Random Happenstance

Marvel has long employed a "sliding timeline," in which the Marvel Universe as we know it from Fantastic Four #1 began about ten years ago, instead of 1961. So in current continuity, Captain America probably wasn't unfrozen until the Obama administration! But with the traditional heroes being moved closer to the present, it creates openings for new stories in the past. Like today's book! From 2014, Mighty Avengers #11, written by Al Ewing, pencils by Greg Land, inks by Jay Leisten.

This was an Original Sin crossover issue...not unlike Maximum Security the other day, I know I've read some of it, much of which is not sticking in the memory right now. Luke Cage was there with Spider-Man and Thor, when the Orb blew up the Watcher's eye, "a bomb full of secrets." Thor found out he had a sister, Spidey sees he wasn't the only one bitten by the radioactive spider, and Luke gets to see...his dad led his "own @%$# super-team." Luke is, put mildly, steamed: it took a long time to convince his dad that he had been framed, then his dad didn't want to be part of his superhuman life, and this revelation felt like a betrayal.

Back in 1972, James Lucas had been a homicide detective, and caught a case with a body with a torn-out rib cage and a bat-monster head. He's quickly joined by Constance Molina, "reporter on the freak beat," who gets him in touch with Dr. Brashear--the Blue Marvel! Meanwhile, in the morgue, Kaluu hypnotizes and gets rid of the staff so he can examine the body, but is attacked by Blade! Blade assumes Kaluu is a vampire, and the two throw down in classic Marvel misunderstanding fashion, albeit with some great smack talk by Blade. When Lucas, Molina, and Brashear arrive; Kaluu is not particularly impressed, so Brashear zaps him one. Lucas realizes who Brashear was, although he seems a little disappointed that the Blue Marvel had seemingly taken ten years off and let the world think he was dead. Somewhat more amenable after getting zapped, Kaluu explains the bat-thing is a "standard magical familiar," which then leaves the question, who killed it? Enter the Bear: she had killed the familiar to stop the Deathwalkers' ritual to destroy humanity.

In the present, James isn't comfortable talking about what happened next; but Luke tells him the latest Ronin had been Blade, who had said he was hunting the Deathwalkers...and hadn't been seen for months. James tells his son to pour them both a whiskey and sit down...

I hadn't seen the Bear before this issue, and I'm not overly familiar with Kaluu either. Weirdly, I had just read something today that mentioned unseen adventures of Iron Fist's father, so seeing Luke's dad's backstory was good timing. And I like seeing Blade in his seventies outfit; now I'm wondering if anyone has done an eighties version...