"Drop."

H.E.R.B.I.E. shows up here and there in the Contest of Champions game: he's part of Mr. Fantastic's special move, and he's been the narrator/presenter for a few quests. I forget if he's in the books right now, though: last I recollect, Valeria had given him free will--and swears--in Incoming #1 back in 2020. That feels like a hundred years ago, but January was 40 years long so that makes sense. 

Tony was actually there last time Satana saw Deadpool, in "Idea," but Pool was dressed up like the Punisher and not the big red Venompool version. Like most Marvel heroes, they consider symbiotes gross, at best.

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"Show of Hands."

There's every possibility I might blog a Sleepwalker comic between typing this and posting it, but my impression was Sleepy wasn't real well-versed in traditional social graces. Still, he's trying. Read more!

"Fill Up."

Moon Knight was going to call Quasar "Wendy," as short for Wendell, but Vaughn is a cooler and more spy-sounding name. That, and like most cosmic types, I think Quasar would see something horrible, react for a moment, then move on. No shortage of terrible existential nightmares in space! 

And yay, Sleepwalker returns! Have I read any more of his comics since the last time he was here? I feel like I've bought some, sure, but...While I'm glad to see him, is Sleepy the one to free them from D'spayre?

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"Exposing."

I don't know if Kaine has run into Shriek before--and I'm almost positive Ben Reilly has run into D'spayre, but not him. Then again, I've probably looked D'spayre up half a dozen times since starting this plotline, and he really doesn't have a ton of appearances? And I weirdly have more than I would've thought: Kurt might have seen him a second time before, in Magik #3 of all places. (Also, Claremont and Byrne created D'spayre: since Jennifer Kale was involved, I was sure it was going to be Steve Gerber.)

 The Brazier of Bom'Galiath is probably still in the Sanctum Sanctorum somewhere collecting dust: Dr. Strange used it to send Eric Masterson to Mephisto's hell in Thor #443, a comic I'm positive I haven't read. Does the Brazier do anything else? Seems like it should, but I don't know, I'm not a master of the mystic smarts or whatever...

And of course, "Die, you chalk-faced goons!" is from Treehouse of Horror VIII's "The HΩmega Man," where in an extended riff on The Omega Man, Homer runs down Johnny and Edgar Winter. It's an honest mistake! For personal reasons, The Omega Man is a favorite, even if it feels too close to home nowadays: he felt completely alone, everything he believed in had fallen by the wayside, and he was surrounded by religious science-hating weirdos who had voted to drink his blood. As true today, as when it was written.

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"Meow."

You've probably seen that in dozens of movie trailers: where they take a popular song, slow it down, maybe play it in a minor key, and throw in some reverb to make it creepy. Pretty sure you could do that with the "Meow Mix" tune, even without demonic chanting.

Marc is alluding to the end of Blood Hunt, which...didn't really do anything for me, and while it did bring Moon Knight back, the whole affair seemed largely to set up the next event, One World Under Doom. I'm in no mood for that, I gotta say: Doom might be a goddamn improvement at this point. I'm not even joking, he'd probably be better for women's rights alone. (Everyone is mistreated equally under Doom, but he wouldn't withhold life-saving care for bullcrap reasons.) I swear it feels like Marvel's pulled this like four times, with Norman Osborn or Hydra Cap: here's a horrible fascist state, that's different than the one you're stuck in because...um...I dunno, Arnim Zola?

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"Ditch."

Why is Jack Russell wearing a lab coat...? Because he landed the coveted role of Dr. Canus, in a Kamandi strip that I apparently never got around to doing. Werewolf by Night, like the rest of his brethren from the Marvel Legends Monsters box set, has not received a new figure, putting him on the increasingly short-list of Toy Biz figures that have not been updated. (I did see some Universal-style monsters figures from Jada Toys in my search, though!) Jack is probably the third-best figure in his set: better than the Dracula, but not holding up as well as Frankenstein and the Zombie. The hips and shoulders are outdated, the neck doesn't have any range, and he falls victim to scale creep, since he's now shorter than Wolfsbane! 

We're not going to see whatever turned Cap into Capwolf--if we go down one more level of flashback, we're in Priest territory--but since Morbius was involved, it might've been the werewolf coup d'etat Kang mentioned last year! It was probably like Captain America #344, except werewolves instead of snakes.

The magically "radioactive" corpse may or may not be a thing in real Marvel continuity; but old Dr. Strange stories seemed pretty steadfast in the belief that magic was not for everybody, and you could get jacked up messing with things you should tamper with. I want to say there's a throwaway line in Marvel Comics Presents (possibly MCP #19, "Nightmare in Suburbia.") where radon poisonings were revealed to be less prevalent than was known; many of those deaths were actually amateur magicians summoning a demon and then having a heart attack on the spot.  

I've never been, so I thought Lake Minnetonka was going to be a small, isolated secret; but it's like the most popular lake in Minnesota! I'm more familiar with Dave Chappelle referencing it as Prince, since I didn't see Purple Rain until maybe last year. Chappelle has been kind of a jerk lately: it's not easy to apologize or admit you're wrong, but that doesn't necessarily mean you should double or triple down.  

What does any of this have to do with Moon Knight and Quasar? Oh, he's getting to it...

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