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heamarvel · 5 years ago

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Holiday Movie Challenge Prompt and Badge lists

Hellooooo shippers of all Marvel ships!

This marks the kickoff to HEA (Happily Ever After) Marvel’s Holiday Movie Challenge! If you don’t know us, we’re a group of crafty mods under the direction of our own personal Pepper Potts ( @betheflame ), so really, this is going to be great fun, and we hope that you’ll join us!

A brief intro to our event:

At no point do you need to sign up for this event. You are not beholden to post anything, even if you say that you will. This is a guiltless, fun event!

Pick a prompt, any prompt!

Interpret the prompt any which way you wish. We have prompt examples available for people to peruse on our blog and on our Discord, if you’re in need of a few examples.

Write (or art, podfic, or moodboard, etc.) any ship you want, even polyamorous relationships of any number or type (even if the prompts contain just two characters!).

Include additions from our badge list if you wish! They function like video game achievements (think World of Warcraft, or Xbox) and you will be rewarded with little achievement badges designed by the wonderful @kocuria that you can display anywhere you please.

The collection will open on November 1st and close on December 24th.

Around then we will provide a Google form to submit the badge info and other info for your fic.

BUT REMEMBER! All contributions to this event must have a Happily Ever After as per holiday movie standards (doesn’t mean there can’t be tons of angst and pain in the middle, though).

For any further info, please check out our Holiday Movie Challenge page, our Prompt and Badge page, our Frequently Asked Questions page, or ask us questions on Tumblr, Twitter, or on Discord! (Links on Tumblr.)

But that’s enough mod-splaining, let’s take a look under the cut at the prompts and badges that we’ve been eagerly waiting to share with you!

*We have included both (1) images to download and save as well as (2) text for those who prefer or need that medium! The images are at the bottom of this post.

Here’s a separate post with just the images.

Prompts

1. Character A is a big city lawyer who swore to never go back to their hometown. Suddenly, their grandfather dies and leaves them the family Christmas Tree farm. They’re determined to go back and shut down the farm. Character B runs the farm and is determined to save it.

2. After losing their job as an au pair in New York, Character A accepts a position as a nanny in the castle of a small European principality no one has ever heard of. Character B is a single parent & ruler of the country.

3. When architect and Christmas amateur Character A finds themselves hosting their family for Christmas, they recruit holiday coordinator Character B to bring holiday joy to their home.

4. A high-powered executive reconsiders their priorities when car trouble leads them to Christmas Valley, a town in love with Christmas.

5. Two new students at nearby university, Character A and Character B, meet the first day of classes and become study partners. A local bookstore becomes a close part of their lives as their relationship grows.

6. Character A - a famous author who writes about how to stay single - is forced to look after their niece and nephew over the holidays. With the help of their Christmas-loving neighbor, Character B, they learn to find love and the Christmas spirit.

7. A young royal (Character A) escapes their entourage to explore New York City over Christmas. They meet Character B who shows the beautiful stranger their side of the city.

8. As Christmas approaches, Character A (the Lizzie Bennet character), a New York event planner, is sent to a quaint, small town to organize their holiday festival. When they arrive, they find Character B (the Darcy character), a high-profile billionaire lacking in holiday spirit, in the process of selling the charming estate they hoped to use as a venue.

9. An anxious bride-to-be (Character A, “bride” is non-gender assigned) throws in with broken-hearted and cynical Character B and a happily married couple for an emergency ride to NYC from New England.

10. Character A has to go to their cousin’s holiday wedding that’s taking place a year to the day they were left at the altar. Unable to face going alone, they con Character B into going “just as friends.”

11. When a restless young married Character A is granted a wish by a Christmas Angel to be single again, they soon discover their new life isn't what they bargained for, and embark on a quest to win Character B back.

12. Character A and Character B have been archrivals ever since a memorable fight over a coveted Christmas recital solo in elementary school. Now adults, they work side-by-side at the same school where they still constantly compete over everything. As the holiday season approaches, the entire school is getting into the spirit with the annual fundraising festival, which will feature an exciting new event - a teacher Christmas Cookie Bake-Off, judged by a tough five-star chef.

13. Character A inherited a toy factory. The town needs the factory to stay open, but they have no interest in being tied to their hometown. Especially when they find out that Character B - who broke their heart in high school - is the town’s mayor.

14. A WWII era nurse (Character A) is transported in time to 2019 and meets Character B who helps them discover the bonds of family and that the true meaning of Christmas is timeless.

15. Stranded at an airport at Christmastime, Character A accepts a ride from Character B, who has just rented the last car in town.

Badges

Length

500

10k

15k

20k+

Ships

We’ll be custom-making the badges for whatever ship you choose to bring to the table! (Just keep in mind our limits: no underage, no non-con, no nazis.) Popular ship or rarepair+, this group of multishipping mods would love to see whatever you choose to write!

General fic elements

Baking/Cooking

Needing a passport

Non-abled character

Neuro-diverse character

Passes the Bechdel Test

Set outside the United States

Addresses a legitimate societal ill/charity/cause

Character learns a craft as a coping mechanism

Someone eats popcorn in a dramatic scene

Mention or include a Hallmark store or movie

Character is tracing their genealogy

Character writes fanfiction

Character learns a new skill

NSFW

A/B/O

Sentinels & Guides

Soulmate-Identifying Marks

Historical AU: Scottish or Irish clans

Historical AU: Ancient Rome or Greece

Historical AU: Regency or Victorian

Historical AU: American West

Inclusion of animal other than a dog, cat, or horse

‘It Takes a Village’ (town or community helps them hook up)

Use of holiday other than Christmas - including non-winter holidays

One sentence or more spoken in a language other than Russian

Discussion on classic literature and/or classic rock ‘n’ roll

Write a pairing you’ve never written before

Holiday Movie and general tropes

Inversion/Subversion of any trope

Main character has a cuddly dog

Presence of a small town festival

'And they were roommates!'

Fake Relationship

Only One Bed

Snowball fight

Ice skating or Ice hockey

Interrupted first kiss

Stories from childhood

Sassy/nosy best friend

Conniving co-worker

Kid as matchmaker

Single parent

Holiday specific

Yule log

Playing Dreidel

Holiday movie pick: Die Hard

Use of the phrase “Santa! I know him!”

Home Alone style shenanigans, serious or not

Trying to balance an egg on the Solstice

A non-Jewish character mixes up Passover and Hanukkah

Writing format/style

Outsider POV

First Person POV

Text Message/Chat Room

3+ perspectives in one story

Dialogue Only

Epistolary

Avengers stereotypes/fanon

Thor is foreign

Bots as children

Tony has insomnia

Tony Is Worthy (of Mjolnir)

Tony as a non-Iron Man mechanic

Ceiling vent Clint Barton

Budapest Explanation

Natasha is a scary spy/likes sneaking

Super-Nanny Phil Coulson

Peter Parker being a klutz

Peter and Shuri team up on Tony

Bruce has anger management problems

Avengers Movie Night

Darcy uses her taser

Bucky speaks Russian

Steve and/or Bucky need to play catch up on modern and pop culture

Shrunkyclunks (Modern Steve/CA & non-Avenger Bucky)

Shrinkyclinks (Modern Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier & non-CA Steve)

Side Character speaking role (any apply): Dr. Doom, Reed Richards, Galactus, Ghost Rider, Frank Castle, any Inhuman, any Runaway, Sif or one of the Warriors Three, Frigga, Amora or Lorelei

Set in a Marvel canon universe (even if not canon-compliant), for example: 1872, Noir

Mod Requests

Supernatural creatures

Gender swapped MC

Someone wears a tiara

Someone wears a kimono

Long-distance relationship

Snuggling to keep warm

1940s AU

Disclaimer: The above plot summaries in the prompt list belong to numerous movies in the Hallmark catalogue. We do not claim to own them, and are not making any money off of this, nor are we being paid by Hallmark to run this event.

Additionally, as of December 14th, 2019, we are no longer associating with Hallmark even in name, due to their poor choice to cave to pressure and remove an advertisement of a gentle, loving same-sex kiss occurring at their own wedding. We cannot and will not abide that.

#heamarvel #hallmarkholidaychallenge #Hallmark Challenge #marvel comics #mcu #marvel 616 #marvel ultimates #deadpool #x-men #mod post #prompt post #badge post #mod: juuls #holiday movie challenge

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violetsystems · 5 years ago

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#personal

I think life would worry me more if weird weeks consistently ended on a sour note. As far as weird weeks go, this week was pretty strange. Between my home and my office is still a bit of an adventure. I live in a major city that the news always complains is shrinking. If you were to survey the psychic war of personal space at any given time you’d see different results. But we live in a society. More so I live in America in a city as close to Gotham as it gets. If you wanted to drill down to the essence of the terms, I’m about as incel as it gets. Except I’d just tell you I’m celibate by choice. Why I’ve chosen to refrain from intimacy for years isn’t something people really want to listen to. Surprisingly I have lashed out at society any number of times on my commute. Not unlike Robert Pattinson’s shirts people are often “on my dick” in the parlance of our times. Most of this I’ve begun to realize is better to ignore than react to. I look scary when I’m angry. At least I see myself that way. Twisted and scrunched up in pain. I’m more like the hulk. My secret is that I am always in pain. I’m too tired from core strength training and yoga to give a fuck. The penultimate hipster. A smug left leaning liberal with a conscience. I wouldn’t argue with any of those by definition. But people who’ve come to know me here understand it’s not so simple. The more patience you develop the more problems you are aware enough of to avoid. I wrote a Nike survey for their training app the other day. I described how pleased I was that it gave me the confidence to quit the gym. A gym that I noted in the survey where I experienced constant sexual harassment and intimidation. Ironically a summer later focusing on soccer routines in my apartment got me in better shape physically than I’ve ever been. And yet here I am. Lonely old man on the internet. Lonely old handsome man on the internet. I’m not trying to hit on anyone. No new friends. I write these mostly for my friends and the people I care deeply about. The results used to be mostly apparent online. These days it bleeds into the streets I walk daily. Sometimes that is very hard to interpret but it’s easier when I’m open to receiving it. People have heavy expectations on me. This I’m fine with. We live in a society after all. And yet there are often times I want to lash out. Mostly these days there are times I draw the line and set the boundaries. I’m mad as hell and can’t take it anymore. And my resistance to things looks far different than that of a Joker or even a Batman. But I’m still just like you. Often horny but never inappropriately so. At least not in public. That’d be fucked up. And yet we still live in a society where men feel bothered by that very concept. Their libidos enslaved and their expectations denied. Who entitled these clowns to anything? It’s called involuntary celibacy for a reason. What makes people uncomfortable is the modern white male heterosexual’s expectation for sex. Therein lies a problem to be engineered and solved in your life not a complete mental fucking breakdown. This is why we can’t have nice things. Thank you Mr. Incel.

My longest relationship lasted a decade. It ended in a complex ball of fire where I crash landed in total ash. There were times when it was amazing. I don’t think I would have put so much into it at the time if it weren’t. Never want to go back to that particular shit ever again. But for whatever reason from there I spent a long time blaming myself. Mostly feeling sorry for myself and drinking alone. That evolved into drinking alone on the other side of the planet in places like Korea and Japan. Then I definitely decided to quit drinking. A decade later I’m pretty much a virgin again. Whatever the fuck that means really. It doesn’t make me any different from anybody else. I’ve liked a girl for what seems like forever. But it’s only been this last year where I saw myself in any sort of orbit. If society is already so claustrophobic I often just want to be silent and alone. People who can’t stand to be alone often hate themselves secretly. I’ve been there. The lowest possible place you could be for a single white heterosexual male. I’m sure some of my audience revels in those kinds of statements. Serves the straights right you know. I ain’t mad at you. Why should I be. It’s mostly those communities that have voiced the most valuable criticisms about toxic masculinity. And yet however good I am there’s still people out there who can’t stand to see me winning. That’s called saving face. And I guess the joker does it with a shit ton of clown makeup. I do it with a daily moisturizer for oily skin. It is true that society as a whole shares the blame. So instead of lashing out why not just drop out of society entirely. Or build society 2.0 the internet portal. Society in orbit around the planet in the ISS. You feel like you can take on the entire weight of the planet. The joker is not Galactus. These pieces of shit know they’re worthless and weak. They run on reaction and pure adrenaline. They want to end with the most hurt incurred possible. They want people to feel how bad they feel inside. And I’ve been there. And I realized nobody would want to share a side of my bed with that kind of attitude. So I slept alone night after night and thought about healing instead of suffering. Still fucking horny. It never ends. Do I project that onto people? Act gross on the internet or in public. No. And year after year people have grown to trust that I may not exactly be part of the problem. Things start to feel romantic again in the strangest way possible. What does it mean to be sexy and what does it mean to be repulsive? I don’t think having expectations on other people is sexy at all. You treat people like objects that way. Objects can’t love you back. And you lash out in pain that you can’t mature enough to see people as human first. You become a twisted Frankenstein in the mirror. You’ve had it up to here. Nobody will ever love me. Nobody has time for me. Nobody around here anyway. I’m glad honestly because I’m saving all my love for you. People don’t get that. I do. And I see it reflected back at me in the streets. A different kind of expectation. A different kind of trust. A different take on being a man. A different kind of joke entirely.

And so here a troubled Conan sits on his throne seemingly without a queen. What does he do? Wage war on the struggles he was built upon? Search for peace? Go back to being a Barbarian and a thief probably. That’s what I’d do. Politics these days is the closest thing to dark sorcery. And Conan hates dark sorcery. I’m the one walking around in the streets being called a witch. My only witchcraft has been inclusiveness. And that includes me. I’m as sexually frustrated as anybody else out there. Frustration isn’t exactly sexy in all cases. Just do something about it. And what men mostly do with it has been ugly. You’d think with so much failure out there it’d be easy to see the successes. Male frustration is something people have grown to actually fear with good reason. Systemic racism, homophobia, transphobia, religious intolerance, controlling behavior and whatever else you want to throw onto the heaping trash pile of toxic white male American Heterosexual identity in 2019. I’m supposed to tell you I’m different. Trust me babe. If I know anything about America and the English language people love to talk about what they do. How they’d build that time machine and save Anne Frank. Sometime after brunch or expensive coffee. The mind fuck is you have to do something about it. And it’s more likely for me to solve the problem of toxic masculinity for myself and thrive than to just talk about it. Solve it for the world when the world doesn’t listen. I’ve been talking about it on the internet lonely for years. Now people won’t stop hassling me in the streets. I’m surrounded by an army of Pink backpacks at all times. Cloistered together like bandits in the morning. Some sort of tribal reaction to an assault on the very fabric of society. You wake up one day and realize you are on the other side of the movement. You didn’t expect to be but you deserve it. And instead of lashing out you’ve worked to build a society that includes you. That understands your frustrations and appreciates how you work to perfect them. I’ve spat at the ground more times than anybody knows this summer. I’m crying as I write this. And I know it won’t get any better if I act like a child and kick over the sandcastles we all built together. And yet society doesn’t stop fucking with you. Nobody is happy. Nobody goes out and takes life by the throat gently. If they do they’re pathological, sociopathic and gross about it. There’s no Crom above to judge them. And the rich get richer. And the scandals get deeper. And people run around with shirts that I made from the trash and try to sell me guitars under the el tracks by my house. Sounds like a great place to plant a garden or raise a family. Maybe one day we can take a family picture in the joker face paint. Let’s just hope our child doesn’t get expelled from public school because of it. At least then I won’t be an incel. For now everybody else in the parlance of our times. “Stay off my dick.” <3 Tim

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angelkurenai · 6 years ago

Note

Hey hon! I was wondering if you have anything marvel coming up? With endgame being so close (Already bought my tickets to see on the 25th!!) I really need some well written fics and you never disappoint

Are you kidding me? I haven’t stopped writing about them or thinking about stories with them for the past couple even for a single minute! XD I have even started watching he MCU movies so it’s safe to say I’m pretty into Marvel and the characters right now haha

II have started with lots of actors fics to be honest, the maority of which is either super funny or super dirty OR BOTH and I enjoy it very much! I’ve got some fluff for sure, too, though and I’m always coming up with so many new things that I barely have the time to write! Last night I started on a fic with Steve set after Infinity War and kinda into Endgame and I wanna make it angsty but like, it’sprobably gonna have a smut too cause uhm HELLO STEVE IN THE NEW TRAILER KILLED ME THANKS A LOT FOR THAT and yeah I need to take it out on something.

Besides that, though, I am 100% sure I will be writing more fics once I see the movie like I did last year with IW and I’ve had this idea about writing a fic for either every movie and/or every character of the MCU. Or at least, most of them cause yeah...

Aaaand as if that’s not enough, guess who can’t stop thinking of ANOTHER crossover with SPN and MCU this one taking place right after Endgame? I mean, I haven’t even seen the movie but oh well, how much more angsty can it be than what I plan to write huh? An aspect of the new Avengers movie that makes me really excited is the after credits. They must show the new big bad or something and I want more than anything for that to be Nemesis. I just need a “woman” to be the big bad, but they’ll probably go with Galactus cause if they brought Nemesis into the game it would be like they can’t let go of the Infinity stones and yeah, Galactus is something different but even more scary and all that. WE SHALL SEE!

Again, as for me, prepared to be bombarded with all kinds of fics! Ah it’s gonna be a wonderfully painful month! I’m thinking about giving some sneak peeks or sth? Gonna tease it all! I hardly say this but this time I fell like I’m gonna deliver!

Plus, gosh, you’re so lucky! You know for sure when you will see it and that you will! Cinemas here, at least the one I go to cause it’s the cheapest, won’t let people know about the time of the movie until it’s like a week prior to it. So I have to wait for that, for me it’s either 24th or 25th!

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enlightenedrobot · 6 years ago

Conversation

Me while Writing (again)

My Brain: You're supposed to be working on the Thick Skinned script.

Me: I know, I know, I'll get to it.

My Brain: Then what's with all this superhero crap?

Me: Endgame was really good!

My Brain: I mean yeah... but that's not really the focus of what you're supposed to be doing.

Me: I know, I know... it's just that, I dunno... the MCU's actually pretty scary when you think about it. I mean a literal God comes to Earth and then you discover he's just a guy... Thor's fun and surprisingly human and I really like that... but like... people used to worship him. And with Thanos and the Celestials and the Infinity Stones... Thor really isn't at the top of the food chain. He's a guy who used to be bigger than all of us... but there are things bigger than him... and you just know characters like Galactus are coming. It really makes you realize just how small we really are.

My Brain: That's terrifying... but you have deadlines.

Me: No I don't. I have artificial deadlines that I myself have created.

My Brain: Yeah, and you need to stick to them, instead of browsing Tumblr and anthropomorphizing an aspect of your own personality.

Me: Huh... yeah.

My Brain: So what... are you gonna take some aspect of Endgame and put it in Thick Skinned.

Me: Doom and Sugar Cookies.

My Brain: Doom and Sugar Cookies. You mean that project you conceived way back in Middle School.

Me: Yeah

My Brain: The one you deemed impossible to pitch, because Supervillain stories are a dime a dozen? Invader Zim, Despicable Me, Megamind, Suicide Squad...

Me: You don't have to continue...

My Brain: League of Super Evil, Joker...

Me: You can stop now.

My Brain: Evil Con Carne, Wanted, Villainous, Deadpool

Me: Okay, well Deadpool doesn't count. He's an antihero.

My Brain: Whatever. So why are you bringing back your middle school OCs?

Me: I miss them? Also, Sam had a lot of Tony Stark elements, and Circe could easily take the role of Thor. I was hoping maybe turn my fanfic idea into something original?

My Brain: Fanfic?

Me: Oh right, yeah, the Endgame thing... Thor in the context of a cosmic horror story.

My Brain: That's literally just the Galactus saga with Thor.

Me: Except I want to go straight up horror with this.

My Brain: Then why not go with Thick Skinned?

Me: Thick Skinned isn't about superheroes though!

My Brain: But isn't Thick Skinned already a lovecraftian thing?

Me: Yeah, and that's exactly what you'd expect. Plus, the Thick Skinned cast are young. I need adults for this new idea.

My Brain: So you're going for your middle school OCs?

Me: I dunno! Why not make Sam into a 30 something going through a midlife crisis?

My Brain: Wasn't she like 12?

Me: She's 22 thank you very much!

My Brain: Fine, fine... I'll put that story on the backburner. You do know this is a fire hazard right?

Me: What do you mean?

My Brain: You put to many things on the backburner, and you experience Burn Out.

Me: Ha, nice pun.

My Brain: No seriously... what are you working on right now... a Thick Skinned pitch for that studio you actually have the chance to pitch to, a mashup album, your Psych2go stuff? Wait... aren't you using the Doom and Sugar Cookies projects for something else?

Me: Um...

My Brain: You are! You're still working on Ghost Story and End Fatigue... and literally both of them use the same characters even though they could never logically exist in the same universe! Dude... at least finish something before you make AU's out of it!

Me: I mean... I was wondering if maybe I could introduce the multiverse?

My Brain: ... You think too much.

#Me While Writing #Me versus my brain #Procrastination #Writer's block #Writing #Motivation #Avenger's Endgame #Long Post #Thor

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sting-likea-stinger1 · 6 years ago

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Young Avengers Again

tl;dr ~ the young avengers are at it again! cassie lang went to her friends in the hope of reforming the team, even growing the team, and can you believe only one little snaffu reared its head for them? of course, it’s nothing the young avengers can’t handle together !!

@marvelbcy @bllykpln @nvthawkguy @cfteddyaltman @feelthestcrm

CASSIE

she took a private, small breath before she picked up the giant bowl of popcorn she'd made them. all her nerves stemmed from one fact: she wasn't going to keep quiet anymore. cassie was restless and already in major training for Stinger, and it was well past time she talked to the team about that, "alright my dudes," she calls out, plopping the popcorn on the coffee table, looking from billy to teddy to kate to noh-varr, who perhaps had never been on a team with her, but he was indeed a young avenger now, just like the rest of them, "I've been thinking a lot-- scary, i know," she smirks, reminded that at the end of the day, she's simply around her friends at the moment, "but... i want to reform the team," it was blunt, but her gaze was curious, gentle. she wasn't sure if this would be too much for anyone, she couldn't blame them if it was, but she wasn't going to be able to keep it in much longer anyways. she opened and closed her mouth twice as she tried to figure out what to say, but instead just looked around again, "thoughts? good, bad, ugly?"

NOH-VARR

noh looks at the popcorn placed down on the table, leaning in to observe the food. he takes a few out of the bowl, to take a bite of it. there’s a pleasant surprise to how good it was, and he decides to make a mental note to ask where he can get more of this later. he starts to pay attention when cassie walks in. he has never been on a team with her despite the fact they were both young avengers. upon hearing what she was thinking about, it doesn’t take him long to come up with an answer. “well you can count me in. i quite miss our adventures together.” the alien looks at his friends, and then back to the woman with a grin of his own. “ I still have my ship if we would need transportation.” he mentions as he crosses a leg over the other.

BILLY

the witch always loved to hang out with cassie, and all of his friends no matter what the occasion was. they were important to him whether they were on a team or not. while billy hasn’t exactly stopped the hero work, wiccan was very much around when he needed to be, especially now that he had a lot more experience and control over his magic. however, he missed the team too. he raises an eyebrow at noh eating the popcorn for the first time, and then shrugs his shoulders as he focuses back onto cassie talking. “You want to reform the team? well if you ask me we should have done that a long time ago. count me in as thinking this is a good idea.”

KATE

kate likes to imagine she knew cassie better than she knew herself in most ways, still the team think shocks her a bit. a smile spreads across her face at the suggestion. though, she can't help but ask, "tired of hawkeye and stinger already?" her words carry a lightness and a jovial tone. "it's just another one of your genius ideas, cass. of course i am all for the team reforming." a brief pause and her smile becomes fond, "i've missed fighting crime with you losers way too much to consider saying no."

TEDDY

Teddy can't help but smile at Cassie's news. Of course he smiles, how could he not? He loved the team, loved the work they did together even if it was dangerous and difficult sometimes. They were easily his closest friends - and besides, he and Billy have still been doing the whole saving people thing, even if they had taken a break for a little while. "I'm in. Though I bet you already knew that." He answers immediately, glancing over at Billy for a moment. "It'll be nice to have the team back together rather than just us, right?" His gaze turns back to Cassie, tilting his head to the side a little. "What did you have in mind?"

CASSIE

okay first off, the fact that noh-varr has a ship brings a grin full of mischief and surprise that it's impossible to hide it from the people that know her best. still, she resists going off on that curious tangent, making a mental note to definitely find out what this ship can do. staying at the task at hand, she blinks, smiles and nods as she composes herself-- no matter how serious she was, cassie lang couldn't hide that moment. still, each agreement brings a wider grin to her face, a few more inches (figuratively, for now at least) to her height. she glanced only briefly at the few empty spaces where others would be... soon was all she could think before the present caught up to her again. beaming, she clasps her hands together as she launches in."i mean, if we have hawkeye and stinger, and wiccan and hulkling, we may as well just smush 'em together with this alien guy i haven't had any adventures with," she's grinning, shooting a wink at noh-varr. cassie stood as she explained, excitement demanding it, "the avengers seem like they're in limbo right now, and we have a danger room we can practice in when we can't go off campus. also, have a think on how many other potential heroes our age are here right now," her grin fades, but into something more earnest. it's clear her mind's thought things through, "i mean, we have lanterns, the kids of the x-men, the justice league, other kids of the avengers too, and those are just the obvious ones," she bites her lip for a moment, choosing her next words carefully, "the thing about the avengers was that they had so many people to call on at any time. that's what i've been doing to get Stinger going. but now that they're in this limboish state, that's gone for our generation. and we're all already trying to fight people. we just need to show that it's happening, so everyone's not off trying to fight Galactus on their own if he shows up," and, as she finishes, she knocks on a piece of wood, just for good measure.

NOH-VARR

Noh keeps his attention onto Cassie as she speaks knowing how important this was. He was the most proud of his work with the Young Avengers, it helped shape him into a better person. He would always help them because after all that’s what friends do. He wants to be a good asset for the team, and ultimately wants them to know that they can count on him when it comes down to it. “Well we can be introduced now. I think we will be good friends.” He says with a smirk as he looks back to Cassie. “It does seem like the perfect time for us to rise up again, the world does need us to kick some ass as you say it.” He says with a sense of confidence.

BILLY

Billy had been continuing to fight anyway, but what could be better than doing it as a team again? He always loved their adventures so he can’t help the smile on his face as he’s listening. “If they’re taking a step back then we need to be the ones to rise above and protect the world from the threats that will be coming in. No matter how small or big they are. I think we can handle it.” He says, using a wave of his finger to bring his coffee cup to his hand, taking a sip of the hot liquid.

KATE

First and foremost, Kate Bishop was a hero. She loved it more than the hours spent in soup kitchens, cleaning up parks, or any of the other activities she took up to ease the guilt her now former wealth left within her and, somehow, hopefully, change the world. In purple spandex, it finally felt like she was helping people and the world. With or without her team, it wasn't something she had ever given up or something that she could imagine ever giving up, no matter her preference for with. “I'm all for picking up the slack around here.” She grinned. “Who did you have in mind for new blood, Cass?”

TEDDY

Teddy can't deny it'd be nice to be part of a team again. He and Billy have been doing their own thing for a little while now, but it'd be nice to have everyone together again, to work on things with the team rather than just the two of them. It's something they both love, why not make the most of it? "You're right, Cassie. It's one thing to be ready - but it's totally different to have a team that's ready too. Especially with so many people we're not used to yet." He's sure they can all find a way to operate together, but teams are built on hard work, on getting used to the way other people work, how everyone's powers operate and how to fit them together. And they need to start somewhere. "Like I said, I'm in. 100%."

TOMMY

Tommy had been keeping quiet this whole time. He didn't expect this to be the conversation they would be having today, nor did he expect the way it would make him feel. He could have sworn he was over this years ago, but it seemed instead he had just bottled it up and made himself forget it was there. Now that bottle had been smashed and the wound reopened. Part of him wondered why he was even here, after all they hadn't had any trouble moving on without him over the years. Maybe it was just formality or maybe Cassie really was just that much of a sweetheart, but he couldn't help feeling out of place here. "I'd just like to remind everyone in this room that I never left the Young Avengers," he said finally, he couldn't keep his sadness hidden from his tone, nor could he hide the edge of anger the crept in alongside it. "The Young Avengers left me." With that Tommy stood up and grabbed his jacket. "I can't say I'm in because I've never been out. I was always in. I always will be." Then he walked out of the room.

CASSIE

all at once, it's like cassie's hopes and dreams are materializing in front of her. she couldn't help but giggle at noh's comment, first impression going relatively well ( especially with the space ship ) and somehow her grin continued to grow. still, her eyes trailed over tommy more than once, noticing a different reaction, even if it was silent. "well, i think miri would be a good fit, and i think she needs somewhere to use her magic," cassie said confidently, "but i have ideas," her smirk sold nothing but mischief. cassie nods at teddy, "exactly, a new team means new training, figuring news things--" and she was cut off as she saw tommy stir, instantly nodding to give him the floor. her mouth hung open as he spoke, not expecting this in the slightest. cassie's brow scrunched together, looking to the others, who were actually present to know the details of what happened. as he got his coat though, cassie stepped forward, already walking after him, "tommy, wait!" she pauses before leaving the room, turning to the rest, "okay, to be continued, but mostly a success i'd say?" she says, ghosting a quick smile before dashing out the door after her friend.

#[ young avengers ]#( feel free to reblog so yall have it on your blogs too~)#AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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moistwithgender · 7 years ago

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Curry Read 60s Marvel, King-Size, Nuff Said

According to my tag, it took me about a month to get through this decade (eight years, technically), spending most of my free time reading. I’ve been following Comic Book Herald’s “My Marvelous Year” reading guide because it seemed like the quickest way through while cutting out the chaff. This was not...consistently the case. But, I’m still glad I followed it because this started out with me just chewing through early Spider-Man in black and white (don’t do this to yourself, nice flat colors do wonders for these older stories). I’m gonna go ahead and give the disclaimer that because I was following a speedy reading guide, I missed a lot of stuff, so if you know some really good issues I missed feel free to say so.

I’m afraid to type all this out because it’s a lot and idk where to start!

Okay well I have one idea of where to start.

Fantastic Four

This is Marvel’s best series up to this point and the fact that we’ve had so many garbage movies is a tragedy (don’t @ me about The Incredibles, I know). The FF comics are consistently the most fun, the weirdest, and the most creative.

Going through my reading list, I had to skip parts of FF, which is probably going to be where more of the good stuff was. Though, I will say that I prefer the latter half of the decade over the first half. FF started off with Mole Man, Skrulls (something I first realized was a thing back when they showed up in MvC3), The Puppet Master, The Red Ghost... The first few years of FF was probably best whenever it involved Namor and Doctor Doom. I don’t think anyone’s gonna argue with that. The latter half had The Inhumans, Galactus, The Silver Surfer, Black Panther, the Negative Zone... a whole lot of neat stuff! I actually missed the introduction of the Negative Zone, so all of a sudden Reed’s just got a portal to A Very Bad Place in the middle of his lab and he keeps opening it whenever things get slightly inconvenient. Stop doing that, Reed.

Highlights: - Namor being Namor. Usually at his best as a fish out of water (heh) in human society. With his absurd monarchic pride, and his occasional anti-hero tendencies, he’s...kind of like a wet Vegeta in hot pants. - The Thing. For a while he was back and forth as a character I liked or tolerated, and his incessant backtalk would occasionally become one of those “telling an unfunny joke until eventually it’s hilarious” things. - The Watcher. A being so committed to his vow to never interfere with the fate of the universe that he jack-knifes out of his lane every single time he gets the chance. EXCEPT FOR THE TIME HE WATCHED THE BIRTH OF GALACTUS AND DID NOTHING. THANKS UATU. - The fact that Doctor Doom is a Romani character being written by Jewish authors. That’s a lot to unpack. - The Sandman. Wait, you say, you mean that one Spider-Man villain who was played by the guy from the sitcom Wings? Yeah, it turns out once he’s done being a Sinister Six villain, he goes on to harass the Fantastic Four and gets his own Jack Kirby style super villain outfit!

Look at that badboy. Also he teams up with an angry furry made of explosions from the hell dimension that is the negative zone. - The Inhumans. All of these kids are cool, Lockjaw is an adorable giant bulldog that can teleport across infinite distances, and even Maximus is some sort of play on Shakespeare villains. The fact that differentiating these guys from mutants is really awkward. The short version (if I have it right) is that mutants are born with a unique x-gene, and inhumans come from a hidden society that commonly did genetic manipulation on its citizens at birth. - Galactus. He is arguably the weirdest thing Marvel has in this decade. A thirty foot tall man who flies around the universe and eats planets. He’s literally so powerful that he and the narrative both treat his eating habits as natural, and any victims that happen to get in the way as unfortunate but unintended sacrifices because GALACTUS MUST NOT DIE. Galactus is a vegan metaphor (maybe). - The Silver Surfer. The shiniest, angstiest boy in the multiverse. Originally from a planet where global society had literally hit its logical utopic conclusion, he was bored as shit. Galactus comes along, the entire planet gets spooked and blows itself the fuck up on accident, and Norrin Rad agrees to be Galactus’ herald and pick out planets safe to eat if he leaves his planet alone. Sometime after that he gets punished for trying to fight Galactus, and is punished to remain on Earth, where he would play around with being a very obvious Jesus analogy for a while. - That time where a guy impersonates The Thing in order to kill Reed, and then ends up getting respect for Reed and sacrificing himself atop a meteorite speeding off into an atmosphere of explosions. Really fucked up issue, honestly. - Black Panther. Wakanda is not as cool as it would eventually be portrayed, and BP’s first appearance is as an antagonist (he kidnaps the FF and hunts them for sport), but he has a fucking slick cape. - That time Doctor Doom stole The Silver Surfer’s infinite cosmic power and nearly fucked up everything for everybody for four straight issues. Also he got into a fist fight with the Thing, which is like...hell yeah. - The Negative Zone. WHY DO YOU HAVE A WINDOW TO HELL IN YOUR HOUSE, REED. - The Kree. I have no idea why the Kree are just white people in space. Bad move imo, even Namor’s race are mostly blue people. Anyway, there’s a rad fight with a sentry robot, and a decent introduction to Ronan the Accuser, who you might remember was the (reasonably overshadowed) villain in the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 1 movie, where he is blue. - Psycho Man. This guy has a remote control that makes you feel emotions and that’s kinda dumb but more importantly he’s from a microscopic universe and controls a non-microscopic robot version of himself to fight the FF and the implications of all that is absurd. - Reed goes into the negative zone (again) to try and find something he knows nothing about that might help his pregnant wife and unborn child survive the gamma radiation they still have in their bodies. He gets pretty lucky. Jesus christ, dude.

The worst parts of the FF this decade is probably every time Susan gets the shaft because she’s a woman, whether it’s her being talked down to by Reed or whether it’s her being written as way more concerned about ~lady things~ when things are going to hell. In the issue where her life is on the line and the baby is coming and Reed has to go into the negative zone, she doesn’t even make an appearance until like the last page. Susan deserves better. My reading guide actually didn’t recommend any 1969 issues of FF? I wonder what was going on...

Oh, skrulls impersonating 1920s gangsters and doing super-human trafficking, of course. Well, let’s move on.

The Incredible Hulk (Tales to Astonish)

I have had a soft spot for the Sulk ever since...probably the 2003 three Ang Lee film? Where I realized that 1) Bruce has bad dad issues and no one likes him, and 2) Hulk isn’t just a big boy, he is really fast and jumps crazy far and that’s a physical concept my teenage brain had never considered. I hadn’t even considered liking the Hulk growing up because I was so uncomfortable with almost all expressions of masculinity and machismo. My mom in fact was the one who told me “Don’t you want to see the Hulk? He’s big and scary like a bad guy, but he’s a good guy!” and I assume that’s what helped change my mind?

Anyway, Hulk has had a rough time in terms of popularity as well. His magazine lasted some six or seven issues before being canceled and his stories would continue, shorter, in Tales to Astonish, alongside Ant-Man (and eventually Namor’s own series). In the last few years of the decade he’d get a new magazine starting with The Incredible Hulk #102 (following Tales to Astonish #101... comic numbering is extremely bad), and...it’s okay so far! In the modern era, Hulk had a cartoon I never watched, a few nonstarter films, there was that series with Lou Ferrigno I know nothing about... He seems to always function best as a side hero. It doesn’t help that all the villains in his series are, like. Weird? Not like FF crazy weird, just like weird and not seemingly a great match for Hulk himself. Most of the ones that come to mind are dudes who are also mutated by gamma radiation or something else (and sometimes also green? why is the green supposed to be a common thread, that feels coincidental).

Which reminds me, Bruce is almost never present in what I’ve read so far. It’s just Hulk, usually talking way more than feels natural for him (it took a while for him to start speaking mostly in the third person). As a result, Hulk is usually given a very limited range of characterization and expected to coast on that, and it doesn’t often work. You have to put Hulk in casts and settings that complement him. For a while there he has a support character in Rick Jones, a (very uninteresting) teen boy who eventually can’t keep up with the increasingly antagonistic Hulk, bounces over to Captain America as a ward, eventually is confused by a cosmic cube-wielding, Cap-impersonating Red Skull, and fucks off on his own. He is immediately possessed by, and becomes a host for, Mar-Vell/Captain Marvel. I do not give a single fuck about Rick Jones.

In the earliest issues, the Hulk is gray, and also...just a non-furry werewolf. HE changes at night, until issue #102 retconned this.

Highlights: - That first issue has some really nice panels but I’m gonna say that’s all Jack Kirby’s doing. - Ends up harassing the FF, Spider-Man, the Avengers (after being one of them and then getting buttmad and running off), the Silver Surfer, the US military (regularly)... - Hulk goes to the far dystopic future?? He gets back I guess. - Hulk goes to Asgard! This is arguably the most interesting place to put him because all Odin’s warriors try to fight him and then decide lol this guy’s cool let’s go hang out. Meanwhile, Loki keeps fucking with him. But then the Enchantress and the Executioner become the villains and things get kinda boring again. - The Leader (that’s actually the name of a villain) makes a big robot and Hulk throws it into a volcano and then activates said volcano with his FISTS to fuck it up. Then he manually diverts a nuclear missile into the atmosphere after suddenly caring about people even though he has no reason to. Shrug! - Hulk goes to Attilan, the hidden nation of the Inhumans! There’s potential for interesting stuff here, but it’s mostly wasted by a full cast of extremely uninteresting one-off characters. This is all in a double length annual issue with a gorgeous cover by Jim Steranko, but the issue itself is drawn by Marie Severin. She does good stuff! But Steranko’s work is gorgeous.

Whatever!

The Mighty Thor (Journey into Mystery)

Thor’s winged helmet is really dumb, goodnight everybody!

Okay but yeah Thor started out in the Journey into Mystery magazine, and I guess I’d describe his stuff as... Dungeons and Dragons by Marvel? I struggle with it aesthetically but I like some of the ideas. Mjolnir is fucking cool, Asgard is both a real place and an planet (a flat one, even?), fucking Olympus is also a place and Hercules exists, Loki is... well, Loki hasn’t come into his own yet, but we’ll get there one day. On the other hand, some of the villains are dull as dishwater and a number of the good guys took their time getting interesting. Clearly there was some appeal, because he did eventually get his own magazine starting with Thor #126, I think? There’s that bad numbering again.

A big weird problem with Thor is that originally he has a secret identity. Like. Donald Blake is a surgeon who needs to use a cane to walk, and he goes hiking by himself and gets lost I guess and finds a stick and it turns out oops it’s Mjolnir and he becomes Thor! And Thor is not just a new identity, but also a person that is both the Thor of Norse myth, and the actual son of Odin up in Asgard and has been so forever and aaaaaaa

Donald Blake is not super important. He mostly exists to give Thor a weakness in that he can’t let go of his hammer for 60 seconds or he’ll turn back into a guy with a PhD. Eventually, in the latter half of the 60s, they add on to his backstory in a way I like, by saying “oh no no, he was always Thor. At one point Odin punished him by sending him to Earth with amnesia and in the guise of a handicapped guy getting through medical school. For some reason.” Which really only makes his dual identities more confusing, and I actually dig that. The MCU does not fuck with this at all, and I’m assuming the comics throw it out in the decades to come. Also, this semi-retcon was not included in the reading guide, I found it on accident. Anyway.

Highlights: - Thor joins the Avengers! I mean, duh, of course he does. He eventually leaves because he’s too popular and needs his own series or something. He occasionally pops back in to do cool stuff. - Thor accidentally ends up on Olympus and gets into a big sweaty fight with Hercules. They decide they are pals. This was an annual issue. - Thor goes into space! This is where things get good, and I really like Thor’s archaic ass as a cosmic sci-fi hero. Great juxtaposition. - Thor meets/fights Ego, the Living Planet! Okay, I said Galactus was the weirdest thing, and I was wrong. Ego is. Ego is almost as described on the tin, because he is actually described as an entire “bioverse”, and capable of changing the entirety of his physical makeup at any time. It is intensely cool. He’s also kind of evil and wants to spread out to control everywhere. Also, Thor makes friends with a nice recording robot and becomes an ally of robot rights. - Thor dies! A guy with a giant crowbar is accidentally given asgardian power by Loki, and then kills Thor because Thor has lost his power because Odin is punishing him again. And then Hela shows up as the goddess of death and says hey Thor. And he says hold on I got this and gets back in his body and saves the day and it’s fine. Hela does what she does best, stand there and look cool and do nothing else.

god she’s hot

- Thor rescues Ego from Galactus? Kind of on accident, he’s just trying to save the people inbetween who got their planets ate. Actually though, this arc fucking kicks, and he hangs out with the recorder bot too. In the end, Ego is grateful and lets the planetless nomads live on him. - Thor hangs out with Galactus and listens to his tragic backstory! Then Thor decides he’s gonna hit him anyway, and Odin decides “that’s enough for this story arc” and whisks Thor off to fight a robot instead. - Volstagg. - Volstagg.

- VOLSTAGG.

- Thor’s dudes go to the human world and there are shenanigans. It is good.

The Amazing Spider-Man

We all knew this was coming. Marvel’s own Pikachu. Possibly the most popular superhero alive (well, second to Batman anyway). And probably the hero I cared about the most growing up. We got associated a lot because we share a name. Spidey is probably the coolest idea for a superhero anyone has ever had, and they better CGI gets, the better his fights look. I do not care how many QTEs are gonna be in that new videogame, I wanna look at Spidey swing. Spider-man is just cool cool cool cool.

Early Spider-Man comics are fucking boring! Goodnight everybody!

Okay just kidding sort of. Spider-Man takes a while to pick up, in my opinion, and I’m 100% positive part of that is because I’ve seen these early stories retold in better and better definition so many times. I watched the cartoon as a kid, but the Sam Raimi movies are probably what comes to mind when I think of Spider-Man. Steve Ditko nailed a fucking iconic costume design, and did a great job of visually communicating Spidey’s agility on paper. But, in the earliest issues there was rarely any variation in panel size and shape, and action scenes were laid out like diagrams. Both those factors, along with the fact that each panel had dialogue because Peter kind of never shuts up, meant that pacing slowed to a crawl, and I had to chew through those issues. Also sometimes he just fought, like, mobsters with lassos. Jesus christ that’s boring. As the decade goes on, we start getting some good stuff, and to be completely honest, I’m looking forward to the weird dumb 90s stuff the most?

Highlights: - Peter has a persecution complex and uses his secret identity to be an asshole! Even after Peter’s iconic and still very well written origin story, he spends a lot of time harassing people, good and bad. He regularly breaks into JJ’s office in costume and makes fun of him, he crashes the Torch’s party to beat him up and flirt with his girlfriend, he breaks into the Baxter building to fight the FF in hopes they’ll recruit him with pay, he...gets into an argument with black students who are very passionate about affordable housing? He wasn’t even in costume for that one. Jesus, Peter, go to a therapist. - Nobody likes Spider-Man! Kind of makes sense why he’s got those personality issues, though those start with jocks calling him a nerd (he’s a nerd). Half the city doesn’t trust him, he works for a newspaper that is dedicated to anti-Spidey propaganda (Peter, you’re partially at fault for this), even the X-Men just assume he’s a bad guy, and that’s usually a problem they have to deal with. - Really appropriate villains! Wow! The Vulture matches his high up action, Doc Ock is both another victim of weird science and an intellectual rival. Also, like, their namesakes have a lot of legs. The Lizard is...Florida Man. Maybe the better argument is that many of these villains are memorable, in a decade that featured a concerning amount of “large humanoid monster/robot” baddies in all of the running series. - Like the Green Goblin. Who knew that would be Spider-Man’s Joker? Maybe that’s a bad comparison. Also bats and clowns aren’t usually connected with each other. Where was I going with this. - Spider-Man tries to quit the superhero gig twice, I think? He’s the only Marvel hero to consider this, as far as I know. Part of Peter’s appeal is that not only is he a young adult, unlike the rest of Marvel’s adult cast, but he’s also financially disadvantaged, has a non-nuclear model family, and has to look out for his often ailing Aunt. He has to work a side job while going to school while fighting bad guys, and it’s a lot more interesting than what Tony Stark’s doing up to this point. This has all been said so many times by so many people, but it’s an obligatory mention. - Peter donates blood to Aunt May at one point and accidentally gets a radioactive particle in her body. OOPS. Spider-Man goes on a rampage to find an antidote and tears a metal stairwell off its hinges. He also, like, completely destroys a villain’s underwater base and nearly doesn’t get out himself. - The Green Goblin discovers Peter is Spider-Man! Most of the Marvel heroes have this anxiety, but it never ends up a problem, so this is pretty big. The Goblin kidnaps him in broad daylight, ties him to a chair in a secluded place, and infodumps his origin story that he’s actually the father of Peter’s college roommate and is kind of very unhinged and obsessed with Spider-Man? In the end, Gobby gets amnesia and forgets the whole supervillain and mental illness thing and turns back into a good dad. - Spidey goes to the Casbah! Yeah, go figure. He learns his parents were traitors to America, and it fucks him up so much he flies there to find the truth. He ends up exploding the Red Skull and learns his parents were actually double double agents and were spying for America and so things are a-okay!

also peter kills a dude with a missile

- That aforementioned thing about affordable housing happens! Some black college students are unhappy that the university is taking old dorms that could be used as low rent housing for students and instead giving it to visiting alumni, and start a big protest and the narrative actually pins them as sympathetic even when they get overzealous and physical? I’m...kind of surprised, to be honest. Not used to seeing this at all.

Ant-Man, and...other identities. (Tales to Astonish)

ima keep it real with u founding member of the avengers hank pym, this will not improve marvel’s declining sales

This guy is a goddamn mess.

People like to say “pfffft there’s an ant-man? that’s goofy! that’s the weirdest thing ever! that’s a bad idea!” and buddy let me tell you, Hank Pym has a career specializing in bad ideas. Let’s list them!

- Adopt a young woman while she is grieving over the loss of her father and take her in as both a crime-fighting ward (The Wasp!) and also a love interest. Feel bad about it for about five minutes so it’s okay. - Develop a “growth capsule” that allows you to turn huge and decide to adopt two super hero identities, Ant-Man and Giant-Man. Assume this will not confuse anyone. - Eventually do weird science to make it so you can grow and shrink at will. Assume this will not have negative repercussions on your body. - Change the name Giant-Man to Goliath because you feel like Giant-Man is a dumb name. Confuse everyone for multiple issues. - Get stuck as a twelve-foot tall 90s beverage mascot lookin ass motherfucker (you are terrible at costume design, hank) and get real mad at everyone all the time about it. - Create an evil robot called Ultron and forget about it. Oops! Surely this will be fine.

IT’LL BE FINE

- Fail to relate to your robot-grandson-turned-avenger The Vision. Be a bad grandpa. - Inhale chemicals and get all fucked up on temporary schizophrenia (???), adopting a second personality. Call yourself Yellowjacket, claim to have killed Hank, and kidnap your girlfriend and force her to make out with you. - When assaulting your girlfriend makes her, uh, somehow realize that you are Hank, she will rope you into marrying her, thereby...uh...legally cuckolding yourself I guess? Realize you are Hank during/after the wedding, and be perfectly fine with this egregious violation of consent. Nothing about this will have lasting negative consequences. - Adopt the identity of Yellowjacket, and abandon Goliath. Continue to confuse people. On the bright side, finally have a nice costume. - Make a new Goliath costume in celebration of refusing to ever be Goliath again (WHY), and store it and a beaker of growth serum (WHY) in an unlocked locker out in the open (WHY). Hawkeye will steal it and become the new Goliath II.

So far that’s everything about Hank-Man! Stay tuned to see more of this trainwreck.

Iron Man (Tales of Suspense)

YO THIS DUDE SUCKS

I really like Iron Man’s origin story and his overall concept but the tech culture would not advance far enough to match it for a while. Also this was in the era of the Vietnam War and so Tony’s greatest enemy is The Mandarin, an extremely awkward asian stereotype and I! Ain’t! Got! Time! For! That!

Avengers

The Avengers are, at their most interesting, characters already in their own magazines. At their worst, they’re a bunch of characters no one cares about, fighting villains no one cares about, with last second ass-pull victories. There was a brief period there were I suspected the Avengers magazine was going to be true gristle of Marvel I was gonna have to chew on for hours to get through. Thankfully we are eventually given Marvel’s goodest boy, Vision. After that, things start to pick up a lot.

bless him and his little intangible heart

Highlights: - Captain America is found frozen in an ice cube! He’s been in cryo for twenty years, wow how the world has changed. I guess. Another case of time passing eventually making an origin story better. At this point Marvel has revived three 1940s comics properties: Cap, Namor, and the Human Torch (the lattermost in this case being an entirely different person). - Kang the Conqueror! Kang is a hell of a villain concept. He’s a time traveler who once ruled ancient Egypt as a pharaoh named Rama Tut and, uh, will eventually rule over Earth in the 41st century. He keeps harassing the 20th century for some reason. Also he is hint hint maybe related to Doctor Doom, I guess. - Hawkeye joins, having previously been a one-off villain, and proceeds to be an asshole to everyone forever. Eventually he becomes Goliath II because why not I guess. - Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver join, having recently bailed on Magneto’s Brotherhood, and they are...kinda boring, tbh. Wanda’s “hex power” isn’t very well defined (it makes unlucky things happen), and neither of them have much personality yet. At one point they fight Doctor Doom and he uses a machine to cancel out the hex power (???) and outpaces Quicksilver without using any enhancements (???). Some of these issues really blow. Quicksilver’s costume is lazy as hell. - Hercules joins for some reason, even though he says he doesn’t wanna be part of a team. - Magneto does some sneaky bullshit and tricks Quicksilver into thinking someone at the UN shoots at Wanda on purpose. Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch join Magneto again because fuck normies. - The Avengers are killed (sort of) by the Grim Reaper! Their newest member, the Black Panther, rescues them.

Pick a color you trilobite.

- The Vision joins, Ultron-5 is introduced, and things finally settle in for the good stuff. - Ultron rebuilds himself in adamantium as Ultron-6 and replaces his legs with a rocket chariot thing. No one is brave enough to tell him it looks dumb.

no shut up its cool and i can fit still fit through doorways

immediately the next chapter he re-rebuilds himself with legs and calls himself Ultimate Ultron. mmmhm.

sounds like somebody was havin some self esteem issues about their body. sounds like a talk that ultron and their dad hank pym could probably relate to each other over.

- The decade ends with an arc where Kang abducts the Avengers and ends up himself wrapped up in a proxy wargame with the Grandmaster. Kang uses the Avengers as his pawns, and the GM creates four superhumans that he totally didn’t get from DC no sir. Perfectly original characters, do not steal.

I just...I just really feel like that last one could have used a few more minutes in the boardroom.

- Even better, the second half of the arc pits the avengers against Captain America, Namor, and the Human Torch...in their 1940s renditions!

Hank even comments on the fact that Namor’s diction is different. It’s great.

The Uncanny X-Men

So I grew up in the 90s, and despite never really engaging with comics, I was quite aware that Marvel’s hottest shit at the time was Spider-Man and X-Men. The X-Men had a slow start, but once they caught on, they never really dropped off. Actually, I think they might be less popular now? They’re at least not the ever-present icons they used to be, and I suspect that is partially to do with middling-quality movies diluting the brand.

But, the appeal is there from the start. Children born unique but feared by society are adopted by Patrick Stewart and spirited away to a special boarding school that is secretly dedicated to teaching them to use their powers for the sake of fighting evil. This was the proto-Harry Potter, though Snape’s gonna win no contests against Wolverine.

Unfortunately, we don’t have Wolverine, yet. We’ve got...these guys!

(Not pictured: Marvel Girl/Jean Grey)

The creative potential in mutant design has not quite picked up yet, so the main team (of five teens and an old man) includes such marvels as Guy With Wings, and Guy What Got Big Feet. Seriously, Beast’s feet get way too much attention.

I cannot wait until you are a blue cat instead of this.

I wish I could comment on the political commentary on the series, but it hasn’t quite started up yet, whether that is intentional or not. The rampant fear of mutants is there, we’ve even had a Sentinels arc, but it’s mostly just surface stuff. I had a lot to say about Spider-Man, so I feel kind of silly coming up short here!

Highlights: - Magneto. Despite the slow start this series is going through, Magneto is immediately introduced and has his wonderful costume design and his super threatening magnetism powers. I am a bit confused as to how his magnetism affects all things, not just metal, but magnets are an irl mystery and I’m willing to let it slide. - The Juggernaut. The two-issue arc introducing Juggz himself are effectively told, if not sliiightly silly in structure. The first issue has the X-Men building up defenses because he’s coming, and later, as he tears through each single one, unseen to both the kids and the reader, Xavier explains his and the Juggernaut’s tumultuous childhood together. It builds the tension really well, but it’s a bit funny by the fourth time the X-Men are saying “we gotta go meet him before he breaks in here where we are!” and Xavier’s like “I’M NOT DONE TELLING MY ORIGIN STORY.” - The Sentinels. This is probably the last interesting arc in the 60s, published as early as ‘65. It’s almost the last material in the reading guide, next to an issue where they all get into a fight with Spider-Man for no reason. If I understand correctly, the Sentinels are later depicted as humongous robots, where here they’re closer to ten feet tall or so. I’d always thought the idea of “a bunch of mass produced robots designed to kill mutants” seemed uncreative growing up, especially given that they don’t, like, have an x-gene suppressing ray or anything, but it works well enough in the moment. - Wholly unnecessary amounts of sexual harassment towards Jean Grey. All the boys have the hots for her (well, maybe not Iceman (pun not intended)), including even Xavier saying that she’s attractive when she first arrives. What the fuck, dudes.

X-MANS IS CANCELED

Doctor Strange (Strange Tales)

The reading guide included a ton of Strange Tales to read, including an 11-issue arc at one point. Good grief it was a lot.

Steve Ditko, of early Spider-Man, did the art for Strange for a good while, and I found that contrast between the diagram like action of Spider-Man, and the much more fantastic illustrations of Strange to be the most interesting thing. Eventually Marie Severin would take over as the penciller, and it would take a bit of time to adjust, but the more abstract it got, the better. Also, I don’t really like the footie pajamas Severin draws him in.

This is Steve Ditko. He has thin lines and exact shapes and while you don’t see it here, his magic fights are very clear and easy to follow.

This is Marie Severin. In comparison her lines are thick and smudged (well, okay, we have to give credit to the inkers for these as well, though I think she did her own inking?), but is capable of uniquely evocative images like this. Her action scenes are harder to follow, but she is equally capable of the kind of surreality that appears in Doctor Strange’s comics.

Also, while the topic has been touched on a lot, especially around the time the movie came out, it still bears repeating that Doctor Strange is built on a foundation of cultural appropriation and mystic eastern boogie woogie nonsense. I’m parroting the words of people that know this much better than me, but it’s a problematic and somewhat common trope that media will depict a white protagonist in a foreign setting who not just excels but surpasses everyone else, particularly peers who are native to the setting. At best it’s well-meaning and oblivious, at worst it perpetuates a narrow worldview where everything has to revolve around white people.

Anyway, when the comics focus more on the dread dark dimension of Dormammu, most of these problems aren’t around, and you get lots of fun and bizarre imagery and goofy spell casting.

Highlights: - Dormammu. He’s a prideful otherworldy being who refuses to be caught explicitly going back on his word when beaten at a game of skill, but easily breaks down and claws at loopholes with which he can attempt his petty revenge against Strange. He is also portrayed as a necessary evil, in that he uses his power to erect a barrier that keeps his servants safe from mindless laser-eye cyclops monsters that are just perpetually punching each other. That conflict makes for complicated situations where usurping him may be more harm than help. Also his head is always on fire, and that’s cool. - Trippy visuals. Ditko’s backgrounds lean closer to pop art with abstract shapes, bright colors, and twisting pathways. Severin’s art, if I can remember (there hasn’t been a lot yet) leans closer to mysterious and somewhat vague settings. I’m describing it very poorly.

That’s kind of it for Strange, I guess!

Daredevil

oh my god how many of these have I done now im so tired

I haven’t read much Daredevil yet! The reading guide has given me some seven issues so far out of the full decade, and while there has been some good stuff, I don’t know if I can draw a big mental picture.

DD is, theoretically, in that same category as Captain America, where rather than being a super powerful character, he is merely very very good at what he has. DD got hit in the face with a radioactive dildo or something and it blinded him but enhanced his other senses so intensely that if you sneeze he can tell what brand of nasal spray you use. Also, he’s super acrobatic and has a swiss army walking cane that he can use to do just about anything. And he’s a working attorney. Fuck you and your eyeballs, Batman.

Marvel has not begun to embrace noir, and as I understand it, that seems to be the genre most people know DD for aligning with. As a result, things are kinda silly! DD’s first outfit was yellow and he fought a man who had robot stilts in broad daylight.

Highlights: - Killgrave, the...Purple Man.

I can’t believe this is how Jessica Jones starts.

Uhh, Killgrave got some pheromones or something embedded in his skin on accident and now everyone just does what he says to no matter what. He’s purple now, too. This has not been taken to its terrifying possibilities yet, but I’m very excited to see where it goes. - Daredevil fights Namor. Okay, seriously? Seriously? This is my favorite issue, no joke. Namor busts out of the ocean demanding a lawyer (Matt himself) so he can sue the human race. Shenanigans ensue, and a trial is attempted, but ultimately falls apart when Namor decides “you know what? fuck this I’m gonna start breakin shit”. Matt changes into the DD costume and takes on Namor with everything he can think of, including construction equipment, but fails.

Out of respect, Namor leaves.

- Stilt-Man.

Stilt-Man. (Stilt-Man eventually shrinks into a quantum state that he remains trapped in for months until he suddenly isn’t.)

- And finally, Mike Murdock. In an attempt to ward off suspicion that he might be Daredevil, Matt...pretends to be his twin brother who is never in the same room at the same time as him. As Mike, he is a cocky jerk to everyone and insists that he is Daredevil. And people believe him.

As you would expect (for once), this nearly gets people killed.

Nick Fury (Strange Tales, Agent of Shield)

NICK FURY IS THE BEST GOD DAMN SONNUVA BITCH IN THE WHOLE MARVEL LINE UP

Nick Fury is like if you took James Bond and made it not suck. You get to keep all the gadgets and world traveling but swap out the “ooh, I’m so cool and serious” with kicking open doors and telling fascists to go fuck themselves. Most importantly, it’s a near-parody of the overwrought machismo that the series runs on. It’s so busy getting from point A to point B in as fun a way as possible that it’s impossible to take seriously.

Actually, it might be like if Battle Tendency was less sympathetic to real world fascists. Which is to say, it’s the pinnacle of evolution.

Look me in the eye and tell me this isn’t a JJBA action scene. (Also, Jim Steranko blessed us with a shirtless Fury in latex pants.)

A highlights list would be ridiculously long because I love these comics, so I’ll instead focus on one thing in particular.

- Jim Steranko’s art is gorgeous

Yes, these are all Nick Fury title pages.

Captain America (Tales of Suspense)

Steve is just now starting to get interesting, mostly through his own series, but he’s had plenty of time for notable moments throughout his screentime (pagetime?) in Tales of Suspense and Avengers. While talking about Daredevil I mentioned Captain America and how he’s less of a nigh-supernatural being like most heroes, and more of a particularly exceptional human. He hits really hard, but more impressive is his stamina and agility. Something that I’ve liked in the MCU is how they’ve portrayed him as always capable of what is just one step beyond what people think is possible of him. He can’t fly, but he’ll do as many impossible leaps as necessary. He’s not super strong (well, not to the degree of Spider-Man), but he sure can run for miles, and he knows his way around that shield.

I feel like a lot of what I’m writing is surface level readings of these comics, but the characteristics of Steve that really identify him haven’t quite shown themselves yet, I think. When I think of him, what always comes to mind is that his “american good boy” values take priority over allegiances, and so you’ll see Captain America himself abandon his title if America no longer represents the values of protecting the weak. Steve Rogers is kind of a perfect flawless human (when not written terribly), but that’s pretty okay at the end of the day, when a superhero is more of an icon than a person.

Highlights: - That time the Red Skull got the Cosmic Cube (not the Tesseract), and became a god for like five minutes.

- That time Cap fought a giant baby.

- That time Cap pretended to be dead and then stopped Hydra from burying all the avengers alive even Vision who would...be able to just phase out of the grave. I’m not really sure what the plan there was. - That other time the Red Skull got the cosmic cube and then switched bodies with Cap and they made a lot of facial expressions.

- That time Rick Jones thought Captain America didn’t like him, meanwhile Cap was stranded on a desert island and hanging out with The Falcon and it was cool. Nobody cares about Rick Jones.

Namor, The Sub-Mariner (Tales to Astonish)

I didn’t read a fuck shit about this dude! Sorry!

Captain Marvel

we’re so close to being done

The reading guide gave me nearly nothing on this dude. Issues #1-3 and then #17. He’s a Kree (whoa!) named Mar-Vell (lol) who should be helping to fuck up Earth but ends up liking it and chooses to defend it. He’s got a jet pack and a laser and a really shit costume and he’s NOT BLUE.

Marvy, I need you to move over, the more interesting hero is behind you.

He’s got an asshole commanding officer who keeps trying to get him killed because he wants to fuck his girlfriend and SNORE, I do not care. Come on dude. I have been psyched to learn about

At some point in-between chapters #3 and #17, and...shit, I’ll just quote wikipedia for this:

After aiding humanity several times, Mar-Vell is found guilty of treason against the Kree Empire and sentenced to death by firing squad. Mar-Vell escapes in a stolen rocket, but becomes lost in space. After drifting for 112 days, he is weak and on the verge of madness. He is manipulated by Ronan the Accuser and Kree Minister Zarek into helping them overthrow the Supreme Intelligence. To better help them, Mar-Vell is given a new costume and enhanced abilities. After the conspiracy is foiled, Mar-Vell tries to return to Earth. On the way, he is hit by a blast of radiation that traps him in the Negative Zone.[16]

The Supreme Intelligence enables Mar-Vell to telepathically contact Rick Jones, which he uses to lead Jones to a set of "nega-bands" at an abandoned Kree base. When Jones puts on the bands and strikes them together, he trades places with Mar-Vell and is encased in a protective aura in the Negative Zone. The pair discover they are able to maintain telepathic contact. Using this method, Mar-Vell can remain in the positive universe for a period of three hours.

well what the fuck that might have been worth reading, thanks reading guide

Anyway, so yeah, Rick Jones! Both of these characters were pretty boring, and mayyybe this will help the both of them. Or not. At least the new costume is cool.

Silver Surfer

IT’S THE LAST ONE THANK GOD

Once again, I don’t have much to say here! I wrote all my thoughts on the surfer up in the Fantastic Four section, so you can read that if you haven’t. The reading guide only gave me three issues to read, though they were quite good. The first was his origin story, which I already wrote about above. The second one was about invisible aliens that manipulated the surfer and people’s distrust of him (part of this is because he keeps occasionally attacking humans because he thinks it’ll make them be nicer to each other). And in the third issue, Mephisto kidnaps his long lost girlfriend from his home planet. It works out kind of badly for everyone involved.

begone, thought

And that’s everything for the 60s. Phew! This took a long time and I don’t know if it was worth it. Let me know if you read it, if you enjoyed it, if you pity me, whatever. I got more comics to read.

#curry reads comics #long post #very long post #fantastic four #the incredible hulk #thor #the amazing spider man #tales to astonish #journey into mystery #tales of suspense #avengers #uncanny x men #strange tales #daredevil #captain marvel #nick fury agent of shield #silver surfer #marvel

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thebibliomancer · 8 years ago

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Essential Avengers: Defenders #8: “... If Atlantis Should Fall!”

September, 1973

So, here we are. Looking at something completely different.

There’s no tiny disappointed Vision judging us. No A that’s gone off exploring the cosmos.

We’re in new waters. Except for Silver Surfer, all these folks have appeared in Avengers before. I think that purple guy on the cover has appeared a few times.

But what we have in the Dynamic Defenders is something quite different. Its the book about the non-team. Kind of like a support group for ornery loners that work best alone. But frequently accidentally team up.

This is part 2 of the Avengers/Defenders War (well technically part 1 since last time was a prologue) but it doesn’t get to that for most of the book. There’s some Red Ghost/Atlantis Nonsense that is more pressing.

Honestly, before I can get to the / War, I need to go over some context. Because Defenders is the book that explains what happened to the Black Knight and why Strange put a Troglodyte-repelling shield around Castle Garrett.

So how did we get here?

It all started when Namor was dropped from the sky in front of Hulk like a limp bag of smelly fish.

Hulk vaguely recalls liking Namor so he went to get Dr. Strange to help him. And it turned out that it was all a plot by Necrodamus to sacrifice Namor to the Nameless One in front of Hulk and Dr. Strange out of revenge for the three of them thwarting the Nameless One at various times and assorted team-ups.

At the end, Namor recalled that Silver Surfer was the one who dropped him out of the sky so Dr. Strange, Namor, and Hulk all go searching for the Surfer. Surfer doesn’t know anything about any of this because he’s been busy teaching some innocent mountain apes about fire and manners. But it turns out that instead of gentle yetis, they’re secret wizards and there’s a big wizard fight.

After, Dr. Strange mentions he might be able to help get the Surfer past the barrier Galactus used to trap him on Earth by taking a shortcut through another dimension. They end up in the Nameless One’s dimension, where after some shenanigans with a macrocosm maelstrom, Dr. Strange discovers that Barbara Norriss, who sacrificed herself to save him once, has mated with the Nameless One and become his third head.

The four heroes manage to trap the Nameless One and Dr. Strange forcibly separates Barbara from the Nameless One. Which sort of drives her insane. Whoops.

They also discover that you can’t circumvent Galactus’ barrier so easily and the Surfer runs off, feeling betrayed. Oh and then Hulk also runs off, pissed that Dr. Strange harmed Barbara.

It turns out that their dimension jaunt popped them out in front of Garrett Castle. Strange and Namor chase the Hulk inside but are transported to a magical realm and captured by the Executioner and an army under his command.

Remember how Executioner dumped Enchantress like a limp smelly bag of stink fish to hook up with a queen? Yeah. That’s important again.

Dr. Strange and Namor find themselves in castle jail with unhulked Bruce Banner, catatonic Barbara, the Enchantress, and Black Knight.

After Avengers #100, Enchantress snuck off the first time Zeus took a nap and wound up at Castle Garrett. She charmed Black Knight into helping her travel to Queen Casiolena’s realm so she could kick her ass for seducing the Executioner away from her.

It didn’t work out.

But, hey! A catatonic woman! That’s just the tide-changing thing that Enchantress can use to change the tide!

Using her powers, Enchantress implants the Valkyrie personality that she used before over Barbara, creating an All-New, All-Different Valkyrie.

They bust out and fight Casiolena’s army again and this time Enchantress kills the queen, with the aid of a distraction from Valkyrie.

Now with no queen, Executioner has no choice apparently but return to Enchantress’ service.

Black Knight is pissed. He loves her because she magically forced him to and now she’s just going to dump him like a stinky bag of Namor? Well, you know what? He’ll fight Executioner for her!

She’s touched by this display of how much he loves her. So turns him into a stone statue to make an eternal monument to how lovable she is.

And then she ditches the Defenders and Valkyrie. So Valkyrie takes Black Knight’s horse and sword and decides that she’s going to join the Defenders, despite protests that its not really a team. And also that they don’t need her anyway.

Dr. Strange seals up Castle Garrett to keep it safe and takes Statue Black Knight back to his Sanctum Sanctorum in Greenwich Village.

From there, some other stuff happens. Valkyrie helps defeat the Omegatron, a doomsday weapon that Dr. Strange once stopped but then accidentally restarted in issue #1. Silver Surfer returns to apologize for being so melodramatic and helps stop Cyrus Black, a second-rate wizard pissed that he can’t beat Strange even in his dreams.

They run into Hawkeye and he asks to join the team after getting into a pointless misunderstanding fight. They learn that Attuma is going to attack the surface world and go to the beach to stop him. Hulk ditches because he doesn’t want to go into the water. The Defenders sans Strange, sans Hulk, sans Silver Surfer, are captured along with a marine biologist. Red Ghost is working with Attuma and is creating a cosmic radiation brainwashed army of fishes and whales. Valkyrie and Hawkeye manage to break out of their cells only to discover that Red Ghost has brainwashed Namor.

And that’s where this issue picks up.

With a brainwashed Namor being ordered to kill Valkyrie and Hawkeye.

Um. It doesn’t go well. For them, I mean.

Hawkeye’s arrows break on Namor’s skin and he’s stronger than Valkyrie. Hawkeye does manage to knock Red Ghost in the noggin with a vase but his elation is short-lived because it doesn’t break the brainwashing.

Brain POW! Haha.

See, the brainwashing is perpetuated by natural cosmic rays, the kind that strike the Earth continuously. Only way to break the brainwashing would be if... I don’t know... the Earth stopped getting hit by cosmic rays. But that’s unlikely to the extreme.

Anyway, Red Ghost is going to use his brainwashing machine on the recaptured Hawkeye and Valkyrie now. I mean, its never worked on humans before. Usually just kills ‘em.

So two weeks later, Dr. Strange returns to his Greenwich sanctum with good news, everyone!

Using the powers he gained from the departed Ancient One, Strange has made some progress on undoing the spell which turned Black Knight to stone.

On Clea’s suggestion, Strange decides to summon the other Defenders to share this good news with everyone.

But only Silver Surfer and Hulk respond to his summons.

Because remember that thing? With Red Ghost? Cosmic ray brainwashing? That’s still happening.

There is some good news there too. Hawkeye and Valkyrie survived the process. But the bad news is that Red Ghost’s brainwashed fish army is big enough to take on Atlantis.

Back in Greenwich, Silver Surfer wants to forget the missing three Defenders and get on with the good news about Black Knight.

But Hulk pipes up that he knows where they are. But he’s not telling because he doesn’t do what dumb magician wants.

So Silver Surfer puts him in a headlock and Dr. Strange puts him in a trance.

Tranced Hulk tells them about how an Atlantean showed up to get Namor because Attuma was going to attack. There was a fight, Defenders got spanked and taken onto Attuma’s water ship, and Hulk left because he didn’t want to go. He doesn’t know how long ago it was because Hulk does not understand time.

So Dr. Strange puts Hulk into a mystical sleep that he will only awaken from when Strange returns. And then Strange and Surfer surf off to try to find the others.

Meanwhile, thousands of leagues under the sea: ATLANTIS. Brainwashed whales and squids come bursting through the walls. Although, what good are walls in an underwater city? You can swim over them.

But the whales strong enough to SHOK through walls with no problem aren’t as scary as Namor leading the charge.

So the three brainwashed Defenders lead Attuma’s forces into attacking the Atlanteans. Even Hawkeye somehow is effective, shooting special underwater arrows. What some might call “spear-gun spears.”

But suddenly, Valkyrie stops fighting and collapses screaming in sheer, stark terror. And she’s seeing everything in acid trip monster vision.

Its explained that only the Valkyrie personality was brainwashed, leading the original Barbara personality to partially break free again. But Barbara is still insane. And apparently the personalities are trying to kill each other.

On the plus side, this allows Dr. Strange to locate her because mental emanations. Sure.

Reading her mind, Dr. Strange learns what happened to the missing Defenders and that the brainwashing process depends upon the continual flow of cosmic rays.

So obviously the solution here is to dam that flow.

Which Dr. Strange can do. Although it does require him combining his powers with Silver Surfer and the pair of them using every iota of strength they possess.

But yeah. They put a barrier around Earth that blocks all cosmic rays.

... Yup. That sure looks like it covers everywhere on Earth alright.

But it does the trick. More than does it. It depowers Red Ghost, leaving him to PLOOG! in some undersea mud. I kind of have to wonder if the Fantastic Four were similarly depowered during this.

Ben Grimm unrocking and a brief shining hope swelling within his heart. And then at the end of the issue, ploog, back into the Thing.

Anyway. The fish army is now amscraying and Valkyrie is charging at Red Ghost.

So he does the sensible thing and flees. Right into Hawkeye swinging his bow like a bat. Which was the healthier alternative. Valkyrie was going to shove the ebony sword through him.

Namor comes to too and is less than absolutely thrilled with what’s going on. And he has former personal history with Attuma so even less thrilled than that.

So he swims over to Attuma and knocks him out with one punch, man.

That sort of thing is always happening to fish jerks though.

So with the day saved, the Defenders return the marine biologist home and then return to Strange’s sanctum for Part 1 of the Avengers/Defenders War.

Dr. Strange explains he convened the Defenders because he has made the first breakthrough in his efforts to undo Enchantress’ stoning spell.

And some of the Defenders respond to the news.

Hawkeye just thinks he had been wondering why his back-stabbing Avengers buddies didn’t replace him with Black Knight. Because Hawkeye.

Hulk is pissed off at Dr. Strange and Silver Surfer for putting him to sleep but he likes Black Knight. He’ll wait to see if Strange can fix him before putting his fist through some Strange face.

And Valkyrie feels an overpowering, irrational love for him. Possibly because the Valkyrie personality and the stoning spell were both created by the Enchantress. This has come up a few times before. She feels conflicted about it. If she’s cracking up, she doesn’t want to take the risk of loving someone.

Anyway. Magic.

Dr. Strange has found Dane Whitman/Black Knight’s soul in the dark realm it fled to when his body became stone. Because that’s how stoning works. And using the Orb of Agamotto, Strange will contact Black Knight.

A torquoise pencil scribble finds Black Knight’s soul floating in the void and contacts him. Telling him that the Defenders are trying to rescue him and asking if he has learned anything from his vantage point that could help break the spell.

Black Knight responds that there’s nothing except desolate emptiness. But time isn’t moving and he isn’t suffering. He’s had faith but now that the Defenders have contacted him, he has certain hope that they will save him.

So the message scribble turns around and heads back to Dr. Strange.

But it is intercepted. It was Dormammu who guided Strange’s psychic feelers so that they found the Black Knight’s soul. So he knew that Dr. Strange would send a message scribble and with his power combined with Loki’s he knew he could alter the message without Dr. Strange realizing it had been tampered with.

We also learn that Loki’s salary for his aid in tricking the Defenders will be the return of his eyesight. We also learn that Dormammu isn’t much for small talk.

So the tampered message scribble returns to Dr. Strange and gives him the message:

“Yes, I can hear you! I can! Knowledge that I’ve assimilated in this mystic realm tells me I can be rescued through the power of the Evil Eye! Hurry, please! I have had faith -- and now I have certain hope -- that you will save me!”

Dr. Strange has no reason to suspect that this is a ruse. Silver Surfer thought that the Evil Eye had been destroyed but if random mystical knowledge tells Black Knight that it’s around, then it must still exist!

So the Defenders vow to find the Evil Eye or perish in the attempt!

Hm. So we have the Avengers and we have the Defenders. We have the / so now where is the War?

Guess we’ll find it next time when we swing back to the Avengers side of things.

#Defenders #Avengers Defenders War #Dr Strange #Valkyrie #namor mckenzie #Hulk #Silver Surfer #Hawkeye #Black Knight #Loki #Dormammu #Amora the Enchantress #enchantress should be banned #she's the worst #hoo a lot going on here #Loki and Dormammu commit mail fraud #Hawkeye gets punched #Essential Avengers #Essential marvel liveblogging

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the-firebird69 · 5 years ago

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Galactus advances.

The Circus continues as the tidal wave approaches. Clowns scatter They drank up. Got tanked acted it. And he arrived Too many dead all floated around no. They ran. Tons ran. We saw to where shelters above ground made for it some makeshift We hit. Clowns used blasters. We see the make up come off no. Not on one nope.. He whales on them the tidal wave stretched from massachusetts to the end of Delaware, 200 miles made by one berg a certain distance It ruined the coast. Devastated NYC and dc flattened to inland about ten miles what used to be the whole city. Is gone. The new parts there no skyscrapers only four story low rises plenty of businesses. Huge bills on phones He's here He wreaks havoc what should we do He's scolding us can you hear you were wrong Says this too right about one thing in powerful Ate up the state. All gone Asked if we can move it. Saw more coming blasted all. Heard this did we ok yes And out Huge clouds of smoke he swallowed Instead We may raise they come in slowly then fast then he hits more hit all gone We hit like this before. Tons come in from all over loaded up from nearby. Suburbs We hit like mad they keep coming No road they run in More now all friedvabsorbed Too many to count they run in a bombs some go off fry millions some thousands...and more too huge errors The city breaks now. Many do from Bja fighting. Huge openings in the ground all over cali tons investigate and die all day Is ripe We raise the east now. Finish then go west. They pour in now, septillions and more now huge numbers from everywhere tons of armament we loaded up as suggested see why knew. And hit hard now. Huge crowds wide beams on they evaporate the ground hot the berg works. Giant clouds go up into the sky. Massive clouds up. Now we see where up north again allegiances and adarondaks huge mines tons if forest massive burbs all run in They all run in we follow them now close it out. Tons run in now Almost scary we see Galactus gulp. He drinks. Parched He Says. They move fast and try swarming surrounding all the way from massachusetts and dc huge caravans smooth houses for miles Huge Tons die all empty mow they won't refill. We see Hi cringe and know why sent observers see why he feels it sick. Now is big jumps on it. We see him happily saying Apocalypse lines...huge caravans run in massive lines gigantic auraide siren and they can hear him laugh and his tinny voice "I will not be insulted by you further you puny humans you go elsewhere or die" Apocalypse And he hits fries them they fall. All. Tons die. Huge piles too. Gu is in the lead he says it help them. They rise Thor

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gokinjeespot · 6 years ago

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off the rack #1259

Monday, April 29, 2019

I was at a birthday party for a 7-year-old on the weekend and while I was holding his baby brother I couldn't help but wonder what kind of world will they be living in when they are my age. I worry about their future. The flooding in the National Capital Region is predicted to be worse than it was only two years ago when we had the highest water levels in a century. It's going to exceed that when waters crest in the next couple of days. I can't imagine what property owners are going through trying to save their homes and cottages. I don't understand how some people can deny climate change when the evidence of the harm that we humans have had on the environment is smacking them right in the face. I'm afraid things are going to get worse without it getting any better.

War of the Realms #2 - Jason Aaron (writer) Russell Dauterman (art) Matthew Wilson (colours) VC's Joe Sabino (letters). This issue has the first major death of a character. Not an A-lister but I will still mourn their passing.

Spider-Man Life Story #2 The '70s - Chip Zdarsky (writer) Mark Bagley (pencils) Drew Hennessy (inks) Frank D'Armata (colours) VC's Travis Lanham (letters). Now I'm more than convinced that this is a series of what if stories. There are so many deviations from canon in this issue that it's inconceivable that these events are "real". I'm still going to keep reading because these changes are cool.

Naomi #4 - Brian Michael Bendis & David F. Walker (writers) Jamal Campbell (art) Wes Abbott (letters). Naomi's origin story begins at last. She's not an Earthling.

Daredevil #4 - Chip Zdarsky (writer) Marco Checchetto (art) Sunny Gho (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). The Punisher and Daredevil have a debate about vigilantism. I like Frank's arguments. Meanwhile, Mayor Kingpin tries to get his hooks into Detective North. I wonder if the bigger man will get to the big man. One thing that bothered me about this issue is that Matt left Frank tied up for the cops. Not very nice since Frank saved his ass from them.

Thor #12 - Jason Aaron (writer) Mike del Mundo (art) VC's Joe Sabino (letters). "The War of the Lokis" features Loki as he travels down the gullet of his father Laufey. Don't tell me you didn't read the last issue. Get thee hence and do so forthwith.

West Coast Avengers #10 - Kelly Thompson (writer) Moy R. (art) Triona Farrell (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). This is the last issue and that makes me have a sad face. I really liked this silly crazy team. If Kelly Thompson ever writes a Kid Omega/Quentin Quire and Gwenpool comic book I will definitely read it.

Avengers LGY #717: No Road Home #10 - Mark Waid, Jim Zub & Al Ewing (writers) Sean Izaakse (art) Marcio Menyz & Erick Arciniega (colours) VC's Joe Sabino (letters). When this 10-issue weekly started it looked like this was an adventure for Hercules's team of Avengers and it ultimately was. The end result is that the good guys win again and Nyx is defeated. Hercules wasn't the hero of this story and schmaltzy as the way the actual hero wins, it still made me cheer. So all this was so Marvel could revamp the Gods of Olympus and Hercules's costume. I chuckled when they revealed what that house was about. I thought that it was the House of Mystery but that belongs to the Distinguished Competition.

The Amazing Spider-Man #19.HU - Nick Spencer (writer) Chris Bachalo (pencils) Wayne Faucher, Livesay, Jaime Mendoza, Victor Olazaba, Tim Townsend & Al Vey (inks) Erick Arciniega (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). The Lizard is featured in this "Hunted" tie-in. It's nice to see Chris Bachalo's art back on the racks.

Action Comics #1010 - Brian Michael Bendis (writer) Steve Epting (art) Brad Anderson (colours) Josh Reed (letters). Leviathan Rises part 4. I like this spy story. Lois and Clark go undercover as Chaz and Andi to find out what Leviathan is. There's a great teaser for an old Checkmate story that had me going there. I would love to see that organisation again. Next issue promises Leviathan Revealed! I can't wait.

The Avant-Guards #4 - Carly Usdin (writer) Noah Hayes (art) Rebecca Nalty (colours) Ed Dukeshire (letters). I like this rom-com centered around an arts college basketball team. It reminds me of a lighter "The L Word".

Black Widow #4 - Jen & Sylvia Soska (writers) Flaviano (art) Veronica Gandini (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). There's a double-cross that surprised me and a cliffhanger ending that makes waiting for the next issue torture. Appropriate for a story where Nat takes down an extremely violent website.

Doctor Strange #13 - Mark Waid (writer) Barry Kitson (pencils) Scott Koblish & Scott Hanna (inks) Brian Reber (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). Herald Supreme part 2. I liked the surprise guest star.

Hulkverines #3 - Greg Pak (writer) Ario Anindito (art) Morry Hollowell (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). Okay, this Hulkverine, Hulk and Wolverine team-up was fun but the end made me roll my eyes and groan big time. Ugh.

Ironheart #5 - Eve L. Ewing (writer) Luciano Vecchio (art) Geoffo (layouts) Matt Milla (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). This issue finishes the first story arc involving the super villain Midnight's Fire. It was good enough that I enjoyed what I read but not good enough to make me keep this book on my "must read" list. I wish RiRi well. I was excited by an ad for a new Black Cat comic book coming out in June though.

Thanos #1 - Tini Howard (writer) Ariel Olivetti (art) Antonio Fabela (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). This 6-issue story will tell us how Gamora came to be adopted by Thanos. I only picked this up because I really like Ariel Olivetti's art. I don't care much for the two main characters so I might not continue with the rest. Fans of Thanos and Gamora will enjoy this I'm sure.

Runaways #20 - Rainbow Rowell (writer) Andres Genolet (art) Triona Farrell (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). I found this issue to be a big drag. The last page is too depressing for words. Plus the new artist didn't wow me. Something needs to happen next issue for me to want to keep reading.

War of the Realms: The Punisher #1 - Gerry Duggan (writer) Marcelo Ferreira (pencils) Roberto Poggi (inks) Rachelle Rosenberg (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). It's Frank versus Dark Elves and Frost Giants. They won't know what hit them. This is typical Punisher fare for those into explosive action. Frank leads a band of ex-cons armed with swords through the Lincoln Tunnel to help evacuate a hospital to safety. I miss reading a good Punisher story so this is a welcome sight on the racks.

War of the Realms: War Scrolls #1 - This anthology book has four short stories all lettered by VC's Joe Sabino.

"The God Without Fear part 1" by Jason Aaron (writer) Andrea Sorrentino (art) & Matthew Wilson (colours) features Daredevil fighting in Hell's Kitchen.

"The Warriors Three (Or Four)" by Josh Trujillo (writer) Ricardo Lopez Ortiz (art) Felipe Sobreiro (colours) features Fandral, Hogun and Hildegarde filling in for the unconscious Volstagg teaming up with Cloak and Dagger.

"Nice Shot, Frank" by Ram V (writer) Cafu (art) Brian Reber (colours) has the Punisher and Wolverine doing what they do best.

"Waugh of the Realms" by Chip Zdarsky (writer) Joe Quinones (art) Joe Rivera (ink assist) Rico Renzi (colours) has Howard "The Duck" Duckson hired to find a lost dog. This last one was gross.

This is for fans who want to collect ALL the War of the Realms comic books. Otherwise you can probably give it a pass.

Batman #69 - Tom King (writer) Yanick Paquette (art) Nathan Fairbairn (colours) Clayton Cowles (letters). Knightmares finale. This issue is called "The Last Dance" and I don't know what song Batman and Catwoman are dancing to but I am singing the Etta James ballad "At Last" in my head. After many issues of dream sequences Batman is going to finally awaken. I did appreciate the explanation of how he got into his predicament. Now it's time to deal with Bane and Bruce's "father".

Blossoms 666 #3 - Cullen Bunn (writer) Laura Braga (art) Matt Herms (colours) Jack Morelli (letters). One of the three Blossoms is going to become the anti-christ. Yeah, you heard me. Cheryl and Jason were born as triplets. Their older brother Julian was whisked away at birth by the Order of Abaddon. Ooo, scary.

Ascender #1 - Jeff Lemire (writer) Dustin Nguyen (art) Steve Wands (letters). I never did finish reading Descender so I don't know if this is a sequel but it really looked familiar. I didn't feel like I was missing anything in this new story and I liked the mix of magic and technology. The villain reminded me of Emperor Palpatine but her empire is all based on magic. The hero is a spunky girl named Mila and I want to see where she goes from here.

Guardians of the Galaxy #4 - Donny Cates (writer) Geoff Shaw (art) David Curiel (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). The good guys find Gamora, followed by the bad guys. Expect to see a big battle. The main reason I'm reading this book again is because Groot is talking in whole sentences now.

Detective Comics #1002 - Peter J. Tomasi (writer) Brad Walker (pencils) Andrew Hennessy (inks) Nathan Fairbairn (colours) Rob Leigh (letters). Don't believe the hype. It's not a "duel to the death with Arkham Knight" but it is a pretty good fight. I was happy to see Damian play a bigger role in this issue. I'm sticking around for the bad guy's origin story.

Fantastic Four #9 - Dan Slott (writer) Aaron Kuder, Stefano Caselli & Paco Medina (art) Erick Arciniega (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). The FF escape, Galactus is freed and Doctor Doom's power mad plans are thwarted. Boy that was fun. I hope they don't leave Aunt Petunia's before telling us about Franklin's new friend Wendy.

Dial H for Hero #2 - Sam Humphries (writer) Joe Quinones (art) Jordan Gibson (colours) Dave Sharpe (letters). Seems like the H-Dial is a drug with lots of addicts looking for a fix. The potential for zany super powers is huge. I liked how they introduced the good versus evil theme in this issue.

Avengers #18/LGY #718 - Jason Aaron (writer) Ed McGuinness (pencils) Mark Morales (inks) Justin Ponsor (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). Not an Avenger in sight this whole issue but you've got an Agent Coulson controlled Squadron Supreme instead. What made me groan a little was the big villain reveal at the end. I hope it's not a convenient deus ex machina.

Heroes in Crisis #8 - Tom King (writer) Mitch Gerads (art pages 1, 6-20) Ryan Sook (art pages 2-5) Mitch Gerads (colours) Clayton Cowles (letters). I still don't see the ;point of this story with one issue left. I think the killer confesses here but I'm not sure. I'm waiting for the consequences to hit the fan and hope something is resolved in the last issue.

The Amazing Spider-Man #20 - Nick Spencer (writer) Humberto Ramos (pencils) Victor Olazaba (inks) Edgar Delgado & Erick Arciniega (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). Hunted part 4. A surprise twist turns the tables giving Spider-Man even more incentive to confront Kraven. Meanwhile the son turns on the father as Kraven's son joins the hunt.

The Superior Spider-Man #5 - Christos Gage (writer) Mike Hawthorne (pencils) Wade von Grawbadger & Andy Owens (inks) Jordie Bellaire (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). I don't know who created the super villain Master Pandemonium but they must have been on crack. This guy has demons for arms and a hole in his stomach that's a gateway to hell. Time for Doctor Octopus to call in a consult. The team-up with Doctor Strange is a clash of science and magic. Let's see who's the better doctor.

Miles Morales: Spider-Man #5 - Saladin Ahmed (writer) Javier Garron (art) David Curiel (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). Speculator alert! It's the first appearance of a new super hero. Too bad they're named after unwelcome guests to our bird feeders. It's gang wars across Brooklyn and Miles is trying to prevent the death of innocent victims. The surprise appearance happens when Miles goes to confront Tombstone about his incursions into other gangs' territories. I noticed some changes in Miles this issue that didn't appeal to me. I think he's acting way too confident and macho now. His maturing has happened way too fast and might turn me off the character. If the art wasn't so impressive I might bench this book now.

Spider-Man City at War #2 - Dennis "Hopeless" Hallum (writer) Michele Bandini (art) David Curiel (colours) VC's Travis Lanham (letters). I get a kick from noting the differences between these Gamerverse versions and the MU versions. This issue features Miles Morales and I prefer this Miles to the one in the comic book that I just finished. Peter and Miles meet for the first time but it's not in a friendly neighbourhood.

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