Cover: Brent Anderson

The Defenders #112

Oct 1982 · Marvel · 0.60 USD; 0.25 GBP; 0.75 CAD

☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join free

“Strange Visitor from Another Planet!”

★ 1st appearance — Arcanna★ 1st appearance — Power Princess

About this Issue

The Defenders #112 serves as the debut stage for three significant Squadron Supreme characters — Power Princess (Zarda), the sorceress Arcanna Jones, and Nuke (Albert Gaines) — all of whom would go on to be central figures in Mark Gruenwald's celebrated 1985–86 Squadron Supreme limited series, one of the most thematically ambitious superhero narratives of the Bronze Age. The issue kicks off a three-part crossover (#112–114) that brought the Defenders face-to-face with Marvel's Justice League pastiche on their own dystopian Earth-712, a dimension where a mind-controlled government had conquered the world — a politically charged premise that foreshadowed the more rigorous utopian-ethics storytelling Gruenwald would later develop. By deploying Beast as the social hub who arranges the gathering and Doctor Strange as the dimension-crossing catalyst, writer J.M. DeMatteis used the Defenders' deliberately loose, non-team structure to justify an unusually large crossover cast that included the Vision, Scarlet Witch, and Silver Surfer alongside the regulars.

writer J. M. DeMatteis · artist Perlin · inker Mike Gustovich · colorist Roussos · letterer Shelly Leferman · cover Brent Anderson

ComicBooks.com Value

Our Model is In Beta

Raw (Fine) $0

Flagged key issue — estimate limited by sparse sales.

Our model’s value — refined as new sales data arrives · CGC census counts shown where available

More listings for this title

VG $4 VG $4.2 VG $6.8 FN $6.99 VF/NM $7 Newsstand $7 Newsstand $7.04 VG · Newsstand $8.4

Related listings we couldn't confirm as this exact issue · 62 total · seen 29 days ago

🏪 Real comic shops near you sell this issue on eBay — from our directory:

The Time Capsule · Seekonk, MA1 on eBay ↗

Listings on eBay · clicking supports comicbooks.com

Sell my copy

Have this issue — or a whole collection? Get a fair offer from us, skip the marketplace fees and the hassle.

We Buy Collections ▸

Fast, fair offers · we handle grading & shipping

History

J.M. DeMatteis had taken over scripting duties on The Defenders with issue #92 and was well into an ambitious run that emphasized character psychology alongside cosmic stakes. Issue #112 was edited by Al Milgrom with Ann Nocenti as assistant editor under editor-in-chief Jim Shooter — the standard Marvel editorial tier of the period. The issue went on sale July 6, 1982, carrying an October 1982 cover date, and was produced by the regular creative team of DeMatteis, penciller Don Perlin, and inker Mike Gustovich, with a striking cover by Brent Anderson. The story's title, 'Strange Visitor from Another Planet,' is a deliberate nod to the classic Superman radio and television promotional tagline of the 1940s and '50s, a wink the script reinforces with further in-text references — appropriate given that Hyperion, the issue's key Squadron member, was explicitly conceived as Marvel's Superman analogue.

Trivia · 8 facts

First appearance of Power Princess (Zarda Shelton of Earth-712), Marvel's Wonder Woman analogue and a core member of the Squadron Supreme, created by J.M. DeMatteis and Don Perlin.
First appearance of Arcanna Jones (Earth-712), a sorceress and Squadron Supreme member who later adopts the alias Moonglow; also created by DeMatteis and Perlin.
First appearance of Nuke (Albert Gaines, Earth-712), a nuclear-powered Squadron Supreme member, likewise introduced in this issue.
Story titled 'Strange Visitor from Another Planet!' — Part 1 of a three-issue Defenders/Squadron Supreme crossover running through issues #112–114.
Written by J.M. DeMatteis; pencilled by Don Perlin; inked by Mike Gustovich; cover art by Brent Anderson; edited by Al Milgrom (assistant editor Ann Nocenti; editor-in-chief Jim Shooter).
The issue's central premise — the Over-Mind has seized control of Earth-712's government through mind-control, with the Squadron Supreme as his unwitting enforcers — directly laid narrative groundwork for the political and ethical complexities Gruenwald would explore in the 1985 Squadron Supreme limited series.
Beast plays an unusually prominent social role, hosting a party at the Defenders' brownstone HQ and inviting Vision and Scarlet Witch, before Doctor Strange recruits the assembled group via astral projection to travel to Earth-712.
Reprinted in: Essential Defenders Vol. 6 (2011, black-and-white); Defenders Epic Collection Vol. 7: Ashes, Ashes… (2017, color); Squadron Supreme Classic Omnibus Vol. 1; and Marvel Masterworks: Defenders Vol. 10.