Defending the Faith

ComicBookResources.com has a great article on Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis, and Kevin Maguire's upcoming take on Marvel's The Defenders. Giffen gives his take on the team:

"The Defenders are the group that if they seem like they don't like one another, they don't!" Giffen explained, "The Defenders hate one another. They've been thrown together and despise it. There's no love lost between these guys."

Makes sense to me. I've never read anything other than the first issue of Erik Larsen's relaunch of this title, but I never really understood why Dr. Strange and Silver Surfer would team up with Hulk and Namor. I'm sure someone can help out with an origin synopsis.

Giffen goes on to defend (no pun intended) the more humorous take on these characters:

Some die-hard Marvel fans might take issue with Giffen and DeMatteis's portrayal of these characters. They might feel that the two writers are trying to mock and humiliate their favorite characters. Which Giffen said is untrue. "When we go into a project like this and we're going to apply our little 'nyuk, nyuk' we don't take that approach to characters or books we don't like," Giffen explained. "All during our run on 'Justice League,' no matter how goofy we got, we had a genuine fondness for these characters. I don't consider what we do humiliating a character. I think what we do is showing you that some of these characters would be okay to have a beer with."

Finally, Giffen clears things up in regard to his relationship with DC:

A lot of people seem to think that Giffen hates and resents DC Comics and "Identity Crisis" because of the death of Sue Dibny, who was a prominent character in his "Justice League" stories from the 1980s. This is also untrue. "There's a lot of people out there trying to make a case for me being pissed off at DC and hating 'Identity Crisis,' and being broken hearted about Sue Dibny," Giffen said. " Hey, reality check, Sue Dibny, she's not even real. No, I'm not angry over 'Identity Crisis' or anything that went on it. Do I have issues with DC? I have issues with everybody! No there are no hard feelings and as a matter of fact I read 'Identity Crisis.' It's a good read and I understand why they're doing it. I get it. I really get it."

I love these guys. I've made a mission of collection every issue of the Post-Crisis Justice League and this creative team is definitely the bright spot out of all those books...and there's a LOT.