Ultimate Marvel Handbook #226

Features

Hey everyone and welcome to yet another Marvel Handbook. We have a jam packed issue for you to. Let‘s do intros first. Daron how are you bud?

I’m just peachy…but think if we still have to do intros we’re probably in a lot of trouble…

I‘m great. Computers working, lots of emails. Tons of questions and a stock pile for the next issue. Sounds like we have a lot to do. Care to start?

Do I have a choice?

Didn’t think so.

Miccah emails

Jim and Daron,

New reader and first time writer…I got out of comics for a long time and only recently am trying to get back into them. Since I was a much bigger Marvel fan I am starting with them and catching up on Civil War, World War Hulk, and so forth. Anyway my questions really have nothing to do with any of that, they are just more random questions.

Well I guess the first questions do have something to do with that. What would you say are the best and worst Marvel U crossovers…the huge ones that crossover into all of marvel?

My top ten over all

1. Infinity Gauntlet
2. Secret Wars
3. Annhilation
4. Age of Apocalypse
5. Kree Skrull War
6. Phoenix Saga
7. Korvac Saga
8. Days of Future Past
9. Contest of Champions
10. Messiah Complex

And the worst…probably anything they’ve done in the last 8 years…

Which have really worked and did what they set out to do?

Gauntlet set out to bring Thanos back into bad ass villain and did so.

Secret Wars set out to have the greatest hero/villain war and helped create some great characters and impacted the characters for some time

Annihilation was made to put Cosmic back on the map.

Some work and some don’t. It’s to be expected of course.

On the other hand which ones just had poor storytelling and didn’t have any sort of impact past the story and didn’t change anything and are almost forgotten?

Clone Saga. Actually it’s now out of continuity all together.
Acts of Vengeance. They didn’t plot it right and it didn’t do much to impact anything
Spider-Man the Other. Now out of Continuity as well

One More Day did what it wanted but ruined a lot of other past Spidey stories.

On another note…What are yall’s favorite and least fave what if stories of the Marvel U? Guess I could do the standard top ten of each there…top 10 what if stories and bottom 10 what if stories and if you feel like it why.

Top 10

1.What if Spidey joined the FF in issue 1
2. What if Spider-Man’s Uncle Ben had lived issue 46
3. What if the original Marvel Bullpen had become the Fantastic Four? In issue 11
4. What if the Avengers lost the Evolutionary War? Issue 1 vol 2
5. What if Daredevil became an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.? Issue 28
6. What if Iron Man lost the Armor Wars? Issue 8 vol 2
7. What if Gwen Stacy had lived? Issue 24
8. What if the X-Men had stayed in Asgard? Issue 12 vol 2
9. What if the Avengers had become pawns of Korvac? Issue 32
10. What if the Fantastic Four had not gained their super-powers? Issue 36

Bottom 10

1. What if… starring Gambit: The greatest secret of the Marvel Universe revealed! Issue 100
2. What if… starring Ka-Zar: New York… the new Savage Land… no escape! Issue 112
3. What if… starring the Silver Surfer (What If the Impossible Man possessed the Infinity Guantlet? Issue 104
4. What if… starring Captain America: The unknown soldier (What If Captain America had awoken in a Dytopian America? Issue 103
5. What if Dazzler had become the herald of Galactus? Issue 33
6. What if… starring Cannonball’s little brother, Josh– and his pet Sentinel! (What if Josh discovered a Sentinel?) issue 92
7. What if… starring the Fantastic Four: Deadly inheritance (What If the Fantastic Four’s powers were out of control? – Based on Fantastic Four v.1 #1) issue 89
8. What if… starring Sabretooth: Screams in the night! (What If Sabretooth was loose in the X-Mansion?) issue 87
9. What if Scarlet Spider killed Spider-Man? Issue 86
10. What if J. Jonah Jameson adopted Spider-Man? Issue 82

Now for something slightly different…Strangest team-ups in Marvel history…be it hero/hero, villian/villian, or hero/villian. I know Spidey and Venom the first time they had to work together was sort of a shock and I heard there was a spidey/Watcher team up once…Don’t know if thats true or not but it seems weird…On that same note…most one sided/mismatched one on one fights?

Best odd team ups:

1. Spidey/Watcher
2. League of Losers (Araña, Dagger, Darkhawk, Gravity, Sleepwalker, Speedball, Terror, X-23)
3. Spidey/Sandman
4. Spidey/Venom
5. Aunt May and Franklin Richards
6. Any hero and Stan Lee. (The whole Stan Lee meets series while good had some odd team ups)
7. Spidey/Frog man
8. Spidey/ Saturday Night Live cast
9. Spidey/Frankenstein’s Monster
10. Spidey/Man-Wolf

Hmm most one sided fight. That’s a good one. I have to think that over

Finally last questions, I promise, which 10 heroes/ 10 villians would you like to see go off and explore the Marvel u, teaming up with random heroes or other villians in the villians case? Seeing that hero team with people they don’t usually and fight villians they might not normally. Same with villians..teaming with other villians and fighting heroes they might never run across otherwise?

I would say characters not having series of their own like:

Heroes:

1. Spider-Woman
2. Black Cat
3. Nick Fury
4. Namor
5. Black Bolt
6. Thing
7. Gladiator
8. Beast
9. Storm
10. Scarlet Witch

Villains

1. Doom
2. Loki
3. Thanos
4. Mandarin
5. Mister Sinister
6. Bullseye
7. Juggernaut
8. Leader
9. Magneto
10. Apocalypse

Thanks for the answers,

No problem.

Luthen emails

Great stuff as usual. I’d heap on the praise, but that’ll have to wait until next week’s email. I have questions that I’m afraid I’ll forget.

Feel free to split these up over a few weeks if you need to. Column filler = fun!

I might just do that.

I and ,my wife have just come back into the comics fold the past few months after damn near 15 years off. So if my questions are something a 10 year old could answer, please pardon the ignorance, After all, TPBs (which is all we buy) only answer so much.

Hey it‘s all good. That‘s why we are here.

Elektra was a Skrull? Please explain this.

Ah this is part of the big Marvel event of the year. Secret Invasion: Though it is unknown how the Skrull invasion began and how long it has been going on for, Brian Michael Bendis revealed in interviews that the motivation is the destruction of the Skrull Empire in Annihilation; the Skrulls believe that Planet Earth “is religiously and rightfully theirs”

What happened to the Beyonder? (Dated Question #1!) Any chance of him reappearing anytime soon? If so, should he have that awesome haircut and Don Johnson wardrobe?

Actually the last time we saw Beyonder was recently in the pages of New Avengers Illuminati. In New Avengers: The Illuminati #3, featuring a re-telling of past events, Charles Xavier reveals that in the original Secret War, he had initially planned to use his powers to make everyone fall asleep and thus buy him and Reed Richards time to formulate an escape plan, but feared the Beyonder’s wrath. However, he immediately sensed a strange mental presence and attempted to mind-scan the Beyonder, revealing him as one of the Inhumans previously ruled over by fellow Illuminati member Black Bolt. The apparent secret behind the Beyonder’s seemingly godlike abilities was also deduced by Xavier, who recognized that the Beyonder had been a mutant Inhuman, like Xavier and his own team of X-Men, and the exposure of his mutant genes to Terrigen Mists had created an unprecedented reaction, bestowing upon him more amazing power and knowledge than all other Inhumans of his time

What characters do you think need a huge makeover?

1. Cyclops
2. Black Panther
3. Archangel
4. Iceman

I can agree with that…for the most part…though I think Cyke just needs to go back to the way he was pre-Morrison.

After reading a few past issues, Daron seems to despise Gambit. Other than dying, becoming a vegetable, or going into a coma, is there anything that writers could do to make Gambit a character you could get into?

Daron this is all yours.

The short answer to that is…no. The long answer to that…also no. Gambit is just one of those characters I can’t stand. There’s nothing to be done about it, saving sending him into space with a snorkel…

Have there ever been any blatant “copycat” characters that were based off of a DC or Marvel character? I’m not talking about similar powers, but someone who even looked like his/her rival comics counterpart.

Not always looking the same but there‘s a lot of copy cats. Everything is the same with them except looks most times.

What I think, Jim’s trying to say is that the two copy off each other all the time, but “try” to make it seem like they aren’t. The list of parallel characters is probably as long as either companies rosters. However, unlike some smaller companies the big 2 “usually” try to hide this behind their character’s exteriors.

Misogynistic creepy question of the week: If you could see 5 glamorous ladies of comics in Playboy, who would they be?

Somehow knew this was coming

1. Emma Frost
2. Psylocke
3. Mystique
4. Sersi
5. M

I don’t know about misogynistic, but definitely “creepy” since we’re talking about fictional/drawn characters. But here goes anyway (and you said comics not Marvel):

1. Starfire
2. She-Hulk
3. Mystique
4. Blink
5. Poison Ivy

We’ll call it the Captain Kirk fantasy issue…

If Mary Jane had to die (which isn’t a bad idea) and Parker had to start hitting the dating scene…who would you like to see him hook up with the most?

Well MJ isn‘t dead. But they aren‘t married now. Pete can date anyone now. Maybe he can go find Black Cat again.

I think he should get together with one of the Spider-Women so they can have a bunch of little spider-babies and there by solidifying the fact that I’d never buy another “spider” comic…

I’m going to save the rest for next week

We’ll be here. Thanks for the email!

Jeff Ritter emails

Howdy Jim! Happy 2008!

Happy new year to you to Jeff.

Got a quick question for you: How many known MUTANT heroes can you think of that have not graced the pages of the X-Men? I thought of three:

Hmm good question. I can give a good list

Namor the Sub-Mariner (aka Marvel’s First and Mightiest Mutant) – Though this might have changed somewhere in the Civil War stuff. But he was certainly never a team member.

Namor actually has in the past. Way past. Early 60s Namor joined up with Magneto to take on the X-Men

Justice – The former New Warrior, Avenger and current Initiative coach. I can’t recall any appearances in X-Men or Uncanny.

Justice appeared in X-Force but I doubt that counts. So no he was not in X-Men

El Aguila – See, now I’m reaching. This guy was from the pages of Power Man and Iron Fist, if I recall. I’m pretty sure he’s dead. I’m only reasonably sure he’s a mutant.

Now him. He never showed his face in X-Men

I thought maybe Firestar, as she was more of a creation for the Amazing Friends cartoon, but I seem to recall that she was with the Hellions at some point (old New Mutants).

Firestar did appear in X-Men at least once.

So can you think of any others? Who’s on your ALL-MUTANT, NEVER AN X-MAN team?

Now this could be fun:

Justice
Firestar
Namor
Aurora
Sasquatch
Molly Hayes
Namora

On another non in X-Men mutant. How about Whirlwind?

Have a great year! You too, Cory and Daron!

Bah humbug!

You to Jeff. See you next time

Jeff Ritter Welcome To My Nightmare

Aftersmash Synopsis

Hulk #1: She-Hulk and Sampson investigate the murder of Abomination as Sampson figures the killer used a gun. Iron Man, Hill and Ross are brought in as the Winter Guard won’t let them take the remains. A fight breaks out as Ross stops it. A young boy shows up saying Red. Rick Jones is half naked as he finds himself looking over destruction. Sampson and Ross go to see Bruce Banner.

Initiative Synopsis

Captain America #33: Skull and Faustus argue over Bucky. SHIELD holds Bucky. Tony and Falcon chat as the power goes nuts. Tony and Widow go to check on Bucky who fights Iron Man only to learn of the letter. Widow arrives to see Tony and Bucky who is reading the letter and telling them about Luken and agreeing to take up the mantle of Cap.

Iron Man #24: Tony and Sal put the pieces together. Captain Ultra and Doc Samson meet. Maya and Mandarin try to find use for the virus without killing the masses. Dugan and Tony talk. Mandarin meets with someone as Koening calls. Tony gets his old armor and takes on an Extremis victim only for Sampson and Captain Ultra to show up and help. Tony and Sampson talk after.

Avengers Initiative #8: Present: Hank Pym questions Initiative. We go back to Stamford and them forming the idea and introducing it. Last Week: Protestors see Dragon Man brought in by recruits especially Komodo. Dragon Man breaks free before stopped again. Gyrich introduces Taskmaster. New Recruits: Ant-Man, Crusader, Melee, Gildolf, Dragon Lord, Gieger, Red 9, and Diamondback are trained by Taskmaster. Stature attacks Ant-Man who fights back only for Yellowjacket to stop the fight, Taskmaster steps in. Gyrich and Pym get a report from Triathlon. Baron suggest more MVP clones. As in the present we see a mad MVP giant clone.

New Warriors #7: Night Thrasher takes some hoods on before visiting his brothers grave as Silhouette arrives. The Warriors work on their weapons as a team. Barry talks about the SHRA. Chris continues to mourn his sister. Ultra Girl is put in charge of New Junior Guardsmen as She gives a press conference. Ultra Girl and justice talk. Sophia is given her pick of weapons. Thrash and Sil talk only to get attacked.

Thor #5: A man shows up at Asgard and leaves them mail and mail box. Heimdall and Thor continue the search as Thor goes finding a prison guarded by Destroyer and fights it in the end freeing Balder and finding a female Loki. Loki goes on to contact others waiting.

Moon Knight #14: Moon Knight deals with hoods returning home to his girlfriend after. Rob helps train Jean Paul. Moon Knight goes on patrol before fighting gun runners for the Chinese Mafia. Tony catches news on Moon Knight as Moon Knight is sent on a mission to deal with Killer Shrike

Ms Marvel #23: Binary faces the Brood Queen in Carol’s memory as she sees the queen again. Lightning Storm team arrives on Monster Island to find the Brood. Anya helps Sum with a nuke. Carol and the Alien lie wounded. Machine Man wakes to see Binary.

Thunderbolts #118: Osborn fights his demons. Gargan and Venom confront each other as two guards talk before the place explodes. Songbird and Radioactive Man fight the fires. Goblin emerges. Samson and Penance continue to talk. Moonstone and Osborn meet and send search for Venom and Swordsman. Swordsman shaves his head and calls himself Baron as he begins to take over.

Punisher War Journal #15: Punisher fights Tiger Shark. Kraven attacks Frog Man. Punisher finds Grizzly and Man Bull fighting. Kraven deals with Bushmaster going past all Punisher has done. Punisher fights Mandrill. Gragoyle and Swarm fight. Kraven and Punisher fight. GW gets Silver Sable to join his team. Kraven and Punisher fight till Rhino shows up. Kraven escapes to the Savage Land. Rhino writes a letter as Punisher goes after Kraven.

Secret Invasion synopsis

Captain Marvel #2: News hits of Marvel’s return. Marvel stays at Stark Tower looking for information as Carol arrives. Tony meets with Sante. Carol and Marvell talk until Cobalt Man attacks and both take him out and wonder why he’s alive. Church of Hala meets again. Tony and Marvel meet as the Kree attack.

Marvel Holiday Special 2007: Irving Griffen head of Features gives Lester another chance as he sees Reed Richards for a favor as he’s teleported to the Inhumans and Crystal who gives the meaning of Christmas, then to Latveria, then someone working for Trask, Namor, The Warriors 3, Silver Surfer, The Skrulls, Black Panther, Mangaverse, and Uatu before giving the Report to Griffen who is a Skrull.

Mighty Avengers #7: Spider-Woman shows Tony the Skrull and they talk. Spider-Woman joins Tony’s Avengers. Tony congratulates his team as they have fun with him. He introduces Spider-Woman as a new member. Wasp gives Wonder Man new costume choices. Astronauts salvage Tony’s Satellites as something breaks free going to earth to unleash the symbiotes. Lindy talks to Tony as Hill contacts Tony to send the team out.

House of M Synopsis

House of M Avengers #3: Misty shoots Blob and turns rogue as the Avengers escape and get past Punisher. Cage’s team continues without Tigra. Thunderbird captures Hector. Cage has others join the cause like the new White Tiger, The Dragons, Wolfpack and even Kingpin. Frank wants to quit. The Avengers talk over the new plans. Punisher questions Cage as Taskmaster finds out and fights them. Panther offers Punisher asylum after they escape. Cage and Misty fall in love. Taskmaster is taken out of the fight as Thunderbird makes a deal with Fisk

One More Day synopsis

Amazing Spider-Man #545: Aunt May dies as Pete recalls what happened as he wakes up and talks MJ. Mephisto comes and talks to them both as Pete his secret back as well as May if they agree to do this. Mephisto reveals May Day before it’s over and changes things. MJ gives her last words. Pete wakes up in his old house with Aunt May before going to Flash’s and sees MJ who’s mad at Pete. Harry arrives and it’s a welcome home party as MJ leaves before the toast.

Annihilation Conquest Synopsis

Annihilation Conquest #3: Warlock fights off the Phalanx as Phyla gets Moondragon to safety. High Evolutionary fights them off as well. Ultron faces Warlock. Moondragon dies in Phyla’s arms as Evolutionary watches. The place is set off to explode. Ravenous meets with Ronan and the others as he detects Wraiths powewr. Ronan gets the throne as Wraith uses his power. Starlod and his crew set explosives as Blastaar and the Phalanx arrive killing Captain Universe. Ultron arrives and captures Starlord

Messiah Complex Synopsis

X-Men #206: Madrox and Layla are separated as they are put in the prison. Emma leads the others to find Wolverine’s team grieving over Caliban and talks of finding Cable. Prodigy and the Young X-Men try to use Cerebro. Cable and the baby steal a truck. Marker Whitman marks Madrox. The X-Men continue their search. The Cuckoos use Cerebro to find Cable in Texas where he finds Forge hurt only to be shot. Madrox is put in the prison as Bishop is shown to be a traitor.

Uncanny X-Men #494: Bishop prepares to kill the baby when the Marauders arrive and stop him. He fights back but the Marauders take the baby. Future: Madrox and Layla meet again as they find Kid Bishop. Bishop meets with the X-Men as he’s told of Caliban’s dearth. Prodigy and the Cuckoos continue the search. Cable contacts Xavier about things.

Brand New Day Synopsis

Amazing Spider-Man 546: We start with Pete letting us in the story. A Spider-mugger hits town with Jackpot on his trail. Jonah hit’s the news. Aunt May wakes Pete. Betty finds Pete an apartment as Pete goes job hunting. Pete gets a call from Harry to go out. Mister Negative meets with a crook cop. Mia Flores kisses Pete. Pete swears off models. Mia goes looking for Pete as he goes outside. Pete and Carly meet up in the ally as the mugger hit’s them. Pete chases him only to run into May. He goes to find Betty/ Pete goes to Jonah for cash only For Jonah to have a heart attack.
Jackpot stops a runaway truck
Aunt May protects a homeless man named Freak
Harry meets his girlfriends father.

That‘s it for this week. A good amount of emails. I left one out. We‘ll get it next time out I promise.

Indeed. As well as a few more I’m sure.

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. For now that’s it. From this corner of the Marvel Universe. This is Jim saying see you next issue. Also Make Mine Marvel!

And make mine before you leave…I’m tired of waiting!