4:33 Ooh, a challenge. Judging by the arc of speed lines and her pose, Hellcat appears to holding herself up with right hand on the ground while swinging both legs up and forward, with the left leg scissoring across the right, all while she releases the Frisbee with her left hand while swinging her left arm from right to left in what Id guess is a nearly vertical arc. The trajectory of the Frisbee is quite literally impossible as it's leaving arc of her swing on the as her arm is moving backward rather than forward, which just adds to the absurdity of the panel. Not exactly Sal's best work there.

no more beer for you, you called Nighthawk NightWing lol

I still remember reading the Defenders as a kid. I specifically remember the particularly crazy issue when they were running around with Nighthawk's brain in a bowl! The industry needs more books with heroes brains being carried around in bowls.

Watching Chris develop a drinking problem on film is half the fun of this channel.

Bahaha! Your synopsis was hilariously dead-on. The Defenders was the comic you'd buy when there was literally nothing else new on the stands back in the day; the type of comic you'd roll up and put in your back pocket and didn't care if you lost it while riding your bike home or if you left it at your buddy's house.

Defenders were a constantly changing lineup. But man, can you imagine how powerful they were considering who was or could potentially be on the team at any given time?

Peak 70s goofy fun was the Headmen issues of Defenders. Nighthawk's brain in a bowl!

"Elf With a Gun" is my new favorite comics character

The Defenders are a study in mismanaging talent. These comic books should be analyzed by the top business schools of the world. The same unlikely three-issue story arc is probably an everyday reality by millions of employed but miserable people, in jobs going nowhere, with guidance being rare. Marvel should continue the series at a financial loss and use it to train talent for more significant books.

Gerber was like the 70's answer to Grant Morrison, only funnier. What a great guy - I miss him!

I liked The Defenders and collected them all. And I would put that lineup of Dr. Strange, Hulk, Surfer and Namor up against any superhero group that you'd care to name. The problem with The Defenders is that the power in their lineup varied so greatly that the stories would go from fighting cosmic near gods to glorified purse snatchers in the span of two issues.

This was great! I was a regular Defenders reader back in the 70's. At the time, Defenders was the funniest non-humor book on the stands. The arc before the one you covered, with the Zodiac Gang, which lead up to Defenders 50, is a hoot! I believe it's written by Dave Anthony Kraft and pencilled by Keith Giffen who at the time was doing his Kirby thing - and doing it well. #50 is a total fight scene. The ENTIRE BOOK is pretty much the Hulk on a rampage tearing the Zodiac Crew to bits! I believe Moon Knight is the hero who instigates the fight. Great stuff...great comics. Way better than the stuff out there now - in my opinion.

I love the synth intro you use in this video. It’s very catchy. Whenever I hear it I’m immediately ready for comic tropes. Pavlov’s response level: 9000

Man this haves to be by far the most underrated KZfaq channel ive seen, spectacular content, really funny and you actually do learn a lot about the authors :) Keep up the good work.

They were the Seinfeld of the 70's. A comic book about nothing

Ahhh, Defenders 62. I must have read it like 20 times. Absolutely hilarious. I still think of the “Captain Colorblind” and “Jerk of Hearts” and I love how they ask for cream and sugar in their coffee and Hulk says “Drink it black”. That’s right buddy, this a tough guy organization and we don’t use milk and sugar 😀

I think with The Elf With a Gun, it was a subplot that writer Steve Gerber was building to, but he left the title before he could get to it. I'm pretty sure the next writer didn't want to deal with it so he just had the Elf get hit by a truck. I wanna say a few years later they actually did come up with an explaination for the Elf but I'm sketchy on the details.

Watching this video about 2 1/2 years after it was made. It was damn enjoyable. Looks like you have been making consistently good episodes for many years.

I read this comic as a kid, and it was a flippin' hoot! Still is, actually. Ironic that the book takes this kind of turn after killing it for issues 31 through the giant size (the Headman/Nebulon saga) and then about 46-50, with the Scorpio storyline. I will always have fond memories of the Defenders books.

"If Stingray and Tagak support you, I mean, you're going all the way." LOL! I'm dying over that...

⚡️🤯 !!! - When you realize that’s why Hulk nicknames Valkyrie “Angry Girl” in Thor: Ragnarok! Wish this could’ve been a ‘Three’s Company/Batman 66’ type show in the 70s’. Would be super hilarious now! Great video as usual! *Just realized Dexters Lab basically did the next best thing with The Justice Friends cartoon and fruit pies commercials! Genndy Tartakovsky definitely loved 70s’ comics.

Dollar Bill is the most noteworthy supervillain the Defenders ever faced.

I used to collect these comics in high school.the reason was that the stories were so off the beaten path it interested me.a lot of what went on was just pure silliness but i kept buying them.

The defenders were my favorite growing up. And i still find this storyline awesome.

Whenever I see Nighthawk I find myself looking for "Dynomutt"

The very first comic storyline that got me into Marvel Comics was the Avengers/Defenders Evil Eye crossover. I loved the Defenders, especially Steve Gerber's weird ass run, and actually have every issue of the first series, as well as the Marvel Features issues and all of the prototype issues. Issues 1-50, as well as any crossovers, are still my favorite comics.

I'm glad the defenders show is raising younger readers awareness of these older,classic characters. I still maintain that a coexistence of classic Marvel characters and their 2010 counterparts is the only way to reconcile the fallout of the Marvel reboots

As a child and a pre teen I LOVED the Defenders ! They were my book of choice until the X-Men picked up steam and the Defenders just floundered into different versions that didn't work.

Defenders fans may also enjoy Erik Larsen's "Freak Force". It has a similar irreverent tone overall, the team is made up of individuals who are thrown together, and they deal with everything from the sublime to the ridiculous.

I wouldn't say that Steve Englehart was known for his "out there" type of stories. Gerber, definitely. I always felt that out of the Marvel writers of the 70's if you didn't know who wrote a particular issue you couldn't tell if it was by Conway, Wein or Englehart. But you could always tell when a story was written by Steve Gerber.

This was such a fun video, I just had to watch it again! Sometimes comics are just wacky and fun, and I love that! The Defenders was such a fun concept, and, wow, how many C-and D-listers can you have in one book? Love it!

This episode is hilarious 😂

This was my favorite book as a kid! I loved Val going to college and waiting in line and the way the heroes wrestled with everyday stuff the way we do. You could do a whole episode on the Zodiac Saga in #45-50. Weirdly tragic and wacky at the same time

Your comment about details for the Lunatik/Lunatic mistake is ironic because you called Nighthawk Nightwing shortly before then went back to Nighthawk

I loved this team! Sure they were C listers, but I love comics, period! It was also very much a 70s title in theme and relevance.

Not just a recap but hilarious camera angles.

I've been currently reading through all my Defenders. I have #'s 1-124 and am on # 34 as of 1/11/18. Yeah, they're proving to be pretty weak overall but I have a HUGE soft spot for 1970's Marvel.

My all time favorite comic book having 4 of my 5 all time heroes excluding Thor. The foursome of surfer hulk strange and namor is still to this day the most powerful of any superhero team imho.

I’m a big Defenders fan, especially when it was bonkers. Loved it when Gerber, Giffen, and Janson worked on the book. Just completed my run last year. Love the videos, this one made me laugh out loud.

The Defenders are one of my favorite Marvel teams!

Man...you’re the most fun youtuber I follow. Always just some silly stuff. Always good natured. Always just having a good time with the funny papers. No corner too remote to dig into. I wish I had two spare cents for your patreon, but in the mean time I’ll upvote every video I watch. You’re what this community is about!

I love all your content but this era of Comic Tropes is my favorite.

Ok...watched 2 posts and digging the content. You got me. SUBSCRIBED!

That image of Hercules swinging a tree looks like when Lucy would clobber all the peanuts characters and send them flying

"Sagittarius...Sagittarius..." cue grey screen and blank look That was truly funny!

Ohmigod! This was hilarious. The Defenders was one of my favorite C-List super hero groups.

this is delightfully silly. Plus Patsy Walker is such a bizarre character, always love seeing her past haunting her as a hero. Great video

@ComicTropes this was the best Miller Light commercial of all time

You do such a great job!!!!

I agree completely, its a super fun comic with a great cast. You can just read and smile

Oh hi! You caught me watching older episodes

Great video as always, Chris! I don't know if there is enough material there to make a whole episode, but I remember loving the Marvel Comics Presents titles when I was a kid. They seemed to always have a team up of some kind, usually Wolverine and somebody or somebodies else.

Defenders 107 was the first book I bought and decided to collect. 1982 I think it was. I had comics before that but I got serious for quite a while after that. That book I figure is why I'm into comics today!

I love your honesty after you take your first sip of beer "Its ok." Hilarious

The comedic timing of that page turn where all the superheroes are standing at the door was perfect. I think I'll look for this comic

elf with a gun! LOL! I'm fucking dying !!

I read this issue, pretty great and I really like the roster of the evil defender, very varied.

I seem to recall a Defenders comic set at Christmas time, The thing I remember from it was Hulk wearing a Santa hat, and someone gave Hulk a pair of purple pants as a gift. "What do you give a guy who has nothing?"

The defenders are probably my favorite ensemble comic group...

I wonder who won the Marvel No Prize for the Lunatik/Lunatic correction? lol

I have so many defenders comics lying around somewhere

I love this crazy series This issue is a crazy classic I still have these issues

As silly as Defenders #62 was, ( I bought it off the newsstands the day it came out ) I still prefer it to anything Marvel is publishing today . As for the Elf with a gun , my guess is after Steve Gerber left the book , the new writer couldn't kill him off fast enough .

I loved this book! I was following monthly at this time.

I love this channel

The Defenders were the greatest off beat team ever

It was a very silly comic which made the super serious lead up and pay off in issue #100 all the more impactful to us readers. The tongue in cheek attitude would be done later in Justice League International.

This was just okay. I mean it's no kool-Aid man or combo man, but it's just okay.

ROFL this was the funniest episode yet. "if stingray and tagak support you...you're going all the way"

The Defenders won the Avengers/Defenders war and defeated the RWS group Sons of the Serpent with the aid of Luke Cage. Nighthawk's butler Pennyworth, who was AA, was found out to be funding the Son's. The Defenders started out well.

This seems utterly delightful

I got into the Defenders the issue when Hawkeye overheard the Hulk mention something about them and he chased him around town shooting arrows at the Hulk demanding to know who these new guys were. Got to love Hawkeye when he has a good writer. Guy takes on Iron Man and beats him and he has no problem taking on the Hulk when he wants to.

Hulk nicknamed everyone he encountered in his own series also he nick named spider man bug man

I love this comic tropes episode.

I remember liking The Defenders much more than the Avengers back in the 70’s but I was probably about 6 or 7 years old. This is pretty bad. Lol

Steve Gerber created Elf with a gun, then left, and the next writer just killed the elf off

All of the superheroes descending upon Nighthawks ranch are like overenthusiastic Freshman crashing a Senior keg party. After seeing Captain Marvel's participation in Endgame, I can see where they got her characterization from.

this is awesome

12:31 "Hulk in Friendzone. Hulk always in Friendzone."

The first comic book I ever read was Defenders #9.

At the time Defenders #62 came out I remember thinking: it felt like it was written by some little kid, playing with his "action figures".

F for squadron supreme during hickmans run 😢

I love this story. It was so fun.

Best comic review ever dude busted out a beer an explains the team......fucking great.....🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣👌

Captain Ultra was definitely a supporter of Gamer Gate.

that nighthawk plotline where he was carrying around his brain in a bowl really wigged me out as a kid.

Guess from my name whether I love The Defenders. My favourite iteration of Hulk, including the Hulk words for anyone he came across. As for 'Hulk-ocaust', at the time of writing (1971) the word 'holocaust' had yet to be synonymous for the WW2 genocide - there was a 1978 US TV show called that, and slowly after that the word became used chiefly, and then only for, well, the Holocaust. There's probably many examples of Marvel (and others) using the word interchangeably with words like 'armageddon' in the 60s and 70s.

"Maybe I could be a Defender, where they give you more free time." -Yellowjacket, Avengers #151

Captain Ultra was a recurring joke across Marvel team books of the time. Griffin Gogol, a plumber by trade, had his innate powers unlocked by a chance meeting with an extraterrestrial being, posing as a psychologist, who offered to cure him of his smoking habit. Following this, every time a team of heroes (or villains) had a membership drive he would show up, initially impressing with his skillset, and then disappointing with his *one weakness* to the slightest presence of a naked flame, the only downside to his empowerment. I believe his first appearance was in Fantastic Four Vol.1 #177 (December 1976) and he would then be passed around Marvel editors working on various other team books. I'd love to see an episode dedicated to his appearances in both comics and animated Marvel shows.

very funny video & this comic sounds ridiculous in a good way

I adore the original Defenders, their more quirky aspect, the non-team aspect and my love of B and C listers were all boxes that are ticked that I love. This however, as fucking goofy as it was, was NOT typical of the usual fare. The adventures were usually way more out there than the Avengers but weren't so sit-commy

Thank you. I was scratching my head at the time of the show being announced. I thought I was confused.

11:45 Dollar Bill must have had a VCR. They were starting to appear in the mid-seventies.

Holy crap, a gamer gate reference in comics...

I LOVED the Defenders! Hulk, Dr. Strange, Silver Surfer, Namor, Hawkeye and Valkyrie. They could go toe to toe with the Avengers and they did on one crossover back in the 70's.

This was a goofy yet fun issue. I remember first reading it years ago and just laughing as I read it. Captain Ultra was never meant to be taken serious.

This issue has some serious gremlin levels of chaos to it

this is your best video i laughed the whole time

Miller Lite is my favorite! How dare you!

Sadly, only getting to this now (working my way through the backlog of KZfaq channels I've discovered well into their runs). If you want to really appreciate all the goofiness of the Defenders, I highly recommend the podcast Titan Up The Defense, which alternates between issues of the New Teen Titans and the Defenders.