Dolla Dolla Bin Y'all! - The Secret Defenders #1

A clear artifact of 90's comics, this issue has it all; a team-up between some unlikely heroes, a red foil stamped cover, and of course, the omnipresent Wolverine. Never mind the fact that the book was written by Eisner Hall of Famer Roy Thomas, but this book has a look and feel that is decidedly from a time 20 years past. We start with a bank robbery, in Phoenix of all places, where a number of oddly unlucky thieves find their escape hampered by the appearances of Nomad (Jack Monroe), Spider-Woman (Julia Carpenter), Darkhawk, and of course, Wolverine. After handing the perps to the police, the get together is interrupted by Dr. Strange who reveals that he had gathered the heroes to investigate a threat to the world. 

The book itself is competently drawn by Andre Coates who has a detailed and dynamic art style but uses a more simplified character design to make up for what looks to be an inexperience at penciling certain characters. Regardless, this is still a good looking book with the action carrying with it a great deal of fun and sense of levity, like this quick 4 panel below.

This series itself would see a number of rotating characters join the roster throughout its 25 issue run with characters like Captain America, Deadpool, Silver Surfer, and Iron Fist being brought into the fold. It took a nice and quick approach to comic reading and the variety of characters was one of the reasons why I picked it up as a child. While not very important in the history of many of the characters featured within its pages, this issue certainly jump-started a number of hours of enjoyment for my younger self and in revisiting it, should do the same for most readers today I imagine. Also, this issue features Dr. Strange a little too dramatic over his inability to build a house of cards. 

Advertisement of the Issue: Score Select Baseball Cards featuring the stoutly John Kruk, which this ad seems to both insult and praise the batter in the same sentence.