Friday Night Fights--Most Wanted Movie Scene Style!!

It's the Avengers/Defenders War on Friday Night Fights!!

Looooong story short--Dormammu has tricked the Defenders into gathering the pieces of the ancient artifact known as The Evil Eye, purportedly in order to restore the Black Knight's soul to his body. In reality, Dormammu is going to seize it and use the Eye to--c'mon everyone--rule the universes.

Ah, but Loki, who has been helping Dormammu, realizes that he will last in a Dormammu administration about as long as Anthony Scarramucci. So he goes to Avengers, and convinces them that the Defenders have turned evil and plan to use the Eye to wreak havoc on humanity. So, both sides fighting over each piece of the Eye, thinking the other team the bad guys.

Doctor Strange is in Indiana, where the corn is as high as an elephant's eye!

Strange gives Mantis the slip, and thinks that he's home free.

Oh, Stephen, how poorly you know T'Challa!!

POW!!!

Man oh man, there is absolutely no reason that we can't repeat this fight in a Marvel movie. Right, guys??!?! Please??

[SPOILER ALERT: Doctor strange casts a spell to put T'Challa and mantis to sleep, which is totally cheating]

Spacebooger would like to remind you that the Defenders won every single matchup in the Avengers/Defenders War. Go figure.

T'Challa's foot to Strange's face in Defenders #9 (1973), by Steve Englehart, Sal Buscema and Frank McLaughlin

Now is the time for you to go and vote for my fight. Why? If I win, I might show you the kung fu battle between Mantis and Strange. So go vote!!

Manic Monday--Avengers Vs. X-Men, 39 Years Early!

Well, apparently, the 1973 Avengers-Defenders War is in my brain today (and why shouldn't it be? Black Panther kicked Doctor Strange in the face--twice!!).

I very well may wrong, but I think this was maybe the first inter-book crossovers at either company, certainly of that length. If you counted the 4-page prologue in Defenders #8, the 3-page prologue in Avengers #115, and the two-page "bye, everybody" in Defenders #11, the whole thing took place over 8 issues of the two mags.

It's interesting to compare with the forthcoming Avengers Vs. X-Men book, which will be 12 issues long, plus a zero issue, plus a six-issue mini "expanding" fights from the main mini, plus 5-6 issues each of New Avengers, Avengers, Secret Avengers, Uncanny X-Men and Wolverine & The X-Men.

That's a lot of issues. Granted, there are a lot more members (and series!) of the Avengers and X-Men these days. But still, it sure seems like they're giving every single member their own individual issue.

Plus, buying each issue of the Avengers-Defenders War? $1.60. Avengers Vs. X-Men? Following every word costs you approximately $196. Save your shekels, kids!

It should be noted that the entire Avengers-Defenders War was written by one person--Steve Englehart. Avengers Vs. X-Men? The twelve issue series has FIVE different writers (Bendis, Fraction, Aaron, Brubaker and Hickman). Five writers...

There are other similarities. At the time Hulk and Hawkeye were former Avengers but hanging with the Defenders, something Englehart made good use of. Present day, the multi-team statuses of Wolverine, The Beast, Namor, and Storm will certainly come into play.

Both deal with potentially universe-altering crises: Dormammu and Loki taking over the universe, the Phoenix Force coming back again for...?

So 2012? Bigger, longer, more sprawling and much more expensive. But at its core, not really that different from 1973--two teams of heroes beating each others' brains in.

And to those complaining about multi-title crossovers? Your 40 years too late for that...

Manic Monday--Identity Crisis, 31 Years Early

At the climax of The Avengers-Defenders War (in Avengers #118 (1973)), the teams are confronting a now-all-powerful Dormammu, and he's getting a little bit pissy about it:

Well, [SPOILER ALERT], the good guys win. But what about Tony and Don's secret identities?

Uh...well, OK, I guess. It was just the two of them, it was correcting something an interdimensional god did, and presumably they agreed to it.

But, in the epilogue (In Defenders #11 (1973)), they return to Earth, and hook up with S.H.I.E.L.D., who had been keeping the chaos under control. But Nick Fury has questions...


Wait...what?

EVERY LIVING BRAIN?!? Doctor Strange just unilaterally decides to go and muck with every mind on the planet...for his personal convenience?????

(And the Avengers acquiesce to this? And Iron Man actually THANKS Strange for LETTING them remember?!? Earth's Wussiest Heroes, indeed)

(And I'm pretty certain that at some point, Nick Fury would have wised up, and his first step would have been to put a bullet in Doctor Strange's brain. Someone write that story, please)

Perhaps I'm old fashioned. But I've always been of the opinion that the Charles Xavier/Obi-Wan Kenobi/Doctor Strange style of altering the people's minds to be both offensive and unheroic. Overriding the memories and free will of people is something villains should do, not good guys.

For all its many (many, many many) faults, at least Identity Crisis presented such mind-altering hijinks as morally questionable, and having pretty terrible consequences.

Of course, Strange never learned any lesson, as in One Moment In Time, he and Stark and Richards erased Peter Parker's identity from the mind of every person on Earth, making Zatanna look like a birthday party hack magician. And not a single consequence.

(Hey, Dan Slott, here's a story idea for you...it turns out that everyone on Earth is getting seizures and strokes and turning evil as a result of Strange's tinkering with their brains, and Peter has a choice to make...which hopefully includes beating the crap out of Strange as part of the solution...)

Anyway, our lesson?? Don't piss off Marvel, or they'll have their "heroes" muck up your mind. Then again, if it could make me forget Fear Itself...? Hmmmm....