The Defenders - Volume 01 Issue 95

My Rating

The Vampire Strikes Back

Greenwich Village – Manhattan borough, the year 1981, the dynamic team of superheroes known as the Defenders have just returned from a hard fought battle in New York’s crime ridden streets. It’s now 5:17am and the weary team arrives in front of Doctor Strange’s home known as the Sanctum Santorum. An uneasiness fills Strange as he realizes someone or something has penetrated the magic defenses of the mansion. The front door has been forced open but the exterior is quite dark inside.

Doctor Strange and Daimon Hellstrom both cast detection magic to understand what dangers the team might be facing. Valkyrie, Gargoyle, and Hellcat all ready themselves for an ambush, but in ever comes. The Defenders rush inside to a deserted foyer. The group spreads out to search for danger as Strange moves towards the light switches. Before he can illuminate the room a winged creature swoops down over the grand staircase from the second floor balcony. Valkyrie uses her Asgardian reflexes and grapples the dark intruder and wrestles him to the ground.

The overhead lights are turned on and reveal the attacker as their ally Nighthawk. Kyle Richmond has returned to the Sanctum Santorum to request aid from Stephen Strange but foolishly entered the estate to investigate the breaking as well. As the Defenders break to recover from yesterday’s events, Nighthawk debriefs Strange and Hellstrom on the recent events which caused his paralysis and the serum he took which gives him superpowers.

Using the Eye of Agamotto, Doctor Strange reveals the secrets behind the serum. Kyle Richmond is granted enhanced abilities at night, but as the morning sun begins to rise Nighthawk is returned to his paralyzed state. Unfortunately there is nothing the Sorcerer Supreme can do for the man.

As Stephen Strange confers with his colleague Daimon on a cure for Nighthawk, magical alarms begin to trip all over the outside parameter. Something with extraordinary dark powers has just penetrated the walls of the mansion for a second time in less than 24 hours. Dr. Strange and the Son of Satan rush to the breach and come face to face with the lord of the undead, the infamous vampire Dracula!

Will Patsy Walker finally make peace with her hated rival Gargoyle? Can the female warriors of Asgard convince Valkyrie to abandon her friends and serve in the Allfather’s newest battle? What is the demonic force known as the Six-Fingered Hand which has taken control of Dracula’s mind? Collect the series to find out!

Reviewer Notes

Wow, this isn’t the Defenders I’m used to seeing on Netflix. In the late 1970’s the group was quite different indeed. We get Doctor Strange, Daimon Hellstrom, Patsy Walker A.K.A Hellcat, Gargoyle, Valkyrie, and Nighthawk in this rendition. There is so much going on in this issue that I can’t comment in detail due to the fact I don’t know the backstory from any of the previous issues. I bought this book because of the Dracula appearance. Now I will have to research some of the history of the characters to educate myself.

In a nutshell, the writer J.M. Dematteis gives the reader some social commentary about the crime levels of New York during the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. This was the Koch era that inspired such movies as Deathwish and the Warriors. I feel that today’s readers may relate since New York is seeing record crime rates once again.

The Defenders is very magic driven and its characters are rife with personal conflicts. Patsy Walker in this story is very bitter it seems. She is nothing like her fun loving personality in the 2015 series Patsy Walker A.K.A Hellcat!

In the Defenders issue 95 I count five separate story arcs entwined. I have to give one star for each plot point. This book is a perfect example of how Marvel stayed on top of the market. The readers need more than continuous action scenes and foreseeable victories. We need inner conflicts. We need loss. We need a hero we can relate to. This issue is a five star all the way.