THE DEFENDERS COVER & SPLASH PAGE GALLERY...

Copyright MARVEL COMICS

In 1971, MARVEL FEATURE #1 was released, giving the world the Dynamic DEFENDERS.  I recently showed you the new facsimile edition of the comic, but I thought I'd show you some more related stuff from my collection.  Below is the splash page (which I showed you in that earlier post) of the debut tale.  I've left out the splash pages of the two back-up strips as I displayed them in that same earlier post, but I included the cover again, above (which you'll already have noticed, natch). 

Next, the cover of the second ish, followed by the splash.  I believe I've got a '70s issue of The MIGHTY WORLD Of MARVEL with the same cover, when the story was reprinted within its pages over at least a couple of issues.  The main tale was 28 pages long, with a back-up tale called The HIDDEN WORLD, which was a reprint from SUB-MARINER COMICS #36.

Below we have #3, which was back to a standard 36 page comic, the previous two being 52 page (counting the covers) extravaganzas.  MARVEL had decided to give their mags more pages and content, but abandoned the plan after only two issues.  DC COMICS, who'd followed Marvel's example, didn't reduce their page count until several issues afterwards, and their sales apparently dipped as a result.

Number three was The Defenders last appearance in the title, as they soon got their own comic a couple of months later.  Marvel Feature lasted 'til #12, starring ANT-MAN from issue 4-10, with The THING teaming up with The HULK and IRON MAN respectively for the final two issues.  Ol' BENJY then got his own series in MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE two months down the line.

The COMING Of The DEFENDERS (above), which came out in 2012, reprinted the first three issues of Marvel Feature, and is where the scans of them in this post come from.  I didn't know about it at the time, and it only came into my possession today.  Glad to see it sporting the original NEAL ADAMS cover art, this time coloured by MATT MILLA. 

In 2001, Marvel published DAY Of The DEFENDERS (above), which as well as the first Defenders tale (the splash of which I haven't repeated as it's shown near the top of this post), also featured two 'prototype' Defenders tales, which are purported to have given rise to the regular series.

And just to round things off, let's end with the cover to the facsimile edition, containing all three stories and all the ads from the 1971 comic.  It's a nice little (not so little actually) mag, which belongs in your collection if you're not fortunate enough to own the original.  Right, that's it, effendi - until I can come up with some other idea to bore the pants off you (figuratively speaking of course - unless your name is SALMA HAYEK).

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