"Fusion."

Maybe close to the beginning of April, I mentioned I was waiting for the 'clearance' prices for Karnak and Marvel Boy to go down, and about 4/20 they did! I bought them, and Kamala, for $10 each: the prices weren't even changed on their boxes, but they rang up cheaper, so OK! I may or may not have been able to hold out further, but we'll see in a month or so. Surprisingly, that puts me pretty close to completing the Totally Awesome Hulk BaF: close enough that I'd shop pieces around on eBay or Mercari, but I haven't made headway there yet. (Note to self: I'm missing the head and the left leg.)

So, Kamala is mostly here because she was bought at the same time as Noh-Varr: I don't think they've interacted in the comics yet. But, I also wanted to have her get to do something fun, since I've previously written her as a bit of a scold here: a little too earnest. I don't know that she'd actually go out with Noh-Varr either, but I'm not sure she is. 

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I want pictures! Pictures of...Ms. Marvel?

Eh, seems reasonable enough. I never find any of these on the cheap, so a pleasant surprise: from 1977, Spidey Super Stories #22, "Ms. Marvel, Ms. Marvel" Written by Jim Salicrup, pencils by Win Mortimer, inks by Mike Esposito.

The title's a riff on Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, an oddball soap opera of the time; I have heard the name somewhere but never saw it. This easy-reading issue probably isn't as weird, as J.Jonah Jameson tasks editor Carol Danvers and photographers Amber and Peter with getting the scoop on Ms. Marvel. JJJ is then kidnapped by the Beetle, in his clunky original outfit: I met the Beetle way back in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #60, where he had the look he would keep pretty much up to his Thunderbolts days. Ms. Marvel and Spidey give chase to save their boss, with Peter neglecting to take any photos, which probably cost him the job at Woman Magazine.

Also this issue: "The Lizard Lives!" Written by Kolfax Mingo, pencils by Win Mortimer, inks by Mike Esposito, alterations by John Romita. A tadpole is turned into a dinosaur and the Lizard returns, but it's all wrapped up within 12 pages. Romita may have made some adjustments or corrections on this one, but that just means it looks like Romita Spider-Man, and nothing wrong with that. Read more!

For some reason, this was the last comic that I moved out of my old apartment, which leads me to believe it fell underneath something. But it made the trip, for your benefit! From 1977, Ms. Marvel #7, "Nightmare!" Written by Chris Claremont, breakdowns by Jim Mooney, finishes by Joe Sinnott.

I had read the Marvel Super-Heroes issues that finally published the shelved issues of Ms. Marvel's cancelled series; but wasn't real familiar with her earlier stories. As Carol is captured and unmasked by MODOK, it feels like they were still figuring a few things out for her; the majority of which may have been dropped since then. MODOK gives her Ms. Marvel costume to an A.I.M. agent, since at least some of her powers were in the suit, not her. Or, at least they used to be: the costume may have burnt out in the previous issue; which I somehow think I've read, too. Although MODOK controls her for a bit--with a sort of virtual man's man version of himself, with abs and working limbs!--Carol snaps out of it after a flashback of punching out a jerk blue Kree cadet in the academy--hey, that's not her flashback, that's from Mar-Vell! Along with gaining some of his skills, she had some of his memories; I wonder if she lost them before Rogue took her own memory.

Carol fights MODOK and his blue-suited A.I.M. goons--this was in the middle of a bit of a civil war in the organization, although I don't remember who was in charge of team yellow or how that was resolved. MODOK's secret base was apparently downstairs or just next to the yellow base, so when Carol escapes through a smashed wall MODOK's team can't give chase, they have to cover their tracks. The yellow A.I.M. guys are at a loss how a superhero could've found them, or got through their defenses, but a beat Carol manages to escape through the department store that was their cover. Along with still being pissed at MODOK, she's dismayed that she feels like crap, since she and 'Ms. Marvel' were almost separate personalities, and neither seemed to have full access to the other's memories. I don't think that angle would stick around long, either; but her spider "seventh sense" might've stuck around a bit. (I seem to recall Rogue had it sometimes, when narratively convenient?)
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A Contest of Champions without the Grandmaster? No, thank you.

From 1999, Contest of Champions II #5, "Victory!" Written by Chris Claremont, pencils by Oscar Jimenez and Michael Ryan, inks by Eduardo Alpuente and John Livesay.


Urg. I picked this one up, because I was thinking when Captain Marvel comes out, I'll be going into it colder than I ever have for a Marvel movie: I know a fair amount about the character, but I haven't read anywhere near as many comics with her. And I'm more used to her Ms. Marvel look, and she hasn't rocked that look in years. This issue, she gets a smidge of revenge on Rogue, who stole her powers and memories years ago; as Ms. Marvel beats up the mutant possessed by the Broodqueen. Ugh...along with the return of the Brood, this series also featured Claremont's new characters from Fantastic Four, Lockdown and Rosetta Stone. I don't think they've got a lot of play in the years since; but at least they weren't killed off in a crossover like DC characters would be, right?

Also this issue: Hawkeye vs. Gambit! A Deadpool appearance...in which he somehow isn't the chattiest person in the panel. A "Fast Lane" insert! No, never mind that.
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"Wire."

I don't think I quite have Ms. Marvel's voice: the only character trait I give her here is somewhat humorless earnestness. And Black Cat is mangling or misinterpreting a quote, "When the student is ready, the master will appear," that itself isn't really as deep as all that.

Is this the last we'll see of White Kitten, er, Tiger? I'm not sure yet, but Cat and Satana are definitely returning.

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"The End" Week: the Thing #36!

In recent months, we've checked out Ben Grimm appearances from his own title and Marvel Two-In-One; and seen the Thing never give up, and never say die. Aaaaand today Ben is totally giving up and ready to die. From 1986, the Thing #36, "Going for Broke" Written by Mike Carlin, pencils by Paul Neary, finishes by Sam de la Rosa.

Ben had been wrestling in the Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation, many of which's wrestlers had been given super-strength by the mysterious Power Broker. With Ms. Marvel Sharon Ventura and Army Sgt. Lynch, Ben's been trying to track the Broker down; but is weak and sick. The Power Broker gave his clients pills to "stabilize" their new powers; and Sharon fears without them, she could die. Later, she finds out from future D-Man Dennis Dunphy, the pills weren't related to their powers but were intended to make the clients dependent on the Broker: Dunphy fought his way through the withdrawals, while Sharon had never taken them and would be fine. But that didn't explain the Thing's condition: mutating wildly, he's taken to the hospital.

Meanwhile, hearing a news report about Ben going on the rampage, the sensational She-Hulk flies to L.A. to help Ben out. Fearing that Ben didn't want to see any of the Fantastic Four, Sharon tries to stop She-Hulk, but is outclassed. Still, the fight lasts long enough for Ben to lurch out of the hospital and hitch a ride in a dump truck to the beach, where he heads off to die, feeling everyone would be better off without him...and he knows the perfect place to go. (I do think I know where he was headed, although I don't know what is causing his problem here!)

A downer ending, even if you know the Thing would return. I know Sharon (who would become a Thing herself later) would get together with the Thing eventually, but here she just wants to be friends. Actually, she doesn't come across very well here, but admittedly was afraid she was going to die. It would be a little bit before she would return and join the team in 1987's Fantastic Four #306; Dennis Dunphy would appear as D-Man earlier in Captain America #328.
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Julia should play the Force Works card, see where that gets her.

I enjoyed the movie Civil War so much, considering how much trepidation I had over it being based on the crossover Civil War, which I hated and still hate. So why not check out an issue dealing with blowback from that, that'll be fun...from 2007, Ms. Marvel #14, "The Deal, part 2" Written by Brian Reed, pencils by Aaron Lopresti, inks by Matt Ryan.

Former Spider-Woman Julia Carpenter, now using the name Arachne, had been on Team Cap during Civil War, and refused to register afterwards. Ms. Marvel and her strike force, Operation: Lightning Storm, had just brought her in, arresting her in front of her daughter; and now Carol was questioning if mmmmmaybe they weren't in the wrong on this one. Talking it over with her boss, Tony Stark, she wonders if Julia didn't deserve more help than she had received; Tony asks if that would be "special favors" but Carol points out they had both gotten out of trouble before by playing the Avengers card. Meanwhile, trying to find her daughter Rachel, an escaped Julia goes after Ms. Marvel's rookie teammate Anya, who smacks her down.

Captured again, Julia is justifiably pissed at Carol and her former West Coast Avengers teammate Wonder Man, but they still help her reunite with Rachel, who was with Julia's parents. Who were pissed at Julia, for bringing the war to their door as it were: they felt she had endangered them all, and should leave Rachel to be raised by them. Instead, with Carol's help, Julia leaves with Rachel. That may cause a custody battle down the road, but Tony had pulled some strings to get Julia onto the new Canadian super-team Omega Flight. Still, Julia is not particularly grateful, and doesn't forgive Carol. Meanwhile, A.I.M. recovers their "DNA bomb" for MODOK...

Man, Julia Carpenter would continue getting the shaft from Marvel, and getting traded to Canada wouldn't even be the worst of it. (And her teammates on Omega Flight? Proud Canadians like Beta Ray Bill and USAgent...hey!) She would later be shifted over to be the new Madame Web for a while in the Spider-Man books, and was blind for at least some of that? She may have still fared better than some other Spider-Women that were killed off, but still. (In fact, I had thought Anya was killed off later, but not yet anyway.) Meanwhile, somehow Carol Danvers is still a fairly likable character, despite Marvel's ongoing efforts. She reminds me a lot of DC's Captain Atom: former military, a bit stricter than other heroes in general, probably more likely to be cast in the authoritarian or bad cop role...
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That seems slightly more suggestive than I'd realized.

I've never been big on "decompression" in comics: the trend of basically taking maybe two good issues worth of plot and stretching them into six issues for the trade. But today's book feels like six issues crammed into one! From 1990, Uncanny X-Men #269, "Rogue Redux" Written by Chris Claremont, pencils by Jim Lee, inks by Art Thibert.

Rogue had been missing in action for about a year, sucked into the deus ex machina er, Siege Perilous, with the Master Mold in Uncanny X-Men #247. (Most of the rest of the team would willingly enter the Siege later, in an attempt to move on to new lives, or some damn thing that didn't work at all; but basically wrote the characters out until Claremont wanted to come back to them!) Even though her body is seemingly torn apart and reassembled, she comes back...in her room, in Australia. Even Rogue finds that anti-climatic, but she may have jumped the gun. Somebody's using her room, the TV news announces the deaths of Mystique and Destiny (one would stick, the other wouldn't!) and oh yeah, her flight and invulnerability powers are gone, the X-Men are also gone, and the mutant-hating cyborg Reavers have retaken their town!

Reaver Bonebreaker must've had some kind of cyborg exposition pack installed there. Rogue is saved by the surprising return of Ms. Marvel--sort of. Years ago, when Rogue fought her, she stole her powers and memories; this was the Ms. Marvel that lived in her head given form. Wanting to be quits with that, Rogue runs to the mutant teleporter Gateway, borrows his powers, and bails. This time, Rogue ends up in the Savage Land, and not only manages to go the whole issue without seeing Ka-Zar, but she seems to have possibly the most pleasant stay there of anyone ever. It's a journey of adventure and self-discovery; although Claremont does mention "the sun doesn't rise for half the year, doesn't set for the other" and I don't think that would work. The jungle plants couldn't survive six months of darkness. Right, that's the unrealistic thing about a jungle full of dinosaurs in Antarctica. Anyway, Rogue got the better end of that deal: faux-Ms. Marvel lands on Muir Island, where the Shadow King takes her over.

Rogue finds the village of the X-Men's Savage Land friends destroyed, and has about a 30-second pity party over that and the deaths of everyone else; but has just about bucked back up when Ms. Marvel sucker punches her. (She's also being monitored by someone high-tech, but we don't see who here.) Appearing as a rotting corspe, Marvel tells Rogue they don't have enough life force for the two of them; but Rogue is unwilling to kill her. Still, the Shadow King's control plus her already-pretty-strong dislike of Rogue, gives Ms. Marvel the edge, and she nearly drains Rogue dry before being struck down from behind...by Magneto! Who uses some lab stuff to fix Rogue, and make a dramatic appearance that was totally spoiled on the cover.

This is peak Claremont, Lee just hitting his stride as a penciller, and yay, Art Thibert! (He had done some Warlord art before, so I recognized his name!) It's an issue jam-fatty-packed full; if slightly derailed since the next issue wouldn't follow up on Rogue or Magneto, but would be the first part of the X-Tinction Agenda crossover, which I surprisingly don't think I ever read. Still, I think Claremont wanted to return to Rogue after her being out for a bit, and had so much stuff he wanted to do. The bit about Rogue's walkabout-quest I felt he had used before though, for Karma in New Mutants Special Edition. And Storm may have done a bit of that in Lifedeath 2 maybe. It was a theme, we'll say.
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The Comic Book Shop has come through for me a couple times lately, with the Scarlet Witch and the Destroyer; but whenever I get a figure from them, I worry that I'm cherry-picking the case and they'll be left with pegwarmers. (Although I did drop the ball when I picked up Stryfe: I should've got Storm first and had a shot at finishing Jubilee!) Still, that didn't stop me from grabbing the latest DC Multiverse figure, Batgirl!

You can see a bit in the pictures here; she came with a yellow batarang that looks like a chewable vitamin, and a phone. But like a lot of the Mattel DC figures I've purchased over the last year, the articulation is both plentiful yet just short of useful: Batgirl can't hold her phone anywhere near her ear, for instance.

The paint seems pretty good: the belt and her hair could maybe use a little something, but the laces on her boots are nice. Hmm, just now I notice, while I haven't been playing with her long, her hips seem a bit loose? Batgirl isn't bad, but I haven't had a DC figure in recent memory that was as nice as a Marvel Legend figure. Not even close. But they're the same price as Legends, and I find myself wondering if I'll get the rest of this series. I swear they had two Legends of Tomorrow Hawkmen on the rack, and he seemed bland. The Earth-2 Flash (John Wesley Shipp!) and Zoom are probably comparable to the earlier Flash and Reverse Flash: not terrible, but not $40+ worth? And that Dark Knight Returns Joker doesn't do anything for me.

Still, I do kinda want the Jim Gordon Batman. So I can give him a mustache.


And although we've recently completed Sandman, Killer Croc, Abomination, and Space Venom; we're back to a pile of parts in the Build-a-Figure, Collect-and-Connect drawer. I fully intend to put the Warlock pieces I get on eBay, since I only want Dazzler and Polaris, and can live without Colossus, Shatterstar, and Cyclops. It is entirely possible I'll hold out on the off chance of finding the rest cheap. Really cheap. I'm four Guardians (and Star-Lord, who doesn't get a piece!) down from completing Titus, and while another Drax is a hard sell, it could still happen. And building King Shark?...I have to admit, he might carry the lot. I just had a glance at the back of the package, since for some reason I was picturing him as a hammerhead, which strikes me as terrible; glad they didn't go that route.
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