Smashy, smashy.

For some reason, I have two copies of Avengers: The Terminatrix Objective #2, and am missing another issue of that limited series. Not that I'm running out to fill that hole in my collection, it's just weird.

It's also weird that War Machine, Thunderstrike, and USAgent get teamed up like their counterparts, the big three Avengers, and it's not like they're the next generation, or anyone is passing the torch or anything. On the other hand, it's not quite like off-brand knockoffs or generic medicine, either...how can I put this? The replacements? They aren't really the second-string, although you have to figure citizens would feel more secure knowing Cap or Iron Man is on the case, rather than their angry, angry, palette-swapped imitators.

Come to think of it, Thunderstrike was often portrayed as vaguely pissed-off all the time as well. Moreso than Thor, at any rate. And Thunderstrike at least looks passably different than Thor in silhouette.


We're getting off-topic, but that's better than trying to piece together the plot for this one. It involves Ravonna, who I remember as Kang's lost love and relatively innocent; except thanks to Marvel's bifurcating time-travel rules, there's multiple versions of her now. Nebula, who claimed to be Thanos' daughter and almost wrecked the Avengers with Dr. Druid (she wrecked the sales anyway) is one version. Immortus, the old man version of Kang, explains to Ravonna there are six intermediary aspects of her, one of whom will go on to great enlightenment, presumably outside of this comic.

This one's also got the Council of Cross-time Kangs, a fun idea that's never had a great story, yet: with a myriad of alternate realities, each timeline or universe has a Kang. Or, sometimes someone or something would kill a Kang and then decide that time-travelling in a purple hat and blue mask would be just kicking, which gives the artist license to go nuts and draw lizardman Kangs, robot Kangs, dinosaur Kangs, whatever. So, all the Kangs get together in a big committee and...really never seem to accomplish anything. Like at all. (Any scene of the Council will remind you of the Galactic Senate scenes in the Star Wars prequels, and the Council is just as ineffective as that august body. Still, the Council actually appeared first.) The Council of Cross-Time Kangs, not unlike fellow Marvel supergroups the Captain Britain or Nova Corps, get exponentially more useless the more members they have.


Meanwhile, the collected Avengers...fight some garbage robots. Really tough garbage robots, though. Yeah. They talk it out a bit, and cease hostilities until they figure out which group, if not both, is being manipulated. (Cap's group definitely was.) Look, for Marvel heroes, that's a pretty substantial peace accord there.

OK, now I have to see which issues I still have. From Avengers: The Terminatrix Objective #2, "On the Side of the Angels" Written by Mark Gruenwald, pencils by Mike Gustovich, inks by LaRosa and Martineck.
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"A League of their Own"

I am so sorry about that title, but it works. Click to enlarge, and more pages after the break!


This strip fell into place since I was trying to come up with a Nova-centric story...and failing miserably. Even with Essential Nova next to me, and a passing familiarity with the character from New Warriors and his later solo book, I had no idea what his current characterization was. I believe his initial personality was supposed to be an inversion of the Peter Parker formula, so Rich was a jock; the somewhat rarely found in fiction jock-that's-not-also-a-bully. (Which made Rich's Flash Thompson analog a nerd, who would attack Rich with brutal, hurtful, words.)

I also recall Nova was after Namorita back in the day, but he seemed like a bit of a hound anyway. And...that was it. Look, I was more of a Quasar fan, all right? And Quasar would've worked better for what I had wanted to do; some Green Lantern Corps fun. Nova and Hal Jordan are slightly too similiar for my original idea, but then I thought, if Nova is a Green Lantern analog...

There were a couple episodes of Justice League Unlimited, ("The Terror Beyond" and "Wake the Dead") where a very Defenders-like batch of characters appears: Hawkgirl, Dr. Fate, Amazo, Aquaman, and Solomon Grundy. And I thought, well, could I put together an analog Justice League? (The Squadron Supreme wouldn't work, they're getting action figures never and ever.) If I come up with something else for this group, I'll come back to it.


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Iceberg! Right ahead!

You don't need me to tell you that the melting polar ice caps are a major problem for everyone on the planet. Methane release from permafrost, animal habitat loss, drastic changes in the oceans' currents, and sea levels rising to where we would rather they not be; and those are just the possible effects scientists have come up with so far. (I hate that sinking feeling I have that more Americans would be more upset about climate change if scientists said it would cause gay marriages and voting Democrat...)

Still, bad as climate change is going to be for us, it's going to be far worse for inhabitants of the Marvel Universe. They're going to get all the downsides we get, and then some, since every time you see an iceberg in the 616, you can be damn sure something's in it. Probably Captain America, but still.

Most of you probably remember Cap was frozen at the end of World War II, to be found some years later by the Avengers. Except, if you wanna be a stickler about the continuity, Cap was frozen multiple times!

In Captain America #17-20 (volume four) "Cap Lives" we see the Capsicle not found by the Avengers in 1964, but by a U-boat full of Nazis. Waking to a world where the Allies couldn't win the war without him, Cap rallies the unpowered Marvel heroes into overthrowing the Red Skull, and ends up thrown back in time by Dr. Doom's time machine. Which was considerate enough to put Cap back where he should be, in a block of ice outside the Avengers' sub. Somehow.

Or, perhaps Cap was left on ice by a faction in the United States government, that feared Cap may oppose use of nuclear weapons on Japan. Experimented on by rogue scientists, a Lemurian, and some alien severed hand thing, Cap was eventually discovered by Namor, and thrown back in the drink.
Yeah, let's never speak of that one again.
Here's a happier occasion of Cap getting frostbite: following up on a possible sighting of his lost partner D-Man, Cap accidentally releases a giant icy worm, then ends up swallowed. Cap is rescued by another frozen hero, the forgotten Liberty Legion member (and possibly littlest frost giant) Jack Frost. Jack is forced to sacrifice himself to freeze the worm again, so he's still out there somewhere...

...although D-Man was later freed from an icy prison...so he could live with a bunch of smelly, homeless, forgotten Kirby characters. Yeah, that's much better than waking up in the future. This is pretty much the coolest D-Man will ever be. (Boo!)

But Captain America and his cohorts aren't the only bit of flotsam jetsamming around the Marvel Universe's icebergs! Not by a long shot! For example, there's everyone's favorite short-pants-wearing dragon, Fin Fang Foom!

Or for the literary types, Frankenstein's Monster!

Or...the Hulk? Really? OK, whatever...

I am like this close to grabbing a random Hulk figure and an old milk carton, filling them up with water and throwing them in the fridge...

And Leela from Futurama? The problem is worse than I had thought!


EDIT: Some nine years later, here's Hellboy from the animated Sword of Storms! If you can think of any other iceberg-embedded Marvel (or other) characters, let me know! And if you can fix polar ice cap melting, maybe you could get on that, too.

Credits after the break!

First, we've got the classic Avengers #4, "Captain America Joins...the Avengers!" Written by Stan Lee, art by Jack Kirby, inks by George Roussos. It's been reprinted tons of times, but this is from Avengers Classic #4.

Then, Captain America #17-20 (volume four) "Cap Lives" by writer Dave Gibbons, penciler Lee Weeks, and inker Tom Palmer. It's like a What If that runs four issues, but a drastic improvement from...

Captain America #12-16, (still volume four) "Ice" Written by Chuck Austen, art by Jae Lee. (The cover to #16 was reprinted, minus the cover elements, in the Captain America poster book that came with the series VIII Marvel Legends Ultimate Cap!)

A far more enjoyable story was Captain America #384 (volume one, baby!) "Lair of the Ice Worm" Written by Mark Gruenwald, pencils by Ron Lim, inks by Danny Bulanadi.

Just as much fun: Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #19, written by Peter David, pencils by Mike Norton, inks by Norman Lee.

It took me forever to find my copy of Book of the Dead #1, reprinting Monster of Frankenstein #1, Gary Friedrich and Mike Ploog adapting and expanding on Mary Shelly's Frankenstein.

Then, we've got an Earl Norem cover for Rampaging Hulk #9, and a time-travel tripup from Futurama Comics #19, "The Time Bender Trilogy, part III" Script by Ian Boothby, pencils by John Delaney, inks by Phyllis Novin. Read more!

Review, sort of: Marvel Legends Tigra, Wal-Mart Exclusive

Long before the world ever heard of "Furries," I liked Tigra. Not in a weird way, or anything; that bikini was pretty hot...let's just go on.

Although I missed her first appearances in books like Giant-Size Creatures #1 and Marvel Chillers, I did catch part of her stint as a hanger-on of the Fantastic Four; then she turned up at Moondragon's Avengers try-outs in Avengers #211.

(That last was one of my first Avengers comics as a kid, Avengers #211, "...by Force of Mind!" Written by Jim Shooter, pencils by Gene Colan, inks by Dan Green.)

She would later transfer over to the West Coast Avengers, the first limited series of which was great; then 102 issues ranging from not bad to total suck. Somewhere in there, writers started playing up the cat aspect of her nature, to the point that I wouldn't be surprised if poor Tigra spent an issue coughing up hairballs and playing with yarn.

So, how is her first action figure in nine years? (The last being from the Avengers cartoon in 2000. Man, I bought a lot of those and watched the show, perhaps under the misconception that if I supported it, eventually the cartoon would bring in the big guns, Cap, Iron Man, and Thor full-time. Wrongo.) Well, like Nova, she's got her good points, and her bad. Tigra is cast in orange plastic, saving a ton on orange paint; but the paint she does have is pretty nice, especially on the stripes.

Her joints are the newer Hasbro style, which means she has less articulation than the older Toy Biz Legends, but there's less breaks in the sculpt, too. I may be spoiled by DCUC, though; since Tigra's hip joints are disappointing: I didn't get enough range out of them to say, put Tigra in a sitting position, and I didn't want to force them. That's too bad, for a character that's supposed to be the agile cat-girl who's usually crouched. As happens nine times out of ten to female figures, Tigra's neck joint is a bit hindered by her hair. And her tail is not a bendy, if you were wondering.
I remember being upset when Marvel Legends broke the ten dollar price point, but at $10.44, now Tigra doesn't seem like too bad of a deal: less expensive than a DCUC, only slightly more so than a much smaller Marvel Universe figure. She also comes with the head and shoulders of Nemesis/Holocaust. This is another figure were your final grade may be swayed by your appreciation of the character (or love of cat-girls), but not as much as Nova: I'd have to say Tigra's a solid B. She doesn't have as much articulation as earlier Legends like Black Widow or Ms. Marvel, but she looks better in a neutral pose, particularly her arms. Tigra is noticeably shorter than her fellow Avengers however, but that shouldn't be a deal-breaker.

If and when Hasbro continues the Marvel Legends line, there are only a few Avengers left for my ideal lineup: Quasar, Jack of Hearts, Mockingbird definitely. I wouldn't mind a Triathalon figure even. Read more!

Bound to happen, yeah.

Do falcons growl? Well, Redwing does, anyway.

Even though the effects were a bit dated when it was first aired (by the standards of ILM) I love Blake's 7. The banner (and the 'fake' banner I did a while back) are pretty influenced by its last episode. If you've never seen the show, it's a British sci-fi adventure show with surprisingly grim overtones. The heroes are rebels fighting alone against a galactic empire, the evil Federation. (Making Star Trek fans go 'hey!') Well, the leader, Blake, is a rebel; the rest are mostly criminals fighting less for heroic idealism than their own goals or skins.

Blake's 7 may not be widely remembered here, but it may have been a little more influential than you think, in terms of casting: Blake, the leader of the rebels, disappears at the end of the second season, as the actor opted out of returning to the show. He would eventually return for what would be the final episode, "Blake," which ends with most of the cast gunned down, and the series lead, self-confessed psychopath Avon, surrounded by soldiers, and grinning. Fade to black, as guns fire.

Now, the producers had planned this ending out, so any of the actors who wanted out could be written off. Anyone who signed back on, their character would merely be wounded and would miraculously survive. Pretty clever, huh? Except the show wasn't renewed, making it a remarkably bleak series finale. Which may also have made the show more memorable, honestly...but try to imagine a show like say, Star Trek: The Next Generation continuing if Patrick Stewart quit after season two, or having everyone killed in the end.

There's a lot of remakes and "re-imagings" out there, and a lot of them are completely unneccessary, but Blake's 7? Ripe for it. A good producer could take it a long ways, and if the actors give you any guff? Shoot 'em.

In other news, I'm having computer trouble, so we're running this one early. I had to do a restore, and may have to reload some programs. My brother-in-law is making me a new computer out of some stuff he had lying around, and I'm looking forward to retiring my old one. If it behaves, it'll be retired to the old computer home, used as backup. If not, it'll be retired off a bridge... Read more!

A high point and a low, from the last half of Kurt Busiek's Avengers run:

Post George Perez, Kurt Busiek started plotlines in the $1.99 trial-priced Avengers #38 that would continue until his departure from the book, issue #56. (Hmm, Busiek may have actually started a couple of issues earlier, with the mystery of Goliath being kidnapped and replaced by Hank Pym's other identity, Yellowjacket. Spoiler warning: it wasn't a Skrull that time!) It's an epic that stays within the single title, with the exception of an annual and an Ultron side-story; and I think it's even stronger than the Perez issues. Besides, Busiek had some pretty good support from artists like Alan Davis and Kieron Dwyer.

Here's a low point, though: after being turned into a radioactive hivemind zombie in Siberia and nearly dying--you should be looking for the trades right now--Captain America is a bit banged up, but still goes with his Avengers co-leader the Wasp, to a briefing with the military on plans for a counterattack against Kang the Conqueror. Seriously, go to Amazon or something, I'll wait. I drag these issues out every so often, and read that whole stretch straight through.

Bandages over the costume: not a dignified look. And this scene was probably at least a day or so after his injuries; I hope Cap hadn't taped himself to his chainmail or something.

OK, now a higher point: Kang is all but defeated at this point, his armies routed, his massive starship base crash-landed, his personal weapons failing, and his son Marcus sent back to the future to carry on his legacy. But Kang isn't going out without a fight. He knows he's done, but this will cement his name and his honor.

Cap immediately steps up, but before the other Avengers take his back, Thor stops them:

One plot point that had been running for a while, was that when Thor believed Captain America had been killed, Thor was beside himself with rage. (Quicksilver and the Black Knight were also apparently dead, but Thor wasn't so broken up about that. It may have slipped Busiek's mind that Pietro and Dane hate each other, though...) Thor begins to worry that he's going to be too attached to Cap and the other Avengers, most of whom he'll probably see grow old and die. Cap is probably Thor's favorite mortal, though, and here we see why.

The only downside to Busiek's magnum opus? While it is kinda nice that it all takes place in Avengers proper, no spin-offs or one-shots or X-Men vs. Kang series...hell, that might've been fun. It would've at least been something to mention that Kang's invasion was happening on the same planet as the rest of Marvel's books; and there's no magic fix or convenient forgetting in the end. Still, it's a great run, and missed.

And unlike the Avengers books of the last few years, Busiek does it while still fitting in new characters like Silverclaw and Triathalon, not beating you over the head with them, but gradually getting you to like them more and more. (Is Ares the last addition to the Avengers roster? I sure as hell don't count Daken...) I have to wonder if they are remembered fondly, or at all; or if they are as forgotten and maligned as, say, Gypsy or Vibe?

First panel from Avengers #45, "Life During Wartime" Written by Kurt Busiek, "reserve artists" Manuel Garcia and Bob Layton. Kang's beatdown comes in Avengers #54, "A Good Day to Die" Written by Busiek, art by Kieron Dwyer and Rick Remender.

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Everyone needs a hobby: might I suggest getting the hell away from me?

Even though I'm not buying the others, I'd probably pay for Young Dark Pet Avengers.

Sam's using one of the McFarlane Toys Guitar Hero guitars, and I sure as hell hope you didn't pay full price for those. I still see them at Wal-Mart in the $5-7 range, but we got ours at a dollar store. MWC Toys had a review a while back, and I'm mildly surprised they weren't knocked down a point or two for not having straps. Seriously, Otto from the Playmates Simpsons line had a guitar with a strap, so it's not like that was rocket science there. (Here's a review from OAFE for Guitar Hero's Johnny Napalm, that also highlights some of the line's and McFarlane's problems.)

I have nothing against Lenny Kravitz, but I wouldn't shed a tear if I never heard his music again. Overplayed. It's not like he dropped off the face of the earth or anything, but I'd say his comeback is probably still a few years off...since I'm writing upstanding super-hero Falcon here, I'm guessing he probably has terrible taste in music; while bad-boy antihero Snap Wilson doubtless has way more street cred. Do people still have street cred? Arrgh, I'm old, and have none.

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Told today, Superman would probably have to kiss Hal's ring...

I'm in a staggeringly bad mood today, so let's take a brief look at some things I don't miss (and maybe a couple I do) from DC Comics, using Superman: The Man of Steel Annual #4, "Hero" Written by Louise Simonson, pencils by John Paul Leon, inks by Dennis Janke.

Whereas Marvel often went with crossovers in their annuals, DC would sometimes go with a theme for the year, that would go across multiple books without them necessarily tying into one another. In 1995, that theme was "Year One." This is ground that has long since been trod over again and again (and to continue the metaphor, burned down and on occasion salted over) but it wasn't a bad idea then. Simonson strings together multiple points from Superman's relatively new, post-Crisis continuity, like his first meetings with Batman (from Byrne's The Man of Steel #3) or Aquaman (also told in Aquaman's annual for 1995) or the Justice League of America.

Now, that last one was later retold and expanded a bit in Waid and Kitson's JLA, but I don't know if Simonson or some other story set the precedent: Supes helps the JLA out against the Lord of Time, then cops out of League membership, stating he didn't have the time to devote to the team. (I do prefer Waid's story, where after Supes leaves, Green Lantern launches the chair Flash made for Supes into space.) As I've said before, I don't miss that aspect of that era of Superman stories, not one little bit: at the very least, figure Supes would've taken a reserve spot and a communicator, and not left with a vague, I'll-be-there-if-you-really-REALLY-need-me promise.

So, some of this annual's scenes I've seen before, or since; but there is one that I'm not sure has remained canon: Superman's first meeting with Hal Jordan, Green Lantern:

As Clark tells his mom over the phone, that he's met a lot of heroes but none like himself; a news report breaks in about a twenty-ton Lexcorp satellite headed straight for Coast City. Since the thing is inexplicably not breaking up in the atmosphere, Superman streaks to the scene to avert disaster. A disaster currently not being stopped, by Coast's own Green Lantern. Tongs, Hal? You're going to stop a multi-ton, hurtling towards disaster satellite with tongs? It's not like the damn thing's even yellow...

Sure enough, the tongs don't work, and as Hal kicks himself by remembering his dad saying he would be a failure; Superman slows down the satellite enough for Hal to get his head back on straight and net it. He and Supes chat a bit, as he puts it down on the beach.

Hmm. This would be foreshadowing, if Coast City hadn't been obliterated by then. Fauxshadowing. I'm going to assume this was inserted via editorial mandate and not by Simonson, but the trend at DC then, while Kyle Rayner was Green Lantern, was that Hal had always been unstable, which would be why he went bad and became Parallax. If Hal was seen in flashback, he was often either acting sketchy, foreboding, otherwise hinting towards future instability. This was done more than a couple of times, but that's still a fistful of retroactive blacklisting versus years of being the steadfast hero in his own book, the Justice League, and various other appearances. Put that way, "possessed by yellow evil entity" starts to look pretty reasonable.

This could be another of those things that happened in the DC Universe proper, and I might be thinking of the New Frontier again, but didn't Hal's dad die when he was pretty young? I thought Hal idolized his pilot father, and it's hard to believe someone that hung up on his dad calling him a failure, would have the confidence to become a test pilot, or Green Lantern, or even Hal Jordan.

As Hal talks to Superman, he thinks maybe he can thank Supes for the assist, by helping him learn about his past: Supes hadn't learned about Krypton just yet, placing this scene between The Man of Steel #3 and #6. Hal's ring tells him about Krypton, but Hal decides telling Supes the whole sole-survivor business would just be too harsh.

So, I'm torn: I liked this annual, and I enjoyed the highlight reel trip through Superman's past. I don't like the editorial fiat of the day coming into things: Superman's first visits with the Flash and Aquaman are also shown, and they manage without any heavy-handed foreboding of Barry's sacrifice or Arthur losing his hand. I wouldn't mind seeing more of these, especially since this one manages to avoid getting too mired in Superman's origin, which gets a new coat of paint and/or massive revisions every year or so now. (Which is it today: was Krypton a sterile, loveless society? Silver-age science action planet? Totalitarian war zone? Chock full of crystals? What?) But if I did, I'd want just a single issue trip, not six or twelve issues of revisions. And I'd want it straight, without dropping a bucketload of hints about current storylines: the Clark of ten years ago doesn't get to muse about maybe someday, a new Krypton will arise, and he'll leave the care of earth to other hands...

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Review, sort of: Marvel Legends Nova, Wal-Mart Exclusive:

When was this figure first announced? When was it supposed to come out? The January 2008 cover-dated issue of Toyfare refers to the wave as Marvel Legends Series 4, upcoming for January 2008, and a picture of Nova is shown...as part of series 3, the Brood Wave. Oops. But the bigger oops was the non-release of the figures, and to date no one seems positive who was to blame. Hasbro said for some time that Wal-Mart had the figures, and it was up to them to release them; and Wal-Mart said nothing.

Nova and the rest of this wave of figures (we'll call it the Nemesis wave, after the Build-a-figure, which we'll get into later) finally appeared at some online vendors a few months ago, and arrived in their intended home aisles at Wal-Mart the week of Comic-Con. So, after over a year and a half of waiting, haunting the toy aisles and website forums for a glimpse of the toys, how does Nova stack up?

Well...I don't want to call Nova an outright disappointment, since that wouldn't be fair for a couple of reasons; but I wanted to be more excited about the first Marvel Legend I've purchased in months. Since this is from a retailer-exclusive wave, typically some (if not all) the figures will be repaints or have more reuse of parts than a "regular" wave. (Not that I have a huge problem with that, although I never noticed Marvel Legend reuse to the extent of DC Universe Classic figures.)

Although on the package Nova is pictured in his current, pointier costume; this figure is more of a classic, 70's Carmine Infantino-style version. But not exactly: classic Nova had a yellow-stripe down the side of his pants, and slightly raised shoulder-points. His red helmet star was flat as well; and on the figure it's three-dimensional and seems huge. Like, it would be in his field of vision huge. Or, Nova's always looking down because that thing is heavy, huge.

On the other hand, huge or no, at least the star is a sculpted element; because his belt and everything else are only painted. The belt wasn't perfect, but the chest emblem looks nice.

Nova has the typical Marvel Legend articulation, with one problem: he was known as "the human rocket," but he can't quite nail the flying pose since he can't look up!

In the comics, Iron Man was nicknamed 'Shellhead,' but Nova was 'Buckethead' long before the guitarist was. His trademark helmet doesn't come off, which you can't really expect from an exclusive wave, and in all likelihood would've been mighty hard to pull off without the helmet being flimsy or his unmasked head looking too small or his eyes not lining up right or any of a dozen other possible problems. Still...the effort would've been something. Nova's not big on weapons or anything, so without a helmet, he doesn't get an accessory other than the leg of "Nemesis." The character was "Holocaust" in the comics, but just like his first action figure, he gets renamed for sale in stores. I am planning on getting Black Bolt and Tigra for sure, if I find them, so maybe we can get a better look at Nemesis later.

At best, Nova's a C, B- of an action figure; the B- if you're a fan of the character that can live with the not-quite classic, not-quite new look of this toy. And he is a character I've personally never had an action figure of, so that does give him a few points from me. I can't help but think he might have been a better figure two years ago, though...

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Having a rough day? Yeah, Nick is too.

From Punisher Annual #4 (1991), "The Cutting Edge" Written by Greg Wright and Dan Chichester, pencils by John Hebert, inks by Palmiotti, Hudson, and Reddington. This was part two of "The Von Strucker Gambit," the other two parts in the Daredevil and Captain America Annuals. (Both of which got Mike Mignola covers, but not Frank. Huh.)

I'm out for the day with a mild emergency, maybe the rest of the week. Sorry!
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I hope Marvel doesn't adapt that one; I don't want to see those covers in the solicits for the next eight years...

Kurt actually is reading from War and Peace: I found a preview online and made way more notes than I could cram into this strip.


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While on vacation last week, I read through the tub of old comics I keep at my parents' house, as I probably do every time I'm on vacation. (There's also a bin of my old Fisher-Price toys, that the boys both loved: the airport and plane, main street, the Sesame Street characters...) And the last couple of times I've done that, I end up taking an issue or three home to blog about; but I'm worried about depleting my stock there. So this time, I tried taking a few pictures with the digital camera, instead of bringing them home to scan. Let's see how that works...

Meh...OK, not great. During Blacklash/Whiplash week before I left, I mentioned that Blacklash (or Whiplash, whatever) didn't make a lot of appearances outside of Iron Man. Calvin Pitt, from over at Reporting on Marvels and Legends, reminded me of his Amazing Spider-Man showing, which I had forgotten but the cover sounded familiar, no doubt because it was in the tub o'comics! In this issue from the Todd McFarlane days, Blackie gives another surprisingly competent go of things: the Scorpion gets an upgraded tail from Justin Hammer, in exchange for future services. Scorpy promptly backs out of the deal, and Hammer sends the Rhino and Blacklash over to do the job, and get his property back.

Blacklash keeps Spidey busy...somehow...while the Rhino pulls the Scorpion's new tail off his ass. Ow. I think Spidey was just trying to keep Blacklash away from civilians or something, but I don't know why he had to lure him rather than simply webbing him up. Blackie has to pole vault after him, for pete's sake. Regardless, he and Rhino succeed in at least part of their mission.

What else did we find? Well, check after the break!
I mentioned I wanted to find this one a while back as well:
Captain America #312 was the first appearance of Flag-Smasher, a pretty good villain for Cap: he was an anti-nationalist, his father killed in a protest that cemented his belief that the planet should be united as one and not divided into petty nations with petty rivalries. Not an ignoble goal, but I'm pretty sure it's not one you're going to achieve by dressing up and waving around a flamethrower. That and it's a tough one to put in a soundbite: stating his goal, Smasher is shouted down by the crowd and called a "commie," so he then tries to explain he's against communism too...

In his next appearance, Flag-Smasher would be backed by his own terrorist group ULTIMATUM, the Ultimate Liberated Totally Integrated Mobile Army To Unite Mankind. Good lord, I would dearly love to know how writer Mark Gruenwald came up with that acronym. Some other time for that. But, in the letters' page for #312, there was the "Mighty Marvel Correction Kit," for a printing error in #309:


I mentioned those Correction Kits before, and I miss that kind of thing. Not the mistakes so much, but the fun little shrugs and fixes of same.

Thursday, another comic from the reserves, that I was breaking my legs looking for here...

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"G.I. Joe: the Rise of Cobra" opens August 7, but let's do this now, before the probable disappointment sets in...

Click to enlarge!


You know how every time I do a Deadpool-centric strip, I moan and groan about having to fill in all his word balloons with yellow? Yeah, this one is my penance for that...

The Snake-Eyes figure is a few years old--2001? Really? I wanted to say it's from the Valor vs. Venom line, but I don't think that's right either. He does have the molded lips, though; that some people don't seem to like on the movie Snake-Eyes.

I figure I'll probably see G.I. Joe: the Rise of Cobra at some point, but I'm not enough of a fan to run out and see it opening night, even if the advance word said it was great. I would guess it would be a passable enough summer movie, with probably more than a couple groan-worthy sequences. I also think any screen time devoted to the tragic backstories of the bad guys; like Cobra Commander's tragic childhood, Destro's devotion to his heritage, or the Baroness's Stockholm Syndrome; is wasted. While the characters can be fleshed out, the villains here don't really need to be humanized or made sympathetic: they're bad guys in a kids' toy line, and it should be acceptable for them to merely be evil bastards.

I Googled it for a bit, but didn't find what I was looking for: I'm 90% sure it was a Toyfare interview, but not quite positive. Larry Hama, the man behind Marvel's G.I. Joe comic and the Hasbro filecards; referred to a movie with a leper (or severely burnt?) ninja as an inspiration for Storm Shadow and his white gi uniform. For some reason, I want to say it was Lady Snowblood, but that was Kill Bill, right?

Another silly thought: Deadpool is one of the Marvel Universe's premier martial artists, but where did he train? I don't recall him ever having a master or being part of a school like Snake-Eyes and Storm Shadow's Arashikage Clan or anything. Granted, a lot of Pool's skill seems to be natural, due to his unpredictable and erratic mindset, but I'm still curious if anyone has touched on that.

Would Deadpool take a job from an upfront terrorist organization like Cobra? Well, in the pages of Deadpool: Merc with a Mouth, he takes a couple million for a job from Advanced Idea Mechanics. A.I.M. always seemed more horrible than a lot of the other fictional bad guy organizations like HYDRA or Cobra; after all, A.I.M. made MODOK, among other things. They were an evil that could very probably experiment on you, and I'm pretty sure Pool's going to realize before long that anything A.I.M. has it's paws on can't be good.

This strip takes place out of our regular "continuity," the current story with the Falcon. And I'm still on vacation: I'm home after a great week in Montana (a sentence that as a kid, I would've never thought would come out of me) and seeing my family and an old friend from high school! I met his family, and forgot to take any pictures even though I had my camera in my damn pocket. But, I'm still off work, so I'd better find something to do...

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