Valkyrie has been possessed by her dark Doom Maiden persona and turns on her allies, the dream team of female heroes that Misty Knight enlisted to help them in their quest.  Because the others are reticent to harm Val, she makes short work of them.  Ultimately, one hero remains, but to stop Val and free her from her dark side, she must make the ultimate sacrifice.  Yes, the fledgling team loses its first member here and it’s a shocker.  Following this, there may not even be a Fearless Defenders!

I say this every month, but I just don’t love Will Sliney’s art.  It’s certainly not horrible.  He does everything right, it’s just a stylistic thing.  I find a lot of his lines too heavy and dark.  Also… sorry, Val’s boobs look odd.  I will compliment the energy in his work.  The action scenes have a nice fluidity.

It was a Val-heavy story, so I felt Misty got a bit shorted, but with so many characters, I suppose that happens.  I’m ready for this team to solidify.  I know all these characters won’t stick around.  Of those featured this issue, I predict that eventually the team will settle into Val, Misty, Dani, Hippolyta, Colleen Wing (just because I want to see her working with Misty again), Tigra, Tarantula, Hellcat and maybe Black Cat.  Captain Marvel, Storm and Black Widow are almost assuredly not permanent.  I’m not sure about Thundra.  She’s not doing anything else, but with Hippolyta around, she may be redundant.  Then again, there are three cat women in the mix, so who knows?  I’d really like Val, Hellcat and Clea in there, just because they have such a lengthy history with the team.  Heck, they can bring in Moondragon and Cloud and I’d be fine.

The most interesting development this issue is that there may be a villainous counterpoint to the Fearless Defenders on the way, with some of the worst femme fatales in the Marvel Universe.

Overall, I don’t love the art on this book, but it’s still reasonably entertaining with some good characters with loads of potential.

atoms_3.5

 

THE FEARLESS DEFENDERS #6
Written by Cullen Bunn
Art by Will Sliney
Cover by Mark Brooks