Word Writer Chris Eliopoulos
Pencil Drawer Ig Guara
Colorer Chris Sotomayor
Frog Thor Origin Thingy Colleen Coover
Letters on the Page Putter Nate Piekos
Production Lady Irene Lee
Consulter Guy Ralph Macchio
Editoring Person Nathan Cosby
Chief of the Editing that Marvel does Joe Quesada
Publishing Fella at Marvel Dan Buckley
Producer that is Executive Alan Fine
Cover Dated July 2009
This is the 2nd Printing Variant Cover
Such a fun miniseries! A legendary team forms in the Marvel Universe!
Can you believe that this sold so well that they had to do a second printing? That’s so awesome! That is with variant covers as well!
The variant is just taken from the first page, then the Pet Avengers are added to the side from the interior art.
Issue opens with some back story on the Infinity Gems :
Mind, boosts mental power and permits access to all thoughts.
Space, existence in any location.
Reality, all dreams can be fulfilled.
Time, control over then and now.
Soul, allows user to steal, manipulate or alter souls living and dead.
Power, contains all energy that has or will exist.
Thanos had them on a fancy gauntlet, but no longer.
Turns out, Reed Richards was explaining this to fellow Illuminati member, Black Bolt and his wife, Medusa. Reed believes one of the gems is on the Blue Area of the Moon, where the Inhumans live.
Lockjaw has found the gem, he comes running in, licking Reed’s face. They dismiss the giant dog, like jerks, and he teleports away as the gem activates. Lockjaw found the Mind gem.
Central Park. New York City. Lockjaw has found Throg. The gem activates again, so now the two animals can communicate.
Throg gives his sad origin, drawn by Colleen Coover. I like how his human name is, Simon Walterson. Get it?
There is a reference to the great Frog / Rat war that was referenced in Doctor Strange Volume Three Issue 2.
Throg agrees to join the mission of seeking the gems.
We have come to the best part of this series. When it was announced at the con, I had hoped Lockheed was going to be a member. Not only is he a member, he is one of the bigger names. The cover sort of ranks them from most important to least. Lockheed should be higher, of course.
Ideally, I would like to break the panels out individually, as I want to have every Lockheed appearance chronicled on this blog. I just don’t know how to do that, so full pages will have to do.
Westchester, New York. Lockheed is sad, all of his fellow members of the Flock are dead. He was able to cope with that with his friendship with Kitty Pryde. This series takes place after Giant Size Astonishing X-Men 1.
It is nice that, not only do the X-Men let Lockheed stay at the Mansion, they kept Kitty’s room, too.
Lockheed is lost and sad, which I really like that each member of the team has a distinct personality.
Lockheed joins the team, not to be a hero, but in the name of his fallen teammates.
Brooklyn, New York. They recruit Redwing, who I really like in this series. He is constantly referring to his partnership with Falcon and how he knows Captain America. Redwing is an Avenger like how Lockheed is an X-Man.
Due to Redwing being a bird, he feels superior to the other animals as he can fly.
Queens, New York. Speedball’s cat, Hairball, is recruited. He is being chased by Aunt May’s male dog, Ms. Lion. Hairball hates the dog.
There is an ad for Claremont’s X-Men Forever – which will be the only place to see Kitty and Lockheed together.
Hairball’s real name is Niels and he has the same powers of Speedball, they can bounce.
Throg offers membership to Hairball, he wants to eat the bird. Redwing takes offense to this, naturally.
Ms. Lion wants to come along.
Hairball objects to this. He hates dogs, which I like how fast he realizes that Lockjaw is also a dog.
Ms. Lion knows that Peter is Spider-Man.
I love the long pause above. Such a good series.
Lockjaw accepts Ms. Lion into the group.
Now that they have nearly everybody, they go to the second gem location.
The Savage Land.
I like that Redwing tries to be friends with Lockheed, as they are both flyers. Unfortunately, Lockheed is too depress to make friends. Don’t worry, he stops being overly Eeyore-ish, eventually.
They find the second gem, Reality, I believe. Lockheed is given this one to hold.
Issue ends with the team getting attacked by a Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Next issue, they will get their final member. We will get around to reviewing the rest one of these days.
I was really hoping that this series’ success would have lead to a plush Lockheed and better, an animated film or seriee, at least. Would have been easy to adapt. Still is.
Shadow and Flame with Magik 