The Fearless Defenders Vol. 1: Doom Maidens
So one day, I decided I wanted to read a book involving two of Marvel's bad bitches: Misty Knight and Colleen Wing. Well, this book didn't have a lot of Colleen Wing, but it has Misty! So at least one qualifier is met. Anyways, this series is written by the ever so panned Cullen Bunn and drawn by Will Sliney. Keep in mind, this book takes place immediately after the events of
Fear, Itself. Gonna have to read that, regardless of how bad it is. Basically, all there is to know going in is that there is a floating city called "Asgardia" chilling in New Mexico. Asgardia is ruled by the All-Mother, a trio of female Asgardians consisting of Freya, Gaea, and Idunn. Valkyrie is the last Shieldmaiden of Asgardia.
To start off, we see Valkyrie standing in the rain talking about omens, when the rain turns to blood. CUT TO: Misty Knight on a boat, taking out some thieves that are smuggling priceless Asgardian artifacts. Misty grabs one, gets attacked by some mysterious mercenaries, and heads back to not-really-renowned-or-even-known archaeologist Dr. Annabelle Riggs. At this point, the artifact starts summoning zombie vikings, which Misty begins to kill...again. Valkyrie shows up on her flying horse, Aragorn, and helps Misty kill the zombies. The dialogue is not great. Valkyrie saves Riggs, who then kisses her and falls madly in love with Valkyrie. Anyways, they all head to Asgardia to inform the All-Mother, who then informs them of the Doom Maidens (also referred to as the Blighted Host), a group of old Shieldmaidens who went super evil and got put down by Odin. Hela shows up, having pulled a fuckton of strings to resurrect Warrior Woman a.k.a. Hippolyta of Themyscira, in order to fight the Doom Maidens. The reason Hela is even involved (strange, since all the dead souls that would result would bolster Hela's forces) is because the Doom Maidens are unstoppable killing machines, and would eventually turn to destroying Hel. She brought back an Amazon because Amazons are the only race that both rivals Asgardians in power that also is not Asgardian, since the Doom Maidens are attempting to perform a world-ending ritual in which the final ingredient is the blood of a valkyrie a.k.a. Valkyrie. The All-Mother declares that Warrior Woman will not go alone, and that Valkyrie, Riggs, and Misty will accompany her.
During those events, the group of mercenaries that attacked Misty earlier have gone and captured Dani Moonstar who, while no longer a mutant, is still a valkyrie. Another reason why Hela wants to get involved is to save Dani, who is Hela's valkyrie. It's revealed that the mercenaries are being run by a woman named Catherine del Rey, who is a psychopath that wants to end the world for shits and giggles, hence resurrecting the Doom Maidens. The four sent by the All-Mother show up at the evil lair, fight the Doom Maidens, and save Dani Moonstar. During the fight, Valkyrie is revealed to be Brunhilde, the Doom Maiden of Rage. They pull out to Misty's secret safehouse, where they decide to follow the Doom Maidens to an ancient arena with Asgardian imagery. Only Hipployta, Valkyrie, and Dani go, while Misty and Annabelle stay back at the safehouse. It's revealed during a losing fight that Misty and Annabelle summoned a bunch of female Avengers to help fight. Something about needing to replace the Shieldmaidens of Asgardia in order to stop the ritual and kill the Doom Maidens. Anyways, Valkyrie goes full rage mode and kills all of the maidens, beats down all the Avengers, and then is about to kill an entire town before being stopped by Annabelle. Annabelle appeals to her emotional side, and Brunhilde (full rage mode) kills Anabelle before completely going away. Valkyrie, now in full control, reveals that she now has the power to see those with Deathsight, the ability to see impending doom. She states that the world doesn't need Shieldmaidens, since heroes will always show up when they're needed. The Avengers all tell her to fuck off (especially Misty) and leave. Catherine del Rey is now trying to create a new set of Doom Maidens using existing heroes and villains. Oh, also Annabelle Riggs was a valkyrie.
So, this book was pretty decent. Bunn writes and Sliney draws. It's nothing special. Bunn creates a cool plot, but bogs it down with largely serviceable dialogue. Sliney's art is okay, creating cool single panels, but his fights don't have good flow. They're choppy, but not like Land where they can just be plain hard to follow. That seems to be the book's biggest problems: all big picture with simply mediocre details. The focus is most certainly on Valkyrie, while Misty is just sort of there. Given the Asgard focus, I wish there was more Dani, but she sadly spends almost the entire time being a prisoner. Instead we get focus on Hipployta -- who is just okay and doesn't have much of a shtick beyond, "Amazons are better than Valkyries" -- and Annabelle Riggs, who is just there for plot and a love interest that only pays off for one moment and is gone. Overall it was a cool action book and I'll definitely read the rest of the run (I believe it only has two trades), but it's just okay and I'd find it hard to recommend to anyone not looking for this kind of book already. Even then, there are better female-lead ensemble action books (
Rat Queens, for example).
I'll definitely keep reading, since the book does satisfy, but not as much as I wanted it to.
.
