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The debut of the Defenders came in the first issue of Marvel Feature in 1971, although that story — aptly titled “The Day of the Defenders!” — was actually the third teaming of the founding members of the group, who in comic book mythology were the Sub-mariner, Doctor Strange and the Hulk.

If that seemed like an unlikely group of heroes, things only got stranger with the addition of the Silver Surfer and Asgardian warrior the Valkyrie in early adventures, creating a framework of a series based around a superhero group that makes no sense together — or, as Marvel called it at the time, a “non-team”.