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Marvel Mythology Surgery

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14:23 / 06.03.07

Misty Knight is, yes, Iron Fist's sometime girlfriend.

A pity they never got married. She'd have become Mrs Misty Fist.

A name to conjure with...

14:34 / 06.03.07

I think, before this JMS stuff, we all knew Parker was getting it regular from one or another through the past few hundred issues of his various titles, pre-marriage. But, then, I can remember walking out of the theatre after the first movie had come out, and my friend's mom being utterly put out with the ending and what she called his 'spider-impotence'. Maybe JMS presumed he had that spider-impotence all along?

00:48 / 10.03.07

Whatever happened to the U.S. Agent?

And speaking of guys who were once Cap, in the middle of CAPTAIN AMERICA #350, there was a double-page spread by Joe Sinnot (IIRC), showing the five or six guys who would go on to be Captain America (not counting Steve Rogers, or the guy from TRUTH).

One of them was Johnny Walker, the Super-Patriot. Him I know. And there was Nomad, too, but him I also know.

The others were The Patriot, some gas station attendant-looking guy named Roscoe, a nazi in what looked like a white Wolverine costume called the Grand Master (or something), and some other guy named The Spirit of '76.

Can anyone give me the skinny on those other Caps?

01:44 / 10.03.07

Whatever happened to the U.S. Agent?
He became a government assigned West Coast Avenger as USAgent after Steve Rogers took the Cap mantle back. I think he became a head officer of the Vault or something later with a Judge Dread type costume. He then became Captain America again, except with a gun and a flak vest, where he was running with the government sanctioned new Invaders. And then I guess he went back to the USAgent costume and is now in Canada.

The others were The Patriot, some gas station attendant-looking guy named Roscoe, a nazi in what looked like a white Wolverine costume called the Grand Master (or something), and some other guy named The Spirit of '76.

This is totally off memory, but I think 76 replaced Cap after he went in the ice, was killed and then Patriot took the mantle for a bit. Don't remember what happened to Patriot.

The nazi guy didn't start off as a nazi. He was a huge Cap mark, idolized him, had plastic surgery to look like him, and he found Jack Monroe and made him his Bucky. They took the super soldier formula but didn't complete the process and both went kinda nutty. Even after being "cured", Nomad was always shown with a few screws loose. Anyways I think they were brainwashed by the Red Skull.

01:46 / 10.03.07

I'm a longtime Cap fan but I can't for the life of me remember the Roscoe guy. Maybe he replaced Cap when Cap became Nomad?

11:56 / 10.03.07

Basically, yeah. That was right after Cap discovered Richard Nixon (since retconned into "a high official of the government") was in the pay of the Secret Empire.

Roscoe only lasted 3 issues.

01:15 / 11.03.07

Ok: here's one. Was the Christopher Priest penned The Crew (2003) any good, cancelled early on as it seems to have been, and did anything else ever happen with those characters?

What was the deal with the black Captain America (Isaiah Bradley) and do we / are we likely to see him again in some form? How does Patriot fit in?

It also seems like at least a year ago Priest was plotting a different death of Captain America storyline where various pretenders to the throne vie for position - I've not read anything from his run (or at all)... good, bad, indifferent?

06:19 / 11.03.07

It's pretty doubtful Isaiah Bradley will be back in any cogent capacity, even for Marvel*. It's established at the end of Kyle Baker's "The Truth" that he's pretty much a vegetable - in great health (yay Super Soldier Serum), but with the brain capacity of a child and unable to speak. It's shown again in Young Avengers, in which Patriot is revealed to be Bradley's grandson. Patriot later gets a blood transfusion from his grandpa, conveniently transferring the Captain America power set, IIRC. Could be wrong about that last bit.

If you'd like to know more about Isaiah Bradley, visit your local comics shop - honest, people should pay Kyle Baker whenever possible. For breathing.

* - I hope. Never can tell, though...

12:21 / 11.03.07

OTOH, JOSIAH Bradley (aka Josiah X/Justice), his son is still floating near continuity.

19:55 / 13.03.07

More questions from the Gruenwald CAPTAIN AMERICA era:
What ever happened to Battlestar? He was in some back-up stories in CAPTAIN AMERICA for a while, IIRC, but when I stopped reading CAP, I lost contact.

And in that vein, what happened to the Left Winger and Right Winger? I thought that they had been reanimated, after Johnny Walker blew them all to shit. But maybe I'm wrong.

I realized while reading CIVIL WAR, that I have absolutely no idea what has happened in the Marvel Universe since, like, 1994. I read TRUTH, and I read the "Ice" story arch in CAP a few years back, and I dabbled in and then disregarded the Bruce Jones issues of HULK, but beyond that, I'm in the dark.

21:36 / 13.03.07

Battlestar: Joined Silver Sable's Wild Pack. Stayed there for a time, ended up back in the US for Civil War (he's anti-reg).

The Wingers: Killed themselves after being horribly burned in an explosion.

23:46 / 13.03.07

I'm kind of surprised that nobody has tried to tie Battlestar's lineage into Isaiah Bradley's. It seems like one of those quirky, happens-all-the-time-in-comics coincidences.

Here's a question: Has Battlestar shaved his head? I noticed the other day when I was playing with my son's action figures (with him), that all of the African-America superheroes have bald heads. Then I saw a DC house ad for the Black Lightning action figure, and he has a shaved head, too. Even my kid's Mace Windu action figure follows suit. Are there any black, male superheroes who don't have bald heads?

...and is this at all relevant in this thread?

00:10 / 14.03.07

The Falcon doesn't. But he does sport the other accoutrement of all black superheroes, namely a goatee.

I'm really not keen on making any more family ties between said, though, given Chris Claremont has already placed Australian aboriginal Gateway in African-American Bishop's ancestry, and generally made every black mutant ever related, I'm sure there was something with Storm too, and honestly don't get me started on the marriage to Black Panther there - if you can look at (possibly my favourite link in the history of intertubes) the Marvel atlas you'll see Kenya and Wakanda are not in any way near one another, but of course the only two genuinely African soopereroes have to marry because of their childhood, thousands o' miles, border-crossing love apparently.

10:23 / 14.03.07

Mr. Terrific doesn't have a shaved head or a goatee. Since this is a Marvel thread I'll mention that Brother Voodoo does not have a goatee or shaved head, unless they revamped him and I missed it.

11:00 / 14.03.07

Actually, there was an old story where T'challa and Ororo had a fling when they were younger. There was some justification.

A beautiful tunnel of ghosts

12:24 / 14.03.07

But what happened to T'Challa and Monica Lynne's relationship, which had been ongoing since the 1960s?

16:51 / 14.03.07

Reginald Hudlin.

She was last seen during T'Challa's "quest for a queen". Of course, the story made it sound like they'd just met, but if I think about it too long I start frothing at the mouth.

18:57 / 14.03.07

Brother Voodoo was bald in 'The Supernaturals', which was one of those mid-nineties things where Marvel farmed out characters to somebody else. Pullido, I think.

Personally, I think Monica Rambeau should be bald. As part of a mid-year all-series universal cross-over where the racial politics of all black men in comics suddenly having uncontrollably growing hair in the likeness of Wolverine.

rabideyemovement

23:21 / 14.03.07

Brother Voodoo has the classic salt-n-pepper hair again.
Also, Blade grew his out again. And GW Bridge still has the grey. And Bishop has hair again as well.

01:11 / 15.03.07

T'Challa also has hair (but lost the beard). Apparently, Cage is doomed to be untrendy.

03:26 / 16.03.07

fuck that. i want ironic fros. and i want EVERY black superhero ever to say "Sweet Christmas" before every ninth sentence.

02:24 / 05.04.07

OK, because I simply can't get enough dodgy Asian stereotypes in comics, I need to know... was the Hand that The Mandarin joined the same one that Daredevil fought?

I'm actually totally unfamiliar with The Mandarin because I was never much for Iron Man. I've only learned he's existed because he's just been cast in the Iron Man movie. And the actor playing him isn't Chinese.

rabideyemovement

07:14 / 05.04.07

Yes, it's the very same Hand. I believe Mandarin may have somehow been the founder. I can't recall.

09:33 / 05.04.07

That depends. Practically every Asian villain (and, at one point, the Kingpin) has led them at one time or another, but there was a different group (10 members, 1 per ring) the Mandarin used.

Which do you mean?

09:33 / 05.04.07

In a world where Charles Bronson can play Native and Dustin Hoffman can be suggested for Fu Manchu? I almost expect The Mandarin to have given birth - by himself - to the entire Hand Clan. Including Wolverine, Elektra, and there was a flying girl in a blue suit...a New Warrior... who might've been just asian enough to be... actually The Mandarin. Who cares of the nationality or actual racial lines work out.

They're not serious using - Oh, my stars and garters, they actually are using The Mandarin in the 'Iron Man' movie! If he speaketh the broken english with a lithp...

But Iron Man in general, if you're going with the classic villains and set-up, is so racist xenophobe march of corporate industrial progress, no matter what. Who's he gonna fight if not the horrible asian stereotype in the big headgear and the rings? The Russian Ironsuited Guy? Radioactive Man?

Y'know, having just seen Ellis' 'Iron Man' stint collected and shelved in the childrens' section at an airport in New Mexico, I'd have to say I think 'Extremis' is actually about as close to the spirit, the impetus of Iron Man, as it's comfortable for everybody to get behind. Almost everybody. I mean, somebody had to not like the whole useful drug use thing. But the 'What are you going to be doing in six years' bit would be great, as would the action/violence, and it's got a technologist cry of love and energy vibe going for it.

Now, for something wholly off that subject, but I'm wondering so I'm gonna ask... was 'Nth Man' the first color Marvel series to feature a bared... adult.... human... behind? (I'm raising the bar, yessir.)

16:07 / 05.04.07

Yes, they're actually using The Mandarin. And given that the origin story has been relocated to Afghanistan, I'm somewhat anxious about them using The Hand as an Al Qaeda surrogate. Not the kind with the rings on, but the kind with the martial artists Wikipedia told me he led.

(Tangentially related, I've heard good things about the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, so if The Foot is putting audiences in seats, can The Hand be far behind?)

16:09 / 05.04.07

Unless you mean there was an "inner circle" of 10 people, 1 responsible for each ring....

Essential Dazzler

18:57 / 14.04.07

Been reading the Spider-Man loves Mary Jane Harcover today (It's so awesome, it's sky blue with pink embossing(?) under the dust-cover)

On page 17 of Issue one of the series Proper, Spider-Man punches out a guy in a Green striped costume with Monkey ears and a Gray circle on the forehead.

Who the hell is that guy?

Wait, was that the worst question ever?

Phex: Dorset Doom

19:34 / 14.04.07

threadrotting tangent/

I'd have to say I think 'Extremis' is actually about as close to the spirit, the impetus of Iron Man, as it's comfortable for everybody to get behind

Is anybody reading Iron Man: Hypervelocity? I'm not an Iron-fan from back in the day (because the day was a decade or so before I was born), and I've only just started picking up the Iron Man: Director of S.H.I.E.L.D series, but Hypervelocity feels like it should be as close as you can get to the essence of the character: one-handed descriptions of military hardware both real and imagined (from AC-58 'Superspooky' anti-superhuman gunships to Life-model Decoy suicide-squads to sexual-impulse subliminating wardrugs), sexy sentient computer virii, a rave for robot-fetishists and posthumans on a sunken WW2 ship which Tony attends wearing pieces of Johnny Storm's tricked-out Honda, Ministry's 'Jesus Built my Hotrod' on the soundtrack (and that's all in the one issue I happen to have to hand). It's a thousand times more awesome than the books where Tony has to have boring responsibilities.

Essential Dazzler

20:48 / 14.04.07

That's the one Adam "Livewires" Warren is writing isn't it?

I knew that series was going to rock, but money forced me to Trade-wait.

21:30 / 14.04.07

I'm enjoying Hypervelocity despite it's Marvel links, not because of them. I had a similar reaction to Livewires, actually.

16:50 / 22.04.07

At the end of the Mark Millar WOLVERINE run, Elektra had turned back to good again but had taken over the Hand, presumably to use it for her own purposes. At the end of Bendis' DD run, she was shown to be still mostly/kinda good/neutral, even as the new head of the Hand.

What made her turn EEEVIL (as she is shown in current issues of Bendis' New Avengers, trying to brainwash Maya/Echo/Ronin to become part of the eeevil Hand)? Did I miss something in Marvel continuity recently? or am I mis-remembering something here?

17:45 / 22.04.07

Looks like the Hand is corrupting her. Again.

21:23 / 22.04.07

Well, possibly. Elektra's, and by extension the Hand's, agenda remains opaque at this juncture. So my magic 8-ball says, anyhow.

No, but really.

19:43 / 23.04.07

Haven't there been a few problems with female characters showing odd new motivations/set-ups in 'New Avengers', though? Blondie Black Widow back in the day, and, well, the whole Ronin padded-suit thing?

Maybe the Mandrill's behind everything?

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