Previously
This is the part 12 in my continuing insane effort to try to read EVERY MARVEL COMIC EVER PUBLISHED and write about them. You can see previous posts using the tag "complete-marvel-run". The last few parts have been about the characters Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist, all of whom appeared on the Netflix Marvel series. This entry is about Heroes for Hire, which is our analog to the Netflix Defenders series. This mostly involves the above characters and their supporting casts as well.
Comics!
Heroes for Hire v1 (1997)
19 issues (1997-1999)
1 annual (Heroes for Hire/Quicksilver '98)
This run is mostly written by John Ostrander. Feels like they needed an ensemble book to put random heroes in while the Avengers were away post-Onslaught. At least the art is very colorful, though still a bit confusing, but in a more cartoony late-90s way. Danny starts a new Heroes for Hire with the backing of Oracle Inc (formerly a subsidiary of Rand-Meachum). Team members include Hercules, Scott Lang, Black Knight, new White Tiger, and later Luke Cage.
Had a short crossover with Quicksilver involving Exodus and the High Evolutionary (which culminated in the annual). It was overall a very confusing story arc.
Series ended abruptly with Oracle Inc being bought out by Stark-Fujikawa.
Secret War (2004)
5 issues limited series
By Bendis. Nick Fury took Cap, Spider-Man, Daredevil Luke Cage, Wolverine into a secret operation against Latveria 1 year prior; Nick Fury had wiped their memories of the event, and things come back to haunt them. Had to include this here because this story crossed over with Alias. First appearance of Daisy Johnson/Quake! At the end of it, Fury vanishes and Maria Hill becomes director of SHIELD for the first time.
From the Files of Nick Fury (one-shot)
Mostly text-based, kinda annoying to read. Includes profiles and chat logs and other files of relevant information to the Secret War events.
Daughters of the Dragon (2006)
6 issues limited series
Misty Knight and Colleen Wing working together as bail bondswomen. The artist in this series really liked drawing the ladies in sexy, provocative poses.
Heroes for Hire v2 (2006)
15 issues
This series started off as a spin-off from the Civil War storyline and continued from there. Misty and Colleen start a new Heroes for Hire. (Luke and Danny are busy being Secret Avengers.) Basically a continuation of Daughters of the Dragon, a lot of the supporting cast are carried over and even the main villain (Ricadona) comes back for revenge.
Heroes for Hire v3 (2011)
12 issues
In the wake of discovering she had a fake pregnancy during the Shadowland arc, Misty starts a new Heroes for Hire service as basically a switchboard operator coordinating field heroes. She later finds out she was being controlled by Puppet Master, who in turn was being controlled by the Purple Man.
Villains for Hire (2012)
5 issues limited series, #0.1, 1-4
Basically a continuation of HfH v3; Misty teams up with Puppet Master to manipulate a gang of villains into taking down the Purple Man.
Defenders v5 (2018)
10 issues
Finally, we get to the actual team from the Defenders Netflix series (which came out in 2017)! Daredevil, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and Jessica Jones band together as a new team of street-level Defenders. These guys band together because Luke's old nemesis and origin story Willis Stryker aka Diamondback is back from the dead and is all powered-up by MGH, able to go toe to toe with the gang. Diamondback starts a gang war on the streets and the Defenders are the only ones standing in his way!
This short series was written by Brian Michael Bendis (bringing back together some of his favorite street-level characters) and had fantastic art by David Marquez.
Punisher and Elektra (more Netflix series characters) also make appearances. The highlight of this series is the absolutely brutal all-out street-and-rooftop brawl between Iron Fist and Elektra, possibly one of the best hand-to-hand fights ever depicted in comics.
MCU Comparisons
Although bringing the 4 heroes together in a Defenders title was obviously meant to resonate with the Netflix series, plot-wise it has very little in common with the show.
Progress Bar
That's it! A rather short entry, and I don't even have any screenshots for this one.
Total issues covered in this post: 74.
Total number of titles/volumes covered in this post: 9.
Total issues covered so far: 4,534 + 74 = 4,608.
Current total (released) according to the reference reading order: 34,853 (+25 from the previous post.)
Progress: 13.22% (13.02% last post)
Up Next
I think that ends our foray into the Netflix/Marvel TV series for now. I wanted to resume following the "MCU order" and focusing on the movie characters again. One hitch is that starting from the Daredevil entry, I started covering the entire length of each character's run up to present day. When I started doing this with Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America, Thor and the Avengers, I only covered their first volumes which lasted until the late 90s. I want to start following those characters past those eras as well (and this is appropriate for the MCU order as well, since all of those characters got second movies in phase 1 and 2). In order to that, my next entry will focus on the Heroes Reborn storyline that interrupted their original runs.