Welcome to the Marvel Handbook at the Nexus.
(Hey Jim”¦surprise! Daron is taking a well-deserved week off after working double time to cover me last week while I was in Vegas, so Ben Morse is back again like tag team after somebody said “never again.” Now I could take the time to slag on one of Daron’s favorite characters the way he dissed Guy Gardner in Who’s Who In The DCU last week, but I don’t have time for that kind of tomfoolery, I’ve still got to cover another Q&A column on Daron’s favorite company, CrossGen”¦wait, we don’t have one of those? Why not? Oh well”¦showtime! -Ben)
Bill and Tim email (also Graham helped out to)
Regarding Scott Lang’s Alias death: the Purple Man made Jessica believe that Scott was dead, but in reality he wasn’t during the “Purple” storyline. At the end of the series, Jessica revealed to Scott she was pregnant with another man’s child (Luke Cage).
Thank you guys. I was hoping someone else would help clear that up.
Poet emails
Have you read Ronin Ro’s “Tales to Astonish” bio yet? Whose side are you on in the Lee vs. Kirby debate?
Actually I just ordered a copy of it. I’m going to wait to cover this. Unless Daron read it already. I’ve just got to read something before putting an opinion out there. (Daron doesn’t live here this week and I’ve not read the piece either, but I’ve said before that I find it impossible to take a side in this particular debate. Both men were tremendously talented, but neither was as good separately as they were together; that says it all to me. –B)
Joonya writes
I got a good where are they now…Darkhawk! This guy was one of my favorites. I recently took a look back at some of those comics, and they don’t really stand the test of time. But you never know. With a good writer and artist, a reboot might work. What are the chances?
I say there’s a chance. He is going to be involved in Avengers Disassembled here. In fact I believe he will start appearing in issue 501. He’d be good to come back but they may want to show him a little more before doing so. (Darkie did indeed show up on the splash page concluding Avengers #501, or at least his helmet did, but so did a lot of folks, and I don’t think Marvel has any particular plans for Rage, D-Man or Silverclaw at the moment. We’ll see with Darkhawk, I always liked his concept. A Zeb Wells/Skottie Young New Warriors reboot was confirmed in Wizard this month, so there’s always a chance he’ll show up there. –B)
Graham emails
1) In light of the most recent Astonishing X-Men revelation, could you please tell me (in some more detail) how exactly Colossus “sacrificed” himself to stop the legacy virus? I wasn’t following comics back then (at university at the time) and I don’t haven any clue how it happened. Was there a body? Did he disappear? How does a person “sacrifice” himself to stop a virus?
Before being killed by Mystique, Moira Mactaggert helped come up with a cure for the virus. Beast used her research to make the cure up and put it in a needle. Now the factor was whoever took the needle would die to cure the virus. Colossus stuck the needle in his arm and thus ended his life. He still had a body since it was cremated later. Of course they got a body somehow. I’d love to see them explain this. I think Colossus still thinks he’s dead and thinks Kitty is too right now. (The reason that somebody needed to inject themselves with the needle was that the virus was initially unleashed when a mutant, Siniste’s assistant, released it airborne by using their powers; the only way to cure it was to inject the cure and then use your power to release it airborne, which Colossus did. –B)
2) Does Jessica (of Alias/Pulse fame) have any superpowers? If so, what are/were they? If not, what happened to them?
She had two code names: Jewel and Knightress. She has the powers of flight and super strength.
3) Is the Marvel Knights universe part of the regular Marvel Universe?
Yep it’s part of the 616 Marvel Universe (With the exception of Paul Jenkins & Jae Lee’s Inhumans maxi-series, which helped launched the line and was set in an alternate universe, ditto for Grant Morrison’s Marvel Boy. –B)
Ultimate titles like Ultimate X-Men, Spider-Man and such are in the Ultimate universe.
Spider-Girl lives in MC-2 Universe. (possible Future Marvel).
Exiles goes from universe to universe.
Icon books right now also don’t exist in Marvel 616.
Marvel Age with Spider-Man, FF, Hulk and Team-Up are considered Marvel Past with a slight new spin.
Also, when What If comes back, that will be different universes.
I think this came up mostly thanks to Marvel Knights Spider-Man and how that really is out of control. Millar may have lot of explaining to do for the title later.
Mumbles also contributes to help the cause:
Scorcher has made at least one appearance Marvel continuity. He was in a Spider-Man annual during UTOSM [Untold Tales of Spider-Man]’s run and it was hyped that he was the first villain to appear in current continuity.
Thanks for helping clear that up.
Ryan emails
ok i am just a little confused. are you talking about deathlok or deathstroke? i did not know there was a deathstroke in marvel.
Actually there was a character named Deathstroke in Marvel.
I was using Deathlok for the time line stuff. The last Deathlok had his own series in the M-Tech line. He could show up again if the movie gets off the ground.
Deathstroke in Marvel appeared twice and was mostly a stupid idea anyway. Thankfully Marvel got rid of him. (And before there is any confusion, Jim is not referring to Deathstroke the Terminator aka Slade Wilson of DC fame, currently appearing in Identity Crisis and Teen Titans. –B)
Abdul emails to help out as well
hey just read your column and thought I’d drop a little insight on the question about the Sentinel from Morrison’s last arc on New X-men having any connections with the Tsunami Sentinel. While its all the possible the Sentinels may be the same it’s high doubtful that the kid from Sentinel is the same person as the character from Morrison’s last arc. i say this because the kid from Sentinel was from the mid west if I’m not mistaken and the guy from Here Comes Tommorrow had a british accent or at least dialogue. i mean i couldn’t actually “hear” him speak but you get where I’m going with this.
Yep sort of why I questioned it but never could give the clear answer. (Also, the character from the Sentinel series was named Justin while the guy from HCT was named Tom Skylark. –B)
on the question of if Kurt Busiek’s characters from untold tales of spider-man ever appearing in up to date continuity so to speak yes one has i cant recall the name but they had a cross over of sorts where the character appeared in untold first and than in one of the core spider-man titles in the present as a sort of follow up to that untold tale from spidey’s cast. i cant recall the name you may have listed it but i could dig it up if anyone really wants to know.
We’ve got the answer above man. Thanks Abdul.
Scott Lang never died in Alias what happened was that Jessica and Scott went to sleep Jessica awoke to find ants in the bed looked over at Scott who was covered in ants and bleeding and i believe he was mortified (that’s how i interpreted the visual) of course all this happened at the cliffhanger of the penultimate issue of Alias. The subsequent and final issue revealed that the Purple Man had actually made Jessica see Scott Lang dead by ant bites???? He was alive and well the entire time the visual was just in Jessica’s head and really just used as a cliffhanger.
Now we have everything cleared up I think. Thanks Abdul.
Villain tournament (minor villains) continues
I put that up because we’re close to the end here. We’re up to the last match even. In fact let’s see how the votes went first.
1 Count Nefaria (1)
10 Leader (3)
2 Dr Octopus (Otto) (3)
4 Sabretooth (1)
Just how one person saw it:
Brain emails
Leader over Count Nefaria- more intelligent, gamma powered guy beats vampire.
Dr. Octopus over Sabretooth- I’ll be honest, Sabretooth sucks and is only liked because he’s Wolverine’s arch-nemesis. Otto’s a much more interesting character. Otherwise, I think that Otto’s long range attack ability would help him immensely.
The last match of this tourney:
The Leader vs Dr. Octopus
You decide the winner. For all of those waiting to see Thanos, Carnage, Venom and many others you’ll be seeing them soon.
Before I add any more ideas I’m going to give a few fans a list they want. A few people have asked me what titles I think that are the best out there by Marvel and which ones everyone should read. So I’m going to give you my top 5.
1. Astonishing X-Men (if you haven’t read it yet go check your shop for issue 1 and if they don’t have it wait for the Must Have issue coming with 1-3 and get 4 and so on. Read issue 1 first. Best book out right now.)
2. Amazing Spider-Man (One name: J. Michael Straczynski. Best Spider-Man writer for a long time. Sins Past currently is going on there so check for issue 509 to start reading that one.)
3. Avengers Disassembled (Let’s just say any title in Avengers Disassembled which includes: Thor, Captain America, Captain America/Falcon, Iron Man, Thor, Avengers and currently Fantastic Four, and Spectacular are all great at the moment. Taking the team apart piece by piece is cool. You will have lot of books to look for here though good luck.)
4. Daredevil (Another name that everyone knows: Brian M. Bendis. Daredevil is still great but I hope it stays that way with all the books Bendis does.)
5. Now this one was the hardest to pick. A good amount of books won’t make the list but this one will: Punisher (Punisher unlike the movie which many didn’t enjoy (that does not include me I liked it) does not impact this book. Punisher is kicking butt a ton in his book so go check that one out.)
There you go 5 books. Well technically more because all the Avengers titles are listed but they deserve your money. If you think I should have a book on here or want me to show your list go ahead and email me. Marvel only here folks. (My personal Marvel top five: 1. Fantastic Four, 2. Supreme Power, 3. Astonishing X-Men, 4. Ultimate X-Men, 5. Avengers”¦though Bendis is on thin ice with me as far as how Avengers Disassembled is going so far, but I will give the man time because I definitely respect his writing ability. –B)
Now I’m going to put a challenge to the readers. Maybe the next issue could be full with questions and this of course. On top of the villain tournament final votes.
Here’s the challenge. I’m making you Brian Bendis. (First word of advice: put out a restraining order on Tim Stevens. –B)
Your job: Recreate the Avengers.
You come up with a team. I’ll give you an 8 member minimum. You’ve got to give the first story arc here is all. If you want though you can have a reserve roster of 8 listed as well. But those members would only be used in this arc if something big happened.
You also have to tell me how and why they are reuniting.
Have the villain who you’d use listed as well.
Just a small challenge; let’s see how you do. Take your time too. I’ll accept them as long as you send them.
Hey Daron you got anything interesting we could add this week? (I’m sure something zany is going on over at 144enema that will fill your extra time. –B)
Maybe we should just ask the readers for more questions like normal. The more questions the better here. It would be helpful. Also we are open to opinion questions like what me and Daron think of a current story arc or best titles and the like so anything you want to give us here would be cool. You agree right Daron?(I’m reasonably confident Daron would agree. –B)
We do need the readers here with this column. We do love our readers after all.
Either way just asking our fans to help out. Let’s sign off. Daron you go first as usual. (I’m Daron Kappauff and the rumors that I dry my tears each night with old copies of Negation are FALSE! –B)
Reporting from the Marvel Universe I’m Jim Trabold, have a good week enjoy your Comics this week and see you again next week.
