Inappropriate 9/11 memes

Because why not, right?

Fantasy Team-Up: Daredevil and Dr. Midnite (Pieter Cross)

First off,

Gotta' get this unfortunate bit of bad news out of the way...
In case you haven't heard yet, legendary writer/creator/editor, Len Wein died yesterday, causes are still unknown.



Wein created numerous great stories and characters during his long career, especially the most famous ones, like co-creating Wolverine with Herb Trimpe and John Romita Sr, or co-creating Swamp Thing with Bernie Wrightson, who also happened to pass away earlier this year.

And of course I don't have to remind you all about his award-winning editing work on Swamp Thing and Watchmen right? Good.

Wein was incredibly fortunate to live out the dream of every true comic fan boy and girl out there, and get paid to write and create stories for and about our comic idols. He really was one of the lucky ones, and thank god we were lucky enough to be able to go along with him on the ride...

Thank You Len Wein, for everything....

Len Wein RIP 1948-2017


And now onto the matter of today's main topic, Fantasy Team-Up, the column where I pit two characters or teams together I'd love to see get paired up and see what happens.

Well, all this week will be Fantasy Team-Up week, a whole four days of nothing but one edition of after another of Fantasy Team-Ups. Mmmm, boy, now don't that sound good to y'all? Ha ha.

For today, I'm presenting a sequel of sorts to the one I did not too long ago, where I paired up Daredevil, the man without fear, with the Golden Age Dr. Midnight, as they fought against longtime JSA foe, Per Degaton.

Here's the link to that one if you're interested:
http://dbsuniverse.blogspot.com/2017/08/fantasy-team-up-daredevil-and-dr.html

I figured since it worked out so well the first time, why not tempt fate and do another, but this time ol' horn head gets paired up with someone with a more complimentary personality and drive in Dr. Pieter Cross, the third and more modern, Mr. Midnight.




As for as the main antagonists in this little ditty, how about a group, or trio rather, of villains that the good doctor knows all too well, the Terrible Trio.



Debuting in Detective Comics #253 and created by Dave Wood and Sheldon Moldoff, the Terrible Trio started out a bunch of bored, but genius inventors that took on the identities of the Fox, the Shark, and the Vulture, to represent their dominance over land, sea, and air.

They were primarily perennial foes of Batman for years, until writer Matt Wagner cast them as rich, old industrialists who moved their base of operations to Portsmouth, the home of Dr. Pieter Cross.



It was in the course of investigating their secret illegal dealings that they tried to kill off Cross, only to instead inadvertently create the third incarnation of Dr. Midnite.


In my team-up scenario, the Terrible Trio of Lawford (The Shark), Lydecker (The Vulture) and Hardwick (The Fox) have taken up residence in New York, specifically Hell's Kitchen, were they plan on rebuilding their empire by takeover what's left of the Kingpin's, and filling the vacuum of power his fall from grace left behind.

This has understandably caused Daredevil A LOT of grief, so much so, that they've nearly succeeded in destroying his life, for the billionth time, and now he's at his wits' end on how to put them away for good.

Enter the good doctor, Dr. Midnite, who's come to make a desperately-needed house call to Hell's Kitchen to help out the Devil.



So there you have it.
The Devil of Hell's Kitchen fighting side-by-side with Dr. Midnite, to rid New York forever of the Terrible Trio of the Shark, the Vulture, and the Fox.

I imagine this would make for a hell of a two-parter, with the Terrible Trio being shown to be very formidable opponents, with all their wealth and resources put out on full display against the multiple abilities and fortitude of our heroes.

Hell yeah, now that'd I'd read.
Probably even have Matt Wagner write that one too....


Oh, and today also marks the 16th anniversary of the events of 9/11.
Jesus, has it really been that long already?

As always, my thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their families, who still live on despite the losses they've suffered.

"We interupt this program to bring you the following breaking news"

TGIF Everybody!
I'm doing a special post today so I thought I'd be a little serious about this one.

As I'm sure the world over knows by now, this Sunday will mark the 10th Anniversary of 9/11.
I for one am glad the people of NY were able to rebuild, not just their lives, but also the buildings that were demolished that fateful day.

If it hasn't by now, 9/11 will live on forever entrenched in the lore and history of American for generations to come. Every anniversary, much like Pearl Harbor and the assassination of JFK, people will ask "Where were you on 9/11? What were you doing?"

I remember where I was and what I was doing on that day. Surly nothing as spectacular or as live-altering as what was already going on in NY, Washington and PA mind you.

At the time, Heather and I and a high-school friend all attended our local technical college in town. I remember my college world history teacher interrupting class to announce that the one of the twin towers had just been hit and was collapsing at that very moment.

After class, Heather, I, and the high-school friend were all sitting around a table in the common's area watching the news at the time. Even while seeing the devastation that was going on live and in front of me, I still didn't feel as bad as I later would. I guess I can blame to an extent be desensitized due to the seeing too many violent movies that featured government buildings being blown up on a regular basis. What movie featuring terrorists didn't shown stuff like that. I'm not saying it's all Hollywood or the media's fault, but the whole thing all seemed so surreal to me. But later on that day after being able to sit down and really digest what had just happened, and the staggering amount of lives lost that day, I truly did feel bad for all those involved.  Every year when the anniversary comes I still do.

I've heard it said that the terrorists ultimately didn't win, and that we're more safer now than we were then. And to an extent that's true. But American citizens for the most part, had to give up a lot of their privacy and  rights due to the Patriot Act and not to mention the new metal detectors that now occupy most/all airports. We've beefed up security both out of a sense of fear and prevention, but isn't that what the terrorists really wanted to achieve? They wanted to make us afraid, and in trying to combat that fear has forced us all to compromise our daily lives. Seriously, look at those new security detectors in the airports that are supposed to do full body scans and you tell me we haven't lost something. I'm not saying we don't need them, but the terrorists forced us to have to go to such lengths in an attempt to keep them at bay. Sure the extra long lines and pat-downs of everyone including children are readily accepted by the American people as a means of staying safe, and with the incredible amount of attempted bombings and different ways of smuggling bombs/bomb-making material, it's easy to understand why. But it almost looks like we're being overly zealous about being cautious and safe, and that's not always a good thing.

I hope I didn't seem UN-American in this post, as many have been called far too often if they didn't readily agree with certain tactics or laws, but that's just how I feel. Like I said, I'm glad NY and the US in general rebuilt themselves and refused to let religious extremists dictate how they lived their lives because that's no way to live.

I'm also proud of the various publishing companies, like Marvel, DC, and various indy publishers that reacted so fast as to put together projects and tributes aimed towards helping all of those impacted by 9/11.
It might not have seemed like much, but it made me proud, and no doubt countless others to see so many people care like they did.

In fact I still have my Marvel Heroes Tribute issue that came out, and it still looks awesome.

Here are just some various 9/11 comic images put out during that time period.
Enjoy, and have good weekend!

Oh, and while it might sound corny, spare a prayer or moment of silence for the families and victims of 9/11 huh?