Marvel Max, or Rather Omni-Max in Defenders #2!

The new Defenders stand against a universal constant in the final days of The Sixth Cosmos in Defenders #2. When last we left Marvel’s greatest non-team, they had just been transported to a “time before time”, joining with Taaia, Mother of Galactus, to defend the past against the hunger of Omni-Max. But can the past change the future? Something For Your M.I.N.D. Written by Al Ewing; Drawn & Colored by Javier Rodriguez; Lettered by Joe Caramagna.

Justin Partridge: Welcome back, Solar Sailors, to the CXF Sanctum Sanctorum. Your guides through the Magical Mystery Tour that is The Defenders. We are only in the second issue and there is already so much to discuss. The Coming of Omni-Max. The Sixth Cosmos’ End. The Judgement of Norrin Radd! 

I am getting goosebumps just THINKING about it all, Mark!

Mark Turetsky: I still hear them, Justin. I hear the rustle in the room with us. I think I see them out of the corner of my eye. We’re not alone here.

Justin: Like an invisible hand, pulling us and shaping us to some unforeseen conclusion, my friend. We mustn’t draw too much attention however. For that same hand could banish us to a dark no-place, stripped of life and content! I will not doom us to that fate!

Onward, by the Misty Moons of Madripoor™️!

Judgement Drawn in Reverse

Justin: So RIGHT from the jump we have an explicit reveal of The Silver Surfer’s placement both on this new Defenders roster and major arcana of the Tarot of The Secret Flame; the eldritch, deluxe edition deck Strange uses to gather friends and allies on occasion.  Judgement, but drawn “upside down”. 

And then Ewing just starts to make him EARN it, positioning him as our “lead” on this issue and plunging him into self-doubt after reflecting on his strange and time-twisted life. Further complicating matters is the further reveal, which was teased in the debut, that Taaia (our new Big Barda-like obsession here)  has already given birth to Galen of Taa. The future Devourer of Worlds, Galactus. 

This turn was somewhat telegraphed in the opening, BUT Ewing and company really find a neat and deeply emotional new take on this. While the Surfer momentarily considers how he could “change for the better” both his life and the Cosmos by eliminating the infant Galen in his “Techno-Cot”, he is confronted by the Masked Raider, who is seemingly devoted to the preservation of the timeline. And underestimating the deep empathy and emotional resonance of the Surfer, who renders his “judgment” on the young Galen…as his curiosity and wonder at the Universe, which would lead him ultimately to his ascension and knowledge of the Power Cosmic in the first place.

“All it’s beauty and sorrow and joy” says The Surfer. “It would be easier for you to be a force of nature, Galen of Taa…But I have taken that from you.”

I genuinely didn’t expect to cry about The Defenders THIS early, Mark.

Mark: To be perfectly honest, I really didn’t much care about the identity of the Masked Raider before this scene. But this confrontation between the Raider and the Surfer just challenges you to start thinking about the raiders intentions and his identity. He doesn’t want to stop Silver Surfer from killing a baby because that’s wrong on a fundamental level, he wants to stop him because it would mess with the timeline. And as someone who’s, on some level, connected to Eternity (the seventh and eighth Eternity, to be exact), he really doesn’t want anything messing with its formation.

I like this setup that Ewing and Rodriguez have given us with this second issue. If he’s being completely formalist throughout this mini, we’ll be focusing on a new point of view character in each issue. If the first focused on Strange, this one focuses on Silver Surfer (the first member summoned by Strange’s tarot), and so next month we’ll likely get one focused on Harpy (she’s front and center on the cover, even!), then Cloud, and finally on the Raider himself, where we’ll learn his secrets.

And that’s all fine and good as far as a concept for a mini, but what I really find is missing in a book like this is that it really doesn’t seem like a team book. Now, before you can say “but the Defenders isn’t a team!” yes. I’m aware. And I’m also aware that according to my own educated guess, we’ll have entire issues devoted to each character. 

But on the other hand, this series has the audacity to bring back a character like Cloud, and I love that ambition, truly I do. But so far, Cloud and Harpy have mostly just been running interference and playing support roles. It’s a fine formalist experiment, but on some level I find it a bit, well, sterile (appropriately enough, as coldness versus passion is one of the main themes of this issue).

Justin: I actually was starting to think about IF Ewing was going to explicitly keep to the “drawing” done in the debut. He obviously can still move away from this and/or the Defenders could find some way to fuck this up. As they are the team most likely to do that. 

But I think him keeping to the draw and then making the issue explicitly ABOUT that draw. Both in character and plot. It puts the issue in a nice alchemical space for me I think. 

Realistically though I DO hear your comment about it not really feeling like a team. Though I have really enjoyed the scant cuts of Harpy and Cloud so far, I would obviously like MORE seeing them all operate as more of an ensemble. Because I know Ewing and company can make that sparkle. 

I’m worried now as I think about it that the sheer speed and length of the miniseries overall might not allow for that. That we are going to have to make do with a more “feeling first” kind of Defenders run. One that’s very specifically designed for a very specific outcome and the flavor along the way is just all we are going to get. Because it has to serve a very specific narrative beam to get us to the finale issue. 

But enough about that WHO DO YOU THINK THE RAIDER IS? I’m sure you have theories. I too wasn’t super invested in their identity but now am WAY on board for the eventual reveal.

Shout at me on Twitter with who you think it is and why! 

Scienceers of The Sixth Cosmos!

Justin: But while Ewing and company are certainly bringing the heart to Defenders #2, it is also another truly sumptuous, and immensely crazy superhero feast. Both visually and narratively. 

Teaming with Taaia, a sort of Tom Strong-esque “science-hero” of the age, the Defenders are swept once again into a conflict beyond scale. Omni-Max, a relic of the wild magic ruled Fifth Cosmos, has come to feast on the Sixth.Though we only got a quick glimpse of him last issue, this issue Javier Rodriguez just goes absolutely BUCK wild rendering its Cthulhu-Meets-Galactus design. Which then further dominates all the mind-melting double page spreads and action transitions this issue comes to the table with. 

Omni-Max is also armed with his own Herald. The villainous Carlo Zota, the very baddie that kicked off this whole shindig in the opening issue (and Marvel Comics #1000). It’s just…SO, so freaking gorgeous. I can barely articulate it.

PLUS all this leaning into the slightly hokey, but broadly sketched fun of Marvel Cosmic stuff and old-school America’s Best Comics/WildStorm energy EVERYTHING surrounding Taaia brings to the table (she has her own “Hyper-Lab” Science Fortress! She rides on a Forever People-ass hover-bike!). It’s just…candy to me. 

Am I overselling this, Mark?

Mark: One thing I think you’re underselling is how much of this issue reads as Kirby pastiche. They travel through “worm-holes,” which are clearly a nod to Fourth World “boom tubes” (to say nothing of Galen being birthed from a “womb tube”), there’s the thing that’s alternately called the “Mother Cube” and the “Empathy Box” (I’ll let our readers figure that one out), there’s the hover bike you mentioned (which I’ve got more to say about later!), and Taaia’s very language reads like the far-out teenspeak of The Forever People. She makes reference to wanting Galen to grow up to be an “explorer of the fantastic,” a clear nod to one of Kirby’s greatest and most lasting gifts to cosmic Marvel, the Fantastic Four.

Ewing and Rodriguez here are clearly peeling back the layers on what makes Marvel well… Marvel! You can see it in Caramagna’s juxtaposition of the Defenders’ mixed case lettering versus Taaia’s all caps. This issue is about science heroism, next will be about magic (and I’m expecting some serious Ditko homage in that one), the next one, issue four…

So, I re-read Ewing’s Ultimates/Ultimates^2 recently, and there’s a moment in Ultimates^2 #100 where the various incarnations of Eternity from four of the iterations of the cosmos join together to rescue our Eternity from The First Firmament (the Eternity of the first cosmos, turned evil). In this issue, we’re in the Sixth, which Ewing refers to as “Inventor of Science. Builder of the junction to everywhere.” Next month’s issue looks to be set in the Fifth, “Maker of Magic. Weaver of the illusions of change” (the illusion of change is a well-trod concept in monthly superhero comics, basically that things can change, but not too much, and always have a way to change back to the initial status quo). After that, things get really interesting. The Fourth Cosmos is not present,  “He is the pilgrim, the true believer who journeys into mystery. One day, he will return.” This is the cosmos that we’ll hit in the fourth issue, if they stick to the pattern, and also if we stick to the pattern, it’ll be Cloud’s issue. 

Ewing also gives us a huge clue to be looking at this reveal in Ultimates^2 in the naming of Taaia’s space skimmer, “The Lifebringer.” Not only is the gold Galactus of Ultimates called The Lifebringer, but Lifebringer One is the legendary first hero, which Taaia describes as having existed in “the Time Before Time,” but we know from Ultimates^2 is the creation of the Third Cosmos, “The Continuation. Creator of Lifebringer One, the first hero.” Will this mini ever reach The Second Cosmos, “First of the new breed. Originator of the Omega Force.” or, dare I hope, The First Firmament? We can only speculate at this point.

So, to me, it seems like the plan is to peel back these layers of cosmos from issue to issue, re-exploring and examining different facets of the Marvel Universe, even to the point of using characters from the very first Marvel Comic from 1939. Ewing’s cosmos even draws from the language of anthology series titles like Journey Into Mystery and places them into the diegetic bedrock of the universe itself. It’s meta, but it’s somehow more than that.

Justin: I truly cannot tell you how happy it makes me that this run is both 1. THIS Kirby infused and 2. Also a direct follow up to Ewing’s Ultimates. It’s truly the best possible outcome that could have come to pass. 

Onward and Backward or; The Power of Love

Justin: BUT, if the Defenders are once again thrown into a titanic conflict, how will they win the day?! And where will they be headed next?!

We only have the answer to the first part, but some clues in the issue’s cliffhanger provide us some juicy, further Great Old Ones influenced texture as to the second.

Borrowing further a bit from the Distinguished Competition, Ewing and Taaia plan to expose Omni-Max to “The Mother Cube”. A trippy, eye-searingly cool looking conduit of raw emotion that is connected to Taaia and every other living soul on her planet. The goal being to “sting” Omni-Max with emotion and drive him back into the dark of space. 

We have seen this beat play out a few times in these sort of broadly operatic comics (Darkseid always DID hate music, after all), but I have to admit Mark, this stuff still really gets me.

Mark: So, what’s really fascinating to me about the final page reveal is the look of Mor-i-dun. He’s got face tentacles and spikes poking out of his head. It’s, well, it’s a pretty good match for Omnimax! Strange puts it together in this issue, that Omnimax, as a Devourer, comes from the Fifth Cosmos. And one thing Ewing was sure to hammer home about Galactus in Ultimates is that Galactus is not just Galen of Taa. He’s a merged identity of Galen of Taa and the Sixth Cosmos. So, is Omnimax a similar amalgamation of Mor-i-dun and The Fifth Cosmos? It certainly seems that way to me.

Justin: NO I ACTUALLY THOUGHT ABOUT THAT TOO. especially since Strange (and Ewing) specifically mention that Omni-Max is a “remnant of the Fifth Cosmos” or at least as far back as a Magic dominated Cosmos would be. So I genuinely would NOT be surprised if we are sitting 

here by the final issue and Mor-I-Dun and Omni-Max are somehow one and the same. 

Either by some machination of the Cosmos or direct intervention by the Defenders. I just wanna plaster the whole of this issue on black velvet and fire up every black light in the state reading this book. 

And we still have SO MUCH LEFT. I truly cannot wait. 

Marvelous Musings

• Special Thanks and No-Prize to  @pearlsnapped on Twitter for providing us some insight into the Tarot and even FURTHER pointing out that the Surfer’s position on the team is eerily similar to Tini Howard and Jonathan Hickman’s arcana placement and drawing of =[/\]= all the way back in the X of Swords days. Margot is also FOR HIRE herself! And a wonderful Game Master to boot.
• “You don’t have a bullet in that gun that can affect me.” Ewing just NAILS The Surfer throughout this issue.
• Justin also really loves the explicit return of Betty to the Harpy moniker. She actively rejects being called “Mrs. Ross-Banner” and prefers the old codename. It’s such a cool bit of connection of Defender to Immortal Hulk and the classic Incredible Hulk days. 
• We’re not out of time yet, but the day is coming soon!
• You are breathing the air of Caesar of Hannibal of Da Vinci of Galileo
• The Universe will Break Next Page Following

Mark Turetsky

Mark Turetsky is an audiobook narrator and voice actor who sometimes writes about comic books. Originally from Montreal, Canada, he now lives in Northern Louisiana.