Comic Book / Fearless Defenders

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The Fearless Defenders was a 2013 comic book written by Cullen Bunn. It was a new iteration of The Defenders.

The main stars were Valkyrie, a goddess from Asgard, and Misty Knight, an urban bounty hunter. They were followed by many other heroines. Valkyrie had been tasked to created a new team of Shield Maidens, to serve as Valkyries, but did not find any woman worthy. This caused a void that Caroline Le Fey tries to exploit, to create instead a team of Doom Maidens.

This comic provides examples of:

• Adventurer Archaeologist: Annabelle Riggs is an archaeologist, and one who apparently consciously modeled herself on Indiana Jones.
• Amazon Brigade: This group of Defenders is composed only by women.
• Ascended Fanboy: Inverted. Annabelle Riggs is a huge fan of Norse Mythology. But when she is appointed a shield maiden, she is terrified.
• Back-to-Back Badasses: The cover of the first issue has Valkyrie and Misty Knight in this pose. The picture was kept for the Previously on… intros.
• Brought Down to Badass: Le Fey needs Dani Moonstar. She used to be a mutant, but lost her powers during the House of M thing, and now she's just a girl. The terrorists thought that capturing her would likely be as easy as a stroll in the park. Yeah, no.
• Club Stub
  • The shield maidens are no more, and Valkyrie was tasked to create a new group. But she did not find anyone worthy for that. The Fridge Logic of that was pointed by Misty herself: there are SO many heroines around in the world, with power and virtues, and she could not find anyone worthy? No, she could not, because her standards were so high and over-the-top that nobody could meet them. That, until they got to this crisis, and had to create that team somehow.
  • Hippolyta has also been tasked with rebuilding the Amazons.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance:
  Valkyrie: The dead have grown restless! I will silence them! Ha! Stand down, knaves! Begone to the hell that spawned you!
  Misty Knight: All right! Time to put some dead vikings back in the dirt!
  Both in unison: Why do you talk like that?
• Establishing Character Moment: When we first see Misty Knight, she's trying to stop burglars.
• Evil Versus Evil: Issue #10 in an Infinity tie in where Thanos's Wardogs are scouring the Earth to kill all the Inhumans. In New York they face fierce opposition from Caroline Le Fay and the Doommaidens, who want to capture the Inhumans alive for their own purposes.
• Good Is Not Nice: Hela arrives to Asgard to provide help. Valkyrie attacked her on sight, but Hela is much more powerful. She won't mind eviscerating all of them if needed to prove her good will.
• Gratuitous Ninja: The cover of the first issue has Valkyrie and Misty Knight in a Back-to-Back Badasses pose, each one facing enemy mooks that would be usually fought by the other: Misty faces Asgardian zombies, and Valkyrie faces ninjas. But in the comic book itself, we can only find Misty Knight fighting against Asgardian zombies. But, hey, ninjas! Cool!
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: With all the heavy hitter superheroes defeated by Valkyrie, turned into a doom maiden, Annabelle tried this with her. She was successful, but the evil Valkyrie killed her before the good one took over again.
• Intro Dump: When Misty comes with all the female super heroes available, each one has an introductory individual fight scene.
• Just Between You and Me: Caroline Le Fay explains her plans to destroy the world to a captive Danielle Moonstar as Moonstar is being prepared for the ritual that will bring it about
• Let's You and Him Fight: Subverted Elsa Bloodstone attempt to kill No-Name the Brood Queen defector on sight, but is stopped by Valkyrie, who wants to recruit No-Name. No-Name is only interested in hunting for Zheng Bao Yu, who is supplying people in New York City's Chinatown with genetically modified Brood eggs, however
• Keystone Army: The army of zombies is stopped once the artifact that woke them up is destroyed.
• Klingons Love Shakespeare: It seems that Pluto allowed Hippolita to watch human-made films in Hades. But the options are somewhat limited: only Gladiator and Mortal Kombat (1995).
• Night of the Living Mooks: Annabelle discovered a Viking artifact, that raised the dead vikings to life.
• Only the Chosen May Wield: Averted. In the Age of Ultron crossover, the Unexpected Character wields Mjolnir, and Hippolita claimed it after defeating him. But, as the enchantment had died with Thor during the Great Offscreen War, that has no significance.
• Previously on…: Each issue begins with Valkyrie and Misty Knight as Back-to-Back Badasses, discussing the events of the previous issue.
• Public Domain Character
  • Brunhilde, though Marvel uses a Composite Character version of her that is both a Valkyrie and a shield maiden because why not? Hela, and the All-Mother as well.
  • Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons, is Older Than Feudalism. That's why it can be used (in a different way, of course) by both Marvel and DC Comics.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: The end of the last issue includes the resurrection of Morgan Le Fey
• "Shut Up" Kiss: When Valkeyrie first shows up, Annabelle turned into fangirl mode, over a real Asgardian goddess. She kissed her to make her shut up: there are still zombies to destroy.
• Stay in the Kitchen
  • All the girls' boyfriends got together to tell them that the group they had started was dangerous stuff, they should not do it, or at least let them join to protect them, before they're all bluntly called out by retired heroine Shamrock on how they're just whining that Valkyrie, Misty, and the others didn't tell them about it first.
  • Flash Thompson comes across as the most petty when it comes right down to it, especially when it's revealed he's mad that Annabelle Riggs, who is now sharing Valkyrie's body, is essentially cockblocking him.
• Tempting Fate: Valkyrie, Hippolyta and Dani Moonstar fight against a horde of Doom Maidens. Le Fey suggested they skip to the part where they surrender, as they are so hopelessly outnumbered. Then Misty Knight shows up with the calvalry: all the female heroes she could hire. So, in total, we have Valkyrie, Hippolyta, Dani Moonstar, Hellcat, Black Cat, Tigra, Spider-Woman, Elektra, She-Hulk, Storm, Thundra, Tarantula, Black Widow, Captain Marvel and Colleen Wing. Still, Le Fay keeps her Villainous Valour.
• There Are No Global Consequences: Discussed. Archeologists seeking relics of the Viking era and the Norse gods still exist, even with a piece of the real Asgard floating over Oklahoma.
• The Unchosen One: The All-Mother will not send Hippolyta to fight against the Doom Maidens alone. She will be escorted by the three women that showed up in Asgard, Valkyrie, Misty Knight and Annabelle, who are appointed Valkyries (despite the fact that Annabelle has little training and no powers).
• Unexpected Character: In the Age of Ultron crossover, Hippolita goes to Europe and fights against Dr. Doom. Actually, that was just a Doombot used by the actual ruler of Latveria, who's hiding: Ares
• Who Dares?: What? A mere mortal creature dares to attack Hela?
• Wicked Stepmother: Caroline Le Fay had one of those. She outgrew her fears, and fed her piece by piece to the housekeeper's cats.