But three dead Defenders, well, that's probably plenty. From 1978,
Defenders #67, "Val in Valhalla, part 2: We, the Unliving..." Plot by David Anthony Kraft; plot, script, and pencils by Ed Hannigan; inks by Bruce Patterson.
We saw the previous chapter
some time back, and this chapter opens in Oregon, in a state park where the Hulk has been peacefully hanging out. The Army can't have that, of course; and tries to ambush him with gas. While that doesn't work, they are still more successful than they realize, as the Hulk has a heart attack and dies! Since they didn't see his body land, they assume he just hopped off somewhere. Meanwhile, in scenic Valhalla, Harokin's forces have been defeated, since god of death-wannabe Ollerus has a moveable mountain, tear-assing across the countryside. He also has captured Valkyrie, while using Barbara Noriss as a pawn.
Back on earth, Hellcat and Nighthawk are also killed, in rather
Twilight Zone fashion, in a car wreck: even seeing their bodies carted off, they don't realize they were dead until "Valkyrie" shows up for them. Ollerus's plan was to kill as many people as he had to on earth, to bring their spirits into his forces, building them up until he was declared the new god of death. Valkyrie realized, although her costume had been changed, she was in the body of Barbara Norris...which is spelled differently every time it's brought up...and she starts fighting her way out, past chatty "watch-dragons," with the help of Harokin on Aragorn. They don't see "Valkyrie" arrive with Hellcat and Nighthawk, as the Hulk shows up with a lot of souls from earth, for Ollerus to "implore you--fight with me,
lest earth and Valhalla perish!"
The letters page mentions, this was the last issue for writer
Dave Kraft, who was off to run a publishing company in Georgia. He wasn't done with Marvel, though; he wrote most of the
Savage She-Hulk. I might have missed it before, though: he passed away in 2021 from COVID.
That's got to be a first right? The Hulk having & briefly dying of a heart attackkkkkkkkkkkkk (Billy Joel fans know)
ReplyDeleteWhere was Hela in all this? I'm pretty sure she'd have something to say about some newbie trying muscle in on her turf.
Kraft's run on the Defenders definitely doesn't get enough love. I had the rare privilege of briefly chatting back & forth with him on a fellow blogger's blog (Paul's Longbox) a couple years ago, in particular about the Scorpio 3-parter (47-50) where he cleverly snuck in hints that Scorpio was gay, he just couldn't outright say it. He really seemed proud of putting that in there for representation of the LGBQ+ community. RIP David Kraft.