#also this is based off the way i’d show my dad all sorts of ants and worms crawling all over my hands. unlike kazurei he was proud of me T-T

[glowingsand]

not everyone likes bugs…

[scarlet--wiccan]

You can ignore this if you don’t have any thoughts but what your ideal new young avengers run look like? Who would be on the team, what would you even call it now that they’re all adults (except Cassie I guess?)

One of my favorite things about Young Avengers, which I think is often underplayed to the detriment of the characters, is that the team is routinely forced to operate outside of the law and against the wishes of their elders. In the core YA books, the kids are more often working in opposition to the Avengers rather than in cooperation. These are characters whose methods and motives are not usually aligned with those of the established superhero organizations, which is also reflected in many of their appearances beyond YA-- Strikeforce and Empyre are great examples, as are Cassie's adventures in Astonishing Ant-Man. This rebel element is often at odds with the fact that many of the characters admire the Avengers, or have close personal relationships with individual Avengers members. The dissonance becomes especially strong when Billy and Teddy, who have the most reason to distrust and resent them following Children's Crusade, are consistently characterized as Avengers fanboys.

That's not to say that I think the Young Avengers should, like, hate the old Avengers, but I do think that this tension is a key part of the series. The 2005 run was about a group of kids who stepped up, at a very young age, to do a job that wasn't getting done because the previous generation had failed, only to get shot down by the people who had failed them in the first place. It's about a group of kids grappling with complex and painful family histories, and, in many ways, they're foils to the Runaways, which is why I don't really like it when they play junior Avengers or emulate the traditional superhero team structure-- WCA was really fun, but I'm not going to pitch a second volume, you know? I much prefer them operating as an ad hoc group, mainly because they each come from different backgrounds, have different goals, and work in different fields. They're not people who work together because they're part of an organization, they're people who show up for each other because they're friends and they care about one another. That is, in my mind, a more effective approach to a team book with such disparate characters than what the typical Avengers title tries to do.

So, anyways, that's what I think makes Young Avengers special and it's why I think the book still has a place in the Marvel world. Pitching actual story ideas is hard now because Teddy and Billy are, apparently, living off-world and very busy being royalty. In my previous post, I outlined an older idea for a BillyTeddy ongoing series that could have easily functioned as a third volume of Young Avengers, but would require some editing to work in a post-Empyre world. The idea was for Billy and Teddy's apartment in New York to act as a base of operations for a revolving cast of their friends, who come and go over the course of various story arcs. The two of them are presumably living full-time in space now, but it's also been established that they're magically anchored to each other in a way that makes it easy for Billy to warp between New York and the throneship-- anywhere Teddy goes, Billy can instantly follow, and vice-versa, which means that the series could still use Earth as a main setting without pulling the royal couple out of their other storyline.

I'd love a Young Avengers/Runaways crossover set in space-- their previous crossovers mostly have to do with alien drama, after all, and I've been itching to get Xavin back on page. I'm very serious when I say that I want Xavin, Teddy and Noh to be best friends, and I think they'd be fun leads for a miniseries, or even the opening arc of a limited run that eventually folds in the other YA and Runaways characters. I'm imagining an extended version of the interstellar road trip from YA (2013). Maybe Teddy will recruit his two closest alien friends to go on a sensitive diplomatic mission where he can only bring a small party, but it turns out to be some kind of trap and they end up stranded somewhere and have to, like fight their way out of hostile territory and make their way back to the Alliance with no ship. Billy can reach Teddy, obviously, but he can't just warp the whole party home because the distance is too great or they're in an alternate dimension or something, so he rounds up a rescue party and Karolina insists on coming along because, I don't know, the Light Brigade is mixed up in this and she feels like it's her responsibility to help Xavin even though they haven't seen each other in years. Nico obviously comes along with her, and can help Billy with tracking spells.

I'd also like to see a YA book led by the series' most under-served characters-- Tommy, Eli, and Cassie. Building off of Cassie's capers in Ant-Man, I'd be very into a heist or espionage story about the three of them, probably joined by Kate because she'd add a lot of cohesion to the cast and is so well suited to this type of adventure. Maybe they're undercover, and they have to, like, fake-fight some of the other Young Avengers, but they all join forces once the misunderstanding is cleared up. I'm picturing a cold open where the whole first issue is made up of, like, security camera footage of three masked figures breaking into a high-tech vault at AIM or Roxxon, and they steal a bunch of weaponry and fight their way out through a bunch of goons, but then it's revealed that the whole thing was a distraction to cover up a fourth intruder who moves too fast for the cameras to track. At the end of the issue, it's revealed to the reader that the intruders are the Young Avengers, and the real prize was a computer holding the last backup of Jonas's AI. The rest of the first arc is about them trying to rebuild Jonas with help from Vee, but they have to keep it a secret from the Avengers because they're planning an even bigger heist against, like Kate's dad, and they need to keep the whole operation under wraps because he's got eyes and ears all over.

I'm not particularly eager for another fantasy story after CC and YA(2013), but I'd be into a cosmic-fantasy arc about America solving some sort of inter-dimensional crisis or chasing a villain across worlds with Tommy and Billy's help. I really want more development between America and Billy, but I also think that she'd be really funny friends with Tommy and I want to see more of him playing off of magic characters. Maybe Leah (the one from Earth-15513 that's living on Earth-616 now) receives a mysterious message from Loki and asks the Young Avengers to help her track them down. America and Billy volunteer and Tommy tags along. Along the way they end up discovering some sort of evil curse or spell and go on a quest through various dimensions in order to break it. In the end it turns out the whole thing was set up by Loki to manipulate them into defeating an evil alternate-universe Loki-- maybe the one from Leah's native dimension-- because Evil Loki had used an enchantment that made it impossible for 616-Loki to harm them, which includes allies who are knowingly fighting on Loki's behalf. Better yet, it's a proxy war, and Evil Loki has recruited pawns of their own-- including Sylvie and Lisa from the Young Masters! 616-Loki does come clean when the dust is settled and finally reconnects with the Young Avengers. Loki is glad that Leah found a way to escape her destiny, but they admit that they don't feel they've succeeded in breaking out of their own cycle, to which America and Billy are like "we've seen how far you've come, but you need to remember that people care about you and stop bailing on us when we actually want to talk it out with you," which Tommy backs up because, like, he's been that person. Friendship! Character arcs that don’t fizzle out when a book wraps in under twenty issue!

Anyways, if we got a third Young Avengers volume, I'd prefer a limited run with a cohesive story, but all of the ideas I just outlined would probably work better as smaller arcs in an ongoing series. I have a lot of ideas about tying up loose threads and continuing arcs that are already in motion, but I'm hesitant to plot out what the next big step in these characters' lives should be. I definitely think it's time to give Tommy and Cassie another shot at the spotlight, and I want Eli to come back with a new costume and codename.

At this phase, it's just really hard for me to land on any larger, deeper stories because I'm so unsure of what the next few years will look like for Billy and Teddy. There's also an America title that's been in production limbo since the pandemic started, and I feel like there's some kind of drama on the horizon between the Maximoffs and Krakoa which would theoretically impact the twins as well. I also anticipate editorial pushing for Kate in a Hawkeye book when the tv show comes out.

[staarknaked]

Hello! I have been watching the marvel movies and tv shows for a while now but I’d like to read the comics too. Any idea how to start since there are so many and have been there for so long (as in which comic from what year)? Thank you in advance!

I’m sorry for how long this is, I tried. Once you find where you want tostart, it gets easier to narrow down and follow timelines and full story arcs,sort of, I promise. Also, Wikipedia is your friend. Marvel starting doing a lot of events after CivilWar. You can skip them and just read summaries. Save your sanity. If you have any questions you can msg me off anon too and I can walk you through it because Marvel comics are a shit show I’m so sorry I don’t make the rules.

Projects:

-Civil War (2006-2007): This is on the list because this is where I jumpedinto Avengers comics, and it’s honestly their most iconic events. It has a tonof main titles for multiple characters and is a really good way to get into howthey think and who they are, but it is fucking huge. After reading the core book, the tie ins and theCap/Iron man books are great. Really gives you history and scope of the Marveluniverse and its original players. This will take a while.

-Avengers Disassembled (2004-2005): Probablybigger than civil war? I have the hardcover of this and it is massive. But again, iconic if you wantto do the work and read it. Scarlet Witch is a key player and it pretty coversbackground for a whole variety of previous material. This will also take forever. I have the entirely of it in a hardcover and I’ve only gotten through 2/3rds of it.

- House of M (2005): Wanda Maximoff. Right here. If you want toknow what comics Wanda is like, and why mutants are the way they are in comicsright now, House of M is it. House of M preludes some of the best x-men stuffpost Phoenix era and leads to a ridiculously intense storyline that leads towhere the mutants are now and why they are the way they are. The core book isshort, and good as a one shot, but if you go further it gets crazy.

Movie Characters in Comics

I haven’t readAnt-Man, Black Panther, or Thor solos except for the all-new thor where it’s JaneFoster but they are re-booting Thor in 2018 I think. And I don’t read Dr.Strange, he’s kind of an asshole.

-Black Widow (2014-2015): The art is amazing and Natasha adopts a cat.That’s all you need honestly. Doesn’t tie into the MCU at all but really great.

-Hawkeye (2012-2015): The Clint Barton we deserve tbh. Fraction andAja’s run is iconic and legendary. Also not MCU related but widely recognizedas one of the best comics runs.

-Planet Hulk (2006-2007): One of themore iconic Hulk runs and also where parts of the Hulk’s story in Thor: Ragnarokcame from.

-Scarlet Witch (2015-2017): Really good art, Wanda is trying to fix witchcraft, and it I think goes into a little bit of her backstory with Vision. They are no longer together in comics, but this I think deals with some of the aftermath and gives glimpses into her history. I have it, I haven’t gotten around to reading it.

-Invincible Iron Man: Extremis (2006): Ended up influencinga huge part of the original Iron Man movie, and updates Tony’s everything. Thearmor from this book was the basis for the armor in the MCU.

-All-New All-Different Invincible Iron Man (2015): This is a newerTony Stark, and this line eventual leads to the Riri Williams line I think? It’sa modern take on Tony Stark.

-Captain America: Winter Soldier / Captain America(Vol 5.) (2004-2011): Ed Brubaker is the mastermind behind bringing BuckyBarnes back as the Winter Soldier. This Cap line runs forever, and covers allthe major events of the mid-late 2000’s, including civil war, death of SteveRogers, and Bucky picking up the Shield. Really good run, it’s the only soloCap stuff I’ve read any part of. The Winter Soldier stuff starts in 2005/2006if you want to skip right to it.

-Captain America (2017): Starting atissue # 695, this is Steve’s redemption arc from the clusterfuck that wasMarvel’s Secret Empire. Getting into Cap here and then backtracking would be mysuggestion.

- Guardians of the Galaxy (2013-technically ongoing): this is a pretty long run and was launched whenthe movies started bringing new readers, and it’s really good. It does crossover with the O5 X-men business briefly, but it’s also where they reallyintroduce Angela Odinsdottir, Thor’s kick ass stolen sister.It’s been re-branded a couple of times due to events.

Team Books

-The Ultimate’s: Super Human (2002): The Ultimate’suniverse inspired the movies. It’s a close universe separate from marvel 616,which is the marvel universe where all the other comic recommendations arecoming from. Ultimate’s is grittier, darker, and changes backstories but isstill really really good. Gets weird, and is definitely not close to themovies, but a lot of the inspiration for the movies came from this universe,and you’ll see it if you read it.This is the kick off book, but the Ultimate ‘verse is pretty straight forward.

-Avengers Assemble (2012-2014): This wascreated for the movies. It has the movie team line up, and was meant to be thestepping stone from the fledgling MCU to the Marvel 616 comic verse!

Netflix/Hulu/Marvel TV

-Runaway’s (2003/2017): If you watched the Hulu Runaway adaption, these arethe comics to read. The 2003 run will not have the same characters or romancesas the show though, and the 2017 ones kind of bounce off the original omics andthe show. I’m not the biggest fan of the Runaways but my best friend read themwhen we were younger so I know this by association.

- Jessica Jones: Alias (2001-2004); Jessica Jones (2016): The netlfixshow was based off the Alias comics, and its Bendis and Gaydos back on the 2016run as well, making Jessica one of the most consistently written characters inMarvel. Very similar to the show

-The Defenders (2017): A reboot of the Defenders line to hype the neflixshow. I love danny jess and luke any and every time they interact. Jess andLuke named their kid after danny okay I love anytime these assholes teamup and I believe this is similar to the show as well.

Deadpool + Friends Deadpool is in a lot ofshit. He was in Deadool and Cable in the 90’s and early-mid 2000’s and then therewas a point where everything he was in was shit for a while, and now he runsaround the marvel universe and teams up with everyone from spider-man to thenew wolverine.

-Uncanny X-Force (2010-2012): This one is a wild ride, and only recommended ifyou really liked the Deadpool movie. Wolverine and X-23 with Deadpool and twoothers mutants. Lots of stabbing. Dark. Moral conundrums. Excellent andabsolutely amazing expose of Deadpool’s character and what his morals are like.-Spider-Man/Deadpool (2016-ongoing): I can’t speak for the laterstuff, but the first bit was pretty funny.

New Kids onthe Block These are “new” heroes that were meant to be youngand fresh. They’re fully established now, and definitely worth a look.-Nova (2013-2016): I love Sam. I do. He’s a spazy Hispanic teenagerwith cosmic space powers by accident basically. He’s one of the kids thatkicked off the dad!tony thing in comics. Has appearances by the guardians, anddeals with cosmic space stuff-Invincible Iron Man: Ironheart (2016-ongoing for now): This iswhere Riri Williams takes over the Iron Man title as weird shit happens to TonyStark. Black, 16, smarter than Tony.-Ms. Marvel (2014-ongoing): Kamala is just really sweet honestly,though I’ve only so far gone through the first 2 or 3 trades.

-Spider-Men(2012): Blends the spider-man of 616 with ultimate spider-man and gives areally good jumping point to the Miles Morales as Spider-Man when he comespermanently into the 616 universe.

-Spider-Man(2016-ongoing): Miles as spider-man. He and Nova, and Kamala get mentored by Tony Starkin some of the all new-all different avenger’s books but each also has a solorun.

- Hawkeye(2016-2018): The only Young Avengers to get her own series, Kate Bishop as Hawkeye.Helps keep Clint Barton from dying, pretty great all around. Kate isn’t newsince she came around in 2005 but she was horribly underused until she showedup in Fractions Hawkeye and then got her own solo.

LGBTQ and fucking AWESOME but not MCU related at all:

- Young Avengers (2005) and YA: Children’s Crusade (2011):Children’s crusade has more Wanda, YA is the first teenage superhero group thatalso had one of Marvel’s first gay on panel kisses.

- Angela: Asguard’s Assassin (2014) and Angela: Queen of Hel(2015): a transfriendly lesbian love story with fierce fucking femalecharacters.

- Fearless Defenders (2013): Valkyrie and a ton of kick assmarvel women team up, boot all the men off the Defenders team and then showthem the fuck up also there are Lesbians and Valkyrie is a fucking goddess.

And that’s where I’m going to stop. If you put any of these titlesinto google with the dates, it will show you what you’re looking for! There aresites to read comics for free, and there are programs that you can use to readthem digitally. But honestly, once you find what you like, head to your localcomic book shop (if you have one) and browse their titles. Most places wlilorder things in.

If you’re into X-Men, I can do an X-men specific list, butX-Men aren’t really MCU so I didn’t include them. X-Men is kind of my tried andtrue for marvel though tbh. There are a lot of new X-men series being launchedright now and they just resurrected Jean Grey, so if you want that, let me know,it’s its own list.

[pinkdolphinmusic-blog]

Welcome To Corridor 13!

Today’s post is about a recent album that is so fantastic I had to write about it. It is by an indie artist who I adore - Lemonade Kid.

‘Welcome To Corridor 13′ is the result of a year’s work by Lemonade Kid. The attention to detail clearly shows in this collection if finely crafted and performed indie-electro-pop songs.

The album is at home in the collections of pop music lovers, indie fans and those who like electronic music equally. All of Lemonade Kid’s releases so far have been fantastic, but with this album he has surpassed himself by creating a masterpiece that is so clear and vibrant it excites me every time I listen.

Lemonade Kid is the brain-child of musician and songwriter Dominic Lack from Shrewsbury in the middle-ish of England. I spoke to him about his musical roots and creating this album (which was not an easy road for those involved) and found that his formative years watching ‘Top Of The Pops’ on the BBC as a young child and forming bands whilst at school mirrored my own youth and musical journey. Here is what he said...

“My earliest memories are of music. I can remember sitting in my mum and dads front room listening to ‘Sgt Peppers’ with big old headphones on. I remember listening to 'Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds' and closing my eyes imagining colours. Then dancing on the table to Gary Glitter on Top Of The Pops. Those were the days! I can remember writing songs and making up bands from the age of about 6. As a youngster I drifted in and out of loving music. Adam and the Ants were one of the first bands I fell in love with. I suppose I always liked bands that had a degree of flamboyance and odd front men! It wasn't really until the mid eighties indie scene when I was a teenager that I started being in little bands at school and so on. I fell in love with The Smiths and the C86 indie pop scene that showed that anyone could make music and that the music was more important than the success I guess. Bands like The House Of Love and The Stone Roses were a big influence on lyrics and also blending in different styles. Then the acid house scene was a big thing and it was at this time I got really into the 60's Psychedelic scene. I guess these things remain a big influence to this day. Being in bands around this time gave a real sense of identity but also demonstrated the difficulty of being in a group with 4 other blokes and the various inter band relationships that would appear...

Music has always been a release and an escape from every day life. I guess everyone needs some kind of release whether it be poetry , art or kicking a football about on a Sunday morning! With music of course there is a wonderful release of words and expression through music also. Back then of course it was difficult to get your music heard. In bands in the 90's we had tapes pressed and sold them at gigs and so on to other people who were into 'that kind of music'. The wonderful thing now of course is the internet where you can easily release music and have people listen all around the world. It's also easy to send music to some of the amazing DJ's that are out there. So now there are people out there who listen and you don't have to send out loads of tapes in Jiffy bags!

After recording and releasing 4 EPs in 2016 in my mind I knew that I wanted to make an album in 2017. The EPs gave me a great opportunity to try different things and I always think sometimes it's possible to be more experimental on a 4 track EP than on an album weirdly! January saw the 'Program Electricity' EP finished off and then released in February so then it was onto the album. Lots of songs were forming at this point. Recording though 2016 had helped exercise the creative muscle so by this year it was quite strong. The songs were beginning to form. Some of the songs that made the final cut were being written at this stage. One of the first was 'Glowworm' though at this time it was a sprawling 10 minute epic! It was always called 'Glowworm' though no words existed st this point. Some of the songs started as lyrics, some as music, some as melodies. Some would be written on piano, some would come from experimenting with sounds some would come out of nowhere during a walk or a car journey. It varies from song to song. 'Zeroed' started as a little song I'd sing with my 3 year old son. Often if he liked it it was worth pursuing! 'Apple' started as just the chorus which again I sang to my son and he enjoyed. I always envisaged it as a sort of groovy acoustic song but it grew into something else! I knew that I wanted other people involved on the album. Or course I had my faithful guitarist Jarrod as ever but also wanted some more musicians and more voices. As work stated properly in March I got in touch with poet ForgottenBee about creating and reading a poem for an instrumental song I had. She worked quickly and came back with something incredible. She really pushed the boundaries on this one. We had worked together on a couple of tracks before but this was the most collaborative we had been. It was probably one of those lucky accidents that recording throws up. 'Good Feeling' had been written during the filming of the video for 'synthesizer' (from Program Electricity) as a feel good song. I realised I didn’t really have any when applying for adverts and so on so set out to make one. I also at this point contacted German DJ Alice Peters-Burns who has an incredible voice. So that was set in motion. Just needed a backing vocalist... Which was easier said then done. Despite meeting with two singers neither worked out. As we entered summer it looked like the album might be shelved. The vision I had for the album and the sounds in my head needed a second voice. I discussed with Jarrod just doing a couple of EP's while we continued searching. 'Kill The Future' EP was released as a stop gap on Election Day as a kind of weird multi media protest song but that wasn't what I wanted to be doing. By this time there were about 20 songs written for the album. The album that wasn't going to happen. Then Emma got in touch...

When I first met Emma it was basically at our first recording session. We had chatted online and so on but it was still a nerve wracking experience (I'm sure for her too). Once she started to sing the nerves soon disappeared and I realised that she was a great singer and also the kind of person that was going to be easy to work with. Someone to bounce ideas off of. I can honestly say without Emma the album wouldn't have happened so I am very grateful to her. We first worked on 'Peacefully' and it was only about 8 weeks after that that we finished the album. So she came in late but still her influence on the album is there for all to hear. We co wrote 'Margins' (about the first date of two psychiatrists) writing a verse each. Basing each verse on our own recurring dream. Hopefully this will be the first of many Lack/Woodhouse compositions. I always knew I wanted a guest vocalist on one song (at one point it may have been a few guest vocalists for the album to see the light of day though that would've been tricky). 'Corridors' was a song we wrote in a band in the mid nineties (and the only song not written this year). Two of the members of the band have since died so it was something I wanted to record as we never did then. The moment I put down my vocals I released that it was made for a duet. The only person I ever thought of for this song was Damsel In The Dollhouse. The amazing Nina Dove. Such a wonderful artist , great singer and enigmatic figure. She was brilliant on the song. Professional and a joy to work with. She knew exactly what I wanted and I was happy to let her do whatever she wanted also!

I always wanted a particular sound for the album. Heavy in chorus, delay, reverb and phaser though it was definitely toned down along the way . Probably only the last two songs retain this vision but it's probably all the better for it. Time is always the enemy as an indie recording artist. Especially for me as my guitarist ,Jarrod, lives 100 miles away. Generally during our recording sessions we'd work on the ones he picked up on easily. 'Slowsand' only was the last song written. Literally a couple of weeks before mixing was due to start. But it was made very quickly over the course of only a few days. It felt fresh and alive so felt like a good single and it conjured up images in the mind. A lot of my lyrics are quite metaphorical. 'Slowsand' ,for instance, while being about a down on his luck cowboy in the fictional town of Slowsand who falls into quicksand is very much a metaphor for life sucking you down. 'Never Going Home Again' is about a couple of youngsters who escape from a children's home in the 1970's. No metaphor needed. 'Glowworm' could be about the children's toy or it could be a metaphor. In fact it's probably more frightening if it isn't metaphorical! Mixing began at the start of September and it was almost a joy to mix. It was strange because it felt like I didn't know the songs that well so they all sound dead fresh. As I mixed throughout the month I became more familiar with them and it was quite an easy and enjoyable task. The track listing changed on a daily basis or hourly basis sometimes. The mastering by Aniofades was amazing in the end. Was a bit of a bumpy ride at times and I probably gave him a hard time (which isn't like me at all) but I knew how I wanted it to sound. The difficulty with listening to masters is after a while the brain turns to mush and you need fresh ears. But by that point the ears are anything but fresh. It was only a couple of days after the final masters were delivered that it clicked and I realised what a great job he had done. We recorded 30 songs for the album. This is quite amazing. Most of the tracks that didn't make the album are almost finished. We're finishing them off and they'll all see the light of day somehow. Some ,although very good songs, just didn't fit with the album in the end. One or two of them might even make the next one! I didn't have an album title until a couple of weeks before release. Nothing fitted. I knew when I found the title that it was the one. It fitted just right. And then the cover. That took a while and eventually we used the picture that Damsel In The Dollhouse supplied for Corridors. Again it just fitted. It's been a wonderful experience. A tough experience at times as these things should be I suppose. The great work done by Jarrod , Emma , Nina , Bee and Alice helped make this something I am so very proud of. It's not going to top the charts or anything but if only a few people 'get it' then I'm happy. It's meant to be listened to as an album that was always the point of making one so some people will I guess and some people won't but hey.....that's bands for ya!”

I cannot list my favourite tracks as with all good albums, they change each time I listen. However, ‘Good Feeling’ is certainly the most catchy, upbeat pop song you will ever hear; ‘Corridors’ I find myself humming and singing around the house and ‘Harmonise Without’ is simply sublime, and very different as it contains the spoken word vocal of poet ForgottenBee.

Definitely you should check out this album. It is available pretty much everywhere, but here are some links:

Listen on Spotify

Listen on Deezer

Listen On AppleMusic

Download & Stream from Bandcamp

Lemonade Kid on Twitter

Lemonade Kid on Facebook