Random Happenstance

What, that you've been an LMD for how long?

We interrupt our...whatever I had planned for today. Seriously, I swear I had something else going, but this just leaped out at me.

Today on my lunch break, I biked over to Target, since I hadn't been in a while and I've been hoping the new Ultimate Nightcrawler figure would be out. It wasn't, but there was the ever-popular metric assload of toys at severely cut prices. Some were oddball items in the Superman Returns and Pirates 2 toy lines. Others were entire lines like Super Hyper Monkey Robot Go, or whatever the hell the name of that one was.

I was mostly in for the Marvel, and had enough spare change rattling about to get the Captain America Megamorph. (I also got my oldest boy the Ghost Rider one, but I'm saving it for Christmas or something, so if you see him, keep it under your hat.) For those of you who aren't toy junkies, it's a Transformer-style toy; a Captain America robot who turns into a complicated helicopter. It's not a bad toy, but not quite a great one either: the transformation took me a while the first time, and isn't as smooth as current Transformers. The disc launcher is a little on the feeble side, and some of the plastic is or is likely to warp a bit. It did come with a minature Cap to ride around in it, and a dedicated mini-comic.

Now, you may assume that the comic would just be a little bit of fluff: an eight-page ad for a toy, designed to get you to buy another toy. Well...yeah, pretty much. I mean, that's what it was made for. But it also features a great meta-line from Doc Ock, the theft of the Statue of Liberty (if you don't miss that kind of thing in comics, I feel sorry for you) and more consistent characterization of Cap, Tony Stark, and probably Doc Ock, than seen so far in Civil War. At least, I assume so: The Captain America Megamorph was $3.76 at Target, so I bought it instead. Even with the "return" of Thor, and even as curious as I am to see how Thor returning on Iron Man's side makes any sense at all, the toy seemed the better deal. (The toy was cheaper.) Or at least less likely to make me feel like a chump for buying it.

And if you think Captain America, Living Legend of World War II, Sentinal of Liberty, doesn't deserve a giant robot in his likeness that turns into a...helicopter with feet; then you are a goddamn communist. Or something. Giant robots rule. I usually bike to work, partly because I'm too cheap to buy gas, partly because I'm afraid of getting fat, lip service to the environment; yes, a rich tapestry of reasons. But if you gave me a giant robot that belched plutonium waste, I would drive that mothertrucker to work every day. And stamp on cars.

One last thing: even if the comic is a little piece of "fluff," how many copies were distributed? There was a different issue in each of the Megamorphs, but even counted individually...I don't know. But I think the answer might be surprising. This issue was written by Sean McKeever, pencils by Lou Kang, inks by Pat Davidson.