Marvel Universe – 7/8/12

Ultimate Spider-Man – “Strange”
During school, Peter Parker falls asleep and has a dream that he has 8 limbs.  Iron Fist comes in and punches him through a wall.  Peter Parker wakes up to find that Danny Rand was in his mind, dream-walking, and woke them up.  They find that all of their classmates are asleep.  Spider-man and Iron Fist leave school to find the entire city is asleep.  Iron Fist explains that this have to be the work of some supernatural force.  Spider-man doubts the existence of magic, but Iron Fist leads him to the house of Doctor Strange.  Doctor Strange shows them Nightmare, the king of dreams.  Strange says that Nightmare has been trying to escape the dimension of dreams.  Spider-man is still skeptical of the supernatural.  Doctor Strange takes Spider-man and Iron Fist to the realm of dreams to fight Nightmare.  In the dream realm, Spider-man gets a peak at what the other members of the team are dreaming.  Spider-man agrees that there might be something to this magic thing.  Nightmare confronts them.  Nightmare sends his dreamons after the trio.  Everything Doctor Strange tries against Nightmare is failing.  Spider-man and Iron Fist get separated from Strange.  In Iron Fists nightmare, they encounter Shao Lao, and Iron Fist loses his mystical power.  Iron Fist doubts his abilities and if he deserves the power or not.  Spider-man gets knocked out of Iron Fist’s dream, and back to Doctor Strange.  Nightmare plays on Doctor Strange’s fear, and Strange has no mystical power.  Nightmare reminds Spider-man of Uncle Ben.  This backfires, because Spider-man is afraid of his failure with Uncle Ben, but rather is inspired by it.  Spider-man overcoming his Nightmare weakened Nightmare, and allowed Doctor Strange to break Nightmare’s hold on everyone.  Iron Fist overcomes his nightmare and rejoins them.  Doctor Strange is able to imprison Nightmare.  Spider-man and Iron Fist rush back to school. 

Marvel Universe – 5/13/12

After a brief break due to technical difficulties, we are back with this week’s edition of Marvel Universe.  Today’s episode of Ultimate Spider-man is titled “Back in Black.”  Spider-man has to deal with an imposter in a black Spider-man costume, while dealing with a cold.  Today’s episode of The Avengers is titled “Who Do You Trust.”  Nick Fury returns to fill Tony Stark in on the Skrull threat.  Today’s short segments include a look at creating Iron Man’s suit, Fury Files featuring the Skrulls, Joe Quesada draws the Hulk, and more Marvel Mash-ups.

Ultimate Spider-man – “Back in Black”
Peter Parker has the flu.  A robotic gargoyle type thing attacks the city.  Someone dressed up in the black Spider-man costume quickly takes care of it, while Peter watches on tv.  Suddenly, everyone loves this dressed in black Spider-man.  Spider-man meets with Fury and the team to discuss this new guy.  Spider-man tells everyone that this is Venom, but no one believes him, thinking he’s just jealous.  Spider-man goes off to find this new guy, still really sick.  Another robotic gargoyle type thing attacks the city, and again the Spider-man in black stops him.  As he’s posing for a kid, Spider-man confronts him.  But the new guy just mocks him and leaves.  Norman Osborn meets with Octavious about this new Spider-man.  At school, Harry Osborn tells Peter that he’s the guy in black, and is using the symbiote,  He keeps it in a watch type thing.  Peter is in disbelief.  He questions why Harry is using this thing that destroyed his house.  Peter tries to convince Harry that he shouldn’t be using this thing, but a flash of anger shows up in Harry as he leaves.  Harry tries to tell his father, but Norman isn’t interested in what Harry has to say.  Spider-man doesn’t tell Fury that he knows who the new Spider-man is.  Spider-man runs into one of the robots that have been rampaging, when Harry takes it down.  Harry is angry and lashes out at the crowd.  Harry fights Spider-man.  The Venom personality starts to come out.  Venom and Spider-man burst into Oscorp, but Spider-man kicks Venom out before anything can be revealed.  Eventually, Spider-man is able to defeat Venom by electrocuting him.  Spider-man catches Harry as he falls.  Harry thanks Spider-man for saving him.  Octavious discovered that Harry was Venom, but doesn’t tell Norman.  Spider-man still doesn’t tell Fury that Harry was Venom.  Harry is sleeping when part of the symbiote crawls out of his ear.  Spider-man meets with the rest of the team, only to find that he’s gotten the rest of them sick.

Just so you know

Good lord, I am sick of Skrulls.

Wait until the story’s done, killer.

SECRET INVASION #2 SPOILERS AHOY. You have been warned.

Secret Invasion’s excitement is starting to fizzle on me. As the side Avengers books go on about Nick Fury’s new team, and the backstory of the Skrull invasion force, the main story itself seems to be tossing as many possible characters into the mix as humanly possible to confuse readers and characters alike as to who may actually be a Skrull. This comes as a misfire to me, as the paranoia should be represented amongst the heroes themselves, not by putting them face-to-face with doppelgangers to force the issue. But beyond that, it also gives the opportunity for fans to see some of the deceased characters back – and give them the hope that maybe, just maybe, the likes of Phoenix and Captain America will be back amongst the living.

So when Mockingbird made a convincing argument as to her authenticity, fans got really excited, while comic cynics (i.e. – bloggers like me) bitched that the thing didn’t fit in with the continuity of the character. I have two issues with this argument. First, this happened in issue #2 of an 8 issue mini-series. Why are they going on like this is set in stone? Let the story play out, then feel free to bitch about the ramifications. If this Mockingbird is the real deal and she makes it out of the story, then she’s fair game. Until then, rein it in and try to enjoy the story.

Second, Mockingbird died in Avengers West Coast #100, which came out in 1993 (by cover date). There is no way that any of this could have been planned back then, so why is it so hard to swallow that things would have to be adjusted to fit? Of course Mockingbird didn’t revert to a Skrull when she died. Secret Invasion was still over a decade away from being planned! No one complained about sticking the Illuminati back into Marvel continuity, so this hubub needs to quiet down…bub.

But really, there will be complainers about any story, so this is not surprising. I’ll pass judgment if I feel the need when it wraps up. Hits and misses, if you will. However, I realize that I’m no one special – I just write them out because anyone who may be reading this obviously is somewhat interested in what I have to say about it. Marvel will keep doing what they do despite what I think, and unlike some people I’ve noticed, I’m cool with that.

Going down the Skrull memory lane

After all the build-up and the hype, Secret Invasion finally kicks off next week and the Marvel scene is ablaze with Skrull fever. The Skrulls, to me, have always been a “Let’s invade and take over!” group to soundly be defeated by the heroes and be on their ways. Of course, I just recently (within the past five or so years) began reading Fantastic Four and Avengers, so I still have a ways through my Essential volume trudging before I get to some of the more classic Skrull stories. The 60s versions didn’t exactly have me cowering in fear.

But I’m an X-Men fan, and one of the (mainly forgotten) stories that I hold near and dear to my heart – the story that was taking place when I first became a fan – is my favorite Skrull story to date, and it’s really what I think about when I think Skrulls. The story was an effort by Chris Claremont and Jim Lee running briefly in Uncanny X-Men #273 and 274, before taking up all of 275 through 278.

The setup was classic Claremont. Back in the 160s of Uncanny, Deathbird has usurped the throne of the Shi’ar with the help of the Brood. In issue #200, Professor X had been taken aboard the Starjammer to heal his body, and was unable to return to Earth. Nothing had been done with either character since. With the to-be launched X-Men #1 approaching, I guess it was decided that Professor X needed to be back on Earth, so this quickly wrapped up both storylines in a somewhat unfulfilling manner, in the scope of the big picture. Lila Cheney teleports the X-Men to Deathbird for no real reason, they break free of her trap, beat her and the Imperial Guard up, and Lilandra’s got her throne back. It took less than half an issue. But ignore that and follow the story afterwards.

At the party celebrating the victory, Psylocke gets attacked from her chambers and dragged off. Jubilee and Gambit stumble upon Professor X ordering Gladiator to rip Deathbird’s wings off. When they attack, Jubilee gets caught and Gambit escapes. As the X-Men investigate, Wolverine cuts down Professor X, and is attacked by Psylocke and also taken prisoner. Now with just Storm, Banshee and Forge (with Gambit working in the shadows) the X-Men have to decide whether they can trust Deathbird and go against Lilandra, who has apparently been doing horrors to Shi’ar worlds under the control of Professor X, who may not be dead after all.

Turns out, Xavier (as well as the Starjammers) have been captured by War Skrulls, who have created a nexus that allows them to duplicate powers. The Psylocke that struck down Wolverine was a Skrull, as was the Professor X that was killed (who in turn was replaced by another Skrull). As Wolverine and Jubilee are copied, the remaining X-Men prepare to fight against their own (of course – it’s a Claremont story) and the ending works out, everyone’s happy and Professor X returns to Earth to wrap up the longtime Shadow King build up.

There were a lot of things I loved about this story. For one, it was the first story with an actual X-Men team since the Australian based group disbanded back in the 250s, and it was such a mish-mosh of characters (Storm, Wolverine, Banshee, Forge, Psylocke, Gambit, Jubilee), it was an interesting set of interactions between them – though they for some reason had chosen to wear matching uniforms for the first time since the late 60s.

But mainly it was just how bad-ass the Skrulls were. I had no clue what was going on until the big reveal at the end of 276, and by that point (long before, actually) I was intrigued. This group seemed like a viable threat that could in fact conquer a galaxy-spanning empire and do horrors in somebody else’s name. Of course, the good guys would win – the good guys always win. But this one is a story I can repeatedly go back and read, happily, whenever I want a decent story.

And also 275 had what is still on my favorite covers list:

So while this may not be a story that goes down in many memory books, if Secret Invasion pulls off Skrulls like this one did (and as of right now, it’s already made them a loooot cooler), I’ll be happy. I just wish they’d drop the “I’ve been discovered, I have to attack like a savage! Grrrraaaarrrrrgggghhhhh!!!!!” bit.

Yeah, fat chance.