To me there’s nothing like the ORIGINAL historical context in which fictional heroes were introduced, so I’ve examined 1930s, 1940s and 1960s superhero characters, often reviewing their first 20 stories. Here are the first 20 Defenders stories from the 1970s.
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. Continue reading
For Flashman Down Under, Flashman in the Opium War 
The Action: Sir Harry Flashman and his wife Elspeth visit British Guiana right after their American Tour ended in August, 1876. A combination of Her Majesty’s Government’s interests and Flashman’s own hunger for large amounts of filthy luchre to sustain his and Elspeth’s grand new lifestyle wind up launching the British blackguard into his latest adventure. 
QUARTERFINAL ONE – In this game of the GPAC Conference Tournament the 8th seeded MOUNT MARTY COLLEGE LANCERS battled the top seeds – the MORNINGSIDE COLLEGE MUSTANGS. 
QUARTERFINAL TWO – The 3 seeds – the UNIVERSITY OF JAMESTOWN JIMMIES – took on the 6th seeded DORDT COLLEGE DEFENDERS in this Quarterfinal. 
PART FIFTY-ONE – The Fool Killer is back to hurl his Truth Bombs at some more malefactors. NOTE: This month the Fool Killer added a Blacksnake Cattle Whip and a Double-Geared Buzz Saw to his arsenal of weapons. The one to whip the foolish, the other to slice skin off their backs. Some of the Fool Killer’s targets from James Larkin Pearson’s November of 1911 edition of The Fool-Killer: 
LIFEPOD (1981) – Previously Balladeer’s Blog examined the worst movies from the 
As the Arcturus, on its maiden run, approached Callisto, the Cerebral announced massive system failures and began shutting down life support systems while ordering the crew and passengers to evacuate in lifepods and await rescue from Callisto’s authorities. In their Mayday broadcasts the crew make it clear they no longer trusted Captain Montaine (Christopher Cary), who insisted the Arcturus was fine and the Cerebral was just malfunctioning.
SHOWDOWN IN GLENDALE – The ARIZONA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY FIRESTORM welcomed the LANGSTON UNIVERSITY LIONS to town on Saturday. Neither team scored in the 1st Quarter but by Halftime the Firestorm held a 10-7 edge over the Lions. Both ACU and Langston notched a Field Goal in the 3rd Quarter, while the 4th saw the Firestorm shut out LU while putting up 14 points of their own for a 27-10 victory. 
GETTING STUNG – This game pitted the SAINT AMBROSE UNIVERSITY FIGHTING BEES against the visiting UNIVERSITY OF SAINT FRANCIS (IL) FIGHTING SAINTS. The Fighting Saints grabbed a quick 6-0 lead in the 1st Quarter only to see the Fighting Bees go up 7-6 by the Half. After the break came a scoreless 3rd Quarter before Saint Ambrose University clinched a 14-6 win in the 4th. 
DAREDEVIL Vol 1 #1 (April 1964) 
Previously here at Balladeer’s Blog I covered YT Channels that featured what I considered the very best of the emerging subgenre of Analog Horror or “Unfiction” as a lot of people have labeled it. Those descriptive terms have been coined to help keep these creative efforts distinct from pure ARGs (Alternate Reality Games). 
(If you’re in the mood for Analog Horror which does NOT back away from pandemic and lockdown lore, check out 
EMPIRE OF ASH (1988) – Also released as Maniac Warriors, this post-apocalypse movie is, as you would expect, another of the 1980s’ countless imitators of The Road Warrior. In Empire of Ash our year is 2050 and our main location is an American settlement called New Idaho, with Canadian forests passing for the post-holocaust world. All cities have become uninhabitable so survivalists scrape by in woodland communities. 
