Random Happenstance

The Danger Room: Now for ages 6 and up!

Years ago, the X-Men were given the shaft when it came to origins ("You're all mutants. Next!) but had the seemingly revolutionary notion that super-heroes might have to practice and train with their powers. Did you ever see Superman or Batman training before that? Batman maybe...what about the Legion of Super-Heroes? I've read a lot of old Legion digests, and I can't recall them ever practicing anything other than the Planetary Chance Machine.

Now, I think Spider-Man has like two panels in his origin of him practicing with his web-shooters, but allowing for Marvel time compression, he's been fighting super-villians, thugs, and whatever on a nightly basis for about ten solid years. So, Spidey probably doesn't need to spend a lot of off-time practicing. And neither do the Thing or the Human Torch, judging by the healthy larf they're getting out of the Danger Room. Spoiler warning: They're goaded into trying it out, and events pretty much go apescat, with live Sentinels smashing into their workout. Actually, that's not really a spoiler, since any time any other hero enters the Danger Room, it'll go nuts. Of course, after Joss Whedon's Danger stories, retroactively all those "malfunctions" were just the enslaved sentience of the Danger Room trying to get someone to help him escape from those damn mutants.

My kids were both a little grumpy today, so I re-read Fantastic Four: the World's Greatest Comics Magazine instead of getting to the comic shop for new books. If you haven't read it, it's a twelve-issue tribute to the classic Stan Lee/Jack Kirby Fantastic Four, with story and art from Erik Larsen, Ron Frenz, Bruce Timm, Keith Giffen, and a ton of others. (The above panel's from Ron Frenz and Paul Ryan.) It's not the most innovative take on the FF--that would probably be Unstable Molecules--but I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it.

Also, I need to start working on a new banner for this dive, so we'll see about the rest of this week, OK? And any tips, let me know, since I'm rather a monkey at this kind of thing: I have to take the trial and error approach, mostly...

Edit: And I accidentally lost most of my links. Crap. Well, there's a project for tomorrow...