#Young Adam Reed

[ms-ajt-whumps]

Handholding and Asthma

Genre: Whump, Fluff. CW/TW: Bullying, Asthma Attack

Fandom: The Adam Project Characters: Young!Adam, Y/n, Ray, Chuckie, Ellie

2332 words

Let me know if any tags of warnings should be added, I want to be sure everything I post is properly tagged.

@almost-gabrielle

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Adam would never admit this, but Ray did scare him a little bit. It wasn't that Ray was actually an effective bully, it was more that he had a couple inches on Adam and serious daddy issues. There was also the chance that Ray would accidentally hurt Adam, worse than he himself was truly capable of. Freak accidents could always occur.

It had started simply enough: Ray had been picking on Adam’s friend Y/n during lunch. Now, it wasn’t that Adam like-liked Y/n, because he really, truly, most definitely, 100%, probably didn’t, but he couldn’t stand by while Ray picked on her. So, he’d instigated. Ray had rounded on him and bolted, and so did Adam. They’d run through the lunchroom and the school, dodging teachers, the principal’s grabbing hand, and other students until eventually Adam (who felt that his lead in the race would save him from a serious ass-kicking) burst outside. He’d hesitated, looking left and right, breathing heavily but not badly, and hurried to one side. He had felt, with his advantageous lead and stable (so far) breathing, that he’d win. He had not. Adam fucking tripped and went sprawling. Ray had been on him in a second, yanking him to his feet and pinning Adam up against a wall, glaring at him. Adam's mouth went a mile a minute. Quips, jabs, one liners, some of them even pretty good. They had flowed out automatically, the easiest thing in the world for him. It wasn't until Adam had said something about Ray and Chuckie being too stupid to snark anything back that Ray had really reacted. 

“You turds are standing here like a couple of mute mimes, ventriloquist dummies with no puppetmaster. You really think I'm going to be scared of a couple of meat bags who can't even talk?” Or something like that. Adam couldn't really remember what it had been right now, as he was on his back on the ground, Ray's foot stomped down into his chest. 

“You think you're so funny, Reid.” Ray had sneered. He had grabbed Adam by the front of his shirt and jerked him forward and around, pushing him to the ground. “Well, we'll see how funny you are when, …when you've lost!” Ray had put his foot on Adam's chest triumphantly. Chuckie had offered up his hand for a high five, a lumbering and slow gesture, a stupid grin on his face, and Ray smacked it, smirking down at Adam.

“That's your best? Really?” Adam snarked back from the ground, to which Ray pressed his foot down harder. This was when it began. It, the pressure. Then It, the crushing feeling, the internal collapse of systems intended to keep you alive. Damn it, he’d been fine running, even. You'd think providing oxygen to a 98 pound twelve year old would be an easy task, but no, apparently not for Adam's lungs. He sucked in a thin, wheezy breath, looking up at Ray. Adam tried to glare but the fear was setting in. He did the only thing he knew how. “Step any harder on me and I'll have to petition your mom to stop being so fat. The weight was…” he gasps slightly as pain snaked through him, “transferred to you in bone density. Thank God not in fat density, or you'd be enormous.” 

Ray looked presently peeved at this, and moved to punch Adam in the face. Adam sucked in another wheezing breath. Chuckie stood stupidly alongside Ray.

“Leave him alone!” An indignant shout rung out across the lot. 

Ray's head swiveled to see who it was. The girl from lunch. The quiet one. He smirked. “Go home, you're not involved in this.” He pulled back from Adam, his foot still on his chest, baring his own chest to the girl. He was trying to look big and scary. Ray almost didn't even bother really looking at her, he figured she would be scared off pretty easily, but at the last second caught a glimpse of her expression. His eyes snapped up, a thin trail of dread trickling down him. He saw anger. Crystal clear, unfiltered fury. More than Ray had ever seen, even from his mom when he failed tests. She also looked calm, like she knew precisely how to… how to…

“Let him go,” Y/n said firmly. “Before I have to fuck you up, Ray.”

This made Chuckie nervous; he took an unconscious step backward. Ray looked to him desperately, betrayed. “Chuck,” he hissed.

Adam wheezed tightly again, hands twitching against the concrete, searching for something to hold onto.

She stalked towards the three, a menacing stature about her. Determination, Certainty. “Go, Ray. Before I have to bring you home in a bag.” Y/n was two feet from him when his nerve finally broke. He stepped off Adam, who gasped and coughed, and took a couple nervous steps backward. Y/n looked at him darkly, shooing him away with her hands. 

Ray really wanted to be tough, but he kind of believed her. Maybe she would bring him home in a bag. Maybe she was insane or something. He took another couple steps away, still hesitating, looking for an opening he could hurt her through. But there were none, so he ran. Chuckie ran with him of course, much more slowly. 

Y/n called, “You're a bitch, Ray! Everyone knows it!” Then she was on her knees, talking to Adam very gently. “What's wrong?”

He wheezed, hands grabbing at his chest. He looked briefly at her, the panic now evident in his brown eyes. 

“Asthma attack, Ok. Where's your inhaler?” Y/n said quickly, hands at the ready, hovering in the air over Adam. “You have it with you, right?” Her eyes flashed to his, suddenly nervous.

Adam nodded, coughing, and grappled with the front pocket of his jeans. Y/n pushed his hands away quickly–they fell uselessly to the ground–and wrestled the inhaler from his pocket. She pulled the cap off and tossed it aside, bringing the inhaler to Adam's mouth.

“Ready?” Y/n asked.

He couldn't respond, just coughing and wheezing. He reached for her and grabbed her arm tightly, pulling it towards himself. 

Y/n put the inhaler in his mouth and triggered it. “3… 2… 1…” she counted down for him, watching his face closely. Adam let his breath out in a burst of air. Y/n rested a light hand on his chest, keeping the inhaler near his face. “Good?” she asked quietly. 

He shook his head, weakly pulling her arm back towards him, brown eyes wide with anxiety and focused on the next dose of medicine. He winced as his lungs wracked with pain again. She put the inhaler back in his mouth and triggered it again. Y/n counted again, watching him closely. Adam relaxed slightly, closing his eyes as he held his breath. He let his breath out slowly, the correct way, and sighed. His eyes flickered open, looking at Y/n with a surprised, trusting expression. He didn't talk for a long minute, just laying tiredly on his back, staring at this girl in front of him. Adam dimly realized that he still held her wrist and awkwardly let go, hand falling to the ground.

Y/n asked, “Should you sit up?”

Adam nodded, tiredly trying to get himself up. Y/n helped quickly, pulling him up by the arms. Adam ended up slumped against her, which made Y/n blush slightly. She supported his weight though, figuring that he needed the contact. Adam still didn't say anything, just breathing slowly. Y/n grabbed his hand and pushed the inhaler into it, wrapping his fingers around it for him. “There you go,” she said softly, feeling awkwardly self-conscious about holding Adam like she was. That wasn’t something that people who were just classmates did.  

“Thanks,” Adam finally said. “Ray is a bitch.” He continued to just slump against her, trying to pretend that he would get up soon and that he wasn’t really liking being this close to her. He didn’t have a crush on her. 

She nodded, smiling. They sat there in the quiet for a long time. Adam toyed with his inhaler and glanced shyly up at her and away quickly again when their eyes meet. He breathed slowly. “What makes you brave enough to…” Adam asked quietly, his eyes tracking her face.

She shrugged, jostling Adam slightly, looking off into the distance as she considered the question. The way Adam was leaning on her reminded her of the one time when she was a child and had found a puppy with a hurt foot. She’d cradled him too, as a protector. “I just know how to scare him. He's not really that big.”

“Bigger than me,” Adam mumbled, still fiddling with his inhaler. 

“Everyone's bigger than you, Adam,” she teased, laughing. Y/n looked back to him, catching a smile on his face.

Adam was laughing too. He found he didn't mind when Y/n teased him. He pushed himself up, sitting alone now. 

“I'll have to teach you my tricks.” She smirked. 

Adam nodded quietly, triggering another puff off the inhaler into his mouth. 

“Do you usually have to do more than once?” Y/n asked curiously.

Adam held up a finger to show that he needed a second. Y/n waited patiently. He let out his breath slowly, then speaking. “For the worse ones.” 

“Oh. Okay.”

Quiet again. Adam looked shyly between the ground and Y/n, who pretended not to notice. She looked towards the playground. 

The awkwardness present wasn't only because these were two awkward middle schoolers, though that wasn't helping at all, …it was because Y/n had had a crush on Adam Reed for a little while now. Sure, he was scrawny and had asthma but who really cared? His jokes in class always made her want to cry laughing, and he seemed to not care about all the stupid stuff teachers were always trying to make kids care about. It was kind of like he knew what was important in life. Like he knew there was something bigger out there. He looked at her and her insides would do flips and turns and some shy part of her brain would urge ‘look away, look away right now!’ So she stared at the playground. Y/n could feel his gaze on her, and saw in her peripherals that he seemed just as nervous as her. He was looking at her and then away, then glancing back.

The most hopeful part of her brain whispered quietly, ‘What if he likes me too?’ But the protective part was quick to reprimand, ‘don't think like that, he probably doesn't.’ Y/n glanced quickly at him, their eyes met, and she looked away.

Adam looked away too, blushing. 

He wasn't sure why he was feeling so nervous all of a sudden, he'd never felt nervous around Y/n before. Usually she would just let him copy off her homework and would trade good snacks at lunch. It was chill. Maybe he was feeling weird ‘cause she'd saved him from Ray, not that Adam wouldn't have survived on his own, he would have been fine. Maybe it was because she had been so smart about his inhaler, or like… something about her not judging him, or… he glanced at her again, noting the pinkish color on her cheeks and ears.

‘Oh, dear god no, please no,’ some part of Adam’s mind pleaded. He glanced at her again. ‘Fuck. …That’s it, we’re fucked. We’re fucked for sure.’ He tried to shush his racing mind, and think like one coherent thought at least but before he knew it was going to happen his mouth said, “Wanna come over and see a movie?” This was punctuated by a mental ‘Fuck! No! What are you doing?!’ But it was too late, he’d said it. Now he was trapped. He stared hopelessly at Y/n, waiting for her to… crush his heart, maybe? Perhaps he was still too young  for that. Would she accept? She wasn’t even looking his way, what if she said no? Would he just die on the spot?

Y/n turned to him with an abashed smile and said, “Sure.” She was blushing. 

‘Dear god, no! You’ll get cooties or something, god, stop!’ “We could watch something at my house, I’m sure my mom could bring you home after,” Adam said, trying to play it super cool. His hands danced nervously around the plastic inhaler. 

She nodded. “That… that sounds good, I’ll bet my dad could pick me up too if needed.” She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and looked nervously at him, never wanting to look away but also thinking, ‘I need to blink, did I blink enough? Or too much? God, I’m the worst. This is terrible.’

“My mom should be here soon, we could…” He gestured to the pickup area of the parking lot.

“Yeah.”

-

Y/n and Adam were sitting on the sofa before the big screen, Alien playing. Ellie was at the kitchen table, trying desperately to comprehend her husband’s tax filing system. 

The tension was palpable. Y/n and Adam could basically feel electrical vibrations passing between the two of them. Neither were watching the movie.

“Do you like the… movie?” Adam asked softly, looking to Y/n.

“Yeah, I think so.” Y/n smiled, looking back at him. 

Adam glanced over his shoulder at his mom, then to Y/n. His whole brain was screaming not to, but he hesitantly placed his hand onto Y/n’s. His breath hitched nervously, as he waited for her to punch him in the face or scream in disgust, but… her fingers laced into his calmly. Adam glanced up at her, face beet red. She smiled, squeezing his hand in her own. 

Adam looked shyly back to the TV, a grin creeping onto his face. 

-Fin

[certifiedl0serloll]

who is that in your profile picture ❓

adam Reed from the adam project (played by walker Scobell) !! I’ve thought of changing it for awhile but I’ve had it for so long so idk

[to-be-a-dreamer]

Frankly, I’m obsessed with the fact that these two characters are supposed to be the same age the 12-14-year-old years are WILD

[bookaddict24-7]

(New Young Adult Releases Coming Out Today! (August 20th, 2024)

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Have I missed any new Young Adult releases? Have you added any of these books to your TBR? Let me know!

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New Releases:

Something Like Right by H.D. Hunter

House of Thorns by Isabel Strychacz

Helga by Catherine Yu

Love Requires Chocolate by Ravynn K. Stringfield

Prince of the Palisades by Julian Winters

Mighty Millie Novak by Elizabeth Holden

A Bánh Mì for Two by Trinity Nguyen

The Darkness of Dying in the Light by S.E. Reed

New Sequel:

My Salty Mary (Mary #3) by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, & Jodi Meadows

Wisteria (Belladonna #3) by Adalyn Grace

Clown in a Cornfield: The Church of Frendo (Clown in a Cornfield #3) by Adam Cesare

Drown Me with Dreams (Sing Me To Sleep #2) by Gabi Burton

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Happy reading!

[nunalastor]

First Man!Alastor

in one of the last posts for this AU one of the Anon's talked about how Alastor accidentally prevented Cain from murdering his brother; probably because Alastor couldn't help himself from mercy killing an injured goat in front of the children giving them a deep understanding of death young. So who takes their place, well Adam and Alastor of course.

Shortly after Alastor invents reed instruments Adams frustration deepens, he thinks he needs a situation where if he could make Alastor take a tumble spraining his ankle he'd become reliant on Adam and the others. Eventually on the cusp of Cain's 18'th birthday that day comes.

One of Abel's goats got loose and is now resting on a ledge Adam knew was unstable. So after making sure everyone else(+himself) is preoccupied he asks Alastor to fetch them. Alastor seeing that Adam is scheming decides to where those thoughts lead him, as anything done to ease boredom is at least something.

The actions taken to get to the goat are quick and simple; shooing them down is easy and dull. It's when Alastor is about to turn around to head back down the mountain he feels and sees the ground give out from under him. The last thing he feels while alive is a sharp pain between his eyes before waking up in heaven.

Adam still ignorant to what happened is busy shearing the wool of some sheep while happily patting himself on the back mentally. It isn't until he hears Cain wailing in despair that it's obvious something went wrong. His son had returned home early from finishing his chores.

Cain is inconsolable as the parental figure who was always there for him and his brother lays still in a pool of his own blood.

👀

[cinemaocd]

Jenny's June Movies

Portrait of Jason (1967) Furiosa (2024) Beijing Watermelon (1989) Jubilee (1978) The Player (1989) Oliver Twist (1948) Ugetsu (1953) Mank (2020) Living (2022) The Wonder (2022) Summertime (1955) Don't Look Now (1973) The Elephant Man (1980) Klute (1971) The Man Who Laughs (1928)

Portrait of Jason: (***) Fascinating documentary that is just a talking head interview. Film making doesn't get any simpler than this, but Jason Holliday is such an interesting subject that it doesn't matter. Director Shirley Clarke brings us along for the wild ride of a long conversation with this gay, black hustler and cabaret performer living in the Chelsea Hotel in the 1960s.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (***) My favorite so far in the Mad Max saga, the story is rooted in a terrific performance from a child actor (Ayla Brown) melded digitally with Anna Taylor Joy's portrait of the young Furiosa and her rise to the exalted position of Praetorian in the brutal world of the citadel. Containing Easter eggs from all four of the previous outings as well as a confirmation of the mutability of the Mad Max Universe (narration at the end describes the story as a legend whose telling may change depending on the teller), the biggest joy was the quiet, heartbreaking romance between Furiosa and Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke).

Beijing Watermelon (***): After watching Nobohiko Obayashi's House, earlier this year, I was expecting something far crazier than this relatively quiet portrait of a man consumed by helping a group of Chinese students by feeding them from his market stall, to the detriment of his own family and eventually his own health. A memorable fable about the way in which simple acts of care can transform a community, as well as the ways in which ego can play a part in generosity. The movie only gets as experimental and strange as the director's previous work, toward then end, when filming the ending set in China was impossible due to massacre of student protestors in Tianamen Square. Obayashi turns the story into a meditation of film making with a fourth-wall breaking technique to address the difficulties with the viewer. The movie leaves you feeling an ache of sadness especially when you remember the actual history behind it.

Jubilee (**) Derek Jarman directs this violent, bleak look at dystopian Jubilee Britain, featuring a host of punk icons from Adam Ant to Siouxsie Sioux and the Slits. There is also some nonsense about Queen Elizabeth I time traveling into the film. Honestly the most interesting part of the film for me were the glorious aesthetics, with clothes and make-up by Viivan Westwood, who later disowned her work in the film. Adam Ant is the biggest surprise in the movie, he is always charming and watchable, a stand out among the rest of the cast.

The Player (***) Not my first time through this movie, but another viewing solidified it as the top of the pile for 90s Altman. A wonderfully meta film about film making that is so loaded with jokes about film history and industry insider details that it impossible to catch them all on the first viewing. All of this in a tidy film noir package, led by Tim Robbins who plays a souless film executive being pursued by a disgruntled screenwriter.

Oliver Twist (***1/2) Stands out as the best and most memorable new to me film of the month, with a painful caveat. One of the major milestones in director David Leans estimable career, Oliver Twist is marred by his insistence on keeping the character Fagan as he is depicted in the novel, a hateful Jewish stereotype.. The visual look of this film, with its grimy, slicked cobble streets and rooftops of London nightmare fantasy set, would go on to inspire so many movies, but most notably, Carol Reed's The Third Man which came out the following year. Robert Newton is a standout as a terrifying and nuanced Bill Sykes and John Howard Davies ably carries the film as Oliver. Lean beefed up Oliver's role in the last third of the novel, setting up a chilling and dramatic conclusion to the action.

Ugetsu: (***) Another immediate post war film, that is set is Japan of the past in the time of warlords. A pair of couple navigate the coming of war in different ways, leading to devastating unforeseen consequences. A haunting--quite literally--film about war and the inability to ever fully return from it.

Mank (***) This was my second time through David Fincher's dreamy movie, inspired by real life story of writer Herman Mankiewitz, screenwriter of Orson Welles' Citizen Kane, told in a style that closely mimics that classic. While all of it is pretty to look at, and the ensemble cast is up to the task of creating William Randolph Hearst's inner circle, attempts to make real life into too much of a movie, make the whole thing creak at the hinges a bit. Tom Burke stands out as Welles, Amanda Seifreid who I'd previously only seen in Mamma Mia, gives a lovely performance as Marion Davies, Hearsts mistress, while Gary Oldman is transformed through make-up and accent work into Mank. I wish I wasn't so aware of the stage craft, but that too is like the original I suppose and there is enough insider stuff in this movie to make a film nerd like me happy through any number of screenings.

Living (**1/2) a remake of an Akira Kirosawa film, about a dying bureaucrat who does his best to make an impact before he dies, features Bill Nighy in the lead role. Nighy creates a subtle portrait of a man who is practically fossilized in his desk at work, slowly coming to life as he takes on the project of getting a playground built in the post-Blitz London.

The Wonder (**1/2) One can be forgiven for confusing this movie with Lady MacBeth, which also stars Florence Pugh as a young woman in rural Britain, getting involved in a deadly web of intrigue. Like that film, The Wonder features a lot of scenes of Pugh in Victorian dress walking in the windblown landscape, and staring into the camera while she is seated quietly in a room. The setting here is rural Ireland twenty years after the Great Hunger. Pugh plays a nurse who is sent from England to watch a young girl who has supposedly survived months without eating. Hired by the village to either prove or disprove the so called Wonder of the title, the film slowly builds into almost unbearable tension in the final acts. Lovely performance from the whole cast, including, once again, TOM BURKE. (Are you seeing a theme in June Movies????)

Summertime (****): Classic David Lean, classic romance. Is it gay? Well yeah, I think Hepburn's character is a lesbian who has finally met the one dude who does it for her and he fancies her too and it foments a complete crisis of identity. Also it's an ode to women traveling alone and living their best life and having fun and doing walks of shame for the first time and oh I just love seeing this middle aged woman get to be 20 something!. Rosanno Brazzi is so cute and this is the movie that made me fall for him.

Don't Look Now (***): So I watched this and Summertime back to back and wow you could not get two more different views of Venice While Lean's film is more of a straight forward travelogue it's not excessively gritty or excessively pretty. It's balanced and though it is a tourists view it still takes on stuff like throwing garbage in the canal or getting lost. All of those things are present in Don't Look Now but they take on a darker edge. This is a city designed to hypnotize seduce and confuse you and you'd better be careful or lose your life. Features a great twist and absolutely top tier 70s psychological horror with lots of creepy vibes.

The Elephant Man (***): I had not seen this since it was in the theaters and I was so blown away by it. It's every inch a David Lynch film...it's like Eraser head with a big budget in many ways. I seriously can't believe someone watched Eraserhead and said: yeah lets give this guy millions to make our studio film. Even more amazing that the final product is so fucking successful as both a studio film and a distinct piece of Lynchian art. Johnny Gielgud and Wendy HIllier are both in this and both fabulous and Anne Coates is the editor. It's like an ode to British Noir films like Gaslight and The Lodger and especially Oliver Twist--and even a little Pygmalion callback in one scene that HIllier is in. John Hurt plays John Merrick and is heartbreakingly human when those around him can only see a monster. Lynch makes the choice to reveal his face about 45 minutes in and it's so impactful. The makeup is incredible, but also he lets the character exist for a long time so he isn't just the makeup. Anthony Hopkins is amazing playing the Victorian doctor who "rescues" Merrik and ends up exploiting him as well. The real horror of this film is in the realization of his own culpability/responsibility that gets shifted onto the audience.

Klute (***): Part of my Donald Sutherland memorial minifest, this movie really belongs to his female costar. Jane Fonda plays Bree Daniels, a Manhattan sex worker who is being stalked by a former client. There is nothing in The Conversation that isn't done first and frankly better in Klute, using modern technology and paranoia about it to maximum effect. Sutherland plays the titular cop, Klute who has assigned himself to the cause of protecting Daniels. An interesting love story develops between the hardened and wary Daniels and the hardened and wary cop.

The Man Who laughs (***): I got to see this for the first time on the big screen with a new original score performed live, which is the best way to see silent films. Veidt is incredible acting through and over and around this makeup, expressing so much with his eyes. Like The Elephant Man, this is a movie about the way society perceives difference as monstrous. A beautiful love story and a revolutionary social justice vibe tie the room together.

[elliehopaunt]

Ben Whishaw (“Paddington”) and “Happy Valley’s” Sarah Lancashire are set to join Keira Knightley in Netflix’s upcoming spy series “Black Doves,” Variety can exclusively confirm.

More details about the series, which was written and created by “The Lazarus Project” showrunner Joe Barton, have also emerged.

A story of friendship and sacrifice, “Black Doves” is set during Christmastime in London. It revolves around Helen Webb (Knightley), a politician’s wife, doting mother — and professional spy. For years, Helen has been passing on her husband’s secrets to the Black Doves, the shadowy organization for whom she works. But when her lover Jason is assassinated, Helen’s life is turned upside down and only her old friend Sam Young (Whishaw) can keep her safe.

Helen and Sam set out to discover who killed Jason and why. But Sam, a suave, champagne-drinking assassin, also has problems of his own. Out of the game since his last job went wrong, he soon realizes his past is coming back to haunt him.

“Together, they set off on a mission that will lead them to uncover a vast, interconnected conspiracy,” reads the logline. “One that links the murky underworld of London to a looming geopolitical crisis — and leads them to question the cost of the moral choices they’ve made.”

Lancashire will play Helen’s enigmatic spymaster Reed.

Joining Knightley and Whishaw in the six-part series, which began shooting in London last week, are Andrew Buchan (“Carnival Row”), Omari Douglas (“It’s A Sin”), Andrew Koji (“Warrior”), Kathryn Hunter (“Andor”), Sam Troughton (“Chernobyl”), Ella Lily Hyland (“Fifteen Love”), Adam Silver (“The Diplomat”), Ken Nwosu (“Look the Other Way and Run”) and Gabrielle Creevy (“In My Skin”).

“I started writing the scripts for this show over last year’s Christmas holidays, fuelled by turkey sandwiches and discarded bottles of cream liquor,” said Barton. “To be now going into production with a cast and crew full of people whose work I admire so much is unbelievably exciting and I couldn’t be more thrilled to get to see this show come to life.”

“Black Doves” is produced by Joe Barton’s Noisy Bear and Elizabeth Murdoch-founded Sister (“Chernobyl”) for Netflix. Barton exec produces for Noisy Bear alongside Jane Featherstone (“This Is Going To Hurt”) and Chris Fry (“Giri/Haji”) for Sister and Keira Knightley. The series is directed by Alex Gabassi (“The Crown”) and Lisa Gunning (“The Power”). Harry Munday (“Kaos”) is producing.

[hellomystraightlacedfriend]

Of the High Evolutionary and Spider-Woman - and why I like Jessica Drew's Second Origin Story the Most

Like a lot of Marvel characters, Jessica Drew has experienced retcons and revisions to her history. In her very first appearance, 'Arachne' was told by Hydra General Vermis that she was originally a spider but was transformed by the High Evolutionary into a woman with spider-like properties. (1st Origin, found in Marvel Spotlight #32: written by Archie Goodwin, with art by Sal Buscema.)

However, this origin was immediately retconned in her very next appearance when it was revealed that Vermis told Jess this story to make her feel disconnected from the rest of humanity. Vermis and Hydra brainwashed her into believing that they were the only people who would want anything to do with her. They were her only hope for survival and acceptance. (The fact that Jess was young and very naive and her pheromones actually did have an unnerving effect on other people made this idea even easier to swallow).

In this version, Jessica Drew was the daughter of Jonathan and Merriem Drew. Jonathan was the research partner of Herbert Wyndham, who would later become the High Evolutionary. When Jess became sick from exposure to uranium as a young child, she was given a cure (made from spider blood), which gave her her powers.

This was Jessica Drew's 2nd origin story (developed largely by writers Marv Wolfman, Mark Gruenwald, Chris Claremont and their respective artists), and the one that was hard canon from the 1970s up until 2005. It's also the backstory that is still used in Marvel handbooks and was the one given in History of the Marvel Universe (2019).

In 2005, Brian Michael Bendis and Brian Reed wrote a 5-issue mini called Spider-Woman: Origin. And while I get why certain changes were made - obviously, there was an effort to simplify/streamline Jess's backstory - I just hate a lot of them. In stripping it down, many aspects of Jess's backstory that I found unique and personally fascinating were lost.

Also, some of the changes actually made things more complicated - like the decision to retcon Wyndham into just a Hydra general. Because the High Evolutionary is a key character in other characters' backstories - like Adam Warlock and the Maximoffs - this decision didn't really stick/was ignored by other writers. Because of this, Spider-Woman: Origin does not fit into the broader continuity of the Marvel Universe.

So today, I wanted to go over what I enjoyed about Spider-Woman's 2nd origin, and examine the changes that were made afterwards.

Before I proceed further, though, I do think it's only fair that I acknowledge that Bendis was responsible for really bringing back Jessica Drew as a character and making her a little less obscure. Also, there are definitely choices he made with the character that I like/find interesting, like: developing her friendship with Carol, continuing her relationships with Wolverine and Nick Fury, and getting her Spider-Woman title/costume back, among others. I even really enjoyed the whole Veranke imposter thing, which I know pissed off some fans.

That said, I still have a very visceral reaction to some of the ways Bendis handled Jessica Drew - and how some fans treat him as the end-all-be-all for the character.

So, let's go.

Part 1: The Man Who Would Be God

Okay, so the thing that probably offended me the most is how Spider-Woman: Origin turned Wynham into just a nondescript Hydra General. The reason for this is because the High Evolutionary and the Drew family actually have a very tightly wound history, and Bendis obviously wanted to stress Jess's relation with Hydra. But even though the High Evolutionary doesn't have a lot of comic book appearances (under 200 as of today) he has been quite an influential character, playing an important part in the Maximoff twins, Adam Warlock, and Spider-Woman's backstories - and also making recurring appearances in X-Men, Avengers, Thor, and even Spider-Man comics.

Also, I just like him. Like yeah, the dude's a piece of shit, but I find him interesting as a character - so that is why I am starting with him and who he is in the main Marvel Universe.

Note: While I am not going to give specific dates, this was originally supposed to take place around the 1920s - 30s. The time period isn't vitally important, though, in my opinion. It was more just that this was supposed to take place some 30+ years before the main Marvel events (like the Avengers, X-Men, and Fantastic Four forming).

Also, no, the High Evolutionary's whole "evolving" animals into more "advanced" versions of themselves isn't scientically accurate - but I like chewing on the thematic elements it creates.

So to begin, Herbert Edgar Wyndham was born in Manchester, England, into what was probably once a well-off family. However, his father’s passing (when Herbert was still young) seemed to have put financial strain on the family. Due to this, Herbert's dream of attending Oxford University to further his studies in genetics depended entirely on him getting a scholarship or sponsorship.

This didn't seem completely out of the realm of possibility - because young Herbert was something of a genius who was already pouring hours of his free time into obsessively studying the genetics of rats.

Herbert had become fixated on the idea of improving the world through accelerated evolution - and he wanted to be the one to do it. He'd even made a machine that he hoped would evolve the rats into later stages of rat evolution. Although all of his attempts so far - which had mostly been bombarding rats with radiation - had just ended with dead rats. But as much as their deaths saddened him, Herbert wasn’t one to give up.

Now Herbert was living with his mother, and she completely doted on him, so when Herbert got an invitation to attend a major genetics conference in Geneva, she was the one to go to all of their relatives to collect money, so he could go on his trip.

And this is where he bumped into a young American - Jonathan Drew, a student at Yale specializing in arthropods.

The two of them hit it off right away - Herbert seeing in Jonathan a fellow "visionary," as Jonathan Drew wanted to use the genetics of spiders to 'improve' the human race - making them less susceptible to toxins and disease.

During the convention, Herbert and Jonathan attended a lecture, where the speaker warned against the dangers of genetic tampering - saying that more theoretical research needed to be done into the long-term effects. Over dinner, an angered Herbert complained to Jonathan about this, when he suddenly felt dizzy and went out to get some air. There, he was approached by the inhuman geneticist Phaeder, who gave Herbert the genetic information he needed to perform his experiments.

(Although Phaeder didn't actually introduce himself as Phaeder, he just gave Herbert a stack of papers and then fucking left. Apparently, Phaeder gave out information like this to other human geneticists as well - like some weird fairy godmother or twisted Prometheus - but his reasons for doing so aren't relevant to this story).

Shortly after this, Herbert did end up getting into Oxford, but he blew the opportunity by spending all of his time working on a machine to turn animals into more "evolved" versions of themselves. When he couldn't even manage a demonstration on what he was working towards, he was kicked out of Oxford.

After getting kicked out, Herbert finally made a successful attempt with his machine - a machine which he had named his "genetic accelerator." He "evolved" his pet dalmatian - enhancing its intelligence to that of a chimpanzee and getting it to walk on its two back legs.

Herbert was estatic. However, the poor dog was accidentally shot by hunters, who then called it "a freak of nature." This led Herbert to believe that the only way for him to keep his "creations" safe was to keep them away from the rest of humanity.

So, he met back up with Jonathan, who had married a European woman and was now living in Europe.

Note: The nationality of Jessica's biological mother is inconsistent across sources, sometimes said to be English, sometimes French. Sometimes, she is listed as being born in Transia. Also, I guess she could have been born in Hungary, too, because of the whole Viper thing. (We'll get back to that.)

Jessica Drew's place of birth, however, is universally London, England.

Anyway, Herbert reconnected with Jonathan Drew, who now had a young daughter named Jessica. Jess seemed a pretty outgoing and affectionate child as she immediately climbed up on Herbert, something her mother scolded her for, but Herbert said he didn't mind.

Herbert and the Drews decided to pool their resources together to create "a citadel of science." Jess's mother, Merriem, had just inherited a tract of land in (the fictional Balkan country of) Transia - in the shadow of Wundagore Mountain. So that's where they decided to set up their base.

Herbert sold his mother's house (without fucking asking her!) for building money. (He'd already persuaded his mother to move into her sister's place so he could rent out the house for money for his experiments - which really demonstrates his complete but rather oblivious self-centeredness.)

With these plans in hand, Herbert, Jonathan, Merriem, and little Jessica all moved to Wundagore together to start their new lives.

Part 2: Wundagore

When Herbert and the Drews got to Wundagore, they immediately heard rumours from the locals that there was an evil spirit trapped in the mountain, and werewolves and vampires living close by. There was, in fact, an evil spirit trapped in the mountain - the evil elder god Chthon - but Herbert and Jess's parents (in a very Dracula moment) dismissed the nearby villagers as superstious simpletons.

Their arrogance grew when they found that the soil in the land they owned contained a lot of uranium ore. Now they would be wealthy! Interestingly, though, this turn in fortune did not cause any friction between Herbert and the Drews, as even though the land was technically Merriem's, Jonathan assured Herbert that they were all full partners in this venture.

Note: It's funny how especially compared to how Bendis and Reed wrote the Wyndham & Drew relationship (in Origin) as being pretty much purely professional - in Mark Gruenwald's hands, Herbert Wyndham and Jess's parents come across as having a rather unconventional closeness.

Herbert especially seems quite fond of Jonathan Drew (even though he often expresses waryness of humanity as a whole), and the fact that their finances are all so willingly tied together is very interesting to me. It would be more expected, particularly in a villain's origin story, for there to be more infighting around money. Instead, Jonathan and Herbert like each other enough that this never became a problem.

Herbert and Jonathan started working on their citadel of science, but because the engineer they hired to build it was obsessed with outerspace, they got a lab with space-faring capabilities. Jonathan was like "is this really necessary???" But he had bigger problems.

His young daughter had collapsed on the dirt she was playing in. Because even though Jonathan warned Merriem to keep Jess away from the dirt, they were both pretty neglectful in actually watching their daughter. Jess was now suffering from uranium poisoning that had been building in her little body for months. She was sick and quickly dying.

In a panic, Jonathan injected his young daughter with the experimental spider-blood serum he had been working on. However, Jess didn’t respond. Herbert then offered to use his genetic accelerator on Jess, but Merriem argued against it. She thought that it was too late for Jessica, and accused her husband and his partner of just using Jess as a guinea pig. Against her wishes, Herbert did put Jess in his genetic accelerator, merging Jess's genetics with those of the spiders.

However, Jess still seemed completely unresponsive, and Herbert put her in an induced coma/partial suspended animation in the hopes that the serum would slowly cure her over time. Angry and distressed that her daughter had been experimented on for what seemed to her no reason, Merriem rushed off into the night - and was killed by a werewolf.

Note: Okay, I wanted to pause here, because I actually highly prefer this version of Jessica Drew getting her powers to the one in Spider-Woman: Origin - where she accidentally gets spider DNA beamed into her body while she's still a fetus.

I just find it more interesting seeing these characters have this genuine fear and panic about their little girl dying - and maybe it resonates with me more because my little brother became very sick when he was three years old and eventually died (and I spent quite a bit of time in children's hospitals growing up) but there's also more nuance in this origin.

For some reason, Bendis and Reed made Jonathan and Merriem Miriam more black-and-white figures, with Jonathan being painted as a guy who secretly hated his daughter - because he's weirded out by her spider DNA - but still used her to advance his research. Whereas Jess's mother was presented as a much more sympathetic figure, as she was first taken in by her husband lies about her daughter being sick and thus the testing on her being necessary, and then later when she found out this wasn't true, she fought to defend her daughter from him.

But in the 2nd origin, especially in the parts penned by Mark Gruenwald, neither of Jess's biological parents was actually perfectly "right." Here, it is pretty clear that although Jonathan genuinely wanted to save his daughter's life, he also really wanted to see if his serum would work, and he very much wanted the glory of that success. However, Merriem was going to stand in the way of her daughter possibly surviving - because on principle, she didn't want her daughter to be used as a science experiment. Jonathan's motives were not close to being 100 percent pure, but if Merriem had gotten her way, Jess would have absolutely died.

Which is more unique for a Marvel backstory, because there are so, so many bad father/nicer mother narratives in Marvel. Which I am not saying this isn't a dynamic that doesn't occur often in real life, but I feel like Jessica's story was more about all her guardians failing her one-by-one.

But anyway, Merriem was killed by a werewolf, and it was Herbert who found her body. Not really believing in werewolves but also not wanting Jonathan to become biased against nonhuman life, Herbert staged the death to look like a fall.

Jonathan was absolutely devastated: first his daughter had become sick/comatose and now his wife was dead. Herbert tried to think of ways to console his despondent friend, but it wasn’t long after this that Herbert woke up to a note from Jonathan Drew, saying that he couldn’t stand being there anymore without Merriem, and he was going back to America. Jonathan left Herbert the citadel, and his daughter.

Part 3: The New Men and Recreating Camelot

So, Herbert found himself alone and lonely in his now completed citadel. The only person with him was his former partner's unconscious child. He decided that he would be a father to this abandoned little girl, and well, any daughter of his was going to have a world-class education. So he set up audio recorded lessons and lectures to play in her cryogenic chamber while she slept.

Herbert was (unsurprisingly) still lonely. He couldn’t really talk to Jessica (and she didn’t seem to be getting better), so he had this whole empty citadel to himself. To keep his mind busy, he set to work on making himself the perfect suit/armour to protect himself from environmental toxins. But also as a 'just in case' - even though he did not believe in werewolves or werewolf folklore or any of this crap about a demon living inside the mountain - he made the suit silver-plated on the outside.

When his perfect silver-plated hazmat suit was completed (after an intense process of trial and error), Herbert started wearing it all the time. It wasn't long, though, before his mind started itching to work on something else, and his thoughts drifted back to the evolved dog he had "created" before.

He started acquiring both domestic and wild animals from all over: lions and tigers and bears and pigs and cows and sheep. And he started putting them through his genetic accelerator. Those that survived and showed successful signs of intelligence, he called his "New Men" - though he would also more affectionately refer to them as his "children."

The New Men were absolutely bewildered by this whole process, but Herbert assured them they would adjust to this new way of existence. He had them watch educational tapes until they gained the ability to speak, and he started to feel a little less lonely.

Then, joy of joy, Jonathan Drew returned to Wundagore. Herbert was like, "I missed you. It hasn't been the same without you!" And Jonathan was like "Actually, I'm not Jonathan. I'm the ghost of 6th century wizard who took possession of your friend's body to warn you that you are in grave danger." And Herbert was like 😯 (Quotes aren't exact exact but pretty damn close).

Herbert didn't believe the whole ghost possession story, but he decided it was "a harmless mental disorder" caused by Jonathan's grief. So when "Jonathan" suggested they teach the New Men to be lance-wielding knights, Herbert decided to commit to some long-term LARPing to make his friend happy. Besides, this new code of honour would guide his New Men, make them civilised. Also, he did enjoy being the king of his castle. This is when Herbert started going by "the High Evolutionary" - a title that "Jonathan" encouraged.

Now Jonathan was, in fact, being possessed by a 6th century ghost. A guy named Magnus, who had come to Wundagore to warn Herbert that all his drilling into the mountain had awakened a dormant demon. Herbert - the High Evolutionary did not want to hear about this, though. He was like (paraphrasing):

"John, dear John, or Lord Magnus - however you want to be called, you can tell me all you want about how you used to work with Morgan Le Fay, before she murdered you with her bare hands, but don't speak to me of demons. I am a man of science™ There are no demons, and there is certainly no demon trapped in my mountain."

But like I said before, there was, in fact, an evil spirit in the mountain. He had been bound to it by Morgan Le Fay and her followers back in the 6th century - once she realised she couldn’t control the spirit she had summoned.

But back in the 20th century, time passed. A decade went by. The New Men, now called the Knights of Wundagore, kept training. Jessica Drew kept sleeping, and in her sleep, she aged very, very slowly. She had still not fully recovered from her sickness, and the High Evolutionary wondered if she ever would.

Then, one stormy night, a woman on the point of giving birth came to Wundagore and gave birth to twins. The mother slipped away in the night, leaving a note asking for the High Evolutionary to find her newborns a good home.

It was during this time that Chthon attacked, and Herbert/the High Evolutionary came face to face with a fucking Elder God. He and his knights fought back but were quickly overpowered, and Herbert watched in horror as many of his "children" were dashed to pieces in front of him. Luckily, Magnus ended up being able to put Chthon back into his dormant slumber, using a magic book called the Darkholde. However, not before Chthon put a piece of his essence into one of the twin babies: the girl who would grow up to be Wanda Maximoff, aka the Scarlet Witch.

Note: Not related to Spider-Woman: Origin directly, but I have seen other people bring up Bendis' erasure of Wanda's chaos magic (in his Avengers Dissambled Arc) and speculate that he was trying to write Chthon out of the Maximoff twins' backstory and out of the Marvel Universe. This is most likely true. For some reason, Bendis seemed determined to take all the magic away from Wundagore Mountain, which - is something I'm not a fan of.

Back to the story though, one of the surviving New Men, a cow-woman who Herbert named "Bova" (derived from a Latin word for cow) was tasked with taking care of the infants, while the High Evolutionary looked for a new home for them. He ended up placing the infants with Django and Marjya Maximoff, a Romani couple who were unable to have children of their own.

Note: Sorry, another complaint...it’s just super weird in Spider-Woman: Origin that the whole Bova in evolved cow is made out to be a delusion put in Jessica Drew’s mind by Hydra, and that Bova is actually a human woman named Bova????? I'm sorry, but why the fuck would that be her name? Did her parents hate her?

Also, it's just annoying because Bova doesn't have a purpose in the story other than to be a vehicle for the writers to be like "oh, yeah, we are retconning the High Evolutionary and his New Men! Yep, they never existed. Mhm, Hydra made them up entirely to mentally torture one child."

It seems evident that someone thought that this origin was too weird, but I just – aghhhhhhh. Okay, let’s move on.

After this, Magnus departed, saying that his duties there were done and that he had to relinquish Jonathan's body and return to his grave. But he also told the High Evolutionary that he would miss him and tasked Herbert with not neglecting the daughter of the man whose body Magnus had borrowed.

Part 4: Leaving 'Paradise'

It would still be years, though, before Jessica Drew finally woke up well from her prolonged sleeping beauty slumber. When she did wake up, her memories of her parents and her former life were very dim. She had been so young when she had gotten sick that she didn't remember anything clearly from before. So this strange world of talking, anthropomorphic animals and a knight's code of honour and all that - that was the world she really grew up in.

Note: I think that's part of what made me fall so hard for this backstory. Something about how casually and naturally Jess relayed it all to Nick Fury when looking back years later: the "High Evolutionary" promising to raise Jess like his own daughter, animals with the intelligence and faculty of human beings, the desire to recreate Camelot. They were all presented as the most normal things in the world, which is what really gripped me.

Because that is how a child raised in a bizarre environment would take it in - as their normal. And as someone who grew up in a cult, well, I really resonated with that. I mean, there are other ways that Jess's upbringing resembles being brought up in a cult (which I'll talk about a bit more soon) - but even the just talking about bizarre things as if they are completely straightforward (because that was your lived experience) is so interesting to me.

I also really like the idea of Jess being raised in a knight-centred culture, because this actually gives more context/insight into her character. Like why she has more negative emotions around being "a coward" than she does about killing people. Or why one of the things that pisses her off the most is seeing someone attack someone who is weak/defenceless, and why Jess would go in for the kill against the attacker in those situations. Of course, anyone would be upset about that, but there is a such level of anger there that we can see this goes against one of her core beliefs. An honourable knight is going to defend the weak, and hurting someone who is weaker than you is utterly despicable.

And it's just interesting that these values are following her even to this day, even though they were put in place by someone who was neglectful/abusive.

That's getting a little ahead of the story though:

So, when Jess woke up she had only physically aged to around 10 years old (or in some sources her early teens) - even though she had been asleep for over three decades. However, because she'd been in a coma-like state all this time, emotionally, she was still younger.

The High Evolutionary immediately placed Jess in Bova's care. He claimed he would be like a father to her, but he was preoccupied. His confrontation with Chthon had had a huge impact on him. For the first time, he had been come across something he couldn’t explain and was so much more powerful than him. That had rattled him, had shaken him to the core.

It's also possible that witnessing so much death and having his friend effectively abandon him a second time had resulted in Herbert becoming more emotionally detached. When he did interact with Jessica, it was mostly to examine the abilities he and Jonathan had given her.

One of the darker implications from around this time is that Jess has an ability to be resistant to toxins, but the way the power works is that she has to be exposed to a poison, endure the effects of it, heal from it, and then she will have an immunity to it. The fact that she already has a very clear understanding of how that power works in her first solo series suggests that multiple poisons were tested on her before it.

Looking back at this time in her life, Jess also expressed that she mostly felt like a labratory animal (which could be one reason why she has such a strong affinity towards characters like Logan/Wolverine or even the Hulk.)

Note: I will say that Spider-Woman: Origin does also have Jess be a test subject (although Jonathan is the perpetrator instead of The High Evolutionary.) I also do think the writers of the mini did enough research into Jessica Drew that they did try bring forward some of the same themes.

Sadly, one thing that was lost in this new origin was Jessica Drew seeing her father/father figure as a god/God. It's just one of my favourite things in stories where parental figures are lifted up onto this worshipful pedestal, and in this case, it makes a lot of sense. The High Evolutionary did save Jess's life, and he had cared for her even after her biological father abandoned her. He was her saviour.

Also, all these people around her - the New Men - they saw the High Evolutionary as God, because he was the one who had brought them to this new level of consciousness, and if he wanted to, he could also take that away. The New Men had also basically been taught that their whole purpose in life was to serve the High Evolutionary. This was readily accepted by most of them, and while others, like Bova, would go on to ponder if there was more to their existence, no one at this time was really questioning the High Evolutionary's authority. He was their king, their God, their everything.

And this does remind me of how cult members are "supposed to" and how many people in cults do view cult leaders. Add to this that the High Evolutionary did not allow outsiders (with very exceptions) into Wundagore, and that he forbade the New Men and Jessica Drew from ever leaving, and you have a very isolated and insular environment. Which is very, very cult-like.

There is also something about how the High Evolutionary can and later does devolve New Men - whether that be as punishment, or because he thought it was a mistake to evolve them up in the first place, or just because he was tired of a particular New Man - that makes me think of the dehumanisation that often takes place in cults. How personhood can be given or taken away.

Not that this is the only way to view the High Evolutionary, especially since he does eventually become more and more actually godlike in power and is even referred to as "God" at some points - you could also see the High Evolutionary as critique on God or how God is perceived, or well, something else entirely I suppose.

However you want to look at it, being "God" isn't always easy. Which Herbert was starting to realise.

Because the New Men saw him as this omniscient being, the High Evolutionary was getting flooded with questions. So, to bear the brunt of that barrage, the High Evolutionary recruited Jane Foster (yes, that Jane Foster) to be the New Men's new teacher. That way he could concentrate on what was really important to him.

Which, if you thought that would be spending some quality with his adopted daughter...well, no, that wasn't even on his radar. What he wanted to do was work on his genetic accelerator, with the hopes of making more advanced New Men.

It was just the hand that fate had handed him, his duty to make a perfect world, yada yada

Now Thor (Jane's love) happened to see Jane being taken off to an isolated location and thought she had been kidnapped. He came down to Wundagore, and basically walked into an ongoing battle.

The High Evolutionary had been making adjustments to his genetic accelerator, and had beamed a different type of isotope at the wolf he was evolving up. The wolf ended up coming out more "advanced" than the other New Men: smarter, more capable, but also filled with hate - towards the High Evolutionary and all of humanity. Declaring himself to be the "Man-Beast," the evolved wolf quickly took control of the genetic accelerator, and made new New Men - ones who would be loyal to him and help him overthrow the High Evolutionary.

A battle ensued, with Thor joining forces with the High Evolutionary, the Knights of Wundagore, and Jessica Drew to put down the Man Beast's rebellion. (This would be the first time Jess would use her venom blasts in a fight.) The Man-Beast and his underlings were defeated, but the High Evolutionary was again shaken. For the first time, he wondered if he had made a mistake tampering with evolution. Thor certainly thought so.

Finally, the High Evolutionary decided that humanity and his New Men couldn’t peacefully coexist. So, taking all but a handful of his New Men into his spaceflight-capable citadel, he took off for the stars.

Jessica Drew watched in Bova's arms, as her home lifted off the ground and disappeared into the sky.

Note: I don't know why, but I just find the image of Jess watching her home and her father/God disappear into outerspace never to return to her again particularly poignant. I especially ruminate on this when thinking about her and Carol, and how they see outerspace so differently. Carol having such positive connotations with it, and Jess such negative ones. It would just be interesting if it went all the way back to their childhood. (Even though, of course, a big reason why Jess hates/is scared of space is the whole being kidnapped/held captive by Skrull thing.)

But to return to the story, Jess and Bova and the rest of the New Men have to go on and adjust to life without their "God." Now none of the New Men, besides Bova, had really shown Jess any love or acceptance. They had tolerated her presence because the High Evolutionary had called her his daughter. However, now that the High Evolutionary was no longer there, well, things were different. The New Men started to become more and more vocal about their dislike for Jessica Drew.

The reason why they disliked her basically came down to two things. 1) at this point time Jess was instinctively/subconsciously giving off alarm pheromones that upset people around her 2) the fact that she had both human and spider DNA upset the New Men's sense of order. The High Evolutionary was fully human. They were animals brought up to personhood, but Jess was neither of those things, so they did not know how to view her.

Also, now that the High Evolutionary was gone, Jessica Drew was the only none New Man around, and though she begged and pleaded for their acceptance, the New Men just became more and more hostile towards her.

Finally, Bova decided that this was getting way out of hand, and she and Jess agreed maybe it would be best if Jess left and tried her luck among humankind. At this point in time, Jess was physically around seventeen, but because she was still catching up from spending a chunk of her childhood unconscious and had lived such an isolated existence, she came across as younger and was certainly very naive.

Despite this, Bova did not go with the child she had been ordered to take care of. Not that I actually exactly blame her in this situation. It had never been her decision to have or take care of a child. Also, she probably thought that Jess had a higher chance of being accepted if she weren't with a talking cow. Bova would have also wanted to stay with the people/community she knew and cared about, and would not want to go to some stranger place where she knew she would be shunned.

This did lead, however, to Jess going out into the world alone, a child among strangers. And in very mutant backstory fashion [even though Jess is not mutant - well, at least, not as of yet] Jess ended up accidentally killing a human man with her powers. (She was suddenly startled and hit him with a venom blast.) This led to the village turning against her, and a terrorist organisation - Hydra - coming to her "rescue."

Part 5: Hydra

After this point, this origin and Spider-Woman: Origin become a lot more alike. In both origins:

Jess joins Hydra when she is physically seventeen but emotionally/mentally younger (because in both origins she spends a sizable chunk of her childhood unconscious.) She is lied to/brainwashed in some way. She is then trained to be a spy/fighter/assassin. A guy named Jared starts a manipulative relationship with her, as he becomes her boyfriend and handler. Jared allows himself to be captured by S.H.I.E.L.D., so that Jess will come and rescue him and kill Nick Fury. Jess breaks into Fury's location, but while she is there, it is revealed to her that Hydra - and Jared specifically - have been attacking innocent/defenceless people. Jared tells Jess that their relationship was fake/that he never loved her/that he found her disgusting - before he ends up dying by her hand. Jess then ends up killing Otto Vermis. Fury tries to recruit her to S.H.I.E.L.D., but she slips through his fingers.

Some differences include:

1.

In Spider-Woman: Origin Taskmaster is shown to the one who trained Jessica Drew. This is more an addition than a contradiction to anything that was previously canon. And it's something I do actually like/have no problem with.

Well, the one nitpick I have is Taskmaster taunting Jess's costume - which would not bother me in isolation. It's just that Bendis put her back in this costume, only to have multiple people make fun of it, so whenever I see a character doing that, I hear it in Bendis' rather than the character's voice.

I also would have kind of preferred if Chris Claremont's addition to the costume's history was included. Basically Claremont had it be Jess's idea - that she fought for - to have the costume be not the usual Hydra green.

The brightly coloured costume is not great for stealth work, but I would say that it could speak to Jess's character. The colours are interesting because they are typical of poisonous animals, so the costume is like a warning sign. It could speak to Jess's sense of fairness or even her cockiness to go after her enemies in red and yellow and black.

It would also make a lot more sense to why she kept using the costume after leaving Hydra, even though that wasn't the smartest decision. If she chose the colours and felt like this was her first successful rebellion after being controlled all her life, yeah, that would give a lot more emotional/sentimental value to the costume.

I also like this idea because the person who designed Spider-Woman's original costume was actually a woman, the Marie Severin.

2.

In previous versions Otto Vermis was the Hydra general Jess was serving under, and who she killed by bending the wing of his plane and making it crash. But because Spider-Woman: Origin plays musical chairs with the characters, Wyndham (instead of being the High Evolutionary) is the Hydra general, and Vermis (instead of being the general) is just a Hydra guy Jess sleeps with for information about her father's whereabouts and then kills after he tries to kill her.

Now I don’t think it's totally out-of-character for Jess to start a sexual relationship with someone she is not attracted to in order to save/protect someone she loves, because the upper limit to what she would do to protect the people in her life is very high, but I still thought this was well, unnecessary.

3.

In Spider-Woman: Origin, Jonathan Drew is killed by Viper because he finally decides he doesn't want to be involved with Hydra anymore. In Spider-Woman (1978) after finally returning to America, Jonathan Drew is killed by an American congressman because Jonathan uncovered the motives of this group he was doing research for.

I will say that Spider-Woman: Origin is neater - is that the word? - more contained with Jessica Drew's parents' deaths. Miriam Drew is killed by her husband in front of her daughter, and then Jonathan Drew is killed by Hydra, specifically Viper. But in my opinion, the addition of having Jess see her father kill her mother in front of her doesn't really add anything to her character. And because earlier in Origin, they also had Jonathan Drew not like Jess from birth, it just kept making me think of Brian Banner, and how this backstory fits Bruce Banner better.

For some reason, it also really irritates me that Merriem/Miriam is made out to be the vastly better parent, and I don’t like how this has continued into newer comics. Maybe this is an overreaction, but I feel like I'm being spoon-fed this idea that all biological mothers are instinctively more loving and nurturing.

Speaking of biological mothers though, I did say I would get back to Viper. So, basically, the story behind Viper and Spider-Woman is just that Chris Claremont wanted Viper to be Jessica Drew's mother, so he made that retcon in Spider-Woman (1978) #44. However, J. M. DeMatteis, who was writing Captain America comics parallel to this, apparently didn’t like this idea, or someone didn't like it, so the retcon was retconned a year later (in Captain America #281.) So now Viper wasn't actually Jessica Drew's mother. Morgan Le Fay had just planted false memories in Viper's mind to make her believe that she was Jessica Drew's mother.

Which I mean I don’t really mind either scenario. I would be cool with Viper being Jess's biological mother, but also Morgan Le Fay did want to be the one to kill Jessica Drew (after Jess refused to swear eternal fealty to Morgan Le Fay and instead skewerd Morgan with her own sword), so I could totally see Morgan fucking with Viper's mind/memory just so that Viper would hesitate and not beat her to killing Jess.

4.

Okay, I am just going to make note of one other difference, and then I'm done, I'm through.

Weird thing: Jessica Drew unexplainably attending San Francisco State University in Origin takes me out of the story more than the not-scientifically sound explanation of being "extensively educated by the High Evolutionary during stasis." I actually find it pretty easy to accept the story logic of Jess learning languages and the contents of books subconsciously.

But not only does Jess attending university not fit with Spider-Woman (1978) or any of Jess's earlier appearances, but it leads to so many unanswered questions, like (if she wasn’t learning anything in the ten years she was in a coma) what was her schooling like up to this point? How did she get into university without a prior education, or transcripts? Like maybe she's just sitting in on a class, but that is not explained either. Nothing is explained.

Okay, I'm finally done now. Thanks for reading, and if you'd like, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the subject too!

Sources:

Thor #134-135 (Stan Lee/Jack Kirby)

Marvel Spotlight #32 (Archie Goodwin/Sal Buscema)

Marvel Two-In-One #29-#33 (Marv Wolfman/Ron Wilson)

Spider-Woman (1978) #1, #5, #6, #20, #35, #37 (Marv Wolfman/Carmine Infantino; Mark Gruenwald/Carmine Infantino; Chris Claremont/Steve Leialoha)

Avengers #187 (Mark Gruenwald, Steven Grant, David Michelinie/John Byrne)

The Saga of the High Evolutionary (Mark Gruenwald/Paris Cullins & Ron Lim), found in:

X-Factor Annual #3, The Punisher Annual #1, Silver Surfer Annual #1, New Mutants Annual #4, Fantastic Four Annual #21, Amazing Spider-Man Annual #22, X-Men Annual #12, Web of Spider-Man Annual #4, West Coast Avengers Annual #3

Collected by bringbackwendellvaughn here:

Scarlet Spider Unlimited (Glenn Herdling/Tod Smith)

Quicksilver #9 (John Ostrander, Joe Edkin/Ivan Reis)

Marvel Atlas #1

Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Vol 1 #5

Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Vol 1 #14

Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Vol 2 #15

Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Avengers 2005

All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z #5

FF: Fifty Fantastic Years

History of the Marvel Universe (2019) #4 (Mark Waid/Javier Rodriguez & Alvaro Lopez)

Spider-Woman: Origin (Brian Michael Bendis, Brian Reeds/Jonathan Luna, Joshua Luna)

[devoted-horror]

THE RULES.

◇ given the nature of this blog, there will be graphic content that some people may be uncomfortable with, like unhealthy relationships, murder, and the sort. if that sort of stuff makes you uncomfortable, i ask that you do not read any content on this blog.

◇ i will very rarely write smut, but you are free to request it. just know it will only be written when i'm in the mood for it. please keep in mind that i will not write non-con, so do not request that.

◇ do not rush me to write your request, and do not send your request multiple times in hopes i'll get to it faster because i won't. i will actively avoid doing your request, actually, if you do this.

◇ you can request platonic things if you don't want anything romantic.

◇ this blog is a safe space, so any sort of bigotry will not be welcomed here.

◇ seeing as there will be very little nsfw content on this blog, i don't mind if minors interact or read my stuff. however, if i specify on a post for minors to not interact, then i would hope that that gets respected.

◇ my inbox is always open if you want to chat, but i am not your therapist, so do not vent in it.

WHAT I WRITE.

◇ horror movie characters [slashers & victims]

ㅤslashers — michael myers, jason voorhees, bubba sawyer, thomas hewitt, billy loomis, stu macher, ethan landry, quinn bailey, corey cunningham, mark hoffman, amanda young, brahms heelshire, tiffany valentine, jennifer check, charles lee ray, bo sinclair, vincent sinclair, lester sinclair, billy lenz, asa emory, jesse cromeans, xenomorphs, candyman, mary mason, baby firefly, otis driftwood, pinhead.

ㅤvictims — sidney prescott, tatum riley, adam stanheight, lawrence gordon, jill tuck, peter strahm, ellen ripley, erin harson, kirby reed, grace le domas, samantha carpenter, colin gray, tara carpenter, anita lesnicki, arkin o’brien, carly jones, nick jones, lindsey perez, allison kerry, skye riley, rose cotter, joel (from smile).

◇ dead by daylight

ㅤ— every killer excluding the nightmare and every survivor.

ㅤ— this includes the casting of frank stone characters. minus stan.

◇ lollipop chainsaw

ㅤ— everyone excluding rosalind.

◇ the walking dead

ㅤtv series — rick grimes, lori grimes, morgan jones, glenn rhee, theodore douglas, carol peletier, daryl dixon, andrea harrison, maggie rhee, beth greene, michonne grimes, sasha williams, tyreese williams, tara chambler, eugene porter, rosita espinosa, abraham ford, gabriel stokes, enid, aaron, negan smith, paul rovia, ezekiel sutton, magna, yumiko okumura, luke abrams, connie, kelly, juanita 'princess' sanchez, maxxine porter, michael mercer.

ㅤgame series — lee everett, kenny, katjaa, doug, carley, lilly, ben paul, christa, omid, molly, luke, carlos, nick, sarita, jane, javier garcía, kate garcía, violet, louis, marlon, minerva, james.

please note that everything above is subject to change in the future.

[palmviewfm]

mw?

there's a ton of mw faces that we'd love to see here ! i put it under a read more since it's a large list. but bring us whoever you've got the muse for, ofc !

taylor zakhar perez, nicholas galitzine, noah lalonde, danny griffin, jonathan daviss, drew starkey, darren barnett, elias kacavas, emilio sakraya, evan mock, eli brown, glen powell, zane phillips, john boyega, jordan gonzalez, austin butler, henry zaga, felix mellard, thomas weatherall, miles teller, sam claflin, penn badgely, chace crawford, lewis tan, lucas bravo, kit harrington, joseph morgan, josh segarra, harry shum jr, chris pine, ryan gosling, alex saxon, theo james, andrew garfield, gregg sulkin, ben levin, adam brody, logan lerman, pedro pascal, tom holland, mason gooding, lucien laviscount, ryan gosling, rege jean page, froy guiterrez, tanner buchanan, xolo mariduena, robert scott wilson, carson boatman, ross lynch, algee smith, cody christian, adam dimarco, alex fitzalan, daniel ezra, anthony keyvan, keith powers, keiynan lonsdale, joseph quinn, aramis knight, antonio cipriano, derek luh, leo howard, leo woodall, brandon perea, dacre montgomery, diego tinoco, mena massoud, maxence danet-fauxel, lorenzo zurzolo, michael cimino, paul mescal, callum turner, d'pharoh woon-a-tai, jordah fisher, josh heuston,l alex meraz, kiowa gordon, tom glynn carney, avan jogia, dylan minnette, josh hutcherson, assad zaman, gabriel basso, ross butler, robert buckley, james lafferty, david casteneda, brandon soo hoo, grifflin gluck, grant gustin, dylan wang, asa germann, alejandro spietzer, colin ford, alex landi, alfred enoch, aria shahghasemi, anthony turpel, cha eunwoo, aj saudin, danny ramirez, david iacono, chris briney, sabrina carpenter, ayo edibiri, madison bailey, samantha logan, kim doyeon, nichola coughlan, madison davenport, indiana evans, india eisley, lyrica okano, virginia gardner, liana liberato, kiersey clemons, lindsey morgan, liv hewson, emma d'arcy, victoria pedretti, logan browning, lola tung, louriza tronco, lorenza izzo, lovie simone, luca hollestelle, hunter schafer, zion moreno, taylor russell, laura harrier, lana condor, lauren tsai, anna sawai, jane de leon, kylie bunbury, kathryn bernardo, chienna filomeno, phoebe dynevor, simone ashley, maitreyi ramakrishnan, courtney eaton, nicole maines, jessica alexander, peyton alex smith, ella purnell, sophie neilsse, dev patel, rahul kohli, natalia dyer, danielle campbell, ella balinska, bailey bass, jessica sula, emma mackey, mia goth, melissa barerra, alva bratt, kiana lede, kiana madiera, olivia scott welch, kiernan shipka, meg donnelly, camila mendes, brianne tju, maddie hasson, dianna agron, emilija baranac, danielle rose russell, kaylee kaneshiro, isabella gomez, jenny boyd, lulu antarisksa, josephine langford, lizeth selene, marina ruy barbosa, kaya scodelario, katherine mcnamara, chloe rose robertson, kathryn newton, kristine froseth, pat chayanit, davika hoorne, mint ranchrawee, rabia soyturk, hande ercel, aslihan malbora, melisa pamuk, katie stevens, meghann fahy, merrit patterson, adelaide kane, alexxis lemire, adria arjona, amanda arcuri, sadie soverall, sara waisglass, chelsea clark, blu hunt, antonia gentry, brianne howey, bianca santos, bianca lawson, phoebe tonkin, shelley hennig, bruna marquezine, brittany o'grady, crystal reed, charithra chandran, jessie mei li, halston sage, carlson young, willa fitzgerald, halle bailey, chloe bridges, chloe bailey, margot robbie, anne hathaway, lisa yamada, raven bowens, olivia rose keegan, camryn grimes, gideon aldon, tiera skovbye, amy adams, jane levy, angela bassett, anya taylor joy, anya chalotra, ashleigh murray, lucy hale, troian bellisario, sophia bush, bethany joy lenz, shantel vansanten, hilarie burton, shay mitchell, sasha pieterse, janel parrish, malia pyles, bailee madison, chandler kinney, jordan alexander, zaria simone, auli'i cravalho, bebe wood, angourie rice, renee rapp, ashley moore, ashley park, aisha dee, alisha boe, elizabeth lail, alia bhatt, reina hardesty, victoria justice, liz gillies, bahar sahin, amber midthunder, gemma chan, madchen amick, marisol nichols, madison mclaughlin, malese jow, maris racal, maya hawke, jessica chastain, ana de armas, angela sarafyan, and anna lambe !

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Erin Reed at Erin In The Morning:

On Wednesday, Ohio’s legislature became the first in the country to pass an anti-transgender law post-2024 election. The bill, SB104, originally aimed to help dual-enrolled high school students earn college credits, but a provision was added to bar transgender people from using bathrooms aligned with their gender identity on college campuses. Now, Ohio’s legislature has passed the bill on the first day of a lame-duck session. With this move, Ohio joins a small number of states in passing a transgender bathroom ban that includes adults—following a $215 million anti-trans ad campaign, many of whose ads ran heavily in the state, targeting transgender rights.

The bill declares that “no institution of higher education shall knowingly permit” transgender people to use bathrooms aligned with their gender identity. Originally passed in June, the bill’s future looked uncertain leading up to the 2024 election. But after the election, primary sponsor Adam Bird signaled that targeting trans and queer communities would be a top priority for Ohio’s legislature, calling for state investigations into official diversity initiatives and drag shows. Now, his bill is set to be one of the nation’s most restrictive toward transgender people. While most states with bathroom bans restrict them to grade school settings, only nine states currently bar transgender adults from some public bathrooms—Alabama, Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Dakota, Texas (Odessa), Utah, and now Ohio will become the tenth. Notably, this ban extends to private colleges as well as public ones, making it one of the first adult bathroom bans in the U.S. to apply to private institutions.

[...] Anti-trans bathroom bans, gender-affirming care bans, and similar restrictions have a profound impact on young people’s mental health. A CDC study found that 25% of young transgender people attempted suicide in the past year. Another study, published in Nature Human Behavior, showed that such laws can lead to an up to 72% increase in suicide attempt rates. Following the recent election, LGBTQ+ crisis hotlines reported a 700% surge in calls as transgender individuals brace for harsh crackdowns in the aftermath of the election. Ohio’s latest legislation has brought those fears to reality. Many transgender people are watching closely to see what their state legislatures will do next. Ohio could be an early indicator of what to expect from Republican-controlled states emboldened by what they interpret as a mandate to target transgender rights through laws that restrict public life. With several state prefiling deadlines approaching, the coming weeks will reveal more about what the landscape holds for transgender people at the state level. This latest Ohio bill now heads to Governor DeWine’s desk—though he has vetoed anti-trans bills in the past, those vetoes were ultimately overridden.

What a disgrace! Ohio passes anti-trans bathroom ban bill SB104 that bans trans people from using bathrooms aligned with their gender identity on college campuses.

See Also:

LGBTQ Nation: Ohio Senate passes “cruel” transgender bathroom ban

[earth-18104]

Earth-18104

Since I started getting more into Marvel I made a bunch of Ocs for the media, and with time I created a whole universe to insert them in the stories. So I'm gonna start posting here my personal time-line.

These events include stories from the comics, a bit of the cartoons and the movies. Many events or characters have their backstories changed and I will include my ocs here.

It's just a project I do for fun (and has been taking my mind in the last years help). It's not complete. There's still a lot to work but I got the basics.

(This is a rewrite from my other blog :P)

Time-line

B. C - Events

• Okkara and the Enriched

• Birth of Apocalypse

• Hela and the Asgardians

• The Clan Akkaba

A. C. - Events

• Fall of Strontia

• Thanos' birth

• Creation of the Ten Rings

• Fall of Titan

15th/ 16th / 17th Century - Events

• Odin brings the Tesseract to Earth

• Rise of Count Dracula

• Apocalypse and the Army of Darkness defeat Dracula

• Fall of Tenochtitlán

• Creation of Talokan and birth of K'uk'ultan

• Trial of Agatha Harkness

• Apocalypse is sealed by his subordinates

• Selene Essex becomes Lady Sinister

18th / 19th Century - Events

• Mystique's birth

• Victor Creed's birth

• Sanguinária's birth (OC)

• Logan's birth

• Howlett's Tragedy

• Irene Adler and Raven Darkholme meet

• Fall of Akkaba Clan

• Origins: Wolverine I

20th Century

1900 - 1930 - Events

• Origins: Wolverine II

• Wolrd War I

1940 - Events

• World War II

• Johann Schmist finds the Tesseract

• Steve Rogers becomes Captain America

• Bucky Barnes becomes his partner

• Phineas Horton creates the original Torch

• Sgt. Nick Fury and the Howling Commandos

• Foundation of Weapon X by Dr. Abraham Cornelius Truett

• Captain America dissappears and Bucky Barnes is taken by HYDRA

• Logan marries Itsu. Later she is murdered by the Winter Soldider and his son is taken

• Cain Marko and Charles Xavier become stepbrothers

• Wong starts his training in Kamar-Taj

• Howard Stak works for SHIELD

1950 - Events

• Cain Marko and Charles Xavier fight in the Korean War. Marko dissapears after finding the Temple of Cyttorak

• Max Eisenhardt marries Magda

• The original Torch dissapears / dies

• Logan meets Silverfox

• Magda and their daughter dies, Max Eisenhardt changes his name to Erik Lehnsherr

• 1950 Avengers

1960 - Events

• Charles Xavier meets Moira Mactaggert and Gabrielle Haller

• Sabretooth and Wolverine join Team X

• Adam Brashear becomes Blue Marvel

1970 - Events

• Professor X, Magneto, Mystique and Destiny create the first team of X-Men

• X-Men '72

• Adamantiun tests

• Team X breaks out

• Xavier VS Shadow King

1980 - Events

• Captain Marvel

• Ghost Rider

• The Incredible Hulk

• Iron Man

• Ant-Man and Wasp

• The Summers Incident

• Hawkeye and Mockingbird

Age of Heroes - The first famous groups of heroes start to rise, the first conflicts earth went through after FF, the Avengers, the X-Men, the Defenders, Guardians of the Galaxy, Young Avengers, Power Pack and the others formed.

1989 - Events

• The Fantastic Four

• Puppet Master

1990 - Events

• The Avengers

° (Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Wasp, Ant Man, Hulk, Mockingbird, Hawkeye)

1991 - Events

• Jessica Drew works for SHIELD as Arachne

• Logan adopts Amiko Kobayashi

• Matt Murdock debuts as Daredevil

1992 - Events

• The X-Men

° (Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Angel, Iceman and Beast)

• The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants

• X-Men VS Juggernaut

• Sam Wilson becomes the Falcon

1993 - Events

• Simon Williams joins the Masters of Evil as Wonder Man

• New Avengers

° (Black Panther, Hercules, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Hawkerye, Falcon)

• Jennifer Walters becomes She-Hulk

1994 - Events

• Sue Storm and Reed Richards Wending

• The Fantastic Four meets Black Panther

• Dane Withman becomes Black Knigt

• Z'Nox attack

• Wade Wilson becomes Deadpool

• Silver Sufer and Galactus

• Alex Summers becomes an X-Man

• Betsy Braddock becomes Captain Britain

1995 - Events

• Mesmero attacks Krakoa. Lorna Dane joins the X-Men as Polaris

• The X-Men and the Okkari

• Patsy Walker becomes Hellcat

• Peter Parker becomes Spider-Man

• Jessica Jones becomes Jewel

• Heroes for Hire (Luke Cage and Danny Rand)

• Norman Osborn becomes the Green Goblin

• Natasha Romanoff leaves the Red Room and joins SHIELD, working alongside Mockingbird and Hawkeye

• Frankie Raye joins the Fantastic Four as Photon.

• The Avengers battle against Ultron and Vision

• Among us stalk the Sentinels! Ororo Muroe and Sean Cassidy join the X-Men

• Frank Castle becomes the Punisher

• Jean Grey absorbed the power of the Phoenix

1996 - Events

• Hank McCoy joins the Avengers

• Greer Nelson becomes Tigra

• Secret Empire

• Avengers / Defenders War

• Flint Marko becomes Sandman

• Second Genesis.

• Hulk VS Wolverine

• Cyclops starts a new team of X-Men

° (Wolverine, Storm, Thunderbird, Colossus, Nightcrawler and Sunfire)

• X-Men VS Erik the Red and D'Ken

• Wanda Maximoff and the Darkhold

• Darren Cross becomes Yellow Jacket

• Wanda uses her magic to create her sons

• Mystique and Destiny start a new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants

• Kitty Pryde and Alison Blaire join Xavier's Institue

• Dark Phoenix and death of Jean Grey. Cyclops leaves the team

• Kree / Skrull War

1997 - Events

• Days of Future Past. Rachel Summers and Lucas Bishop join the X-Men

• Cyclops meets Madelyne Prior.

• Rogue absorves Carol Danvers powers

• Rhino VS Spider-Man

• The trial of Hank Pym

• X-Men VS the Brood

• She-Hulk joins the Avengers

• Wanda and Vision find out their sons are magic creations of the Darkhold

• Illyana Rasputin is captured and taken to the Limbo

• New Mutants

• The Morlocks

• Rogue joins the X-Men. Logan marries Mariko.

• Beta Ray Bill!

• Venom arrives at Earth

• Hawkeye creates the West Coast Avengers

• Forge joins the X-Men

• Curtis Connors becomes the Lizard

1998 - Events

• Jean Grey returns

• Nathan Summers is born

• Mutant Massacre

• Madelyne is corrupted by the demon N'Astirh, becoming the Goblin Queen

• Asteroid M

• Fall of the Mutants

• Franklin Richards is born

• The Punisher took over the Assassins' Guild, and later became a substitute teacher while investigating drug trafficking at a school

• Wolverine and Jubilee work together against the Hand

• Gambit joins the X-Men

• Genosha X-Tinction Agenda

• Legacy Virus

1999 - Events

• Kree/Shi'ar War

• X–Cutioner Song

• Rise of Midnight's Children

• Maximum Carnage

• Fatal Attractions

• Bloodties. Fabian Cortez kidnaps Luna Maximoff

• Sabretooth goes to the X-Men after he starts losing control of his feral side

• Cyclops and Marvel Girl marry

• Generation Next and Phalanx events. Emma Frosts takes the new mutants as her students. Blink dissapears.

• The Hellions die

• Peter Parker meets Olivia Octavius, who later becomes Dr. Octopus

• Sabretooth escapes. Angel loses his wings

• Ozyamndias comes to warn the X-Men about the return of Apocalypse

2000 - Events

• Jessica Drew joins the Heroes for Hire

• Graydon Creed's assassination

• Apocalypse returns with his Horsemen

• Okkara is revealed to the world

2001 - Events

• Mantis, the Celestial Madonna, creates Adam Warlock using the Mind Stone

• Gamora, Mantis, Drax, Groot, Adam and Rocket become the Guardians of Galaxy

• The Thunderbolts

2002 - Events

• Sepent Crown's arc. Lemuria and Talokan are revealed to the world

2003 - Events

• Jessica Drew returns as a heroes and joins the Heroes for Hire with Cage and Rand

2004 -

• The start of Infinity Gaulent arc.

° Earth's heroes lose the battle to Thanos. Half of the Universe dissapears.

• The X-Men split in Team Gold and Team Blue to defend the mutant kind

2005 -

2006 -

• Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson marry

2007 -

2008 -

2009 -

• Mayday Parker is born

• Power Pack debuts as a new group of children superheroes

° Jack (12) as Zero-G, Julie (10) as Lightspeed, Jack (8) as Mass Master, and Kate Powers (5) as Energizer.

2010 -

• The Avengers, X-Men, Fantastic Four, Guardians of Galaxy and Denfenders join forces to fight Thanos once more

• Event Infinity Gaulent ends.

2011 -

• The Avengers rebuilt their base.

• Scott Lang joins the team as the new Ant-Man.

• Charles Xavier re-opens the Academy X

2012 -

• E is for Extinction

• Riot at Xavier's

• Runaways!

• Jean Grey dies fighting Xorn

• Gitfted / The Mutant Cure

2013 -

• X-23 (13) tries to assassinate Logan. She changes her name to Laura Kinney

• Secret Wars

• Winter Soldier returns

• The Gray family is killed by Death Commandos Shi'ar

• Vulcan leaves Earth, deciding to take revenge on D'ken for the death of his mother

• M-Day happens

• Academia X changes the X-Men program

• With the help of rebels, Vulcan escapes from prison and frees Deathbird

• Peter Quill joins the Guardians of Galaxy

2014 -

• The Young Avengers!

° Iron Lad (16), Kate Bishop (17/18), Wiccan, Speed (16), Patriot (16), Hulking (16), Sting (14), Jonas

• The New X-Men

• Hearing about Vulcan's escape, Prestige, Thunderbird, Warpath, Xavier, Darwin, Nightcrawler, Havok, Lorna and Petra leave Earth

° Korvus Rook'shir is freed; Lilandra Neramani loses the title of Empress

• D'Ken wakes up and takes his title and asks Vulcan and Dearthbird to stay by his side

• William Stryker and his Purifiers attacks Xavier's Institute

• Vulcan's royal marriage and coronation as Shi'ar Emperor

2015 -

• Civil War

• World War Hulk

• Birth of the Mutant Messiah

• Kang's Dinasty

° The Avengers and other heroes fight Kang.

° Sam Wilson becomes Captain America

2016 -

• The mutants move to the new Utopia

• War of Kings. Inhumans, X-Men, Starjammers and Guardians of Galaxy against Vulcan

° Lilandra dies during battle; Rachel Grey avenges her family; Black Bolt defeats Vulcan

° At Lilandra's funeral, Kallark becomes majestor

• Reed Richards founds the Future Foundation

° Alex Power (19), Dragon Man, Moloids Tong, Turg, Mik and Korr, Bentley 23 (10), Artie Maddicks (20), Leech (19), Julie Powers (17), Jack Powers (15), Kate Powers (12), Valéria Richards (9), Franklin Richards (13).

• The Skrull Invasion takes place on Earth

2017 -

• Dark Reign

• The Inner Circle attacks Genosha

• Hope returns as the Messiah

• Annihilators

• Hank Pym opens the Avengers Academy

• Young Avengers: Children's crusade

• Generation Hope

• Attack on the Mutant History Museum

• Sabretooth becomes the Invisible King of Asia

2018 -

• The Schism between the X-Men happens

• Fear Itself

° Thor becomes King of Asgard

• Apocalypse Solution

° Warren Worthington III becomes heir of Apocalypse

° Genesis, clone of Apocalypse, wakes from his chamber

• Logan opens the Jean Grey School For Higher Learning

° There's a room where the light won't find you (Watxm fanfic)

• Miles Morales (13) becomes Spider-Man

• Sabretooth and his goons kidnaps Genesis

2019 -

• The Phoenix returns

° Hope Summers fixes the mistake made during M-Day, sacrificing herself.

° Rachel Grey becomes the new host of Phoenix.

• Rage of Ultron.

° Hank Pym sacrifices himself to defeat Ultron once for all

• Terrigenesis Mist Arc

2020 -

• Khamala Khan (16) becomes Ms. Marvel

• Jean Foster is diagnosed with cancer, later she becomes an Valkyrie

• Moon Girl (9), together with Devil Dinosaur, tries to become a superhero

• Riri Williams (15) debuts as IronHeart

• Robert Reyes debuts as the new Ghost Rider

2021 -

• Dead Man Logan

° Logan dies and is buried in a secret place in Canada. Storm becomes the new headmistress at JGS.

• Ms. Marvel, Nova and Spider-Man create the new Champions

2022 -

• Strange Academy

2023 -

• The Mutants create Krakoaland

• Empyre Event: Kree Alliance - Skrull

2024 -

• Mayday Parker becomes Spider-Girl.

[lazzarella]

Top 10 Things

For some reason, I've decided to compile lists of my various top ten things, a completely pointless venture because I highly doubt anyone will read it, and I already know what they are, but I'm doing it anyway! lol

(I've included: bands; solo artists; albums; books; poems; graphic novels/comics; tv shows; BL series; murder mystery shows; movies; actors; actresses; directors; musicals)

BANDS

The Beatles

ABBA

Belle and Sebastian

Led Zeppelin

The Raveonettes

The Decemberists

Ramones

Blondie

Sparks

Judas Priest

SOLO ARTISTS

John Grant

Rufus Wainwright

Connie Francis

Kylie Minogue

Angel Olsen

Prince

Sufjan Stevens

Kate Bush

David Bowie

Keaton Henson

ALBUMS

Queen of Denmark by John Grant

69 Love Songs by The Magnetic Fields

In the Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel

Rubber Soul by The Beatles

Picaresque by The Decemberists

Houses of the Holy by Led Zeppelin

You Could Have It So Much Better by Franz Ferdinand

Purple Rain by Prince

Transformer by Lou Reed

If You're Feeling Sinister by Belle and Sebastian

BOOKS

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

Grief is the Thing With Feathers by Max Porter

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien

The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter

The Charioteer by Mary Renault

The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

POEMS

Having a Coke With You by Frank O'Hara

Every poem in Crush by Richard Siken

The Second Coming by WB Yeats (alternatively, The Mermaid)

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T. S. Eliot

Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen

Love Sonnet XI by Pablo Neruda

somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond by e.e. cummings

Wild Geese by Mary Oliver

Tired by Langston Hughes

Perhaps the World Ends Here by Joy Harjo

GRAPHIC NOVELS/COMICS

Paper Girls

Ghost World

Persepolis

Bandette series

Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant + sequels

The Fade Out

The Case of the Missing Men

The Less Than Epic Adventures of TJ and Amal

It's a Good Life, If You Don't Weaken

Nimona

TV SHOWS (that are not BLs or murder mysteries XD)

Spaced

Supernatural

The Hour

Buffy

Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes

This is England 86/88/90

I Love Lucy

Pushing Daisies

Dark

In the Flesh OR The Young Ones OR Xena (I was going to choose but meh)

(A full list of my favourite TV shows on Serializd)

BL SERIES (MASTERLIST HERE)

Moonlight Chicken

My Personal Weatherman

KinnPorsche

Cherry Magic (Thailand)

Century of Love

Wandee Goodday

Old Fashion Cupcake

A Tale of Thousand Stars

Only Friends

Jack O'Frost

(I have a feeling Kidnap is going to take the place of one of these though)

MURDER MYSTERY SHOWS

Poirot

Marple

Rosemary and Thyme

Twin Peaks (it counts XD)

Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries

Endeavour

Beyond Evil

Murder, She Wrote

Jonathan Creek

George Gently

MOVIES

(if I do subcategories for this, we'd be here all day! But ftr my favourite genres are film noir, musicals, rom-coms, horror—mostly slashers and gialli, 50s/60s sci-fi...)

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Clue

Strictly Ballroom

Charade

Velvet Goldmine

Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Call Me By Your Name

God's Own Country

Secretary

That Thing You Do!

(A full list of my favourite films on Letterboxd)

ACTORS

Robert Redford

Colin Farrell

James Spader

Keanu Reeves

Danny Kaye

Humphrey Bogart

Dirk Bogarde

Frank Sinatra

Jack Lemmon

Ben Whishaw

ACTRESSES

(only separating by gender to get more in XD)

Doris Day

Audrey Hepburn

Amy Adams

Lucille Ball

Jane Fonda

Kirsten Dunst

Marilyn Monroe

Nicole Kidman

Michelle Williams

Cate Blanchett

DIRECTORS

Gregg Araki

Alfred Hitchcock

John Waters

Sofia Coppola

Agnès Varda

Wes Anderson

Billy Wilder

Pedro Almodóvar

Stanley Donen

Dario Argento

MUSICALS

(only counting ones I've seen productions of myself)

The Rocky Horror Show

Little Shop of Horrors

Aladdin

Matilda

Cats

Chicago

Hairspray

Wicked

Singin' in the Rain

9 to 5 tied with Priscilla: Queen of the Desert

[jules-has-notes]

Manila, Philippines — VoicePlay & Rachel Potter live performances

When VoicePlay and their buddy Rachel Potter released their "Moana medley" video in the summer of 2017, it went a bit viral and brought them a number of new fans, especially among young kids and their parents. A year later, one of those families invited the six singers to perform at their daughter's birthday party in Manila, with the added incentive of a public show for more of their Filipino fans. A trip to the other side of the world was an opportunity they weren't about to pass up. Even if it did require a full day of travel each way, everyone agreed that the experience was well worth it.

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VoicePlay knows how to start a show with a bang, and this song gives each member a moment to shine.

Details:

title: Any Way You Want It

original performers: Journey

written by: Steve Perry & Neal Schon

arranged by: Geoff Castellucci

performance date: 18 August 2018

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The boys kept the good times going with some bouncy prog rock and a little audience participation.

Details:

title: Mr. Blue Sky

original songs / performers: "Mr. Blue Sky" by the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO); [1:03] "Blue Skies" by Ben Selvin & Charles Kaley (as The Knickerbockers)

written by: "Mr. Blue Sky" by Jeff Lynne; "Blue Skies" by Irving Berlin

arranged by: Geoff Castellucci

performance date: 18 August 2018

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Next up was a more modern groove that let the fellas show off their harmonies and diction.

Details:

title: Ride

original performers: Twenty One Pilots

written by: Tyler Joseph

arranged by: Geoff Castellucci

performance date: 18 August 2018

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VoicePlay kept things a little mellow for one more number with the first song that this lineup recorded together.

Details:

title: Scars To Your Beautiful & All Time Low mashup

original songs / performers: "Scars to Your Beautiful" by Alessia Cara; "All Time Low" by Jon Bellion (see also: acoustic version) [NOTE: The original lyrics are more explicit than VP's version.]

written by: "Scars to Your Beautiful" by Alessia Cara, Warren "Oak" Felder, Sebastian Kole, Andrew "Pop" Wansel, & Justin "DJ Frank E" Franks; "All Time Low" by Jon Bellion, Mark Williams, Raul Cubina, & Travis Mendes

arranged by: Layne Stein & Hannah Juliano

performance date: 18 August 2018

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Their cover of Disney music was what brought the guys to the Philippines, so it was only natural for them to include this energetic mashup of the Mouse's Broadway tunes.

Details:

title: aca-Disney medley

original songs / performers: "Kiss the Girl" by Titus Burgess as Sebastian in The Little Mermaid (2008); "All About That Bass" by Meghan Trainor; [0:24] "A Whole New World" by Adam Jacobs & Courtney Reed as Aladdin & Jasmine in Aladdin (2014); "Rude" by Magic!; [0:53] "I Just Can't Wait to Be King" by Scott Irby-Ranniar, Geoff Hoyle, & Kajuana Shuford as Simba, Zazu, & Nala in The Lion King (1997); "Trumpets" by Jason Derulo; [1:34] "Seize the Day" by the cast of Newsies (2012); [1:41] "Arabian Nights" by James Monroe Iglehart as the Genie and the cast of Aladdin (2014); "Fireball" by Pitbull, featuring John Ryan

written by: "Kiss the Girl" by Howard Ashman & Alan Menken; "All About That Bass" by Meghan Trainor & Kevin Kadish; "A Whole New World" by Alan Menken & Tim Rice; "Rude" by Magic!, Adam "Messy" Messinger, & Alex Tanas; "I Just Can't Wait to be King" by Elton John & Tim Rice; "Trumpets" by Jason Derulo & Jon Bellion; "Seize the Day" by Alan Menken & Jack Feldman; "Arabian Nights" by Alan Menken & Tim Rice; "Fireball" by Armando "Pitbull" Perez, "John the Blind" Ryan, Andreas Schuller, Ricky Reed, Joe Spargur, Tom Peyton, & Ilsey Juber

arranged by: VoicePlay

performance date: 18 August 2018

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The reason Rachel wasn't on The Sing-Off with the boys back in 2013 is that she had already been selected for The X-Factor, and this is the song that got her there.

Details:

title: Somebody to Love

original performers: Queen

written by: Freddie Mercury

arranged by: Rachel Potter

performance date: 18 August 2018

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This video contains two songs, each with a new performer in a featured role. For the first, J.None steps into Tony's Phantom shoes. For the second, Rachel picks up the torch of self-love from Emoni Wilkins.

Details:

title: Phantom of the Opera

original performers: Sarah Brightman as Christine Daaé & Michael Crawford as the Phantom in The Phantom of the Opera (1986)

written by: Andrew Lloyd Webber, Charles Hart, Richard Stilgoe, & Mike Batt

arranged by: Layne Stein

performance date: 18 August 2018

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title: I Love Me

original performers: Meghan Trainor, feat. LunchMoney Lewis

written by: Ricky Reed, Gamal "LunchMoney" Lewis, Jacob Kasher Hindlin, Meghan Trainor, & Thomas Troelsen

arranged by: Layne Stein

performance date: 18 August 2018

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The three pieces in this video are all fan favorites that show off the guys' skills and sense of humor, and are sure to get your toes tapping.

Details:

title: Elvira

original performers: The Oak Ridge Boys

written by: Dallas Frazier

arranged by: Geoff Castellucci

performance date: 18 August 2018

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title: Percussion solo

original performer: Layne Stein

written & arranged by: Layne Stein

performance date: 18 August 2018

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title: A Crimpella

original songs / performers: [6:12] "Walk the Dinosaur" by Was (Not Was); [6:24] "Witch Doctor" by Alvin & the Chipmunks; [6:31] "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang; [6:35] "We Go Together" from Grease!; [6:42] “Motownphilly” by Boyz II Men; [6:50] "Imma Be" by the Black Eyed Peas; [6:59] "Tutti Frutti" by Little Richard; [7:01] "Shoop" by Salt N Pepa; [7:06] "Jock-A-Mo" (aka "Iko Iko") by James "Sugar Boy" Crawford; [7:15] "Mahna Mahna" from The Muppet Show; [7:26] "Lovin, Touchin, Squeezin" by Journey; [7:50] "Goofy Goober Rock" from The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie; [7:53] "MMMBop" by Hanson; [8:05] "Hooked on a Feeling" by Blue Swede; [8:09] "Bawitdaba" by Kid Rock; [8:14] "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" by Neil Sedaka; [8:22] "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen; [8:36] "Bad Romance" by Lady Gaga; [8:42] "Can't Get You Outta My Head" by Kylie Minogue; [8:48] "Limbo La La" by James Lloyd; [8:51] "All Night Long" by Lionel Richie; [9:10] "Wanna Be Starting Something" by Michael Jackson; [9:16] "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" by Steam

arranged by: VoicePlay

performance date: 18 August 2018

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It would've been a shame to leave out VP's very first collaboration with Rachel, especially since it gave the crowd a chance to hear Layne tackle that rapid-fire rap verse.

Details:

title: I Knew You Were Trouble / As Long As You Love Me

original songs / performers: "I Knew You Were Trouble" by Taylor Swift; "As Long As You Love Me" by Justin Bieber, featuring Big Sean; "All Around the World" by Justin Bieber, featuring Ludacris

written by: "I Knew You Were Trouble" by Taylor Swift, Max Martin, & Karl "Shellback" Schuster; "As Long As You Love Me" by Justin Bieber, Nasri Atweh, & "Big Sean" Anderson; "All Around the World" by Justin Bieber, "Sir Nolan" Lambroza, & Nasri Atweh

arranged by: Layne Stein & Hannah Juliano

performance date: 18 August 2018

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They had to cap things off with the medley that resulted in them going to Manila, and it certainly makes a fantastic ending. It's also fun to see how they adjusted the arrangement to integrate J.None and create a fuller sound in a live setting.

Details:

title: Moana medley

original songs / performers: "Where You Are"; [0:46] "How Far I'll Go"; [1:47] "You're Welcome"; [2:54] "Shiny"; [3:54] "Know Who You Are"; [4:36] "How Far I'll Go (reprise)"; [4:55] "We Know the Way" by the cast of Moana (2016)

written by: Lin-Manuel Miranda, Mark Mancina, & Opetaia Foa'i

arranged by: Layne Stein & Hannah Juliano

performance date: 18 August 2018

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Additional photos

[Geoff isn't in the meet-and-greet photos because the poor guy had food poisoning and needed to go sit down after they finished singing.]

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Private party

[topazadine]

Favorite Character Poll

Thank you for the tag, @drchenquill! I, of course, voted for Daisy on your poll. She just sounds so sweet, I want to wrap her up in a blanket.

Rules: list all your main ocs and give brief descriptions of them. then, create a poll with their names and allow your followers to vote on who their favourite character is.

I'll do the three MCs from 9 Years Yearning and see what comes up.

Uileac Korviridi

As a cavalryman of the Bremish Army, Uileac is good at two things: shooting people and riding horses. He is also good at embarrassing himself, particularly when it comes to love. Slim and slender, he resents his small stature, especially because it means that his sister Cerie, who is four years younger than him, is nearly his same height. Damn those male Korviridi genes!

Uileac is known for being even-tempered, competitive, sarcastic, and protective. He is loyal to the point that sometimes it clouds his judgment and gets him into trouble, but it's counterbalanced by his kindness toward those he loves most.

Fun fact: Uileac can swim, but he doesn't like to because his hair gets all gross and problematic. He'd rather sit on the shore and throw dry reeds at Orrinir. Once, he even made a flimsy little bow out of a bendy twig and a piece of twine so he could launch the reeds better.

Orrinir Relickim

Orrinir Relickim was a Future Boy: his parents gave him up to the War Academy when he was only six years old, where he worked as a domestic servant until he was old enough to join classes. As such, he has grown up his entire life around warfare and has the emotional wounds to match. He joined Infantry thanks to his excellent swordsmanship and his willingness to get up close and personal with the enemy, even if it means putting himself in danger.

A large, muscular man, Orrinir is earnest and affectionate, though he can bluster with the best of them. He often uses his loud, brash nature to hide the fact that he is a deeply emotional person whose feelings are easily hurt. A history of abandonment makes him cling to those he loves and follow them without question.

Fun fact: Once, Uileac told Orrinir that his father used to make peppermint cookies for their horses when he was a child. Orrinir scoured every recipe book he could find, then surprised Uileac with cookies for his horse, Erix, during Feast of the Horse.

Cerie Korviridi

Cerie is quite young during 9 Years Yearning, so we don't get to see a lot of her, but she grows exponentially during the rest of the series. Though she is quite timid due to trauma in the first book, her true personality - that of a sharp-tongued, stubborn, but loyal and determined woman - starts to shine through near the end.

Just as reserved and pragmatic as her older brother Uileac, Cerie makes up for her small form with a sharp personality. She is intensely devoted to the things she cares about - her High Poetry, family, and country - and will destroy anything she needs to in order to keep those things safe. Cerie may not be outwardly emotional most of the time, but her expressive poetry gives away all those feelings she can't bear to show.

Fun fact: Cerie has always wanted her own horse, but Uileac is very adamant that she can only have one when she's shown herself to be a very, very good equestrian. But he's also selfish AF with letting her ride Erix ... a true catch-22 ....

Tag list (omg look I made one!!) (ask to be added or removed if you would like)

Tumblr tag list: @kuebiko-writing @ryns-ramblings @cain-e-brookman @halfbit @macabremoons @theverumproject @mysticstarlightduck @aquadestinyswriting @urlocalwitch555 @sarahswriting @davycoquette @aalinaaaaaa @theaistired @glasshouses-and-stones @somethingclevermahogony @the-golden-comet @wyked-ao3 @avaseofpeonies @finickyfelix @gioiaalbanoart

[justforbooks]

The dapper and sagacious Ahmad Jamal may have looked more like a UN delegate than a jazz musician, but he was recognised as a truly great jazz artist by some of the music’s most notable pioneers. Jamal, who has died aged 92, was hailed in the 1940s and 50s by Art Tatum and Miles Davis, and more recently by McCoy Tyner and Keith Jarrett. In the 90s, when a jazz piano-trio renaissance was being led by gifted newcomers such as Brad Mehldau, Jason Moran, Geri Allen and Esbjörn Svensson, Jamal did not retire to the sidelines but played better than ever. The former Wynton Marsalis pianist and composer Eric Reed has said that Jamal is to the piano trio “what Thomas Edison was to electricity”.

He was a fascinating philosopher of contemporary music and a lifelong critic of the entertainment business, which he accused of fleecing African-American artists. Although he recognised the structural and technical distinctions of jazz and European classical music, he was adamant that there was no superiority of one over the other in what he called “the emotional dimensions”. “You have to know what the hell you’re doing,” he told me in 1996, “whether you’re playing the body of work from Europe or the body of work from Louis Armstrong.”

Jamal was born Frederick Jones in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and regarded the eclectic musical culture of his birthplace as crucial to his development. His father was an open-hearth worker in the steel mills, but his uncle Lawrence played the piano and at only three years old Jamal was copying his playing by ear. He took lessons from seven, and would recall “studying Mozart along with Art Tatum”, unaware of white society’s widespread prejudice that European music was supposed to be superior to that of African-Americans. Significant influences in his early years were the music teacher Mary Cardwell Dawson (founder of the National Negro Opera Company), and his aunt Louise, who showered him with sheet music for the popular songs of the day. Pianists Tatum, Nat King Cole and Erroll Garner were among the young “Fritz” Jones’s principal jazz influences, and he also studied piano with James Miller at Westinghouse high school.

At 17 he toured with the former Westinghouse student George Hudson’s Count Basie-influenced orchestra, worked in a song-and-dance team, and wrote one of his most enduring themes, Ahmad’s Blues, at 18. Two years later he adopted Islam, and the name Ahmad Jamal. He also joined a group called the Four Strings, which became the Three Strings with the departure of its violinist, and caught the ear of the talent-spotting producer John Hammond, who signed the trio to Columbia’s Okeh label.

The public liked Jamal’s distinctive treatments of popular songs, and so did Davis. Developing his new quintet in 1955, Davis sent his rhythm section to study Jamal’s then drummer-less group. Davis liked Jamal’s pacing and use of space (the prevailing bebop jazz style was usually hyperactive), and he noticed that Jamal’s guitarist, Ray Crawford, often tapped the body of his instrument on the fourth beat. Davis told his drummer, Philly Joe Jones, to copy the effect with a fourth-beat rimshot, which became a characteristic sound of that ultra-hip Davis ensemble. Davis began to feature Jamal’s originals and arrangements in his own output, including New Rhumba (on his 1957 Miles Ahead collaboration with Gil Evans), and Billy Boy (on 1958’s classic Milestones session).

The gifted young Chicago bassist Israel Crosby joined the trio in 1955, and the following year the percussionist Vernel Fournier – who fulfilled Jamal’s requirements for a subtle hand-drummer as well as orthodox sticks-player – replaced Crawford. The group became the house band at the Pershing Hotel in Chicago, and one night in January 1958 they recorded more than 40 tracks there. One was Poinciana, which had been a hit tune from the 1952 movie Dreamboat. Jamal modernised its Latin groove, maintained a catchy hook throughout the improvisation, and found himself with a pop hit that stayed in the charts for two years.

Eight songs from that night, including Poinciana, made up the million-selling album At the Pershing: But Not for Me. Jamal’s newfound wealth led him to branch out into club ownership by opening the Alhambra in Chicago, though the venture barely lasted a year. Crosby and Fournier left for the pianist George Shearing’s group in 1962, and Jamal recorded the Latin-influenced Macanudo album the next year, with a new trio and a full orchestra. He also explored his cultural and ancestral roots in Africa, then recorded Heat Wave in 1966 – with a new group (Jamil Nasser on bass and Frank Gant on drums) and a more contemporary feel, reflected in the funkier approach to his old piano hero Garner’s Misty.

Jamal’s knack of keeping audiences mesmerised with unexpected modulations, time changes and catchy riffs, while never losing the undercurrent of the tune, was still unmistakably intact. His trademark device of insinuating a song – through toying with its bassline or its characteristic groove, but endlessly delaying the appearance of the tune – was adopted by many later jazz pianists, including such contemporary masters as Mehldau.

In 1970 Jamal recorded Johnny Mandel’s M*A*S*H theme for the movie’s soundtrack, and with the albums Jamaica (in 1974, which included Marvin Gaye’s Trouble Man as well as M*A*S*H) and Intervals (1979, which included a Steely Dan cover), showed he was not averse to toying with pop forms and even electric pianos. But he soon returned to the jazz of his roots. In 1982 he made the live album American Classical Music (it was the term he always preferred to the word “jazz”), sustained a steady output through the decade, and with Chicago Revisited (1992) sounded as assured and inventive as ever.

Now in his 60s, Jamal began to develop a higher profile in Europe. Sessions for the Dreyfus label in France led to The Essence (issued in three parts in the 90s), and found him in full flight with the saxophonists George Coleman and Stanley Turrentine and the trumpeter Donald Byrd. In 1995 his version of Music, Music, Music and the original take of Poinciana were featured in the Clint Eastwood film The Bridges of Madison County. He made what he regarded as one of his best recordings with Live in Paris 1996 (featuring Coleman again), and returned to the city to celebrate his 70th birthday in 2000 with Coleman; he was in inspired form on what would be released as the album A l’Olympia (2001).

With the exciting James Cammack on bass and Idris Muhammad on drums, Jamal’s composing blossomed. Striking originals dominated his 2003 album In Search of Momentum, and he even made a faintly stagey but soulful foray into singing, amid a raft of virtuoso keyboard displays, on After Fajr (2005).

Jamal’s alertness to an irresistible riff, like his keyboard contemporary Herbie Hancock’s, made him a favourite with hip-hop artists, and De La Soul’s Stakes Is High and Nas’s The World Is Yours were among many unmistakable testaments to that. Mosaic Records’ nine-CD set of his game-changing work in the late 1950s and early 60s was released in 2011, his group made a spectacular live appearance in London in 2014, and his last album releases came in 2022 with Emerald City Nights: Live at the Penthouse, parts one and two, featuring live recordings made in Seattle during the 60s. A third in the series is due for release this year.

Jamal was married and divorced three times – to Virginia Wilkins, Sharifah Frazier and Laura Hess-Hay. He is survived by a daughter, Sumayah, from his second marriage, and two grandchildren.

🔔 Ahmad Jamal (Frederick Russell Jones), musician, born 2 July 1930; died 16 April 2023

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