I love the Defenders.
Which is odd, since I’ve never read an issue of their comic that I enjoyed. And I’ve read most of them.
Back in the early eighties I’d buy my week’s worth of comics and—with the leftover allowance—scour for back issues that would maximize my superhero-per-dollar ratio. The Defenders packed an absurd amount of characters onto every page AND those issues were just a buck. Yes, they were terrible, but they were twelve-superheroes deep kind of terrible. SCORE!
As much as the core members—Doc Strange, Silver Surfer, Hulk and Namor— are total bruisers, it was the grade-D characters like Nighthawk and Moondragon that caught my eye. Here’s how I bolstered the Defenders HeroClix roster…
• Son of Satan •
'70s Marvel was nuts. “Son of Satan...?” And in case his name was too subtle, that’s a giant silver pentagram on his chest. How does this guy NOT have a ride at Universal’s Islands of Adventure?
Damian Hellstrom is a Bullseye body (Sinister), Quicksilver head (Armor Wars), Dr. Fate cape (unleashed) and a trident from…Black Manta? Namor? It might have been some random Mage Knight figure. Bracers, pentagram and belt are thin strips of index card paper shaped & held in place by Krazy Glue. A custom dial delivers high-speed phasing while focusing on long-range attacks courtesy of trident blasts. Perplex, probability control, outwit and steal energy pop up for when he whips out da’ hocus-pocus.
• Gargoyle •
The figure produced in the Avengers HC expansion wasn’t monstrous enough for my tastes. He’s a bright orange monster with pink swim trunks and toeless booties. He HAS to be big to back up that outfit.
His body is swiped from The Demon (Legacy), the wings were pilfered from a Mage Knight creature and the costume trimmings are index paper bits hardened with Krazy Glue.
• Valkyrie •
I never understood why this character never caught on more than she did, she’s basically Marvel’s Wonder Woman. Plus she has a magic pony. WHEEEE…!
The horse is courtesy Moonstar (Fantastic Forces) while Valkyrie is the Invisible Woman (Clobberin’ Time). Her sword and braids were stolen from some random Mage Knight warrior and the cape & costume trimmings were more of that paper/glue combo.
• Dr. Strange •
Not much in the way of customizing here, but to play into the comics, I took the old Dr. Strange (Infinity Challenge), painted him white and BOOM! Astral Strange.
The way we play him is that when “regular” Doc is KO’d, he’s replaced by Astral Strange who clicks every round regardless of circumstance (his spirit can’t survive long without the body).
The custom Astral Strange dial features psychic blast, exploit weakness and probability control that can tilt the game in your favor, but you’d better work fast.
• Hellcat •
This doesn’t count. All I did was reverse the color scheme so Hellcat (Ultimates) has her classic yellow outfit. There is no team in the Marvel U without a redhead.
• Devil Slayer •
This, officially, is one of the laziest customs I’ve ever built. I normally try and get some kind of cool pose going by mixing and matching body parts, but what kind of pose is this? And why does he have Muppet eyes?
I can’t even tell what I built Devil Slayer from. Those are Hawkman’s weapons (Hypertime), but the rest of him…? Not one of my better pieces. Custom dial features a phasing/charge combo for surprise attacks, each click represents a different weapon pulled from his cape (blades, flurry, exploit weakness, etc.).
…and that be the Defenders. Yeah, they’re an easy comic book punch line, but it’s all untapped potential. Some writer/artist team will eventually figure out how to make these third-tier characters work. In the meantime, here’s a gallery of EVERY Defenders cover where you can see how twelve year-old me was tricked into buying issue after issue of this not-great series. #10 is still my favorite of the run.
• Gallery •
Assorted Defenders nonsense from around the web.
Valkyrie Marvel Legend figure that never was
———————————————————————————-
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: defenders, figures, marvel
Hey, have you checked out the Defenders: Indefensible limited series from a little while back? While not an “epic” Defenders tale by any means, Giffen really spins an entertaining yarn! Check it out!
I love your Devil-Slayer mod BTW! Awesome!
Hey man, thanks for the kind words on Devil Slayer. He’s got the best cape in comics.
And I gave ‘Indefensible’ a try back when it came out. I usually like Giffen, but that series left me a bit flat. Having the core four Defenders (Doc, Surfer, Hulk & Subby) act that JLI-ish way felt out of place…I think it might have worked better if it starred the lower tier guys instead (Nighthawk, Son of Satan, Gargoyle, etc.).
Loved the Maguire art, though. His stuff is always top notch, one of the most underrated artists in comics.
Agreed; NO ONE does facial expressions like Maguire!
I agree 500% with you on the Defenders. Lotsa cool characters. Great costumes. Ass-filled stories. But awesome job on the customs! That Valkyrie is amazing. And I love the idea (and look) of Dr. Strange’s Astral Projection.
If I’m remembering this right (it’s been a couple years), I think I finished building that Valkyrie right before it was announced she was going to be in the next HeroClix set. It’s why–for the most part–I stopped building Marvel and DC figures. It’s less fun sweating out a new custom when the character you build gets an official release a month later.
As an aside, the pentagram on Son of Satan’s chest was one of the bigger hurdles to clear with this batch o’ figs. To keep the lines straight, I cut out a small dot from index paper, gave it a razor-thin edge in the form of a second layer of index paper (held in place w/ Elmer’s). I then laid thin strips of index paper in the shape of the pentagram (held w/ more Elmer’s) and glued the dot to the figure with Krazy Glue, quickly pushing it down at the different corners with sculpting tools so it matched the contours of his chest as much as possible.
A small drop was placed on the face of the pentagram as well for the paper to absorb, essentially turning it into plastic (using the tip of a small shred of paper towel to absorb the excess).
I then painted the pentagram parts silver, the “in-between” parts flesh and BAMMO!, little plastic Antichrist.
Happy Easter.