THE DEFENDERS: THEIR FIRST ELEVEN ADVENTURES

This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog takes a look at the first eleven stories of Marvel’s Defenders.

MARVEL FEATURE Vol 1 #1 (December 1971)

Title: The Day of the Defenders

Villain: The Omegatron

Defenders Roster: Doctor Strange (Stephen Strange, MD), the Hulk (Bruce Banner, PhD) and the Sub-Mariner (Prince Namor McKenzie)

Comment: The Defenders were originally far different from the mere “street level” heroics that fans of Marvel Television adaptations associate with the team’s name. In 1971 Marvel had just one Avengers team in addition to the Fantastic Four and the X-Men. The Defenders often fought to save the entire world or even the entire universe or multiverse.

Doctor Strange and the Hulk had been around since the 1960s. The Sub-Mariner was introduced in 1939 (so BEFORE Aquaman), back when Marvel Comics was called Timely Comics.

Synopsis: The evil scientist Yandroth, an old one-off foe of Dr Strange, has been spending his years since his defeat at Strange’s hands mastering sorcery as thoroughly as he had previously mastered science. He is on his death bed after having devised a scheme to ensure that the world will be destroyed shortly after he dies.

With typical villain bluster, Yandroth has Dr Strange summoned to his death bed and taunts him about his plans and tells him that in five hours the entire Earth will be destroyed by his creation the Omegatron unleashing every nuclear and biological weapon in the world. Before passing away, the villain reveals that he used BOTH sorcery AND science to create the Omegatron, ensuring that it cannot be defeated by JUST sorcery or JUST science. It will require the proper combination of the two.

Knowing he has no chance of stopping this menace with his magic alone, Dr Strange mystically summons the Sub-Mariner, Monarch of Atlantis, to his side and explains the situation. Since even Namor’s realm of Atlantis will be destroyed by the Omegatron he allies himself with Stephen.

The Sub-Mariner suggests that Dr Strange also enlist the immensely powerful Silver Surfer to fight beside them. The sorcerer conjures up an image of what the Surfer is up to at that very moment. He and Sub-Mariner see that the Silver Surfer is, for the umpteenth time, trying to penetrate Galactus’ barrier which keeps him banished on Earth. Once again, the Surfer fails and plummets back to Earth.

Since the Silver Surfer will need hours to recover from his crash landing back on our planet, Doc and Namor instead summon the Hulk to help them. Our heroes track down the Omegatron to an abandoned lighthouse in the northeastern United States.

The trio of heroes invade the lighthouse and use their combination of physical and mystical powers to fight their way past the Omegatron’s defenses and reach its core. Once there they find they cannot destroy the device so, with time running out, Dr Strange draws on his two allies’ moral support to magically slow down time around the Omegatron’s detonator.

It will take several centuries for each remaining second to tick off, meaning that it will not go off for thousands of years. By that time, Strange hopes that humanity – if it’s still around – will have advanced enough to be able to destroy the Omegatron THEN.

As our heroes prepare to go their separate ways, Dr Strange follows up Namor’s reference to the three of them as the world’s defenders by saying that “Defenders” would be a fitting name for their group if they ever again need to team up.

Sub-Mariner reminds Strange that he’ll only help fight menaces that would destroy the entire planet, since even his beloved Atlantis would fall, too. Before he leaves, the Hulk sullenly refers to how much he hated the brief time he was a member of the Avengers.

NOTE: Though modern audiences associate the Hulk exclusively with the Avengers, in truth he quit that team after just two adventures with them in the 1960s. In the 1970s and 1980s the Hulk was known as a Defender instead.

MARVEL FEATURE Vol 1 #2 (March 1972)

Title: Nightmare on Bald Mountain

Villain: Dormammu

Defenders Roster: Dr Strange, Sub-Mariner, Hulk, Clea (Clea Orini)

Synopsis: The story opens at night on Bald Mountain in Vermont. NOTE: This is NOT the real life Bald Mountain, which is located elsewhere. The fictional Marvel Comics Bald Mountain, near Rutland, Vermont, is a site of eldritch supernatural energies dating back to pre-Columbian times.

In caverns honeycombing the mountain, a ceremony is being held by cloaked worshipers of Dormammu, the literal god who rules the mystical universe called the Dark Dimension. His actual power is far greater than that of Dr Strange, whom he has often fought, but he has long been restrained from attacking Earth and our universe by a vow – enforced by the entity called Eternity – not to.

Back to the story, since red-tinted supernatural energies have suffused Bald Mountain for the first time in 13 years, Dormammu’s Earthly worshipers held this ritual in order to communicate with him from their cavern altar. An image of Dormammu appears to them and informs them that he will manifest in our dimension and reduce it to the same vile darkness which grips his own, IF they sacrifice Dr Strange to him on their stone altar there.

To help his legion of worshipers accomplish their task, Dormammu endows them with some of his power, as he once did with Dr Strange’s archenemy Baron Mordo. The worshipers attack Dr Strange at his Sanctum Sanctorum in Greenwich Village. The powers they’ve been granted enable them to overcome and kidnap Strange despite the best efforts of him AND his apprentice Clea (at right), played by Charlize Theron in the movies.

With Dormammu behind all this, Clea summons Dr Strange’s two recent allies, the Sub-Mariner and the Hulk. COMMENT: I’d have had Clea be a Defender already in their first adventure, fighting the Omegatron. Anyway, if Dormammu is unleashed, Atlantis will suffer the same fate as our entire universe as Dormammu transforms it, so Namor is on board with helping out.

At the cavern altar inside Bald Mountain, the Defenders overcome the worshipers despite all the power Dormammu can grant them. Our heroes also battle Dormammu in his own dimension and seal the interdimensional portal the worshipers had opened in order to communicate with Dormammu. The cave collapses amid all the destruction, killing all of the worshipers. The Defenders all got out alive.

MARVEL FEATURE Vol 1 #3 (June 1972)

Title: A Titan Walks Among Us

Villain: Xemnu

Defenders Roster: Dr Strange, Sub-Mariner, Hulk

Synopsis: The Sub-Mariner, always honorable toward innocent victims despite his general hostility toward the surface world, leaves Atlantis briefly to save two returning Earth astronauts from a failed splashdown. It later turns out that one of the astronauts was possessed in space by an alien entity named Xemnu.

NOTE: Xemnu, like Groot, Fin Fang Foom, It the Living Colossus and many others, was originally a monstrous menace in Marvel Comics’ horror comics in 1960, before they got back into publishing superheroes in 1961 with the Fantastic Four.

Xemnu had begun reassembling his component atoms into the body of the astronaut he had figuratively “possessed.” The astronaut had since retired and was appearing on television as a “friendly” monster on a children’s show. In reality he was taking over the minds of every child who saw the program. (If not for the fact that this was written in 1972, I would have SWORN this was intended as a humorous poke at the cult-like success of Barney the Purple Dinosaur.)

Xemnu’s vile plan was to take all of Earth’s children with him back to his home planet of Xem in order to turn them into youngsters of his own alien species, thus repopulating Xem. (All of the planet’s inhabitants had died from a space plague.)

The Defenders get involved, since Namor doesn’t want Atlantis’ children abducted by Xemnu, either. It turned out the “monster” shape on the children’s show was how Xemnu REALLY looked and he fought our heroes. On top of his hypnotic abilities he was strong enough to go blow for blow with Hulk and Sub-Mariner, plus animate machinery like a techno-path. In the end Xemnu seemed to have been reduced to scattered atoms again. 

DEFENDERS Vol 1 #1 (August 1972)

Title: I Slay By The Stars

Villain: Necrodamus

Defenders Roster: Dr Strange, Sub-Mariner, Hulk

NOTE: The Defenders now have their own comic book and have been upgraded to bi-monthly publication from quarterly. 

Synopsis: The Hulk finds the fallen Sub-Mariner’s unconscious form trapped within a transparent energy field. His dim memories allow him to seek out his friend Dr Strange (whom the Hulk often calls “Dumb Magician”) at his Sanctum Sanctorum in Greenwich Village. Hulk manages to convey to Strange that their ally Sub-Mariner (“Fish Face” as Hulk calls him), needs help.

Dr Strange and Hulk return to Namor’s body in the forests of Upstate New York. There they are greeted by Necrodamus, a Dr Strange-level sorcerer who also has Hulk-level strength, in keeping with the original theme of the Defenders fighting threats that combine the physical with the mystical.

Necrodamus informs Doc and Hulk that he has been sicced on them by the Undying Ones, Lovecraftian Marvel Comics demonoids who used to rule the Earth long ago and want to again, etc.

NOTE: The Undying Ones, former foes of Dr. Strange, had also been fought by Doc and Sub-Mariner in Sub-Mariner #22 (February 1970), when they were defeated only by Dr Strange willingly staying in the Undying Ones’ dimension, since a human presence there was needed to keep the banishing spell intact. In Hulk # 126 (April 1970), Hulk helped Strange free himself from the realm of the Undying Ones and their leader the Nameless One. Both of them were helped by the willing sacrifice of Barbara Norris (the future Valkyrie), a repentant cultist who had worshiped the Undying Ones. To save the Earth, Barbara took Strange’s place as the human presence in the Undying Ones’ dimension.

When that night’s stars come into a certain alignment, Necrodamus will kill Sub-Mariner with his mystic knife and that sacrifice will free the Undying Ones, who will kill Dr Strange and the Hulk to avenge themselves on them. Next the Undying Ones will revert the Earth to the volcanic hell the planet was when they ruled it in the distant past.

The Hulk and Dr Strange battle Necrodamus for an extended period until Strange finally hits upon a spell that restores the captive Namor to consciousness. Sub-Mariner frees himself from the force field from within and joins Doc and Hulk against our villain.

The destructive battle goes on for so long that the awaited alignment of stars comes and goes, with Necrodamus unable to slay any of the Defenders at the right moment. Having failed the Undying Ones, Necrodamus is reduced to a shriveled-up, hunched-over old man. He’ll need to start from scratch obtaining souls for his masters to again build up his magical power AND his physique, which may take years.

NOTE: Necrodamus will go on to fight the Scarlet Witch and Agatha Harkness.

Our heroes learn that the adventure isn’t over yet when Sub-Mariner informs Strange and the Hulk that the one responsible for turning him over to Necrodamus in the first place was the being they once considered for membership in the Defenders – the Silver Surfer! 

DEFENDERS Vol 1 #2 (October 1972)

Title: The Secret of the Silver Surfer

Villains: Calizuma and his Warrior Wizards

Defenders Roster: Dr Strange, Sub-Mariner, Hulk and the Silver Surfer (Norrin Radd)

Synopsis: For the past two months Doctor Strange and the Sub-Mariner have been spending their every free moment scouring the Earth for the Silver Surfer. If he truly has gone bad he must be found before he serves the Undying Ones again. Naturally the Hulk didn’t have enough of an attention span to stick with the search and wandered off on his own long ago.

In the waters near Antarctica, Sub-Mariner and Dr Strange at last happen to cross paths with the Silver Surfer, who swoops down and greets his one-time ally Namor. 

Subby attacks the Surfer in anger over the way he defeated him and turned him over to Necrodamus. The Silver Surfer insists he doesn’t know what Namor is talking about. He defeats Sub-Mariner and Dr Strange and flies off, disgusted as ever by the irrational behavior of Earthlings.

From a passing remark the Surfer made during the fight, Strange deduces that he headed for the Valley of the Undying Ones in the Himalayas. It was there that Doc first became aware of the Undying Ones’ existence when an old colleague of his found a statuette of those beings there. (Doctor Strange Vol 1 #183 November 1969) And no, I don’t know why that valley wasn’t the FIRST place they looked. It’s even got the Undying Ones’ name in its title!

On their way to the Himalayas, Doc and Subby round up the Hulk, too, to improve their chances against the Silver Surfer and any Undying Ones he may be serving. Once arrived at the aforementioned Valley, our heroes see the Surfer apparently living in peace with multiple brutish Yetis, who accept his tutelage in building and other activities.

It turns out the half dozen or so Yetis are really a sorcerer named Calizuma and his Warrior Wizards. They drop their mystic disguises and attack our heroes. They had disguised themselves as simple-minded, peaceful Yetis to fool the Surfer and – unrealized by him – mesmerize him to unknowingly serve the Undying Ones by delivering Namor to Necrodamus.

All four Defenders battle the villains and, when the Warrior Wizards are defeated, it takes all of our heroes’ combined power to defeat Calizuma himself.

Epilogue: Amid their post-battle conversation, the Silver Surfer explains to his fellow Defenders that he was trying to escape Galactus’ barrier when they saw him the night they gathered to face the Omegatron. Norrin Radd discusses how much he misses his long-lost love Shalla-Bal back on his home planet of Zenn-La.

Dr Strange tells the Surfer he thinks he knows how to help him escape the barrier, while, from their dimension, the Undying Ones look on and plan to use Doc’s plan for their own purposes. 

DEFENDERS Vol 1 #3 (December 1972)

Title: Four Against The Gods

Villains: The Undying Ones

Defenders Roster: Dr Strange, Sub-Mariner, Hulk and the Silver Surfer

NOTE: On the cover of this issue, Barbara was drawn with black hair instead of blonde and the Nameless One was called the Undying One instead. Plus he was drawn with only one head instead of two and two wings instead of four. 

Synopsis: Dr Strange proposes to the Silver Surfer that in order to circumvent the Galactian Barrier which prevents him from leaving the Earth, he will cast a spell to teleport the Defenders to another dimension where the barrier does not exist and the Surfer can fly where he pleases. Then, the others can just teleport back to the Earth.

Norrin Radd agrees, and Hulk & Sub-Mariner agree to accompany Doc and the Surfer on their undertaking. Strange casts his spell, but because he’s foolishly doing it while still in the Valley of the Undying Ones, they are able to hijack the spell and transport the Defenders TO them.

Our heroes clash with the Undying Ones, then see Barbara Norris, the cultist who willingly enabled Dr Strange to escape this hellish dimension by taking his place. They approach her, only to get caught up in a mystic maelstrom which sucks them into the pocket dimension where lives the Undying Ones’ ruler the Nameless One.

Barbara reveals that in her loneliness while trapped there she gave in and mated with the Nameless One, who now reveals that that “mating” fused him and Barbara into one body. The Defenders are now face to face with the Nameless One, his 4-winged monstrous body now boasting Barbara’s head alongside his other two as part of their “union.” She willingly led the heroes into his maelstrom trap for her “mate.”

The Nameless One now plans to use the Defenders’ powers to penetrate through to the Earth and revert it to the volcanic hell it was back when the Undying Ones ruled it. He was draining their powers via hallucinations of their respective loved ones. Our heroes fight back and in the end the Nameless One winds up defeated and the Defenders prepare to escape his realm.

Dr Strange can’t bear to leave Barbara Norris behind again, despite her treachery, and casts a spell separating her from the defeated Nameless One’s body. Unfortunately, while they flee through the strange dimension the Defenders realize that Barbara has gone insane from the memory of mating with the Nameless One.

Eventually, the Silver Surfer’s cosmic senses tell him that they have fled far enough that they are now far past the Galactian Barrier back on Earth and tells Dr Strange to teleport the five of them out of the Undying Ones’ dimension. Apparently, “sensing” that was one last spiteful illusion from the Nameless One, and it turns out the Defenders returned to our dimension back on the surface of the Earth, albeit in England now.

Disgusted and saddened at still being stranded on our planet, the inconsolable Norrin Radd flies off in search of solitude.

Comment: Okay, that’s a typically flawed comic book ending. Just because THIS attempt got shanghaied by the Undying Ones and their ruler, it doesn’t mean you can’t TRY IT AGAIN sometime, and maybe teleport JUST the Silver Surfer to another dimension this time. Or – call me crazy – teleport him BEYOND the Galactian Barrier while still in OUR dimension. Sheesh!

DEFENDERS Vol 1 #4 (February 1973)

Title: The New Defender

Villains: The Enchantress, the Executioner and Queen Casiolena

Defenders Roster: Dr Strange, Sub-Mariner, Hulk and the Valkyrie (Barbara Norris)

Synopsis: The confused Hulk convinces himself that Dr Strange’s self-recriminations over his failure to help the Silver Surfer mean he harmed the crazed Barbara Norris intentionally. To save her the brute picks her up and carries her away with some of his huge leaps. Sub-Mariner and Dr Strange follow the Hulk into a castle he enters.

That castle turns out to be Garrett Castle, home of the superhero called the Black Knight (Dane Whitman, who will be played by Kit Harington in The Eternals). The place seems empty and when Strange and Sub-Mariner encounter the enchanted brazier in the castle it transports them to where Hulk, Barbara Norris and, before them, the Black Knight himself, already went.

Doc and Subby find themselves in a medieval-themed dimension where they are attacked by the old Avengers villain the Executioner (Skurge) and an entire armored legion commanded by him. The tide is turned against our heroes when the mystic powers of the dimension’s Queen Casiolena strike them unawares and they join the Queen and the Executioner’s other prisoners. 

Those prisoners: Hulk, the crazed Barbara Norris, the Black Knight and the Enchantress (Amora), another old foe of the Avengers and the former partner of the Executioner. We learn that the Enchantress enlisted the Black Knight into her latest campaign to win back her ex-lover the Executioner from Casiolena, who stole him from her several months earlier in an issue of the Avengers.

The Enchantress enthralled the Black Knight with a kiss and used his castle’s mystic brazier to transport them to Casiolena’s dimension. Unfortunately, even with the Black Knight and the Enchantress fighting together they lost to the Executioner and Casiolena’s Legion of armored soldiers. They’ve been imprisoned in this mystical cell ever since, until the Defenders and Barbara Norris arrived. 

The cell is magically tailored to contain the Enchantress, Black Knight, Sub-Mariner, Dr Strange and the Hulk, but the presence of the insane Barbara Norris gives the Enchantress an ace in the hole. Previously the Enchantress had once assumed the form of her defeated foe the Valkyrie herself (Avengers #83 December 1970) AND once endowed another woman – Samantha Parrington – with the form and powers of the Valkyrie (Hulk #142 August 1971).

The Enchantress endows that form and psyche of the Valkyrie on Barbara Norris, who transforms into the super-strong figure. Since the cell was only sealed with a spell containing the specific prisoners already in it, the Valkyrie (or actually the Valkyrie’s mind and powers in Barbara Norris’ body) is able to rip out the bars and free herself and the others.

The Defenders, Black Knight and the Enchantress defeat the Executioner, Casiolena and her legion of soldiers. When the woozy Executioner regains his senses the Enchantress offers to let him come back to her. Seeing that Casiolena AND her army have been defeated, he agrees.

The Black Knight, still under the influence of the Enchantress’ kiss which makes a man fall hopelessly in love with her, objects to this and challenges the Executioner. The evil Enchantress ends the dispute by giving the Black Knight another kiss, this one turning him into solid stone. She and the Executioner then teleport away.

The Valkyrie appropriates the Black Knight’s sword, the Ebony Blade AND his winged horse Aragorn, impressing her new teammates the Defenders with the way she firmly but gently accustoms the horse to letting her ride it. The Defenders – taking the stone form of the Black Knight with them – return to Garrett Castle via the portal created by the brazier.

Dr Strange’s spells are STILL not able to counteract the Enchantress’ power, so the Black Knight is still trapped in stone form. 

DEFENDERS Vol 1 #5 (April 1973)

Title: World Without End?

Villain: The Omegatron

Defenders Roster: Dr Strange, Sub-Mariner, Hulk, Valkyrie and Namorita (Nita Prentiss)

Synopsis: An unknown amount of time after the end of the previous story. Dr Strange has been letting the Valkyrie (and Aragorn) stay with him and his girlfriend/ apprentice Clea at his Greenwich Village Sanctum Sanctorum. He has even gifted the Valkyrie with enchanted crystals which will allow her to locate Hulk or Sub-Mariner when they are needed if he is not on hand to summon them.

With Strange and Clea preoccupied with his mystic tomes trying to find a spell to turn the Black Knight back to normal, Valkyrie grows bored and uses one of the crystals to lead her astride the flying horse Aragorn to where Namor is. It turns out he is visiting his now-elderly World War Two love interest Betty Dean-Prentiss. The two remain friends, though Sub-Mariner is still youthful due to his mutant nature as a human/ Atlantean hybrid.

Betty has been raising Namor’s now teenage cousin Namorita, even letting her use the name Nita Prentiss as her secret identity. NOTE: Namorita (at right) has a slightly lesser version of the Sub-Mariner’s super-strength and, like him, can fly. Sub-Mariner is a bit peeved at Valkyrie for intruding on his private time. He explains to her that the Defenders are a “non-team” (the gimmicky phrase used in the Defenders’ early years as a hook to try to set them apart from other superhero teams).

He says that the Defenders are just a loose, ad hoc collection of heroes whose existence is known ONLY to its own members, and that when a world-endangering crisis arises all or just some of them may assemble to deal with that crisis. They don’t really socialize any other time. Before Valkyrie can leave, Sub-Mariner vanishes, teleported away somewhere.

The crystal is still leading to Namor at his new location, so Namorita joins Valkyrie in going after him in case he needs rescued. They decide to use the other crystal to lead them to the Hulk first in case it’s BIG trouble. Shortly after they find the Hulk he, too, gets teleported away. Finding Dr Strange has disappeared, too, they follow the crystals leading them to Hulk and Subby, assuming Doc will be at the same place.

Valkyrie and Namorita are led by the crystals to the abandoned lighthouse still housing the Omegatron. It turns out the Omegatron at last managed to counter-act part of the time-slowing spell surrounding its detonator. It teleported Hulk, Namor and Strange to it to use their combined physical and mystical energies to create a new, gigantic robotic form in order to carry out its mission of triggering a globe-destroying explosion.

After assorted action scenes it turns out the Valkyrie is the only one who can stop this incarnation of the Omegatron. Since she herself is a combination of physical and mystical power in one form she is able to behead and destroy the robot, still using the Ebony Blade. With the fight over and the world saved, the Defenders go their separate ways again.

DEFENDERS Vol 1 #6 (June 1973)

Title: The Dreams of Death

Villain: Cyrus Black

Defenders Roster: Dr Strange, Sub-Mariner, Silver Surfer and the Valkyrie

Synopsis: A renegade sorceror named Cyrus Black seals off Dr Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum in a mystical cube, thus trapping Doc, Valkyrie and the visiting Sub-Mariner inside with him. He tries to use his powers to kill them all. The Silver Surfer happens by, having come to apologize to his fellow Defenders for his sulky behavior at the end of their battle with the Nameless One.

The Surfer is powerful enough to penetrate the mystic cube and helps the others drive off Cyrus Black, who nearly destroyed the Black Knight’s stone form during the battle. With Doc still obsessed with finding a spell to cure the Black Knight, the Silver Surfer and Sub-Mariner agree to fly around the world with the Valkyrie for a few days, showing her 20th Century Earth, since the Valkyrie’s mind is unfamiliar with it.

Two days later they return to the Sanctum Sanctorum. The revenge-minded Cyrus Black attacks again, this time using mystic candles to allow his sleeping form to unleash demonic monsters from his dreams to attack the Defenders. After a long battle the Sub-Mariner tricks Cyrus Black into waking up, thus causing his creatures to vanish and leaving him defeated again.

DEFENDERS Vol 1 #7 (August 1973)

Title: War Beneath The Waves

Villains: Attuma and the Red Ghost

Defenders Roster: Sub-Mariner, Hulk, Clea, Valkyrie and Hawkeye (Clint Barton)

Synopsis: An unknown amount of time after the previous story, this tale starts out with Hawkeye, who recently quit the Avengers in a huff, following the Hulk into New York City. He and the Hulk had, earlier in the day, battled the electricity monster Zzzax and, when Hulk referred to finding the “dumb magician” Hawkeye wondered if he meant Dr Strange. NOTE: Hawkeye met Dr Strange years earlier when Doc and the Black Knight helped the Avengers save the world from Ymir and Surtur.

Hawkeye thus meets the Defenders and learns of the Black Knight’s current state, trapped in stone. He joins the team since he and the Black Knight are friends and because he is still ticked off at the Avengers. Dr Strange is roaming the world researching ways of curing the Black Knight, but Hawkeye interacts with Sub-Mariner, Hulk, Clea and Valkyrie.

Eventually, word arrives from Atlantis that Attuma, an old foe of the Sub-Mariner, Giant-Man & the Wasp plus the Avengers, is invading the surface world with Atlantean troops loyal to HIM and with Godzilla-sized sea creatures. The available Defenders go to Atlantic City, NJ where Attuma’s attack is underway.

The team (excuse me – NON-team) defeats Attuma, his soldiers and his sea creatures, all of which retreat beneath the waves, taking a captive marine biologist named Dr Jennings with them. When the Defenders follow the retreating villains under water the Hulk deserts them, since he hates water.

The others get ambushed and captured by Attuma’s forces. At his undersea HQ they learn that Attuma is working alongside the Red Ghost, an old Fantastic Four villain from the Soviet Union. Using the captured Dr Jennings’ marine science and the Red Ghost’s mastery of Cosmic Rays they plan to create cosmic powered amphibious forces which can first conquer Atlantis for Attuma and then America for the Red Ghost.

The Defenders don’t believe Jennings will cooperate but the Red Ghost uses his super-science to brainwash Dr Jennings into helping him. He has also brainwashed the Sub-Mariner and sics him on his fellow Defenders. 

DEFENDERS Vol 1 #8 (September 1973)

Title: If Atlantis Should Fall

Villains: The Red Ghost and Attuma

Defenders Roster: Dr Strange, Sub-Mariner, Hulk, Clea, Silver Surfer, Valkyrie and Hawkeye

NOTE: The Defenders title is now published monthly instead of bi-monthly.

Synopsis: The enthralled Sub-Mariner defeats his fellow Defenders and they are all held captive under the sea. Two weeks go by before Dr Strange at last returns to his Sanctum Sanctorum with a new plan to try to help the Black Knight. He tries to summon the other Defenders but succeeds only with the Hulk and the Silver Surfer.

Doc puts Hulk into a trance to find out what happened to the other Defenders. Realizing where they are, Strange and the Silver Surfer go into the Atlantic Ocean where they see that they are just in time – the Red Ghost and Attuma, with the other Defenders now as enthralled as Namor, are leading their cosmic powered forces against Atlantis, with America to follow after Atlantis falls.

Working together, Dr Strange and the Silver Surfer free the other Defenders from mind control AND temporarily block cosmic rays from penetrating under the sea, thus cutting off the Red Ghost’s power. His and Attuma’s forces revert to normal and the entire Defenders team go on to defeat the invading army and the two villains.

When they all return to Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum he reveals his latest plan to help the Black Knight is to contact his soul wherever it fled to when his body was turned to stone. Little does Doc know that Dormammu has joined forces with Loki and they are about to pervert that attempt to help the Black Knight into a deadly war between the Defenders and the Avengers.

FOR THAT STORYLINE CLICK HERE.