Defenders

While trying to defend Earth from the extra-dimensional, demonic beings called the Undying Ones, Sorcerer Supreme Dr. Strange manipulated Prince Namor into aiding him, and then teamed with the monstrous Hulk to ward off the demons.

Later, when the Yannian scientist Yandroth menaced Earth with the Omegatron doomsday device, Dr. Strange persuaded a reluctant Hulk and Namor to help him thwart Yandroth's scheme, forming the "non-team" known as the Defenders.

After Yandroth's defeat, Hulk and Namor vowed never to work together again, but Strange managed to hold their informal alliance together over time.

Unlike other super-teams, these Defenders had no charter or by-laws, no permanent headquarters, no fixed roster, and little affection for each other.

The Defenders' ranks soon grew.

Due to the group's unofficial nature, any individual who assisted them could be considered a member, but only a select few fit the two major criteria of true membership: that they consider themselves Defenders, and that they are accepted by the continuing core group as Defenders.

Strange's disciple, Clea, assisted the team on an irregular basis.

The alien Silver Surfer's longtime link with the Defenders began when they aided him against Calizuma and his Warrior Wizards, agents of the Undying Ones.

The Asgardian warrior goddess Valkyrie became a mainstay of the team (first in the mortal host body of former Undying Ones follower Barbara Norriss and later in her own form) after helping them defeat Casiolena.

The archer Hawkeye fought several battles with the group before leaving their ranks.

Nighthawk, a reformed villain and head of Richmond Enterprises, became a long-term core Defender after a near-fatal battle with his ex-partners, the Squadron Sinister, and their extraterrestrial employer Nebulon the Celestial Man, who became one of the Defenders' most enduring foes.

The half-demonic Daimon Hellstrom helped rescue the Hulk from Hell and aided the team in other matters, eventually becoming a full Defender.

Mercenary super hero Luke Cage reluctantly aided the team in several battles until Nighthawk placed him on retainer to secure his full-time services, though Cage felt out of place and soon quit the group.

The dissident Russian heroine Red Guardian became a member after being alled to the US to assist in an operation on Nighthawk, and Barbara Norriss's ex-husband Jack Norriss became a regular - if sometimes rather unwelcome - associate of the group, at one point even occupying Nighthawk's body for a time.

Occasionally, their paths (almost) crossed with the mysterious, murderous Elf with a Gun, though they somehow never actually encountered him; another Elf would later become mixed up in their affairs though, as an agent of the alien Tribunals.

The team also attracted an eclectic array of recurring associates and occasional members such as Daredevil, Yellowjacket, and Devil-Slayer.

Hellcat, a former model turned superheroine, was the next major long-term recruit.

The Gargoyle, an elderly man trapped in a demon's body, joined the Defenders in their quest to prevent the grouping of minor demons known as the Six-Fingered Hand (Avarrish, Fashima, Hyppokri, Maya, Puishannt, and Unthinnk), who were being manipulated by an alliance of powerful demonlords (Mephisto, Satan [Marduk Kurios], Satannish, and Thog), from merging the realms of Hell with Earth.

The ever-shifting ranks of the Defenders battled menaces such as Dormammu dread lord of the Dark Dimension; Xemnu the Titan, the psionic alien conqueror; the Headmen, megalomaniacal scientists whose experiments warped their own bodies; Shazana who took control of Nighthawk's ex-girlfriend Trish Starr; Egghead's Emissaries of Evil; Null the Living Darkness and the Undying Ones, who threatened Earth yet again.

The Defenders were even tricked into fighting the Avengers when Dormammu and the Asgardian god Loki manipulated them into assembling the Evil Eye of Avalon.

After several skirmishes, the two teams joined forces and foiled Dormammu's scheme.

The Defenders' existence was revealed to the world in an unauthorized television documentary by Valkyrie's friend, filmmaker/television producer Dollar Bill.

As a result, a horde of well-meaning super heroes arrived at the team's headquarters (the Richmond Riding Academy) and declared themselves Defenders (while others, such as Captain Mar-Vell, Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers), and Paladin, decided against Defenders affiliation); but all of these "Defenders for a Day" decided to quit after a single harrowing day in action with the team.

When Arisen Tyrk was deposed as God-King of the extra-dimensional Other Realm, he fled through a damaged portal that split him into various fragments.

Some of Tyrk's sentient fragments landed on Earth and plagued the Defenders as the crazed Lunatik vigilantes while another fragment became drama professor Harrison Turk.

Other fragments fell under the control of the powerful other-dimensional sorcerer known as the Unnameable and landed on the alien Tunnelworld, where they allied themselves with the vile Ytitnedion of the Buzzard People.

When the Defenders entered Tunnelworld to investigate Lunatik's origins, they joined with Aeroika and the alien sorcerer Xhoohx, liberating the cylindrical realm from the influence of the Unnameable and Ytitnedion.

By this time, the founding Defenders were only occasional participants in the group; they soon quit the team altogether after the race of energy beings known as the Tribunals hoaxed Strange, Hulk, Namor, and the Silver Surfer into believing that the interaction of their karmic energies would eventually lead to the destruction of Earth.

The four heroes split up, resolving never to work together again.

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Copyright Owner
Marvel Comics
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