Random Happenstance

I guess that a stapler would've been one way to fix it, but his mom would've given me hell...



The Youngest fell off a trike at a store yesterday--y'know, I don't even remember if that thing even had back wheels--and while at first I thought he was gonna be fine, three hours later he ended up with three or so stitches in the back of his head. He was a little trooper as far as the pain goes, but he did get really squirrelly waiting, and is more fixated on doors than usual lately. The wound wouldn't close right for them to glue it up, and I guess they couldn't use the staple-gun kind of thing for it, so then it took the Wife, two nurses, a doctor and myself to hold him down for the stitches. Again, that was less the pain, then that he doesn't like to be restrained. (You might think who does, but he really doesn't!)


In the end, he was fine, and the hospital was nice enough to give him a very nice Cars toy (that his brother has been not-so-silently coveting ever since) and I had to admit to the Wife that yeah, she's always right. God, helluva week. The Oldest and I are sweating that we're next.


Anyway, let's go to a comic, that makes me glad they didn't use the stapler after all.


I bought Lunatik #1 and #3 the other day out of the quarter bins, but left #2. I think I even had those two already, but #2's the only one I remembered. Oh, not because it's that great, although it does have a Bill Sienkiewicz cover, but because it guest-starred the Avengers. Well, not so much the Avengers, per se: no Cap, no Iron Man, no Thor...

Lunatik was co-created (with Lovern Kindzierski) by Keith Giffen, creator of Lobo for DC. I wanna just say Lunatik is Marvel's Lobo, although maybe that's not intentional. That's what it is, though. Years later, Lunatik would be a villain in the Drax the Destroyer limited and his little, crabby punk Tinker Bell of a sidekick Skreet would hang out with Thanos for some reason; but their initial appearances give no hint of anything like that being planned. In the premiere issue, we see the origin of Lunatik (such as it is) and see him watching earth TV before he decides to head to earth and kill the old Lunatik, an obscure Defenders villain. Then he tries to check into a hotel, which turns out to be Avengers Mansion. (Jarvis is nowhere to be found this issue, presumably he's putting the moves on Aunt May or being replaced by a Skrull.)

Lunatik gets the bum's rush, and takes his winged sidekick and splits. Except he gets the wrong one, accidentally taking the Wasp instead. Realizing his mistake, he storms back to get Skreet, who quickly became tired of being called "Jan" and defeats Giant-Man. With a stapler.

Hercules throws down with Lunatik, who is a bit distracted by the...charms of Crystal and the Black Widow. Quicksilver gets stuck with animal crowd control: if Lobo can have a bulldog, then Lunatik can have...a bunch of purple sled dog things.

Eventually, all the Avengers are down except for the Black Widow, who knows she's outmatched but would never give up. She has an ace in the hole that she doesn't suspect, though: Bored and hungry, Skreet's ready to split, and clocks the stubborn Lunatik simultaneously with the Widow. Lunatik doesn't wake up until he's in space and on his way to the next issue, and the Avengers are left nursing their wounds, whether to their faces, their hair, or their pride:Although this isn't a great comic--oh, let's not mince words, it's not even a good comic--that last page and the hint of a rare smile from Natasha make this a favorite. While I really enjoyed the Black Widow limited series of a few years back, I do occasionally miss the 90's Avengers version. Moments like this are why.

From Lunatik #2, "No Reason!!" Written by Lovern Kindzierski, pencils by Duncan Rouleau, inks by Danny Bulanadi.