#Fred van Lente

[artbyblastweave]

So this was a one-and-done beat from Marvel Zombies 4, by Fred Van Lente and Kev Walker, which featured a zombie outbreak in the quote-unquote "regular" Marvel Universe, on the fictional Caribbean island of Taino (not sure if this is a deliberate historical reference or not.) Two panels after being introduced, these three are annihilated by an airborne cloud of zombie virus and stitched together into a shambling monster that rambles about how it fights for Truth, Justice, and the Corporate Way. That's ancillary to the point. Ignore that. What this gets me thinking about again is this concept that I have of Super Hero "Dark Matter" worldbuilding, which is the fact that basically every horrible deconstructive beat, every subversive cynical implication of the existence of superheroes you can think of, everything you'd associate by default with The Boys or Invincible (or, on the lighter end of the spectrum, Astro City,) all of that is probably already canon within the DC and Marvel Universes; canonized in niche little miniseries or cult-classic runs of niche characters. Often, canonized in ways that imply the existence of common, broad dynamics that exist within the world, outside the protagonist-centered provincialism of New York or Gotham or Metropolis; all sorts of shit going on that we don't see until it comes into fleeting contact with Spider-Man's knuckles. In this case, the logic is that if superhumans exist- indeed, if superheroes exist- then superhuman-backed neocolonialism would follow. These three aren't here to protect Taino; they're here to protect a fucking resort from the people of Taino, in the event that the American tourists need to leave in a hurry. They work for Roxxon, which is the by-default evil Marvel corporation, the name they break out whenever they want to quickly signal that they're doing a story about corporate malfeasance; what are the odds that these were the only three like this that Roxxon had on Payroll? The one corporate holding being protected this way? That'd be a hell of a coincidence. You can infer an entire ecosystem of these corporate thugs floating around in the background of Marvel, becoming an explicit presence in ones and twos when Mark Waid or Al Ewing need some vile corporate sellouts for a quote-unquote "real" hero (someone with their name on the cover) to beat within an inch of their life. But you start doing the numbers on how many times this kind of plot beat comes up, and you start to come to the conclusion that the Marvel and DC universes have, in fact, always been exactly as dystopian and fucked up as something like The Boys. It's just that in a single-author dedicated deconstruction, the story is allowed to actually notice and remember.

[vertigoartgore]

2008's Incredible Hercules Vol.1 #117 cover by cover artist John Romita Jr., inker Klaus Janson and colorist Dean White.

[nerds-yearbook]

In September of 1930, Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes met and became best friends. (Captain America: First Vengeance, online comic

[funnypages]

Asking the real questions

[bringbackwendellvaughn]

[ultrameganicolaokay]

Murder Kingdom #1 by Fred Van Lente and Chris Panda. Cover by Paulina Ganucheau. Variant cover by Trevor Henderson. Out in October.

"You must be this tall… to DIE! Once upon a time, in a strange land called Florida, a masked psycho starts murdering cast members of the Storybook Kingdom theme park in ways identical to the gory original Grimms' Fairy Tales. Princess-turned-detective Tanith is the only person who can unmask the killer before she and her friends are all Dying Unhappily Never After! Toon-themed terror from six-time New York Times bestselling writer Fred Van Lente (Marvel Zombies), artist Chris Panda (Chocklit Shoppe of Horrors: Night Shift, Rom: First Strike), and letterer Becca Carey (Radiant Black, Golden Rage)."

[smashpages]

Fred Van Lente + Chris Panda provide a fast pass to ‘toon-themed terror’ in ‘Murder Kingdom’

The horror/mystery from Mad Cave Studios drops its ropes in October.

[nevenkebla]

Sin rostro

Marvel Zombies Return (2009) #1 Fred Van Lente (Escritor), Nick Dragotta (Dibujante)

— Spider-Man: Mmm… Qué bueno… Sé que… me prometí a mí mismo que no lucharía contra ellos así… pero el hambre… me ha dominado… tal vez… tal vez pueda alimentarme únicamente de los villanos… ¿No probó eso una vez Morbius el Vampiro Viviente? De esa manera… la gente inocente no sufriría daño… yo calmaría el hambre de vez en cuando… y todos estarían felices. Claro que eso será temporal. Pronto tendré la tabilla, y volveré a ser normal. Un héroe de verdad… ¿Pero qué…? ¡NO! ¡ALTO! ¿QUÉ ESTÁIS HACIENDO? ¡ESOS ERAN MIS AMIGOS! IBA… A… ¡SALVARLES!

— Spider-Man: Pese a todos mis esfuerzos… he fracasado. No solo han muerto todos mis seres queridos, sino que… ¡La tabilla ha desaparecido! ¡La sala de exposiciones ha sido saqueada mientras yo estaba muy ocupado demostrándome que era un héroe…! ¡Menudo chiste! ¡Un “héroe”! ¿Con esta cara? Afróntalo ¡Nunca volverás a ser humano! ¡Jamás! Ahora solo existe el hambre… y la no-vida… por los siglos de los siglos… ¡Por los siglos de los siglos de los siglos! ¿De qué sirve esta cara? ¡Esta cara inútil y podrida! Ya no queda nadie que pueda amar o llorar a Peter Parker, así que… jamás… quiero volver a… mirarla… Haga lo que haga y vaya a donde vaya, no será como un héroe, ni como un hombre… ¡Será como un monstruo!

— Spider-Man: ¿Por qué las cosas nunca me salen bien? Por qué acabo haciendo daño a la gente, por más que intente evitarlo? ¿Es este el precio que debo pagar siempre por ser… ¡el Spider-Man Zombi!?

[nfcomics]

JENNIFER BLOOD: BATTLE DIARY no.2 • cover art • Lesley 'Leirix' Li [Jan 2024]

The one-woman death squad known as JENNIFER BLOOD has emerged from anonymity once more, and she's taking on a whole new generation of criminal scum! Posing as a hired assassin, Blood has rescued a woman marked for death by the Volk white supremacy gang. But now that they're both in the Volk's iron crosshairs, their only hope may be able to pit the vicious gang against their equally reprehensible rivals- and then make sure they don't get caught in the middle! Outlaw author FRED VAN LENTE (Marvel Zombies) and renegade illustrator ROBERT CAREY (The Outsiders)

[artbyblastweave]

reblog for a larger sample size

[ewzzy]

It's all right. I have apple juice.

[onlylonelylatino]

The Champions by Khoi Pham

[graphicpolicy]

Preview: Jennifer Blood: Battle Diary #4

Jennifer Blood: Battle Diary #4 preview. Jennifer Blood has the Volk white supremacist prison gang and the Crooked Cross biker fanatics tearing at each other’s throats #comics #comicbooks

[hellomystraightlacedfriend]

The

Infamous

Amadeus

Cho

[bringbackwendellvaughn]

[bloodmaarked]

➸ reading list

just added:

the battle drum, saara el-arifi

malice, keigo higashino

the missing american, kwei quartey

your house will pay, steph cha

the firm, john grisham

how can i help you, laura sims

never sleep, fred van lente

the deep sky, yume kitasei

vera wong's unsolicited advice for murderers, jessie q. santo

the murder at the vicarage, agatha christie