Tyranny and Mutation

Book: The Defenders

Issue No.: 59

Published: February 14, 1978

Title: “Tyranny and Mutation”

Cover Price: 35¢

The narration on page one explains that a cult called the Harvesters of Eyes are plotting to bring about an end to the human race (I’d expect no less from a cult called the Harvesters of Eyes), and they can only be stopped by the Defenders (according to the explainer at the top of the page, everybody’s favorite non-team includes Valkyrie, Nighthawk, Hellcat, and Hulk at this point) and Devil Slayer (AKA Simon Payne).

I love, love, love the second page (a second splash page) of this book. Apparently Valkyrie and Devil Slayer are in some weird dimension where the reality is ever-shifting, and the artwork captures that, implying that things are happening in sequence and also all at the same time.

A little more detail on the cult’s evil plan — their leader is a half-demon woman known as Vera Gemini (cool name!). They’ve summoned the demon Belathauzer. And they’ve stolen Dr. Strange’s magical Eye of Agamotto, which they plan to use to create a portal to let a bunch of demons come to earth. And Vera will of course make herself queen of the demons in the process.

(Dr. Strange is a big player in this story, but I’m not sure if he is officially a Defender at this point since he isn’t listed on the page one explainer. And since the Defenders are definitely not a team anyway.)

Also one of Vera’s demon friends has possessed a dude who is a U.S. Air Force commander with access to some nuclear weapons. Uh-oh.

I don’t mind a little exposition, but it seems like the first eight pages of this story is all exposition (first catching us up from the previous issue, then Dr. Strange explaining the bad guys’ evil plan), and it is also super verbose. I struggled to get through some of it, even though it’s supported by often striking artwork (especially that second splash page).

We get a break from all of the cult stuff with a scene featuring Hellcat hanging out with Nighthawk, who is apparently kind of the Batman of this book as he is working with a team of assumedly highly-paid technicians who are helping him test a new jetpack for his super-suit. He also mentions he has twice his normal strength at night, which I didn’t know — I assumed his super power was just being rich, but he has at least one actual super power.

Then we get a half page set in the Soviet Union (in case you forgot, there was a Cold War going on between them and the U.S. in the late ’70s) with some scientists studying a nuclear-powered woman named Dr. Tania Belinsky who I guess will be some kind of superhero or maybe villain at some point.

Dr. Strange gets attacked by demons while astral projecting, and the issue ends with the Defenders finding out that Strange is... dead? Hey, this is a comic book, so Strange won’t stay dead long, if he’s even dead at all. But that’s a pretty good cliffhanger.

Week Three Wrap-Up

That’s a wrap on week three of Marvel’s February 1978 books! The ones released in the States, at least. According to the Fandom.com Marvel wiki, Marvel published three reprint books in the UK that week — Complete Fantastic Four no. 21, Rampage (The Defenders reprints) no. 18, and Star Wars Weekly no. 2.

The total cover price for the week’s books is five bucks — ten 35¢ books plus that awesome $1.50 Defenders Treasury Edition. Adjusted for 2022 inflation, that’d be about $22.50.

Next time — I jump into week four of February 1978 with Marvel’s original Captain Marvel!