Marvel presents a new all female team book

[salinea]

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/fearless-defenders-marvel-now-cullen-bunn.html

Not only does Fearless Defenders star two female characters, it's an all-female team, and features a brand-new female antagonist plaguing the main cast. Newsarama has the first interview with Bunn on the series, who reveals the third member of the team — hint, she's one of the original New Mutants and lost her powers due to House of M — and talks about working with Sliney, and shining a spotlight on a few lesser-known Marvel characters.

Misty Knight and Dani (and Valkyrie) in an all female team book? FUCK YEAH!

Bunn: It is going to be a team book. It'll be an all-female team. But I didn't want to go into issue #1 and say, "here is the team." My goal is to take my time in building this team. I want to build it slowly — even after the first arc, the team will not be formed completely.

Instead, I started looking at characters who make sense, and also can be interesting foils for Valkyrie. And that's when this idea of Misty Knight came up. I put the two of them together in the first issue, and I liked the way they interact so much, and I think they offer something completely different than what you've seen before. They became my core team. They're sort of the window characters — they're the proxies for our readers. The rest of the team will build around them.

Nrama: So Valkyrie and Misty Knight are co-leads of the book?

Bunn: Correct. They're our co-leads, and the rest of the team will build around them. I think it'll be interesting to see how the two of them see things differently. You've got Misty, who's a very street-level character. And you've got Valkyrie, who's a goddess. So you've got very different backgrounds, and I think they will see their potential teammates very differently, and I think you'll see that the two of them have some differences of opinion on who would be the right team for what they're going to be facing.

Nrama: Not sure how much you can say about the rest of the team at this point, but will it be a combination of new and existing characters?

Bunn: As we build the team, you'll see some of the more well-known characters, but I don't want it to be a team of characters who are all on six other books, either. I think some team members will be definite surprises, if not all of the team. There will be some new characters joining the team, who no one has seen before.

That said, this will also be a book that gives us a great opportunity to showcase the women of the Marvel Universe. You'll be seeing a lot of characters in the book who may not necessarily be in the core team, but will have the opportunity to guest-star and rotate into the book.

Comments

[bjornwilde]

Damn it Marvel, I do have a budget! Why do they keep doing comics that I get fed up with then when I decide to cut my pull list, they announce stuff I want?

[auggie18]

Just when you think you're done with a company, BAM! They pull out all of the stops and put out something totally awesome like this.

[q99]

Yea, that's generally my experience with Marvel ^^ Sometimes I like multiple of their books, sometimes just one or two, but when it runs too low they launch a nice new book to jump to.

You just know they're doing it on purpose!

[jcbaggee]

This sounds really awesome, so I'm figuring they cancel it by #6. :\

[stolisomancer]

Yeah, I kind of have to give them props for this. There's not much chance that it'll capture an audience, just because the superhero comics market is so hostile to new IP and new ongoing titles, but they're publishing it anyway.

[icon_uk]

I'll take six issues of awesome over three years of dreck! :)

[stolisomancer]

It probably says something about me that the first thing I noticed is that they're both wearing flats.

[loki_of_sassgaard]

Yes, I'm very pleased with the artwork. There's some slight B&B pose happening, but not so much in snake-spine or outrageous fighting stances. I don't understand Brunnhilde's breast plates, but I don't understand most comic book armour on either sex, so that's something I'm willing to ignore.

They've also sort of got the catsuit thing going, but no worse than most capes, and they're not showing gratuitous skin.

Cover art, for me, goes a long way in telling me what the comic is going to be like. Half of the reason I read is for the artwork, and this one seems like it's earning a pass from me.

[i_paint_the_sky]

Wow, Marvel is doing a real good job of making me rethinking my whole "I bleed DC" stance. Definitely checking out a couple of the Marvel Now titles, it's a fun time to be a relative newcomer to superhero comics!

[runespoor]

I'm like you, except DC already bled me dry. *bitter ex*

But this looks very exciting.

[whoha]

Down with this false interlloper! Viva la Fraction Defenders!

[thehood]

I don't know, this seems more interesting that the last Defenders book. IMO anyway.

I can like both in any event.

[kerithwyn]

Hot damn! This is exactly what I wanted to see coming out of "The Fearless" mini. Good job, Marvel. You're getting all the money from the DC books I've dropped.

[bjornwilde]

Damn it Marvel, I do have a budget! Why do they keep doing comics that I get fed up with then when I decide to cut my pull list, they announce stuff I want?

[leoboiko]

Interesting balance of colors in that cover.

[salinea]

Yeah, it's very fine looking. :)

[magusfool]

This actually sounds alright... But I totally like the treatment for "Liberators" better.

[salinea]

what do you mean?

[big_daddy_d]

You had me at Valkyrie and Misty Knight. Btw, what happened to Colleen?

[salinea]

They're trying to see other people.

[crabby_lioness]

It's the Marvel Raptors! ("Bird of prey" for those who need a dictionary.)

Hell, why not? DC isn't doing anything with them. Misty can be Barbara the hard-boiled PWD leader, Dani can be the former-superhero-turned streetfighter after losing her super-power, and Val can be Barda.

[bewareofgeek]

They did that one already, in the last HEROES FOR HIRE project.

[spacebetween]

I wonder if this one of the reasons that the latest Defenders series ended. Mind you I haven't been paying attention to the sale figures for it.

[northstarfan]

They were pretty dismal.

[jlbarnett]

taking your time building the team just means that it'll be rewritten so that what would be the end of the first arc where the team comes together instead is the last issue and they decide they don't work so well together

[salinea]

yay optimism!

[maxisanacorn]

5,000 times more exciting than Birds of Prey and anything at DC? Uh YES.

Between this and the female majority Uncanny X-Force, Marvel is doing LOTS of good things.

Avengers Arena can just...not exist though.

[blackruzsa]

I like that, while they're like "yay, all-female team!", it's not the typical "they are girls and that makes up most of the story/theme". I abhor all-girls specials that have the word "girl" or "femme" in their title.

[kenn_el]

I'm actually onboard with this! Deriving the segregation from the fact that Val's getting the band back together, rather than just excluding purposely one gender is a much better way of doing this than in previous versions. Is Hellcat still running around? I could see Val recruting her.

[thehood]

Hellcat used to be a Defender, so that would be a good choice.

[icon_uk]

I'm just hoping that Dani being on the team doesn't mean that she and the NM's aren't still going to be having adventures and fun in San Francisco (even if offpanel)

[thehood]

New Mutants is ending and they seem to be splitting up splitting up. I mean, Sunspot Cannonball will join Hickman's Avengers and Dani will be on this team.

So after NM, i don't think they'll be together sadly. Hopefully, they still hang out.

[thehood]

So we have Valkyrie and Misty Knight as co-Leads and Dani Moonstar will join them and i'm guessing Dani is Valkyrie's pick because of her ties to the Valkries.

I wonder what Val and Misty's other choices will be?

[sevarem]

A black woman leading a team of female superheroes that includes Dani? Sign me right up.