I'm late, but a wordless comic should put me back on schedule...maybe.

Although I think I've mentioned it once or twice, going back through the blog, the only thing I see from Marvel's "'Nuff Said" month is from Busiek's Avengers, which was on a roll there. I know I was reading other Marvel titles at the time, but wasn't reading this one regularly: from 2002, Captain Marvel #26, "Quiet Miracles" Written by Peter David, pencils by Leonard Kirk, inks by Robin Riggs.

In a warm December, a young man hits a pawn shop and attempts to sell a bunch of watches that are pretty obviously stolen. When the pawnbroker doesn't go for them, the young man pulls out something else: one of Captain Marvel's nega-bands. How could he have gotten that...? Well, more easily than usual, I'll admit; as we cut away to Rick Jones, literally in the gutter. He's not quite himself today, though; older, scarred, and missing an arm: that was how he looked when he popped in from the future towards the end of Avengers Forever, but that future came much sooner than expected. Rick had aged in an accelerated manner, and a recent attempt at a cure had failed: worse, he remembers as Genis tries to reach him from the Negative Zone, Rick had gotten mugged at knifepoint, by the young man, who stole the band tied to Rick's waist. (Mugging a one-armed old man? Classy.) Still, the man dropped the knife, so...

Rick considers ending it all, which should feel way sadder, except he remembers all his friends, like the Hulk, Captain America, the original Captain Mar-vell, and ROM! Yay, ROM! I don't think he appeared anywhere for years there; I'm surprised they snuck him in--wait, Rick's suicide, right. With Genis unable to do anything but watch, Rick plunges the knife into his chest...where it bends nearly in two, it was a plastic toy. Ha, ha; but I think that was a serious attempt, and maybe shouldn't be just brushed off...? Wandering down an alley, Rick notices blood on the ground, and follows it back, to find a homeless woman, about to give birth.

Meanwhile, the young man makes it out of the pawn shop, before the guilt over what he had done stops him, and he goes back in. He misses his child's birth, though; as Rick has to deliver the baby, then give it CPR, all one-handed! In case you missed this was a Christmas issue, there's a star over them, albeit one that resembles Captain Marvel's chest symbol. When the young man sheepishly returns the nega-band, Rick uses it to change places with Genis, just as snow begins to fall. Genis and the cops get the couple set up at a local shelter, then flies home to Marlo. But, when he changes back to Rick, the transformation literally bowls her over, as Rick returns, young and whole again. (With killer sideburns! Mine never look that good, respect.) Delayed reaction, Christmas miracle, clearing up a continuity loose end...it could be three things in one! Also, pretty sure the pawnbroker was a Peter David cameo!