Defenders: The Best Defense #1

Dec 2018
Al Ewing, Joe Bennett

Story Name:

The Throne, the Power, the Damned and the Devil


Synopsis

Defenders: The Best Defense #1 synopsis by Peter Silvestro
Rating: 4.5 stars

Story continued from SILVER SURFER: THE BEST DEFENSE.

The Train makes its way through the cosmos, an unending line of planets, destroying each world in its path to be fueled by its energy; the Conductor, guiding the Train on its way, is controlled by the being Nebulon and steered in his own desired route, straight at Earth....

The Defenders arrive: The Silver Surfer arrives to challenge Nebulon but he is weak and is easily snatched up and held immobile by his cosmic foe. On Earth, the astral form of the dying Doctor Strange requests Hulk's aid in stopping the Train from reaching Earth; Hulk suggests just blowing up the train but that's what they did in Strange's timeline and it resulted in the radiation from the explosion turning many worlds, including Earth, into desolate wastes. Hulk declines to join him but Strange offers help in dealing with the demon that infects Hulk, so the big green guy goes along....

In Hell, a pair of leopard-headed and business-suited demons, Borss and Mog'rys, are worried about a business deal they've made; they had borrowed two billion souls from Mephisto and sold them to the Spirit-Flayers of Carcosa but Mephisto will want them back so they have arranged with Nebulon to guide the train toward Earth and so release seven billion dead souls onto the market and they will make a huge profit and repay Mephisto....

As the Train continues to snatch up worlds, and Nebulon mocks the Surfer for his impotence, Namor the Sub-Mariner enters the scene silvered up and riding the Silver Surfboard. Meanwhile in Hell, Hulk enters via a magic portal and eats the faces of Borss and Mog'rys which destroys their physical forms and releases their essence into Hell. Nebulon smacks Namor out into space, Surfer mounts his board to rescue him but Hulk steps through a portal and seizes the board, hurling SS out after Namor. While Hulk uses the board as a weapon to clobber Nebulon, SS finds he is able to duplicate the board's power and allow Namor to surf on his back and return to safety (and he thinks it's ridiculous). Meanwhile, the Conductor snatches up the water planet Vodan (see the Namor issue in this miniseries) to feed on next; Dr. Strange is able to cause the Conductor to spasm, setting Vodan free but hurling it off into an icy void. Silver Surfer, knowing of orphan suns, can send Vodan into orbit around one thus saving it but he hasn't the power and Galactus is too far away to allow him to recharge. Namor has an idea....

Namor and Surfer arrive on Vodan and face Queen Kataw. Namor offers to sacrifice himself by offering up (part of) his life force to power the Surfer to save her people as he is their king; she balks at this as he is an interloper and she is the true ruler—so she allows Surfer to drain her life, killing her but empowering him to push the planet through a wormhole to its new sun....

As Hulk continues to battle Nebulon, Dr. Strange informs the giant alien that he has lost: the spasm that  pushed Vodan away moved the Train away from the path to Earth (Newton's Third Law). Mephisto arrives and snatches up Nebulon; Strange asks Mephisto to send Hulk home and cure him of his spiritual infection. Mephisto can't do the latter but offers to do the former for a small consideration....

On Vodan, Namor heads for the magic tunnel that will return him to Earth—and he confesses to Surfer that he wanted to sacrifice himself to undermine Kataw's rule and force an alliance between Atlantis and Vodan, and he was arrogant as usual....

Surfer returns to Galactus and agonizes over how Queen Kataw's death restored his power against his will as though he were only a deus ex machina. And so he and his master go off....

As for Doctor Strange, the consideration Mephisto asked for returning Hulk home was that Strange would be in his power for eternity—but Strange has a plan....


 

Review / Commentaries


Defenders: The Best Defense #1 Review by (August 26, 2019)

Review: A truly apocalyptic ending to a cosmic story and each member of the non-team played his part in saving Earth. Hulk was good at hurting people so he got to hurt demons and a cosmic being. Namor got to play Silver Surfer then try out for the role of Dying King but he lost it to Queen Kataw. Silver Surfer got to play Silver Surfboard and then agonize about every little thing in the story in a decisive rejection of the Slott-Allred series, though the surfboard retains the silly name of Toomie. And Dr. Strange gets to pull all the strings and act all smug on the last page. As Subby suggested, they can all get shawarma now. Everything fits together for a satisfying wrap up.

But wait! who was that guy in a sheet who was going through the train killing people? He was even mentioned in the story recap on page one but he never showed up in the story—unless my digital copy was missing a few digits.

Comments: In place of the cover logo, there is a black banner that reads “Stan Lee, 1922-2018.” Issue includes a brief tribute to Stan. Namor's joke about the Defenders eating shawarma together indicates that he has seen the first AVENGERS movie. The Spirit-Flayers of Carcosa, mentioned only here, are a clear nod to the works of H.P. Lovecraft.




> Defenders: The Best Defense comic book info and issue index

Elektra

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

Joe Bennett
Bellardino Brabo
Dono Sanchez Almara
Ron Garney (Cover Penciler)
Ron Garney (Cover Inker)
Richard Isanove (Cover Colorist)


Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Doctor Strange
Doctor Strange

(Stephen Strange)
Hulk
Hulk

(Robert Bruce Banner)
Silver Surfer
Silver Surfer

(Norrin Radd)
Sub-Mariner
Sub-Mariner

(Namor McKenzie)

Plus: Nebulon (The Celestial Man).