Comic Review: Defenders: The Best Defense #1

Defenders: The Best Defense #1

Marvel Comics

Writer: Al Ewing

Artist: Joe Bennett

Doctor Strange, The Immortal Hulk, Namor the Sub-Mariner, and the Silver Surfer: the original Defenders are back. They never really went anywhere, but they haven’t been a team for a bit. There’s a cosmic train that destroys planets for fuel, and it’s heading towards Earth.

The story picks up pretty much from where each of the individual one-shot “The Best Defense” issues ended. An older Doctor Strange has sent his astral form to the past to help stop the train from destroying Earth. He recruits the Hulk to help him. Meanwhile, the Silver Surfer is in space trying to stop the train and is rescued by Namor, who has the Power Cosmic. Each plays their own parts in Doctor Strange’s plan, the Earth is saved, and the team goes their separate ways.

I really like the art in this issue. Joe Bennett does the art for this issue, and is the regular artist on Immortal Hulk. There’s no weird horror images in this issue, but it’s got a some other cool images. The story takes place primarily in space, so there are some cool backgrounds. There’s also a short trip to hell, and that looks great as well, reminding me of Immortal Hulk more than the scenes in space. The art is my favorite part of this issue.

I want to like this more than I do. The story itself isn’t bad, I like the concept, and I’m on board with this particular team-up. I think it just suffers from not being as long as it should be. It’s trying to tell its own story, while at the same time wrapping up the four separate stories from the lead in one shot comics. I had to read it twice to get a full understanding of what happens by the end. There are a lot of moving parts, and a lot of it is pretty good on its own. But the story gets jumbled by it. I mean, Namor riding the Silver Surfer as a surfboard? The Hulk eating a demon-cat-man’s face? Those are fun. But the story kind of suffers for it.

I do like this story. The “Best Defense” lead-in comics were mostly pretty good. I think this is an alright ending for the story. It’s a little lacking but there are some really cool character moments that happen. Plus, Joe Bennett’s art is fantastic. There’s a quote from Namor in this issue that really sums it up for me. “Another exciting non-team-up for the Defenders.” Did they team up? Yeah, kind of. But I think this story really would have benefited from a second issue or more than 30 pages.