Goings on across The Pond

Over at the Wait, What? blog, Graeme reviews the goofy charms of Captain Britain before he became a member of Excalibur. What's that you say, clueless Americans? You mean you never knew that Captain Britain had appeared anywhere before he guest-starred with Spidey in Marvel Team-Up? Well, he did! And Chris Claremont, scripter of these two issues of Marvel Team-Up, even wrote some of those original stories! The word (as my faulty memory reminds me) is that Stan Lee wanted to break into the British comics market with a weekly comic featuring the first British superhero (published by Marvel anyways). Chris Claremont was an Anglophile and used that as his in for getting the assignment. Which lasted only 10 issues before he was replaced by Gary Friedrich. Graeme goes over the details on the published comics end, and laments the loss of many of the ideas that Claremont first set up but which seem to have been forgotten in later eras.


Well worth a quick look.


I was a curious fan when Captain Britain first appeared in previews in old issues of F.O.O.M. Featuring preview art by Herb Trimpe (a favorite of mine at the time), it looked dynamic and exciting. And it introduced a new character, which was a special thing to me at the time. This was a time when the comics worlds seemed to be expanding all the time, unlike now when so few creators seem willing to sign away their creations to either of the Big Two companies. It was a time when new heroes and villains would appear to take their part in the fights between good and evil.

Ah, I'd better stop before I start sounding like some grumpy old fan...


Meanwhile, I'll make a point of searching out that old Trimpe art.

New Iron Man 3 villain revaled

News sources (including this one) report that Ashley Hamilton has been cast in "Iron Man 3" as the supervillain Firepower.

Based on this image, I suspect he'll be getting an upgrade for the movie.

I'd pay 12 cents for that!

Not sure who to credit this to (I found it here), but... wow.

Oooo... scary...

io9 is reporting that John Malkovich is in negotiations to play the Vulture, and that Anne Hathaway might be playing... the Vulturess? What the...?!!? Maybe she'll be playing the Vulture's daughter? That's what'd make sense to me, but then I don't work in Hollywood.

Parallel world playtime!

OK. We've got the Squadron Supreme, Marvel's alternate world version of the Justice League. They inhabit Earth-712. (Man, and people complained when 52 limited the alternate worlds in the DC Universe to only 52!) Hyperion is the leader of the Squadron and is analogous to Superman.

Meanwhile, on Marvel Earth-616, we have the Imperial Guard. As Wikipedia describes them:

The Imperial Guard has many intentional resemblances to DC Comics' Legion of Super-Heroes. The Guard is headed by Gladiator, who is the team's analogue to the LSH's Superboy and, to a lesser extent Mon-El. Oddly enough Gladiator's real name is Kallark; a combination of Superboy's real names Kal-el and Clark. Most of the other members are direct equivalents in super-powers and have similar details of costume design to specific Legionnaires (such as Oracle matches Saturn Girl, Electron matches Cosmic Boy, Mentor matches Brainiac 5,and Flashfire matches Lightning Lad), but there are a number who differ greatly from their counterparts or who have no counterpart at all. The original Imperial Guard members seen in X-Men #107 were designed by artist Dave Cockrum, who had previously been best known for his work on the Legion of Super-Heroes, and all had direct counterparts among the Legionnaires. (Nightcrawler was intended to be in a Legion spinoff team book, but Cockrum left the book before he could be introduced, so he brought the character over to Marvel.) Later Guardsmen, beginning with the members introduced in X-Men #137, moved away from the Legion pastiche and began introducing characters with no Legionnaire counterparts. New Guardsmen corresponding to the LSH would not be introduced until the 1990s' Avengers crossover "Operation: Galactic Storm". Kree guardsman Commando's real name is M-Nell; a nod to LSH member Mon-El.

My "What If?" question is whether there's an Imperial Guard team on Earth-712. If so, then did Hyperion encounter the Imperial Guard when he was a less experienced adventurer (the Wiki entry describes him as an Eternal, so I'm not sure if he would have had adventures as a young boy)? Or perhaps Earth-712's Gladiator met Hyperion as a young man? Did Hyperion travel to the Shi'ar empire and have adventures there?

There just seems to be lots of room there for play. Much in the way that was done with Sentry in their Age of the Sentry miniseries.

Rainbow envy

Over at the Weekly Crisis, they complain about the latest member of the Hulk Family: Red She-Hulk!

I dunno. I think Mort Weisinger would've face-palmed Joe Quesada for not coming up with it earlier. (Heck, he would've face-palmed anybody within arms' reach for not coming up with it sooner!) One thing I grudgingly respect Mr. Weisinger for is how he made sure to wring as much mileage out of a concept so that no one else would come up with their own version of a character or concept. I think that's one of the reasons behind all of the different Lanterns nowadays. It might seem a bit silly to some fanboys, but in lieu of any genuinely new characters being created by the Big Two this is the sort of thing we'll probably see more of in the future.

I mean, really. What new characters have been created by the Big Two that wasn't a re-invention of an old character or wasn't already tied in with another existing character? It's the Silver Age all over again! Captain America's showing signs of growing a family. Ben Reilly looks to be returning in Spider-Man and Spider-Woman is getting the push as the next big thing. Iron Fist did some sneaky franchise growth recently by flying under the radar. I wonder which character will be franchised next. Ghost Rider? Punisher? Green Goblin? Aztek? Blue Devil? Gorilla Grodd? Stay tuned, true believers!

Marvel Apes

Just picked up the Marvel hardcover collection for the Marvel Apes miniseries. (I picked it up at a step discount at the New York Anime Festival! More on that later...) At first I was a bit skeptical, maybe because I judged the book by its cover. (Truly, that cover didn't do anything for me.) Now that I'm reading it, I've found that it's quite the hoot! Truly a lot of fun! Since this collection only reprinted the mini-series and a few other bits and pieces, I'll have to scour the back-issue bins to find some of the one-shots that have been published since then...

Character worth saving from oblivion: Tyrannus

According to Wikipedia:

In the Roman Empire, Tyrannus claims to be a "sorcerer", but is actually a scientist far ahead of his time. He was exiled by Merlin to Subterranea, a network of caves and tunnels miles beneath the Earth's surface. There Tyrannus discovers a race of orange-skinned semi-humanoid Subterraneans who are eager to find in him a new master to serve. He also discovers a pool of liquid which he drinks to maintain his youth through the centuries. The Subterraneans acquaint Tyrannus with examples and records of technology designed by the Deviants who were their original masters. Tyrannus' scientific genius enables him to master and improve upon the Deviants' scientific wonders over the centuries. Tyrannus becomes Emperor of the Tyrannoid Subterraneans, and an aspiring conqueror.

In the modern era, Tyrannus is finally ready to use this technology and the Subterraneans in conquering the surface world. Tyrannus makes several attempts at conquering the surface world as well as fighting wars against the forces of a new arrival in Subterranea, the Mole Man.

Here's a character who's lived for thousands of years, belonged to shadowy conspiracies (which existed long before The Illuminati and The Cabal) that manipulated events behind the scenes, and controlled an army of little dudes that look like The Greys.

Truly, if there was ever a character with untapped possibilities for some nice conspiracy stories, here he is. Take him out of his quaint Roman uniform, add a touch of The Count of St. Germain, add some UFO conspiracies, and take him as seriously as the X-Men creators (Chris Claremont, Dave Cockrum and John Byrne) took Magneto seriously, and you've got a character who could be as cool as Ra's al Ghul. It's not like it would take much to give him a makeover, just a reassessment of and commitment to what's already there.

The Floating Heads of Marvel Comics!

Again from Comic Coverage, an appreciation of the unique Marvel cover design, floating heads.

Speaking of Morbius...

...I was looking for images of Morbius recently (getting ready for Halloween I suppose) and noticed that all of his images have him depicted with his mouth open. Now, I know he's a vampire, which means the artist is obligated to remind the reader of that by showing Morbius with a mouth full of teeth.

It just made me wonder... with that smashed-in nose, could he have some respiratory issues which force him to breathe through his mouth? Is he, as Garrison Keillor might suggest, a mouth breather? This might add a bit of poignancy to the character, where his affliction has turned a Nobel Prize-winning scientist into a mouth-breathing monster. Kind of like a pulp monster reverse version of Flowers for Algernon.

Just something to think about...

Even CNN is getting in on it!

CNN tries to prognosticate as to what properties Disney might be interested in as they run a slideshow on Marvel's next 5 superheroes. CNN's candidates: Sub-Mariner, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Doctor Strange and Morbius.

Morbius? Are they kidding? Morbius might be a contender for one of the villains in Spider-Man 4 as stated here, so I don't know whether CNN is basing this on actual development info or if they asked Karl in the copy room what he'd like to see. I suspect something along the lines of the latter.

What's going to happen to Marvelman?

Yes, yes, da Internetz is all abuzz over Marvel's acquisition of Marvelman. Everyone is speculating over whether Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman's stories will now see print (or re-printing, as it were), whether we'll get to see Neil Gaiman's final storyline which was never published, whether Alan Moore will send a pox down upon the American comics industry, what DC might do since Marvelman is a direct copy of Captain Marvel, and on into infinity...

I'm left wondering what Marvel will actually do with the character.

See, if DC had acquired the character (which would have been a mighty interesting turn of events!), they might have re-published the original stories in some great big Absolute edition with new coloring and such, finally published the remaining storylines, printed any number of limited series and such, and, lastly, found some way to integrate some version of the Marvelman Universe into their DC Universe cosmology. Earth 16 or something would have become the world of the Marvelman Family and there might have been crossovers with the Justice League. Or the whole Marvelman Family will suddenly appear in England and there might have been crossovers with the Justice League and the Marvel Family. Or some other such thing.

But Marvel... what're they going to do?

Create some alternate dimension, like the Ultimate Universe or the Marvel Zombie Universe?

Have some sort of Golden Age/Silver Age back story like they did with The Sentry and The Blue Marvel and integrate them into the current Marvel Universe?

Introduce Marvelman to the current Marvel universe with a crossover story starring Captain Britain?

Create a line of stories in the Marvel Adventures books to introduce Marvelman to kids?

Have Kurt Busiek write up a big crossover story involving the Avengers, the Squadron Supreme, the Grandmaster and the Marvelman family?

I'm kinda convinced that Marvel as a company is now old enough to be at the Silver Age stage that DC was years ago. Older characters, like Thor, Captain America/Bucky, and Spider-Man (with the Brand New Day stories), have been re-introduced for new readers much like the Flash and Green Lantern were introduced to new readers in the 1950's. Spider-Man, their flagship character, has his share of storylines (Clone Saga, One More Day) that some readers would like to forget much like Superman and Batman did during the 50's. I'm sure there are other analogies, but those are the ones that come to mind.

One thing that Marvel is new at is acquiring licenses of existing characters formerly owned by other companies, and doing something interesting with them. For example, in the 90's Marvel acquired Malibu Comics, but let those characters disappear from the minds of readers everywhere. Here, however, Marvel's got a brand new toy to play with.

Just what are they going to do with this new toy, I wonder?

Characters worth saving from oblivion: Equinox

Another Len Wein/Gil Kane creation. I swear...

Another visually interesting character with a cool powerset. What could be cooler?

Some dynamic John Byrne scans can be seen here. Wikipedia article here and a rather stiff non-dynamic image here. comicbook db also has a nice appearance list; I've gotta check them out more and provide them here for fun.

Characters worth saving from oblivion: The Basilisk

Both the Marvel Database Wikia and the official Marvel Wiki agree that the Basilisk was killed by Scourge, but Wikipedia says that he was resurrected by the Hood to be sent after the Punisher.

Whatever. I just liked him when he first appeared in Marvel Team-Up #16 and went up against Spider-Man and Captain Mar-vell. Maybe it was the awesome Gil Kane art. Maybe it was that I appreciated a time (now long forgotten) when creators gleefully created new opponents all the time rather than going through the old vaults to see what characters could be revamped or revisited. Anyway, Basilisk deserved better than he got.

UPDATE:
comicbook db has an appearance listing.

Speaking of "Heroes Reborn"

I came across this picture and can't help but think that the Jim Lee of today has matured enough as an artist and storyteller so that he would've staged this a bit differently.

Click image for full-sized version.

Send in the Clones!!

From the "repeatedly poke the stick in the fire ants' nest" division of Marvel Comics, Marvel's releasing a Clone Saga mini-series. It looks to be a Monarch Notes version which hits all the high points (no snickering now!) of the original Clone Saga. I'll be checking it out because I'm a fan of series artist Todd Nauck. Here's the story via Newsarama.

Marvel's already revisited the "Heroes Reborn" Earth, so there goes another 90's storyline fans didn't seem to want to be reminded of (although James Robinson did some amazing work towards the end of the Captain America storyline). When will DC jump onto the bandwagon?

Captain America WIP

For some reason, Renderosity won't let me post my image, so lemme post it here!

I'm really enamored by the James Johnson figure for Poser and I've started creating various Poser figures based on Golden Age heroes. I started with Namor and the Golden Age Blue Beetle, and now here's Captain America. I'm still wrestling with parts of it (like the pants poking thru the boots) but the general look is pretty good. Not crazy about the shield, but maybe I can find a better version. Also, since I started this in DS3, I wasn't able to pwToon like I normally would have since it hasn't been updated for DS3 yet. Only a matter of time...

It's just such a funny thing tho'... Years of using Poser and DAZ Studio and I always used it for creating my own characters, many of which I haven't even posted anywhere just for copyright protection purposes. Now all of a sudden I've got this figure and all I want to do is make figures of Namor and Cap and a bunch of others. It's just funny, that's all...

Since Newsarama won't let me post...

... I wanted to point out that, based on the background described in their article, the Iron Man 2 Whiplash has more in common with Omega Red (with his Russian background and whip-like weapons protruding from his forearms) than with the original Whiplash (now known in the comics as Blacklash).

Newsarama's WordPress app doesn't like me for some reason and won't let me post.

They're just trying to keep me from linking to my Blog here.

BTW, Mickey Rourke reminds me a bit of Robert Shaw in that image as Quint in "Jaws". Maybe there'll be a scene where he tells Tony Stark how he got some of those scars.

Girl without a World?

I know who she is.

But then, I'm a nerd.

Something I was working on...

Just testing out some lighting settings. Still needs a bit of work...

But now that I know how to post images, I'll prolly be putting more things up here to show off before they end up in my deviantArt or ArtZone galleries.