Some of today's strip is based on actual, factual, Marvel continuity--or at least hearsay about it--while the rest is nonsense I made up. Let's see if we can split them up.
Beast and Wonder Man are, of course, super bros; that I don't think ever get to hang out anymore. Everything has to be so serious all the time, and it's probably a problem for writers if Hank's invulnerable, super-strong, Nathan Fillion-level handsome pal is there when somebody is trying to start something. "Eek, Sentinels!...Simon?" "I got you, man!" Cue Wonder Man crushing giant robots into cubes and signing autographs for mutant kids while Hank sets up the barbeque.
It occurs to me Hank might be trying to protect Simon from having to be all 'woke' and alienating his audience; since Simon would definitely be on Twitter telling mutant-haters not to watch his movies or shows. I also forget how popular Simon is supposed to be as an actor right now: struggling B-lister, or America's sweetheart? Part of that is because I honestly can't remember the last Marvel comic I read with him. I know I was reading Uncanny Avengers for a while, but I think I lost track of it during a crossover, because I don't remember where Simon was disincorporated again and was trapped inside Rogue. At the last show I picked up (but haven't read yet) 2011's New Avengers Annual #1, where Wonder Man--rather out of left field--seems to decide the Avengers are a bad idea and maybe shouldn't be a team and he should settle the argument with his fists. (I remember blogs at the time calling that out of character, but at least one noted, not unlike his acting career, "It's work, man." Got to keep working it...)
I've never read Avengers Two, which I'd probably like. Stern and Bagley, although I think they're working too hard with plot: it should basically be the Hangover or Dude, Where's My Car? Well, maybe not; since I'm almost positive I've seen both of those but can't recall a bit of them.
Stunt-Master has had a TV show in the Marvel U. on multiple occasions--we saw Johnny Blaze doing a stunt for it last month. Legends of the Khonshu was part of Bendis's Moon Knight run; but there's no way that would be filmed in Hollywood, it would be filmed in Canada like Flash or Arrow. That's the 'hiatus' of the title too, the time between filming.
The younger, time-travelling Beast from that stretch of X-Men was learning magic at one point, possibly to try and reconcile the damage done to the timeline. I don't know how far he got. I also certainly don't see modern Hank having any aptitude for it, but it would possibly allow him to have a bit of fun, which he sure as heck doesn't get to in current books. For years he's had to fill the roles of 'adult' and 'science guy,' which hasn't left any room for hijinks or tomfoolery. I think he was allowed more fun when he was working on the Legacy Virus cure, and he wasn't allowed fun there. Last I saw he was one of the last X-Men, as most of the rest got sucked into the Age of X-Man crossover; but he wasn't playing with Cyclops and Wolverine's last gasp, clear-the-ledger team. (That still had a lot of members, and Dark Beast, for the science crap they needed...)
And lastly, I know Wonder Man has seen Dr. Strange perform legit magic more than once--the Infinity War for one--and I know he would've heard Wanda talk about him, but I'm not sure he'd be a believer. Didn't Dr. Strange hint 'Simon' might not even be real, in Avengers Disassembled? That 'chaos magic' wasn't a thing, and Wanda may have just brought to 'life' an imaginary version of Wonder Man. I don't know if I'd be a fan of someone who called me 'imaginary.' Well, maybe.
Goddamn if this skit isn't one of your better ones. Everything flows, from the dialogue to the posing(Especially Beast's) Seriously this is good shit man.
ReplyDeleteI also like how you used Blink's warp effect for Santana's sudden entrance. Well done.
I know 'Pool and Kurt are your default bosom buddies and all, but I'd love to see more of these two as well in future skits.
At lunch I got to thinking about poor Hank: he's got his oldest friends from the original X-Men, but they've been through so much together sometimes he doesn't even recognize them anymore. (Sometimes literally.) And they still expect him to be 'on' but still do all their crap.
ReplyDeleteHe was on the Illuminati or whatever with the Professor, but even if Charles considers him a peer, Hank doesn't see himself that way: it's still teacher-student rather than friends. The other Illuminati all have their own things going or he can't relate to them: Hank can't get a beer after work with Black Bolt or Dr. Strange...can he? Same with a lot of the Avengers, like Cap. Simon's his only pal, which kinda sucks.
I wonder if Hank always had a hard time believing in Thor and Herc as "gods," but I still suspect he would go out drinking with them and they'd have to bring him home in a shopping cart. Come to think of it, can Simon get drunk? Was he just humoring Hank and playing along?
Yeah, true. All true.
ReplyDeleteAs for Simon, well he is living Ionic energy, meaning he doesn't need to breathe, eat or sleep, so yeah I think he's just humoring Hank and trying to remain as normal as possible when it comes to doing stuff like that.
I mean shit, Logan's got to be the same way; due to his healing factor drinking's just a waste of time and money but he still does it.