Sunday, October 1, 2023

CROSSOVER MADNESS

 Marvel's DEFENDERS series of the seventies and eighties was of course a "static crossover" in most if not all issues, due to the series' continued use of high-stature icons with their own features, like the Hulk and Doctor Strange. A majority issues also included many "dynamic crossovers," like the one seen below, in which Moon Knight guest-stars for the multi-part story "Who Remembers Scorpio?"




The "Scorpio" sequence was arguably the best story, and the best crossover, in the tenure of writer Dave Kraft, made more effective by strong Kirbyesque art by Keith Giffen. At first glance, the villains-- the crime combine "Zodiac," led by Scorpio-- appears to be a charisma-crossover, since Scorpio appeared first in the NICK FURY feature while he, together with eleven other astrologically-themed aides, took on THE AVENGERS. But the twelve zodiacal foemen of this DEFENDERS arc all android approximations of the human characters, so none of these artificial antagonists, appearing in DEFENDERS for the first time, were aligned with any previous feature.



Kraft also brought about one of the worst crossovers in Defenders history, when a TV documentary persuaded a dozen or so unaffiliated heroes into auditioning for membership in the "non-group." Many of the guest-heroes were written out of character by Kraft and the interior art was bland. The above cover is about the only good thing about this three-issue farrago.



A more amusing, if minor, crossover appeared in issue #65. Hellcat, the superheroine who had once starred in her own teen-humor series as everyday teen girl Patsy Walker, sought out another Marvel "funny girl," Millie the Model. The two characters actually did cross paths in a handful of earlier comics, but only when both were humor-types. I believe issue 65 is the first time Millie the Model appeared in a Marvel superhero title. She got a mention in the "wedding of Reed and Sue" story in 1965's FANTASTIC FOUR ANNUAL #3, but there too it was Patsy Walker who took primacy, as she and her support-character Hedy get a one-panel cameo talking in part about whether Millie is around.


No comments:

Post a Comment