Yeahhhh, I don't think he's going to be very gentle....like at all. I mean he is a Kree soldier after all, and I highly doubt they're all that sensitive and gentle in the bedroom.

Hey so I finally watched the Avengers: Endgame movie today. 

Despite already knowing the main spoilers about the movie, I still very much enjoyed the entire ride. I mean shit, those 3 hours really flew by, and I didn't even have to worry about getting up to take a piss in the middle of it either.

Hell I even got a little misty-eyed when Tony died. 

Throw in Cap (not dead, but retired, and Black Widow) and that's 3 Avengers down in one movie.

I'm hoping we get another Avengers movie eventually, but I'm damn curious as to what the team will look like and who the next villain will be. I'm thinking Kang the Conqueror, but it could literally be anyone at this point. 

If you haven't seen it yet, please, please do. It's well worth it and helps lay the groundwork for the next phase in the MCU. 

"Father and Son"

Who's up for a brand new skit?
Good.

Enjoy.....

The End

Extras:

So some notes to this one are order. I guess, ha ha.

-"Father and Son" is the title to a Cat Stevens song.

-I used one of the alt heads from the recently released ML Archangel figure for Genis' unmasked head. Sure it doesn't fit, but I figured, well fuck it, he's Kree (half-Kree) well he should at least be blue.

-For my last two strips I've been using the camera in my phone to take skit pics since my regular digital camera is sick. So far so good, but it's not without its difficulties and clarity issues though.

We'll see how well this lasts. 

I really, REALLY want a new, updated ML Captain Mar-vel figure. I thought we might be getting one in the Captain Marvel movie wave, but so far no go. Maybe Hasbro figures it would cause confusion for the movie goers. Ok sure, but the comic fans also buy these figures, so go ahead and make us happy too Hasbro. Be like Nike and JUST DO IT....

"I Like The Way You Salute Soldier."

Happy Memorial Day People!

Just wanted to say a big thank you to all the brave men and women, past, present, and future, that have and are, serving in the Armed Forces.

Thank you for your sacrifice, both of life and of time.

Speaking of, here's today's first skit of the week.....

The End

Yeah, I'm not super crazy about how the Toy Biz sculptors stuck that mar-Vel figure with hands like that. Shit man, fists would've been better. I guess they were tring to go with the in flight pose for the hands. If only they'd remake this one, but woth two sets of hands.......

Back Issue Spotlight: Marvel Shadows and Light#1

Happy Hump Day people!

This one's for Dan:





So today's pic for Back-Issue Spotlight if the day is Marvel Shadows and Light#1.
Basically Marvel was trying their hand at putting out a monthly anthology series like it used to back in the 70's, and as to possibly compete with DC's Showcase anthology series. The fact that by the time Shadows and Light came out, Showcase wasn't being published anymore, should've told Marvel that format wasn't working. Alas Marvel tried out the new series anyways, showcasing 4 well-known Marvel heroes in Wolverine, Dr. Strange, Captain Marvel, and Blade the vampire hunter.

Marvel Shadows and Light#1 (Feburary 1997)

 (How about that nice Tony Daniels cover huh? And just think ten years later he'd improve enough to be the regular artist during Grant Morrison's run on Batman)


 The first story is called "The Spoon Job" (and no it's not a prison rape story Karl;)
by John Paul Leon and Alex Leon.
Up until then artist John Paul Leon was mostly known for his work for Milestone Comics' Static, so it's cool to see his early Marvel work here. His dazzling photo-realistic art must've really gotten him noticed, because in two years later he'd be the artist for Jim Krueger and Alex Ross's Earth X series. Yeah, that guy.

In this particular story, a Hydra agent is hired to track down and inject Wolverine with a new type of poison designed to kill people with highly evolved immune systems, like Wolverine.

The guy stalking Wolverine is the very same chemist that created the poisonous compound, and is super curious to see it's effects in real time.

 A trap is set and Wolverine gets ambushed, but we all know Wolverine. You put down, but you just can't keep him down. Eventually he tracks down the Hyrda agent through a game of cat and mouse through the New York Subway tunnel. The chemist actually manages to give Wolvie the slip.....or does he?

You'll have to read it to find out the twist ending, put it's nice one that proves time and again, why Wolverine truly is the best at what he does.

The next one features Blade the vampire hunter in a story called "Into The Tomb".
It's by James Felder and an artist some of you should hopefully be familar with, the artist simply known as Ladronn(Jose Ladronn). He's done work on Cable, an Inhumans one-shot, as well as work for Image Comics. He was like the modern, European version of the spirit of Jack Kirby. And then he disappeared.

Anyways, this is a very dark and gritty story revolving around Blade and his quest to hunt down Dracula.

Blade goes straight to the source and the known home of Dracula, Transylvania in hopes of ending him once and for all. What follows is grisley scenes and images of all those who were unfortunate to cross paths with the prince of darkness. Eventually Blade finds one lone villager who's also hunting Dracula, Father Nicolas.

Together they go to Castle Dracula and battle his undead brides.

At the end of the story, we're left with a cliffhanger, wondering if and how Blade gets out of this one.

The next one's called "Trio Of Terror/Prisoners Of The Red Ghost" by John Rozum and Wilfred. It stars Captain Marvel, and is apparently set back when he and Rick Jones were bonded together via Marvel's Nega-Bands. Remember that storyline?

Don't ask me why there's two titles for this one, as the inside cover says the story's called "Prisoners Of The Red Ghost, and yet the actual title on the first page of said story is called "Trio Of Terror". Weird.

Anyhoo, now you know who one of the main villains is, the Red Ghost. He's a perinnal foe of the FF, when's not doing whatever unemployed Russian monkey trainers with super powers do.

He's joined by the two main badasses of the Negative Zone, Blaastar and Annihulus. Just one of them alone is enough to cause any superhero or team massive headaches, but those two, plus the Red Ghost combined? Shhhhhhit!
So it seems that the Red Ghost has found a way to duplicate Marvel's nega-bands, and has captured Rick to lure him there in a trap. Blaastar and Annihulus both want to come to Earth to conquer it, and those nega-bands are their ticket out of the Negative Zone to do just that.

Cap and Rick play the game of switcharoo back and forth to keep from getting killed, and in the end Cap is forced to sacrifice a sure way out of being bonded to Rick. Of course we all know they do eventually get separated, but once again Captain Marvel's heroism and self-sacrifice for the greater good are put on display here.

The final story is by well-known legend, Michael Golden. He's drawn everything from Batman to ROM,  'Nam to Dr. Strange. And it's here that Mr.Golden once again draws and writes a simple but visually powerful tale with the good doctor in a story called "Strange Reflections".
It's a very quiet, and sparsely-worded story, mostly told in stunning visuals. We're shown a boy watching tv, and being bombarded with various images we all see everyday. This is juxtposed with Dr. Strange fighting for his very life against a demon or something of some sort from another dimension attacking him.

It's bit of social commentary on what we see on the tv, be it the news or entertainment shows, and how reality and fantasy seem to blend into each other more and more. If only this had come out now, I'd be interested to see Golden's take on the reality show craze that's taken over most tv channels nowadays.

Love that last panel.

Gotta' love that Golden art though right?

This anthology series didn't last too long of course. Three issues only I think, but at least Marvel tried, and they even managed to snag some industry legends like Steve Ditko, Michael Golden, and Berni Wrightson to handle art. Not bad.

Back-Issue Spotlight: The Silver Surfer#63(Vol.2)

TGIT!!!!!

So I haven't done this in awhile, but here's another fun edition of Back-Issue Spotlight.
Today's pick is The Silver Surfer#63(Vol.2). Sure it may seem like a random issue, and it really is, but it holds personal significance for me. While it wasn't the first Silver Surfer issue I ever bought(that honor belongs to Silver Surfer#47) it is the first time I saw Captain Marvel. At that point I didn't know he'd been around since the late 60's, or even that he'd died almost 15 years later. All I knew was that this very colorful superhero caught my eye, and that he was standing back-to-back w/the Surfer, so I was instantly intrigued to find out what the hell was going on.

Well today we'll find out why together, on a little trip through back-issue memory lane.....

The Silver Surfer#63(Vol.2) (March 1992) by Ron Marz and Ron Lim.

What a splash page right? This would fit in right at home with Dan's column about splash pages.

Right away we get right into the action as Surfer finds himself on what appears to be a barren planet, save for an army of deadly skeleton warriors out to kill him. Surfer quickly finds out he's sans powers, so he'll have to fight 'em off the old-fashioned way. And boy does he.

Of course he then runs into what seems to be the main source of his current prediciment, the ghost of Garnok Rebahn. This is a guy Surfer was forced to kill in Silver Surfer Annual#3. I didn't have it at the time, so a quick recap was much appreciated. I have it now, and it does make sense, and really does lead in/tie-in to this very issue. Basically he tells Surfer that he'll be hunted down by the very dead he helped make that way when he worked for his old boss Galactus.

So they come and of course the numbers game catches up with him, so he's gotta' beat a hasty retreat. Luckily he happens to find an isolated cave quickly enough to hide in. It's while in the cave, Surfer quickly finds out he's not alone.

Nope, not by a longshot


Captain Marvel and Surfer share a meal and as Surfer tries to figure out how he got there. He asks CM how he wind up there as well, but CM doesn't know either. Surfer fills him in on why he thinks he's there, and they briefly discuss what it was like for CM to die. Again, this was my true first time discovering this character, and already I felt bad that he was dead, and that outside of this obvious one-time deal, I wouldn't see him again unless he was brought back to life. It happens all the time now, but back then, death still meant something in comics.

Captain Marvel and Surfer then stake out the undead army, with Marvel choosing to act as decoy, long enough for Surfer to confront whoever's in the tent.

It's then that we see just why Captain Marvel ws a true hero, as he sacrifices himself as the neccessary diversion.

I fucking love these panels now just as I did back then!

That my friends is what's missing with today's heroes. They just don't act like the selfless heroes they used to be nowadays. Sad really.

Surfer fights his way down to the tent, and inside he finds the leader of the army......himself?

Yep, it all ends on a cliffhanger as Surfer comes to face to face with a dark reflection of himself. Literally.

The whole thing gets wrapped up in the next issue, but I'm sure it's worth it.

I gotta say, again, this was the first time I was introduced to Captain Marvel, and I already quickly grew an attachment to him. I attribute that to the excellent writing of Ron Marz, to get me to care about a hero long since dead, but definitely no less relevant.

Of course years later Marvel would fool all of us into thinking Captain Marvel was back from the dead during Civil War. But that only turned out to be a Skrull spy. Plus, I'm pretty sure the real CM would've never went along with the whole pro-registration thing. Sounds too much like the Supreme Intelligence and the whole Kree culture that he escaped from in the first place. If he had been brought back, I could easily see Mar-Vel telling Tony to go fuck himself, but in a more polite manner than that.

Then during the whole A vs. X saga, the Phoenix briefly reanimimated his corpse. I don't know if it was a facimile like when the Phoenix pretended to be Jean or not, but he didn't stay alive again for long either, once again sacrificing himself for the greater good and others.

I don't know if it was the feathery blond Farah Faucett hair, but he reminded of Hal Jordan somehow. I've always wanted to see those two team-up, and if the originally planned JLA/Avengers crossover had happened back in 1981, we would've seen it. Damn shame.

That's me for this week. Have a great weekend people, and happy holiday shopping.