Here Comes the "Limited Commercial Interruption" - Discussion Topic #2

This will be my last post until next Saturday. I'm enrolled in a Field Ecology class, and the entirety of the class is spending my Spring Break in caves, collecting data. Oh well, it's better than not having enough credit hours to receive an assistantship, and having to pay my own tuition. It is lousy for two reasons though: One, I miss the season finale of The Shield. Two, after consecutive lackluster weeks of comics, I've got at least five titles coming in this week, including X-Factor and Exiles, which are pretty much guaranteed good stuff. So expect my impressions of those on the 25th.

Still, I wanted to leave you with a "project" for the week, so you'll keep visiting until I return. What I'd like is the seven member - or less - roster you would design of any team. It can be a currently operating team, like the Avengers (I know, they're the Not Avengers, just humor me) or JSA. You could be reviving the Defenders or Suicide Squad. You could make an entirely new team (in that case, let us know what kind of a "niche" the team will fill). You can use any member of the team, EVER, from any point in their history, just let us know which version of, for example, Cyclops from the original X-Men, or Grant Morrison "cheats on Jean" Cyclops. Or JLA: Year One Hal Jordan or current Hal Jordan. If you want to designate a creative team as well, go for it. Do this for as many teams as you want, go crazy, organize the entire DC or Marvel Universe.

I'll start, with an X-Men team. This is designed to deal with most problems X-problems. I think they have enough power to deal with the Hellfire Club in battle, or to go espionage-style and gather incriminating evidence on them. After I finished, I realized I had enough people that I wanted on the team, but had no room for, to create two teams of 6 members, each with a more specific purpose. So first, the single team idea:

Wolverine (around Uncanny #220; brown outfit, sometimes leader, protective of teammates)
Rouge (from X-Men in the '90s, before she could use any power she'd ever absorbed)
Nightcrawler (swashbuckling '70s and '80s Kurt Wagner)
Iceman (the Guy Gardner-esque one from Joe Casey and Chuck Austen's stints on Uncanny)
Psylocke (the '90s telepathic ninja one)
Dazzler (I think the '90s version, that was fighting Mojo with Longshot)
Colossus (definitely '70s or '80s Piotr Rasputin. Not "depressed his little snowflake died" Piotr)

Also under consideration: Shadowcat (from Excalibur: smart, self-confident, respected), Longshot (more naive '80s version), Stacy X (hey, it's MY team, I can put her on there if I want), Storm (during her time as sole leader, with or without powers, preferably with), Chamber (from Casey's Uncanny).

As for the "dual teams" rosters, we've got: Storm, Rouge, Iceman, Dazzler, Colossus, Chamber (handles more obvious, public threats, like Sentinels, Brotherhood of Evil), and Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Shadowcat, Psylocke, Longshot, Stacy X (for getting at the people that are pulling the strings on the big obvious threats the other team is smashing).

Well, I've exhausted my creativity for the day. I'm off to sit in front of the couch until the Full Metal Alchemist finale comes on. I relinquish the keys to the blog to you kind readers. No wild parties, or at least keep the Hal Jordan-look alike strippers out of my fully stocked bar!

In either scenario, there is one -count it, ONE! - X-book. With two teams especially, you can have enough going on to do at least some six-story arcs, without the need for decompression. Oh yeah, in case you hadn't guessed, House of M never happened, which is how Stacy and Chamber still have their powers (damn Quesada).

Things I Think About #23

I was reading an issue of Wizard, and they were talking with someone from DC about all the lead-ins to Infinite Crisis. Included in this was the fact that the Legion of Superheroes reboot was the result of Superboy-Prime punching the walls of reali. . . I can't even finish that sentence. That has to be the dumbest explanation for anything I've ever read in comic books. Still, it raised this question:

How long has Alex Luthor been manipulating Hal Jordan?

We know that the Red-Headed Step-Luthor used Psycho-Pirate to trick Jean Loring into being Ecpliso's host, so Eclipso could convince the Spectre to destroy all "ordered" magic. Good Lord that's convoluted, and I'm still not sure I buy the Spectre as a big ol' horndog. But how long has Alex been at this?

Did he have something to do with Hal and the Spectre parting ways? Was he the one who directed the Sun-Eater to Earth's sun, forcing Hal to sacrifice his life to reignite it? Did he somehow engineer the destruction of Coast City, which left Hal in a more vulnerable position for Parallax (I never did understand why Superman-Cyborg decided to destroy Coast City instead of Metropolis, Gotham, New York, Central or Keystone City, Washington D.C.)? Was Alex in secret communications with the Big Yellow Locust of Fear, while it was still trapped in the Central Power Battery? And could a being that's been around for billions of years be fooled by Luthor? I suppose so, since he is evidently the most clever and powerful being in existence. Still, where does the meddling end?!

To all this, I can only conclude by saying, "Ugh". And Field Botany is going to kick my ass for the next eight weeks. Ugh squared.

Things I Think About #22

Why should Robin be more like Batman?

I've pretty much accepted that kalinara is right, and DC is trying to make Tim Drake like Batman, thus suggesting Tim's the one that would take over for Bruce Wayne, on the slim chance that someday DC is actually willing to do that. But why would they go that way?

I know Tim is trying his hardest to do what's necessary to be the good partner for Batman, but I thought the whole reason he tried to become Robin in the first place was because he was worried Batman was going off the deep end, and required someone less dark to keep him balanced. If Tim is becoming just like Batman, then HOW IN THE HELL IS HE GOING TO KEEP HIM BALANCED?!

Is he betting that if there's a teenager present Batman will restrain himself? Is he trying reverse psychology, becoming dark to force Bruce to look at who he is, and make appropriate changes when he sees the deep emotional scarring he's inflicting on Tim?

I think I liked it better when Tim was pissed at Batman for giving his secret identity away to Spoiler. He stayed away from him, made his own decisions, did things his own way. Oh well, that train has left the station.

Reflections #4 - The Punisher #31

Quick one today. At the start of the issue, Frank Castle asks "What's the only thing more dangerous than a barracuda?" The page shows a shark, so I suppose we could assume that's the answer. But this is The Punisher, so it may be Frank Castle. But honestly it's a silly question, there are plenty of things more dangerous than barracudas.

Orcas
Penguins (they will steal your soul! Just like Earth-2 Lois Lane)
Jehovah's Witnesses (Again with the soul stealing)
Tom Cruise

Sorry that last one is from my "What's more annoying than a crying baby?" list.

What else is more dangerous than a barracuda?

Image blatantly stolen from Chris' Invincible Super Blog.

The Future of Cassandra Cain

Now that it's been a week since the release of the final issue of Batgirl I figure it's safe to discuss openly, without spoiler warnings. But mainly I want to talk about what's next for her.

It seems pretty obvious she isn't Batgirl anymore. Even if I didn't have the impression she renounced the title, killing somone doesn't seem to be acceptable behavior to Batman. So I kind of doubt he'd take her back, even if she were inclined to ask. So what then? Is she doomed to just fade into the background of the DC Universe, someone ultimately remembered only by the fans? Well, let's ignore that distasteful possibility and try to figure out some others.

I think the destruction of Bludhaven, for no real reason other than Deathstroke was pissed off that Nightwing showed him up, is the true catalyst for Cassandra's changed outlook. She seems to recognize that it's kind of dumb to let these lunatics like Luthor, the Joker, and Slade Wilson run around killing whomever they please, with the only punishment being they get locked up, usually for a limited period of time. I think Cassandra has concluded some people can't change, and the only way to deal with them, is elimination. It doesn't mean she's necessarily happy about it. I don't believe she took any pleasure from killing her mother, and accepting her "legacy", so to speak, but she understands it may be an acceptable response. This isn't to say she becomes the Punisher, just killing all the time. But I think Cassandra could realize when she's dealing with someone who can't be reasoned with, that won't care about jail time, and in those scenarios, she would be prepared to take that final step.

That being said, she shouldn't go the Deadshot route. She shouldn't become a killer-for-hire. I aslo doubt she's going to be joining the Birds of Prey at this point, although Barbara could try to bring into the group, to try and "rehabilitate" Cassandra.

I could see her just being a wandering vigilante, traveling the world, dealing with problems as she comes across them. This wouldn't have to involve killing, or even violence. I think her ability to communicate should continue to improve, and her ability to read people's emotions would prove valuable in trying to settle some disputes through negotiations. She could cut through any posturing bullcrap.

Two other ideas that came to me today:

Cass joins the Outsiders. Supposedly, they're going to deal with the problems the other teams don't want to handle, because it would require getting too dirty. I think at this point, "getting dirty" isn't something Cassandra would have a huge problem with, and the Outsiders could do a lot worse.

Cassandra is the "surprise!" member of the Secret Six, maybe under the name Kasumi (the one she used in Justice League Elite). Think about it. The way Luthor formed the team, it was designed to have enemies that were familiar with pretty much every heroes rouge's gallery, and who hopefully had some sort of rep with them. I'd say "the girl who killed Lady Shiva" would have a rep with some people. Maybe not all the Bat-villains, they're too crazy (or dumb), but there would be some healthy respect/fear for her. Plus, it would make it a little harder for the Bat-family to try to catch the Six, with one of their friends on the squad.

I got to say, I like that idea the best of all. What are your thoughts/predictions?

Things I Think About #16

I found out from Len a couple of weeks ago, that Avi Arad, the head honcho at Marvel has three favorite characters. They are:

Cable
Namor
Thor

Now Cable's got an ongoing book, and had another one before this. Namor's been in a bunch of different titles and if they ever get around to that book they were going to do about that "Secret Scoiety" we saw in New Avengers, he'll be playing a role there as well.

But what about Thor? Sure, Thor:Blood Oath wasn't bad, but it's off in its own little continuity. So what I'm waiting for is when Arad walks into the Marvel offices and asks "Where is Thor? Why isn't he in any of these books?" Then I'd love for someone to turn to Quesada and say "Joe, you want to field that one?"

So, let's make some guesses? How long until Thor is back in the mainstream Marvel Universe?

I'll say that it happens in the aftermath of Annihilation and Civil War. So that'll be what, end of the year, early 2007, something like that? Ladies and gentlemen, place your guesses.

Things I Think About #14

Wasn't it wonderful to find out that the reason Dr. Light was such a loser is because he was mindwiped for raping Sue Dibny? As grateful as I'm sure we all are to Mr. Meltzer, I'm not sure I can wait 20 years for him to tell us the real reason behind Max Lord's mind controlling of Superman. So I'm asking you to tell me. Obviously by then, rape will be passe, and the writers will have moved on to a new cliche, but what?

Here's my theory:

Sometime shortly after Big S' return from the grave, Max Lord approached him with a favor. See, he had a cousin with terrible eyesight, who lacked the funds for corrective laser surgery. Now Max was too cheap to give him the money, but he figured Superman would be willing to use his heat vision to do the job for free.

Except Superman said "No".

Oh sure he had his reasons: "It's too dangerous. My heat vision doesn't work that way. It won't be covered by his HMO. Jeez, I just came back from the dead, give me some time to settle in." But it all boiled down to the same thing; Sorry Max, I've got better stuff to do.

And it was then, that Max Lord began to devise his revenge. . .

So, what are your thoughts?

Things I Think About #12

When did Terra come back? Or is it a different person? I remember she was in that "Titans of Tomorrow" story, but I just figured it was a different person. But then there she was again, in Infinite Crisis #4, right alongside Kalinara's favorite Sand, sticking it to Whiny-Brat Superboy, I mean Superboy-Prime. If it is the same Terra that teamed with Deathstroke, why bring her back? To me, she had one of those deaths that made sense.

It just occurred to me this morning, Tim Drake is now officially an orphan. His stepmother was in a mental health facility/clinic in Bludhaven. And we all just watched Bludhaven go *POOF*, in a cloud of green smoke (ew). So, she's dead. Man, they really are trying to turn Tim into Batman. Crap. Well, under no circumstances should Tim live with Bats, not unless Batman gets a massive personality adjustment. Back when he was escaping from giant typewriters, and making goofy comments, he was at least somewhat ok to be a parent-type. If that happened now? Well it would be a miracle if Dick Grayson didn't turn into the Punisher. Hey, I think I just figured out where Miller's going with his All-Star Batman and Robin. Which is fine. Anything that keeps him away from characters and books I care about is ok.

Besides, I don't think Selina would want Tim around the mansion much.

Major question for the day, connected to the Terra question: What character's death - that has been undone - do you feel shouldn't have been undone and why? In other words, why did the death 'work'? Can be a hero, villain, normal person. Could be a nice/heroic death, depressing, traitorous, whatever.

For me, Colossus. Now I like the big Russian. I mean, he's not one of my favorite characters, but I like him alright. But his death seemed appropriate. Here he was, with a chance to end the Legacy Virus forever. An opportunity to destroy the thing that had killed his little sister, the only family he had left I think, and had done the same to who knows how many others. And all he had to do was give his own life. He didn't have to fight, and at heart, I don't think of Colossus as a fighter. Sure, if punches need to be thrown, he'll do it, but he's a farmer and an artist. And this death just required him to inject the vaccine, and activate his power. That's it, and he ensures no one loses their little sister again. And I'll be honest: I think Peter had been on kind of a downward spiral since her death, maybe since before that, since he had to kill Proteus. Sure, he wasn't hanging with Magneto anymore, which he had done after her funeral, but you wonder if someone ever recovers from that entirely. When you've saved the world - several times - it can't be easy, accepting that you can't save people most important to you. So he might have been looking for a way to leave.

There was an issue of Wolverine, #176, where Logan was right on the border of life and death and he runs into a bunch of old enemies. Colossus shows up to give him a hand, and tells Logan to tell the others 'I'm with my little snowflake. I am happy.' It was a little sad, but I thought it made sense. Obviously, Joss Whedon disagreed.

Then again, Whedon never did know when to leave a character dead.

So, who is it for you?

Things I Think About #11

Why is Watchmen regarded as such a great piece of work? I'm not criticizing it, as I've never read it, just curious.

Is Grant Morrison's Seven Soldiers in continuity with the rest of DC, or is it like All-Star Superman, off in it's own little world?

What was the reason for leaving Earth-2 Lois and Superman, Superboy, and Alex Luthor alive in a pocket dimension? Was there some reason why they had to survive the Crisis outside of the universe?

That being said, I believe one of them is going to die in each of the remaining issues of Infinite Crisis. We lost Superboy in #4, I think Lois will die on the 2nd page of #5, because it turns out that getting back to Earth-2 doesn't help when you're like 900 years old. This leads to Old-Superman going after current Superman in a grief-stricken rage, before realizing he's been used by Luthor. He'll die in #6 against Alex, before Alex gets taken out in #7, by Donna Troy and Jade. Naturally they will perish in the process. The grief of losing two more girlfriends causes Kyle Rayner to lose it and don the mask to become Ion, the Avenging Green Lantern!

And why the hell would Peter Parker let Tony Stark design his new costume? Why not Reed Richards? Tony Stark builds armor for people who lack powers. Reed Richards builds uniforms for people with powers, so the uniforms work with the powers, such as being able to stretch, or resist high temperatures, etc.

Or Peter could just, you know, keep the same costume he has now.

Things I Think About #8

What is Speedy's blue arrow? You know the one I'm talking about. When she first joined the Titans, Cyborg gave her Arsenal's old quiver, which had a blue arrow that said "use in emergency only". Since then, pretty much every battle she's gotten ready to use it, then something stops her.

Fighting Dr. Light? Cyborg steps in.
Fighting Superboy? He's throws a wall at her.
Fighting Demons? A bunch of dead Titans show up.

Clearly we'll never see what it is. After "One Year Later" the Titans will just talk a lot about "that time Speedy saved the day with the blue arrow". That's probably because she's looking like she might be dead based on recent issues of Green Arrow (better her than Batgirl, Calvin said, like DC takes it as an either/or situation).

My intuition is it's a confetti arrow. You know, for weddings and birthdays and stuff. Fighting villains is no big deal for the Teen Titans, but confetti for someone's happy day? That's a serious business.

So what about you? What do you think it is?

Things I Think About #7

Here's a hypothetical for you. Say Didio or Quesada comes up to you. They tell you either they're going to start a new team book, or change the lineup on an existing one. You get to choose the seven character roster, no limits, any hero, villain, alive or dead, although if they're dead, story arcs will have to be devoted to the resurrection. Whoever you pick, the writer and artist will depict them properly.

Here's the question: Would you take this as an opportunity to put seven of your favorite characters in the same book together, or would you include some you don't like as much, maybe even despise (Cyclops), because you feel they would best fill an important role on your team?

Friday Comic Discussion

Yeah, I know I should be working on my "Best of" posts, I swear I'll have another tomorrow. Just got a lot of comics to go through. But, I spent about three fun hours today, talking comics and the like, I wanted to share some of the ideas/questions with you. Plus, I need to do something relaxing, Ninja Gaiden is kicking my butt. Stupid infrequent save points.

In the Inferno storyline, Limbo starts bleeding into the Earth plane. Demons walk the Earth. Where was Doctor Strange?

Nate Summers (Cable) was going to be a sacrifice to permanently merge Limbo and Earth. This seems to give him some sort of mystical connection, why has that never been explored in all the hundreds of books dealing with Cable?

Why do all the X-Men (except Shadowcat) just seem to accept Emma Frost as co-leader of the Institute?

Why would Scott Summers start cheating on Jean with Emma, other than because God of All Comics, Grant Morrison, decided he should? Hell, I don't even like Cyclops, but I respect him enough to know that infidelity isn't his style, other than that time with Psylocke, which was purely physical, and they never actually did anything.

Did Joe Casey leave Uncanny X-Men because he couldn't handle being second fiddle to Morrison's X-Men?

Was the Spider-Man versus Firelord story (Amazing Spider-Man 269-270) a good story or not?

Would it be a good idea to make all of Marvel's 'Malice' characters the same? So instead of Sue Richards developing an alternate personality called Malice from the manipulations of Psycho-Man, it was the result of the same Malice that possessed Polaris.

Was Doctor Strangefate of the Amalgam Universe the most powerful hero of all time?

Why is Wolverine, a character with 12-inch blades that cut anything jutting from his hands, a hero? Shouldn't he be a villain?

Could Doctor Strange beat Zatanna (Clearly this was a Doctor Strange kind of day)?

How funny would it be if Dr. Fate's helmet landed on the kid that picked up the Blue Beetle scarab?

Exactly what kind of lighting is necessary for Tim Sale's art to look good (Prompted by complaints about a Batman figure meant to mimic Sale's art in Batman: The Long Halloween)?

Why hasn't Cable at least offered Wolverine a job in his group, as his personal assassin?

When is Thor coming back?

Why can't Iron Fist join Luke Cage on the New Avengers?

How does the yellow sun reacting with his Kryptonian physiology give Superman four different kinds of super-vision?

At what point did the German word 'uber', which frequently means 'about' (though it can also mean 'above' or 'over') become American slang for, well whatever the hell it means in slang?

Is the word "forte" supposed to be pronounced with the 'e' or not? Hey, we're a highly educational bunch here at Marvels and Legends.

If you have answers to any of these, or just general feedback, well you know how to comment. I'd appreciate any insight you can bring.
The Master of the Mystic Arts thanks you!

How to Get Shot in the Head and Only Lose an Eye . . . Stuff I Think About #4

So this is Slade Wilson, known as Deathstroke the Terminator, or is it just Deathstroke now (Image courtesy of Mike Sterling's Progressive Ruin)? As you may notice, he's missing his right eye, hence the patch. The thing is, I'm not sure how that could have happened based on the description of events.

See, Slade lost his eye at the hands of his then wife Addie. She was somewhat, shall we say miffed, that he hadn't told her he was an assassin, and that his work had led to their son Joseph getting kidnapped, and his vocal cords being cut, because Slade would not reveal the name of one of his employer's.

Here we see the set-up. Slade's getting ready to go on another mission. Addie comes in, telling him about Joseph's condition. Addie raises the gun, with the barrel pointed up slightly, to compensate for Slade's greater height, cocks the hammer, and fires. But Slade's a little too quick. As Addie puts it 'his reflexes saved him. I only shot out his right eye.'

I have to ask, how? How do you dodge a bullet fired at the back of your head, so that it only takes your right eye? Wouldn't it pass through your head, doing at least some damage to the rest of your skull, like your brain stem, or your upper jaw at least? Did he turn, in which case it should have grazed his eye socket, or at least the bridge of his nose?

So, since that story is obviously bull, I ask you, what is the REAL story behind Slade Wilson's missing eye?