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Post by codystarbuck on Sept 25, 2021 20:47:55 GMT -5
Marvel Two-in-One #57Thing & Wundarr! Creative Team: Mark Guenwald & Ralph Macchio-writers, George Perez-pencils, Gene Day-inks, John Costanza-letters, Bob Sharen-colors, Roger Stern-editor Synopsis: Quasar has convened a meeting of the security staff to discuss the recent events and break-ins. It is so hush-hush that he invokes the Cone of Silence... Sorry, Chief! Quasar has finally twigged to the idea that someone on the inside has aided these break-ins and they set out to find who, as George gives us a swell 2-page spread, recapping previous issus and delivering Mark & Ralph's exposition... Ben goes to talk to Thundra but she is shtum. She says something cryptic about how Ben could have taken part in her reward, but does confirm that Deathlok was unknown to her and the forces at work are bigger than she knew. Meanwhile, Wundarr wakes up and goes walkabout and his dampening field affects everything within its radius, including energy bars on containment cells for prisoners, like Solarr... He tries to zap Wundarr in the back, but his solar flare dissipates when it enters Wundarr's field. He walks on, oblivious to Solarr, who tries to jump him, but finds all of his kinetic energy is absorbed and he falls flat on his tuchus. Solar decides not to push his luck and to get the hell out of Dodge. He goes looking for a partner for the jailbreak. He first tries Electro's cell, but he's all bandaged and beat up from his last fight with Spidey and in traction. Solarr flips him the bird and moves on. Meanwhile, the other Grapplers aren't talking, but the computers offer up data that Thomas Lightner was in the vicinity of both Deathlok's infiltration and Nuklo's escape. ben knew there was something fishy about him! Solarr tries another cell and sees Klaw's name (or is it Klaww?). He breaks in, but finds only his sonic claw. In a fit of rage and frustration, he throws it against the wall and the vibrations activate it and reconstitute Klaw's body, after it was discombobulated, in Black Panther #15. Solarr helps him walk and figures their combined powers can get them out. Ben, Quasar and Gian-Man head for Lightner's quarters but find him missing. Quasar gets a security alert about a power outage in the Compound and heads off to check it out. Meanwhile, Lightner is elsewhere, having hooked up the stuff brought to him to recreate his Blacksun personna. He flicks a switch and everything goes all Kirby. Meanwhile, Solarr and Klaw are in a Maze Car, running from Sandmen, when Quasar hits it with an energy shield. He missed Logan and Jessica, in the car before. Quasar is stunned when he sees it isn't Lightner and gets blinded. Ben and GM find him and help him out. They follow in another Maze Car and Solarr blasts the track, derailing the pursuers. Quasar's energy bands protect them as they crash and ben lifts off the car. He then grabs the rails and plays "Crack the Whip" to stop Solarr and Klaw... Quasar attacks and Solarr goes on defense; but, Quasar's energy bands absorb the solar radiation. Elsewhere, Wundarr walks into the room where the Cosmic Cube is storied and guards are powerless to stop him. Back at the fight, Klaw hits Quasar with sound waves and knocks him off kilter. He then cages ben & GM in a sonic dome. ben takes a page from Dune and the slow finger penetrates the energy shield... He decks Klaw, but gets a facefull of sonic energy and GM whips the Maze Car at Klaw, to break it up. The heroes recover and confer, as it appears that Klaw is down; but, he is only playing possum and hits everyone with a sonic stunner. They are down on the canvas and he puts the claw to Ben's head, where he plans to zap him at point blank range! Thoughts: Wheeeeeeeeellllllll-doggie that was one hell of a fight! We get a fast recap of what occurs, come to an obvious conclusion and then go hunting for a traitor, only to find Wundarr has unleashed more chaos to distract (unknowingly?) Solarr and Klaw had teamed in Avengers #126 and Solarr was also part of Egghead's Emissaries of Evil, in Defenders, before getting his butt whooped. He was a pretty low-level villain. Klaw had a bit more status, having fought the FF and Black Panther, though, as we saw, he didn't come out of it well. Like to see Andy Serkis pull off that costume, though! Lightner flicks a switch, but we have to wait for next issue to see what happens. Same for Wundarr and the Cosmic Cube. Remember, it was experiments with the Cube that put him into s sort of coma and the reason why Ben was there. Quasar is getting a pretty good outing here, which helped elevate him on the superhero card and cemented him as a favorite of mine, though I had followed him since he was Marvel Man, in the SHIELD Super-Agents, in captain America. He fit in well with the PEGASUS set-up. Bill Foster continues to help, though he was destined to be a supporting character, even though I enjoyed his brief solo series. I wanted at least one picture of Lawrence Fisburne in the 70s Black Goliath costume, in Ant-Man and Wasp, just for fun. Maybe the white buccaneer boots in a display case. The guest star credits are pretty much a swerve, as Wundarr just sleepwalks to the Cube room; but, he is the major catalyst, here. Everything reaches a climax next issue.
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Post by mikelmidnight on Sept 27, 2021 11:50:25 GMT -5
We get a fast recap of what occurs, come to an obvious conclusion and then go hunting for a traitor, only to find Wundarr has unleashed more chaos to distract (unknowingly?) Solarr and Klaw had teamed in Avengers #126 and Solarr was also part of Egghead's Emissaries of Evil, in Defenders, before getting his butt whooped. He was a pretty low-level villain. Klaw had a bit more status, having fought the FF and Black Panther, though, as we saw, he didn't come out of it well. Like to see Andy Serkis pull off that costume, though!
Solarr was a third-stringer, but probably the highest-profile mutant never to make it into the X-books. This was the period when Claremont's run was at its peak and I always wanted him to incorporate Solarr (now he's dead, I believe, so it's moot) (Solarr not Claremont obv).
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Post by berkley on Sept 27, 2021 14:56:29 GMT -5
Never have liked Wundarr much, even when Gerber first introduced him. I always seemed to feel an instinctive aversion to Superman analogues, no matter how they were used.
But boy, that Perez art looks good. Someday I'm going to try to trace his development to see if I can pin down exactly when his work began to change to a style less in accord with my personal taste - because we're already approaching the 1980s with these issues and he's still in his peak form, to my eyes.
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Post by codystarbuck on Sept 27, 2021 20:57:23 GMT -5
Never have liked Wundarr much, even when Gerber first introduced him. I always seemed to feel an instinctive aversion to Superman analogues, no matter how they were used. But boy, that Perez art looks good. Someday I'm going to try to trace his development to see if I can pin down exactly when his work began to change to a style less in accord with my personal taste - because we're already approaching the 1980s with these issues and he's still in his peak form, to my eyes. Well, this is about as much as he was ever developed, so there wasn't much to like. Really, none of Marvel's pastiches ever got much development, beyond being an obvious pastiche, with the exception of Nighthawk. He got the most out of the whole Squadron Sinister/Supreme bunch. Hyperion didn't really get much, until Supreme Power and most of that felt like a rehash of what Alan Moore had done on Miracleman. I can't speak for Sentry, as I have avoided anything that featured him (not specifically because of him) For good or bad, I preferred this version to what happens in the next issue and how he was used, subsequently.
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Post by badwolf on Sept 28, 2021 12:04:46 GMT -5
I just read the introduction of Wundarr in Man-Thing. I hadn't realized he was such a Superman copy.
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Post by berkley on Sept 28, 2021 12:43:35 GMT -5
I just read the introduction of Wundarr in Man-Thing. I hadn't realized he was such a Superman copy. I don't think of Wundarr as a copy in the sense of, "I need to come up with a character quick for this issue; no time to think of something new, I'll just copy Superman, no one will notice as long as I change the name and costume!"
I think that like a lot of superhero comics writers Gerber was fascinated by Superman as arguably the first superhero character, the one that started the whole thing; and he wanted to play around with that concept a little.
Personally, my attitude towards Superman wavers between bored indifference and irritation, so the fact that most of my favourite superhero writers feel the opposite is always disappointing.
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Post by codystarbuck on Oct 2, 2021 16:26:23 GMT -5
Marvel Team-Up #58Spidey & Ghost Rider! My cousin had this issue, back in the day. This should be fun! They are fighting the Trapster, though, which shouldn't require a team-up. Hell, Captain Ultra could handle that nitwit! Creative Team: Chris Claremont-writer, Sal Buscema-pencils, Pablo Marcos-inks, Irv Watanabe-letters, Janice Cohen-colors, Archie Goodwin-editor Synopsis: On Manhattan's Lower East Side, the Stunt-Master tv show is shooting its season premiere and Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson are there... Now why is Karl Malden handling the lights? Petey and MJ can't get down the street, because of production and have to watch, which excites MJ, but Petey has been in real stunts. Speaking of stunts, the stunt double for the lead is none other than Johnny Blaze, devil-worshipping biker who is somehow a hero, because........comics! He puts on his helmet and revs up the motorcycle and then we see a hand emerge from rooftop shadows, holding a weapon. The director calls action and Johnny has to swerve to avoid an extra, with a baby carriage and hop a line of cars, as a result. The stunt goes fine, until the last car, when a spray of paste hits it and tears off the front wheel of the bike.... Johnny lands on one wheel and tries to keep the bike in a wheely, when he bounces up and he uses the stunt jets to propel him away from the onlooker. He then transforms into Ghost Rider to have more control over the bike. Petey slips away, scales a building and uses his webs to pull GR off the bike, then they meet up, in costume. Spidey starts to banter when he is nabbed, from above, by paste and pulled into the air! Trapster flies overhead in a rocket sled and Spidey is stuck dangling below. GR follows on his Flame Cycle (street version, with windshield, instead of the cooler chopper version). Trapster relates how he got here, after being apprehended by the FF, in issue #178, of that book. The Wizard had an explosive in a false tooth and blew out the wall and they grabbed their gear and vamoosed, but Trapster saw a newspaper ehadline about the Stunt-Master shooting and knew Ghost Rider was in town and wanted revenge for the events in GR #15. Spidey snares the sled with a web and is able to snap the line of paste, but his arms are still trapped. He swings up and kicks Trappy. he knocks away the paste gun and thinks he has won, when Trappy blinds him with a flash device and tosses Spidey off the sled... Ghost Rider is below and runs his motorcycle in circles, to create an updraft and slow Spidey's fall, so he can safely catch him. Trappy attacks, but Rider hits him with hellfire and the sled goes out of control. Luckily, the fictional USS Halsey happens to be nearby and he lands there. The heroes follow and Trappy sprays a paste wall to stop the Rider, who lets the crash hurl him over and recreates his cycle, in mid-air! Trappy runs...right into a punch from Spidey, and Claremont demonstrates he doesn't know a Marine from a sailor..... Here's a hint, the sailor is the one in dungarees, with the "dixie cup, " and the Marine is the one in the utilities and the small arms, with the 8-pointed hat! The swabbies fire at Ghost rider, who rescues Spidey and Trappy runs to an F-14, to try to escape (who does he expect to operate the catapult?). He actually starts it (he instinctively knows how, obviously) and hits the after burners and takes off the brake and hops out, letting it roll towards the edge of the ship. Spidey stops it before the "bombs & missiles or fuel: explodes over the street, dumping it in the water, where it probably would have ended up anyway, without someone to pull back on the stick and work the rudder pedals. GR corners Trappy by some fuel stores, which are flammable, but the big sign about nuclear weapons handling worries Spidey even more. Spidey tries to stop GR from unleashing hellfire and gets zapped, iin the process, then Trappy threatens to blow the avgas. GR calls his bluff and hits him with the hellfire and reduces him to a blubbering baby... Man, that's cold! Even Spidey is disgusted and tells off Ghost Rider, before he rides off. Thoughts: I always liked this story, as Ghost rider gives it an interesting twist, with his supernatural powers, though why he needs Spidey is beyond me. Well, aside from the fact it is Spidey's book. Spidey ends up mostly reacting to everyone else, then he gets to take the moral high ground, at the end. Claremont definitely does not treat Ghost Rider like a hero, which fit the era, especially after an opening name drop, about Taxi Driver. Hollywood was giving us cynical anti-heroes and Marvel followed suit, with Punisher and Ghost Rider (to a certain extent). George Lucas would remind us what true heroes were, in a few months (though Sylvester Stallone and Jon Avildsen gave us a taste, with a plucky underdog boxer). Buscema does a decent job with the action and Marcos livens up his art, a bit. Claremont is in decent form, but he needed a hitch in the military or pick up a damn encyclopedia. Buscema blatantly has a sailor, in dungarees, firing an M-16 and Claremont's narration says he is a Marine. Marines never wore the same uniform as the crew of a ship. never....it was kind of the point of their uniform. they were meant to stand out, as they would actually fire from the rigging, in the sailing days, when boarding a vessel. That is why Marine covers (hats) have the braiding on the top. In the old days, it was to identify their men, in the melee, so that sniper's wouldn't shoot them. In the modern era, it is to honor those who came before. There was a USS Halsey, but it was a guided missile destroyer/cruiser, launched in 1960 (DLG-23, re-designated as CG-23). It was decommissioned in 1994. A new USS Halsey (DDG-97), was launched in 2004, but it is an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer, not a carrier. there has never been a carrier named USS Halsey, though there should have been one, if you ask me, since Halsey was synonymous with carriers, commanding carrier task forces from the USS Enterprise, in the Gilbert & Marshall raids, the Doolitle Raid, Guadalcanal, Leyte Gulf and Samar. The fact that we are on a carrier makes some of the events of the fight ludicrous. In the story, the ship is moored to the pier. However, it has F-14s on the flight deck, fueled and ready for launch, with weapons loaded. No F-ing way! Aircraft are flown off a carrier to a land base before it comes into port and fly out to the carrier when it leaves port, to both protect the aircraft, if something happens to the ship and also to ensure that there are no accidents with aircraft in a harbor environment. So, that is strike one. They are not armed, unless they are being prepped for launch, for a mission. Strike 2. They don't store aviation fuel in drums, on the hanger deck or anywhere else. Strike 3! Hit the showers, Claremont! So, would the average Marvel reader know that? Probably not, but it irks me. DC's war comics wouldn't have made that mistake. Fuel is carried in tanks, built into the hull. Carriers actually have dual hulls and fuel is carried between the two layers. This is one of the reasons that modern carriers are nearly impossible to sink, without nuclear weapons. Torpedoes could, certainly nuclear torpedoes. The bigger error is the sign about nuclear weapons handling, which prompts Spidey to worry about nukes on board going off (which shows Claremont doesn't understand how they work). In the first place, the US navy does not advertise the presence of nuclear weapons on a vessel. The narration says the ship is in town, on a PR visit, so they definitely aren't going to advertise it and, more likely, would have off-loaded the weapons, for safety. In fact, nuclear weapons were usually off-loaded to a storage facility, while a ship was in port for any length of time. Same for conventional ammunition, especially in a civilian area. If the ship is in port for a goodwill visit, then that means civilian tours, which definitely means none of this is lying around. The standard answer about nukes on a vessel was, and I quote, "I cannot confirm or deny the presence of nuclear weapons aboard this vessel." I could be standing in front of one, with day-glow nuclear hazard warnings on it and that would have been my response. There could be a mushroom cloud overhead and everyone is glowing in the dark or hulking out and that would be the response to the cockroaches who would survive. Even so, this was a pretty good story. Buscema does a serviceable job on the F-14, though his scale is off. they are a lot bigger than what he depicts. In one panel, it looks closer to an A-4, to me, except for the intake for the turbine. Also, an F-14 is a two-seater; one for the pilot, one for the RIO (Radar Intercept Officer). Goose has to sit somewhere! Oh, yeah; you don't call General Quarters for an intruder. You would sound a Security Alert and the ship's Security Alert Team (which on a carrier would be US Marines) would handle it. Too many damn movies! The portrayal of Ghost Rider is my favorite, as he is caught between Heaven and Hell, which made him more interesting, though I hated the non-chopper version of the Hellcyle. Never cared for the "Akira" version. Ghost rider was a character I thought worked well in small doses and more at the fringes of things, rather than with superheroes or the big bad supernatural characters. Then again, I don't like supernatural or magic characters, largely because there were to few (if any)rules to their powers and abilities. Still, this is when I though GR was cool; but, he became less so, as time wore on. Once the novelty wore off, I wasn't overly interested in him. Next issue, John Byrne becomes the regular penciler and Yellowjacket and the Wasp stop by to interrupt Spidey's picnic.
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Post by codystarbuck on Oct 2, 2021 17:37:22 GMT -5
Marvel Two-in-One #58Thing and the Aquarian? WTF is the Aquarian? Damn hippies! Aw, he'll sell out in a few issues and get a Brooks Brother suit and become a stock broker, blowing his money on coke and hookers. Now there's a double feature: Hair and Wall Street! Creative Team: Mark "Moondog" Gruenwald & Ralph "Chrysanthemum: Macchio-writers, "Curious" George Perez-pencils, Gene "Sunny" Day-inks, John "Calligraphy" Costanza-letters, Carl "Acid King" Gafford-trippy colors, Roger "Too" Stern-editor and general bummer, Jim Shooter-total drag, man! Synopsis: When we left him, Ben was about to get an ultrasonic lobotomy, courtesy of Klaw. However, his sonic claw goes haywire and his body breaks apart into particles again and gets sucked back into the device, all thanks to some unseen figure..... That figure turns out to be a now coherent Wundarr, with some new threads.... Groovy, baby! Wundarr was boosted by the Cosmic Cube, then went comatose to deal with the new power level, awoke, and was drawn to the Cube. his mind entered it and returned, and he was transformed, as were his clothes. he is now th Aquarian, Space Hippie! His mission is to bring peace to everyone....and tofu casseroles. Security arrives and Ben vouches for Wundarr...er, Aquarian and the haul the unconscious others to sick bay. Then, Aquie elads ben to a "disruption in the cosmic fabric", which quite literally sucks... It is Lightner, who has been transformed into a living space warp and now calls himself the Nth Man. He was contacted by the mysterious Nth Command, who want to create an energy monopoly, to infiltrate Project PEGASUS. he used them for his own aims and had them send Deathlok and Thundra in with components for his Nth Projector, which transformed him into the warp. Ben does what Ben does best and throws hunks of machinery at him, but he just sucks it into the vortex. Aquie asks to try and extends his null field across the whole complex, shutting down all power.... It causes the Nth projector to lose power and Lightner's form wanes, but, it also kills the ventilation equipment and it becomes difficult to breathe. Su, Aquie shuts down his field to save Ben and the rest. Power is restored, but so is Lightner. Quasar and Giant-man wake up in sick bay and run down to the location of the disturbance, as does Thundra. ben explains and warns them to stay back, as Lightner is sucking up everything around him. Quasar tries to zap him but it just feeds him with energy. Aquie wants to jump into the vortex and destroy him from within, as does GM, who reveals he is dying of radiation poisoning, from his fight with Atom Smasher, which the fight with Nuklo just made worse. Bill Foster, Giant-Man, leaps into the vortex... Aquie figures out that they can make a human chain and lower him into the void to retrieve Bill, while still disrupting Lightner, thanks to his null field. They do it and he finds Foster in the Ditko Dimension, going nuts and pulls him out.,.. Bad trip, man! They get him out and the doorway closes, then Quasar has some existential rambling about whether they have only destroyed a portion of the Nth Man, in their dimension and that he exists in another plane, with no Wundarr to stop him. Ben says his goodbyes and prepares to board the Pogo Plane. Aquie is going to walk the Earth and spread his message; maybe he will find a dozen or so friends to assist. Better stock on fish and loaves for the crowd. Quasar has his job to do and he drops the charges against Thundra for helping them. he then offers her a job of helping to uncover the people behind the Nth Command, who are revealed in the second epilogue.... Damn hippies; making it hard for conglomerates to control the world! Oh, right, they failed at that, too. Thoughts: Someone took the brown acid! So, all of this was an attempt by the Roxxon Corporation to disrupt PEGASUS and gain a monopoly on all energy research. As far as anti-monopolist and corporate metaphors go, it's a little obtuse. needed Gerber or Englehart's touch. Gruenwald and Macchio were a little too Center to pull off the ending; but, it was a pretty enjoyable romp, along the way. Wundarr is transformed into Space Jesus, and given a hippie name, which is supposed to be from his home star system. His new white and powder-blue costume is supposed to invoke classic images of Jesus of Nazareth in white robes and blue cloth. He doesn't have his beard yet, but soon will. Quite frankly, the character is pretty damn annoying and they aren't daring enough to do something with him, like Roy Thomas and, later, Jim Starlin did with Warlock. He just ends up being a space hippie with delusions of messianity and mostly disappears from Marvel, apart from a few appearances (Captain America Annual #7, Quasar #4 & 25). Roxxon was created by Steve Engelhart, during his Captain America run and also turned up in Avengers, trying to gain control of the Serpent Crown. The name is a parody of ExxonMobil (then just Exxon) with a satirical jab at their motivation for power (Rocks-on). They are the usual stand-in any time a marvel writer needed an evil corporation (redundant, I know...) just as the Maggia stands in for the Mafia and HYDRA now does for the Nazis, in the MCU. Notice they haven't really dragged that one out, except to use the name in passing. Wouldn't want an anti-corporate metaphor in our entertainment conglomerate film, would we? Probably not likely to see much of Englehart's legacy in the MCU, though you could do something with the Secret Empire and recent history. So ends Project PEGASUS, probably the high water mark for Marvel Two-in-One; certainly for an extended storyline. We won't see much in the way of such protracted stories, though we will get some more running subplots, as Marv Wolfman wrote, in his pieces. The Guardians of the Galaxy will make a couple of appearances, in the near future. The real ones, not those jokey phonies. You know, this bunch..... Well, not exactly. Man, I'd love to hear Stallone try to deliver Starhawk's usual dialogue! Next up, the Human Torch!
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Post by codystarbuck on Oct 2, 2021 17:40:55 GMT -5
ps had a Freudian slip there, when describing Aquarian's new costume. I type S instead of W, for "white and powder-blue."
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Post by badwolf on Oct 2, 2021 17:59:51 GMT -5
I don't like when they draw Ghost Rider with eyeballs. I guess that was done when Johnny was in control?
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Post by Rob Allen on Oct 2, 2021 20:11:01 GMT -5
"The Aquarian" is the name of an "alternative" weekly newspaper that's been published in northern NJ since 1969, and is still going today. www.theaquarian.com/. I used to pick it up regularly; a stack of Aquarians could always be found right next to the stack of Rolling Stone. A sample issue from 1978:
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Post by codystarbuck on Oct 3, 2021 10:16:31 GMT -5
"The Aquarian" is the name of an "alternative" weekly newspaper that's been published in northern NJ since 1969, and is still going today. www.theaquarian.com/. I used to pick it up regularly; a stack of Aquarians could always be found right next to the stack of Rolling Stone. A sample issue from 1978:
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Post by mikelmidnight on Oct 4, 2021 12:31:22 GMT -5
Wundarr is transformed into Space Jesus, and given a hippie name, which is supposed to be from his home star system. His new white and powder-blue costume is supposed to invoke classic images of Jesus of Nazareth in white robes and blue cloth. He doesn't have his beard yet, but soon will. Quite frankly, the character is pretty damn annoying and they aren't daring enough to do something with him, like Roy Thomas and, later, Jim Starlin did with Warlock. He just ends up being a space hippie with delusions of messianity and mostly disappears from Marvel, apart from a few appearances (Captain America Annual #7, Quasar #4 & 25).
I was down with it. The Aquarian didn't impress me particularly, but Wandarr's joke as a Superman parody had long since run its course, and his previous status as an abandoned child was just disturbing (as I guess it was meant to be, but it reflected badly on Ben). This was at least something different, and if he went on to be a forth-stringer, no loss.
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Post by codystarbuck on Oct 4, 2021 21:29:21 GMT -5
Wundarr is transformed into Space Jesus, and given a hippie name, which is supposed to be from his home star system. His new white and powder-blue costume is supposed to invoke classic images of Jesus of Nazareth in white robes and blue cloth. He doesn't have his beard yet, but soon will. Quite frankly, the character is pretty damn annoying and they aren't daring enough to do something with him, like Roy Thomas and, later, Jim Starlin did with Warlock. He just ends up being a space hippie with delusions of messianity and mostly disappears from Marvel, apart from a few appearances (Captain America Annual #7, Quasar #4 & 25).
I was down with it. The Aquarian didn't impress me particularly, but Wandarr's joke as a Superman parody had long since run its course, and his previous status as an abandoned child was just disturbing (as I guess it was meant to be, but it reflected badly on Ben). This was at least something different, and if he went on to be a forth-stringer, no loss.
I just thought it was a waste of a character that could have launched into something more. With the whole Cosmic Cube thing, I just kind of expected Wundarr to end up being a powerful figure at the end of it. Really, the null field had potential, if they had been more imaginative. Fantasy author Glen Cook had a character, who was referred to as The White Rose, in his original Black Company Trilogy (before he further expanded on that world), who negated magic and becomes a symbol of rebellion against a sorceress and her generals, who had tremendous magical powers. A byproduct of things was that she was also deaf and mute. Cook really did something with her in that, including actual military strategy to take advantage of the reach of the field.
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Post by codystarbuck on Oct 10, 2021 15:12:15 GMT -5
Marvel Team-Up #59Spidey & Yellowjacket & the Wasp! and Chris Claremont & John Byrne! Creative Team: Chris Claremont-writer, John Byrne-pencils, Dave Hunt-inks & colors, Bruce Patterson-letters, Archie Goodwin-editor Dedicated to Roy Thomas, because Claremont wanted to thank him for giving him the assignment to write Daredevil #102, 4 years before. Well, it seems out of left field, but that's nice. On a personal note, this was my first experience with Yellowjacket (I had seen the Wasp and knew Hank as Giant-Man and Goliath) and was the first MTU I recall reading, in the wild (friend's copy). I read the previous issue, back in the day, but a little later, at my cousin's house, after subsequent issues had come out. Synopsis: Spidey is crossing the East River, via the Queensborough Bridge, when he is hit by a fireball and an ice...um, thing...... Meanwhile, in a penthouse duplex, Janet Van Dyne Pym is talking to herself, and waiting for hubby Hank to notice sex on a platter, instead of science.... Damn Comics Code; that negligee should be way more sheer! Unfortunately for Jan (more than Hank) Comicus Interruptus occurs and Yellowjacket sees a blinding flash and Spidey falling and goes to rescue him. Jan can't join him because her nightie isn't made of unstable molecules. YJ pulls Spidey from the river (hope he gave him a tetanus shot). Spidey wakes up under a blanket, still in (pesumably) wet costume, with Jan bringing him hot cocoa (having switched to her "meh" yellow and red outfit). The Pyms relate what they saw, about Spidey being attacked by fire & ice and his first thought is a prank by Torch and Iceman; but, the FF aren't hoe and Iceman is in LA, with the Champions, underwhelming the West Coast (and fandom). Spidey gets an insight and relates the rather "meh" story from issue #23, with Equinox... There was no body; so, he's alive. The point is punctuated by a burst of flame coming through the Pym's living room. Equinox stands in the hole and Spidey punches an ice jaw and then gets burnt by Equies hands. Jan zaps him to no effect and Spidey gets bashed into a wall. Hank is distracted by Equie's voice changing from a young timber to old and gets decked. The penthouse is destroyed and the fight moves on and an African-American woman overhears a spectator talk about fore & ice and calls out the name "Terry" when Equie takes a fall. The heroes go on attack and Jan gets swatted (well, duh!). Equie flings a car door at Hank, who is too busy arguing with his wife instead of keeping an eye on his opponent; but, Spidey makes the save. He tries to swing the door back at Equie, but he melts it into slag. The lady runs up with the biggest raygun this side of the FF and tells "Terry" to stop it and calls him "son." Apparently, they have "issues." Spidey rescues Mama Sorenson from getting hit by a hurled car and Jan goes down in the fight and ends up out cold, at Equie's feet. Hank jumps to protect her and uses his wings to increase his momentum and knock Equie off the bridge. Icing on his wings brings him down and they slug it out like Don Frye and Yoshihiro Takayama... Yeesh! Few brain cells lost in that one! Spidey checks on Jan and the woman, Margay Sorenson, identifies Terry and explains he is her son and she may have a "cure" for him; but, Hank is thrown against a tanker truck and Equie blows it up with a fireball. He stands over the burning wreckage, with no signs of Hank and Jan vows to kill him! Thoughts: I'm not 100% certain; but, I believe this was my first exposure to John Byrne's art (other than, possibly, in passing, on a comic spinner). It's pretty spectacular, though he is aided by this being about 75% fight and 25% plot. Claremont even let him draw sexy Jan (though Byrne's faces still aren't that well developed), before having him put her in her little yellow and red leotard (I preferred the yellow & purple/blue combo, as it complimented Yellowjacket more and made them more of a team). Claremont has a little character time with Jan & Hank, then the fights begin. There is a lot of internal monologue, which is hardly knew, but Claremont doesn't know when to let the art work on its own. He's still a bit green and even the veterans had problems in that area. Wasp is played as pretty ineffective and mostly there to react to her man getting smacked around. I am curious about the history behind an African-American couple (as we confirm next issue) having a Scandinavian surname. Not essential to the plot; but, it is rather unusual. This is definitely a step up from Equinox's previous appearance.
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