Peter B. Gillis Big Comics Readthrough

What can be difficult to get across on capsule reviews is the nuance of character interaction that makes New Defenders special. Peter Gillis rarely wasted a line of dialogue without revealing some aspect of a personality or how they interplay with others. The early focus on their personal lives was on the unusual love triangle between Iceman, Cloud and Moondragon. To understand that, we need to first delve into some complex backstories. Cloud is a new DeMatteis character, first appearing in #123 as a brainwashed agent of the Secret Empire, alongside Seraph and Harridan. Once freed from their control, she joined the New Defenders, although her past and origin remained a mystery. Maiden, Mother & Crone Moondragon has a much more complex and morally ambiguous history. Heather Douglas first appeared in an early Iron Man as a bathing suited mad scientist with a submarine, calling herself Madame MacEvil. Which as supervillain names go, is right up there with Boaty McBoatface. Steve Ger...

Not only had Peter Gillis inherited a team of little known oddballs for his Defenders run, he also had to contend with their lack of agency. Beast had transformed them from a 'non-team' who banded together when required, to a more traditional outfit living together in a hero headquarters. Bizarrely, just before the end of his run, J.M. DeMatteis had relocated them to Angel's holiday home on a clifftop in New Mexico. Although this made for a unique setting, there are a whole lot less supervillains (roughly zero) in New Mexico than New York. Gillis got around this flaw by making them a passive team, where trouble came to them every issue, the majority of it self inflicted. This had the knock on effect of making the team seem aimless and redundant. Their enemies were largely supernatural in nature, and certainly on the weirder end of the spectrum. I'll look at the first few setup issues individually, until it becomes more interwoven.. The New Defenders #131 (1984) Plot: J...