Defenders #1

[darkhawk]

Defenders #1

Marvel - $2.99 Writer: Keith Giffen & J.M. DeMatteis, Pencils: Kevin Maguire Colors: Chris Sotomayor Letterer: Dave Sharpe Cover: Kevin Maguire Editor: Andy Schmidt

Review:
Written by Eric Barrett

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Defenders #1 kicks off a five-part irreverent story about the Defenders (duh!). When an old adversary bringing Stephen Strange warnings that Dormamu and his sister Umar the Unholy are working together to take over the Earth’s dimension, Strange must re-form the Defenders. Naturally this proves more difficult than one would hope – seeing how the Defenders all despise one another.

If you’re looking for a traditional take on the Defenders, well, you’re looking at the wrong book. I’m not sure the word irreverent goes quite far enough in describing the way the characters are handled. Defenders #1 tries to be funny, and sometimes succeeds. However, all of the humor is based on mocking the characters themselves. This means that everyone is presented as their baser selves. Strange is aloof and “high-brow”, Banner is sarcastic and selfish, while Namor is arrogant and aggressive.

There are points where the book is actually funny, but for the most part I felt the writers were going for shock value more than humor. The whole spiel of the book is that the creative team has “desecrated one comic book universe – and now they’re coming for” the Defenders. I can vouch for the “desecration” part, and I’m not sure it’s a good thing!

This book is also very wordy. To put it into perspective the credits page lists the penciller as 'Dave “how the heck am I gonna fit all these words in?” Sharpe'. So if you don’t like reading, this probably isn’t the title for you! Ironically, despite the immense amount of words, not a whole lot of action really happens.

In fact, the words actually lead into another problem I had with the book - I think the art really suffers. I’m not sure if this is a stylistic decision or forced by the sheer amount of writing. All of the characters have a “rounded” or “pudgy” look to them. I sort of think it’s a combination of the art being naturally “rounded” and the small panel sizes (due to all the text) preventing much detail from being shown.

The few larger panels in the book really do look impressive – they are just few and far between. Ironically, I love the way Dormammu is drawn. And it’s probably the best rendition of him that I’ve seen.

So what is my overall conclusion? Well I think this series has potential so I’m going to stick it out for the next few issues. But it’s also got some serious problems. If the writing improves to where it’s more humor-based and less shock-based, this series could be a real winner. Otherwise, I doubt I’ll stick it through to the end.

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Rating (out of 5):

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