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#itsblueberry13-blog
katmaatui · 4 months
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What's the symbolism behind Hal's grey hair?
Hal's gray hair works in three different eras of symbolism: the original era, the Spectre era, and the post retcon era.
In the original era, aka 1990 to 1996, Hal's gray hair represents his older nature. It is a visible reminder that he is an older hero, one who has been in the game for a long time (15 years when the gray hair was introduced, about 16 years when Parallax happened). It actually really helps in the Parallax arc as a very visible difference between him and Kyle: he is the older, not broken but you get what I mean former hero while Kyle is the new hero, more naive, less experience but less cynical. It's just a very good visible representation of his age which was so important during this era! In the stories leading up to emerald twilight, the plot is all about him trying to get "the good old days" back when he didn't doubt himself, when he had a life. He gets back with Carol, he moves back to Coast City, he's friends with Tom again. He is very explicitly an older hero and that factors into the narrative and how he acts.
In the Spectre era, his gray hair represents his humanity. He doesn't have a body, he's not stuck with this. He chooses the gray hair, he chooses the wrinkles to show he's not just the Spectre, he's still Hal Jordan! He's still human, he's still aged. He has experienced life and he's proud of that. (Also side note: the one issue where he doesn't have gray hair is the one where the jla go to helen's birthday party...you can draw conclusions from there). In general, its to show he's still the same person, he's still human even while dead.
In the post retcon era, his gray hair are a firm reminder of Parallax. He only ever has gray hair in flashbacks, and it was removed when he came back to life. To me, the new all brown hair represents Hal's subconscious need to cover up all that happened. Everything is fine. See he even has brown hair again! Trust him, trust him, trust him. He's younger, he's not changed. He's always been this way. Don't see Parallax. This is more speculation than the others because the real symbolism here is that writers don't want to see themselves as old and then project that desire onto Hal, permanently stunting his growth so they don't feel old themselves.
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brw · 7 months
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Could you please give me a Greer Nelson reading list & a TigerAnt reading list? Thanks.
oooo okay, to be honest these lists are very similar so i'll incorporate them together for you. many thanks to @pymcoded for helping make this list!
the cat #1-#4 is her first solo series and shows her before she is tigra, it's really interesting n one of the first marvel comics written by a woman and is very based in second wave feminism politics.
giant size creatures is where she first becomes tigra.
marvel chillers #3-#7 is a short lived series she stars in beginning issue 3 and is pretty interesting n cool n further establishes her tigra identity
marvel two-in-one #19, fantastic four v1 #177-#184 is her first time working in a team and shows her friendship with ben grimm! she's not majorly in it but it is a good taste for her in team dynamics.
marvel premiere #42 finishes off dr tumolo's side of things and builds upon the cat people and greer's relationship with them.
avengers v1 #211-#216 is her stint on the avengers, as with the fantastic four she's not a main character but it does set up and establish her future relationships with a lot of these characters!
west coast avengers is a big one for both greer and her relationship with hank so definitely read this if that's what you're interested in. i would say just to keep going with this series really until vision and wanda become bigger characters because from that point their arcs dominate a lot of this series and i don't remember tigra having any major character focused issues the later on it goes.
marvel comics presents #162-#165 is a weird interesting story with some really wonderful art taking place in australia where tigra seeks revenge on soldiers for kidnapping aboriginal women. not exactly sensitive but an interesting read.
avengers infinity is a fun team up comic including monica and starfox, again she's not a massive player but it's fun and i like her dynamic with the other cast.
tigra #1-#4 is her solo series which i generally like for the art and the arc of her uncovering police corruption, however it's not perfect in that it ties a lot more importance to her dead cop husband and does go on a bit of a "not all cops!" thing but for a mainstream comic in the 2000s it's pretty interesting.
avengers academy is the next big one for her and hank, i would say read all of it but good issues to focus on are #7, #8, #13-#15, #27-#28, #31, #38-#39
avengers: solo #1-#5 b story is a cute one where hank takes some avengers academy kids out n him and greer are very sweet in it.
moon knight 2021 is her most recent big appearances, she's a semi regular occuring member since #4 so keep reading that, #22 is her big character focused issue so prioritise reading that.
and yeah! that's my tigra reading list, this is most of what i would consider her essential appearances with one or two bonus issues for her and hank :) hope this helps!
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dramaticbanjo · 10 months
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Could you please tell me which Green Arrow issue shows how cops send people in to make protests violent? Thanks.
ooooouuuughhhh its in the o'neil issues of gl/ga i believe (im fairly certain) so i guess not really ga comics lmao but its been a while since i read em to know the number off my head
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did save the comic panel tho that says it outright cuz subtlties about how shit landlords are is for squares BUT i apologize for mixing it up and saying cops sent in agents to turn the protests into a riot cuz in text it was the landlords themselves. my bad
sorry i cant remember the numberrrrr
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brw · 10 months
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Do you feel that Reed launching the Hulk into space was in-character? Just to be clear I haven't read the comic that this incident came from.
no, i don't think so, mainly because reed and bruce have always relatively been good friends and reed has gone out of his way to help bruce before, and bruce is very trusted by reed as evidenced as reed referring to bruce for gamma research when sue fell ill in ff #226. but like, ultimately planet hulk was an event and they needed characters like reed, t'challa, charles, black bolt to act out of character to do that event and i'm a big enough fan of what was spawned from that event (amadeus cho & pak's incredible hercules run) that i don't mind too much that it happened, i guess i just wish certain people who want to read the worst into reed richards as possible wouldn't emphasise it so much as if most characters aren't handled poorly in big events like that.
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katmaatui · 7 months
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Could you please recommend me a HalCarol reading list? If you don't have one, who would? Thanks.
I don't have one 😭😭😭nor know of someone who has one, and even more on that the only carol reading list I know of stinks. I say silver age is best for them, especially gl #3, 16, and 21 off the top of my head.
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brw · 1 year
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What do you think of EMH's Hank Pym? He's my favourite version of the character and the one I think of when I think of Hank Pym. I know he's very different however with his pacifism and him not having the ego that most iterations of Hank do.
I really like EMH's characterisation! It's proof to me honestly that you can adapt a character as historically mentally fraught as Hank, pay attention to those aspects & not demonise him for it as I feel the MCU thought was impossible. They did great adapting Yellowjacket I thought, and I appreciate Hank's pacifist role, even if it's not necessarily what I would have done. Personally, I think I prefer it when Hank is a lil aggressive? Like I think the introduction/solo ep caught a good balance of him being an idealist with these things but also kind of enjoying himself when he's shrinking and fighting people, but I liked how moralistic he is I think that's a good fit for Hank.
I've talked about it before but it's always felt conspicuous to me that Hank was missing from almost every Illuminati group, and while the reality is that most writers just don't consider him I think it would easily say a lot abt Hank's moral standards & how maybe he's less willing to compromise himself like Reed is for the greater good. like, he compromised himself so severely with Yellowjacket & I think it would be fair to say that he no longer wants that for himself & so isn't in the Illuminati, & the idea of Hank being different from Tony & Reed & other supergenius' in that way was portrayed well in the show, like when he's arguing with Tony about him dismissing Simon too easily.
They also portrayed Hank's insecurities well, & I appreciate how Janet is sympathetic without necessarily being supposed to fix him in any way? Like they got a really good balance of respecting Janet & making her fun & light-hearted & Hank being more uncomfortable with his role & struggling to fit his ideals into the superhero life without making their relationship horrible? Like ultimately it's just two people who love each other drifting apart because of their different positions in this business & I appreciate that. I think a lot of writers & fans seem to think that fixing the historical misogyny in Janet's history & fixing the historical ableism in Hank's history is mutually exclusive and you can either have Hank be sympathetic & a heroic but mentally ill man at the expense of Janet, or you can have a feminist, women-first version of Janet no longer defined by the men in her life at the expense of making Hank a one dimensional abusive figure. And EMH proves you can do both, respectfully & tentatively and have it be friendly for kids, no less. Its just such a good version of their characters its aware of all the changes it made & why and what aspects that were good that they wanted to keep.
All this to say, I do think outside of the first few episodes & Yellowjacket, I think it's clear the writers weren't sure what to do with Hank a lot of the time, because at some point he mostly is just there to get knocked out repeatedly, which I think is a shame, but in all fairness "what to do with Hank Pym" is a problem that plagued him for a very long time so it's not like it's exclusive to this show. Still, it does feel obvious in certain episodes that they couldn't figure out how to include Hank in a meaningful way so he's mostly there just to throw one line in or again, get knocked out. Part of this is because the show focused more on the pacifist side of things--like in Tales To Astonish the focus for me personally was more on Hank finding new & adaptive ways to save the day (like lying about getting appendicitis) to fight people he should really have no business fighting, and I think that would probably have been a more narratively rich way for them to portray Hank? It would have given him more to do than "oh violence first, I see" and then getting knocked out by Thor landing on him, but I get the show needed a voice of reason to the team other than Steve so Hank fit that niche well.
But yeah. It's a very good Hank & it's why I recommend this show to people curious in learning more about him, I think it's a good starting point ! Really wish the show hadn't been cancelled bc I would have loved to seen him Janet & Wanda interact, it's an underrated dynamic of those three I miss dearly.
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brw · 1 year
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Could I get a Hank Pym reading list? Please and thank you.
Hello & of course! I've written a few different reading lists in my time but I'll make an updated one for ease of access & such!
Avenger Origins: Ant-Man & the Wasp – a really good origin interpretation with Stephanie Hans on art.
Age of Ultron #10 – you can read the whole event if you want but to be honest Hank isn't actually in it that much except Wolverine stabs him or whatever. It goes through his childhood & background & marks the beginning of what I imagine was a very ambitious plan by Waid but then Remender happened. Still, a formative comic for Hank & one of my all time single issues of anything ever.
Ant-Man: Season One - another origin of Hank, going towards his growth to being Ant-Man. This isn't technically canon I don't think, but it's super interesting as it very clearly & explicitly intends to depict Hank as a mentally ill man & does so fairly well? Plus Bill Foster is there & I love Bill Foster.
Tales to Astonish #27, #35 - #52 – these are Hank's Tales to Astonish issues, you obviously don't have to read every single one but I really enjoy them, they're super serialised so you can read every issue as a stand-alone which makes it incredibly rereadable for me. Hank does keep appearing in those issues up until #70 so you can keep reading but at that point he's having a lot of team ups and ends up only being in like half the issue.
Fantastic Four #16 - #17 – this is more FF based obviously, but I enjoy it and find it cute as a two-parter. Establishes his relationship with the FF & begins my headcanon that he joined ReedSue once as a third.
Thor: the Mighty Avenger #3 – this is set in the Tales to Astonish days & is quite fun! Hank & Janet & Thor get into some shenanigans & it's good going. Samnee who draws really likes Hank & Jan & it shows a lot in this issue. Hank explicably uses his helmet to control a police officer which he has never done before or since, which I think is a cool application & he should do it again.
Marvel Feature #4 - #11 (I think) – this was an attempt at recreating the Tales to Astonish success but kinda failed, but it's cute & I really like it as a weird obscure story. Hank has a hyperintelligent super dog that Janet got him which was fun. It's chaotic and at one point Janet is a mutant wasp who tries to eat Hank don't worry about it. But it is good.
Now, obviously he has a lot of appearances in Avengers V1 & WCA V2. To be honest I think a lot of stuff evolves over time? So if you want to see the development of his character in Avengers up until he properly departs in #230, just read that continuously. I honestly can't name a lot of issues there where I'd rec for him specifically, because he's sharing space with SO many other characters. He has a little more to do in WCA so here's are some issues, to be honest I can't even remember when he joins but it's fairly soon into the series, his stuff with Ultron starts in #4 - #7 & stuff kinda just happens to Hank including flirting with Tigra until his life falls apart (again) and he attempts suicide in #17. It's an interesting study of him & I think Englehart does it justice. He shows up in that series pretty continuously & starts superheroing again with them & is in almost all of Avengers: West Coast too, so feel free to check that out although don't take what you see of Wanda, Simon & Vision to heart imo.
Marvel Double Feature: Giant-Man or Avengers #379 - #383 – I have never been able to find a scan of this comic online, you might have more luck on the official marvel unlimited app but there is an Ant-Man/Giant-Man: Growing Pains collection comic that brings together a lot of his vital stuff where this series is printed along others. It's honestly insane & I won't lie I got confused at the plot reveal but it's incredibly fun. Hank fucked up a science thing and has to fight big massive bugs and keeps going on these long monologues about how much his life sucks and how much he needs therapy while fighting massive bugs it's so funny. The Kree are there for some reason & Bill Foster is there! A confusing but fun time.
Ant-Man's Big Christmas – a festive comic about Hank & Janet terrorising a young boy's family on Christmas because he sent them a letter. Their dyanmic is so cute here & I like how playful Hank is in it :>
Avengers Academy – Hank is a teacher here looking after a bunch of young up n coming superheroes & I actually really like him in this role. Like he's clearly flawed & doesn't know what he's doing but he also does really resonate with some of those kids. Reptil mentioned him as one of the big heroes in his life so he clearly had an impact. There's a lot of stuff with the kids which is tedious at times if you're not into them but the Hank & Tigra stuff is so sweet.
Avengers: A.I. – this is probably my most formative depiction of Hank in comics. This is the one that establishes his bipolar disorder & is pretty sensitive about how it's depicted? Sam Humphries clearly has a strong vision for this Hank & it's a super refreshing direction IMO. plus he hangs out of Vision & Victor Mancha which is great.
Ant-Man V3 – Al Ewing's 4 issue 60 year anniversary has Hank from Tales to Astonish team up with all subsequent Ant-Men to fight Pymtron, which was fun & cool for the most part!
Don't read anything with Dan Slott or Bendis' names attached IMO, certainly not until you have a super firm understanding of the guy bc these comics he appears in under them are genuinely just so fucking bad.
I'll cap it off here, he appears in other stuff too like Beyond! & Avengers Forever & has a weird arc in Kurt Busiek's Avengers where past Yellowjacket kidnaps Hank but I think Busiek forgot & I can't remember if that ever got resolved? Don't worry about it bascially. But this is some issues I consider formative or otherwise important & major to Hank so I'll keep it here. If you're interested in reading every issue of his ever or something, you can check out the travis-starnes cmro site where he has collected every issue of every character, including Hank's 👍
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brw · 1 year
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I saw your post about Charles Xavier, and I loved it. I hate when Charles is written by as villainous or seen that way by fans; because of his visible disability and one the fact that he's one of the most prominent disabled characters in comics that is being portrayed/seen as evil.
Also, could you tell me about your thoughts on Charles please.
ooooo yeah i do think writers have given charles a VERY short end of the stick... which is weird because a lot of writers after will continue to write him as a kindly old man figure despite the moral transgressions which i think is where most people's frustration comes from. but i do think he's held to a higher standard? like i keep saying it but emma's name is literally white queen + she once stole & used ororo's body against her will + hellfire trading company is very clearly inspired by the east india trading company, but she's a fan favourite. this isn't to say he isn't an awful person at times but for xmen that means kind of nothing to me. anyway, for me personally i just get frustrated because i think there is a good potential narrative here but because writers aren't disabled & don't understand our experiences this context is always missing.
"charles is a spineless liberal" is funny to say but it makes more sense once you think about him as a disabled man who for most of his life was not disabled. disabled people HAVE to make themselves digestible & acceptable for neurotypical society, so we can get the accessibility & accomodations we desperately need. it makes SENSE from that perspective charles would be more about acceptance & assimilation, because from his experience as a disabled man that's what he needs. it makes sense that erik, as a jewish survivor, knows that you can't make peace with some people & it is much better to be independent, to have the ability to defend yourself & to take out the people who literally want you dead, but those aren't necessarily the same goals as the disabled community, at least not for Charles. Him & Erik are a very interesting potential narrative about how different communities have different goals and different needs, but because few writers who touch Charles have disabilities that nuance is often lost & he becomes the spineless liberal we joke about.
Charles also works as a very good discussion on internalised ableism, were people to take him in that direction. Like I said, Charles wasn't always disabled & for much of his early adult life he was able bodied, & he grew up in an ableist society. It makes sense he would then internalise that & project that onto his own students & the way he approaches mutants. because he's so uncomfortable with himself & the way he looks, he's become uncomfortable with the way visible mutants look too because he struggles to separate the two. that would explain in part why all the mutants he chooses to represent the xmen or to go out for press conferences or whatever are all human passing, because of his internal sense of shame that he's projected onto children who don't deserve that.
& that's one of the biggest let downs of the modern era is that Charles automatically chooses to be walking.Yes, for some people that's empowering, but Charles will always be the first name people think of when they think of wheelchair users in comics, aside from Barbara. That recognisability in my opinion is more important, & I just can't help but feel like it would be important to have Charles be with Karma in a character that has accepted their disability & is not interested in changing themselves. Yes, that isn't everyone's experience & I do think it's important for some people who want those stories to have a voice, but Charles has a pop culture iconography that in my opinion is more important than a justification to erase his disability.
Charles is a very flawed person, & I think he should stay being flawed & imperfect & often ignoring other people's needs & opinions that are based around their experiences that he doesn't share, but I think he also does have a lot of potential as a disabled character & I'm very frustrated at the x-office opting to just erase that aspect rather than try and include those narratives. Like Krakoa still doesn't look wheelchair accessible. We could have an interesting discussion about how even in leftist utopias disabled people are still often forgotten about or ignored & erased out of the discussion, but because nobody sees the inaccessibility that discussion just isn't there. It's disappointing & just another item in the long list of how the X-Men team fail to tackle minority politics accurately or at all.
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brw · 1 year
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Wanting to ask, can you give an explanation and analysis of Sue Storm's character? She's the one member of the FF I know the least about. My current understanding of her is a ruthless badass who loves her family but is also deeply compassionate to everyone including her enemies. I just feel the two traits conflict. Could you also give me some Sue Storm centric comic recommendations? Please and thank you.
Hello! I can't blame you for being somewhat puzzled on Sue's character because it can differ wildly, especially in modern times; a lot of writers will go down the ruthless badass route when her children & family are concerned (Fantastic Four V1 #549, but the arc starts in #547, and Fantastic Four Annual V5 #1 are good examples), and others will go down the incredibly compassionate mother of two who is an idealist route (as Fantastic Four V6 #47-#48 shows). Writers don't always manage to marry the two in a satisfying way, but I've tried to give some recs where they do manage or ones that are just generally good characterisation wise in my opinion.
Sue is an interesting character in that she is really Marvel's First Lady, the real trailblazer for the other wonderful women in comics we have today like Jean Grey, Ororo Munroe, Wanda Maximoff, Laura Kinney etc etc. Despite this, because she is married and a mother & is an elder sister a lot of writers & fans feel comfortable in dismissing her as a character, either implying that she's somehow not good enough because she's a mother & wife & needs their help to really fully realise the character (while usually only having her powers to do that, and rarely her actual personality), or making her into a #Girlboss and nothing else. Its also frustrating because Sue doesn't really get an awful lot of focused issues. In part, I think this is because when she does it's often focused on her grief (like when Byrne had her miscarriage) or anger (in DeFalco's run), so a lot of writers might feel a little... intimidated by giving Sue her own voice, because so often the voice she gets is defined by misery & loss. This isn't a hard & fast rule, but I do think it's why her solo by Waid (which I have rec'd here because it's her only solo but I wouldn't consider it foundational characterisation) kinda feels so lacklustre to me, because beyond her powers there doesn't feel like an awful lot of substance there.
But writers can't really ignore her, either, because she's so powerful, which I think is partially why we get so many fucking AUs with Namor, where rather than blaming themselves & the fact that nobody seemingly knows how to write an independent Sue without doubling down on her trauma, they blame Reed for... some reason. She just poses an interesring dilemma I think for a lot of writers so really good character driven issues for Sue are few & far between. Hickman, for example, circumvented that by having Sue not speak a lot in her focused issue because she's underwater as an ambassador to Atlantis.
All this to say, I am tentatively hopeful for her depiction in Ryan North's new series, and I hope one day she'll properly get written by a woman & get a better perspective there. The Fantastic Four ongoing has never been written by a woman, which I think is a glaring issue as to why Sue doesn't get a lot of good strong driven issues the way Ben or Reed do. Anyway, onto the recs!
X-Men vs Fantastic Four V1 by Claremont doesn't necessarily focus on Sue (Reed & Victor are more present ) but it does get the compassionate but ruthless vibe Sue should have.
In X-Men: First Class V2 #1 Sue helps teach Jean Grey some independence & individuality as a woman superhero surrounded by men, which is a really sweet moment.
Marvel Comics Presents V1 #13 B Story is a super cute story of Sue & Reed when they lived undercover in the suburbs while Ben ran the team. Sue is super playful & teasing in it, which is sweet.
I really like how Sue & the rest are written in the first two, three arcs of Marvel Knights 4 V1, so basically issue 1 - 9 or something. It drops off a little afterwards but Sue's super cool in #7, so worth reading imo!
Tom Defalco's run on the FF is probably one of the most Sue Heavy comics, as Reed is presumed dead around a third way into his series.. It does have the Four Boob Window™, but I think there's some really strong characteristion moments in this series. It is uh? convoluted though? like... a LOT happens in it so unless you've read an FF series prior I don't recommend digging into it but if you've gotten familiar with the team I recommend checking this out. He first writes them in #301 - #302 but his actual run starts at #356 - #416. Reed dies around #381.
There is of course Mark Waid's Invisible Woman series, which does a lot to expand on Sue's powerset & ability. Personally I'm not in love with it, I don't think a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent is the best route for an independent Sue to go down given her affiliation in Civil War for example but it's her only ongoing so worth looking at.
Not necessarily Sue specific, but Mythos: Fantastic Four is a good origin comic for the FF & one of my preferred adaptions of their origin.
Marvel Adventures: Fantastic Four #9 is an AU verse & specifically written to be more child friendly but Sue's fun here, Klaw tries to take on the FF by going strongest to weakest & leaves Sue for last which is a . bad idea!
X-23 vol 3 #14 - #19 has a lot of good moments between Sue & Laura Kinney & is funny and sweet, Sue's really good around the younger women superheroes & she's both warm & a force to be reckoned with. Laura helps babysit Franklin & Val while Sue & Reed go on a date, it's cute .
There's probably more issues so I'm opening this up to any of my followers who have specific Sue issues & moments they'd like to give, this is just what I can think of off the top of my head but hopefully this will give you a good enough handle on Sue's character. I'd also say just to read the LeeKirby series if you haven't , it does have period typical sexism obviously but it's not nearly as awful as some people think, I mean, Sue kicks Doctor Doom's ass before she even has forcefields so it's definitely not as bad as people think. Anyway, hope you enjoy reading !
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brw · 5 months
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What's the relationship between Bill Foster and Benjamin Grimm? You mentioned that Bill would risk it all for Ben in a gender/sexuality headcanon ask.
its a relationship that hasn't really lasted at all to the modern era but ben and bill were very close in marvel-two-in-one. in issue 58 it's revealed that the battle he had in his solo with atom smasher gave him radiation poisoning. throughout his appearance from 54 throughout this arc, ben and bill became slowly closer, and after he attempts to sacrifice him for the small team that assembled, ben becomes quite depressed.
bill intermittedly shows up in this series until 81, where his condition heavily degrades. he gives this little talk to ben in 82, when ben is mutating further because of a virus, that shows how their relationship had grown over these issues.
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bill goes through further radiation to help ben cure himself, and is extremely sick in #83 because of this. actually, reed calls in sasquatch to help with bill's condition, which is a fun treat for me.
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anyway they became really close friends during this and it's an underrated dynamic they have :) it's sad we never got too much of ben grieving him after civil war, but such is the way of things.
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brw · 1 year
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Reed,Sue,Medua,BlackBolt for the polyamory ask. Thanks.
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HERE WE GO filled with self indulgent headcanons and such.i think medusa and blackagar have a different relationship with PDA and affection than how reed and sue do but it's fun they're having fun it's all good vibes. i love these four. maybe being consorts of the inhuman royalty would fix them.
poly ship meme
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brw · 10 months
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🎲
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idk why namor was propping up reed's boobs so much here
🎲 for a random comic panel
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