Marvel Comics General

Someone asked about female-led events, and Brevoort seems to think that's coming. I'll believe it when I see it. Duggan said Rogue is the leader of Uncanny Avengers. Which is interesting news. But wait! Does that mean she'll be coming out of her coma? Come on, Duggan, spoiler alert. Jeez.

Yeah, I'm not sure why people were all upset that Rogue was in a coma in the preview - it was obviously a prologue to Uncanny Avengers and Rogue is totally not in a coma in Uncanny Avengers, so she is going to be fine.

So I read All-New, All-Different Point One, Avengers #0, Invincible Iron Man #1, Doctor Strange #1, and Contest of Champions #1. And man, they are all really good. I mean, the previews ones were just previews, some of which were kind of on the small side (I really wanted an actual preview of All-New, All Different Avengers, but all Mark Waid gave me was...the Vision deleting his emotions? oookay), but I loved the framing story and some of the individual previews were awesome, like New Avengers ("Teddy, I think you're the King of Space!").

Invincible Iron Man is so pretty. So very, very pretty. One thing confused me though: the scientist lady Tony is on a date with says that she invented a cure for mutants, but doesn't that already exist? Didn't they invent that back in Astonishing X-Men? Or was that revealed as not really a cure?

Doctor Strange was super weird and super good. And I love how it's turning out to be Magic vs. Science!

Contest of Champions was a little on the short side, but that's because of the backup comic, but I loved it. I love Outlaw and his bewilderment about everything. But also, I really want them to explore the Battlerealm - it's the broken remains of "God Doom's realm," but does that mean all the various regions on Battleworld still exist somewhere? Just without people? And the other opponent is probably Death (like the original Contest of Champions), but who is the other Summoner?

Also, Shamrock needs to show up.

Also, Siege #4 is one of the very best things ever and includes one of the very best lines ever: "What time is it, Ben Grimm? WHAT TIME IS IT?"

edited 11th Oct '15 1:52:30 AM by alliterator

Have I mentioned how much I hate the term "cure for mutants"? And that Tony hearing the woman use the term "cure" should have caused him to drop-kick her out the window of his high-rise?

edited 11th Oct '15 8:28:53 AM by SonOfSharknado

The scientist said that she only thought about how it would work, but never made it, because it would be too dangerous.

And ethically wrong.

and if Mutants were okay with it.

He does say it's basically like a "cure for Judaism". Not sure if that's an appropriate comparison, but the basic point is that it would be wrong to use it. And what else would you call it anyway?

It's worse than that, really. You're not born Jewish. Your parents can raise you Jewish, or you yourself can take up the Judaic faith. But any religious belief is a choice. A cure for mutants is like a cure for being black.

The Jews are seen as an ethnic group though.

edited 11th Oct '15 10:05:04 AM by Bocaj

Eh, fair enough.

Okay, don't call it a cure then. Call it a process to remove powers.

So, bit of a subject change here: are the Power Pack still around? If so, how old are they? I only ask because they seem like a fun bunch, and I think that maybe they'd do well in a crossover with Kamala - especially if they're younger than her, but have been doing this longer than she has.

Well, Julie Power is still around. She was last seen in Avengers Academy. She was said to be around the same age as the other students, so 17 maybe?

edited 11th Oct '15 10:36:55 AM by alliterator

I don't think you can call something you just thought up and never put to work a workable cure. like I could think up putting uranium in a phone booth and using it to time travel but that doesn't mean it would work. that isn't how science works. you need tests. more than just an idea. she is a pretty shitty scientist.

and as for the power pack only the oldest two are still around and they are aged up a lot. the younger two havent been seen in a while.

But she doesn't want to test it - that's the whole point. She thought up how to do it, but realized it was dangerous and unethical, so she stopped.

yes but she can't really say it is a completely painless working cure without tests. that's how science works. so she is a good person but a shitty scientist. and not only because a cure has been done before.

Bendis is himself Jewish and given that he related strongly to the concept of mutants as a metaphor for minority groups, I can see why he'd make that comparison. He did the similar "Would you tell a Jewish person to stop being Jewish?" argument when he wrote Kitty Pryde in the past.

The scene did make me chuckle though because it reminds me of the Venture Bros episode where they mention that their dad accidentally found the "gay gene" and met with massive backlash when he tried to come up with a way to "cure" it.

Her older brother is a member of the Future Foundation so he appeared pretty regularly in the last two FF volumes.

edited 11th Oct '15 10:47:35 AM by comicwriter

Now the real question is: how did both of them grow up into teenagers and not Franklin Richards when he was about the same age as them during their adventures?

Something something reality warping.

Squirrel and Howard in a team-up kind of thing

I'd been confused before since it was mentioned that Avengers Tower had been sold to a Chinese company, but apparently the Stark Tower seen in Invincible Iron Man is a brand new one.

Franklin was the same age as Katie Power. Alex was already a teen when the series started, and Julie was only a couple years younger. So figure 5 years since Power Pack debuted, and you've got Alex at 18 or 19, Julie at 16 or 17, Jack at probably 15, and Katie at 9, maybe 10. Franklin would be 9 or 10, as well.

And yeah, Alex is part of the Future Foundation, while Julie was a member of the Avengers Academy, and is now dating Karolina Dean of the Runaways. Jack and Katie haven't done much in a while, though I think the full Power Pack did actually appear together near the end of Hickman's FF run.

I remember back when Franklin wore a "4 1/2" shirt. Was that when Valeria was a baby? So if Valeria is now, say, five, then yeah, Franklin has to be nine years old.

I mean, Franklin was born in the '60s and Valeria in the '00s, so it still doesn't make any sense, but still.

There's an actual fan theory that Franklin is slowing down time with his powers, and that's why there's a sliding timescale.

The interview for the Howard/Squirrel Girl crossover is a thing of beauty.

North: Squirrel Girl has all the powers of squirrel and girl, and Howard has all the powers of duck and guys named “Howard”, so it’s a pretty natural pairing! But they don’t meet on, like, a blind date or anything. Instead, Howard barges in on her quiet, save-the-world-from-Galactus-and-not-worry-about-talking-duckmen life and they need to solve a problem together.

Zdarsky: Uh, just to clarify, Howard only has some of the abilities of a duck. Like, he can’t fly for one. Did you even read my comic, Ryan?

North: I did, but there weren’t that many Howards in it! Like, barely any. It was mostly full of sex criminals.

Zdarsky: Uhhh that’s a really weird reading of Jughead, man.

oh god this is going to be so good.