star of Capistan and the matter would be forgotten….

Mike Barnett is in a bar, drinking to forget Ms. Marvel, his patient whom he is falling in love with. He is approached by Arthur Shaman and hypnotized….

Kyle Richmond and Patsy Walker return from a night out to his penthouse but a warning light is flashing. They change into Nighthawk and Hellcat and confront the intruder: Ms. Marvel. She tells them that she has had a premonition that a friend of hers is in danger and that someone will try to kill the Defenders that night….

Shaman brings Michael Barnett to A.I.M. headquarters where he is placed in a psycho-conditioner where all the secrets of how to destroy Carol Danvers are extracted from his brain….

The Sanctum Sanctorum is attacked by a spaceship; Clea, Hulk, and Valkyrie head into the street where they are attacked by a creature calling itself Warbot who is able to take on all three of them at once. It reflects Clea’s spells back at her, encases Val in a block of crystal, then freezes Hulk solid and carries the latter off, in fulfillment of its mission. But Nighthawk arrives on the scene and contacts Hellcat and Ms. Marvel and the three of them pursue the villains to a barn in the country where A.I.M. and Arthur Shaman are putting together a scheme to destroy Carol Danvers, using Hulk. The Defenders arrive and Ms. Marvel smashes Warbot into tiny pieces while Hellcat and Nighthawk take down Shaman and the A.I.M. agents. Clea removes the hypnotic spell on Michael Barnett but Ms. Marvel can not explain why her image appeared in the Orb of Agamotto that time….


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Barberoids 1 cover original artwork on ebay

George Tuska
Dan Green
Francoise Mouly
Ed Hannigan (Cover Penciler)
Joe Sinnott (Cover Inker)
? (Cover Colorist)
Plot: . Letterer: Peter Iro.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Doctor Strange
Doctor Strange

(Stephen Strange)
Hellcat
Hellcat

(Patsy Walker)
Hulk
Hulk

(Bruce Banner)
Ms. Marvel
Ms. Marvel

(Carol Danvers)
Nighthawk
Nighthawk

(Kyle Richmond)
Valkyrie
Valkyrie

(Brunnhilda)

Plus: Defenders.

> Defenders, The: Book info and issue index

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