Defenders #1

Defenders #1

Marvel Comics 2021

Written by Al Ewing

Illustrated by Javier Rodriguez

Inked by Alvaro Lopez

Lettered by VC’s Joe Caramagna

When existence itself faces extraordinary threats, it needs an extraordinary defense! That’s when you call...THE DEFENDERS! DOCTOR STRANGE and the MASKED RAIDER take a non-team of Marvel’s weirdest, wildest heroes on a mission that will uncover the hidden architecture of reality itself! This cosmos was not the first to exist...but if the DEFENDERS can’t track Marvel’s oldest villain through the deepest trenches of time — it might be the last!

I’m a huge fan of The Defenders and mainly thanks to its original run. There is something about classic characters mixed with those we don’t see everyday that makes for some interesting reading and oddly enough those felt organic as if they were meant to join the team when they did, this seems more contrived to me. Betty Banner just cannot find a home, there’s a reason for that and it’s because she’s just an interesting character, The Masked Raider however is intriguing enough that I want to see more of him and then there’s Cloud and not the one from the Initiative if I’m reading this right. I will however give points for originality in how the group was formed as that was pretty cool.

I do like the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. The character development is interesting and how we see this through the dialogue, the character interaction and how they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter as it fleshes them extremely well. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages introducing the story, the characters and gets things underway it all just brings the spirit of the title alive.

I appreciate the way that this is being structured and how the layers within the story begin to emerge and grow. The idea of the book and how we see this ensemble come together is great, I still question the selection process as I’d like to see more classic members but that’s just me. How we see this process come to life adds some great depth, dimension and complexity to the story. The way we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is extremely well achieved.

The interiors here are interesting. The idea of the tarot cards is fantastic. I’m not sure the style is for me, it’s good and has a very distinctive feel to it and there is some fabulous use of creativity and imagination but I like stronger, cleaner and tighter linework more detailed I suppose this has a retro vibe that makes Stephen look like Clark Gable, specially during the tea steam creating that imagery page. The composition within the panels brings out this great depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. I will say I wish we’d see more backgrounds, I mean Stephen’s house alone is a playground for creativity to shine. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. The colour work is extremely nice to see. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and highlights is really sensational and I have to say the stained glass windows, or the tarot cards are really impressive.

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There’s potential with this series and I hope that it has the chance to really shine with a good long run. I wouldn’t mind Stephen and the Masked Raider being the staple team members with a rotating cast, or bring back Hellcat, Gargoyle and Nighthawk heh. The writing here is strong and interesting with some solid interiors creating an intriguing beginning to this series.