WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Defenders #1
As Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, the Avengers are one of comics’ most iconic and powerful superhero teams, but Marvel’s Defenders are the one group that is even more hardcore than Captain America and his allies - and they know it. As Earth’s Mightiest, the Avengers are the team best suited for massive supervillain attacks or world-threatening alien invasions. But when things get downright weird, the Defenders are the one to call.
While the non-team typically saves the day, more often than not, they do so by the skin of their teeth. After all, the Defenders are a more loosely knit group and more of heroes with rotating members depending on the threat at hand. With the threat set up in Defenders #1 by Al Ewing and Javier Rodriguez though, the situation calls for the Defenders’ newest and most dangerous roster yet.
With the Masked Raider warning Doctor Strange of a new threat to all of reality, the Sorcerer Supreme is forced to gather the Defenders once more using a spell called the Tarot of the Secret Flame, Strange summons his allies, including the Silver Surfer and the Red Harpy, risking the alteration of Fate itself as he calls them. But when Strange summons the Defender of old known as Cloud, a sentient nebula, he nearly destroys the world before he can work to give it a corporeal form. As Strange works to undo his mistake, he thinks to himself, “Welcome to the Defenders, Stephen Strange. There are no rules.”
This says a lot not just about the Defenders as a group, but also about the way its members view their association. Doctor Strange, and by extension, the Defenders as a whole, know that they aren’t the most traditional superhero team. They’re the group to call when things get too crazy to handle and there are no other options.
While the Avengers are a standing organization with procedures and regulations, the Defenders aren’t as rigid in their structure. These heroes only come together when the situation absolutely demands it and can be best described as an “in case of emergency, break glass” group, as opposed to being Earth’s first and best line of defense. Without a dire situation drawing them together, the Defenders happily go their separate ways every time.
The Defenders may not be Marvel’s most structured super-team, but they are one of its most dangerous. They’ve saved the world in secret on more than one occasion from threats that even the Avengers couldn't have handled. Earth’s Mightiest Heroes are no pushovers, but they just aren’t quite as dangerous as Marvel’s Defenders.