The Defenders #91

This January 1981 Marvel issue splits its cover into two urgent battles: the raging Hulk smashes through a wall in what the cover blurb warns is a fight to prevent a deadly nuclear meltdown, while below, a sword-clashing clash between a mind-controlled Valkyrie and a determined Hellcat plays out in vivid red and yellow. Rich Buckler's pencils and Al Milgrom's inks give both confrontations real kinetic weight, with the team roster — including the Hulk, Valkyrie, Hellcat, and others — previewed in thumbnail portraits along the upper left. Titled "Defiance," this issue of The Defenders promises the kind of double-threat drama that made the team's non-team formula so compelling in the early 1980s.