Whatever happened to Doctor Strange's Defenders?

[MyriVerse]

I never quite connected with Namor or the Surfer as Defenders. My lineup is Hulk, Magician, Birdnose, and Girl.

Namor worked for me, but Surfer only worked because he was stranded on Earth.

[Phoenixx9]

I wish Namor and SS would have stuck around longer, even if not in every ish, when Valkyrie, Nighthawk, Luke Cage, Damon Hellstrom, Red Guardian, Hellcat were members. It would have been interesting interactions.

[Cyberstrike]

In 90s there was a four part crossover in the annuals of The Incredible Hulk, Silver Surfer, Dr. Strange, and Namor called The Return of the Defenders which the main four reunited and broke the prophesy that had forced them to leave the original series. IIRC as they are saying goodbye the Hulk (who was super smart at the time) committed that the Defenders were better the Avengers, the X-Men and the other teams out there.

[Riv86672]

I think it's sort of hard for the classic team to stay together, because it's almost a part of the narrative that these guys really don't WANT to be around each other. It can be a fun one off, but that's about it.

Though I do think the second tier Defenders are a different story. Kyle, Patsy, and Val became a family of sort in the initial run at least. I'd honest want to see a Defenders return more for them than the core 4 (who mostly are associated with the Avengers anyways).

This is why that line up is my favorite.
The four big guns are fun, yeah, but the three c-listers are the heart of the team.

[K7P5V]

If you mean the Secret Defenders, he pawned them off on Doctor Druid because he had to deal with a 90's crossover.

Hopefully this won't be too off-topic, but I'm totally a fan of Secret Defenders. I always thought the many combinations of secret members the creative team could come up with was most enjoyable. Towards the end, it lost me. However, I still held on to the notion that this series had great potential.

[Mike_Murdock]

I never quite connected with Namor or the Surfer as Defenders. My lineup is Hulk, Magician, Birdnose, and Girl.

Yep. Especially not the Silver Surfer. Namor seemed to be at least slightly more involved, but Val, Kyle, Steve, and the Hulk (with Hellcat probably as well) would be my typical lineup.

I really enjoyed the Best Defense miniseries that happened recently, but it was hard to get excited as "the original Defenders" that way.