#she's not listed as an avenger for this issue on marvel wiki

[thebibliomancer]

Essential Avengers: West Coast Avengers #39: UPSET!

December, 1988

Swordsman’s Corpse: “So, Avengers, you thought you’d buried me for good, but you were wrong -- DEAD WRONG!”

Damn but if this isn’t the type of cover I love. A superhero team reacting to something and with dialogue right on the cover.

This is also the end of Englehart’s run. Or half of this is the end of Englehart’s run. I’ll get into it.

Lets last time so we can dig in.

Last time on West Coast Avengers: Well, directly last time Wonder Man just sat remembering stuff we’ve never seen before for the entire issue.

But in a broader sense.

Mockingbird hiding some cowboy manslaughter blew up in her face when the ghost of the cowboy revealed it to her husband/boss Hawkeye. Irreconcilable differences ensued and Mockingbird quit and took half the team with her. Scarlet Witch, Vision, and Mantis cycled in so the West Coast Avengers wouldn’t just be two sad dudes. Also, Mantis is here now. She has amnesia and wants the Avengers to help her find the son she may or may not have. Its pretty potent amnesia.

But in a narrower sense, last time, after Wonder Man remembered some new stuff for a while, the Quinjet started crashing.

As the Quinjet tumbles, rattling the Avengers around like peas in a tin there’s one of those action scenes I can’t help but love. Where each member of the team does their own thing in a situation.

Here, Mantis just has the reflexes to grab onto the seat belt that she should have had buckled. Scarlet Witch can use her hex to float in place long enough for Wonder Man to grab her using his belt jets. And Vision just intangibles enough to float but not so much he falls out of the Quinjet.

Good job everyone.

So what caused this aviation near-disaster?

Hawkeye was calling in a Savage Land report to the East Coast Avengers team (but who though?) and they said they’d already heard about it from Mockingbird.

And hearing Mockingbird’s (code)name was enough for this pre-divorcee to almost crash a jet into the ocean.

Hawkeye, I don’t think you’re okay.

I would also like to know who you spoke with since the East Coast Avengers disbanded thanks to Thor. Mostly Nebula and Dr Druid but some Thor.

There was an ad hoc team for the purposes of Evolutionary War and that’s going to get super funny in a second.

Wonder Man correctly guesses that Mockingbird somehow got involved in the Savage Land business and Hawkeye gets into a funk about it.

Vision asks whether the West Coast Avengers will work with the East Coast Avengers and Hawkeye goes “I’d rather not!”

His thought is that if Mockingbird’s group is already helping, the West Coast Avengers can get on with helping Mantis.

SO THE REASON WHY THE WEST COAST AVENGERS DIDN’T HELP THE AD-HOC AVENGERS AND DIDN’T RESPOND TO THE SPECIAL ALERT

was because Hawkeye felt it would be too awkward if his soon-to-be-ex-wife was there.

Fucking amazing.

Remember how a big deal was made out of the Avengers being so hard up for people responding to the super special emergency beacon that Yellowjacket II was a good option to bring along?

Turns out that the West Coast Avengers got the same alert and Hawkeye just ignored it.

The world was almost turned into furries because Hawkeye can’t be an adult.

Regarding helping Mantis, Scarlet Witch chimes in to say that if they’re doing that, they really need to stop in Paterson, New Jersey. They’ve been having Ma Williams watch the twins and one of them really should relieve her.

Scarlet Witch: “We don’t mean to slight your problem, Mantis!”

Mantis: “Of course not, Wanda! This one became the Celestial Madonna to have a child, though she doesn’t know now if she did or not! Naturally, you must see to yours!”

“As a potential mother, I understand your mother concerns. I potentially have a child!”

Cool contribution, Mantis.

Anyway. New Jersey!

Vision tells Ma Williams that they’re relocating to Los Angeles to join the Avengers and of course taking the kids. But Ma Williams is welcome to move with them.

Ma Williams: “I’m a little old to join the Avengers, Wanda -- and a little old to tear up my roots here! No, I’ll watch you on TV -- but don’t forget to call!”

Cool old lady.

Wanda takes the time to announce out loud to the audience and to Ma Williams, that she and Vizh aren’t going to sell their house in Leonia since they like it too much. But they will rent it out while they’re in LA.

Hawkeye gets so bummed out at seeing a family scene that he sighs and goes outside for some air.

Refusing to read the room, Mantis follows him and tells him that they can be miserable together.

Although she also insists that her misery is worse because she has no idea what she’s lost. Could be one-hundred children wondering where their mom is! So clearly she has it worse than Hawkeye who knows exactly what he lost out on by being too stubborn for couples counseling.

Thanks, Mantis.

The team jets out in the Quinjet but Wanda stays in New Jersey, probably to arrange the move.

And apparently she told Ma Williams all the hot goss because the old lady asks wasn’t that the Mantis homewrecker lady?

Which Wanda confirms but she’s not worried that Vision is going off with Mantis (and also Hawkeye and Wonder Man) because she trusts their marriage is solid.

Meanwhile, elsewhere, Newark Airport, Tigra complains. Because the East Coast Avengers didn’t let them land at Hydrobase.

Considering the East Coast Avengers don’t exist right now...

Who do you guys keep talking to??

Giant-Man Bill Foster asks whether they should have helped fight against the High Evolutionary and Mockingbird says she doesn’t want to deal with Hawkeye if he showed up so she made the executive decision to skip the event.

Oh my god.

Both Hawkeye’s team and Mockingbird’s team decided helping stop the Gene Bomb was someone else’s problem and just went on with their day.

Amazing.

Giant-Man Bill Foster is still giant so Tigra asks... why? Bill explains the thing with the cancer. And being giant isn’t supposed to cure the cancer that should have already been cured. But all this extra mass from the mass dimension will replace his damaged tissue or something if he stays big long enough. Or something.

Look, they wanted the “stuck big” status quo for a size-changing character. That’s all.

Bill Foster Giant-Man takes off, going to find Hank Pym and help him cure his giant-brained wife. Aw, what a good friend.

Meanwhile, Moon Knight sounds racist by saying Giant-Man is not their kind. But what he means is that this is the murder is good group and Bill is too idealistic.

And they’ll need to be ruthless to stop Phantom Rider! Who is still totally haunting her and oh hey speak of the devil.

Seriously. Was he just hanging around invisibly waiting for someone to mention him so he could pop out and go boo?

This is a stupid way to spend an afterlife.

Tigra didn’t know about Mockingbird being haunted by Phantom Rider. She’s just confused by this new detail. I love her surprised kitty face.

She asks why Phantom Rider helped in Budapest if he’s a revenge-fueled dick but Phantom Rider said that was helping himself.

Phantom Rider: “I only pretended to help you, TIgra -- in order to destroy Barbara’s marriage!”

And then he shoots Tigra a whole bunch with ghost bullets.

What a dick.

The bullets don’t injure her. Because they’re ghostly. But she’s stunned.

Although, it’s unclear whether that’s an inherent property of them or whether getting shot a whole bunch will just throw you off your game.

Moon Knight tries to get Phantom Rider but the ghost punches him in the face and then has his horse kick him.

What a dick.

But getting clobbered knocks Moon Knight the fuck out and Khonshu pops out to play.

Which is actually good. Khonshu possessing Moon Knight can’t do a lot against a ghost. But freed of his meat puppet, he’s a lot more mighty.

Phantom Rider even recognizes it, fleeing when this new factor joins the battlefield. But he muses to himself that he wasn’t prepared for Khonshu this time but he’ll definitely be ready other times!

Unable to see Khonshu, Mockingbird comments that Phantom Rider sure fucked off a lot sooner than she expected.

Moon Knight wakes up and announces he knows how to solve Mockingbird’s Phantom Rider problem.

Over in Connecticut, the West Coast Avengers search the home of Mrs. Mandy Celestine trying to find clues about Mantis’s lost memories.

Mantis woke up in this house and Mandy Celestine is the kind of name Mantis, Celestial Madonna, might come up with if she had absolutely no imagination at all.

Which, I guess she doesn’t.

Someone knocks on the door so Mantis turns her green skin to be human Vietnamese/German skin tone instead to answer.

Yeah, she can do that. She just wants to be green. Are you going to tell her she can’t be green?

Anyway, it’s just the mailman needing her to sign for a package. And him recognizing her as Mrs. Celestine confirms she’s been living a life here.

So, that’s useful.

But Hawkeye is tired of this location and proposes they go and visit

The Vietnamese temple of the Priests of Pama.

Remember Mantis’ wacky backstory?

She was taken as a child and raised by the Priests of Pama (who were secretly Kree pacifists who were friends with tree people), trained in martial arts and MIND POWERS, mindwiped on her 18th birthday and given false memories of growing up as an orphan, before dumping her in a city where she eventually became a sex worker? This last part was essential because it meant she stayed humble unlike Moondragon. Or something. Anyway, she met Swordsman and swooned over the broken man, helped him clean himself up and join the Avengers, and then started trying to hit on Vision instead because he was emotionally unavailable.

Yadda yadda, Avengers stuff, Kang tries to figure out if Mantis, Scarlet Witch, or AGATHA HARKNESS is the Celestial Madonna by kidnapping them all and trying to decide which one he should date. Avengers stuff, Avengers stuff, Swordsman dies, Mantis learns she’s the Celestial Madonna, Immortus shows up to dump a whole bunch of exposition, Mantis marries a tree possessing her dead boyfriend in a double marriage with Vision and Scarlet Witch, then Mantis and Tree Boyfriend blast off into space.

God, Mantis’ life is weird.

So, remember how I said this is half of the end of Englehart’s run? Or I guess more specifically that half of this issue is the end of Englehart’s run?

Englehart himself has complained that half of this issue was re-written by editorial against his wishes. He has also complained that he was fired from West Coast Avengers supposedly for deadline issues but that also Marvel wouldn’t send him the pages he needed to work.

So I don’t even know if the back half of this book was even in Englehart’s script.

At least according to Englehart, Tom DeFalco had it out for him. And would do stuff like withhold the letters column.

Given that he also cites the missing text bubbles for Mantis in the previous annual, I dunno, he may be onto something.

That said.

If half of the book was rewritten, I’m guess that Marvel Unlimited pg 13 is where it starts. Because it has that hallmark of retcons.

The walls of text.

The West Coast Avengers and Mantis find where Swordsman was buried and have to clear the area since its overgrown. Hawkeye cracks a joke about the Priests of Pama not being much for lawn maintenance, perhaps forgetting the big plot point that they all died.

Wonder Man gets a bee in his bonnet about the specific way that the tree marriage and tree honeymoon played out, claiming that despite what everyone saw that day, it made a lot more sense that Swordsman’s body was just left to rot on Earth instead of being turned to energy.

And this is important because, somehow, Wonder Man has cracked this whole case wide open.

But first,

A corpse, of course.

I guess the body was left to rot. And not turned into pure thought or energy or whatever.

I hate it when Wonder Man is right about things.

Cotati Swordsman is here to Explain It All.

By stabbing Mantis.

She doesn’t much like that so she dodges out of the way and now there’s a fight. A fight that the West Coast Avengers jump into to protect their good friend Mantis.

Cotati Swordsman is one dude against a team and has a gimmicked up sword so he’s in full on stomp mode. Its like conservation of ninjas.

He shoots nerve gas out of the sword at Mantis that works on skin contact so she can’t just hold her breath. He hits Wonder Man with a force blast to mess up his ionic body. And when Vision blocks the disintegrator beam with a SOLAR BEAM, Cotati Swordsman just hits Vision with another force blast. Good enough for Wonder Man, etc.

Hawkeye is able to fight him for a bit due to his familiarity with the guy but the same is true reversed. Swordsman easily cuts a bunch of arrows out of the air.

Vision pops out of the grave intangible-style to grab Cotati Swordsman’s ankles so Wonder Man can try to disarm him.

But remember the conservation of ninja? Swordsman is able to bat Wonder Man out of the air with his sword - just the sword, not any of its built-in powers - and smack him into Vision.

Both fall against the Swordsman’s grave so Wonder Man can have a moment where he rehashes his fear of death.

Well, I guess fears don’t just go away.

Mantis recovers from the nerve gas and side kicks Cotati Swordsman.

Mantis: “You have something this one wants, Prime One -- desist in this pointless scuffle and deliver!”

I mean, she has a point. I looked ahead and there’s no reason he couldn’t just explain what he’s going to explain without all of this fight scene.

What he does do is promise what she wants is in the temple and baits her into following.

Then he traps her and throws his sword into her gut.

Oh no!

Good thing she has an extra guy!

So apparently the real Mantis has been buried alive in a grave this whole time.

Half of this book being an uncredited rewrite, I’m pretty sure this is a retcon.

Mantis going around in a plant simulacrum is from Englehart. In his Silver Surfer book, that’s how she was hanging around in space. Formed a body out of alien plants to go on space adventures.

But when she blew up and ‘died’ in the fight against the Elders, she woke up in her Connecticut home with AMNESIA. The implication is that the body in Connecticut was her real body because why wouldn’t it be? Why make this convoluted?

Well, we’re making it convoluted.

Also, Mantis is not green anymore. She could turn herself not green. But since this is her original body, I guess she’s just not green.

Except later, when she helps form the Guardians of the Galaxy. Where she’ll be green again.

Shrug.

Since Mantis has her memories back, she Explains It All.

After the tree wedding, Mantis and Prime Cotati ditched their bodies and flew off into space to fuck a Celestial Messiah into being.

Mantis: “Love, after all, is for souls, not bodies.”

Well, you clearly don’t know how fucking works. Because that’s very much for the bodies.

While Mantis and Prime Cotati are off in space fucking with their souls, the Priest of Pama bury the abandoned bodies.

The Priests of Pama were definitely dead by this point but we’re in uncredited rewrite territory. The goal is to wrap this up and fire Englehart.

After getting soul pregnant, Mantis returned to Earth to make herself a plant body because her special hybrid baby is part tree so needs a tree womb.

Sure!

Then the rest of what’s happened since the tree wedding happens.

Mantis gives birth to Sequoia, her future dirtbag son. She raises him in a Connecticut suburb so her former superhero life doesn’t disturb the air of tranquility she’s going for.

When Sequoia is old enough, the Cotati come and take him off Mantis’ hands to teach him his tree heritage.

Left with nothing to do, Mantis decided to go exploring space. We know this part. She made a plant body to hang out with Silver Surfer. Died in one of his adventures and woke up in her original plant body in Earth with AMNESIA.

The Cotati Swordsman explains that he was pretty sure that killing her near her meat body would jog her memory and force her spirit back into her original body.

Cotati Swordsman: “I am glad I surmised correctly.”

Hell of a thing to gamble on, asshole.  

Then he tells Mantis to go live her best life. Because she’s done Celestial Madonna-ing. She made the Important Baby she needed to make. She took care of that pesky baby stage of things. Now she’s not needed anymore. “The child no longer needs a mother.”

And Prime Cotati wearing Swordsman is basically telling her to fuck off, she doesn’t get anything to do with her kid anymore.

Mantis tries to object or ask follow-up questions but Cotati Swordsman just moves on to talking to Hawkeye.

He bequeaths Swordsman’s sword to Hawkeye and then immediately crumbles to corpse dust and plant matter.

Hawkeye is clearly a bit perplexed by the ending of this Mantis quest but, well, it did end. Amnesia cured. He implicitly invites her to keep hanging out with the West coast Avengers.

But she needs time to process all this biz so she stays in Vietnam to meditate on a grave.

I have no doubt that if Englehart had remained as writer, Mantis would have stayed on the team. It also seems likely that if he remained as writer, the Mantis quest would not have been wrapped up this quickly. Not a single subplot in this book has wrapped up quickly.

What’s there to say here?

The rewritten part of this issue was meant to get Mantis out of the book as soon as possible because nobody likes her but Englehart and he has a habit of putting her in one of his books if he can get away with it and even if he can’t.

I like Mantis.

Mostly, that’s from her later Guardians stuff. But even in her time with the Avengers, even despite the stupid love triangle and the Celestial Madonna stuff, I liked her there too. And I liked when she got silly plant powers in Silver Surfer from fucking a tree man. And I like the tree wedding, as a joke. As a silly thing to tell people about that happened in comics.

There’s a lot of problems with the character and with Englehart’s writing for her. But I still like her.

So it is a shame that she’s in West Coast Avengers for, like, two issues.

And. Eesh. This isn’t a great wrap-up for her. Her amnesia is solved but mostly its nothing that hadn’t already been covered in her Silver Surfer appearances.

There’s a lot of problems with Englehart’s West Coast Avengers run so I’m not necessarily sad to see him go. He’s had 30ish some issues, some clunker stories, and it really is time for something new. But he’s being followed up by John “I’m going to mess up Vision” Byrne. And I don’t like that either.

So at the end of Englehart’s run, wherever it fell in this specific issue, it feels like out of the frying pan and into the fire. Because I’m gonna get Byrned. That’s the joke.

Follow @essential-avengers​ because I’m not a tree puppeting around a corpse of a supervillain turned superhero. And I think that gives me a lot of credibility. Like, reblog, and comment if you please. I’m lonely down here in the italics.

#avengers #essential avengers #west coast avengers #hawkeye #wonder man #the vision #scarlet witch #mantis #she's not listed as an avenger for this issue on marvel wiki #very rude #mockingbird #moon knight #tigra #swordsman #cotati swordsman #not a lot going on here #just some tree murder

[notes-from-sarah]

Magneto: A Biographical Timeline, 1963-1991

Magneto just might be one of the most iconic comic book antagonists of all time. He was created in 1963 by Stan Lee and started out as the X-Men’s deadliest foe. Not much is revealed about Magneto through the 60’s but when author Chris Claremont takes over writing the X-Men starting in 1975 he began to develop the character and give him a complex backstory. Magneto quickly started his journey to being a hero and by the 80’s he was no longer a foe of the X-Men, but an ally, and eventually the leader of the Xavier Institute. After corporate meddling forced Magneto back into an antagonistic role in the 90’s, Magneto was eventually killed off and Claremont was fired. This was the end of a cohesive story and trajectory for the character.

Magneto’s backstory has become murky in the years since. The wiki pages (both fan wikis and wikipedia) often take the angle of attempting to synthesize everything ever said about the character into one cohesive story. That, of course, isn’t very helpful when there’s been sixty years of contradictory information and continual reboots – both hard and soft – of the character, his relationships and his backstory. Even his name has come to be muddled with every few years someone deciding to give him a new one. Below, I’ve compiled a list of all the relevant biographical details as they appeared in print from 1963 – 1991. This is a comprehensive overview of the character during his most iconic storylines, many of which have gone on to be adapted to both television and film.

I have included links to relevant historical information at various points as well as to an excellent 2018 documentary, available on YouTube so be sure to check that out as well.

1963

September

X-Men #1 published

1964

March

Uncanny X-Men (1963) #4 “The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants” by Stan Lee

Wanda and Pietro are introduced with the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. They are introduced as brother and sister, no last names are given.

Wanda owes Magneto a life debt because he prevented villagers in the heart of Europe from burning Wanda as a witch. Wanda and Pietro aren’t happy about being in the Brotherhood.

Magneto is described as tall.

1965

May

Avengers (1963) #16 “The Old Order Changeth!” by Stan Lee

Wanda and Pietro join the Avengers.

Wanda mentions that Pietro is older than her.

Wanda is described as “black-haired” (though in many later appearances she is most often drawn with brown or red hair)

1968

November

Uncanny X-Men (1963) #50 “Hail, Queen of Mutants” by Arnold Drake

Mesmero claims the Polaris (Lorna Dane) is Magneto’s daughter and attempts to brainwash her to join Magneto.

1969

January

Uncanny X-Men (1963) #52 “Twilight of the Mutants” by Arnold Drake

Iceman (Bobby Drake) reveals to Polaris that Magneto is not her father and is “conning” her.

July

Uncanny X-Men (1963) #58 “Mission Murder” by Roy Thomas

The Magneto who appeared in issues #49-52 is revealed to have been a robot all along and Magneto is unconnected to the plot of the robot Magneto.

December 1970 – June 1975

No new books are written for X-Men and the title exists solely as reprints of earlier issues. In effect, the book is dead.

1974

October

Defenders (1972) #16 “Alpha, the Ultimate Mutant” by Len Wein

Magneto is turned into a baby by the mutant Alpha.

1975

August

Chris Claremont begins writing for the Uncanny X-Men starting with issue #94.

1977

April

Uncanny X-Men (1963) #104 “The Gentleman’s Name is Magneto” by Chris Claremont

Magneto is returned to adulthood by Eric the Red.

November

The Champions (1975) #16 “A World Lost!” by Bill Mantlo

Magneto works with Beast (Hank McCoy) to free the former X-Men team from Doctor Doom’s mind control. (I believe this marks the beginning of Magneto’s turn to being a hero)

1978

May

Marvel Team-Up (1972) #69 Featuring Spider-Man and Havok “Night of the Living God” by Chris Claremont

Polaris reiterates that she is not Magneto’s daughter.

August

Uncanny X-Men (1963) #112 “Magneto Triumphant” by Chris Claremont

Magneto reiterates that he never worked with Mesmero and the being who claimed to be Polaris’ father was a robot.

September

Uncanny X-Men (1963) #113 “Showdown!” by Chris Claremont and John Byrne

Magneto’s Antarctic base is destroyed and with it the “work and memories of a lifetime.”

Magneto is sad to have the X-Men destroy everything but steels himself with the thought “I am alive.”

1979

August

Avengers (1963) #186 “Nights of Wundagore!” by Steven Grant, Mark Gruenwald and David Michelinie

Wanda and Pietro return to Transia looking for information about their past.

Transia is a German-speaking nation.

Their mother is revealed to be Magda, no last name is given for her.

Magda left her husband because she feared his powers and desire to rule the world. (This story will change somewhat as the idea is developed)

Magda ran away from Transia after giving birth.

The narrative implies she went into the wilderness to die.

Wanda and Pietro were then given to Django Maximoff and his wife to raise.

September

Uncanny X-Men (1963) #125 “There’s Something Awful on Muir Island” by Chris Claremont

Magneto runs across an image of Magda on a memory tape and reminisces about his late wife thinking “Magda… my late wife. I’d almost forgotten how beautiful you were… How deeply it hurt when you ran away from me.”

This reveals him to the reader as the father of Wanda and Pietro.

1980

October

Uncanny X-Men (1963) #138 “Elegy” by Chris Claremont and John Byrne

Polaris is once again mentioned as not being the daughter of Magneto.

1981

January

Uncanny X-Men (1963) #141 “Days of Future Past” by Chris Claremont and John Byrne

In a far distant possible future Magneto is revealed to be working with the X-Men after mutants face genocide and persecution.

Magneto’s name is revealed to be Magnus for the first time, no last name is given.

August

Uncanny X-Men (1963) #148 “Cry, Mutant!” by Chris Claremont

Magneto meets Cyclops’ (Scott Summers) girlfriend, Aleytys “Lee” Forrester, for the first time on his island base in the Bermuda Triangle.

September

Uncanny X-Men (1963) #149 “And the Dead Shall Bury the Living” by Chris Claremont

Charles Xavier reveals that Magneto is “Caucasian, probably Nordic.”

Charles reflects that Magneto was “the first ‘evil’ mutant the X-Men fought.” (The use of quotes around the word evil is intentional to suggest that Magneto is not really evil)

Charles thinks that “Magneto and I are uncomfortably alike.”

October

Uncanny X-Men (1963) #150 “I, Magneto” by Chris Claremont

Magneto learns of Jean Grey’s death and says that he grieves for her. He states “I know… something of grief. Search throughout my homeland, you will find none who bear my name. Mine was a large family, and it was slaughtered.”

Magneto speaks to the crew of the Soviet submarine Leningrad in Russian.

Magneto keeps his computer programming book written in a language neither Kitty nor Storm (Ororo Munroe) can read.

Later, after a fateful confrontation with the X-Men, Magneto thinks he’s killed Kitty Pryde. He is gripped with remorse saying “What have I done?!” and “Why did you not understand? Magda – my beloved wife – did not understand. When she saw me use my powers, she ran from me in terror. It did not matter that I was defending her… that I was avenging our murdered daughter. I swore then that I would not rest ‘til I had created a world where my kind – mutants – could live free and safe and unafraid. Where such as you, little one could be happy. Instead I have slain you. I remember my own childhood – the gas chambers as Auschwitz, the guards joking as they herded my family to their death. As our lives were nothing to them, so human lives became nothing to me.” (This is the first time Anya is mentioned even if she is not yet named, as well as the first time that Magneto is mentioned to be a Holocaust and Auschwitz survivor.)

Storm tells Magneto to pray to his deity as she intends to kill him for hurting Kitty. Magneto replies “As a boy, I believed. As a boy, I turned my back on God forever.”

When Storm suggests that his good dreams have been corrupted, Magneto insists that he is too old to change and has lived with his hatred too long.

Afterward, Charles offers that Magneto “Will emerge from this crucible the good man he once was and may yet be again.”

1982

September

Uncanny X-Men (1963) #161 “Gold Rush” by Chris Claremont

The narrative tells us the following took place twenty years ago placing these events around 1962.

Charles recalls meeting Magneto long ago in Israel when he went there to help treat Holocaust survivors.

Magneto is a volunteer at the hospital where Charles is working.

Magneto is introduced as Magnus, no last name is given.

Magneto reveals that he grew up in Auschwitz and states that “I have no family, Dr. Xavier. Anymore.”

The Auschwitz prisoner number tattooed on Magneto’s arm is revealed to be 214782.

The doctor Charles is working with says most of the volunteers were concentration camp survivors who “bring a degree of empathy to their work that the rest of us can’t match.”

Charles and Magneto grow close during their time together despite different views on the future of humans and mutants.

They also become close with Charles’ patient, Gaby Haller who is suffering severe psychic trauma from her experiences during the Holocaust.

Charles eventually comes to realize that “in many ways, Magnus has been as deeply scarred by his experiences as Gaby.”

Charles and Gaby start dating.

Eventually Charles and Magneto reveal to each other that they are mutants.

Charles and Magneto go to Kenya to rescue Gaby, who has been kidnapped by Hydra.

Magneto tells the Hydra leader, Baron Strucker, “You will find me considerably harder to slay than your countrymen did my family at Auschwitz.” and “Unfortunately, my power did not manifest itself ‘til I reached adulthood. By then the war was over. But had I possessed it in the camps, butcher, the tyranny of your Third Reich would have been ended overnight!”

They rescue Gaby and part ways still ultimately disagreeing about means and ends because of the violent methods Magneto used against Hydra.

Magneto flies off with an enormous stash of Nazi gold plundered from Hydra.

Until he disguises himself as Hydra, Magneto only wears white throughout the issue.

December

Marvel Graphic Novel #5 “X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills” by Chris Claremont

(This story is a stand-alone story, it doesn’t really get mentioned in the regular Uncanny X-Men timeline or referenced anywhere else, unlike the Dazzler graphic novel published in the same line. That does not necessarily mean it is out of continuity, just that it doesn’t ever get called back to during Claremont’s further writing.)

Magneto joins forces with the X-Men to save Charles from Reverend Stryker and prevent his anti-mutant genocide. He tells Cyclops “I am not your enemy, X-Men, nor do I consider you mine.”

Cyclops presses Magneto about his plan to become world dictator and Magneto replies “I have lived under a dictatorship… and seen my family butchered by its servants. When I rule, it will be for the betterment of all.” Cyclops asks who takes over after Magneto dies, Magneto responds “You, of course, Cyclops. And the X-Men. Why do you think I want you by my side?”

Charles refers to Magneto as Magnus.

Magneto asks Charles to join him and his cause after they defeat Stryker, and though tempted, Charles ultimately refuses holding on to his dream of human/mutant integration.

Magneto parts ways with the X-Men despite them asking him to stay.

1983

February

Vision and the Scarlet Witch (1982) #4 “Please Allow Me to Introduce Myself…!” by Bill Mantlo

Magneto discovers what happened to Magda after she left him and finds out that he is Wanda and Pietro’s father.

Magda’s fate is more vague in this telling, saying only that she “fled into the night” without the implication that Magda wanted to die.

Magneto reveals this information to Wanda and Pietro. He meets Pietro’s daughter, his granddaughter, Luna.

Magneto asks Pietro and Wanda to accept him into their lives.

1984

May

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars (1984) #1 “The War Begins” by Jim Shooter

(Though the Secret Wars story line continues to be published after this date, the event ends and the regular in-universe timeline resumes with Uncanny X-Men #181 published in May 1984.)

When the Beyonder transports heroes and villains to a far away planet to fight each other, Magneto is placed among the heroes.

The other non-mutant heroes are leery of Magneto so Magneto decides to leave and solve their predicament by himself.

July

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars (1984) #3 “Tempest Without, Crisis Within!” by Jim Shooter

Magneto captures Wasp (Janet Van Dyne) and brings her to his headquarters in hopes of convincing her to join forces with him

Wasp, addresses Magneto as Magnus.

Magneto and Wasp have sex.

August

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars (1984) #4 “Situation: Hopeless” by Jim Shooter

The X-Men leave the other heroes and join Magneto to try and end the situation they were brought into.

November

The New Mutants (1983) #21 “Slumber Party!” by Chris Claremont

When Warlock falls from space he crashes into Asteroid M. Magneto attempts to create a force field to protect Asteroid M but is unable to do so. Asteroid M is destroyed and Magneto is apparently knocked to Earth from space.

December

Uncanny X-Men (1963) #188 “Legacy of the Lost” by Chris Claremont

Lee Forrester finds Magneto injured and floating in the water near the center of the Bermuda Triangle. She fights off a shark and brings him aboard her boat.

1985

January

New Mutants (1983) #23 “Shadowman” by Chris Claremont

Magneto insists on leaving the hospital and going back to his island base in the Bermuda Triangle.

Lee and Magneto journey there alone on Lee’s boat.

Magneto is seasick the entire way there.

On the island Lee challenges Magneto on his anti-human stances.

February

New Mutants (1983) #24 “Hollow Heart” by Chris Claremont

Magneto apologizes to Lee for being rude to her and compliments her appearance.

Lee begins to see Magneto in a new light.

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars (1984) #10 “Death to the Beyonder!” by Jim Shooter

Magneto is tempted to join forces with Doctor Doom, who the narrative implies is using some sort of power to sway Magneto to his side. Magneto “Reaches out to grasp Doom’s spectral hand – but then, he hesitates. His eyes find Xavier’s, and for an endless split-second, he trembles on the brink…”

April

New Mutants (1983) #26 “Legion” by Chris Claremont

Lee is awakened by Magneto having a bad dream, he is making noise and screaming.

Magneto is using his powers in his sleep and speaking in a language Lee doesn’t know.

She wakes Magneto before he causes himself harm and he is grateful to her for saving his life.

Magneto tells Lee that he was dreaming of “a time and place I thought forever… buried.” Lee says she’s never heard such desolation in his voice. Magneto replies “Death. Resurrection. I’d have died tonight, I think, if not for you. Twice now, I owe you my life.”

Magneto and Lee have sex.

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars (1984) #12 “...Nothing to Fear...” by Jim Shooter

It is reveled that the Beyonder placed Magneto in the hero team because “His desires seemed like theirs.”

June

New Mutants (1983) #28 “Soulwar” by Chris Claremont

Lee has second thoughts about Magneto the morning after.

Magneto brings her breakfast the next morning, complete with a rose.

Magneto uses his powers to prevent Lee from leaving their conversation and this frightens her.

Magneto pleads with her to give him a chance. He tells Lee how Magda left him after learning he was a mutant. “My wife, Magda, had such a look on her face – I had saved us both from a marauding patrol of secret police, yet all she saw was that I had used super-powers to do it. In that moment, I became different – our love meant nothing. I was no longer human. I was a mutant, a thing. She ran from me, in terror. I never saw her again. Never knew – until much later, far too late – that she had borne my children. Don’t – please Lee, don’t you run from me, too. I cannot bear to be alone and I am sick at heart at the realization of what I have become. Help me, Lee, I… beg you. I need you.” (In this telling there is no mention of Anya, only a reference to the twins – Wanda and Pietro)

Lee refuses Magneto leaving him brokenhearted.

July

New Mutants (1983) #29 “Meanwhile, Back at the Mansion” by Chris Claremont

Lee has time to reflect and realizes she does have feelings for Magneto. She confesses her feelings for him and they reconcile.

Magneto apologizes for using his powers in a high-handed way and promises to do better.

Charles asks Magneto to lead the X-Men and the New Mutants against the Beyonder.

Secret Wars II (1985) #1 “Earthfall!” by Jim Shooter

Magneto rallies the X-Men and the New Mutants to fight the Beyonder, and as the Blackbird is out of service, Magneto uses his powers to fly the Xavier institute limousine from New York to California.

August

Uncanny X-Men (1963) #196 “What was That?!!” by Chris Claremont

Magneto is brought into the X-Men fold.

Magneto dissuades Rachel Summers from killing an anti-mutant extremest demonstrating his full acceptance of doing things the Xavier way.

Magneto states that “My children have disowned me.” Referring to Wanda and Pietro.

Magneto draws a parallel between himself and Rachel Summers saying that he “Like Rachel… has dwelled too long in the valley of the shadow of death. In too many tragic ways, we are kindred souls – survivors of the holocaust, children of the abyss.”

Kitty remarks that Magneto has the makings of a hero and Magneto replies “No. I am no hero, merely a man… who has seen and done and endured what can never be forgotten… or forgiven.”

November

Uncanny X-Men (1963) #199 “The Spiral Path” by Chris Claremont

Magneto and Kitty attend a reception at the National Holocaust Center in Washington, D.C.

Kitty asks those in attendance if they have any news of her great-aunt Chava who lived in Warsaw before the war.

Magneto reveals that he knew Kitty’s aunt at Auschwitz. He also runs into some friends, other survivors who were at Auschwitz with him. They remark that Magneto helped to save them, and many others. (One could read this conversation as implying Magneto was Polish by nationality)

Magneto’s friends state that he had been in Auschwitz “from the very start.”

Neither of his friends use his name during the conversation.

Mystique and the Freedom Force arrest Magneto for the US Government. Magneto surrenders himself into their custody.

December

Uncanny X-Men (1963) #200 “The Trial of Magneto” by Chris Claremont

Magneto is put on trial before the World Court.

Gaby Haller acts as his defense attorney.

She argues that Magneto should only be judged for actions undertaken after his rebirth from infancy.

She reveals that Magneto was an inmate in Auschwitz “as an adolescent.”

Magneto is revealed to be, biologically, only in his early thirties.

The proceedings are interrupted by an attack. Charles and Magneto end up away from the court.

Charles entrusts the running of his institute and the keeping of his dream to Magneto telling him not to return to court to be martyred. Charles is then beamed aboard a spaceship for urgent medical care.

1986

January

New Mutants (1983) #35 “The Times, They Are A’changin’!” by Chris Claremont

Magneto takes up his post as the headmaster of the Xavier Institute. Magneto tells the New Mutants he is doing this to “honor that friendship” he has with Charles.

The New Mutants are skeptical of Magneto, but Magneto asks them to give him a chance. He says that both he and Charles view this as a way of “putting things right” after all the evil he has done in his life.

Magneto has doubts about his ability to run the institute.

Magneto wishes Lee were with him, but she’s running her ship. Magneto misses her which surprises him because Magneto “thought I was beyond such caring.”

Lee wrote Magneto a letter telling him that she loved him and calling him darling.

Mirage (Dani Moonstar) is attacked on her way home from town and once Mirage is safe, Magneto finds the attackers. He destroys their house and threatens “Once, with far less cause, I would quite cheerfully have slain you – rent your bodies limb from limb as easily as I did your house. Indeed, I am sorely tempted. The world would not miss such as you. But I am older, a littler sadder – and I hope, wiser. I have learned a better way.” and “Mine is the power to destroy – but I choose not to. Profit from my example. The evil you do others returns unto you a thousandfold – it scars both body and, far worse, soul. Continue down this cruel and bloody road you’ve chosen and one day, you’re certain to meet one not as forgiving as I. Is that what you want? The choice, as ever, remains your own.”

Mirage’s attackers turn themselves into the police.

February

Uncanny X-Men (1963) #202 “X-Men, I’ve Gone to Kill the Beyonder!” by Chris Claremont

Magneto uses Cerebro.

March

Vision and the Scarlet Witch (1985) #6 “No Strings Attached!” by Steve Englehart

Wanda invites Magneto to her thanksgiving dinner but ultimately tells him that he will have to prove himself before she’ll accept him into her life.

Magneto takes responsibility for being a bad father. (the author doesn’t write consistently on if Magneto knew he was the twins’ father or not, he also doesn’t seem to care if Pietro has any hard feelings about Magneto, Wanda is the only one who counts. Also, he has Magneto call pregnant Wanda hysterical for no reason, just fyi.)

April

New Mutants (1983) #38 “Aftermath!” by Chris Claremont

The New Mutants are collectively dealing with psychic shock after their meeting with the Beyonder. This includes nightly collective nightmares for the students and Magneto.

Magneto has doubts about his ability to help the students recover.

Emma Frost offers that Magneto should send the children to her Massachusetts Academy where she can use her powers to help them.

Magneto meets the Salem Center High principal Analie Hogarth. Magneto reveals that he is posing as Charles’ “mysterious older cousin” and going under the alias Michael Xavier, an identity Charles created for him.

One of Emma’s students, a Hellion named Empath (Manuel de la Rocha) is revealed to the reader as having manipulated Magneto to feel lost and confused.

Magneto tries throughout the issue to help the New Mutants, but nothing works. He finally agrees to Emma’s offer.

May

New Mutants (1983) #39 “Pawns of the White Queen” by Chris Claremont

Magneto goes into a spiral after sending the majority of the New Mutants away to Emma’s school, Mirage and Warlock being the only students who didn’t go. Mirage criticizes Magneto for not doing more before leaving to go back to her family.

Magneto swims.

Magneto shaves with a straight razor.

Magneto learns that he was manipulated into letting the New Mutants go to Emma’s school. Magneto proclaims Emma “Will learn – very soon and to her eternal sorrow – the Magneto is not a man… to have as one’s enemy!”

Emma alerts the police, telling them that Magneto is attempting to abduct her students knowing that the Avenger’s will try and stop him.

June

New Mutants (1983) #40 “Avengers Assemble!” by Chris Claremont

The Avengers are told Magneto is going to abduct children, all of them assume Magneto has gone bad again and wants to use the children to reboot the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants with younger, more malleable minds.

Magneto has a conversation with Warlock reminding him to never take someone’s “lifeglow” aka their life force which would kill them.

The Avengers battle Magneto who tries to keep Warlock safe and not harm the Avengers. He attempts to explain himself but the Avengers refuse to listen. Captain America tells Magneto of Namor’s heroism during WWII, Magneto replies saying “How fortunate for him, Captain. At the time, I was but a victim of that self-same tyranny. Then, I lacked the strength to win my freedom – and save the lives of those I held dear – but Never Again!” Magneto insists that he has “learned a better way” and is no longer a villain.

The New Mutants rally together and come to Magneto’s aid giving Captain America pause to reflect that the Avengers have welcomed other reformed villains, why shouldn’t they also welcome Magneto.

Magneto and Emma work together to heal the New Mutants’ psychic shock. Emma “made their minds whole… but not their hearts, or souls. Now, at last, with their teachers’ help and support, they have faced their nightmares… and dealt with them… each in their own way.” Emma remarks that Magneto was able to reach the New Mutants on a deeper level which made a “crucial difference.”

September

Vision and the Scarlet Witch (1985) #12 “Double Size Climax!” by Steve Englehart

Magneto is invited to welcome Wanda and her twins home from the hospital after she gives birth.

October

Uncanny X-Men (1963) #210 “The Morning After” by Chris Claremont

Magneto is invited to take the place of the White King in the Hellfire Club.

November

Uncanny X-Men (1963) #211 “Massacre” by Chris Claremont

Magneto chides Kitty for eating junk food and tells her “Just don’t make a habit of such behavior.”

The X-Men discover that the Morlocks have been massacred. Magneto says “No! The horrors of my childhood, born again – only this time, mutants are the victims, instead of Jews.”

December

Uncanny X-Men (1963) #212 “The Last Run” by Chris Claremont

Magneto uses his powers to heal Colossus from grave injuries. The narrative states Magneto “Has taken life so often – brought harm so easily it became almost second nature. Now he has a chance to heal. He will die himself before he fails.”

1987

January

Uncanny X-Men (1963) #213 “Psylocke” by Chris Claremont

Magneto informs the X-Men that he intends to join forces with the Hellfire Club and have the X-Men work alongside the Hellfire Club against the Marauders. The X-Men agree.

New Mutants (1983) #47 “My Heart for the Highlands” by Chris Claremont

While dealing with the aftermath of the Morlock attack, Magneto urges Moira to eat and prepares a meal for the two of them to share, complete with full place settings and candelabra.

Magneto tells Moira “I have lived my whole life with despair, Moira, believing the worst of humanity. But since becoming headmaster of Xavier’s – more especially, by knowing the New Mutants – I have learned… the virtue and power of hope. This is a lesson I will not easily cast aside.”

February

Fantastic Four vs. the X-Men (1987) #1 “Are You Sure?!” by Chris Claremont

(This miniseries dovetails into the regular Uncanny X-Men timeline and even though it runs concurrently with the similarly titled “The X-Men vs. the Avengers (1987)” these stories are not overlapping timeline wise and the events of the Fantastic Four miniseries only makes sense to have concluded before the Avengers miniseries begins.)

Kitty is in need of high tech medical care to resolidify herself after being stuck in a permanent phase. Without help she will eventually dissipate. Magneto goes to seek help from Reed Richards.

The Fantastic Four are suspicious of Magneto but agree to help.

Upon arriving at Moira’s Muir Island research facility, Reed has second thoughts and declines to help for fear he could outright kill Kitty accidentally. Magneto insists that he at least try and even attempts to steal Richards’ machine to use it himself, but the Fantastic Four thwart this plan and the X-Men are left without hope for Kitty.

New Mutants (1983) #48 “Ashes of the Heart” by Chris Claremont

Magneto is alone at the Mansion, the New Mutants having disappeared and by many are presumed dead.

Magneto goes through each New Mutant’s room and tidies it with the help of little robots he calls widgets.

Stevie Hunter, the school PE teacher, tells Magneto he should give up and face reality that the New Mutants are dead. Magneto tells her “I’ve come to know these children, and… care for them. Whatever I was, Stevie – whatever I become – they mean too much to me… to abandon them.”

March

Fantastic Four vs. the X-Men (1987) #2 “Truth and Consequences” by Chris Claremont

Magneto and the X-Men turn to Doctor Doom for help to save Kitty.

New Mutants (1983) #49 “Ashes of the Soul” by Chris Claremont

Magneto has a dream of when his family was killed by the German death squads known as the Einsatzgruppen.

It is spring time. A small group of people are gathered in front of a pit in the countryside.

Magneto is depicted as a young, black-haired boy, perhaps 10 years old, wearing short pants and long socks.

Magneto’s sister appears to be two or three years older than him.

German soldiers fire at the group of people killing all save Magneto. Without understanding what happens, Magneto’s powers manifest enough to spare him from death, “His mind burns, power he never dreamed existed coming alive.”

He is buried with his family and the rest of the victims, but since he did not die he climbs out of the pit.

Magneto is depicted breaking through the earth to the shock of the German soldiers. Magneto’s black hair has turned white.

Magneto wakes from his memory-dream thinking “So long ago, so far away. Yet the memories are still vivid. Every detail, etched with acid. My power – my mastery over magnetism – first manifested itself that morning. It saved me, why wouldn’t it do the same for those I loved?! The Germans were so astonished by my survival, the decided to spare my life. I was sent instead to a concentration camp. Auschwitz. Sometimes, I wish I hadn’t struggled so hard.”

Magneto wonders if his dream is a harbinger of mutantkind’s eventual fate.

Magneto is still undecided about joining the Hellfire Club thinking “If we stand alone, we could be destroyed. If I accept this alliance… we could be destroyed! The choice is mine – the responsibility is mine – but I don’t know what to do!”

April

The X-Men vs. the Avengers (1987) #1 “Justice for All” by Roger Stern

The Avengers track down Magneto and insist they’re going to bring him back before the World Court and end his trail properly.

(Jim Shooter is fired as Editor in Chief from Marvel Comics this month leading to several years of corporate fuckery that resulted in erasing all of Magneto’s character development and pivoting him back to being an antagonist by the 90’s)

May

New Mutants (1983) #51 “Teacher’s Choice” by Chris Claremont

Magneto and Storm work together to repair a failing breakwater and save a human community from a hurricane.

Storm urges Magneto to accept the position of White King in the Hellfire Club.

Magneto refers to his helmet as a symbol of his past life as a super-villain.

Magneto and Storm jointly accept the role of White King.

June

Fantastic Four vs. the X-Men (1987) #4 “A Matter of Faith” by Chris Claremont

Magneto confides in Storm his feelings of helplessness to do anything to save Kitty. He reflects on his past saying “Roughly five hundred miles in that direction is Auschwitz – the Nazi death camp – where my parents and sister were murdered. I should have died with them. And due west from Latveria is the Soviet city of Vinnitsa. There was a fire. I was injured saving my wife. My daughter remained trapped in the burning building. She was much like Kitty, my Anya. The most beautiful of children – two years old, Ororo, and she never cried. She only laughed – with wonder and joy – as though life was some magnificent adventure, staged for her alone.” (There is some contradiction between this telling and the others, some of the details change as ideas are developed even though the story remains wholly the same.)

He goes on to say “She burned, Storm! My power was weaker then. I used it to save my wife, but couldn’t reach Anya. A crowd had gathered. I begged for help. They refused me. They saw I was a mutant and some called for me to be hurled into the same flames that consumed my child. Too late – in rage and a grief that ravages me still – I came at last to my birthright: the absolute control over the forces and manifestations of magnetism that is the power of… Magneto! Magda… was so terrified of my power… and how I wielded it… that she fled from me. How different, I wonder, would the pathway of my life have been if she had not? In that awful moment, Storm, I lost everything.” (This telling of the story does not include the secret police)

Magneto tells Storm that he feels he is forever haunted by his past saying that people insist on seeing him as a villain even though he’s changed. He reflects that maybe he should have gone back to finish his trial.

Reed Richards finally comes to help them save Kitty and later Magneto and Richards make peace with each other.

July

The X-Men vs. the Avengers (1987) #4 “Day of Judgment” by Tom DeFalco

Magneto surrenders himself to the Avengers and agrees to finish his trial before the World Court.

Gaby Haller once again acts as his defense attorney.

Magneto uses his helmet and advanced technology circuits to influence the chief justice to rule in his favor. It is unclear, however, if he actually was able to influence the judge or if the judge ruled in Magneto’s favor of his own volition. The court declares it has no jurisdiction over Magneto.

Marvel Fanfare #33 “Shadows on the Soul” by Chris Claremont

(This story originally written for a different series but never released until 1987.)

Magneto and Lee are together and confess their feelings for each other.

Magneto calls the X-Men his friends.

Uncanny X-Men (1963) #219 “Where Duty Lies” by Chris Claremont

It is revealed that Magneto has publicly assumed the identity as a cousin of Charles’ who also bears the last name Xavier.

August

Classic X-Men (1986) #12 by Chris Claremont

(Classic X-Men reprinted earlier Claremont X-Men stories but added new material (sometimes individual pages, sometimes additional short stories) to fill out the issue and tie into current comic continuity. Claremont wrote both the original X-Men issue that was being reprinted and the new material that was added.)

(New material that takes place directly after Uncanny X-Men (1963) #104)

Magneto is asleep not long after being resurrected by Eric the Red. He is dreaming “As always, the dream begins with Auschwitz… and Magda. More than a million people died in this camp. And with World War II ending – the Third Reich defeated – it’s guards wanted no witnesses left… to tell the tale of this horror.”

Magneto prevents a camp guard from killing Magda, then takes the guard’s gun and runs away with Magda.

Magneto is said to have “been here from the start… grown to manhood within its electrified barbed wire fence. If he was to die, it would not be in this abattoir… and not without a fight!”

Magneto and Magda run into the wilderness, eventually escaping into the Carpathian Mountains where they eventually settle and begin to build a life together. The page shows Magneto felling a tree, learning woodworking, studying, Magneto socializing with friends at a dinner table, getting married to Magda and cuddling his wife and newborn daughter, Anya.

Magneto is described as having “an insatiable hunger for knowledge, coupled with a wildfire intelligence” so eventually “he bade the village farewell and took his family eastward, into the Soviet Union, hoping to win a place at university” (This suggests that Magneto was living in a village in the Polish side of the Carpathians)

Magneto, Magda and Anya come to the “city of Vinnitsa, the biggest they’d ever seen.” (This suggests that Magneto and Magda came from a rural village or town before being sent to Auschwitz)

Magneto leaves his wife and daughter to go find work.

Anya is depicted as a child between 4-6 years old.

Magneto’s powers first manifest when he has a disagreement with another man. Magneto realizes the powers come from himself and isn’t sure what to make of it.

Magneto returns to the inn where he and his family are staying since this is their first day in the city. The inn is on fire and Anya is trapped on the second floor of the building.

Magda is in the building trying to save their daughter, Magneto uses his powers to get her to safety.

Magneto curses in Russian.

Magneto attempts to get to Anya but is prevented by secret police who are trying to arrest him for his earlier disagreement.

Anya dies in the fire, Magneto’s powers break loose killing those around him save for Magda.

Magda is terrified by what she just witnessed and runs away from Magneto.

Magneto wakes from his dream and uses his powers to save a nearby mother and child from a fire.

Magneto speaks French.

1988

January

New Mutants Annual (1984) #4 “Mind Games” by Louise Simonson

Magneto lectures Sunspot (Roberto da Costa) that the new Mutant Registration Act presents a real danger to all mutants. He states “There are diverse elements in the government who are eager to locate us mutants… in part through their Mutant Registration Act. Some of them would use us. The others would destroy us. I have staked my life that they will do neither.”

New Mutants (1983) #59 “Fang and Claw!” by Louise Simonson

Magneto is overjoyed when Sunspot and Warlock return from an absence.

A villain pulls up a file on the New Mutants showing their images and listing everyone’s name, code-name and powers. Magneto’s profile lists him as “Magnus, Magneto, Master of Magnetism, School’s Headmaster” no last name is given.

February

Classic X-Men (1986) #18 by Chris Claremont

(Additional material to Uncanny X-Men (1963) #112)

Storm reflects on when Magneto was turned into an infant, thinking “He returned completely to a state of grace.”

March

(The X-Men are presumed dead after the events of Uncanny X-Men #227)

New Mutants (1983) #61 “Our Way!” by Louise Simonson

Magneto discovers one of the New Mutants, Cypher (Doug Ramsey) has been murdered after a misadventure. Magneto lashes out at the New Mutants for not protecting Doug and for disobeying him. Everyone is deeply upset.

Magneto goes to the infirmary where Doug’s body is laying. He pulls back the sheet covering Doug and looks at the boy thinking “Curse you Charles Xavier, for putting me in this position! I have no rapport with these children. Observe the bitter fruit of my labors!” Magneto kneels at the side of the table where Doug lays and weeps over his body. “An ill wind is coming… they are registering mutants like the once registered my people in Poland…! Who knows what horrors await us. But they are only children. How can they possibly understand… any of this.” (This suggests Magneto is Polish by birth)

Classic X-Men (1986) #19 by Chris Claremont

(Additional material to Uncanny X-Men (1963) #113)

Magneto is described thusly: “His wealth places him far beyond the dreams of avarice. And he numbers some of the finest minds on Earth among his acquaintances. The one facet of his personality that has not changed throughout the decades is his love of learning coupled with an insatiable curiosity about the universe.”

Magneto is a regular correspondent with Stephen Hawking.

Magneto is seen working with advanced scientific equipment making discoveries capable of revolutionizing particle physics and would qualify him for a Nobel prize.

Magneto remembers that Magda used to find him studying long hours to the point that he’d “forgotten food, and sleep, and even her.”

Magneto shaves with an electric razor.

Magneto thinks about Magda and Anya thinking since his resurrection he’s never been stronger or more haunted.

Magneto wonders if Magda is still alive and if she recognizes the famous “evil mutant” as her former husband.

Magneto describes Charles as his dearest friend.

(New material presented in the form of a backflash that takes place at some point after the Uncanny X-Men (1963) #161 story which details Charles and Magneto meeting for the first time. This story suggests that these events take place shortly before Uncanny X-Men #1 when the X-Men face Magneto for the first time in 1963.)

Magneto single-handedly takes out a secret Nazi base in South America and captures Oberstrumbanführer Hans Richter to be taken back to Israel and be put on trial.

After using his powers, Magneto suffers from debilitating psychic pain “Worse than the bite of the kapo’s whip, the murder of parents and family. The death of a child. The loss of a beloved wife. It passes quickly leaving him alive – and almost wishing he wasn’t.” Magneto observes that “These seizures strike now whenever I use my powers. More extreme my usage, more debilitating the attack.”

Magneto reports of the captured Nazi to a group called only “Control” (This seems to be a stand in for a Mossod style organization.)

Two weeks later, in Rio de Janiero, Magneto reads an article about Charles Xavier and wonders if he shouldn’t reconnect with him and seek help for his psychic attacks.

A woman in a bikini and sarong approaches Magneto asking why he’s dressed so formally in a suit and tie at a beach front cafe. Magneto replies “This, I’m afraid, is as uninhibited as I get.”

The woman turns out to be Magneto’s lover Isabelle, no last name is given.

Magneto recounts to Isabelle about how Anya died and Magda left him.

Control did not want Richter captured as he was a useful informant, so they send a squad to kill Isabelle and Magneto. They succeed in slaying Isabelle, but Magneto uses his powers to fight against them.

Magneto looks on Isabelle’s body completely disillusioned with humanity. The reader is told that “the dream dies… and the nightmare is born.”

June

New Mutants (1983) #64 “Instant Replay!” by Louise Simonson

Magneto is disgusted with himself after being forced to lie about the circumstances of Cypher’s death. He tells the New Mutants “It’s wrong. His parents have the right to know the truth about their son… about the way he died. But I feel that it would be dangerous to reveal ourselves as mutants at this time.”

August

New Mutants (1983) #66 “Sorcerer’s Duel!” by Louise Simonson

Magneto is seen in his old purple and red villain costume for the first time since Uncanny X-Men #188 and Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #12. This seems to be the start of Magneto’s corporate mandated pivot back to being an antagonist.

November

New Mutants (1983) #69 “Bad Company” by Louise Simonson

Magneto, dressed once more in his traditional red and purple outfit, holds his helmet in his hands as he says “All I have ever wanted for mutantkind is peace and prosperity. I thought I had found a better way to achieve my goal… and eschewed my old, violent ways. I had hoped to find solace as teacher and protector of the young. But they refuse to be safeguarded, if they are on Earth, I will find them… and protect them actively in the way that I know best.” Magneto puts his helmet on.

1989

April

New Mutants (1983) #74 “The Right Stuff” by Louise Simonson

Shaw blames Magneto for damages to New York City caused by Magick’s (Illyana Rasputin) Limbo demons.

Magneto and Sebastian Shaw fight each other briefly, Magneto accuses Shaw of not caring for mutantkind.

Later, Magneto talks to Emma and suggests that Shaw was right to blame him.

May

New Mutants (1983) #75 “King of the Hill!” by Louise Simonson

Magneto fights with Shaw for control of the Hellfire Club.

Magneto comes out of the confrontation victorious and Shaw is expelled from the club.

Magneto and the New Mutants have a falling out and the New Mutants refuse to have anything more to do with him.

November

Uncanny X-Men (1963) #253 “Storm Warnings” by Chris Claremont

Magneto and Moira quarrel on Muir Island about him parting ways with the X-Men, the New Mutants and the Xavier Institute.

Magneto is convinced “There is a war coming, Moira. And you are a fool if you do not see it. We mutants cannot be wished away, we are here on this earth, more and more born every day. There are those who will accept us, and those who fear us and seek our destruction. And, worst of all, those like Genoshans… who desire to exploit us for their own power and profit. We must be strong enough – as a people – to survive without the sufferance of the one or the aggression of the others. I mean to ensure that. I must – because there is no one else.”

Magneto tells Banshee “I am sorry things have to end like this – but I suspect it’s for the best. Some roads are better traveled alone.”

Magneto leaves.

1990

October

Uncanny X-Men (1963) #269 “Rogue Redux” by Chris Claremont

Magneto intervenes to save Rogue’s life after she is reborn from another dimension without her mutant abilities. He attempts to return her to her previous strength and powers in his base in the Savage Lands.

1991

February

Uncanny X-Men (1963) #273 “Too Many Mutants” by Chris Claremont

Jean tells storm that she’s concerned Magneto is returning to his old ways.

March

Uncanny X-Men (1963) #274 “Crossroads” by Chris Claremont

Magneto narrates this issue: “All my life, I have been drawn to the wild and desolate places of the world. As a boy, I saw myself walking where no man ever had. Alone against the elements. The more I came to know of people… the more strongly that yearning dream spoke to me. As the fierce, unyielding emptiness without struck some resonant echo within my heart and soul. Yet for all of that… for all of life replete with it’s share and far more of rage and pain and suffering, as harshly given as endured… still I manage to find myself with allies. Who appear determined to stand by me, regardless. I wonder which are the greater fools: they for trying and trusting, or me for allowing it.”

Magneto is working with Ka-Zar and a depowered Rogue in the Savage Lands against the evil Zaladane.

When Rogue fights one of Zaladane’s goons, Magneto intervenes, thinking “I hear my daughter Anya scream as she burns before my eyes… hear Isabelle’s gasp of surprise as she is murdered… two I loved but were unable to save. Only avenge. It will not be that way with Rogue.”

Rogue presses Magneto to be merciful, saying “We’re the good guys, right?! We’re s’posed t’ stand for something better!” Magneto narrates “She actually believes that. Why can’t I? All I see is blood. That already spilled. That yet to be. I see my path so clearly. But I turn away.”

Magneto narrates “Later in my citadel, I reflect that ages ago – in what for me was another lifetime – I used my knowledge of genetics to mutate a band of swamp savages into super-powered beings. When they were no longer useful, I abandoned them to their fate, forgot their very existence. More of my past come back to haunt my present and threaten the future.” and in regards to his past as leader of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants “It is a goal I once had, in those long-gone days of madness, when I was reviled and condemned as a super-villain” and then later “My life’s ambition has been to safeguard my fellow mutants. Zaladane has no such compunction. And I hear the echo of Der Führer’s voice in the radio of memory, smell the awful stench of the sick and dying as the cattle cars brought the condemned to Auschwitz. I wear red, the color of blood, in tribute to their lost lives. And the harder I try to cast it aside, to find a gentler path… the more irresistibly I’m drawn back. I should have died myself, with those I loved. Instead, I carted the bodies by the hundred by the thousands… from the death house to the crematorium… and the ashes to the burial ground. Asking now what I could not then – why was I spared?! To bring others the death that passed me by?”

Magneto narrates on Zaladane “The more I come to know of her… the more I find myself trapped in a mirror… staring at a distorted vision of myself. Sleep is a mistake. But I’m so weary this once I can’t resist. Any more than I can hold at bay… the nightmares that come along. Flowers. Scent of growing things. Joyful sounds of life. So clear. So crisp, after more than half a century. Someone sobs. My sister holds tight my hand. My father still cannot believe this is happening. I hear laughter. The guns blaze, and I’m falling with the others. Into darkness. Loamy earth smell tainted by the acrid burning of lime. All of us pressed so tight together, embracing eternity. So easy to give up. Lie in my grave. Breathe my last. But I fight!” (This recounts the events around Magneto's family's death depicted in The New Mutants #49)

Rogue wakes Magneto and they share a moment before being interrupted by Ka-Zar. Magneto thinks “Am I imagining the sudden spark between us. Leaving Rogue as shaken as I? Leave well enough alone. I am pledged to another. As much as one can pledge a heart full of ghosts.”

Magneto narrates “I cannot recall a point in my life when I did not fight. Nor any longer of a time when war held the slightest horror for me.”

Magneto’s group is aided by Nick Fury’s group which includes the father of one of the Soviet sailors killed my Magneto on the submarine Leningrad. Magneto narrates “Again, a cry from the past. One father to another, in anguished grief for a slain child. At the time, my actions seemed quite appropriate. The Leningrad had fired a salvo of nuclear ballistic missiles at me, so I sank her, with all hands. Thinking of that crew not as people, but merely an object lesson: how dare they defy me, threaten me, these Russians whose countrymen let my daughter burn to death? There is too much history and hate between us. I cannot talk to these men.”

April

Uncanny X-Men (1963) #274 “The Path Not Taken” by Chris Claremont and Jim Lee

The Russian colonel guns down Magneto leading to him being captured by Zaladane. The colonel joins Zaladane. Zaladane uses a machine to try and transfer Magneto’s powers to herself. Under the influence of the machine Magneto narrates “Try as I might, I cannot stop this. And worst of all, as my life is torn from me, turned into a sideshow entertainment for the Brainchild’s sadistic pleasure… with my strength devoted wholly to that struggle, I have nothing left to block my emotional responses to the memories themselves. Once more, I hear myself howl ‘til my voice shatters at the sight of my daughter, Anya, burning to death before my eyes. Once more, hot blood mixes with salt tears as my beloved Isabelle’s throat is cut by those I thought my trusted friends. Once more, rage flashes through me… hand in hand with a terror I’d not felt since Auschwitz… as at last I confront the Shadow King. Followed by sick shame at the awful cost of my survival.”

Zaladane leaves Magneto with her minions. Rogue and her team have infiltrated Zaladanes stronghold and once Magneto realizes they are there, he strikes the minions unexpectedly. Magneto narrates “They think me beaten, finished. A mistake many have made in the past. As I found the strength, as a boy, to survive being machine gunned and buried alive, and later the unimaginable horror of Auschwitz… so do I find it in me, here and now, to break free.”

Magneto narrates “The primal, paramount lesson of my life is that I can depend on no one save myself.”

Magneto fights against the Russian colonel saying “I am sorry for your son, colonel. Which is more than I ever heard… for the slaughter of those I loved.” Colonel Semyanov says “Your… daughter you mean? And that absolves you of any crime?” Magneto replies “I never said it did. For who we are, and what we have done, comrade colonel… we are both of us condemned.”

Rogue and Magneto argue over how he intends to deal with Zaladane. Magneto says “The New Mutants were left in my charge and they suffered for it – because I tried to pattern myself after Charles Xavier. I am not Charles Xavier. I will never be Charles Xavier. I was a fool to try. As he was, for believing I could succeed. My people are in danger – more so now than ever before – from the Hellfire Club and their accursed Shadow Kind, from foul creatures such as this, perhaps even from the very United Nations which Colonel Fury loyally serves. And a kinder, gentler Magneto cannot save them.”

October

X-Men (1991) #1 “Rubicon” by Chris Claremont and Jim Lee

Magneto has established a mutant haven on a new Asteroid M. World governments are wary of it and the X-Men are dispatched to discover what’s going on.

Magneto raises the submarine Leningrad (which he sank in Uncanny X-Men #150) from the sea floor. He finds some of the nuclear missiles the submarine was carrying are intact.

Inside the submarine, Magneto comes finds himself sitting among the bones of the Leningrad’s crew. “Now though, at last, he finds himself face to face with the consequence of his acts. And he remembers another time, other bodies, bones still coated with the flesh of family and friends, tossed into a lime-soaked pit and him along with them, only he was still alive. Somehow, he clawed his way to the surface.” (This again refers to the account of Magneto's family's death in The New Mutants #49)

Rogue tells Magneto that his actions are scaring people. Magneto says “I tried my best to change, I did my best to follow Xavier’s path to a peaceful co-existence between Homo Sapiens and Homo Sapiens Superior. And paid for that folly with the blood of innocents.”

Later on Asteroid M, Magneto ruminates on his latest conflict with the X-Men thinking of Wolverine in particular “For the brief time I worked with the X-Men, he accepted me wholeheartedly. If not as a friend, then at least as a comrade-in-arms. Why then has he turned on me? What has changed? Why must blood always come between me and others?” (Magneto has been working with the X-Men and the New Mutants since 1985)

Radical mutant acolytes that have decided to follow Magneto, led by Fabian Cortez, fight with the X-Men. Magneto puts a stop to it and says “All my life, I have seen people slaughtered wholesale for no more reason than the deity they worshipped, or the color of their skin – or the presence in their DNA of an extra, special gene. I cannot change the world but I can – and will – ensure that my race will never again suffer for its fear and prejudice. Henceforth, I declare Asteroid M a sovereign world. Home and haven to mutantkind. If you are born Homo Sapiens Superior, then you are automatically a citizen, entitled to safe haven above and security below. Even you X-Men – even your mentor, my old friend, Charles Xavier – are welcome here. But mark this and mark it well – harm done against any mutant is harm done to me. And I shall respond accordingly.”

November

X-Men (1991) #2 “Firestorm” by Chris Claremont and Jim Lee

Beast says that the Genoshans are changing for the better, and asks why Magneto is going in the opposite direction. Magneto says “You know that answer, Beast… you would have to live my life. And I would not wish such a fate, even on my most hated enemy.”

Magneto abducts Charles and Moira looking for answers about his genetic structure. Moira admits that she saw there was a genetic instability in Magneto’s genetic matrix, and she tried to stabilize it when he was an infant in her care.

Magneto is infuriated that Moira conducted genetic experimentation on him in an attempt to change who he was. He questions every decision he’s made since his rebirth.

Moira is apologetic, but Magneto’s anger is unabated. He tells her “I heard those same rationales as a boy, in the Auschwitz death camp, from Dr. Josef Mengele himself!”

December

X-Men (1991) #3 “Fallout” by Chris Claremont and Jim Lee

Moira reveals that the genetic experimentation she did on baby Magneto didn’t work.

Moira also points out that Cortez has been using his power to weaken Magneto.

Cortex flees Asteroid M and fires a shot at the complex that will kill all the inhabitants.

Charles and the X-Men prepare to leave in their spacecraft, but Magneto refuses to leave with them instead choosing to stay on the asteroid to preserve its integrity as long as possible using his powers. He tells Charles “My life was shaped by forces and events none of you can possibly understand. You speak to the best of humanity. I have endured the worst. You imagine the reality of the Holocaust, of the Nazi death camps. I grew up in one. Perhaps, as you say, I am tainted by blood and rage – and death. But perhaps as well, that blood and rage and death comprise the armor that will sustain me and those who stand by me through the ordeal to come. The past is prologue, old friend. And the future I behold for you is… war. We have already chosen our path.”

Asteroid M blows up just as the X-Men escape. Charles tells them all “At the last… he opened his thoughts to me. He is still the man I remember from younger, happier days – who was my friend – and yet… none of that matters anymore, does it? ‘I save you, X-Men,’ he said, ‘because that is my task in life: to safeguard my people – Homo Sapiens Superior – mutantkind – from those who would do us harm. And those forces are legion. In that and I suspect nothing else, Charles, we are much alike. I have survived one Holocaust, I could not tolerate another. Nor any who – by accident, by intent – act to bring it about. I bore no animus to you, old friend, or your students until you chose to oppose me. Then, I had no choice but to count you among my enemies. Have no illusions on that score. Perhaps it’s best it end this way, Charles. Best for my dream to end in flames and glory, here far above Earth… for if we were ever to meet again… I would have shown you no mercy. I give you your dream, Charles. But I fear, in time, your heart will break as you realize it has ever been a fool’s hope. Farewell, my friend.”

Chris Claremont was removed from the X-Men without explanation and left Marvel after this book. He had been writing for the X-Men for 17 years. To learn more about Chris Claremont and his work on the X-Men and the corporate fuckery that lead to him leaving watch the 2018 documentary Chris Claremont’s X-Men which is currently available free on YouTube.

If you feel like I’ve overlooked or left out an important issue from the 1963-1991 era, please contact me and let me know. I will update this list with more information if any comes to light.

#X-Men #xmen #Magneto #Erik Lehnsherr #Magneto/Magnus #New Mutants #Comics #Chris Claremont #Magda and Anya #Pietro Maximoff #Wanda Maximoff #The Scarlet Witch #Quicksilver #Charles Xavier #Professor X #Holocaust #Auschwitz #Jewish #Jewish Characters #70s #80s #90s #Bronze Age Comics #World War II #World War 2 #WWII #Long Post #10k Words #Max Eisenhardt

[sineala]

Intertextuality in Steve/Tony Comics

Hi, Tumblr! I wanted to talk about intertextuality in comics. Actually, I mostly just wanted to talk about this 616 Steve/Tony fact I found that I had no idea existed until the other day but I didn't want to spoil what it was in the title, so this post just sounds way classier than it actually is.

So if you're a comics fan to any degree you've probably figured out that comics are big into intertextuality. Superhero comics are probably the biggest stories that exist -- Marvel's been going with zero linewide reboots since the 1940s, so barring retcons, any comic you pick up from the past eighty years is going to be basically "true" in canon. And comics take a lot of opportunities to play with that fact, using recurring villains, recurring lines, and of course lots of panel redraws of iconic moments but now with other characters. It's a genre that often rewards knowing what has come before, although of course usually you don't have to know in order to follow the plot because if it's something you need to know, it will be filled in.

(An example of this in recent comics that I thought was really clever was Secret Invasion #1, the new miniseries by Ryan North. It is completely readable if you know nothing about Skrulls (although you should probably know that they are shapeshifters) because by the end of it you will know everything you need to know to understand, but the more you know, the more you will understand what the comic is doing as it's happening. The issue opens with Nick Fury visiting a family because a woman wants to show him the body of her dead husband. She explains that she is thrilled that he is dead because she believes that he was replaced by a Skrull and now the Skrull is dead and her real husband must still be out there. We then get a panel of Fury swearing in dismay and frustration. The thing the book hasn't told you at this point is that Skrulls revert to their real forms upon death -- so when you see a dead human, as Fury has, you know for sure that it's a dead human. So if you already know this about Skrulls you know exactly why Fury is upset: he has to break this woman's heart because he knows for a fact that the guy wasn't a Skrull. The book itself fills you in about this fact a couple pages later, but the scene totally works if you just think Fury strongly suspects this guy isn't a Skrull. You just get to feel real smart if you already know why.)

Anyway. That wasn't the kind of intertextuality I wanted to talk about. Just wanted to rec the Secret Invasion mini.

I wanted to talk about the thing that happens where you think you know every detail about a comics event and you later find yourself reading a comic book from the same era that as far as you know has absolutely nothing to do with that event, except, surprise, it does! And there's just some random detail there that wasn't anywhere else in any other comic and it really changes how you think about the whole thing. Because that's the thing that happened to me the other day.

Okay, so. For Reasons, I needed to know about the circumstances surrounding John Walker joining the West Coast Avengers. I'd already been reading Cap from that era, so I knew that in Cap #355, Steve gets a call from the government informing him that Walker is alive and can they borrow that black uniform if Steve isn't using it because they're going to force the WCA to take him. So the thing I started wondering was, hey, what did Tony think of Walker joining the WCA? Because Tony was on the WCA a lot in that era, so he was probably there. Except I checked, and... he wasn't. Walker joins the WCA in WCA #44. Tony is not on the team then.

I haven't read a whole lot of WCA, so naturally that meant I now had a new question, which was "when did Tony leave the WCA, and when did he come back?" So I poked around the appearances list on the Marvel Wiki and found that he left the team in WCA #31 and came back a whole twenty issues later, in WCA #51. I just want to say that Tony has picked some terrifically awful times to leave and rejoin the team, because #31 is the middle of the plot where Bobbi gets raped, and #51 is the BABY ARMS. But that's neither here nor there.

So now I was wondering why Tony left the WCA. I figured I'd go read the issue where he left and it would tell me why. I figured it was probably one of those standard superhero things where he makes a standard goodbye speech, whatever, he's got stuff to do.

That is definitely not how any of this goes down.

So Tony enters the plot in WCA #31 when he's walking around and happens upon Tigra and Moon Knight making out. Like you do, I guess.

Tony, who is rather uncharacteristically angry, tells the two of them to leave. He'd like to sit there by himself because he has some important stuff to think about. Scram. Tigra and Moon Knight, quite reasonably, tell him that this is their romantic scenic overlook and he can go get his own.

(Yes, Tigra knows Tony is Iron Man; she was there in the Molecule Man issue (Avengers #216), so she found out at approximately the same time Steve did. Most but not all of the rest of the WCA knows. Clint and Bobbi specifically do also know because Tony told them in IM #193, which was the recovery phase of the second drinking arc. We will see a few more people who know in this issue.)

Clint, whose attitude to team leadership at this point appears to be, "oh my God, why do I have to be the responsible adult now? thanks, I hate it," shows up to tell Tony to knock it off. He'd like to know what Tony's problem is. Tony says he can't tell him.

Tony says, essentially, that he has to think about some things. Clint really wants to know what's going on because, after all, the WCA is his team. And Tony asks Clint to trust him. Clint says he trusts him. And then Tony's like "okay, thanks, bye," and zooms off.

So at this point, as you can imagine, Clint is wondering what the hell is going on with Tony, and he laments to Bobbi that Tony won't just tell him what's going on.

At this point I too am wondering what's going on with Tony. Because, like I said, I haven't read a lot of WCA, so my assumption at this point is that whatever is going on with Tony is some ongoing development that has been happening in the pages of WCA and that I just don't know what it is because I haven't been reading WCA. I feel this is generally a reasonable assumption. Also, I'm wrong.

We are then interrupted by Clint getting a call from the East Coast team. And this is when we find out what's been going on with Tony.

You may have already figured it out. I didn't.

Spoilers: it's Armor Wars.

The East Coast team is calling to tell the WCA about Armor Wars.

And the framing of this is really, really interesting. I am speaking here as a Steve/Tony fan.

So you might think that the thing everyone's going to be upset about is that Tony is running around stealing his technology back from people because that seems like kind of a bad look for a superhero who is supposed to be a good guy.

They are upset about all that stuff later, yes. But that's not the part of it they're upset about now.

The issue that just happened is Iron Man #228, which as we all know is the issue where Tony breaks into the Vault to steal his technology from the Guardsmen. That's still not the part they're upset about.

They're upset that Tony fought Steve. That's why they're calling.

As far as I know, every other canon recounting of this issue that isn't specifically by Steve or Tony doesn't mention Steve and Tony fighting at the Vault. For example, the Vault thing is part of Ty's smear campaign against Tony in IM v3 #39, but it only mentions Tony fighting the Guardsmen. Nothing about Steve.

We do get other retellings of the fight and scenes that discuss the impact of the fight but they're all Steve and/or Tony, with no one else even present: Steve's POV on the fight in Cap #340, the discussion in IM #238, the famous apology scene in Cap #401, and even Civil War: Casualties of War. Like, as far as I can tell from the rest of canon, it might as well be the case that no one but Steve and Tony knows anything about the fight.

But that's not actually true, because here we see that their fellow Avengers know they've fought. They know, and they're horrified.

You have to remember, this right here is pretty much the first time Steve and Tony have ever seriously fought. Steve took a swing at Tony way back in the Korvac Saga, but I don't think either of them really treated that very seriously. Steve was upset about Tony drinking in Denny O'Neil's run. But those  fights they have where they're seriously trying to beat the shit out of each other and then they stop talking to each other or one or both of them die or there are big dramatic apologies? They haven't had any of those yet. This is the first one.

So their teammates -- and note that Steve is not even a current Avenger at this point, but the Avengers obviously still care about him -- instead of being like, meh, whatever, sometimes Steve and Tony beat each other up, are visibly shaken, because Steve and Tony are friends. This has never happened before. This is really wrong. It's a very emotional reaction. So that, I definitely wasn't expecting.

And the other thing I wasn't expecting was that the way this news is delivered is basically as if it is Tony And Steve's Abusive Relationship.

I'm absolutely not kidding about this.

So here's Monica Rambeau calling the WCA up and being like, I'm sorry I have to tell you this, but I just found out that a few days ago Tony attacked Steve at the Vault. Steve didn't want to tell us, and no one would have known if he hadn't been able to conceal it.

The WCA expresses their disbelief, and Monica insists that she's not kidding -- "Steve's got the bruises to prove it!"

Yeah, so, uh. Marvel's really not being subtle about this. I was just sitting here staring at my computer like OH MY GOD, THEY ACTUALLY WENT THERE. They really are framing this like it’s an act of domestic violence and not garden-variety superhero punching.

So, understandably, Clint is freaking out. He's like, holy shit, both these guys are my friends, I've known them for so long, I told Tony I trusted him, oh no.

Tony then does not appear in WCA for twenty more issues.

So you might be wondering whether they just leave this plotline hanging and they in fact do not. They catch up on it in the very next issue of the mainline Armor Wars story, which is IM #229.

So at some point Tony comes back to the WCA compound and the WCA want to know what the hell is going on:

Somehow by this point the team knows about the thefts that are the actual plot of Armor Wars, but Simon does mention the part where Tony beat up Captain America:

So Tony gives a big summary of all of Armor Wars (yes, including mentioning losing Steve’s friendship):

I enjoy the fact that Clint's response is instantly "you could have told us." Given the way the next page goes I'm pretty sure this is general sympathy and not "you know how much I love committing crimes, Tony, why didn't you think of me?" but I like to pretend it's the second one.

Anyway, what Clint actually says is that he understands where Tony is coming from but that Tony can't do this and be an Avenger. So Tony is off the team.

And once again, Tony zooms away.

So that's the WCA, the Armor Wars, and Tony And Steve's Abusive Relationship.

But after all that, I am left with one question: where did the bruises come from?

Monica says Steve has bruises. From the way she says it, it doesn't sound like it's any kind of metaphor -- it sounds like they're actual bruises. It sounds like the reason the team got the Armor Wars story out of Steve is because they saw that he had actual bruises.

But we all know how the fight in IM #228 goes: Steve and Tony have a brief angsty conversation, Tony claps a negator on Steve's shoulder, and Steve falls to the ground, temporarily paralyzed, while we all learn that a bond has now been broken.

What Tony did was very bad, yes. But also, what he did shouldn't have left bruises. No one punched Steve during this fight. No one punches Steve on his way in or out of the Vault. So Steve shouldn't look like he's been in a fistfight with Tony. But Monica is describing Steve as if he looks like Tony has been hitting him and apparently Steve confirmed that to her.

So they can't be talking about the fight at the Vault. Except they said they were. So what's going on?

As far as I can tell, what they're actually talking about is the confrontation in Cap #341, which happens as a result of the IM #228 fight. This is the one where Steve breaks into Tony's place to wait for him to get home so he can angrily return the shield that Tony made for him earlier in IM #228, like a normal person who has totally normal feelings about another person.

Steve actually returns the shield by throwing it directly into Tony's unarmored stomach, so I feel like (a) there is a sense in which Steve actually picked this fight that is being blamed on Tony (although, yes, obviously the initial conflict was Tony's fault) and (b) this is not really a good look, Steve.

Tony does eventually armor up and fight back, and there are blows exchanged.

I assume this could have bruised Steve up. There’s my explanation.

So that is, as far as I can determine, the only event at all related to Armor Wars in which Steve probably has bruises from being attacked by Tony, although it seems to have been conflated with the Vault attack itself, which if Steve let the Avengers assume this (when Steve actually started this particular fight) is frankly kind of shitty of Steve, but, y'know, Armor Wars is not an event where anyone comes out of it looking good.

(Yes, I know the Doylist explanation is most likely the fact that Armor Wars was by Michelinie & Layton, and West Coast Avengers was by Steve Englehart, and that Englehart was probably working with some kind of rough plot summary of Armor Wars and ended up fleshing it out with details that ended up not existing. It's definitely not the worst plot hole in Marvel Comics.)

Anyway, so there's some information about Armor Wars I didn't have before a few days ago that definitely ups the Steve/Tony angst of Armor Wars even more.

#posts i actually wrote

[thisiswhatwereupagainst]

This blog is mostly dead, ngl, but I found my Fantasma post from three years ago was randomly deleted (?!?!?) so I’m making it again to the best of my ability because (1) that bugs me and (2) I like Fantasma. She’s really interesting, kind of bizarre, and more than a little tragic. Fantasma debuted in a 1989 issue of The Avengers, where she was referred to as Fantasia (which is how she’s listed on the Marvel wiki). However, in every appearance after her first, she is called Fantasma, so that’s the name that I use for her. She’s been a consistent member of Russian superhero teams---the People’s Protectorate, the Supreme Soviets, and the Winter Guard, which are basically all the same State-owned Russian squad but with different names that change with the times and occasional additions/changes to the lineup. Her powers seem mainly focused around mentally scanning and tapping into what she calls an individual’s “bio-field”. This allows her to read emotions, detect lies/truth, induce unconsciousness, block people’s sensory perceptions (effectively able to make herself or anyone else she wants be invisible to the target), and forge telepathic links. She forged one such link permanently with her teammate Red Guardian aka Josef Petkus (not to be confused with Tania Belinsky and others who also used the codename) the first time she touched him, though the reasons how and why are still unknown. She’s also very potent at casting illusions, such as when she used this to disguise the Soviet Supremes as the Avengers, and another time when she made foes believe that spiders were swarming all over them. She is described as a “witch” by many, often as an insult, and her powers are said to come from sorcery. It was indicated early on that the lovely face we see is not her true one, during a battle in which an enemy felled her, only to be shocked at her true appearance. However, we the reader did not see it ourselves, and no explanation for what could be so awful was ever given for years.

So, Fantasma is originally introduced as something of an antagonist. She’s not evil at all, she’s just on the superhero squad opposing our protagonists. The Soviet Super Soldiers (Darkstar, Vanguard, and Ursa Major) had grown so disillusioned with how the USSR had used and manipulated them that they attempted to defect to the US. The USSR responded by assembling a new crew of national superheroes, The Supreme Soviets, of which Fantasma was among, and then sending them after the Soviet Super Soldiers. The latter were nearly killed, rendered comatose, and returned to the USSR. They definitely had beef with the Supreme Soviets after, as you might imagine, but after the dissolution of the USSR they did all eventually come together as The Winter Guard to collectively serve and protect the Russian people. . .under the management of the Russian government. In the early 2000s, Darkstar was serving in the Paris branch of X-Corps. She was killed on a mission. The Russian government, not wanting to lose her valuable image, found a way to create replacement Darkstars by infusing genetically compatible women with her DNA, giving them her powers and appearance. Some of the members found this wrong, and it lead to a great rift on the Winter Guard. So great that many of the members, including Fantasma, quit the team. They had not been seen for a year since. . .until a tear in reality opened up in St. Petersburg, and who fell out but an unconscious Fantasma?!

Note that the blonde woman here is Darkstar, but not the Darkstar (Laynia Petrovna) who died and was, at this point, still dead. This Darkstar is Reena Stancioff, one of the aforementioned replacement Darkstars.

Fantasma says some pretty ominous things when she wakes up.

So. . .question is, what’s going on with her? Where’s the rest of the team that left with her? And what the hell was she doing in a trans-dimensional rift like that? We get our answer to at least one of these swiftly. The rest of the Winter Guard who had left–Vanguard, Starlight, and Powersurge—appear in the city streets through a similar portal. And they’re talking in a VERY hostile way, calling themselves The Protectorate (which I think is what they and Fantasma decided to go by when they split off originally?). In the next issue, they’re fighting the Russian military in the streets of St. Petersburg. Meanwhile, Reena and Galina (Crimson Dynamo) are slut-shaming the traumatized Fantasma behind her back. I don’t care if they did end up correct, I don’t like this. 

As for Fantasma, she doesn’t really remember her former comrades. Or much of anything, apparently.

Galina and Reena come in to report that the rest of the Protectorate came through with Fantasma. Cut back to the Protectorate, and their dialogue indicates that Fantasma, formerly one of them, is now their foe, and that she has “forces”, but we’re not told WHY she’s now their enemy or who her “forces” are, as thus far she’s been alone. But according to them “it’ll be up to us to save the world”

Anyway, their gambit to get the attention of the Winter Guard by fighting worked, and the latter show up. Naturally, rather than talking and explaining the situation, there has to be a superhero battle, which I’ll spare you. Back to Fantasma, she stayed behind at base since she’s still recovering from whatever it was she went through. She’s being given a tour of the base by a handler, Dimitri, who hopes it will restore her memory. For some reason, he sees fit to introduce her to one of the prisoners, Sergei Krylov aka The Presence. The Presence is the biological father of Vanguard and the original Darkstar, and a supervillain who wields nuclear radiation for various mad and disgusting deeds. His track record includes making Starlight, one of the aforementioned Russian heroines and member of the Protectorate, into his mind-controlled “lover” and attempting to do the same to Laynia…aka the original Darkstar…his DAUGHTER. And yes, he KNEW she was his daughter. Ick. And now it seems he has designs on Fantasma, thanking Dimitri for bringing him a new “playmate” and telling Fantasma she is “everything I hoped for” ick ick ICK. Fantasma freaks out upon being told this, but not in the way you’d think—she yells “I MUST SAVE THEM ALL!” and takes off running. Ok then. 

Dimitri follows her and she’s run all the way down to a part of the sub-basement I’m guessing no one knew about, because it’s filled with sinister-looking eggs. They’re big, purple-red, and creepy eyes can be seen through the membranes of some. Fantasma doesn’t think it’s creepy though, she says it’s “so much beauty” and “my destiny”. She explains that “As a foundling, I was always confused living in a human’s world. I never had a sense of belonging or understanding. But now. . .it has all been made clear to me.”

I’ll be honest with you guys, as an autistic person who grew up feeling fundamentally alien from those around me, I have a ton of feels about this and all the sympathy for Fantasma. But I’ll get into my feelings later. Right now I’m just relaying what happens. She kneels, caressing the eggs, continuing, “This citadel was our fertility center, a place were science and sorcery converged. These eggs were a precautionary measure. . .hidden from prying eyes. . .They have spent many months waiting to be fully birthed . .waiting for a surrogate mother to raise them.” Her hand is no longer human. Her entire left arm has transformed into a purple, clawed appendage as she speaks. The rest of her body turns purple, her face becoming ghastly, her eyes solid glowing green, “I am that mother. I am their salvation!”

She has completely transformed into a huge purple monster, unrecognizable as her former self, and the reality of what she—and these eggs—are is revealed, “THE DIRE WRAITHS WILL BE REBORN!”

Dimitri is shocked, uttering “All this time we served together. . .” but Fantasma is more concerned with the eggs, noting that they have not yet been fertilized. But she says, as she reaches out tentacles to her former comrade, “I know just how to remedy that.” Dimitri flees and shouts for the computer to alert the Winter Guard, to alert support staff, to open the armory. . .the computer says none of it can be done, and Fantasma says she’s already begun to “infect” the headquarters. So. . .can Dire Wraiths infect computers too? In any case, as she pursues Dimitri, she passes the Presence’s cell once more, and he speaks to her, telling her, “Let me show you what the universe has in store for us.”

Anyway the Winter Guard continue to fight it out with the Protectorate until FINALLY they actually TALK and explain it’s Fantasma they’re after and why that is. Basically they explain that the rift that they and Fantasma came out of is Limbo, and that there’s this powerful being named Immortus there who they sought out, asking him to use his abilities to manipulate the timestream to revive the original Darkstar. Since his realm was infected with Dire Wraiths, he asked that th Protectorate serve as his personal guard against these invasive monsters for a year. In the process, it was revealed that Fantasma, their longtime ally, was a Dire Wraith herself. How this was revealed, it’s never explained, it’s just “oh she was a Dire Wraith” and like. . .I really wanna know how that happened? It seems like Fantasma HERSELF didn’t know this, she said she believed herself to be a “foundling” so I don’t think she was consciously undercover, I think she really thought she was human and had no idea what she was til Limbo. And then. . .once she fell out of Limbo and back into this world, I guess she lost her memories all over again (girl, you gotta get that checked out, that sounds like an issue)

  Anyway, speaking of Limbo, she found a tear in time and space there, and came back to this world, so the Protectorate followed her to stop her from infecting this plane with Dire Wraiths as well. Looks like they were right to, since by the time they got back to base, it’s clearly SWARMING with. . .idk, flying Dire Wraiths? I guess she infected some pigeons or something? There are flying demonic-looking things all around it that I presume as Dire Wraiths but they don’t normally fly. . .but they are shapeshifters. . .well whatever, next (and final) issue! Outside the citadel, th Winter Guard are fighting their way past the flying Dire Wraith things. Inside. . .inside, Fantasma and the Presence are levitating with their bodies pressed together (ick) and the Presence complains of the Winter Guard’s breach as “What madness threatens the completion of our intimate congress?” (ICK ICK ICK)

Fantasma begins to hatch the eggs, apparently through telepathic command, saying “Never will our children be manipulated, forced to hide what they really are.” Again, I’ve got compassion for her here. She also says that “Like me, they will draw their power from the aether. But they owe all their loveliness and their very lives to you.”

So I guess she’s saying they’re Dire Wraiths like her, they’ll have magic powers like her, but I guess the Presence is somehow what made them come alive? Maybe he fertilized them (ICK) since she said earlier they weren’t fertilized yet? How does that work? Do I want to know? Or maybe she means they owe their lives to him somehow triggering her memory of them? It’s all very unclear and it never really gets explained. We do, at least, learn (sort of) how The Presence knew what Fantasma really was even when SHE did not, as he says that the building itself told him: “While in confinement, the citadel whispered its special secrets to me. But I knew I needed you to unlock the door. The grand design is well underway.” Does the Presence telepathically communicate with computers or something? That’s not part of his typical powerset, but in this storyline he also has “powers of awareness” that tell him that it’s the Winter Guard who is breaching the base, so idk. New powers as the plot demands! He’s radioactive so that can just explain anything! Comics logic! Also how Dire Wraiths breed is damned inconsistent too, like they can infect and convert a victim into a Dire Wraith but also lay eggs but apparently those eggs also need fertilizing and that can come from a non Dire Wraith (Dimitri, the Presence) but it’s not clear. . .how? IDK guys I’m lost and I’ve read this more than once, just go with it. Anyway, Fantasma sends her children to go attack the Winter Guard, but they fight their way through (though the current Red Guardian is decapitated) and reach Fantasma and the Presence. Fantasma is hanging off the Presence looking al sexy except for her head and one hand, which are both that of a Dire Wraith and it’s super freaky looking and also kind of funny. The Presence, in typical villain fashion, tells the Winter Guard how they’re going to release Dire Wraith egg spores into air, water, and soil, and “rewrite the Earth” because “after all, my children need  someplace to call home.”

This would be understandable for Fantasma but why on earth does The Presence want this? I understand he’s meant to be insane, but that’s not a good enough answer for me. Anyway, the Dire Wraiths continue to attack the Winter Guard. The present Darkstar is killed almost immediately via a Dire Wraith’s drill-tongue to the back of the head, which grotesquely emerges from her mouth on the other side. Nasty. She is, as a result, instantly infected and becomes a Dire Wraith herself. Now, remember, this is NOT Laynia, the original Darkstar, this is a woman named Reena who was essentially made into a duplicate of Laynia to be the new Darkstar. And while Darkstar’s brother Vanguard openly found this disgusting and a defilement of his sister’s body and memory, he’s still horrified at seeing her become a Dire Wraith because “She was all I had left of my Laynia!” to which his father, The Presence, comforts that “You can join her” and Fantasma, trying to infect Vanguard as well, says “We are willing to adopt” though she’s stopped by Starlight. Starlight, it should be noted, was formerly mentally enslaved by The Presence into being his longtime “lover” and accomplice, and during her time in Limbo became (consensual) lovers with Vanguard. That’s. . .a weird choice, but ok girl, as long as it’s what YOU want. Nothing wrong with Vanguard, just. . .I don’t think I’d choose my abuser’s estranged son as my next boyfriend. I know it’s not Vanguard’s fault and he had nothing to do with it, but it still seems weird to me. Anyway–

Galina aka the current Crimson Dynamo opens up another tear to Limbo using a….nuclear dimensional displacement device, I think it was called earlier? Fantasma does NOT like the look of this, yelling that she will not be sent back there. Galina, though, disagrees, as she grabs Fantasma and hucks her into the tear. Fantasma’s last words are “I will not face oblivion alone…” and she uses her tentacles to grab Starlight and drag her through the tear with her. But though Fantasma is gone, the other Dire Wraiths remain, including the one that was Darkstar. Now leading the others, she has the Winter Guard surrounded and encroaches on them. . .and then suddenly she turns into pretty Darkstar again and wipes out all the Dire Wraiths! And not just any pretty Darkstar—it’s Laynia! Reborn through. . .the power of Immortus, whom the Winter Guard made a deal with? Or something to do with the Darkstar gem that housed her psyche and DNA? Who knows! She’s back! Oh yeah, then Powersurge sacrifices his life to kill the Presence and the team just barely makes it out before the place blows up. Much like how many of the team (including, ironically, Fantasma herself) had left the Winter Guard over the death of the original Darkstar, Galina now leaves the team over the death of Reena and the resurrection of Laynia “inside the body of [a] brain-eating abomination, hiding in plain sight among us” which does raise the question of if there’s any Dire Wraith left in Laynia. A question that’s never really been answered, but thus far seems to be no. This wraps up Fantasma’s story for good (thus far). Will we see her again? Well, I don’t think so, but then again, who would have predicated when she debuted in 1989 that in 2010 she’d be revealed to have been a Dire Wraith all along? Comics are weird, characters will come back when you least expect it, often in ways you’d least expect, I’ve learned that multiple times over. So, now that you know Fantasma’s full tale, let’s talk about her. Dire Wraiths are supposedly innately evil (which is a problematic concept in itself but let’s just accept it FOR THE MOMENT) but she served as a superhero for. . .it’s hard to say how long in comic book time, but 20 years in publication time. And while the task she’s debuted with—retrieving the Soviet Super Soldiers against their will from the US—is hardly heroic, but we see in other adventures that she does do heroic stuff too, such as helping evacuate a town of civilians. Given that she didn’t have her memories of being a Dire Wraith at this point, we can’t say she was just doing this to disguise her true nature as an “evil” creature. And speaking of her “true” nature, we’ve seen examples that it might NOT be the case that Dire Wraiths are actually as innately and intrinsically always evil as is claimed. Two Dire Wraith males in canon  cast aside their evil ways and entire Dire Wraith identities to live as “human” men with the human women they loved, and another Dire Wraith who was sent to Earth to scout it for invasion purposes ended up admiring humanity instead, and turned against his own people to defend Earth. So it seems like upbringing can have an impact on them, and even those that grew up fully in Wraith society can turn around out of love for individual humans. Not exactly an altruistic reason, but still a step up.  And one of the Wraiths that married a human woman had a hybrid son, and while said son did end up being evil, that wasn’t until AFTER he was found by other Dire Wraiths who indoctrinated him into their ways. So he wasn’t just born evil. Also, while she may have been forced to be a superhero by the Soviet government (see my theory on her backstory which I get into in a bit) she demonstrated that she COULD leave, she left with the other members in disgust after Darkstar’s death. So she could have just fucked off from being a hero by choice, at least once the USSR dissolved, but she never did, not until the remains of her TEAMMATE were defiled by the government. That shows some very human emotion, and not evilness. It suggests she served as a hero because it was the right thing to do, and also had affection or respect for the original Darkstar. Let’s say she was innately evil though. Her story is still sympathetic. She’s an amnesiac “foundling” who believes herself to be human, but a human who is a shapechanger whose true form is a hideous monster. Like, all the angst Mystique is implied to have had about being blue in her true form before she got on the Mutant & Proud train? Imagine how it was for Fantasma. Like at least Mystique still looks like a HUMAN BEING. Fantasma must have felt like an absolute freak, and it’s no wonder to me that she crafted such a sexualized, over-idealized form for herself; she was pretty clearly hyper-compensating for the fact that to a human perspective she’s a grotesque abomination that NO ONE could even TELL was female. No one human, anyway, I’m sure Dire Wraiths know. Like, you guys, I’m a very cis woman, I very much want to be a cis woman, if my very female gender identity was in the body of a huge freaky monster with no gender indicators, of COURSE I would make myself be The Sexiest Most Feminine Beautiful Woman in a costume that makes sure you KNOW it.  Despite the costume though, Fantasma never had a sexy or flirtacious persona. As mentioned at the beginning of this biography, she was cool and aloof, not mean or cruel but not the easiest person to get to know or get along with. Kinda robotic-ish. And that makes a ton of sense, as does her saying how “I was always confused living in a human’s world. I never had a sense of belonging or understanding” when she finds the eggs. Because she’s literally an alien who thinks she’s human, and thus expects herself to have human emotions, to relate to other humans around her in a human way, etc. And she CAN’T. And not only does she expect it of herself, other humans around her, also thinking her human, surely expect it from her as well and react negatively when she fails to. Again, as someone who is autistic, this hits home HARD for me. I really don’t care HOW evil she is (and I don’t think she is, certainly not when she’s amnesiac) she’s relatable as hell to me. So, how the fuck did a Dire Wraith come to be on the Supreme Soviets team anyway? If she had her memories, the natural assumption would be that this was a deliberate longterm infiltration scheme. After all, the Dire Wraiths had infiltrated the USSR government before in an 1983 story. And actually, I think that’s how she got there, just it wasn’t a deliberate infiltration on her part. While all the Dire Wraiths at their base in the Dead Zone were apparently either killed or banished to Limbo in this story (Rom #46) I think it’s most likely that one was missed, and captured by the USSR government later, perhaps in a weakened state from the battle. Maybe she was amnesiac already from the fight somehow, or perhaps the Soviets mindwiped her. Either way, she lost her memory and knowledge of what she was, but still had the shapechanging and sorcery skills of her species. And they put that to use by making her “Fantasma” and feeding her a story about being a foundling and put her on a superhero team, not unlike how they told Darkstar and Vanguard that their parents had abandoned them when in reality the Soviet government had taken them away at birth for their own use due to their mutations. This is sad and fucked up no matter what Fantasma’s own morality is, she’s the victim here. It doesn’t matter who or what she is, or if she tried to help take over Earth, or what, this is wrong. It’s a thousand times more fucked up than if they’d just killed her. Also, during her pre-reveal days as a hero, it comes up that Fantasma is claustrophobic, and I have the WORST feeling that whatever the Soviet government did to her probably accounts for that.

And as for when Fantasma gets her memory back. . .ok, she more arguably is evil then, what with trying to infect the planet with Dire Wraiths that presumably will kill all humankind, certainly a great many. That is pretty bad. But from her perspective. . .why should she give a damn? Seriously, why should she care about a species that effectively ENSLAVED her, that either took advantage of her amnesia or even caused it for its own purposes? And the eggs were already there, leftover from the original Dire Wraith invasion, why should she not prioritize hatching them over the lives of humans? They’re the equivalent of CHILDREN to her, remember. And she’s never had family before, or others of her kind, at least not in a long long time. She’s probably always felt so lonely and weird, and now she understands WHY, and has a chance to live on a planet of people like HER, instead of a freak among people who used her. Is it right? No, I’m not arguing that. But I think it’s understandable for reasons beyond just “well she’s evil” She doesn’t seem to hold any love for her former teammates, I notice. But I also notice none of them have any for her either. They’re all after her ass without hesitation or apology, there’s no “I know you’re in their somewhere!” or “We’re your friends, try to remember!” type stuff here like you’d expect. They’re each just trying to murder each other. It really, REALLY makes me wonder how the reveal of her real species went down in Limbo. Did Fantasma still think of them as friends then? Was she conflicted? Or did she just jump immediately to wanting to infect and conquer the planet? And how did the Protectorate react? Did they give her a chance? Did they still see her as the same Fantasma until she acted otherwise? Did they try to coax her back to being their friend, to talk her out of giving in to her Dire Wraith ways? Or did they immediately see her as an enemy that had deliberately deceived them and must be removed without remorse? We never know. We never get to see how it happened at all, nor is any of it hinted. And that drives me NUTS because it would give SO MUCH additional context to this situation. I also have to wonder just how long this was intended as Fantasma’s background. Again, she’s introduced in 1989, and this story is in 2010. It’s pretty unlikely to me that this idea was just waiting in the wings this long til someone did something with it. On the other hand, there is that panel where that woman is shocked by whatever Fantasma’s true face is, so it seems like there was definitely intended to be SOMETHING up with her. My PERSONAL guess is that it’s probably like the Monet St Croix/M Twins/Penance scenario, where there was plans for one thing to be revealed, but then it got turned in to something else by the time another writer actually got there to do it. That’s just a total guess though, no evidence for it. Anyway, I feel bad for Fantasma, I feel like she was a much more tragic villain than she was actually portrayed as, and I feel super duper bad for Starlight too, who is likewise very tragic yet that tragedy is seldom paid attention to at all for what it is by writers. And now they’re both in LITERAL comic book Limbo (which. . .apparently this Limbo isn’t Magik’s Limbo, it’s a different Limbo? JFC CALL IT SOMETHING ELSE THEN) and who knows when they’ll ever be so much as mentioned again. But you can bet I’ll be here to yell about them!

#marvel #Marvel Comics #dire wraith #dire wraiths #fantasma #supreme soviets #winter guard #Darkstar and the Winter Guard

[yeslordmyking]

When do we stop shaming people for not having read the comics? Dead serious. It's time to accept that maybe not everybody can find every Moon Knight, Spiderman, and She-Hulk issue cover to cover and read it.

Cuz my Marvel Comics app charges like $15 per issue when there's oh maybe about 12000 comics from the past 50 to 80 years I need to read to understand the MCU and I only get the first 4 pages of each for free. I have no choice but to google the most iconic pages of Civil War or YouTube videos that have to paraphrase 45 X-Men issues in 12 minutes to explain the ToP 15 EaStEr EgGs YoU mIsSeD iN tHe fInAlE oF lOkI, or Marvel Wiki in hopes to understand slivers of the dynamic of character's relationships, the scope of their powers and abilities, every B list character's background story, who hasn't Tony Stark gone out with, the moral ambiguity of the Punisher, who joined the Avengers and then quit and then rejoined and then quit again, why Felicia Hardy is an Iron (?) Cat (?) etc etc etc and hope to understand characterisation, tone, and accuracy of events in order to judge the quality of cinematic adaptations to source material I only have access to like 6% of.

So next time you want to explain how every MCU movie is unwatchable and when someone who likes it disagrees you retort with "they've never read the comics" like please send a check for three hunnit to get them started on some comics, Mr Geekier-Than-Thou Comic Guru. C'mon buddy, help me out, open your purse. Otherwise like honestly shut up. I can't speak for everyone, but my lack of comic reading is because I'm lower middle class and don't have hundreds of dollars to gain access to a century of comics. Not because I'm an illiterate neanderthal that can only take in information through pretty moving pictures or whatever elitism fans with access to comics have. I have many hobbies that I can't sustain financially. Others don't have enough time to sit down and read 90 Fantastic Four issues. Some people just don't care because paper pages don't explode on in 3D with action music blasting in the background.

And thank you to all the nice geeks that don't gatekeep Marvel and make helpful videos or internet posts that are meant to help guide people into better understanding of the comics and how the movies pertain to them. Especially the ones that were there when the MCU was just in phase one. And even the OG Spiderman, F4 and X-Men films before then. It couldn't possibly cover everything, but it's helped a lot through the years ❤️

#i dare to talk about my hobbies again 😱 and a bit extensively too #just like you have to accept that the movie fans intake the marvel characters differently than comic readers #it's not for lack of trying that we don't understand what people claim is mischaracterisation or misconstrued plots etc etc #there's a lot of mcu fans that have at least some understanding of the comics #but you can't expect everyone to have deep vast understanding of every character and event of varying popularity #or expect every mcu fan to WANT to know. i do but a ton of people just want to watch cool movies and be entertained for two hours 🤷🏽‍♀️ #if trekkies watched the star trek movies with me they'd pull their hair out because i really only care about chris pine 😂 #so yeah anyway i'm so tired of the 'never read a comic book' phrase being an insult #like let me borrow some copies then! i eant to know so much more about these characters than the movies could ever cover #yeah ok geek rant over byeee #marvel #marvel comics #mcu #mcu fandom #marvel fandom #comic books #film adaptation #super secret fanfirl queue

[64bitgamer]

[scarletwitching]

Hello! Do you have any "real world" timeline of Wanda's backstories (particularly her origins). I know she was created in the 60s, and her first origin seems to have her as the biological daughter of two golden age American heroes. However most wiki pages only describe her latest "in-universe" history. Im curious to know how many actual real-world years she spent as a White American, German Jew, Serbian Romani, Mutant, Witch, Avenger, etc. Thanks!

I’m choosing to do this as a chronicling of backstory retcons (plus a couple of important firsts) because it would be too much to do the whole thing, and I’m going to include the various changes to Magneto’s backstory because they’re kind of necessary. The dates listed are release date, not cover date.

March 1964 (X-Men vol. 1 #4) -- It’s Wanda, no last name. She’s a mutant, part of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. She’s from Central Europe. She has an older brother named Pietro, and he promised their parents that he would take care of her.

March 1965 (Avengers vol. 1 #16) -- Wanda’s an Avenger now.

November 1966 (Thor vol. 1 #134) -- We learn that Wanda and Pietro, who are now twins, are connected to Wundagore Mountain and that there was a massive “blinding light” on the night they were born. This was maybe an aborted attempt to retcon them into not being mutants (their powers are referred to as “mutant-type” for some reason), but it goes nowhere.

May 1974 (Giant Size Avengers #1) -- Wanda and Pietro finally have a backstory. They are the children of US-American superheroes Madeline and Robert Frank (aka Miss America and The Whizzer). They were born on Wundagore Mountain, but their mother died and their father abandoned them. They were subsequently raised in the High Evolutionary’s citadel, but they ran away because it was weird being around all those talking animals.

June 1974 - February 1975 (Avengers vol. 1 #127-134; Giant Size Avengers #2 & 4) -- Agatha’s here, and she’s teaching Wanda magic. Wanda is now a mutant AND a witch.

December 1977 - September 1979 (Avengers vol. 1 #166 & 181-187; X-Men vol. 1 #125) -- Origin Story: The Good One. Wanda and Pietro are not the Franks’ kids and were not raised in the High Evolutionary’s citadel. They were raised by Django and Marya Maximoff, a Roma couple from Bulgaria (Transia, the town they’re from, will later become a country of its own), and it is implied that they don’t remember this because they suppressed their own memories. However, Django and Marya are not their birth parents. Their birth mother came to Wundagore Mountain, heavily pregnant, fleeing their father. She gave birth in the citadel, then left because she did not want to be alive anymore.

Meanwhile, Chris Claremont comes up with the idea for Magda, Magneto’s mysterious dead wife, but before the issue introducing her can even come out, John Byrne and some other guys go behind Claremont’s back and make Magda Wanda and Pietro’s mother. Which makes Magneto the husband their mother was running from and thus... None of the living characters know they are related, and it is editorial’s intention that they will never find out, though the connection is acknowledged openly in the letters column.

August 1981 (Uncanny X-Men vol. 1 #150) -- Claremont begins the long process of turning Magneto into a hero, and with that, we learn Magneto’s backstory as a Holocaust survivor. Claremont continues to add to this for the rest of his initial X-Men tenure (through 1991), but crucially, he never has him say that he’s Jewish. You’re supposed to understand that he is, and most of the audience does understand. It is very, very obvious (we even get a trip to Israel), BUT he does not say the exact words, “I am Jewish.”

November 1982 (Vision & the Scarlet Witch vol. 1 #4) -- The characters aren’t supposed to find out they’re related? Forget that. They all know now. I would argue that this issue also makes it obvious that Magneto is Jewish, but whatever, he doesn’t say, “I am Jewish.”

October 1985 (Vision & the Scarlet Witch vol. 2 #5) -- This is the earliest reference I can find to Magda being Romani. It feels like that can’t be the first time that was confirmed, but this post needs to get done some time.

October 1987 (New Mutants vol. 1 #61) -- Another “earliest reference I can find” scenario. I think this is the first time Magneto mentions being from Poland. At any rate, it is a time he mentions being from Poland, and it gets retconned anyway.

July 1993 (X-Men Unlimited vol. 1 #2) -- Due to editorial meddling, Magneto became a villain again in 1991, and according to comic book legend, editor-in-chief Bob Harras thought that Magneto being Jewish and a supervillain was proooooooblemaaaaaaatic. And if he can’t be both at the same time, one’s gotta go. Enter Gabrielle Haller, who is here to give a Ted Talk explaining Magneto’s new backstory. He’s Sinti Romani. That’s the change.

December 1997 (X-Men vol. 2 #72) -- It is revealed that the Erik Lensherr identity was an alias created by document forger Georg Odekirk in order to help Magneto hide from the authorities and find Magda... by pretending to be Sinti. Which, to me, implies that Magda herself was Sinti specifically, not Roma. Either way, Magneto says he’s not Romani, but once again does not say he’s Jewish.

September 2008 - January 2009 (X-Men: Magneto Testament #1-5) -- Magneto is officially, definitely Jewish. For real this time. No more ambiguity. He’s also German now, instead of Polish, and his name is Max Eisenhardt.

December 2014 (Avengers & X-Men: AXIS #7) -- Rick Remender, who is clearly invested in Wanda and Magneto’s relationship, is forced, possibly at gunpoint, to make them not related. This is revealed via a spell going wrong and not affecting Magneto when it’s supposed to affect Wanda’s family, which is the dictionary definition of “plausible deniability.”

January 2015 - June 2015 (Uncanny Avengers vol. 2 #1-5) -- Wanda and Pietro go to the High Evolutionary to figure out what their brand new backstory is. Turns out that, according to the High Evolutionary, they are not mutants and got their powers from being experimented on by him as babies. Their birth parents were their adoptive parents Django and Marya all along, which would make them Roma (not Sinti)... but something is weird about this reveal because Vision finds out there is more to the story and refuses to tell Wanda what it is or that he discovered any information at all.

March 2016 - January 2017 (Scarlet Witch vol. 2 #4-14) -- Nevermind, Django and Marya weren’t Wanda’s biological parents. Django is her uncle. His sister Natalya is her birth mother and a witch, and “the Scarlet Witch” is now a legacy title. Wanda was born in Serbia, but how that intersects with the Chthon thing is not explained. And Wanda’s dad is... the guy who murdered her mother. Who? Doesn’t say.

December 2017 - July 2019 -- A bonus! Marvel gives up on pretending Wanda and Magneto are not related... but mostly outside of comics. The official Marvel website runs articles just... saying they’re related. Official merchandise says they’re related. The mainline comics don’t touch it, but things are very suspicious.

#scarlet witch #wanda maximoff #magneto #continuity #origin #meta #written by me #anonymous #answered

[wii-brains]

Thoughts about Black Widow

So, let’s talk about Black Widow. I don’t know a lot about it. I know that it is set between Civil War and Infinity War, which is when for a set number of years Sam, Steve, and Nat are on the run. Therefore, this must happen before, or perhaps she takes a small break. I assume the first because neither Anthony Mackie nor Chris Evans are on the cast list. I also know that the movie will depict Nat facing her past: her family, the KGB, the Red Room, and those she used to work with.

Now I know very little about the Marvel Comic Universes and I don’t mind some of the adaptations Marvel has made in the cinematic universe when it comes to the characters. However, I can go on for hours about character development, DECISIONS, representation, etc. that I disagree with, some that infuriate me. That being said I like that they are giving Nat a family and expanding the Black Widow program past the comics.

Black Widow was in the creation or at least in pitch territory in 2004. I don’t know about you but I am happy that we didn’t get that version of Black Widow. However, I do wish it could have happened in 2017, but unfortunately, it didn’t fit into the production timeline. 

Now for the point of this post.

I have some concerns and I am sure others have as well. The timeline issue is a big one and is somewhat circular for me. Nat is dead. I hate it. It pisses me off, but also I think it was one of the most beautiful options for her character leaving. It wrecks me knowing that I am going to go into the movie theater and watch the deep dive/ rebirth of one of my favorite characters knowing that she is dead. I often picture the end credit scene. Will we see her family dissolve? Her sister discovering she died? Nat in the Avenger’s headquarters during End Game period looking for her sister?

The fact that Nat does not mention a family also bothers me. I know she is a spy and is also a quiet person, but I would argue till I run out of air that if Nat didn’t tell Steve about her family that she at least told Clint. Hell Fury has to know! I would understand if that is how they write it off if Nat hasn’t been saying that her only family is the Avengers. Literally, that is what she said in End Game and she died for them. If her family was still alive why would she do this? The sacrifice she makes for Clint and everyone I can convince myself she would still do but not her leaving out her family for years. Unless, which brings me to my point, they die in Black Widow. It would give more context to the pain she feels, the information we find out (her father’s name and how it affects her), and her final decision in End Game. Although, on the Black Widow Wiki page it is suggested that Nat is “handing down the mantle” to Yelena, her sister. So perhaps they will use my earlier suggestion of Nat looking for her in End Game. My idea for this is that at the end of Black Widow Yelena sets off to perhaps cut loose ends and the two sisters agree to reach out if needed. Nat joins Falcon and Nomad because her other family needs her and then Infinity War happens. Half the world is wiped and Nat has no idea if her sister is among them. So, she is frantic looking for her, which could also explain her sacrifice. Or maybe to highlight Yelena the end is her reappearing after the snap and she goes looking for Nat only to appear at the Avenger’s headquarters with them mourning her and this is what starts Yelena’s journey in the MCU.

As you can see I just care too deeply about this character and have so many worries. I desperately want to LOVE this movie and this moment in Natasha’s life but I am hesitant. Possibly because I haven’t fully processed her death. I refuse to lol. I know I will be crying not only from the beginning to the end but an hour before I enter the movie theater.

This post is just meant to be word vomit about my thoughts on the upcoming Black Widow movie. As I previously stated I am not an expert on marvel comics and I do have a marvel bias, so I am sure some who read this will not like what I have to say. These are my thoughts. Not all I assure you. For example, some already suspect that Mason is Taskmaster and I hope he is because his character is apparently “romantically interested in Natasha Romanoff.” No, just no. Plus RDJ is on the cast list so..... Where does Tony fit into this? Why is Tony? I need answers!

Here is the Black Widow Wiki link if you want to check it out:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Widow_(2021_film) 

#natasha romanoff #black widow #black widow movie #infinity war #captian america civil war #nomad steve #marvel #mcu #mcu spoilers #tony stark #black widow spoilers #natasha romanoff stans #natalia romanova #steve rogers #captain america #falcon #anthony mackie #i love natasha romanoff #can't wait for loki

[moontours]

could you give me a rundown on the personalities of the spider people? (gwen, cindy, miles, peter, etc. anyone else you can think of?) and like what you think stands out the most in their personalities or whatever? this question is probably a hassle so if it’s too much u don’t have to! i’m just getting into reading spider comics and i just want more information from someone that isn’t wiki marvel lol. it doesn’t have to be all of them either! whatever you can work with!

ill do the best i can!!! also ill add a bit of backstory bc i feel like their backstories actually shape their personalities as well

peter parker: im going to keep it short for him bc honestly i feel like everyone knows what hes like and what his backstory is but: he has a huge sense of responsibility which was instilled in him by his aunt and uncle. honestly has a lot of issues to work through and probably needs a therapist but he uses humour as a coping mechanism, which is really apparent when hes in fights with others n everyone tells him to shut up jhbhabshdj. very, very loyal and protective of the ones that he loves, hence the whole mask thing and it’s really important to him that he keeps the list of people that knows his identity short. tbh kind of an asshole when he wants to be and like ... has this unhinged, feral rage in him that comes out from time to time. also cannot cope with loss at all.

miles morales: extremely intelligent, kinda reluctant to become spider-man in the first place and was also told that he shouldnt be spider-man which was. u know. annoying. but anyways he got passed all of that. he’s honestly just the kindest, sweetest kid ur ever going to encounter. his family means the entire world to him and he would literally give up being spidey for them like. he literally does not want to let them down ever. he honestly got fucked over pretty hard in two marvel events (civil war ii and secret empire) in which they all thought that miles would become a murderer but hes not. he’s so far from a murderer and literally everyone who has ever met him knows that, which is why tony and natasha tried so hard to protect him but this entire event kinda like ... Soured the whole ‘avengers’ thing for miles WHICH then lead to the champions. 

gwen stacy: the hero of her own story. literally takes no shit from no one and is so so so independent but also bc she’s so scared of other people getting hurt the way that peter did. her sense of responsibility imo rivals peter’s, which is why she puts on the mask every single night and is also the reason why she served time in prison too, bc she felt as if she had to for all of the things she did. she honestly has a really hard time getting to know new people too like she is very guarded (i.e when she and cindy first met jbhhabshda) but she’s a really good friend once like she opens up. also being spider-woman/gwen/whatever means a lot to her like when her powers were failing she was so desperate to get them back which ties back to her strong sense of responsibility, which i think also like relates to what she knows abt 616 gwen bc like. it is SO fucking important to gwen that she is the hero of her own story and the fact that in her universe, the spider chose her, means literally everything to her.

cindy moon: she was bitten by the same spider as peter and i think out of all of them, she freaked out the most. peter was scared but saw this as a chance to act as like a guardian for others, and so did gwen. miles was like .. a bit afraid and reluctant but he owned up to being spider-man fairly quickly, but for cindy, she was so terrified of her powers to the point where she chose to stay inside the bunker instead of leaving for the safety of herself and her family. i think what separates cindy from the others is that while they run towards responsibility, she kinda shies away from it bc shes afraid of what she can do. but she does try so hard to confront her fears which i love about her. she’s also really cunning, witty and clever but also she has this massive anger in her, due to everything that happened to her which led her to staying in the bunker and the disappearance of her family. idk to me she’s the most human of them all

jessica drew: was experimented on as a kid, ex-hydra turned shield agent so u can imagine she’s seen a lot of shit. also the skrull queen took her face and infiltrated her team which fucked her up badly after bc it not only caused her entire team to not trust her but also the fact that no one noticed that she got switched out was like .... pretty shitty u know? anyways she also began to lose her powers before the invasion which fucked her up bc she really did come to embrace her powers as part of who she was and hydra told her to join them (like i said shes ex hydra) and they would help restore her powers n fury told her to do it as a double agent but this allowed the skrulls to swap her out so like. she seriously got fucked by this hence, trust issues. she then became an agent of sword after like hjbahsbdhaj her life seriously bounces from organization to organization bc she seeks order in her life. anyways she’s literally like the mom friend of the group and she adores having brunch with cindy and gwen also she’s a literal mom too so like. mom instincts. lots of trust issues, issues with herself but absolutely takes no shit from anyone and also isnt afraid to use her pheromone powers for personal gain bc shes a bad bitch like that

#i hope this was at least. semi helpful #this took SO long oh my god jbfhabsdhjasd #long post #anon #asks

[dawnblxde]

🔥

@angeledwings - Send me a “ 🔥 “ for an unpopular opinion.

“Remember kids, with great power, comes great triggering opinions!” 

I suppose this counts, but it’s only unpopular for a specific group of people. More are majority for it, but oh well. I am extremely pleased that Sony took Spider-Man out of Disney’s (MCU) Marvel Cinematic Universe, why? Simply put, they were butchering him. Extremely butchering him. Making him ooc, not faithful to the source matieral and the oppisite of authentic. Try to picture Cloud Strife, but he’s singing the campfire song as if he’s Spongebob or Tifa, but she is simply a stripper on a poll. Sounds like a bad butchering of them, right? Well that’s what was going on with Spider-Man. This is coming from someone, who has read all 800+ of Spider-Man’s ongoing issues in the main universe that started in 1962 several times over, I know the character’s story, his morals, his core, what makes Spider-Man = Spider-Man down to a T. I’ll throw in some examples. Disney represented Spider-Man as a figure who idolized Tony Stark aka Iron Man and needed Iron Man to make all his suits and equipment for him? An authentic Spider-Man doesn’t like Tony Stark, makes all of his suits, gadgets and equipment by himself. Also, Spider-Man’s IQ is 250, but while Iron Man’s is 192. Notice the disrespect? Disney had him casually reveal his secret identity to thousands of heroes and villains. Just casually whipping off that mask. It is a strong core part of Spider-Man’s character to want as little people as possible to know who he is behind the mask. Heroes included. He’d go to funerals for heroes with his mask on and he made a deal with the devil to craft a magical contract based spell so that it was now magically impossible for people to learn who he is, unless he wanted them to know for some reason. The official list of those who know who he is in the prime universe is smol. Disney (this is the worst thing, I don’t have tolerance for praise of any of these disrespectful actions, but this is the one that will really put me off) decided it was okay to have him both indirectly and directly kill in the movies Avengers Infinity War and Avengers Endgame. This takes the cake of Spider-Man disrespect. If you know of Spider-Man from his source material (or looking it up on wikipedia, it’s faithful adaptions; = All Spider-Man video games, Spider-Man 1994 TV series, Spectacular Spider-Man 2008 TV series, Tobey’s run with Spider-Man & Spider-Man 2, Andrew’s run with Amazing Spider-Man & Amazing Spider-Man 2 or the best interpretation/adaptation which takes the main Spider-Man with one change to make it different = Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse), then you know - as well as I do. Spider-Man is a pure soul, a pacifist, he doesn’t kill anything. Whether it be human or not. He doesn’t cross that line. Spider-Man doesn’t kill. In what if comics where he has. He either shoots himself in the head, unable to bear what he’s done, quits being Spider-Man for good, allows cops to shoot him down intentionally or blows himself up somewhere alone. In the main branch, he only has one kill to his name. A suicidal woman that tricked his Spider-Senses when he was fighting Wolverine and was tense, so he turned around thinking it was Wolverine, set off a full power punch and made her head go splat. That was well over a decade ago and even now the guilt eats him up. He can’t forget what he accidentally did. Killing isn’t Spider-Man and faithful adaptations get that. But Disney who are messing with main branch storylines, have him do it and then shrug it off. Have no guilt or remorse for what he’s done. Brushes and laughs it off and it’s just disgusting. That is far worse then how unfaithfully Disney’s two solo movies have treated him. So yeah, back to the main matter, I am happy about the split. Because Sony never did this! It so clear how much respect and love they have for the character of Spider-Man. They messed up once with Spider-Man 3, but that was it. Made all the on point games and TV shows, while all the bad TV shows has been by, no surprise = Disney (there’s even a comic where main Spider-Man rips their cartoon tv Spidey to shreds in the form of roasting.) Sony’s Tobey Maquire films took an original spin on things, intentionally from the beginning, but remembered what made Spider-Man him, in Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2. Then the two with Andrew Garfield, the ones that should of just been crossed into the MCU or continued on their own, were accurate to the source material with miner changes. Capturing the moment that defined Spider-Man as a character and helped him mature and develop beautifully aka below. 

The death of Gwen Stacy, Spider-Man’s first and one true love. 

This is brings me to the beginning, where I said this was unpopular to a specific group of people. That’s right, just people hooked on the MCU like an addictive drug and think it can do no wrong. My in depth research revealed those crying over Sony taking Spider-Man back, which they have the film rights to, were people who’s only knowledge was movies. No knowledge to Spider-Man’s canonical history via reading those comics or going to the Marvel 616 wikipedia. People crying that he will be no longer butchered or treated like a good, when this is actually a good thing. While all the people who have read the source material, Spider-Man’s wiki page, watched or played one of the faithful adaptions sit in the majority of being happy this spit happened. All like myself, looking forward to what Sony will do with Spider-Man in their Sony Marvel Universe. Which kicked off to a great start with the accurate Venom and Into the Spider-Verse. I have no hate for the actor who portrayed the bad Disney Spider-Man, it’s not his fault. I don’t mind him continuing to portray Spider-Man in Sony’s universe. When they wrote him in Civil War, ignoring Disney’s choice to push Stark as a mentor over Uncle Ben, otherwise he was accurate in that one movie. Lastly, I’d like to point out. Another reason why the split is a good thing. Spider-Man was created by Stan Lee and Steve Dikito, who neither liked what Disney were doing, nor did their families still alive right now. Here’s the good part, you can look up that that Stan Lee’s daughter, other then like the previous posting their thoughts on personal social media. She made a public statement where she sided with Sony in the split over Disney, while stating the ones who have shown the most disrespect and lack of appreciation for her father’s legacy (aka Spider-Man and some other characters) were Disney and Marvel under their thumb. And he was better off without them. So yeah, I am extremely confident Sony made the right choice for Spider-Man. 

#ooc #angeledwings

[darkspellmaster]

For those wanting to get into Black Panther Comics, here’s a handy guide that can help!

Been noticing that there’s many posts out there about how it hard to get into Comics after seeing the movies. So being an avid comics reader, I’d like to offer a hand to all those out there that seem to be having issue in the whole “What do I Read?” or “I can’t find an easy way into comics but I want to read them.”

Let me start by saying I didn’t read a lot of comics as a kid. My main interaction with comics came from in the Walgreens near my house, and finding them on a rack and reading what was out. I think my first comic that wasn’t an Archie digest, was a follow up issue in Adventures of Superman 505 “Reign of the Superman!" after his death and resurrection. This was the first comic I can fully remember reading back to front and solidified my love of Superman (not sure what it was about it that made me really excited, maybe the energy of Dan Jurgen’s writing).

For some that have come to see the Marvel and DC Movies, or watched the shows as kids, there seems to be, what they think of as a gate way entry into the world of reading comics. As if there’s a hurdle there that they have to vault over to finally get a chance to read a comic or two. I’m going to tell you, there is not. Not by a long shot, unless you’re a completionist, and then…then you’ll have some issues; but other than that, comics are not that hard to find a way in and to grow to enjoy reading.

So here are some handy dandy guides to how to get into the various Marvel and DC properties that are out there.

Let’s start with Marvel because there’s a lot to cover in both:

So you’ve just finished seeing the Black Panther movie and want to know more about Wakanda, and T’challa, and the world of the Black Panter?

You’re reading list should be as follows:

Start with a updated version of the history of the Black panther.

Black Panther Who is the Black Panther? By Reginald Hudlin ()

Written as a six issue miniseries this story covers the history of the Black Panther, his families past and dives into a meeting with his grandfather and Captain America. A good starting place for anyone who wants to know more about the King of Wakanda.

Next up I would certainly recommend heading to the nearest Local Comic Shop (or your LCS) to find out if they have:

Rise of the Black Panther #1, co-written by Evan Narcisse and Ta-Nehisi Coates and drawn by Paul Renaud.

This is an updated version of the origin story of Black Panther as from the view of the Fantastic Four introduction back when Stan Lee and Jack Kirby were working on the character. The series has two issue out so far covering T’challa’s early time as the Panther and reintroducing the feud between Namor, ruler of Atlantis, and the Black Panther.

Following this I would try to get my hand on:

Black Panther by Christopher Priest Volumes 1 to 3 collected.  ()

This covers the 2000s run of Priest’s work on the Black Panther, sees the rise of Wakanda in a strong way, and also gives insight into the romance between T’challa and Storm, leading up to their wedding. (Yes T’challa was married to Ororo (Storm) for a while until X-men vs Avengers broke that up.) Until more recently it was considered one of the best runs of the Black Panther.

Another good one to show how T’challa works with others:

Secret Invasion: Black Panther by Jason Aaron. ()

During the time of Secret invasion the Skrulls (an shape shifting alien race that are known to be evil mo’fos) decided to try to invade the world and take over the roles of heroes. They figured, hey, let’s hit Wakanda…and learned the hard way why this country is not to be trifled with. It’s a really great strong story, with a lot of action and interesting moments for readers to enjoy.

One smaller thing you can do to learn about where Black Panther came from is pick up:

Fantastic Four Ominbus: issues 52 to 54 ()

Which shows where Black Panther started and his character prior to the more modern take on T’challa.

It’s also important to note that there is the 40 issue run he had with the Avengers back in the 1970s. If you have a chance to look that up it is worth digging for but not essential reading as the newer updated material covers some of that.

Finally, for those who want to dive into the world of Black Panther, I would say pick up the main series:

Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet Book 1 by Ta-Nehisi Coates ()

This was the rebooted series after the series of Secret War done in the Avengers. The story is a great jumping on point to fans of the movie and does a quick intro into the world of Wakanda. It’s a strong series but there are some things that could be confusing due to events of Secret wars. If you need to find out about Shuri and her time as the Black Panther (Yes this did happen) I would recommend doing a wiki because there’s not been a direct series with her as the lead, since she took over in Volume 5 of the Panther comic series but wasn’t the main protagonist of those stories.

I’m going to do separate ones for other series as time permits. Given the number of series out there, this can be considered an ongoing thing, so I’ll try to make them as easily accessible as possible.

If you don’t have the time to buy these books at Barns and Noble or your local book store, or can’t get them on amazon, or rent them at your local Library. 

Then I would recommend the animated Black Panther series.

While the series was on BET it only ran for 6 episodes. It was distributed by Shout Factory but has since been taken down as one of it’s listings. You’re best bet is either buying the series on Amazon, which has it for purchase, or finding it online.

#black panther #marvel movies #marvel comics #marvel animation #how to guide #where to get comics #beginning readers #new fans #ta-nehisi coates #jason aaron #christopher priest #reginald hudlin #stan lee #fantastic four #captain america #black panther animated series #black panther comics

[thebibliomancer]

Essential Avengers: Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #1-3

May, 1984

THE WAR BEGINS

Oof, here we go.

Just gotta replicate the pace that let me do the Hawkeye miniseries in one go, three times in a row.

This is probably too much effort considering its Secret Wars (or more accurately Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars) and maybe there’s not going to be a lot of big changes from this in the Avengers book to really justify it.

But we’re getting Jim Shooter writing the Avengers and his non-consecutive runs were a lot better than I had remembered. And it continues the theme he had from the Avengers book.

It just makes sense in a nonsense way to cover this story.

Last relevant time in Avengers! Acting Completely Normal Vision warned the Avengers about some weird, possibly hostile energy surges right in time for an energy surge to surge energetically in Central Park.

When the Avengers went to investigate, they found a weird structure that looked like a techy coliseum maybe. When some of the Avengers wandered into it (apparently the most bankable Avengers? Sucks to be Vision and Wanda, shrug) they vanished.

In the next issue, after several days, these heroes returned, speaking of a secret war they fought. Weird stuff like She-Hulk taking the Thing’s place on the Fantastic Four happened. In other books, Spidey got a cool new suit.

Would you know more?

After being raptured in their various books, the missing superheroes all end up on one of those distinctive structures like the one that appeared in Central Park, except IN SPACE.

Its cool that the Avengers will have some company.

We’ve got a terrific 3/4ths of the Fantastic Four, the X-Men (including Lockheed but not including Kitty Pryde for some reason), the Avengers, Iron Man, Spider-Man, the totally Articulate Hulk, and hilariously Magneto is also here.

Maybe Secret Wars is just setting up the most awkward moment in the universe, as a prank show.

I think I’d enjoy a big event that turned out to be a prank show at the last minute. The fan discontent. Imagine.

Everyone introduces themselves to each other but mostly the audience and Ben Grimm claims his new codename as the Easter Bunny.

Checking, marvel wiki doesn’t have Easter Bunny listed as one of Ben’s known aliases. Cowards.

Looking up into space, Captain America spots another one of the totally cool constructs and Professor X scans that it contains EEEEEEEVIL.

Specifically Amora the Enchantress, Ultron, the Wrecking Crew, the Absorbing Man, the Lizard, VICTOR VON DOOOOOM, Kang the Conqueror, Doctor Octopus, and Molecule Man. Also, hilariously, Galactus is there.

I’m more convinced than ever that this is a prank show.

You know what would be more hilarious? If Punisher ended up on this construct.

The distribution of villains is kind of odd though. Galactus and Doctor Doom map to the FF. Doctor Octopus and the Lizard to Spider-Man. Ultron, Molecule Man, and Kang are Avengers foes. The Absorbing Man and the Wrecking Crew can go a couple ways but started off as Thor villains. And Amora is usually a Thor villain but supposedly has chilled out around this time or at least is less of a pain than her horny sister.

No X-Men villains. Because Magneto is chilling with them in the generally heroic pod.

Also, all the heroes were raptured from Earth while the villains were grabbed from Earth, from space, from Asgard, resurrected just to be here, or from the FUTURE.

I know marketing is wagging the dog but be consistent, secret organizer who we don’t know yet.

The Thing points out that Magnet is off-sides, re: being in the hero construct, and Magneto is like ‘hey, chill out dudes’ and denies specifically doing murders.

Magneto: “I know not what power transported me here from my secret lair, nor why I was placed among you -- but I find it more appropriate to ask why such as you were judged fit to be placed in my presence!”

Oof.

Burn.

Then the conversation is put on halt on account of the wildest shit any of them have ever seen.

An entire galaxy vanishes but probably not due to a wave of anti-matter.

Thor: “It’s gone! Gone -- ! Swept away like dust before some unseen, giant hand!”

And then around that last star left unswept, various chunks merge together to form some sort of world, perhaps for battle.

A nice touch for later is that you can definitely see that one of the chunks is a stray chunk of city.

Some of the villains start squabbling because close quarters, ego, etc.

But Ultron goes hey we’re allowed to fight? I’m the best at that.

Ultron: “I am Ultron! I do not understand the events transpiring! I do not understand how I came to be resurrected... nor how I came to be here! Nothing computes... Insignificant! I am Ultron! My purpose is to slay that which lives. You are all living things, ergo -- Ultron must destroy you!”

With the benefit of having read all the Avengers up to now, I feel that Ultron got up on the wrong side of the resurrection a little.

He’s not not like this but he’s not usually this turned on?

(Then again, maybe he just came back cranky)

DOOM grabs and shakes Molecule Man to do something about this because given enough time even the mighty DOOM might fall before Ultron.

Ultron is famously annoying to defeat, what with that adamantium.

But Molecule Man is in therapy after the Avengers kicked his shit and Tigra yelled at him for being a punk. He doesn’t want to hurt anyone.

So Doom with all his brilliant genius tells MM a cool way to help out that won’t hurt anyone. Directly.

Using his Molecule Man power over molecules to lightly toss Ultron into Galactus.

So that Galactus goes ‘who the fuck scuffed my boots’ and rips out all the energy in Ultron’s Ultron.

He can do that.

Why wouldn’t he? If he can do that to a planet, he can do it to a pissbaby robot. Even one apparently containing more power than an atom bomb.

Then, because this is one of those plots where things are always thenning, a rift opens in the nothingness of space and a heavenly esque light shines out. A warbly voice commands the action figures beat each other up.

I mean. Its more like

The Beyonder: “I am from beyond! Slay your enemies and all you desire shall be yours! Nothing you dream of is impossible for me to accomplish!”

But you have to admire that this toy commercial of a comic book is being honest and upfront about being a story where action figures bonk off of each other.

Galactus just hears ‘i can finally shake off these persistent forever munchies’ and flies off to demand prepayment for action figure bonking, with DOOM following behind him.

The Beyonder speaks up warning Galactus that hey, personal space. And that a guy that can effortlessly wipe out a galaxy is gonna have a sweet barrier but Galactus wants the hunger pangs gone and does not listen.

DOOM recognizes a bad idea when he sees one once in a while and hangs back but still gets blown out of space by the force of Galactus bonking off the Beyonder’s barriers.

Captain America: “They were swatted back like flies!”

Professor X: “To the Beyonder, even Galactus is less than a fly, Captain!”

Interruption dealt with, the Beyonder gets the show on the road and sends the two constructs to different parts of the patchwork planet.

The Marvel Super Heroes And Magneto land on some hill and quickly make sure that there are no villains excepting Magneto around.

With Magneto around, the non-X-Men raise an objection to Magneto being around.

He sank a Russian submarine with all hands back in X-Men #150 but he insists that it was self-defense and also they started it.

The X-Men’s position is ‘hey he’s a jerk but he’s our jerk plus we could use his help? The bad guys get GALACTUS, how is that fair?’

Well, they don’t say it but they’re probably thinking it.

And Hawkeye decides to be a little racist today.

Hawkeye: “You mutants stick together, huh? Well, sticking to a blood-soaked maniac like him doesn’t speak well of you, pal!”

Dude, Clint. Your dear old friend is Wanda.

Wait, why ISN’T Wanda here? Did the toy people really not want her? Fools. Her husband is toyetic as all get out.

Also, point of order, Wolverine? If anyone qualifies as ‘hey he’s a jerk but he’s our jerk!’ here its you.

Johnny “good life choices” Storm decides he’ll just kick Magneto’s ass and end the debate but yeah. Yeah, no. Magneto makes a fool of him.

And then Magneto decides eff this noise and flies off.

With Magneto alienated (good job, guys), Professor X decides this group needs some dang leadership and throws a nomination to Reed Richards. Reed defers since he’s thinking of Sue, left at home and not able to participate in the event.

Wasp, the cool leader of the Avengers, nominates instead Captain America.

Wasp: “We’re off in a strange land, up to our ears in a little secret war that may decide the fate of the universe! Some people don’t know me well! They might have doubts... and there’s no room for that!”

I’m baffled that there’s people here who don’t know Wasp who has been heroing since the 60s but sure. Cap(tain America) probably gets more crossovers and whatever.

I mean, heck, we’re talking a group of heroes consisting of the Avengers (who she already leads), the Fantastic Three (who she’s well acquainted with), and the X-Men (who I’m sure she’s met, although awkwardly its going to later be revealed that Wasp is in the Hellfire Club, but only the sex parts).

And I guess Wolverine’s extensive backstory with Cap doesn’t exist yet because Wolverine isn’t keen on him being the leader, describing him as the least of the assembled heroes. When Hawkeye is right there!

I kid because I love.

Meanwhile, DOOM wakes up adjacent to Galactus ankle and heads to a nearby fortress which he correctly assumes is where the villains have ended up.

Wait, the heroes get beamed down to a random hill while the villains get sent to an advanced fortress with weaponry and we later learn vehicles sold separately?

Kinda stacking the deck, the Beyonder.

You gave the villains GALACTUS and A FORTRESS PLAYSET right out of the gate.

The other villains tell Doom that they’ve (mostly) decided that he should be their leader. But Doom has bigger fish to fry than the prizes that the Beyonder is offering.

In typical Doomesque fashion, he wants the whole kettle. But the other villains what with their petty concerns think he’s too afraid to fight.

So he ditches.

He goes to steal-borrow a spaceship and even though he hates the thought, takes off to go talk to Richards. And then Kang shoots him out of the sky with a GIANT GUN THAT THE VILLAIN FORTRESS ALSO HAS? to stop him from allying with the heroes.

Said (marvel super) heroes see the distant explosion and fly as a group in the most hilarious way possible to check it out.

God, I have always loved this image. Its squished down into the bottom third of the page but its a delight.

They find Doom sprawled in the crash site, rambling that he’ll only speak to RICHARRRRRDS and about the Beyonder’s power. But Cap offends Doom mightily but offering him a hand up and because Doom sees pity in Cap and RICHARRRRRRDS eyes.

So he blasts the heroes and fucks off.

How very Bakugou of him.

And right as the heroes recover from that, a bunch of villains arrive to get this secret war started.

I have a fondness for this particular issue. For a long while, issue 1 was the only issue of Secret Wars I could find. So I just had the start of this story with all these non-Spider-Man non-X-Men heroes I barely knew cliffhangering into an attack by villains I really didn’t recognize except for Doc Ock and the Lizard.

It was a window into another side of the Marvel Universe. And for child me, this first issue worked perfectly to intrigue me. All these characters, the very straightforward conflict, all the complications that immediately pop up like Magneto, Galactus, and Doom. Alas, small child resources.

June, 1984

PRISONERS of War!

The heroes react slowly to the sudden villain attack but thankfully, the villains aren’t working together well. Unthankfully, half of the heroes were already knocked out by the first attack.

Meanwhile, over at Doctor Doom’s side of the plot, he flies back over to where Galactus just in time to see him finally rouse from being slapped down by the Beyonder.

Galactus floats to his feet and wanders off.

Doom: “He ignored me! As though I were a gnat buzzing at his feet! And so I am... Just as all of us, even Galactus himself, are but insects to the all-powerful Beyonder! Thus, the others have chosen to play the Beyonder’s simple game -- thereby, in effect, paying homage to him. Should I, too, pay homage? Should I worship at the feet of this god-like being -- or chose another path... one only Doom would dare!”

I think anyone that knows Doom knows which option he’s gonna choose.

He heads back to the villain fortress and finds Ultron’s deactivated body and decides Doom can use this.

Meanwhile, back at the first secret battle of the secret war, the heroes rally and start fighting back under Cap(tain America)’s leadership.

She-Hulk even gets a designated girl fight with the only female villain on the villain team.

I’d complain, I would. But at least She-Hulk isn’t the only heroine on the hero side.

She-Hulk: “Hiya! I’m the She-Hulk! You must be the Enchantress! Gee, I’ve heard so much about you -- ! You’re a not-nice lady!”

Enchantress: “A green woman? Is there no end to the varieties of mortals?”

The Enchantress magic slaps She-Hulk away and comments that she could crush She-Hulk physically but its beneath her.

Yeah, all Asgardians have some level of super strength, that’s right. Even the squishy wizards.

But all She-Hulk heard was, ‘someone I can really punch!’

She-Hulk: “I don’t often duke it out with someone solid enough to really unload on -- and slow enough to let me! Oh, wow! That was, like tubular, you know -- to the max!”

Uh. Jen, are you okay? Did you have a stroke? You don’t usually talk so much in Mario World secret world levels.

I think maybe Jim Shooter didn’t have a good grasp on her. I don’t think he’s ever written for her. And the other heroes mostly don’t vary too much from generic hero speaking patterns. Add some smart for smart characters, add some rude to Wolverine, and so on.

The battle wraps up with Kang, the Enchantress, and the Wrecking Crew captured and the rest of the villains fleeing when the battle didn’t go their way.

Cap sends Storm off to scout for a cool playset that they can use as shelter and she does so, noting that the winds on Battleworld are super easy to control. Like Battleworld was created to create ideal fighting conditions for everyone. Pretty neat, the Beyonder.

Storm finds a particularly rad fortress (”Bigger than fifty-four and a half Pentagons, I’d estimate!” Wow!) and the heroes move in.

I unironically enjoy how toyetic this story is with the fortresses and the vehicles and the weapons. Because I’m almost positive that Mattel barely capitalized on it.

There were only two playsets. Pitiful.

Over in their new headquarters, Reed stashes the captured villains in some form of psychostasis which “works by controlling aggression through brainwave modulation!”

He also sticks Enchantress in a healing pod to address that nasty case of being She-Hulked right in the face. Nothing will salve her ego though.

Captain America: “It’s no wonder that the name Mister Fantastic is renowned for compassion as well as courage! You give added meaning to the word hero, Richards!”

Whenever someone loudly announces that Reed is super compassionate, it makes me feel like they’re overcompensating.

Nobody ever makes note of, say, Captain America’s compassion.

With the prisoners (of war? Is that the whole reason for the title?) accommodated, Cap calls everyone for a meeting in a cool meeting dome he found which has a small waterfall for aesthetic and so everyone has to yell to be heard.

Wolverine yells that they should mop up the rest of the villains and get this over with.

Not mentioning that in order to “win it” they’d have to kill the villains, which none of the heroes have shown any interest in doing so far.

Cap(tain America) replies that A) planet big and they have no idea where the villains got to. And B) the remaining villains slash antagonists are Galactus, Doctor Doom, Molecule Man, Doctor Octopus, the Wrecker, the Absorbing Man, and Magneto. Not really people you mop up.

In a fun logistics bit, Cap sends out a patrol to make sure the area is secure but he also sends out two additional groups to find  if there are any places in this fortress they can sleep and whether there's any... food.

Makes me imagine a Secret Survival War where the sides have to wrestle over limited resources.

Hours later, the villains that escaped the fracas arrive back at their fortress.

I’m sort of confused here.

Maybe it took so long because they had to make sure they weren’t followed. Or maybe because they didn’t have the sweet tripod vehicle anymore. But think about the flow of events of: everyone beamed down to Battleworld > Doom ditches the villains and gets shot down > heroes investigate and Doom ditches > villains show up for cliffhanger fight.

The villain fortress should be pretty close to where that fight took place. And then the heroes find a nearby fortress of their own so their fortress should be pretty close to the villain fortress. Maybe not in the same neighborhood but surely the same zip code.

Anyway, they find that while they were gone, Doom swanned in and renamed the place the Doombase.

If they have problems with it, they can talk to his Ultron.

Which I’m surprised he didn’t rename Doomtron.

Doom also tells them that he’s in charge now.

Absorbing Man: “Aw! Who gives a hoot! I need a meal an’ sleep! You wanna be in charge, Doom? Okay by me!”

If you think about it, this is just some steps added what the villains wanted all along.

They wanted Doom to be their leader but he told them he had bigger fish to fry and fucked off. Now he’s fucked back on and told them all that he’s their leader. They initially object before reconsidering due to Doomtron but, yeah, its all gone full circle.

Doom is a lot more cordial to Molecule Man though.

Doom: “Molecule Man... uh, Mr. Reece, I believe it is? I trust you were not inconvenienced.”

Molecule Man: “Well, being absolute master of molecules I can just assimilate molecules when I want, so I never have to be hungry, and I can just shoo away dirt molecules, so I’m always nice and clean -- but I am tired!”

Doom: “I have prepared a special chamber for you! I hope you like it!”

Molecule Man: “If not, I can always reconstruct the molecules -- !”

Heh.

Nice to see Jim Shooter able to follow up on the trajectory he sent Molecule Man on.

The rest of the villains head off but Doctor Octopus, the only other brain cell in this group, hangs back to talk to DOOM.

He wants to know what he plans to do about Galactus and then shows Doom on the biggest screen TV that Galactus is standing on a mountain glowing with an awesome power.

Doom just retorts that his plans are for his forces to triumph.

Doctor Octopus: Something tells me he’s got ambitions that dwarf merely triumphing in the Beyonder’s little contest! The question is whether he will destroy us in trying to achieve them -- or immediately after fulfilling them?!

Like I said, the only other brain cell in this group.

Meanwhile, while Magneto secretly sneaks into the hero fortress for Reasons, the heroes have a quiet moment that lets this Secret Wars biz really sink in.

Wasp: “I’d be having tea in my studio now, Jenny... And lunch on my patio tomorrow... This... um... situation we’re in... is kind of... much, you know? I feel there’s just a little thin wall inside me holding back a flood of despair!”

Its a nice touch, if intentional, that Wasp only admits this kind of thing now that she’s passed off the leadership responsibilities to Captain America. Its been a recurring character beat that she’s been keeping these sorts of worries to herself as chairwoman.

Over in another part of the fortress, Cyclops complains that he was right in the middle of his dang honeymoon when he was yanked into this event.

Cyclops: “I don’t know about you, Richards, but more than angry or afraid, I feel cheated! I -- I was on the verge of real happiness...”

Oof. This really sets the tone for his marriage with Madelyne Pryor.

Spider-Man and the Human Torch even have a little conversation.

Spider-Man: “You mean it doesn’t shake you, Torch, being here? What if we don’t get home?”

Human Torch: “The Fantastic Four have been off on space missions a couple of times, Spider-Man! We’ll get back! Believe me!”

I like when they’re friends.

So, I’m not sure what Magneto’s plan actually was. He was going to sabotage the fortress’ fusion generator as a distraction but Spider-Man’s Spider-Sense Spider-Alerts him to shenanigans afoot and he runs off to the power plant while Johnny Storm goes to get the other heroes.

Magneto decides to abandon whatever his plan was and captures Wasp as a consolation prize.

Gasp, another prisoner of war!

The Thing tries to give chase but inexplicably turns back to normal, smooth skinned Ben Grimm.

Also, Magneto escapes with the Wasp.

It’s like the aardvark says, you can get what you want and still not be happy.

Captain Marvel is holding the randomly anti-mutant ball for Hawkeye here and comments that none of the X-Men showed up to help stop Magneto.

Cap(tain America) tells her to belay that.

Captain America: “Let’s keep our minds on solving problems, not creating more!”

And they can’t even go after Magneto or rescue the Wasp right now because they have bigger problems: Galactus glowing with an awesome power and a massive storm that’s forming on Battleworld.

July, 1984

TEMPEST WITHOUT, CRISIS WITHIN!

The Beyonder has thrown in a nice stage hazard to keep things fresh in the form of a massive storm raging on Battleworld, with lighting that shatters mountains and winds that could tear someone’s limbs clean off.

Or perhaps its the unintentional result of just slapping a planet together out of random stuff you have lying around. The climate must be shot to shit.

I like it either way. Secret Wars has a lot of very toyetic collisions between groups of characters so its nice when Battleworld itself manages to be an obstacle.

Over in his giant U-shaped fortress, Magneto finally unwraps Wasp from the ball of random metal crap he has her in.

He lets her wander around until she finds him so that he can be all casual and eating a space scone.

Magneto: “Do not bother trying to attack me, my dear! My person is magnetically shielded!”

Wasp: “Well, la-de-da!”

Wasp: -blows up his space scone- “You think I have to strike at you directly to hurt you, monster?”

Hilarious spite, thy name is Janet van Dyne.

She also makes the point that magnetic shielding or no, she could bring this whole room down. Her being able to knock over a small house with her pew pew hasn’t stopped being true.

Magneto hastens to ask her not to do that because neither of them want to be out in the storm outside.

Besides, he just wants to talk! And flirt!

Magneto: “You are obviously a woman of intelligence and understanding as well as great beauty -- and I am not the monster you believe I am -- which is precisely what I wish to discuss!”

Wasp: “Oh? My intelligence, understanding and beauty or your non-monsterhood?”

Magneto: “Why... both!”

Back at the hero base (which is apparently ROUGHLY THE SIZE OF CHICAGO?? I want that playset), the storm has almost completely flooded the area, leaving just the top dome and such poking above the water.

The storm keeps dropping chunks of mountain at the base but Thor is standing on top, protecting it while grinning like a loon.

Captain Marvel even speculates that Thor could calm the storm but is whipping it up into a greater frenzy instead. Those storm gods, amirite?

Hawkeye is also standing by, with his explosive arrow, thinking to himself that if Thor fails, Hawkeye will totally save the day.

I don’t know whether that’s sad or endearing.

Mostly though he’s trying to distract himself from thinking about the new wife he left behind.

Cap, Reed, and Hulk are watching the villain base because apparently they do know where it is. The storm is keeping the villains in too but Cap figures they’ll pull one desperate attack as soon as the storm breaks.

They’ve already lost four of their dudes. Plus, Galactus isn’t a team player.

Spider-Man is just swinging around, enjoying how good for swinging the random technological pipes and tubes and whatsits are when he stumbles upon the X-Men having a secret meeting.

Professor X has decided, possibly on the basis of two (2) rude comments from Hawkeye and Captain Marvel, that the X-Men just don’t belong here and that they’d be better off going and teaming up with Magneto.

This... sure is a take.

Rogue comments that the Avengers don’t trust her because of that time she kicked their asses collectively. Which, hey, very possibly. They haven’t really had a thing to say about you though. They’ve mostly been grouchy about Magneto.

Which is kinda born out by the way he tried to blow up their base and definitely kidnapped the Wasp?? And is even now aggressively eating scones at her?

That’s the Magneto you guys want to go join because he’s more your people than the Fantastic Avengers and friends are?

You know, there’s a pattern I sometimes see with the X-Men where they loudly insist that the other superheroes don’t help them and don’t care about mutant stuff while at the same time doing shit like this.

“Should we get Reed Richards, smartest dick in the world to help with the legacy virus or the techno-organic virus Stryfe shot into Xavier? NAHHHH Beast can handle it.”

“Should we stick with the other superheroes or go hang with Magneto instead in a cool mutants only U-shaped fortress? Well, U is the coolest letter that isn’t X...”

If you squint, you can definitely see Krakoa all the way in the future.

Anyway, Spider-Man overheard all of this and goes ‘I’M TELLING!’

Wolverine tries to tell him that snitches get stitches but the thing is?

Spider-Man is ridiculous. He’s a ridiculously good combination of skills and powers which lets him make chumps out of entire groups at a time.

He’s embarrassed the Fantastic Four, the Avengers, and now he’s about to embarrass the X-Men.

After making them all feel foolish, Spider-Man gets away and goes to tell Reed what that doody-head Xavier said when Xavier uses his psychic powers to just wipe the entire encounter out of Spider-Man’s memory.

Yeah, it’s to cover their imminent blowing off but also? I don’t think he wants anyone else to find out how badly his X-Men just got stomped.

Psychics are too OP, I tell you what.

In fairness IN FAIRNESS, the X-Men kind of have the right to fuck right off if they wish. I don’t even know what it had to be in secret. In fact, doing it in secret is a massive dick move of its own for reasons.

What would the Fantastic Avengers have done if the X-Men had just said ‘hey we’re heading out’? Would they have put them in stasis tube jail? I doubt it.

Professor X made the decision to handle this the stupidest way for whatever reason. That scamp.

Speaking of Magneto, he’s over at the U-Lair turning down a partnership offer from DOOM. So, hey, he has standards.

Wasp has become less ‘i’ll blow up this room and your breakfast’ about him over the course of whatever the hell they discussed in their offscreen chat.

Magneto even starts to make out with her and Wasp is like ehhhhhhhhhh what the fuck why not.

Why is this happening?

I guess he has a...................... magnetic personality?

Eh? Eh??

No, but seriously, I do have a theory that I heard someplace but it’ll have to wait.

What’s weird is that there’s a Marvel What If about some spinoff babies that come about if the heroes and villains got stuck on Battleworld and never managed to leave.

Wasp has a son with Human Torch. Which is pretty weird and comes from nowhere. I guess a lot can happen during a massive time skip. My point being though, its weird that they didn’t have a Wasp/Magneto baby instead given the weird chemistry they have here.

Meanwhile, over at DOOMBASE, DOOM has some women in giant tubes.

That’s So Doom.

Doctor Doom: “All is ready -- ! This alien technology, so rich, so subtle... so easily harnessed to serve my purpose... Energy, tapped from the raging tempest... And two mortal subjects who dare to gamble for power -- knowing that to lose is death, for truly, here I shall test the limits of power a human body can contain! With the throwing of a switch... so -- the die is cast! Hear me -- ! Power must be seized -- ! Crave it! Welcome it! Drink it in, despite the pain... or it will destroy you.”

And thus are Volcana and Titania created!

Talk about lasting effects of Secret Wars! Titania is going to be around forever! Mostly annoying She-Hulk!

Where did Doom find two random women to give superpowers?

Denver, Colorado.

No, seriously.

That city chunk we saw as Battleworld formed? That’s Denver, Colorado, USA, EARTH.

Why isn’t there a miniseries or one-shot about a normal ass civilian from Denver having to deal with OH MY GOD WHERE DID EARTH GO?

I actually read an interesting thing re: this scene. It exists because Mattel asked Marvel to introduce some new female characters so Shooter wrote in these two and a third who I’ll get to when I do.

Mattel then promptly used none of these characters for the associated toyline.

The toyline, in fact, used none female characters at all. It made toys of characters who weren’t in the story but did not have a single female character.

So its very weird that they asked Marvel to introduce some but I’m not going to knock the results.

Doom introduces these two new characters to the other villains.

Hilariously, Absorbing Man guesses that Doctor Doom just made women from scratch. Because doesn’t it sound like something he could do?

Volcana and Molecule Man immediately hit it off, her being attracted to his sensitivity and him being attracted to... positive attention at all, I guess?

He muses that he could easily stop the storm outside, because molecules, but his therapist told him to let nature take its course. “Unless Doom asks me to!”

And Titania and Absorbing Man. They don’t hit it off. She either wants to hit him or hit that and its not clear and it might be both.

(Spoilers: Its both)

Titania: “You! Absorbing Man! You look like the toughest man here! Get up!”

Absorbing Man: “Whatcha got in mind?”

Titania: “I’m going to do anything I want to you! Everything I always wanted to do to everybody who used to be bigger and stronger than me! Maybe I’ll just play with you... or maybe I’ll make you eat dirt... or maybe...”

Absorbing Man: “Woman, if you got somethin’ to prove, prove it tomorrow against the guys we’re fightin’!”

Titania: “You’re backing down?”

Absorbing Man: “Nope! I just ain’t getting up! I got nothin’ to prove... to a dame!”

Would you believe that they become one of the healthiest and most stable romantic relationships in Marvel?

Speaking of weird relationships, back over at hero base, Thor goes and pops the lid on Enchanteress’ healing tube because he’s bored and wants to talk to a peer. A god peer.

Enchantress is at first more characteristically worried about what her face looks like after being She-Hulked.

But she then creates a portal so she and Thor can go have a chat.

Later, it’s morning and Hulk has been too busy stressing over losing his Banner smarts to actually keep watch or wake up Cap for watch like he was supposed to.

So when the villains ram an airship into the hero base, the heroes are not at all prepared.

Titania hurls a giant slab of wall through the room the Terrific Three are sharing, breaking Johnny Torch’s arm and ribs and knocking out the other two. He manages to get himself and co out of danger by melting through the floor.

Meanwhile, She-Hulk is carrying a big heavy as she’s been doing since the previous night and is caught unaware by Volcana who blasts her off her feet and then collapses the room on top of her.

Doctor Octopus knocks out Captain Marvel who is in the hot springs dome but gets chased away by Hawkeye, claiming that long-range firepower is his weakness.

I’m stunned at the implication that Doc Ock is one of Spider-Man’s most dangerous foes but could be scared off by Hawkeye while Spider-Man could pretty easily drop Clint’s ass. There’s some rock-paper-scissors nonsense at play here.

Spider-Man and Iron Man are also taken unawares by Ultron but manage to hide under some rubble.

Hulk leaps into the fray at Molecule Man and Doom but Cap convinces him to fall back to a defensible position.

The villains reconvene with all the captured villains freed except Enchantress (since she fucked off to have a chat with Thor) and the heroes scattered and buried under various rubbles. How the fortunes of Secret War turn.

Sure would have been nice if the X-Men had been around to help or if they mentioned they wouldn’t be. Sure would have been.

Doom: “We have accomplished much here today! And to finish it, we shall level this place so that no stone remains on stone!”

No wonder Mattel didn’t make a playset of this base! Dammit Doom, you’re ruining the merchandising!

Follow @essential-avengers​ for more of Secret Wars! At this same pace! Its sustainable! This is fine! Like and reblog too!

#Avengers #Secret Wars #Essential Avengers #essential marvel liveblogging #Captain America #Captain Marvel #Monica Rambeau #Hawkeye #Iron Man #james rhodes #She Hulk #Thor #the Wasp #X Men #Colossus #Cyclops #Nightcrawler #Professor X #Rogue #Storm #Wolverine #Fantastic Four #Mr Fantastic #Human Torch #the Thing #Hulk #Spider Man #Magneto #VICTOR VON DOOM #some villains

[ghostoftheyear]

I was joking about wanting to be a comic book historian the other day on Twitter, but I’m kind of half seriously wishing there was a position like that for real.

Like. For several years now, I’ve been maintaining -- albeit with less zeal, lately -- the Marvel Universe Timeline Wiki (aka WikiMUT). I started it as a project to try and understand all of the events that have occurred throughout Marvel continuity, with a focus on the 616 universe. It starts with the very first superhero-themed comic published by Marvel, Fantastic Four #1, and continues from there in a fashion that I hope is at least marginally logical. I really enjoyed putting it together, seeing the spread of comics published each month, seeing the origins of various characters and how they developed.

(For example: the Avengers came together in the movies much the way they did in the comics: in separate titles first, and then eventually brought together in their own title. [Tangentially, I’ve thought about doing a podcast similar to X-Plain the X-Men, but I have neither sufficient time nor energy for that.])

It’s also been a fascinating deep dive into Marvel history in its own way. People always seem to envision comics as the exclusive dominion of men -- white men, at that. Which also ignores the critical contributions of people like, oh idk, Jack Kirby, Joe Shuster, Jerry Siegel, Stanley Lieber (you might know him as Stan Lee)... but I’m getting off track.

My comment on Twitter had to do with a recent thread where some idiot declared that women are ruining comics by taking over the boys’ club and scribbling in pink crayon all over everything. And this is where my deep dive came in handy, because, hello? Flo Steinberg? Virginia Romita, famously Marvel’s “traffic director” for ages? How about numerous women who did the grunt work of lettering and coloring and didn’t even get properly credited for it for years? Jean Izzo comes to mind; I believe she was Artie Simek’s daughter, and was often listed as J. Izzo or J. Simek. I’ll grant that lettering and coloring did not get their due for far too long -- in fact, in early issues of Fantastic Four, for example, only writing/editing (usually by the same person, Stan Lee) and art were credited. That doesn’t change the suspicious fact that womens’ names were often shortened. Well, women and Irving W(atanabe). Suspicious. (Petra Goldberg was another one. And then there were wives: Karen Mantlo, Michele Wolfman, Glynis Wein/Oliver, Diane Buscema.) 

How about Joan Lee, who suggested that Stan write something he enjoyed before he quit the funnybooks business forever, thus leading Stan to create Fantastic Four #1 and eventually creating or co-creating every major Silver Age character in Marvel Comics? Stan, Jack Kirby, and Steve Ditko brought forth the FF, Thor, Iron Man, Hulk, Ant-Man, the Wasp, the X-Men, Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Black Widow, Hawkeye, a revived Captain America, the Silver Surfer, a revived Sub-Mariner, and that’s not even mentioning the villains. We wouldn’t have any of that if Joan hadn’t made that suggestion to her husband.

This is mostly focused on Silver Age because I’ve only gotten up to 1976 in my work on the wiki, but I’d also like to point out that women continued to contribute, in more noticeable roles, throughout the 70s, 80s, and up to current day. The X-Men certainly wouldn’t have been what they became without Ann Nocenti. (Also we wouldn’t have Longshot and that would be sad.) Louise Simonson’s contributions to the X-Men franchise, as well as other books like Power Pack and... oh I don’t know, Thor... were beyond important. Letterers like L. Lois Buhalis and Janice Chiang have done, and for all I know continue to do, yeoman’s work. And to step away from Marvel for a moment, independent books wouldn’t be what they are if not for Wendy Pini (and her husband, Richard -- talk about a great team) and ElfQuest. They helped paved the way for independent publishers for years to come. There’s also Colleen Doran and A Distant Soil. There’s Linda Medley and the beautiful Castle Waiting. There are many more I know I’m forgetting.

Also, and this is crucial, women have always bought, read, and loved comics. This is not a new, sudden, strange development. I am 45 years old, and I have collected comics on and off since I was 13. (What got me into it? Marvel’s reprints of ElfQuest, oddly enough.) Women haven’t just barged into the clubhouse and demanded space. Women have always been there.

If you have a problem with that, you weren’t really paying attention to the clubhouse to begin with.

#rant #it's too early in the morning for this #but seriously i want to be a comics scholar #how do i apply for that

[sineala]

How did Carol/Rhodey start/happen? I like the ship and it seems to be sticking more or less (for a comics couple) but was it a, “we need Tony and Carol to fight over someone” thing? And were they interacting often before that point?

And it seems like Rhodey is now a permanent part of both the Iron Man and Captain Marvel supporting cast about 10 years running now, does someone pulling double duty in 2 solo books (when they definitely came from 1) long term happen often in comics? With team books I’m sure it does.

I haven't backread all Carol's appearances, and I actually haven't read all of KSD's run, which is where Carol/Rhodey comes from. As far as I can tell, they got together between KSD's first and second Captain Marvel runs, off-page. In the first issue of the second (2014) run, they're already together.

I skimmed Wiki and I can't find anything in Rhodey's earlier appearances list that looks like it would have had a lot of Carol, or vice versa. I know they must have overlapped a little in Busiek's Iron Man run, but as far as I can remember, Rhodey wasn't a major part of that run and the Carol & Tony friendship absolutely was. So I can't say for sure, but if they interacted a lot before this, I can't find it. I have the impression that KSD put them together because they were both pilots and therefore basically had similar ambitions.

All of this predates the Civil War II "Tony and Carol fight about which of them loved Rhodey more" plotline by several years and I would be very surprised if they'd already had that in mind when the Carol/Rhodey thing started.

Carol is a character who, for better or worse (and, yes, the "worse" has been pretty awful), has a lot of early canonical history in which she is defined by her relationships to men -- I mean, she basically started off as Mar-Vell's girlfriend and, uh, let's not talk about Avengers #200 ever again -- but I think for the most part Marvel seems to have figured out that she has the most popularity when they focus on her as a success of feminism (see: Chris Claremont's work on the original Ms. Marvel run, as well as her massive popularity surge due to KSD's Captain Marvel run) and I think in that light, Carol/Rhodey is a long-term choice that makes a lot of sense because they can clearly support each other as equals and they understand where they're each coming from and it's very nice and you don't have a setup where Carol is obviously "the love interest" or anything like that.

(However, if you read Avengers Annual #10, Chris Claremont's fixit for Avengers #200, you will see that he was clearly where everyone got the Carol/Jess from.)

There have definitely been characters pulling double-duty in multiple solo books. I don't know for sure how much all of this overlapped in terms of simultaneous appearances (I suspect not all that much, because I think Marvel cared a lot more about making sure characters couldn't be two places at once back when they had fewer comics) -- but, I mean, the character I immediately think of is Rick Jones, everyone's favorite perma-sidekick. Seriously, he started off with the Hulk, moved on to Steve, went back to the Hulk, then eventually ended up with Mar-Vell (and then Genis-Vell) -- and if you asked me to pick one and only one hero to say he's associated with, I really don't think I could. That guy gets around.

#replies #visitant-dispatch

[lgbtincomics]

Amazon's having one of their big Marvel collections blow out sales for Kindle (that'll sync with your comixology account). Other than the Angela books what are some good LGBTQ oriented books?

(This got long so it’s under a cut! TL;DR at the end. I’ve included links to Kindle editions where I could find them and hard copies when I couldn’t!)

Probably Marvel’s best-known LGBTQ series is Young Avengers, which you can find a complete reading order for here! Volume 1 introduces two gay main characters who are in a (really sweet) relationship, and Volume 2 is written by a bi man and introduces America Chavez and David Alleyne, who are confirmed as a lesbian and a bi guy respectively. Loki’s also in it. (YA v2 was what got me into comics!) [V1 / Children’s Crusade / V2]

A second teen-led series is Runaways, which introduced one of Marvel’s most well-known lesbian characters, Karolina Dean. She later enters into a relationship with an alien who is generally written and read as genderfluid. They cross over with the original Young Avengers a couple of times. [Trade #1]

If you’re looking for older characters, X-Factor volume 3 features Rictor, who comes out as gay partway through the series, and later issues feature his boyfriend Shatterstar, who’s bi. The central character of the story is also Jamie Madrox, who’s hinted at being bi pretty strongly throughout the series (and the ‘Madrox’ mini-series, which was sort of a prequel to XFv3), but in his case nothing is ever explicitly stated. [Trade #1. Amazon has the entire series collected in 21 digital trades, each of which are only a couple dollars.]  

Dark Wolverine stars Daken, Wolverine’s bisexual son. I’ve heard some mixed opinions from bi folks about Daken because he’s very much not a good guy and ‘evil bisexual’ is a bit of a trope, but overall the consensus seems to be that it’s a good book and he’s a very interesting character. [Trade #1]

Patsy Walker A.K.A. Hellcat is written by a queer woman, and while it stars a straight character, its background and supporting cast representation is stellar enough to merit a mention. One of Patsy’s childhood friends, all grown up, runs a gay bookstore, and Patsy’s openly bi roommate is also a major character. [Trade #1]

I also have to rec the new Iceman series, which is being written by an openly gay man and follows Bobby Drake in finding his place in the world as a mutant, a teacher, and a guy fresh out of the closet. It’s cute and funny and overall a great read. [Issue #1. The first trade comes out in January if you’d rather hold out for that.]

America Chavez, everyone’s favourite butt-kicking dimension-hopping lesbian, also has a solo right now being written by a queer Latinx author which is also a really enjoyable series. [Trade #1]

Another great ongoing comic from Marvel is Generation X, which features Roxy Washington (lesbian), Benjamin Deeds (gay), and Nathaniel Carver (presumably gay, definitely likes boys). [Trade #1]

In terms of earlier characters, we’ve got Northstar, Marvel’s first openly gay character, who came out in 1992– I don’t personally know a ton about him but @northstarfan has a wonderfully complete reading list here– and Karma, who was a founding member of the New Mutants team and is a lesbian. As far as I know her sexuality isn’t really addressed all that much in the comics, so if you’re looking for series that are LGBTQ-centric or themed, she might not be your best bet. That said, she’s a delightful character. Here’s her wiki page, which also has info on comics she’s been in. 

TL;DR:

Young Avengers

Runaways

X-Factor v3

Dark Wolverine

Patsy Walker A.K.A. Hellcat

Iceman

America

Generation X

I hope this was helpful! :)

#mod: rhi #replies #anonymous #q slur / #comic recs

[imjustmejca1971]

Yep, I’m a Comic Book Geek

It all began in April of 1978. I was a little shy of my 7thbirthday. We were out shopping in one of those pre-Sam’s Club, pre-Costco warehouse stores in east Wichita, KS. I think it was called David’s. At the checkout line, there was a 3-pack of comics about Superman. The stories were “Laser War Over Metropolis,” “The Man with the Self-Destruct Mind” and “Beware the Eyes that Paralyze- Titano the Super Ape!” I was hooked. There was something about reading words with pictures that made reading so much more fun.

From that point forward every time we went to any grocery store or pharmacy, I asked for a comic book. I went from Superman to Action Comics to Wonder Woman. Then onto Flash and anthology series like World’s Finest, Superman Family and Batman Family. Finally, getting the best of all worlds..the Justice League.

My first Marvel comic was a few months later, Amazing Spider-Man #188. From there, I went on to Hulk, Iron Man and my first Marvel group book, The Avengers. I remember being in the plastic bubble (it was a 1970’s thing) in my elementary school library reading Avengers vol 1 #187.

 The fun part was seeing how all of these characters connected. Was Wonder Woman related to Wonder Man? No. Wonder Woman to Wonder Girl? Yes. The Thing to Swamp Thing? No.  Ms. Marvel to Captain Marvel? Kind of. There was a Marvel Comics’ Captain Marvel, which she was connected to. There was also a DC Captain Marvel (more commonly known as Shazam) that had nothing to do to that character. Eventually I figured out the difference between DC and Marvel universes.

These were all serialized storylines. Marvel’s books had started in the early 1960’s. DC’s had gone back as far as the late 1930’s. Even though there were jumping on points, there were always references to other stories. That was great for me. Anytime I went to a comic store, I looked for the issue I didn’t have that connected the previous story. Sometimes flea markets and garage sales would yield amazing finds, dirt cheap.

As someone with a vivid imagination, I just soaked all this up. I even invented my own alter ego at 9 years old. “Superkid.” I know, not that creative...but the adventures I had in my head were awe inspiring for a child that wasn’t easily able to connect to other people.

The first real-life versions of my favorite superheroes came onto tv and the movies in the late 70’s. Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman in the tv show was amazing. To this day, she’s probably one of the only celebrities I would be a blubbering mess to meet. The other was Christopher Reeve’s Superman. I still get tears in my eyes every time the theme from the movie starts. To me, he was Superman as he nailed the buffoonery of Clark Kent and the humanity of Superman.

I also learned so much from reading comic books. Any time Reed Richards or the Vision used a word I didn’t understand, I looked it up. Reading a comic book expanded my vocabulary nearly every time. When I first learned Wonder Woman and Shazam were based in Graeco/Roman mythologies, I wanted to learn more. Who was Aphrodite? Who was Hermes? Who was Zeus? How did he relate to Jupiter? Wait, didn’t we have a planet named Jupiter?

Who were Mars, Mercury, Saturn, Neptune, Venus, etc.? It opened up yet another world of astronomy including planets, solar systems, stars, galaxies, quasars, pulsars, wormholes and black holes.

Many of the heroes had extrasensory perceptions. Could those be real? Did people in real life have telepathy, telekinesis, pyrokinesis, or clairvoyance? What did those mean? Could anyone get them by using the full potential of the mind? Could you learn to see things others couldn’t? Were ghosts real? Could you get to the astral plane? It opened up another new plane..this time of the paranormal.

So many worlds to explore..all opened up by comic book stories. Here’s a whole list of things I as a pre-teen kid through young adulthood gained exposure to through comic books:

Always do the right thing and help others whenever possible-  Superman

Put love first, but kick ass when you need to-  Wonder Woman

Artificial intelligence- Vision; Red Tornado; Ultron

You can be anything you put your mind to- Batman (granted with $$ and really good trainers)

Life is a series of ups and downs- Spider-Man

With great power comes great responsibility- Spider-Man

Manage your anger properly- Hulk

Multiverse concepts- Flash; Justice League/Justice Society

People can dislike you for just being different- X-Men

Love is more than physical appearance: Vision and the Scarlet Witch

Remaking your own reality/retroactive continuity- Crisis on Infinite Earths

Addiction- Iron Man

Sacrifice- Flash; Supergirl

Mental health issues- Hank Pym

The world isn’t black and white- Magneto

Don’t judge people on how they look- Nightcrawler (X-Men)

Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Love wins.- Phoenix

Astronomy- Fantastic Four

The United States of America is the people, not the government- Captain America

More to life than what we see- Dr. Strange; Dr. Fate

And so much more.

The great news is most of the stories are now accessible digitally. Marvel has a subscription service for $10 a month where you have access to decades of stories of nearly 20,000 titles. DC is supposed to follow suit next year. We also have the wonder of the internet. Want to know the story where Jean Grey first became Phoenix? When Superman and Lois got married? When Iceman came out? You’re just a google away to find the source.

There are tv shows, movies, comic conventions, message boards, wikis and so many ways to connect to these characters and the people who love them. My only wish list is for the stories I grew up with as a kid and young adult to be adapted into a new medium in its original content.  Most tv shows and movies pay homage to the source materials, but create their own spin. I’d love to see the original stories brought to life.

When new comic books are published every Wednesday, whether digitally or available at a local comic book store, I get to have a few minutes that are just mine to let my mind soar again. You can be seven. You can be 47. Comics are for everyone.