Ultimate Marvel Handbook #243

Archive, Columns, Top Story

And we’re back…finally!

Welcome to yet another edition of the Marvel Handbook. I‘m Jim Trabold of course. I‘m running late today. Busy day and I was not feeling well all weekend. But all better now and kicking off a good issue. Hey Daron what’s up bud?

What’s up is that I’m REALLY sorry that we’re running so far behind. It’s totally my fault, I admit it. School has had me running in circles…I’m literally writing a feature length screenplay in the class I’m in and it’s taking up all my time.

I’m going to do my best to get this column back on track though…

Well I’m ready to go. So let‘s do it.

Soak posted

going back to the same time what happened with daniel moonstar when she was a valkerie being taken over by Hela until now?

When Hela attempted to take over Asgard, Dani and the other Valkyrior were infected with a mystical fever. Hela planned to use Moonstar to gather humans to her forces to defeat Thor. Transported back to Asgard, Moonstar fell under the sway of Hela and nearly killed Odin. Hela was defeated by the combined forces of the New Mutants and the Asgardians, and the New Mutants were returned to Earth; all except Moonstar who chose to stay behind, hoping to repair the damage as a Valkyrie.

Moonstar was exiled from Asgard. Plus she had renamed her winged horse Brightwind into Darkwind. She was found by Reignfire, who was leading the Mutant Liberation Front. Moonstar agreed to join the group. Unknown to all she had joined S.H.I.E.L.D. and was undercover while working as a member. She would battle alongside MLF as they fought X-Force. She had also gained new power during this time to gain the ability to focus her psionic powers into energy arrows which can stun an opponent by disrupting their central nervous system, or force them to relive a traumatic memory.

She would still help out X-Force during this time of course not fully being a villain but being undercover. While working for Reignfire she believed him to be Sunspot. But when he killed her horse and almost herself before he was arrested. She would stay with the MLF but would join forces with X-Force again as she was called to Asgard to help the Valkyries battling Hela and Malekith.

During Operation Zero Tolerance X-Force was sent by S.H.I.E.L.D. to save her. She would join them not to long afterwards as the team left Cable.

During their encounter with the Damocles Foundation, Dani was transmorphed for a short time by Arcadia, giving her the ability to channel quantum energies, which allowed her to affect matter at a subatomic level.

Dani could see these quantum energies as interconnected particles and waves, and she could affect those connections, changing the physical nature of all things, including an electromagnetic field such as the one generated by Magneto during X-Force’s encounter with him in Genosha.

When Dani and Arcadia meet up again in San Francisco, Dani’s powers were removed from her and a dimensional rift was formed, also causing four alternate Moonstar’s to be created. Each of these Moonstar’s represented a different aspect of Dani – New Mutant, Valkyrie, M.L.F. member, and quantum-powered. With the help of the quantum-powered incarnation, Moonstar was able to stop Arcadia and after the rift was sealed, Dani was returned to normal.

She would leave the team during a six month gap in time and joined the X-Men. With the reopening of the Xavier Institute as a school, Moonstar recruited adolescent mutants although Xavier wanted her to teach. She would bring Sofia Mantega to the school as well as help out Laurie Collins. She would find a few more kids and find her friend Karma having her join the staff as well.

Upset by having to use her illusion powers to prevent Wither from killing, Moonstar wanted to quit but stayed upon hearing all of her recruits wanted her as their adviser. Dani even signed legal papers to become Josh Foley’s legal guardian after his family abandoned him. A brief New Mutants reunion occurred when Donald Pierce attacked the school, and Dani joined her old friends to defeat him.

Moonstar would along the way help her friend Wolfsbane during her power lose. Xavier would leave the school but Emma Frost and Cyclops gained control and Danni kept her role even though having issues with Emma. She would find out about a romance between Rahne and Wolfsbane during this time as well forcing Wolfsbane to leave.

With the school rebuilt after the impostor Magneto’s attack, older students were assigned to squads to better hone their abilities. Moonstar became the adviser to the New Mutants squad, made up of the youths she had recruited previously.

However, after the events of M Day, Dani lost her powers and was sent home along with all the other depowered students and faculty by Emma Frost.

She took it hard interviewing with Sally Field about losing her powers. Moonstar would later join the Initiative training program to help out Trauma

Bdog asked

Yeah actually…What was the whole apocalypse thing for the x-men? I have a book with the shiny cover I just don’t remember

You mean Age of Apocalypse?

This reality was accidentally created by Legion, son to Professor Charles Xavier and Gabrielle Haller. Legion believed that the only way to bring peace to humans and mutants was to kill Magneto before he incited the anti-mutant movement. He traveled back to a time when Xavier and Magneto both lived in Israel and worked at a hospital, taking the X-Men Storm, Iceman, Bishop, and Psylocke with him.

The trip through time gave everyone amnesia, however. The other X-Men attacked Legion. Legion tried to stab Magneto with a psi-blade, but Xavier shielded Magneto and died instead. By killing his own father, Legion made his own existence impossible. The M’Kraan Crystal resolved the paradox by restructuring reality. All the X-Men vanished from that reality, and a new reality came into existence. Bishop, already displaced in time, remained, but the chronal backlash fractured his mind. He would wander the earth for the next twenty years.

The super-powered fight also attracted the attention of Apocalypse

The world powers, as well as the face of the Earth, were drastically changed as a result of Apocalypse’s war against normal humans. The world was divided between two superpowers: Apocalypse in North America and the Human High Council everywhere else. Both groups claimed to act in the best interest of their genetic breeds.

Militarily, the sides were in a stalemate. North America was protected by a sea wall. The High Council had a large cache of nuclear weapons. As in our own Cold War, both sides were calling for peace while plotting the other’s destruction. Any incident could spiral out of control and lead to the annihilation of all humanity.

In North America The southern part of the continent was divided between Apocalypse and his four horsemen. The Badlands: western and central Canada, with scattered human hideouts. The realm of Holocaust: west coast of the United States, with capital in San Francisco. Holocaust’s land was mainly used for genetic culling and the creation of Infinities. The realm of Mikhail: part of the Midwest. Not much is known about what Mikhail did here; he resided mostly in Europe, speaking for Apocalypse. The realm of Abyss: southern United States, including most of Texas, with capital at Dallas. The realm of Mister Sinister: Although Sinister had secret labs all over North America, he was given the other part of the Midwest, with capital at Chicago. The Realm of Apocalypse: centered on the Eastern Seaboard, from Quebec to Florida, with capital at Apocalypse Island (formerly New York City). Somehow the X-Men escaped detection in the ruins of Xavier’s mansion in Westchester County.

Central America disappeared, possibly to make room for the sea wall (the exact means and motive were never disclosed). There was an Infernal Gallop to Avalon in the seas not far from Bermuda. South America became known as “The Atrocity Zone.” Brazil was obliterated by a nuclear strike. There may have been an Infernal Gallop on the west coast.

The people who escaped from the United States gathered here. They were governed by the Human High Council (also known as the Eurasian High Council). The region was defended by Sentinels, created by Bolivar Trask, and a nuclear arsenal large enough to destroy the entire North American continent. Muir Island: a possible Sentinel manufacturing plant. London: home of the Human High Council. Mikhail was also stationed here aboard Apocalypse’s ship. The German Colonies: possible Sentinel manufacturing plants. Pythagoreans Mountain: former base of Magneto and the X-Men, destroyed by Apocalypse’s troops. Human Settlements: scattered across northwestern Africa.

Of course many titles filled the gaps:

The Astonishing X-Men
The Amazing X-Men
Gambit and the X-Ternals
X-Calibre
Generation Next
Weapon X
Factor X
X-Man
X-Universe

The final battle in Apocalypse’s stronghold for the M’Kraan Crystal saw many casualties, and marked the deployment of both Apocalypse’s sea wall defense perimeter and the Human High Council’s nuclear arsenal, which threatened to destroy the whole world.
During the battle, Magneto battled Apocalypse to the death, ripping the mutant in half with his magnetic powers.

Also during the battle, Bishop, Destiny, and Illyana traveled into the M’Kraan Crystal. Destiny and Illyana’s powers helped send Bishop back in time to the point where Xavier was about to be killed by Legion. Bishop managed to stop Legion, and the two were consumed by the backlash of psi-energy. The Age of Apocalypse, and all memory of it, was seemingly erased with the prevention of Xavier’s assassination.

Of course some characters made it out of AOA: X-Man, Dark Beast, Sugar-Man, Holocaust, Blink and Sabretooth

New Ways to Die synopsis

Amazing Spider-Man #471: Anti-Venom tries to clean out Spidey’s radio activity. Menace attacks Osborn only for Osborn to blow up the glider. Songbird and Radioactive Man arrive. Anti-Venom stops and begins fighting the Thunderbolts. Osborn and Menace keep fighting. Songbird goes after Spidey who is weak because the drain. Anti-Venom fights Radioactive an. The Goblin fight continued till Osborn gets Menace away. The Thunderbolts leave with Venom forcing Anti-Venom to follow. Pete goes to check on May. Harry gives Ben papers on Oscorp. Harry checks on Carlie. Randall confronts Osborn before he gathers the Thunderbolts. Bullseye wants Spider-Man himself

Secret Invasion Synopsis

Deadpool #1: Skrulls arrive at a ballgame. They find the mascot armed and attack it. Deadpool in the outfit fights them off. The Skrulls try and fail to kill him. They have to send a Super-Skrull to do the job. Deadpool plants a bomb on the ship. Deadpool is grabbed by the Super-Skrull before he gives up and says he’s there to work for the Skrulls

Ms Marvel #30: Ms Marvel goes to a prison where she finds a Skrull about to kill tiger Shark. She saves him and battles the Skrull. The fight goes all the city. We see the Skrull even kill other Skrulls before she defeats him. Later: we see Carol in Hong Kong

Secret Invasion #6: No-Varr meets Mar-Vell before he dies. Skrulls tell Earth they are there to help. We see the X-Men, Inhumans, Black Panther, Shanna and Sabra battling Skrulls. Hammond: Hank welcomes Spider-Woman. The Queen and the rest all find out what has happened. The Avengers blame themselves for what’s happened. Some humans fall for the Skrulls words. Nick’s team, the Young Avengers, and Initiative members team up to fight the Skrulls. Hood’s group watch and join the fight. Thor arrives and meets Cap. The Skrulls watch as the Avengers arrive. The Thunderbolts joins the others. All the heroes gather even with the villains to face off with the Skrulls as the fight starts

Secret Invasion Inhumans #2: We see more of the history of the Inhumans. The Inhuman royal family the Skrulls. The Skrull holding Medusa has fight with her. We see a Skrull torturing Black Bolt. We go back to the fighting. Medusa taking a Skrull prisoner places him into the Terrigen Mist changing him. Maximus finds a Skrull replaced Ahura. Medusa tortures the Skrull getting no where. So the Inhumans steal a Skrull ship and go off to free Black Bolt

Secret Invasion Runaways/Young Avengers #3: We see Xavin trained in the past. The Elektra Skrull tracks the Young Avengers. Xavin plans to use Hulkling to end this war. Xavin is confronted by his trainer who has the Runaways. The Runaways fight back as both the Elektra Skrull and Xavin’s trainer fight off the two teams. Speed takes Molly away. Hulkling takes on the Elektra Skrull with the truth defeating her. Karolina and Xavin defeat his old trainer. The teams split up

Secret Invasion X-Men #2: the X-Men arrive to save Kurt. The team is forced to escape after being outnumbered. The Skrulls search them out. Cyclops comes up with a plan to take the Skrulls out. Kurt checks out the device and learns what it is. We see Iceman, Northstar and Aurora start the chaos. As the other X-Men start taking the battle to the Skrulls. Kurt begins to be effected by the device. Emma and the Cuckoos try to get past the psy-block. Pixie is attacked only for X-Force to take out the Skrull involved and taking it to Beast

House of M Synopsis

House of M Civil War #1: 1945: Aushwich. We see a young Magneto first use his powers. Later Magneto meets and marries Magda having Anya. When his home is set ablaze he goes to use his powers losing Anya to death and Magda to her being scared. Magneto leads few mutants on a prison break. Magneto has a romance with Susana Dane. Sentinels are built. Magneto takes one out as Apocalypse watches. The two join forces. The form an army only to argue over how to deal with humans. The two fight with Magneto defeating Apocalypse before a Sentinel attack. Magneto defeats them and soon gives a speech that is seen by his Children and Xavier

That‘s it this week. I need my e-mailers now. I‘m fresh out of emails and I need something to cover next issue. So send those emails folks. What you do think Daron? Any request.

I think we definitely need more questions, I didn’t even have anything to add this week…but again it’s my fault for being late, so I’ll let it go this time.

Alright folks you know Daron. He likes a good debate so send something we can debate. Maybe something on Secret Invasion. I don‘t mind covering anything. As long as we stay Marvel. So send those emails

That sounds good to me, let us have it!

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

That’s it from here. As always reporting from my corner of the Marvel Universe I’m Jim Trabold. Make Mine Marvel.

And make mine on time…right?