A Sense of Doubt blog post #4178 - Havoc id the Headmen - Comic Book Sunday July 26, 2026
Not a reprint but still low power and blog vacation.
Sad.
https://tombrevoort.com/2026/07/19/bc-defenders-33/
BC: DEFENDERS #33
THE DEFENDERS was always a bit of a weird series to me. On the outside, it looked like any other regular Marvel comic of the period. But crack the cover and get into the contents and the stories were almost all unrelentingly weird. This was definitely the case for the run of stories masterminded by writer Steve Gerber, but it was also true of the less-successful creators who both filled in for him along the way or succeeded him. Gerber’s DEFENDERS was unique, though it was of a flavor and a spirit that I didn’t entirely embrace in the late 1970s when I first read this comic. It was an issue owned by my friend David Steckel that I borrowed from him along with the following issue. And it was definitely memorable, even if it didn’t quite get me onto the DEFENDERS train any more solidly.
Here we go, Exhibit A: above is the opening splash page to the story in question. And as you can see, it depicts a homicidal Fawn staring at a mystic image being generated by the Orb of Agamotto, in which the malevolent Headmen have defeated the Defenders and laid them out on slabs for whatever they’re planning to do next. It’s an utterly unforgettable image, in that it’s so completely unlikely that just the very fact of its existence drives itself deep into your brain. Enhancing the disquieting effect is the fact that the page in question was composed by Sal Buscema, one of the most journeyman of journeyman artists of the period, and finished in ink by Jim Mooney, ditto. Neither of these guys were major stylists, so the page is right up the middle, apart from its subject matter. Weird, weird, weird.
And Steve Gerber knows that this is a weird place to come in. so much so that he devotes the next four pages (of a 17-page story) to an extended recap mapping out just how the story got to this point. It goes something like this: Nighthawk of the Defenders was captured by the team’s oddball collection of enemies, the Headmen–so named because each of them has some oddity surrounding their cranium. The Headmen then performed brain surgery on Nighthawk, removing the hero’s brain and replacing it with that of Chondu, one of their members. Kyle Richmond’s brain is left discarded in a dish. As Nighthawk, Chondu infiltrated Dr Strange;s Sanctum and attacked the team unexpectedly with his magical might. But Strange was more than he could handle and he was overwhelmed. Having doped out the brain surgery, Strange then moved Chondu’s mind into the Fawn, who happened to be there, replacing it with the mind of Defenders hanger-on Jack Norriss, the husband of Valkyrie’s human form. The team then headed off to confront the Headmen, but were clobbered by a detonation from new recruit Ruby Thursday’s head. But the Headmen still think that Chondu is in Nighthawk’s body, so Jack is still in the game.
After an aside that cuts away to a young couple in Central Park being captured by aquatic reptilian aliens and blasted off in their rocket (weird!) the plot begins to get moving. Arthur Nagan, the leader of the Headmen, explains that he intends to brainwash the hapless Defenders and turn them into pawns. Jack is having a hard time keeping up a convincing portrayal of Chondu, but Ruby at least is charmed by his rough straightforwardness, and this enables him to bluff things through as the Headmen prepare to make their next move. He gets the assorted Headmen to reveal their own conflicting goals: Nagan wants to craft the world into a precision instrument under his control, Jerry Morgan wants recognition and respect–he invented a shrinking gas years before Hank Pym, but his blew up in his face, shrinking his bones and expanding his flesh to the point where it hangs off of him. And Ruby has turned her entire head into a malleable organic computer and wants to do the same for all of humanity. Three weirdos, am I right?
Back at Dr Strange’s Sanctum, Chondu, who found himself trapped in the body of a Fawn and consequently unable to cast any spells, has been haplessly hurling his body at the windows intent on escape. He eventually manages to break through–but before he can get far, he’s snatched up by one of those amphibious lizard men that I mentioned earlier. The Fawn finds itself teleported into the midst of the other abductees in the center of a strange Greek-styled structure on an otherwise-empty island. Weird. Anyway, back at the Headmen’s digs, the Defenders revive, not less worse for wear from Nagan’s mental reconditioning. Doctor Strange demands the return of Kyle Richmond’s brain, which leads to a fight breaking out between the two groups. As one team is comprised of the Hulk, Valkyrie and Strange himself, you’d think this would be an easy win. But Gerber contrives ways for the battle to carry on longer than it truly ought to.
The melee takes its toll on the suburban house which the Headmen have been using as their headquarters, and it’s practically demolished in the scuffle. At a certain point, Nighthawk’s discarded brain is located, and Strange implores Jack Norriss in Nighthawk’s body to carefully convey it far away from the struggle until he can see whether it might be restored to its proper place. (As a helpful caption spells out, this is the body of Nighthawk with the brain of Chondu and the soul of Jack Norriss carrying the actual gray matter of Nighthawk to safety. Weird, yes?) But as the fight wraps up, Ruby is able to get the drop on the far-more-powerful Defenders by extruding a spray of powerful sticky goo that momentarily ensnared the Headmen’s foes, giving them the moment they need to flee the battlefield.
But the story isn’t quite over yet! As Norriss/Nighthawk enters the airspace of Manhattan and heads towards Doc’s Sanctum, he’s caught in a tractor beam that pulls him up into the rocket the lizard men were using pages earlier. And as the issue closes, Nightjack is confronted by the defenders’ old alien enemy Nebulon and the lizards, whom he introduces as the Ludberties of Zaar! On that note, the issue is To Be Continued! It’s not that I didn’t enjoy this story when I first read it, it’s more that I didn’t quite know what to make of it. It was clearly going for something that was a bit beyond my twelve-year-old brain, but I couldn’t really suss out what. Steve Gerber was producing stories at this time that were on another level entirely, filled with iconoclastic insanity and clearly delivered more towards an older audience than most who were probably picking up a super hero book. This is what made his work such a stand-out in this period, its uniqueness. Even today, you would be hard-pressed to find another comic book like this one, particularly a super hero comic book.
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- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I post Hey Mom blog entries on special occasions. I post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day, and now I have a second count for Days since my Dad died on August 28, 2024. I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of Mom's death, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of her death and sometimes 13:40 EDT for the time of Dad's death. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
Trivia note: The costume Nighthawk was wearing in this era was designed by Len Wein.