Hey Daron. How‘s it going this week? I hope we can get this one up in time. I can say we have a ton of questions. So a good week.
Well, seeing as how I was in Pittsburgh at the comicon this weekend, and only recently got home and saw this bad boy in the queue, I’m certain it’s going to be late…
I‘m pretty good this week just busy as normal. But let‘s start. I‘m all ready to go
Apparently. I’m good too by the way.
Also sorry about the lack of pics this week. Something is wonly with the server and wouldn’t let me upload any…
Ryan emails
Hey guys i got a couple of questions for yah
Hey Ryan
1. I rember that bullseye broke his back or something like that and that they fixed him with adamantium. how did they do it and how could he have survived it.
Disguised as a morgue attendant, Bullseye attempted to kill Daredevil (in his civilian identity as Matt Murdock) with a thrown projectile, which Daredevil casually blocked with his cane. After reviewing the medical reports from Murdock’s childhood accident, Bullseye became convinced that Matt Murdock was Daredevil, and had been given superhuman powers by the chemical spill that blinded him.
Bullseye then attempted to sneak up on Matt and kill him in his own home, but was ambushed by Daredevil, who had fooled Bullseye into thinking that a dummy with an attached tape recorder was Murdock. Seeing Daredevil and “Murdock” at the same time, Bullseye was convinced that Daredevil was not Matt Murdock, after all. The battle ended up with the pair balanced on a telephone wire from which Bullseye fell and was caught by his opponent. Bullseye screamed that he was not going to let the hero save him again, and tried to stab his rescuer, whereupon Daredevil simply dropped him. The multi-story fall broke Bullseye’s back, paralyzing him.
He resumed his criminal activities after his skeleton was repaired with adamantium by Japanese scientist Lord Dark Wind. Bullseye made one appearance in the Captain America storyline “Streets of Poison,” which was continued in the final issues of Ann Nocenti’s five year long stint on Daredevil. Bullseye took advantage of Daredevil’s temporary amnesia by replacing the hero in an attempt to detroy his image. Eventually Bullseye had problems returning to his own identity, while Daredevil believed he was his own father, the boxer Jack Murdock. Both hero and the villain switch costumes and fight, returning to their real identities but still painfully aware of their inherent similarity.
Since Dark Wind is Professor Kenji Oyama and is s most famous for creating the adamantium-to-bone bonding process he knew how to do it right
2. What happen to Lady Deathstrike? i thought she was a member of Iron Mans New ThunderBolts?
Lady Deathstrike was to dangerous too control. Much like Taskmaster. Both where not easy enough to control and willing to go to far to get the job done. They didn’t want to risk innocent lives if possible. The others are more controllable with having others they actually care about that can be harmed if they don’t obey the rules.
So, you’re saying they were too hard to control then?
3. You know i was thinking that Someone catch this. If thou Scorpin is now venom that someone would say something about that the symbiote is is the real danger. That the symbiote could leave Gargan to find some eles to be venom which is the real threat. That would be bad.
The symbiote could leave Gargan whenever it truly wished to. I’m assuming it still might do so before Eddie Brock comes back even. After all we all know Eddie is Venom.
No offense, Ryan, but I had no idea what you asked there. Kudos to Jim though for figuring it out…
What are your thoughts about how Thor will react when he comes back.
Thor will have to adjust to the changes but might take some time alone to do that. He‘s going to have to rebuild Asgard and much more after all.
React to what exactly? Were you thinking of something in particular or just the Marvel U in general since he’s been dead?
Thanks guys
welcome.
Yo.
Doom emails
Hey guys, great job as usual. Comics Nexus is one of the few bookmarks I actively check every day, mostly for MH and DCU columns.
Great to hear. We try to do our best for yourself and the other readers. I think nexus has some of the best writers.
Thanks for the kind words, make sure to pass us on.
1. What’s the dealio with Rick Jones? He did turn into the Green Hulk there for a while, while Banner was the Gray Hulk, right?
Rick Jones was orphaned as a young child and grew up in different orphanages, always suffering from disciplinary problems. He eventually left the orphanages at a young age and spent his time traveling through the southwest deserts of America.
Rick Jones’ life amongst Marvels began in the Nevada desert, where as a daring (and somewhat foolish) teenager, he drove onto the test site of an experimental gamma bomb on a dare.
As the Gamma bomb went off, Rick was saved from the explosion by Dr. Bruce Banner. But the exposure to gamma radiation transformed the once meek Banner into the goliath known as The Hulk! Hunted and misunderstood, the Hulk found an ally in Rick.
When the Hulk was manipulated by the evil god, Loki, Rick summoned the assistance of other heroes. The result was a team-up of Thor, Iron Man, the Wasp and the Hulk – Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, who would band together as the Avengers.
On one of their earliest missions, the Avengers discovered and revived the World War II-era hero Captain America! The resuscitated Cap trained Rick as his sidekick and eventual partner.
After a falling out with Captain America, Rick found himself mentally drawn to a pair of extraterrestrial golden bracelets — THE NEGA-BANDS! Donning the bands, Rick slammed his wrists together with all his might…
and his atoms traded places with those of the exiled Kree Captain Mar-Vell. Now joined together, Rick and Captain Marvel lived a shared existence — one dwelling in the physical world while the other replaced him in the shadowy Negative Zone.
When the star-spanning Kree and Skrull races went to war, Rick and Captain Marvel became embroiled in the conflict! At the battle’s climax, the Kree Supreme Intelligence unleashed the untapped psionic potential of Rick’s mind — the Destiny Force — to put an end to the war!
Sometime later, as a result of exposure to a deadly nerve gas, Captain Mar-Vell became afflicted with an incurable, fatal cancer. And so, in bed rather than in battle, the hero known as Captain Marvel perished.
But Rick’s life continued, as did his adventures. Resuming his affiliation with the Hulk, Rick attended Bruce Banner’s marriage to Betty where he was shot by a crazed General Ross, but the wound was not fatal and Rick recovered.
At that time, Bruce was separated from the Hulk thanks to the nutrient bath, but the separation had unintended negative effects that threatened to kill him if he was not re-merged with the Hulk.
Bruce’s molecules were reunited with those of the Hulk’s thanks to the assistance of the Avenger known as the Vision. A second nutrient bath procedure was set up in order to stabilize Bruce’s condition.
While attempting the second nutrient bath procedure on the Hulk, General Ross again interfered, hoping to kill the Hulk by disrupting the nutrient Bath. Rick Jones attempted to stop him, but ended up being thrown into the nutrient bath with the Hulk.
As a result of the nutrient bath, Bruce Banner again turned into the Gray Hulk for the first time since Incredible Hulk v1 #1. Rick Jones was also changed by the process. Rick Jones found himself transforming into his own green-skinned, savage Hulk.
Bruce Banner believed that he was responsible for Rick Jones’ condition, and he was determined to cure him before he was hunted and killed by the Hulkbusters he himself created. While unknowingly being manipulated by the Gray Hulk personality, Bruce traveled to his old cave hideout and exposed himself to Gamma Rays. Bruce expected to turn into a Hulk and retain his intelligence, as he had done very early on as the Hulk, but instead he transformed into the Gray Hulk.
Hulk smashed the gamma ray machinery in his lab just at the moment that a now-human Leader ran in to stop him. The Leader told Hulk that he lost his gamma-spawned brilliance and wanted his help to get it back, and in return he would help get rid of Banner and the Rick Jones Hulk forever. Hulk agreed and they rebuilt the Gamma ray equipment.
The Gray Hulk captured Rick Jones Hulk and drained the gamma ray energy off of him, returning him to normal, and siphoned it into the Leader, which restored his gamma powers and mutated his appearance even further.
2. Can you give me some info about US Agent? I loved the guy. I even have his brief series run. What’s he doing now? Don’t you think he would make a great replacement for Cap?
He soon resurfaced as the USAgent, wearing a variation of the costume that Rogers had worn as the Captain and using a vibranium disc as a shield. Walker continued to work for the Commission. He was placed on the West Coast Avengers roster by the Commission, as a condition of their government charter.
U.S. Agent fought alongside the Avengers in several battles. After the Avengers moved to a United Nations based charter, he received only one vote (from himself) in the ensuing vote and consequently lost his place on the team. Even with his personality conflicts and reckless behavior, he proved himself worthy of being an Avenger and was able to rejoin.
When the West Coast Avengers dissolved, he dumped his U.S. Agent costume and shield into the Hudson River. Soon after, most of the then-current members of the West Coast Avengers, were asked by Tony Stark to found Force Works, and U.S. Agent joined them, wearing a new costume and using an energy-based shield. When Force Works was re-absorbed into the Avengers lineup, he left the team.
During this time, U.S. Agent was featured in a Marvel UK comic called Super-Soldiers, teaming up with American and British soldiers empowered by a variation of the drugs that created Nuke.
He eventually became the field leader of the Jury, a group of armored corporate vigilantes, owned by Edwin Cord, owner of Cord Industries. U.S. Agent again wearing his original U.S. Agent uniform and now using an eagle-shaped shield that could be directed in midair via remote control. The Jury’s job was to take down the Thunderbolts, but they were defeated by the Thunderbolts and their new leader Hawkeye, a former Avenger teammate of Walker’s. The Jury attempted to apprehend the Thunderbolts a second time, but instead the two groups joined forces together against Brute Force and the soldiers of the Secret Empire.
U.S. Agent was severely beaten to near death by Protocide. Due to emergency medical procedures performed on him, he was outfitted, by S.H.I.E.L.D., with an enhancing exo-skeleton.
Following his recovery, he soon adopted a new costume and rejoined the Commission on Superhuman Activities, with the position at the head of the federal government’s U.S. Marshal division, called S.T.A.R.S., the Superhuman Tactical Response Squad. The group battled alien invaders and superhuman threats and was responsible for their imprisonment.
Most recently, he is a member of the New Invaders, wearing a more Captain America-like costume. When most of that group disbanded in the wake of the apparent death of the original Human Torch, the USAgent, Union Jack (Joseph Chapman), and the Blazing Skull are still together as members. Towards the beginning of the run, US Agent insisted on being called Captain America, although many of the older team members who knew the original Cap refused to do so.
Walker favors superhuman registration. He has been assigned to Canada as an official liaison– A number of powered villains, including the Purple Man have attempted to cross the border into Canada to escape the act.
With him now part of Omega Flight and in Canada I don’t see him becoming Cap.
3. Is there anyone in Marvel U who has worse hair than Sanjaya?
Wolverine’s son. He has some bad hair.
No.
4. Are there any direct Marvel counterparts of DC villains? (ie: Lex Luthor, Joker, Ra’s Al Ghul, and the like)
Lizard/Killer Croc
Black Cat / Catwoman
Lady Shiva/Elektra
Ras a Ghul/Apocalypse
Dr Tzin Tzin/Hypnotia
Mr Freeze/Blizzard
Clayface / Sandman
Talia / Black Widow
I’m not good at this. Really. Not a big Dc guy
I’m not seeing Clayface/Sandman. And last time I checked Black Widow wasn’t a bad “guy. Also I’m thinking Sinister might be a better match for Ras than Apocalypse. And how did you miss Thanos/Darkseid? They’re practically twins! There are probably some others, but I’m honestly too tired from this weekend’s events to really think them all through. If I think of any though I’ll let you know. (And I’m sure our readers will be more than happy to point some out :)
5. What DC villains do you think would be a perfect fit in the Marvel Universe?
Joker
Luthor
Catwoman
Daron likely can help better.
Probably, if I wasn’t half asleep. I’ll say this though…Catwoman hasn’t been a villain for YEARS. And Joker…I honestly think Joker might be too much for the Marvel U. I can’t think of anyone how could really “deal†with the joker without just outright killing him…which is probably what would happen in the MU.
As far as how would work…well I think any of the less powerful villains (ie most of Batman and Flash’s rogues would work well in the MU. And the more powerful ones would probably be cool in either the cosmic stuff or as a team villain. (I’m thinking of characters like Darkseid or Mongul here).
5. Are there any Marvel comics out there that are “modern” so to speak. I’m looking for something similar to the movie Unbreakable. Something that isn’t about the costume, but more about the characters, set in a realistic way.
Hmmmm Criminal is a bit but that’s Icon. Icon line sort of are creator dominate titles that don’t fit into real continuity with Marvel.
The short answer to your question is no…not really. This is because everything in Marvel pretty much takes place in the Marvel U (continuity or no) so the world is fully aware of superheros. What you might look into though is the miniseries Marvels if you haven’t already read it. It’s from the everyman perspective of when the Marvel Heroes first broke onto the scene. You’ll probably like that a lot. Other than that, I think you’d need to look outside of Marvel to find what you’re looking for. You might try Kurt Busiek’s Astro City. I think it has a feel closer to what you’re looking for. Also Kurt’s Superman: Secret Identity. It’s more along this vein as well, and quite good.
I’m sure there are other titles out there (and please feel free to let us know if you know of any everyone), but I think you’re going to have to look past Marvel to find a lot of them.
6. Since I brought it up, what did you guys think of the movie Unbreakable? I think it was THE best superhero movie ever done. So realistic and grounded that it seemed plausible. Don’t you think it would make a superb comic series?
I wouldn’t say it’s the best super hero movie. It’s only losely based on a hero. Not really comic related too much and didn’t even cover comics to much other then Samuel L. Jackson’s character. It’s not a bad movie. Just don’t see it in the super hero genre.
Well, it was definitely a “super hero†movie, or at least what constitutes a super hero movie for Shyamalan (what crack are you smoking, Jim?) but I have to say it’s one of my least favorites. I think it was an interesting idea, and had a lot of potential, I just thought it was poorly executed. But then again, I think the same thing about all of Shyamalan’s movies. The only I really liked at all was Signs so you can take all of that with a grain of salt.
In my mind, Batman Begins/Superman Returns are the 2 best comic movies I’ve ever seen for various reasons (I honestly can’t say which I like better). Closely followed by X2/Spidey 2 – which share the #2 spot.
Worst (not counting the no budget Punisher/FF and various other travesties):
1. Batman & Robin
2. Superman 4
3. Superman 3
4. X3
5. Blade Trinity
6. Hulk
7. Batman Forever
In roughly that order…
7. Please explain the whole Doom 2099 series. It’s been 15 years since I read it, and I can’t even remember much of it anymore. I never got the last 12 issues, so I have no idea what ever came out of it. How did he get in the future, how did it end, etc.?
A man who believed himself to be Victor Von Doom awoke from dreams of pain to find himself in Latveria in the year 2099. He quickly made his way to the capital and found a new ruler, the cyborg Tiger Wylde, enthroned in his place. Wylde explained to him that he was in the year 2099 and that after his absence Latveria was left leaderless, and it was only Wylde’s intervention that saved it from being annexed by the corporations. Doom, however, was still furious and demanded that Wylde remove himself from his throne. When Wylde ignored him, they fought, but in the end Wylde’s advanced technology triumphed. Doom was defeated and Wylde pulled off his mask to reveal his face, but found that he had the unscarred visage of a young man, in spite of what history had taught about Doom. Wylde then burned Doom’s exposed face to match history’s description. Thinking him a cheap imposter, Wylde ordered his tarot card reader, Fortune, to dispose of him, and thus Doom was ejected from his own capital city.
Instead of letting Doom die, Fortune saw him as her only chance to overthrow Wylde, and so she took him back to her gypsy clan, Zefiro, Doom’s own descendants. There Doom found new allies, and together they flew to the headquarters of the Pixel corporation on the Isla Lobos de Afuera. They found a doctor there named Celia Quinones, who they persuaded to enhance Doom with nanotechnology, increasing his motor responses and neural capabilities. Combined with stolen Pixel technology that he built into a new suit of armor, the man who called himself Doctor Doom now dubbed himself, simply, Doom.
He then began his campaign to win back Latveria. Doom first stole a shipment of tritonium that was being sent to Wylde, increasing tension between Latveria and the Pixel corporation. Then he handed out food to the Latverian masses in order to earn their loyalty when the eventual overthrow happened. Finally, when Wylde came after Doom instead, he coerced him with a tritonium bomb to fight him alone, and eventually when their fight remained a standstill, Doom detonated the tritonium, bringing down a mountain upon the two of them, and then using his armor’s phase shifter, he saved himself and passed unharmed through the mountain. Latveria, again, was under the control of Doom.
Doom’s next adversary was the Pixel corporation itself, and its head, Eduardo Devargas. Devargas, uncomfortable with Doom’s rise to power and the theft of the tritonium, sent a cyberspace being known as Fever against Doom, infecting his computers and even the systems of his armor. This forced Doom to enter cyberspace with the netglider gypsy, Wire, and face Fever. The human virus attacked Doom first by sending him into a gamesim in which he fought a twisted version of the 20th Century’s Fantastic Four. Only after absorbing the info-gathering abilities of a discarded program named Paloma, was Doom able to gather enough power in cyberspace to face off against Fever directly, and finally, destroy him. In the process, Doom accidentally allowed the program Paloma to become sentient, but despite a brief struggly, they both realized that they needed each and came to a compromise. With Paloma’s help, Doom was able to take physical control of Pixel and defeat its former head, Devargas. And with Doom’s help, Paloma was able to run free in cyberspace. During this confrontation, Doom also faced a computer simulation involving a series of fictional and historical figures such as Jack the Ripper and Professor Moriarty in an attempt to regain his lost memory, but the attempt failed, leaving him more confused.
Doom later fought a pair of strange foes. First, was the resurrected patriarch of the future nation of Wakanda, a king named Thandaza, whose granddaughter, Princess Okusana, rebuilt in a cyborg body to avoid the pressures of leadership. Doom finally defeated Thandaza, returning him to a grateful death, but not before plugging in and ransacking Wakanda of its technology, including the design of their Environmental Maintenance Platforms that kept its air clean of pollutants. Next, he fought an ancient being known as Necrotek, who was once defeated by the three Eyes of Agamotto, in the hands of Caius the Spartan. With the help of the gypsy’s young adept, Vox, and his single Eye of Agamotto, Doom banished Necrotek with a Caius Circle drawn in cyberspace, where Necrotek had anchored himself, using information Doom found in a hidden library of mystical texts.
When the man-beast Ravage stole the plans from Alchemax’s floating city Valhalla, Doom appeared to him and deciphered them, finding that the thrusters were its weakness. Doom traveled to Valhalla and met up with one of Avatarr’s nano-engineered superheroes, Loki, as well as the body of Heimdall, defeated by 2099’s X-Men. Avatarr’s Thor appeared shortly later and attacked Doom, angered by Heimdall’s death. In an attempt to stop Thor, Doom overloaded the source of his power, Mjolnir, but the resulting explosion threw both combatants miles away. When Doom recovered, he returned to face Avatarr, and discovered that the flaw in the engines which would soon send the city crashing to the ground in the middle of New York was well known by Avatarr, who was oblivious to the damage it would cause. Finally, Doom teamed up with 2099’s Spider-Man, Punisher, and Ravage to bring down Valhalla. However, once it was under control, Doom appropriated the flying city and made it a new providence of Latveria.
Later, while searching for signs of the alien life that he remembered from the 20th Century, Doom stumbled across a source in Antarctica that was sending and receiving a signal from deep space. Doom traveled to Antarctica to investigate the signal and found a being called Radian who used a technology based on manipulation of light itself, who bested Doom and transported himself to the Chin Shan Space Station, where Doom’s ally Fortune was held captive by a woman named Feng Huang while Fortune was searching for her lost brother she presumed dead, along with Fortune’s guide Lei Fong, Huang’s sister. Doom downloaded some of the technology from the spherical craft that had sent the signal and followed Radian to the space station. Once there, Radian announced that he was an emissary of the alien race the Y’Lestja and the Collective, who offered human beings a place in its benevolent quest to gain all universal knowledge. The Collective then accessed the minds of Earth, pulling out all the important symbols and archetypes that gave meaning to Earth culture, and left, but first gave Radian his autonomy as a separate being. Feng Huang immediately attacked the vulnerable Radian and set her station to self-destruct. Doom then fought Feng Huang for Radian’s armor, but both failed, and Doom rocketed away from the station in an escape pod just as it exploded, falling to Earth into the Savage Land.
Doom crawled from his escape pod as his armor malfunctioned and he faced against an attacking Tyrannosaur, which he killed with his last remaining energy. Though the fight against the dinosaur exhausted the last of his armor’s reserve and it began to burn his skin, forcing Doom to remove it and finally collapse unconscious into strange dreams of a soldier’s life, leaving Doom with more questions about his true identity. The X-Men’s Bloodhawk appeared and confused him for a hunter. Angered, Bloodhawk took him to the Village of the Sky where a group led by Chalda and Carson Leibowitz, who told Doom about an Alchemax executive named Christian L’Argent who came to the Savage Land to obtain drilling rights from the local tribe, but then became obsessed with local traditions and magic. Doom led the group back to the sight of his escape pod crash to find his dropped armor, but a member of the local swamp tribe had taken it, and Doom’s group eventually tracked the armor to the tribe, but was captured by L’Argent, his men, and the swamp tribe. L’Argent appeared deranged and mutated thanks to a local herbal drug, and he decided to sacrifice Doom and his group to the gods to stop the earthquakes which were being caused by L’Argent’s own drilling. But during the ritual another earthquake interrupted L’Argent, bringing down the temple on everyone. While the rest escaped, Doom face L’Argent, who revealed to him that the world corporations were secretly controlled by a pair of shadows who manipulated them from afar, once of which was the supposed true Victor Von Doom. But before Doom could find out more, one of L’Argent’s men, an android spy, shot him. Doom killed the android in response, finding the robot technology strangely familiar.
After returning to Latveria and repairing his armor, Doom consulted Fortune who prophesized that Doom would soon face a great threat. Then Doom, filled with the dread that he was actually the mercenary soldier in his dreams, traveled to the info city Myridia, and blackmailed its leader, General Tibor Diaghilev Czerny into turning its resources over to him, making him the new head of Myridia. The General agreed, believing that Doom was actually Erik Kristofer Czerny, his lost son. But before he could find out more, a rebuilt Tiger Wylde, sent by a mysterious figure that appeared to be the real Victor Von Doom, attacked Doom. He defeated the android, but the General was killed in the process, and Doom was forced to reprogram the computers of Myridia that were hooked up to the General’s life signs, fooling them into thinking the General was still alive. Doom then traveled in the floating city Valhalla to the hidden island in the middle of the Pacific, and after finishing off Tiger Wylde, who had followed him, he finally faced the man claiming to be the true Doctor Doom. After a fight which took the combatants through a series of different time periods, Doom bested his double, discovering in the process that he was the true Doom, but his partner Margaretta Von Geisterstadt had rebuilt him using the soldier’s DNA, and stuck scattered memories of the soldier’s life in his head to confuse him as part of a centuries long game they played against each other. Un-amused, Doom abandoned Margaretta, and left her and her creation to the temporal destruction caused by their frantic time-shifting. The island fortress then disappeared into itself, killing both inhabitants.
Doom then began a plot to become the President of the United States, a position that had atrophied since the corporations came to power, but still retained its original powers. He started by inciting riots in Makhelastan to destabilize the American corporation, Angel’s Breath. Then, when his part-time ally Poet was killed in a fight with drug dealers, Doom used his funeral to make new connections with infobrokers and datapirates. His next step was to build an organized strike force of netgliders called the Cyberdive Cadre, headed by the expert netglider, Indigo Eshun. She, in turn, helped to rebuild Doom’s gypsy hacker, Wire, who was previously killed by Margaretta, into a being that lived half in cyberspace with his lover, Paloma, and half in the real world, giving Doom a constant, physical link to the Cyberdive Cadre. Using his diplomatic pull with Wakanda, Doom also hired their crack troop squad, the Panther’s Rage, as well as their commander, Nkrumah. Along with the mutant, Morphine Somers, and the mercenary, Sharp Blue, Doom was ready to invade America.
He first sent the Cyberdive Cadre to tie up America’s communications. Then, Doom personally invaded the country using the floating city Valhalla, now named Libera Cielo (Clear Sky in Latverian), and destroyed both the Angel Breath headquarters and the Senate, killing everyone inside. Next, Nkrumah’s troops attacked the White House honor guards, the American Captains, and Doom himself broke into the White House and forced the former President to commit suicide instead of being killed.
Doom’s first act as President was to create his Black Cabinet. This consisted of Indigo Eshun as his Minister of Signal, Nkrumah as his Minister of Enemy Relations, Morphine Somers as his Minister for Humanity, and Sharp Blue as the Minister of Order. He also dissolved the Public Eye and other security forces, and rebuilt them as a new incarnation of S.H.I.E.L.D., with Jake Gallows, the former Punisher, as the head and Doom’s Minister of Punishment. Additionally, Doom hired 2099’s Ghost Rider as his Federal Marshall to keep order in Transverse City.
He continued to make changes, putting cyberspace-connected Dive Booths in every city. Then he created a national corporation called Cynex, and arrested the heads of the previous corporations, downgraded the credit levels of all citizens from the unlimited Black Cards to Gold Cards, and forced the corporation CEOs to choose one amongst them to be killed. They unanimously chose Avatarr, and when Doom attempted to kill him off-handedly, Avatarr revealed himself as a powerful alien with hallucinogens for blood. Doom eventually killed him, but not before he was affected by the hallucinogens, and recorded a public broadcast where he threatened the American populace for allowing Avatarr to pass unknown amongst them.
Using Doom’s resulting damaged reputation as a lever, Anthony Herod, the head of the Chicago Reserve, a secret vault full of outlawed technology, created a puppet version of Captain America and started his own attack upon the Presidency of America. Herod sent Wave Spiders, genetically-engineered, living weapons, against Doom’s cabinet, sending Nkrumah back to Wakanda, forcing Sharp Blue to flee to Mexico, and killing Indigo Shun. The Wave Spiders then destroyed Doom’s Libera Cielo and traveled to Latveria where they bombed the populace using necrotoxins, which reduced all living matter to a protein-rich sludge. Next, Herod destroyed the White House and rebuilt it using nanotech robots as the Red House, putting Captain America in the President’s seat as a false leader.
Herod also attacked Doom, who abandoned Washington D.C. and saved a young mutant named Annie Wagner from Shield troopers, then retreated to the mutant haven, Halo City. Doom used the resources of the city, which he created, to again rebuild his armor. He also attacked the leader of Halo City, Morphine Somers, whom he had put in place, and threatened him to use his power properly, or he would come for him. Doom left Halo City and headed to Washington D.C. Back at the capital, Doom used nanotech robots to take apart the Red House, along with everyone inside, including the fake Captain America, then used the same robots to eat away at Herod, sentencing him to a life of constant pain. Then, after putting Shakti Haddad in charge of the young mutant team, X-Nation, Doom used a hidden teleporter to travel back to Latveria to rebuild his home nation.
Armed with a plan to repair the problems of the world by making small changes to every nation, Doom plugged himself into the dataweb to start his worldwide machinations. But his plan backfired, and his consciousness expanded to the point where he felt the deaths of every one of his subjects from the necrotoxin, and he was forced to unplug to save his mind from the emotional pain. He then decided to travel into the past to find a way to save his people before they were attacked, and to that end he found himself again in the late 20th Century. Doom discovered a species of crab which secreted an addictive substance being used by drug dealers, which he found could make a populace all but immune the effects of necrotoxin over time, so against his principles, he decided to addict all of Latveria in the late 1900s in order to save them in the future. Though the Fantastic Four, Namor, Daredevil, and the younger incarnation of Doctor Doom distrusted his intentions and fought with him to stop his plans. Eventually, Doom was able to analyze the chemical and store the information in his armor’s mask before returning to the future.
Back in 2099, Doom found the remains of the Latverian people being led by Fortune and her brother, Kazmierz Rosikon, previously repaired by Margaretta while she was alive. Few of the populace had survived, and many that had were mutated into beings Kaz called mutalocos. Despite their lack of gratefulness, the Latverians again banded together with Doom when a massive planetoid arrived to orbit Earth, destroying the planet’s environment and endangering the entire populace due to its gravitational pull. A man claiming to be the original Reed Richards, transported from the 20th Century, implored Doom to help against the Atlanteans and their leader Attuma, who had used the surface world’s confusion to invade. Doom agreed and helped forced back the Atlanteans, saving the populace of New York and the surrounding areas long enough for them to escape to the Savage Land to rebuild.
Doom also fought back an attempted invasion on Latverian soil from the Atlanteans, and taunted Attuma with death or self-destruction. Then, responding to a summons from Fortune, Doom found Wire, who had previously committed suicide when the woman he loved was killed in Doom’s American bid for power, had been reassembled from cyberspace by the Collective. Doom accepted Wire’s invitation to meet with the Collective’s emissary and found himself transported elsewhere. The Collective threatened Doom, telling him that they were going to assimilate all of Earth and needed him to help him find the scouts that they implanted on their last visit, but before they could force him to comply, Kaz appeared, dressed in Radian’s armor. Kaz claimed he was sent by the Y’Lestja and pronounced himself the protector of planet Earth. Despite this, Doom still offered to make an exchange and give the Collective one of their scouts in exchange for the restoration of his beloved Latveria.
Keep up the great work guys. Your column is like crack…only better for your teeth and I don’t have to sell my GoBots comic book collection to pay for it. (dammit…they WILL be worth money one day).
Heh. You keep writing in questions. We‘ll keep answering.
And the first fix is always free…
Jason emails
Hey Jim and Daron,
I’m a first time e-mailer/question asker, and I’ve only read a few issues. Jim you know me as Darwin2 over on the Marvel.com boards, and Daron you don’t know me at all so hi I’m Jason. Now that the formalities are out of the way, here is the real reason I’m e-mailing you guys
Hey Jason.
Nice to know you Jason, and welcome to the Handbook and the Nexus in general. I hope you enjoy yourself.
1. What are your top five favorite Marvel Movies of all time?
mine:
Spider-Man 2
Spider-Man 1
Fantastic Four
X-2
Punisher (recent)
Well, I sort of answered this above…but Marvel only. Let’s see:
1.X2/Spidey2
2. Spidey 1
3. X1
4. Blade
2. What are your top five least favourite Marvel Movies of all time?
Howard The Duck
Nick Fury
Punisher (86)
Doctor Strange (70s)
Hulk
That I’ve seen…
1. Punisher (86)
2. X3
3. Blade Trinity
4. Hulk
5. I can’t think of any others that I really hated…
3. Who are your top ten favorite Marvel Characters?
Wolverine
Spider-Man
Captain America
Thanos
Doom
Silver Surfer
Dr. Strange
Rogue
Invisible Woman
Ultron
While I’m going to try and list my 10 favorite characters…they aren’t in any order:
1. Angel
2. Havoc
3. Captain America
4. Dr. Strange
5. Daredevil
6. Namor
7. Spider-Man
8. Moon Knight
9. She-Hulk
10. Invisible Woman
4. Who is hotter Emma Frost, She-Hulk or Jean Grey
She-Hulk of course
Agreed!
5. I don’t have a question 5 I am just filling up space :)
Hahaha. Always helpful.
well now that thats outta the way I’ll just send this bad boy out and hope to see a response in an upcoming issue…If this gets posted I will become an avid reader and an avid writer
Response is here in the issue. Good questions. Hope you email again.
Ha! You realize you are now obligated to read every issue and email in as often as possible right? Good! Thanks for the emails and the great questions.
Cory emails
Sup J & D, Cory here. Hope you guys are doing well, so away we go:
Hey Cory
Before I start, I know that Cap’s death has impacted us all, but these past 2 weeks I noticed two things in my life that relates to his “passing”. 1- That In The Pursuit of Happyness, actor Jaden Christopher Syre Smith carries around a MEGO Captain America doll for the majority of the film, before he loses it and cries when he is unable to retrieve it. (Seems sort of ironic since we all have “lost” Cap.)2- My 5yr old cousin saw the 2nd printing cover of Civil War: The Confession, and asked me “Why is there blood on Cap’ America’s shield?” As I explained his “death” and reasons for dying, I totally realized even more how a fictional character’s death has impacted society. Sorry to carry on, just found these two instances interesting. He is a human, one of my faves, but maybe because I am an American that it still stings. But to me the term “leader” is now null in void in the MU. No disrespect to Cyke, Cable, or Reed. R.I.P. C.A.
Quite well said Cory.
Nice.
1. What’s up with Hulk’s revenge checklist? I mean he has the wrong people on it, am I right? Why Ms. Marvel, Tigra, and Spidey? I can understand the Thing trying to protect Reed, and Wolverine & Cyclops doing the same for Prof. X.
The problem is the site came up with that image more likely then Marvel actually did. Marvel would and will likely have all the Illuminati on it first before moving into other targets. After all he’s after the Illuminati more.
2. Last week a proposed Hulk vs. Thor battle was brought up. What’s the battle history between these two heroes? Who has won more, The Incredible or the Mighty? Besides being faves of mine, they are easily two of the strongest in the MU.
I have an easy way to do this:
3. Throughout the years & prior to C.W., how has The Hulk’s relationship been with the following heroes? Spidey? Iron Man? Dr. Strange?
Strange: Somewhat friendly. Somewhat not. Since they were both Defenders they worked together a lot.
Iron Man and Hulk have matched each other more then not.
Spidey. Well off and on. He’s run into Spidey and battled him quite a few times.
4.Can I get a brief summary on why this was beneficial to the Punisher? 1992 – presumed assassinated by The Punisher and given a state funeral; it was later revealed that his death was faked for the Punisher’s benefit.
Good question. I’m going to have to reread this one.
5. I really enjoyed 2 books that I have read recently. Civil War: The Confession & Fallen Son #1. I was actually shocked to see Tony actually cry, admit his mistakes, and mention his alcoholism. I respected him for that, even though Cap’s gone. In Fallen Son, I loved what Wolverine did to seek the truth. I read this book like 4 times, but the last page took the cake. He was right about what he told Tony. “That he could fight his way out of the heli-carrier, but Tony & Hank will let him go…go to tell the superhero community that Cap is dead, and end all hope. And that if he finds out that Tony has benefitted or a had anything to do with Cap’s death, that he will kill him”. Nice! I just hope the rest of Fallen Son’s are just as good. How did you two fellas enjoy these two titles?
I enjoyed both quite a lot. Actually Fallen Son seems like a great read. Even the 2nd issue wasn‘t bad.
I unfortunately haven’t read it yet, but I’ve heard nothing but good things about yet…
6-8;M.K. questions:
6. After reading the last issue of Moon Knight, I was wondering bout his rogues gallery. Does all of his enemies end up either dead or disfigured?
More recently yes. Moon Knight is more deadly then he’s ever been before in his current series. The first and second series where not like that.
7. Who is the Midnight Man and his son?
Jeff Wilde was the son of the original Midnight and took that code-name when he went to work for his father’s old adversary, Marc Spector, a.k.a. Moon Knight. Despite Moon Knight’s warning, Wilde got involved in his investigation into the would-be world-dominating organization the Secret Empire. During a battle with the Empire, Jeff took a force blast from a Secret Empire power dagger which destroyed much of his body and nearly killed him. Moon Knight went after Jeff and tried to rescue him. Eventually he captured the Empire’s head man, code-named Number One, who insisted Midnight had died as a result of his injuries. Moon Knight stopped his search for his friend. In fact, Wilde had not died, but was made the subject of a cruel experiment. The Empire wanted to construct an army of cyborg super agents and Wilde was to be the prototype. He was used as a guinea pig to see how much he could endure both physically and mentally as his system was fitted with more and more powerful weaponry. A pain-inducing device was wired to Wilde’s spinal cord to insure his cooperation and modify his behavior should the need arise. Wilde did not wish to serve the Empire at first, but eventually, seeing their open aggression as more honest than what he had come to view as Moon Knight’s false professions, he relented. His first assignment for the Empire was breaking physicist Elliot Franklin out of jail.
Franklin’s services had been retained by the Empire to provide them with more advanced weaponry and to better enhance cyborgs like Midnight. It was while freeing Franklin that Midnight first encountered the super hero, Darkhawk. During a battle which also involved Spider-Man, Midnight was temporarily captured and unmasked. Spider-Man had known Midnight briefly before his conversion, but believed he had been killed. Distracted by both Wilde’s story and a sneak attack by Franklin, the heroes allowed Midnight and the doctor to escape. Spider-Man contacted his fellow Avenger Moon Knight and informed him that his former partner was still alive.
Midnight’s second assignment was to recruit for the Empire the superhuman adventurer called Nova. When an attempt at conning Nova failed, Midnight took him captive. This abduction brought Nova’s New Warrior teammate Night Thrasher onto the case. Spider-Man, Moon Knight, and Night Thrasher tracked Midnight to an Empire outpost. Here they met up with the Punisher and together the four battled upwards of fifteen standard Empire soldiers, three armored hired-guns called the Seekers, and Midnight. After a brief exchange, the Empire’s forces pulled out.
Eventually, Spider-Man, Moon Knight, Night Thrasher, and Punisher were able to track Nova’s helmet transceiver signal to the Secret Empire’s main headquarters located on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Lynn Church had shut down the headquarter’s transmission security device in order to create a diversion which would give her enough time to effect some changes to Midnight’s pain-inducing device. Spider-Man, Moon Knight and Night Thrasher fought their way through the Empire’s front line troops, while Midnight, now free from the pain-inducing device, was staging a coup on the Council of Ten, in which Number Seven was killed. The council was finally forced to flee, but not before the Punisher had overpowered Number Three and hidden on-board their escape rocket. Disguised as Number Three, Punisher found Nova and sabotaged the power shackles which were holding him. Once free, Nova permanently shut down the headquarter’s radio jammer and got a signal off to Night Thrasher. This brought Night Thrasher along with Spider-Man, Moon Knight, and Darkhawk.
When Lynn Church revealed that she was actually the first of the Empire’s cyborg soldiers, the stage was set for the Empire’s last stand. Church, Midnight, the Seekers, Eliot Franklin in his new Thunderball armor, and a slew of heavily-armed Empire thugs faced off against a team of heroes, including Spider-Man, Darkhawk, Nova, Night Thrasher, Punisher, and Moon Knight. When Midnight learned that Church allowed herself to be turned into a cyborg voluntarily, he became disillusioned and quit the fight. Church then revealed that she had not removed Midnight’s pain-inducer, but had merely changed the frequency. Seeing a chance to grab some power for himself, Thunderball tried to get the pain-inducer away from Church. Midnight decided he would rather die than continue being a slave to pain, or to anyone who could control that pain, and started smashing the building’s support columns. Church attempted to stop him while the heroes gathered up their fallen allies and enemies alike and head for safety. Thunderball and the two cyborgs appeared to have been crushed to death under tons of debris.
However, Thunderball had been spared by a support column and managed to hammer his way out of the wreckage using Midnight’s and Lynn Church’s robotic arms, still locked in their death grip. Spider-Man delivered Midnight’s epitaph, but as his body was never recovered, Midnight may not be gone for good.
8. Was there any romantic history between M.K. and Tigra before?
In West Coast Avengers they had some chemistry.
9. I know that She-Hulk is a very promiscuous character but, wasn’t there a previous story where she was sun-bathing which lead to her having nude pics in the paper or tabloids? I also have read that her reasons of her sexuality are about her over-protective father, acceptance, and self-discovery. I know that She-Hulk’s still married to John Jameson, but are currently spending time apart. But whoa, since the separation from her husband, She-Hulk has had flings with Clay Quartermain and Tony Stark, and made a pass at Wolverine. Tony Stark? I know that he is a playboy & rich, but it seems like more business (S.H.I.E.L.D), than personal pleasure to me. Wolverine rebuffs her, saying he has no wish to “chase after Juggernaut’s sloppy seconds.” She-Hulk replies angrily: “I didn’t sleep with Juggernaut! Why does everyone keep saying that?” (Although She-Hulk and Juggernaut were shown in bed in Uncanny X-Men #435, this may have been retconned.) So this isn’t actually true now??
Yep there was a story with her being caught sunbathing back in the FF. Then it came up again later in She-Hulk. She did sleep with Juggs. She just wants to forget it likely.
Well if it was actually mentioned in the same issue that she claims it didn’t that has to mean it did happen. As Jim said, she’s just trying to cover her tracks…
10. I know about The Punisher, Hawkeye, and She-Hulk but what other heroes have Captain America trained?
Nomad
D-Man
Bucky
Falcon
Jack Flag
Free Spirit
Diamondback
11. Over in New Excalibur, what has happened to Juggernaut? He’s no longer “unstoppable”, what led to his depowerment?
As the result of an undisclosed battle with Cyttorak, his patron deity, Cain lost most of the power of the Juggernaut. Thereafter, Cain reconciled with Xavier and joined the X-Men. In an unusual turn for someone of Cain’s personality he immediately befriended several people at the mansion including a young mutant boy named Sammy Pare, a.k.a. Squidboy, who had a positive influence on him. Cain later allowed himself to be taken into custody and then had a one-night stand with She-Hulk, who as Jennifer Walters was representing him in his trial for all the crimes he had committed as a criminal. Amazingly, Cain was exonerated of all his crimes and allowed to go free despite having numerous outstanding felonies both at home and abroad.
12. Wanda being consumed by Chaos Magic was further explored in the much-anticipated Avengers/JLA crossover, which had Wanda tap into the highly dangerous (and powerful) chaos magic of the DC Universe and barely being able to control the magic. Hypothetically speaking, since this happened prior to Avengers: Disassembled, did this have little to anything to do with her “downfall”, since the DCU magic was a lil too much for her?
I believe so. Her powers did seem to go more advanced and powerful since that little event.
Well chock one up for DC taking out a bunch of Marvel heroes…who have all pretty much come back since.
That’s it for me this week. Take care guys, thanks a million, Make Mine Marvel & See ya in 7.
Wow that was a lot. Great stuff Cory.
Yo, Daron…what no more top 10’s??
New one this week.
Only if you guys put them in…
New top ten:
Marvel Cartoons
The Initiative synopsis
Groups:
California: Champions
Canada: Omega Flight (Arachne, Beta Ray Bill, Guardian, Sasquatch, Talisman, U.S.Agent)
Colorado: Thunderbolts: (Bullseye, Green Goblin, Moonstone, Songbird, Swordsman, Radioactive Man, Venom, Penance
Connecticut: Initiative: (Henry Gyrich, War Machine, Yellowjacket, Baron Von Blitzkrieg, Ares, Beast, Black Widow, Gauntlet, Hellcat, Justice, Ms Marvel, Moonstar, Nighthawk, She-Hulk, Tigra, Wonder Man, Armory, Bengal, Cloud 9, Constrictor, Gargoyle, Hardball, Komodo, MVP, Alex Power, Puma, Rage, Rocket Racer, Shooting Star, Slapstick, Thor Girl, Trauma, Triathlon, Ultra Girl)
Illinois: Spaceknights
Iowa: Force Works
New York: The Mighty Avengers (Ares, Black Widow, Iron Man, Ms. Marvel, Sentry, Wasp, Wonder Man)
Texas: Rangers: (Firebird, Phantom Rider, Red Wolf, Shooting Star, Texas Twister, Armadillo)
Washington: Earth Force (Earth Lord, Skyhawk, Wind Warrior)
Wisconsin: Great Lakes Champions (Big Bertha, Doorman, Flatman, Mr. Immortal, Squirrel Girl, Tippy Toe)
CSA: (Valerie Cooper, Henry Peter Gyrich, General Haywerth, George Mathers, Norman Osborn, Dallas Riordan, Adrian Sammish, Orville Sanderson)
Damage Control, INC.: (Walter Declun (Dead), Ann-Marie Hoag, Henry Ackerdson, Eugene Strasser, Albert Cleary, Robin Chapel, Lenny Balinger
Heroes for Hire: (Black Cat, Humbug, Misty Knight, Orka, Shang-chi, Tarantula, Colleen Wing, Otis Johnson)
O.N.E.: (Val Cooper, War Machine, Miguel Reyes, General Lazer (dead))
S.H.I.E.L.D.: (Iron Man, Maria Hill, Dum Dum Dugan, Valentina De Fontaine, Derek Khanata, Jasper Sitwell, Gabe Jones, Clay Quartermain)
Young Avengers: (Hawkeye, Hulkling, Patriot, Speed, Stature, Wiccan, Vision)
Underground/None registered:
New Avengers: (Doctor Strange, Ronin, Cage, Iron Fist, Spider-Man, Spider-Woman, Echo, Wolverine)
Bad Girls Inc: (Asp, Black Manta, Diamondback)
In Between:
Fantastic Four: (Black Panther, Storm, Human Torch, Thing)
Nextwave: (Elsa Bloodstone, Captain, Pulsar, Meltdown, Machine Man)
New X-Men: (Surge, Dust, Hellion, Elixir, Mercury, Rockslide, X-23)
Runaways: (Lucy in the Sky, Bruiser, Victor Mancha, Sister Grimm, Old Lace, Chase Stein)
S.H.E.: (Amazon, Belgian Brain, Claymore, flying Carpet, Javelin, Magma, Oracle, Red Dragon, Shamrock, Yvette)
X-Men: (Nightcrawler, Darwin, Havok, Polaris, Marvel Girl, Professor X, Warpath, Rogue, Iceman, Cannonball, Cable, Omega Sentinel, Lady Mastermind, Mystique, Sabretooth, Cyclops, Emma Frost, Beast, Kitty Pryde, Colossus, Wolverine, Lockheed, Armor)
Mighty Avengers #2: Wonder Man talks to his agent as Ms Marvel and Iron man come and recruit him. We then go where we left off last issue. Mole Man’s monsters attack Ultron. Sentry talks to his wife until Ms Marvel and Iron Man come and recruit him. Ultron takes out the monsters and then Sentry and Ares before killing the monsters. Widow trains with some SHIELS agents and takes them all down before Iron Man and Ms Marvel arrive and recruit her. Ultron angers and then takes out Ares in the fight. Carol demands a retreat as Janet looks at Ultron. We see Ms Marvel recruit Wasp. Wasp talks to Ultron and knows it’s Ultron and Hank has to be called in.
Fantastic Four #545: Reed/Sue head to Titan for their second honeymoon. We go back to the FF members in space elsewhere as Surfer speaks with Epoch. Thing tries to talk to Surfer before a fight breaks out instead. We see Epoch bring Gravity back from the dead to make him the new protector. Surfer is attacked by Storm and Panther steals his board before attacking. Stardust arrives and helps Surfer. Surfer stops Stardust from killing his friends. Surfer and Thing talk again before Panther talks to Thing for a moment. Panther decides that Epoch is under their protection before leaving. Surfer and the FF prepare to fight again until Gravity arrives with new powers
Back in Black synopsis
Sensational Spider-Man 37: We see Hyde transform. Spidey finds Jordan as Hyde arrives. Black Cat brings in another fake Spidey. Black Cat talks to Jordan’s mother. Hyde and Spidey fight and Jordan is released helps Spidey take on Hyde. Spidey tells Cat what happened in the fight as the issue ends.
Civil war update
Moon Knight #9: Marc works out while talking to a friend of his when Midnight shows up and fights Marc and him. Jean Paul helps mend the young man. Marlene calls Marc who heads out as Moon Knight and we see the Punisher
Fallen Son #1: Wolvie and Winter Soldier investigate Cap’s death with Wolvie thinking he’s not dead at one of SHIELD’s old hid outs. After finding nothing Wolvie heads off and runs into Daredevil on patrol. He needs his help and has Strange cloak them so they can check out a Hellicarrier where they talk to Crossbones about killing Cap. Wolvie gives him a gun as well. Getting shot while at it but he heals and then kills Crossbones from the looks of things. Wolvie goes to see Cap’s body to find Tony showing up and talking to him. Wolvie warns him if he finds out he killed Cap he’s next.
Fallen Son 2: We watch the Mighty Avengers head off to stop Tiger Shark. Thing arrives at Strange’s place for poker. Ares argues with the Mighty Avengers when the Strange and Wolverine are brought up. Cage and Spidey (who’s mourning) greet Thing. The Mighty Avengers attack Tiger Shark as the poker games starts with Thing trying to psych out Spider-Woman. We see the Mighty Avengers fight Tiger Shark and the sea monsters. Spidey is mourning Cap pretty hard. The Young Avengers are shown to going out on Patrol. Wolverine shows up for poker and confirms Cap is dead and Spidey fights him till Thing stops the fight. Namor shows up to help the Mighty Avengers and stops Tiger Shark before leaving with him. Spidey leaves the poker game with Wolverine following.
She-Hulk 17: The basement: some of the staff argue over the Hellicarrier in comics. SWe see She-Hulk and the Hulkbusters taking on the Glob, The Toadmen, The U-Foes and Zzzax before heading back to the Hellicarrier. Tony arrives and wants to talk to Jen. We see Ms Book yell at Zix. She-Hulk and Tony sleep together and are attacked as well as the Hulkbusters. A bunch of Nick Fury LMDs are behind the attack. We see Ms Book go to the bar with no name and have to be helped out of there by Two-Gun kid in the end. The Achillies project passes the test. She-Hulk deals with Zzzax and has a Fury head with her that mentions Bruce.
Big week. Late last week but we make up big time for it I think with a very large column. I like having tons of questions with long answers.
Indeed. That was one of the longest ones we’ve had in some time. Sorry again for the lateness all. We’ll make it up to you by having an in depth report on this past weekend’s convention though. Look for it from Jeff Ritter some time this week.
I want this type of article again next week. Let‘s get more questions. I love large columns.
I’ve heard that about you, Jim…
1. Digital comics Comics you can read online
2. Marvel is in the process of adding new bios and added a ton of new ones. Check them out here
3. As always your opinions on anything in the article or out on the shelves is welcome. After all you never know what type of response you will get.
4. Keep those emails coming and make sure to label them Marvel Handbook. The more emails the better the article is.
