Steve Does Comics

The Avengers were a big seller for Marvel in the '60s and '70s. Wanting to capitalise on the concept of adding big-name characters into one team, they created the Defenders . The difference with these guys, though, was that they weren't a team in the traditional sense. They had no headquarters and they really didn't seem to like each other at all. Only a few issues in and they'd already lost one ally - Dane Whitman , the former-Avenger known as the Black Knight - when the Enchantress turned him to stone. Unaware of the situation the Black Knight had found himself in (and of the existence of the Defenders, for that matter), the Avengers decide to investigate when they realise their repeated call to arms to Whitman during a string of crisis situations had gone unheeded. Little do they realise, they're soon to come into conflict with the newest super-group in town... [ WAR BELOW THE WAVES - Hawkeye joins the Defenders] Avengers #115 [1/2] (tie-in) Avengers #115...

Hawkeye has quit the Avengers and he's determined to make it on his own. But let's face it, he's a team guy. And it looks like there just might be a place for him among the Defenders  if he can survive a run-in with the Hulk . Wannabe-king of Atlantis , Attuma , teams up with Heihachi lookalike, the Red Ghost , in an attack on the surface world, giving Hawkeye a shot at making new friends. The real purpose of WAR BELOW THE WAVES is to set up for the AVENGERS/DEFENDERS WAR which follows immediately after... Incredible Hulk #166 Defenders #7 Defenders #8 [1/2] Incredible Hulk #166 When anti-government eco-warriors try to shut down a power station, the unleashed energy creates a being made of living electricity calling itself Zzzax , which starts consuming the life forces. Bruce Banner comes under threat from the rampaging Zzzax and is saved by Hawkeye whose arrows provide enough of a distraction to allow Bruce to regain his senses and Hulk out. Hawkeye uses a cable arr...

The X-Men 's Marvel Girl ( Jean Grey ) gained the power of Phoenix after a mission in space, but Jean lost control of her new abilities, went insane, destroyed a planet and allowed herself to be killed. Cyclops struggled with the loss of his beloved Jean until he met and married Madelyne Pryor , a woman who looked just like Jean (during FROM THE ASHES ) and they had a son, prompting Cyclops to finally leave the X-Men (during THE TRIAL OF MAGNETO ) and retire from life as a costumed adventurer. While all of this was taking place, anti-mutant hysteria has risen, especially since the Dazzler was revealed to be a mutant (during DAZZLER: THE MOVIE ), initiating a call for a Mutant Registration Act (during SECRET WARS ). Three of the original X-Men have formed a new team of Defenders (during ASHES, ASHES... ). The X-Men and their nemesis Magneto appear to be working together (most prominently during SECRET WARS II ). And the X-Men's founder, Professor X , has left Earth (durin...