Ooh, the dream books would have something to say about that...

...this is what happens if you have new Iron Man figures, old Micronauts figures (specifically, Baron Karza), and watch Blade Runner all at the same time. (I still have a VHS copy of the Director's Cut that I throw in every so often.)

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All this week: Iron Man!...reruns.

This one's from 2007, one of my favorite Iron Man comics and probably my first as well. Oh, and a Green Lantern bit, to boot.

Well, after that much buildup, of course it's going to disappoint, which is why I usually show up late.

Sometimes, in the course of several months of comics, a villain can be built up into what seems like an insurmountable obstacle for a hero; all to make it that much more dramatic and satisfying when the hero finally wins. Fair enough. But sometimes, the story builds up so much, and the hero's victory is then so decisive, it's hard to picture that villain as a credible threat ever again.

(The converse to the long-term villain would be someone like Sinestro, who showed up for his routine ass-kicking time and again; in this sequence, about to be beaten like a rug off-panel. Sinestro was dead for a long time in DC continuity, because he had become a creampuff.)(EDIT: Sinestro used to just commit crimes there for a while too, didn't he? No big picture or anything...)

For me, it's the Mandarin: the first appearance of his that I read, and probably my first Iron Man comic, features Iron Man defeating him so one-sidedly, by the end all the Mandarin can do is stand and watch as his castle is destroyed. I swear, you really think Mandarin is about to cry there by the end.

Iron Man #100, "Ten Rings to Rule the World!" Written by Bill Mantlo, art by George Tuska and Mike Esposito. Great Jim Starlin cover too. Like I said, I'm pretty sure this was my first Iron Man comic, although I had probably seen him in the Marvel house ads. This issue would be the big finish of a plotline that had been building for a while: I've picked up a few of the prior issues since, but I'm not sure exactly how long this had gone on.

Like so many of the comics I really love, it starts with a bang: years later I would read #99, and see Tony Stark, in an older Iron Man armor, rescue Michael O'Brien as mentioned above. The caption in #100 doesn't mention, though, that O'Brien had been wearing the newer model, and Tony reveals his secret identity to him, trades armors, and then boot-jets into action, starting with the skull-faced samurais of the Mandarin's Death Squad!

As O'Brien laments his suckitude, Iron Man enters the Mandarin's castle, and confronts him. They fight for a bit, with a break when Mandy's ice ring freezes Shellhead up and Mandy can recap his evil master plan: frame Tony Stark for treason, check. Stark's missile defenses about to be shut down, check. Missile launch to trigger global holocaust...how did the Mandarin plan on surviving that, anyway?

Mandy glosses over that to instead explain how he survived bitchslapping "an explosively-charged robot Yellow Claw in IM #70--Arch." (Editor Archie Goodwin, who also wrote Marvel's Star Wars up to Empire, and was generally awesome.)

First, what a great demise. Second, Mandarin's inevitable resurrection is also more interesting than the usual 'healing factor' or 'escaped at the last second': The Yellow Claw leaves a flunkie to dispose of the Mandarin's charred corpse, but the flunkie helps himself to the Mandarin's ten rings of power. Good idea, bad idea: before the flunkie can become the new Mandarin, the original takes over his mind from the rings, moves into his body, and remakes it to look like his old carcass. Technically, the flunkie may have gotten his wish...

(And, I don't have my copy of Marvel Universenext to me right now, so I don't remember all ten. Or do I? Let's see: black light, white light, vortex beam, disintegrator, mind-controller, electricity, poison gas, ice beam...has to be heat beam and magnety, right? I kept thinking one defeats DVD region-coding, a snarky comment from Iron Man in a modern issue that I mentioned the other day. Crap, the one I thought was poison gas was the matter rearranger, of course. And the impact beam! Damn, it's been too long since I've seen the Mandarin, but god forbid Iron Man fight a goddamn villain anymore.)

While the Mandarin goes on about body-jacking, Iron Man has finally, dramatically...reached a knob to turn up the heat and break out of the ice. Yes, I know that's not very 'futurist,' but it was functional, all right? Iron Man starts to rally, then magnetically pulls the rings off of Mandy's fingers. He uses "a palm-magnet (to) electronically neutralize their power!" Yeah, that didn't take: the rings are alien technology or magic or something, Tony; not your old Styx tape. Still, by this point Tony is pretty much murdering Mandy, and he slaps him into...his big missile control console. Nice.
Meanwhile, in Washington, sort of: the Mandarin turns on his secret spy camera, to watch his agent name Tony Stark as a traitor, in front of two senators and a news crew. By this point, Mandy's master plan is looking a little threadbare, but maybe he could pull it out if Stark's missile defenses were turned off. Really though? That's your plan? I mean, if Bill Gates was discredited or framed or ate a puppy or something, would everyone just quit using Windows like that? Mac users, look into that, please.

The agent, who had been posing as Senator Hawk's assistant, dramatically proclaims that the evidence in this briefcase proved Tony Stark had sold the U.S. defective missile defenses, and sold foreign powers Iron Man armor. He pops open the case, which instead releases tear gas, then melts. Senator Hawk and Stark had left the briefcase as a trap, set to open once before arming; to let the traitor incriminate himself. Furious that Stark wouldn't be discredited, and that his missile defenses would still be in place, Mandarin kills his agent by remote control. This was probably the conclusion of a subplot that may have been going for a while, but just coming into this issue, the agent's murder seems more hardcore, if a bit arbitrary.
Probably should've stopped Mandy pressing buttons a few minutes ago, huh? Fed up, Iron Man proceeds to use his repulsor rays on the Mandarin's console, missiles, and castle; levelling the place while lecturing Mandy on why he doesn't kill. The lecture is probably punishment enough. Without his rings and infrastructure, Mandy is reduced to an older Asian guy in a Ming the Merciless costume. (And pointy ears. Why does he have pointy ears?) Much later, he would try different looks like samurai-style armor or a three-piece suit, or long silk robes. But the Mandarin would never seem like a credible threat to me again, which may not be saying much for a guy with two fistfuls of costume jewelry.
Green Lantern and Sinestro panels from, of all places, Action Comics #444, "Beware the Hero-Killers!" Written by Cary Bates, art by Curt Swan and Tex Blaisdell.
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All this week: Iron Man!...reruns.

Finally got a replacement copy of Iron Man #300, "Appetite for Destruction!" Written by Len Kaminski, pencils by Kevin Hopgood and Tom Morgan, inks by Steve Mitchell. It's not as good as Iron Man #100 or #200, but damned if I don't like it more than I'd expect to. Especially since, by this point, I had done the unthinkable and dropped Iron Man.

Previously, around issue #284 or so, Tony Stark was in pretty bad shape, and about to die. Without telling Jim Rhodes that he was going to be put in cryogenic suspended animation, Tony gives Jim control of Stark International and a suit of armor tailored to Jim's skills, the War Machine suit. Jim does a pretty good job with both, but when Tony comes back, Jim gets pissed that Tony didn't tell him, and huffs off. I don't know if I agreed with Jim's rage, but I left the book with him: those may still be my favorite issues of Iron Man to date.

But #300 was a big anniversary issue...and the traditional new Iron Man armor...and War Machine guest-stars! Ah, Marvel gets me again!

Giant alien robot thing Ultimo is tearing up the place, and as the issue begins, Tony is out. The remotely-piloted armor he was using at the time was destroyed by Ultimo and the feedback nearly killed him, so it's down to Jim, who calls in the reserves: long-time supporting characters (and in some cases, occasional Iron Man subs) Happy Hogan, Eddie Marsh, Bethany Cabe, Mike O'Brien, and Carl Walker. Everyone suits up in an old Iron Man suit and takes off, which isn't as sweet a deal as it first sounds: Eddie must have drawn the shortest straw, since he gets the archiac grey suit. Carl wrecks a classic 70's Layton-style armor trying to cover Eddie, but the disappointing part probably was that he had a more-advanced suit when he was the mercenary Force. Mike (in the red-and-silver) and Happy (early 70's shellhead) do OK for a bit, then crash into each other.

Only Bethany Cabe makes a halfway decent showing, but she had the most recent armor and had been pretty badass for about a hundred and eighty issues of the book. (Not a straight run, but still.) Bethany did have a secret weapon, though:

Why didn't she get her own suit after this? Anyway, while all this is going on, Tony hacks his own brain, as you did in the 90's, then gets his new modular armor and saves the day. That particular suit was used in the 90's Iron Man cartoon, but I mainly remember it for a brief appearance in Joe Quesada's stint.

For his part, Jim was already pissed at himself, since he felt he "acted like Tony" in risking the replacements; but he's extra-pissed that he risked them so Tony could just waltz in with the save. He would stay mad for the better part of a year, but a more level-headed Bethany would take a position at Stark Enterprises.

Shoot, I might have to check out that new War Machine book now. (EDIT: Little late now...)

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"In Shining Iron," part two!

When last we saw Tony, he was trapped in the year 1002 and facing torture at the hands of the witch Aislinn and her henchman Emile...who was a lot more threatening before we learned his name. Worse, in 2002, archaeologist Dr. Mallory has just shown Pepper Potts the Iron Man helmet she found on a dig, and the skull inside it.

Presented with the choice of long, brutal questioning, or a quick death if he reveals the secrets of his armor; Tony bravely...gives them the information.

See, torture only gets information if you're Jack Bauer.

In the future, Pepper prepares the time machine to go back herself, but is stopped by Dr. Mallory. Mallory offers to go in Pepper's place, and has several good arguments to why: Mallory can't work the machine if something goes wrong, but she is an expert on the time period, and knows the general layout of the countryside.

Meanwhile, Tony wakes up in a cell, next to the cell of the horseman that attacked him when he first arrived. A bit of a glum sort, the horseman is a little peeved at Tony for stealing his horse and the sword he was supposed to be delivering to the king, which led to him being captured by Aislinn's men. But unwisely, they've left Tony's armor right outside the cell...the horseman snags it, passes it off to Tony, who gets the gauntlets working and tears off the cell doors. The horseman introduces himself as Brann Mak Arn Mak Minyfordd Mak--Tony asks if he can just call him Mak, and he prefers Brann.

Fighting their way outside, they see the sudden arrival of Dr. Mallory, but Brann stops Tony from making their presence known, citing that sudden appearances and sorcery usually go hand-in-hand. This time Brann's right, and things get weird: 'Dr. Mallory' was really Aislinn, only a thousand years older! The two combine, giving the new Aislinn her full power and an extra thousand years of knowledge and experience. After they escape, Tony has no idea how Aislinn pulled that one off, since it creates a paradox: "Why didn't she...explode or something?" Brann quite wisely shrugs it off, that a creature of magic like Aislinn wouldn't be affected by normal laws: quite literally, a wizard did it.

That seems like a pretty restrained costume from Grell, by the way.

Forced to take shelter from a thunderstorm, Brann and Tony hole up in a cave. Brann, who seems like he's always one to see the brighter side of things, notes that he's fifty years old and rather looks forward to the idea of dying in battle, instead of in a hovel. Tony, however, has no intention of dying in his past, and plans on making it to his pickup midday tomorrow. Aislinn, spying on them with a crystal...crystal, has her own plan though...

Man, that is one roomy cave, and those guys must sleep like logs...the conclusion to Mike Grell's "In Shining Iron" on Thursday!
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All this week: Iron Man!...reruns.

Getting excited for Iron Man 2? Already have your Slurpee cups, action figures, and movie ticket? Then why not kill time waiting, with reruns of past Iron Man posts! Today we'll start with, "The Sudden and Violent End of Whiplash's winning streak."

In Iron Man #26, as Tony goes down in flames after fighting Whiplash (on New Year's Eve, 1999!) he thinks he hears a voice say, "Help me, Tony--I'm dying." It's not from a blow to the head, or a relapse: the combination of Whiplash's directed lightning strike, Y2K, and wishing really hard, the armor he was wearing has become sentient.

Show of hands: who thinks that's going to end well? Come to think of it, when was the last time the newborn A.I. was greeted with open arms? These stories always go one of two ways: Artificial intelligence is created, goes evil in about 20 minutes; or A.I. created, is innocent and peaceful and gets burned at the stake by fearful, stupid man.

By this point, the armor has as much as declared his love for Tony; and convinced him to suit up for a test. The armor has seemingly proven trustworthy, since it could've bypassed Jocasta (the robot Avenger, she was currently without a body but had recently been rescued by Stark) and taken off; and Tony figures he can handle it. Either he can override the armor, or he's the only one that would get hurt. Yeah, about that...

As Tony and the armor warm up, Whiplash has already entered Stark airspace. Whiplash has geared up with multiple whip-slinging robotic arms, and is confident as hell. Like we saw, he's had a pretty good showing against Iron Man lately.

But the armor not only predicts all of Whiplash's moves, it remembers Whiplash was the one that hurt it before. It not only takes Whiplash's arms and jets apart, it pummels him for information.

Since the armor is both super-strong, and metal, this is a pretty brutal beating; but my sympathy for Whiplash is diminished a little by the fact that he had picked dozens of fights with Iron Man, and it never occurred to him that something like that could happen? Did he always just count on Iron Man being the good guy that wouldn't really hurt him, no matter what he did? Well, he's right on that count regarding Tony, but the armor was a wild card.

I had to go back and look, since I didn't scan it: I thought there would be a panel of Tony's eyes, trapped behind the Iron Man mask. The armor is more than capable of moving, and at this point, Tony is no more than ballast. As Whiplash pleads that he's only doing this to get his son back, Tony can only watch as the armor murders Whiplash. And not with a dainty, neck-snapping "KR-RRAK!" but with a horrible "SPLURGCH" that implies a squishy brokenness.

Like a child, the armor shakes Whiplash, who won't wake up. Then it more or less shrugs, and drops the body into the ocean. "Oh, well." I do believe that was the last we saw, of Mark Scarlotti.

From Iron Man #28, (2000) "The Mask in the Iron Man, part three" Written by Joe Quesada, art by Sean Chen and Rob Hunter and (in these scans) Alitha Martinez and Rodney Ramos. I think Quesada was doing a pretty solid job of following Kurt Busiek; and I guess his run was only cut short by taking the editor-in-chief position. He did have a tendency to have to keep ramping up the cliffhanger endings: "Tony, your secret identity has been revealed!" "Tony, that was a dream, you've had a heart attack!" "Tony, your armor is alive!" "Tony, your armor is evil!" Quesada wasn't done yet, but I have to wonder how far he would've taken that...

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"In Shining Iron," part one!

Best known for his creations the Warlord and Jon Sable, Freelance, or for his surprisingly saucy costuming for Superboy & the Legion of Super-Heroes; Mike Grell also had a good little run on Iron Man around 2002 or thereabouts. Today, we'll hit a three parter from Mr. Grell, written, penciled and inked! "In Shining Iron" from Iron Man #59/404 to #61/406. (The numbering at the time had the new series number first, then the number it would've been if continued from the old series, something Marvel still does every so often.)

This month, instead of dicking around with yet another new Iron Man armor, Tony's building a time machine. Presumably, not just because he's jealous Dr. Doom and Reed Richards already have one. (Did Reed ever build one himself, or is the initial design all Doom's? Well, that's Doom's own fault for leaving it out.) He may be working on it now because in a recent issue, Pepper was pregnant, then lost the baby; and her and Happy's marriage is suffering because of it. (She refuses to tell Happy she was pregnant, and Happy's drinking because he knows something's wrong and she won't tell him.)

Before getting to any tests, Tony gets a call from a Dr. Mallory of the British Museum, with an unusual question:

...how did Iron Man's helmet end up buried in a stone circle in Wales? A helmet that looks like that of his then-current armor, but carbon-dated at about a thousand years old? Mallory was currently on a plane, flying out to bring it to Stark, but after ending the call, Tony's simply thrilled since that means the time machine works. Instead of waiting for her, he suits up and prepares to test it, setting the time and place to the coordinates in Wales that Mallory mentioned. Which seems unwise...Pepper is curious as to Tony's sudden interest in time travel, and it's hinted that he could either be trying to save Pepper's baby and her marriage, or save her for himself. (Pepper also reminds Tony what happened the last time he was in medieval England, with Dr. Doom in the classic Iron Man #150.)

A quick trip through the Time Tunnel-like device, and Tony arrives in the year 1002. And is hit by a knight with a lance within seconds of arrival. The armor protects him easily, and even though his weapons aren't functioning, Tony still unseats and knocks out the knight in short order. He also helps himself to a horse and a sword, reasoning everyone may be as friendly as Sir Backstab there.

Proving his point, as Tony rides towards a castle, he comes across a mounted column under attack by raiders. Tony leaps into battle against the raiders, probably because there's a pretty brunette to save. Even with no swordfighting skill, he's still pretty effective, since even without power, the armor protects him. Until, facing a huge bruiser that resembles classic Thor villain Skurge the Executioner, a strange mist appears and knocks Tony out.

When Tony regains consciousness, he's in bed, dressed in period clothes and his armor removed, and being attended by the brunette, who introduces herself as Aislinn. When asked why she was being attacked, she explains that she's the "seventh daughter of a seventh daughter...a sorceress...a witch." Geez, he didn't ask your life story, lady.

Aislinn asks Tony about his armor, and he downplays it; noticing that she has a lot of questions, but didn't say boo about his artificial heart--which isn't shown here, but I think he had a big mechanical thing sticking out of his chest a la movie Tony Stark. Aislinn calls in her guards, led by the bald bruiser, who hauls Tony off to the dungeon with a sword at his throat. In short order, Tony is hung up on the wall, in a pose that reminds me of Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man.

Meanwhile, in 2002, Pepper is worried since she's lost contact with Tony; and Dr. Mallory explains she might now why, having just found the release to open the buried helmet...

So ends the sad tale of Tony Stark, dying a millennium before his own birth, and well before any of that Civil Wars nonsense...oh, wait, to be continued!

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Yesterday's Free Comic Book Day event...

...was a lot bigger than last year's, at the Comic Book Shop's mall location. The 501st Legion made an appearance, which is always fun.

I think I saw one little kid that was scared, but my youngest...and that other kid that got into that picture...certainly weren't.

That Darth Maul makeup was great, and the Oldest and I were just wondering if he was bald, or if that was some kind of latex skullcap thing going there.

I'm thinking skullcap, as I continue my tradition of not appearing in any photos without a Star Wars character...

It was a lot of fun, and the boys loved it too. Now, if I could just get a minute to finish reading those comics...

Aside from the free comics, and the issues of Deadpool and Unknown Soldier in my pull box, and grudgingly buying X-Force #26; I picked up a few back issues on sale: Batman: Dark Detective #1 and Legends of the Dark Knight #93 (written by Garth Ennis), both of which complete runs that I bought the rest of out of the quarter bin. Thor #315 and Annuals #7 and #10. (I wrote up #316 a while back, but I've never read #315. Likewise, I had Thor Annual #10, but not #7, and it had a Simonson cover from 1978, well before his epic run.) And Batman Annual #21, a "Pulp Heroes" annual with J.H. Williams art. Is it any good? I'll let you know!

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New One-Shots over at Articulated Discussion! Another Iron Man, just in time for...well, Free Comic Book Day, I guess. It's rainy here, but I'll take the kids out for that later, and the Comic Book Shop has members of the 501st Legion again this year! Apparently, I don't have any recent pictures that aren't with a Tusken Raider...get out and get some books, and keep 'em dry!
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Your Happenstance page for today:

From X-Statix #21, "The Good and the Famous, part 1" Written by Peter Milligan, pencils by Mike Allred, inks by Nick Craine. I had to go to GCD and look this up: this issue is cover-dated June 2004, same as Avengers #81, a Chuck Austen-written issue, that I haven't read but kinda figure is terrible. "The Good and the Famous" would run five parts and end about the same time as Bendis's "Avengers Disassembled," and X-Statix would end with issue #26. Weird...Thor, Hawkeye, and Ant-Man would all be dead about the same time this storyline ended. (I think Thor was dead, he was at least missing; and he and Hawkeye have of course returned since.)

I wanted to look it up, since this seems like a very old-school Avengers roster, and I thought Milligan and Allred might've just picked whatever Avengers they wanted to play with, rather than being tied to whoever was in the current book. Allred draws Thor and the Scarlet Witch in a likewise old-school style. He at least pays lip service to the current looks for Cap and Iron Man, but it seems like Allred really, really wants to draw them in a sixties style as well.

This issue: Terrorists kidnap the mysterious Doop, to use his brain to power a super-weapon. The Avengers and X-Statix clash, stepping on each other's toes and badmouthing everyone involved, until Doop's brain blows up, into six pieces scattered around the globe. (Think the Cobra Weather Dominator of G.I. Joe, although this storyline also calls back to the Avengers/Defenders clash of about a geological age ago.) Doop can only survive a limited time on the backup brain in his butt (ah, I love comics) and X-Statix fights for their spud-like teammate; while the Avengers try to keep it out of the wrong hands...including the X-Statix.

I just got this run out of the quarter boxes a couple of weeks ago; since I had read X-Force/X-Statix for some time, then fell off the book during the too-long pseudo-Princess Di storyline. I might have to check out the Iron Man/Mr. Sensitive fight next week, though...

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Hopefully not getting Baron & Rude in as much trouble as Parker & Stone:

Even as I still can't watch that episode of South Park that I missed and Everybody Draw Muhammad Day falls through (links via The Bureau Chiefs) I knew this reminded me of something. The Prophet Mohammed (spelled such there, I'm not sure if 'Muhammad' is the more accepted nowadays) appears in Nexus: God Con; along with Jesus Christ, Buddha, and Yahweh, among others.

This storyline opens with Nexus's world of Ylum plastered with posters for "God Con One," placed by the Buddha, who appears as a young boy. After establishing his bona fides, Buddha explains that by popular demand, the gods are there to debate the question, how can a just god permit suffering, cruelty, and death?

Later, Horatio (the titular Nexus) is visited by Jesus, and is more than impressed with him.

Jesus is concerned about how his father will take this, being an Old Testament, 'thou shalt have no gods before me' kind of God; but actually seems more worried about what evil will do when it shows up. And it does, causing a bit of a ruckus before settling into a more pleasing, seductive shape:

Playfully, evil introduces herself to Nexus as Bernice.

Badger also shows up, not for his god Myrtle, but working security for a Thune earth mother. As the con opens, Jesus and Buddha work the dunk tank for charity, in probably the best scene of the book:

The first issue ends with Bernice opening up a ton of hell, and Yahweh arriving to put an end to evil forever. You can probably guess how well that's gonna work...
Hmm...reminds me of that Savage Dragon, "Don't **** with God" bit, although offhand I couldn't tell you which came first.

I think there may have been a few offended readers of this one, and long-time Nexus inker Gary Martin comments on the letters page about the story's liberties taken with Jesus and God. I don't know if Muslims were put off, though. Personally, this wasn't my favorite storyline either, since I'm mostly godless; but if you're offended or your feelings are hurt or you don't think your deity would act like that or you don't believe in any of them, you can just say it's a mysterious alien power taking a shape that would be recognized.

I've been a fan of Mike Baron's writing for years, but I also always thought he was on the liberal side of the fence; and in recent years his conservative views have been made more public. So I've been wondering if I've been seeing messages in his work that aren't there, or completely missing the point of what he was getting at. I thought the moral of God Con was that the real root of suffering and injustice in the universe was that there's always going to be the weak and the wicked that choose the tempting path of evil and wreck things up for everybody. I could be wrong...but I'm sticking with that one.

Scans from Nexus: God Con #1, written by Mike Baron, pencils by Steve Rude, inks by Gary Martin.

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Is Nightcrawler toast?

Today, X-Force #26 comes out today (and the preview is here at CBR), and an X-Man will die...at least for a bit. Will Nightcrawler die? Or will another X-Men take the (usually short) dirt nap?

I have a theory, that could well just be wishful thinking, but I'm thinking the fallen hero is going to be either Cable, or Angel. I think--and again, could be way off--that Nightcrawler is going to end up in Wolverine (and Rick Remender's) new X-Force. Kurt had been opposed to X-Force's kill-or-be-killed methods (or, more accurately, straight-up murder) and he may be added to the new version to either try to serve as its conscience, or be forced to soldier up in the fight against Apocalypse.
Here's hoping, but I won't know...until the spoilers come out. I gotta say, Nightcrawler on X-Force would get me to read that book for the first time since the Milligan/Allred days, before that became X-Statix.

We've been having a bit of a do-it-yourself week here so far; and now I have no idea what I'm doing here the rest of this week. Well, we'll see.

(EDIT: Still posting this, but you can see the spoiler at CBR here. Great...)
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"Squaddies."

One page last week, five this week. That's how we roll around here, so click to enlarge!




Previous episodes in this one: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

Ideally, I maybe could've got another part or two out of this one, if I had an in-scale D-list or better cannon fodder group of DC bad guys, like Kobra goons, or some such. I know I have a few Joker henchmen floating about, but it's not quite the same. The HYDRA agents are close, but for the Suicide Squad I wanted them up against DC baddies, and it didn't turn out.

I haven't picked up the DCUC Black Adam yet (and it seems to have disappeared locally) but I had considered using him for this one, and went with Bane instead. I haven't read Secret Six, but I'm hoped Gail Simone can keep moving his character forward: he got a lot of development for a few years, then was apparently reversed to "I break people" in Final Crisis or some damn thing. As a character, Bane could go a bunch of different ways--as a fighter for redemption, as the hired muscle, as the amoral crimelord, as the weirdly honorable sociopath, and more. But it seems some level of editorial doesn't want him to be more than just another recurring Batman villain.

I also thought about doing a page or two where Nightcrawler and Falcon visit Forge, to get the Deadpool-detector. (Last seen in the Doc Samson strips way back when!) I wanted to play with Forge as a guy who's also a Native American wizard, a Vietnam vet (or, given Marvel's sliding timeline, a veteran of some foreign war), has fought ancient evils, and helped drive the Dire Wraiths off of earth; yet now no one cares about him unless they need a technological dodad to move the plot forward. Oh, and I guess Forge was killed, maybe, in a recent Astonishing X-Men.

Tomorrow: wishful thinking, maybe.
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Eating (some) words about Avatar:

OK, so Avatar sold a figurative (and possibly literal) ton of DVD's since Thursday, meaning I was probably wrong about it not having the following of something like Lord of the Rings. Still don't get the appeal myself, though.

Deadpool/Suicide Squad concluding tomorrow!
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