Nighthawk next appears in the superhero team title "The Defenders" #13-14 (May–July 1974), he goes to the titular supergroup for help against his former teammates, and joins the team the following issue. "Defenders" writer Len Wein said that adding Nighthawk to the group "gave me a character to play with who didn't have a whole lot of previous history ... character I could do anything I wanted to without worrying about how it would affect any other titles that character might appear in."