Shadow and Flame with Magik

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Lost Thoughts

Posted by John Klein III on February 4, 2017
Posted in: Fun With YouTube. Tagged: Lost, YouTube. Leave a comment

I keep having this thought about Lost.  One of the greatest shows of all time.

It starts with a pretty crazy premise so hang in there.

Let’s say you are teleported into the jungle of Hawaii, which of course, you recognize super easily and instantaneously.

Once you start walking through the trees, you come out onto a beach.

Then you see who you believe is Matthew Fox, and you say “Hey Matthew Fox!”

To your right, Naveen Andrews is charging at you, and you only have a moment before you realize that he is midair about to kick yo face!

So by now, your brain should at least be telling you that you are fighting Sayid and not Naveen.

Somehow you are able to fight him off and knock him out.

Before you get shot by Sawyer, you start regaining your footing and say something like, “Dr. Jack Sheppard, call off your men!”

Which should shock everyone to stillness.

Now, pending on which episode you have stepped into, this could be a lot of fun.

When I think about it, it is usually around the time of season one when Ben Linus has first been “captured” and he is going by Henry Gale.

Okay, the premise is this, what do you do once you are able to communicate with the characters.

Knowing that you have stepped into the show itself.  Which means, that everything has happened already up to that point.

Even though you are standing within Season Two, Episode 14, One of Them, Ben’s first episode, for the characters, all of their flashbacks have happen to them, the crazy things that happen in the 1970s has happened.  Everything that the creators of Lost has told and shown you that took place prior to the Pilot, has occurred.

Plus, you are a superfan, meaning that you devoured every piece of information Lostpedia has to offer.

Okay, the premise takes a lot of set up and if I were talking to you, it would take like one minute to say all of that above.

What do you do?

First, you have Jack take you to “Henry” and you straight up tell Ben that you know he is Ben and you know all about Hydra Island.  You know about the lovely Juliet.

My goal would be to pretend to be Jacob.  That’s the buzz word I would use to get Ben to instantly trust me.

Also, I would steer clear of Richard and he has met Jacob and that will ruin everything.

The entire time, I will be working under the impression that I will eventually be teleported back off the island so I just have to survive up to that point.

I will be taking people to the Lighthouse, and other various locations, like the Foot Statue, just having a good ol’ time.

I will probably be better friends to Locke than Jack as Jack wouldn’t care about the Island at all but just wanting to get home.

Which I will tell them about the submarine and give my blessing that everyone may leave if they want to.

I will tell Ben, if he doesn’t believe that I am Jacob, about how he gassed the Dharma Initiative, sparing his father.

I will tell Jack and Claire how they are related.

I will tell Sawyer about how Locke’s father killed his parents.

My goal is that I have to proof that I am who I say I am with all of the information I have at my disposal.  So once Ben tells the gang who Jacob is, then the rest falls into place.

You run the risk of everyone punching you in the face though but how could you not be tempted to want to tell people about their connections.

Hopefully I have that awesome “Unanswered Questions” video within a short period before this little adventure began, as I am sure they will ask me questions that I have no idea the answer too.

Thanks to YouTuber Irvin Bursiaga and College Humor for making it.

I suppose I have to stay clear of the Smoke Monster too, as he won’t be happy to know I am impersonating his brother.

Also, I have no idea how to stop the Smoke Monster, hiding in trees doesn’t work every time.

Of course, your presence on the Island, changes the everything about the show but once I am on the Island, I will want to get home and kiss my wife, as she is my Constant, and I am under the impression that is how you get back to where you need to be.

It will be 2004 by then, or 2005, so it is a matter of just knowing where she was during that time, and luckily, that is the year I met her (2004) so I know exactly where she is.  Of course, I will be almost 10 years older and be that funny guy she sees at work, so it will take some convincing to get her to kiss me.

That’s a whole another problem, if I even get back to the states!

Luckily Lost has been airing for a little bit, but without Desmond and Penny and the actual “Constant” episode airing, it will be tough to explain the rules of course-correcting via kissing.  But ever since that episode has aired, I like to think that is how you get back home, no matter what era you are in.  As long as you are in the era where your spouse is currently alive, you can get back home.  The problem, of course, is that there will be times where she will be eight and you will be in your 40s and there is no country that will buy the Constant excuse, especially if it doesn’t work and you are the pervert on the playground.  That’s why I will only travel through time where my wife is of age.  Or have a more reliable mode of transportation to travel through time in, like a TRADIS.

I guess this whole premise is based on the idea, like Quantum Leap, where you are just in a spot for a temporary moment and it is up to you to get yourself out of it.

Boy, Lost is an amazing show!  I am a huge fan of the Desmond / Penny relationship and whenever Elizabeth Mitchell is on screen, is a good time.

OH!  Will have to definitely enjoy telling Ben about Charles Whitmore and all the information I know about the two of them.

Maybe instead of pretending to be Jacob, I could pretend to be an associate of Whitmore’s, and have decided to strike out on my own.  That way, I am not expected to know all the answers, and the Lost crew can trust me as Ben will not trust me at first, thus they probably will.  Enemies of enemies, and all that.

Least favorite character?  Sun, for sure.

Also, how disappointing was Jacob?  That one episode where you see his eye through the cabin key hole?  That was legit spooky.  Then they went and had Jacob leaving the Island and being witness to the crew’s worst moments, that was a bit too much.

Also, season six, ooof, I wish that was way better.  Maybe too much Smoke Monster, Jacob and Richard origins, I feel like that could have been one or two episodes.  I liked the sideways timeline.  Daniel really came off well.  I became a huge fan of James Ford with season five.  I swear, you pair Juliet with a male, and that guy becomes instantly likeable and watchable.  Then Kate shows up and tries to ruin everything, like Kate does, but luckily, James knew when to quit spending time with that crazy gal!  Also, why Jack couldn’t stick with her either for the long haul, why would you care to?

I actually thought production would have made a slew of books on the series and I am surprised they still haven’t.  Maybe they are waiting for the tenth anniversary next year or something like that.  Or they know that Lostpedia is already the best source and all they can do is print all the pages the website has and make it into a book.  Which I have been tempted to do that in the past.

Watching Once Upon a Time in Wonderland has reminded me how much I love Sayid.  If only we could get Sayid v. Jack Bauer.

If this was the 80s, there would have been an entire movie based around Naveen Andrews fighting Keither Sutherland.

It would have been done like a classic WWE match where one week, one of them wins and the next week, the other wins, but both times, they were technical wins leading up to the big PPV match.

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Uncanny X-Men Volume Two Issue 1 – Dale Keown Variant

Posted by John Klein III on February 3, 2017
Posted in: Review. Tagged: Caramagna - Joe, Deown - Dale, Gillen, Keith - Jason, Lockheed, Magik, Pacheco, Uncanny. Leave a comment

Uncanny X-Men Volume Two Issue 1 Dale Keown Varaint

Writer Kieron Gillen

Pencils Carlos Pacheco

Inks Cam Smith

Colors Frank D’Armata

Letters VC’s Joe Caramagna

Variant Cover Dale Deown & Jason Keith

Cover Dated January 2012

This was part of a four cover variant –

X-Men Regenesis Blue Team

Inside front cover ad is for Avengers X-Sanction, with Cable’s return to life, as he fights the Avengers – one at a time.  It has no connection to AvX.

Uncanny X-Men Volume Two Issue 1 Magik 1

We get quick looks at the team, of this series.  Magneto, Colossus, Cyclops, Storm, Emma, Magik, Hope, Namor and Mister Sinister, as the villain of the volume.  Magik’s description – Magk (Illyana Rasputin) : Teleportation, Ex-Queen of Demonic Realm.  That’s pretty much her, in one sentence.

Welcome to San Francisco.  Adventure Awaits!  I haven’t read this issue before, as sadly, I didn’t have money for the first three issues of both this Uncanny X-Men series and Wolverine and the X-Men.  Of course, now those are the most expensive issues.  As the years go by, they become more affordable.

Mister Sinister finds two tourists, as they look upon the Sleeping Celestial.  He kills them, rather quickly.

Utopia.  Scott and Emma are heading to their big meeting.  Emma kisses him, to give him confidence.

Uncanny X-Men Volume Two Issue 1 Magik 2

We get Pacheco’s rendition of the main team.  I like the position everyone is.  Magneto is outside, by himself.  Danger is by herself.  The Rasputin siblings are together.  Storm is at the table, by herself.  We will get plenty of Namor and Hope team ups.  They are all in costume, only Scott isn’t.  Scott tells them that they are his, Extinction Team.

The Gold Side books, on sale are – Wolverine and the X-Men 3, X-Men Legacy 260 and Uncanny X-Force 19.

Uncanny X-Men Volume Two Issue 1 Magik 3

Apparently, with half the mutants on Utopia, Cyclops had the budget for nicer chairs, in the war room.  Namor really likes his.  Danger states that Doctor Nemesis built Colossus’ chair, so that if Jugglossus appears, the chair can take the pressure.  I forgot that he got the power upgrade but, at first, he was resisting using it.  That will change, and not even that long from now.

So great that Illyana is so protective of her older brother.  She has faith that he can control his urges.

Scott wants everyone to get back on track.  Scott actually uses the word, Schism, to explain the current situation.  This team is Scott’s statement to the world.

Uncanny X-Men Volume Two Issue 1 Magik 4

Scott wants the world to see this team as the Mutant A-List.  They have tried this before, but never to this scale.  If humanity is saved, enough times, by the X-Men – they will have to be accepted.

Uncanny X-Men Volume Two Issue 1 Magik 5

Storm wants to play a fun game.  Raise your hand, if you’ve never gone through a stage that others characterized as “mainly super villain.”  Possibly, my favorite page of the entire issue.

Storm and Hope have their hands up.  Scott has his hand up, but Storm wonders if he should.  Emma says that he is working on his villain turn.  So great, that someone recognized that this team doesn’t look like heroes, on paper.  Scott knows that this team, should be unstoppable.  Scott does have another motive, he wants his team to be the targets, for the world.  That way, Wolverine and his “little school” isn’t on anyone’s radar.  So the team gets to do nothing, until the world absolutely needs them.

Utopia.  Week One.  Overview of Mutant Activity.  Psylocke sees no action.  X-Club updates Danger.  The Street team has increased their arrest rates to 15%.  There have been no new mutants discovered.  The New Mutants are searching for Blink.  Extinction Team, no action.

Week Two.  Agent Brand calls Scott and Emma.  She informs them that the Dreaming Celestial is emitting an odd energy signature.  She is going to call the Avengers next but Scott dissuades her.  If they can’t save the day, the Avengers don’t stand a chance.  I like this Scott.

Uncanny X-Men Volume Two Issue 1 Magik 6

Golden Gate Park.  San Francisco.  Look at Scott, dealing out compliments to Magik!  Good for him!  Doctor Nemesis states that the levels are off the charts, but I like how Danger translates that to Cyclops.

Hope notices that the head of the Dreaming Celestial, transforms into Sinister’s head.  Cyclops asks Emma to telepathically connect him to Sinister.

Uncanny X-Men Volume Two Issue 1 Magik 7

She does so, but with some safety protocols.  Sinister wants Cyclops to thank him, Cyclops wanted a big threat, and here is Sinister – providing one.  Scott doesn’t like that Sinister knows his goals.

The Sinister Head launches lasers at Emma.  She transforms into diamond form, and states that she is indestructible.  She sends a call out to Namor, I thought she couldn’t use her telepathic powers while in diamond form?  Namor wants confirmation that she desires him.  She tells him that Scott desires him, which isn’t as appealing.  With an, Imperius Rex!, he smashes the Sinister Head, to the ground.

Danger, again, downplays a message from X-Club.

A slew of Battle-bots, which I want to say is pretty good on Cyclops, for referencing something from 15 years ago.  Cyclops tells Colossus to contain all of the nanobots.

A tidal wave of energy blasts start exploding.  Colossus gets flung a distance.  The worst though, is that Emma – in diamond form – has her left arm break off!  Which is crazy intense!  I didn’t know this happened in the first issue!  Cyclops doesn’t waste any time, directing the rest of the team.  I’m glad that we get a friendly reminder of Hope’s powers – to mimic, those around her.  Scott tells Illyana to check on her brother.

From a safe distance, Storm and Magneto witness the destruction.  He tries to carry a conversation with her, but this may be the beginning of making Storm the worst, as she doesn’t give him anything to work with.

Uncanny X-Men Volume Two Issue 1 Magik 8

Illyana teleports to her dumb brother, he can’t win at his current strength level.  He summons Juggolossus Magik tries to warn him, about the addictive nature of the unstoppable power.

Uncanny X-Men Volume Two Issue 1 Magik 9

Juggolossus is quick to threats but can calm himself.  Magik ports him back to the fight, this is the last we will see of her.

Doctor Nemesis calls Danger, the reason the battle-bots are falling, is due to them not having an exo-skeleton.  Magneto knows what he has to do.

The Blue Side of the Titles are – Uncanny X-Men 3, Generation Hope 14 and X-Men 22.

The Sinister Head lands in the Palace of Fine Arts.  Once it lands, everybody turns into Mister Sinister!

Uncanny X-Men Volume Two Issue 1 Things To Come

Things To Come . . . Emma and Namor kiss!  They are force to, by Unit.  Phalanx will appear, for an issue.  Hope and the Phoenix, is Avengers vs X-Men.  The bulk of this, will be Tubula Rasa.

There is a Letter to Humanity, by Scott Summers.

Uncanny X-Men Volume Two Issue 1 Magik Graphic

I love these graphs!

Look at Magik’s in the Extinction Team!

The side teams are – X-Club / Secret Recon / Street Team / Clean-Up / Gen Hope and the various Recruits.

Just to include it, here is the graph from Wolverine and the X-Men 1 –

Wolverine and the X-Men 1 graphic

Of course, I’m a huge fan that Kitty Pryde and Lockheed, share the top spot with Wolverine!  I know the Gold Side, gets a revised graphic but I’m not sure if Uncanny does.

Such a great first issue!

Inside back cover ad is fro The Defenders by Fraction and Dodson, I own issue 12 and is pretty good.

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Amanda Sefton

Posted by John Klein III on February 2, 2017
Posted in: Uncategorized. 2 Comments

Including all of her appearances as herself, as Daytripper and the second Magik, which is why I’m writing this, she has made a total of 84 appearances, I thought it would be a whole lot more than that, she just leaves an impression I suppose.  I own 57 of those appearances, bringing my percentage to 67%.  So I feel like I know her pretty well.

Her mother is Margali, of the Winding Way.  Amanda is a witch.  Her and Nightcrawler grew up together.  That’s how I first met Amanda, as Kurt’s girlfriend.  Margali is Kurt’s adopted mother, so essentially, Kurt dated his adopted sister.  It is complicated.  I wonder if that is why the two of them haven’t spent much time together in the later days of their adventures.  It can be an awkward subject to bring up, but does it really need to get brought up?  That and Kurt killed her brother, who was also Kurt’s foster brother.

The whole family is a mess.  Then you add Mystique to the mix and it gets even more out of control!

I know at Kurt’s funeral, someone mentions how they should have invited Amanda, and someone else mentions the relationship.  Stating, “it’s complicated” is probably the best way to handle it.

I like writers who just refer to them as former boyfriend/girlfriends and that they grew up together, it is simple and that is the story point that has the most meat to it.

Paul Smith got to draw her, in Uncanny X-Men 168, 169, and 175.

It is a shame that she wasn’t really a member of the X-Men, like how Carol Danvers is.  I wonder why Claremont drew the line?  Amanda was or may currently be a Flight Attendant, so she makes it to New York City from time to time.  I do like how she isn’t a witch all the time; she has an awesome main job.

When she did join Excalibur on a long term basis, Excalibur 75-77, 80, 82-85, 89-92, 95,, 100-102, 108 and then she shows up at Brian and Meggan’s wedding. in 125.  Where she has a funny scene with Cerise, Kurt’s Shi’ar girlfriend – who also does not get enough play, but even less so!   Cerise was last seen in the Annihilation #6 and the Annihilation : Ronin miniseries.  Both of which, I missed out on.  Excalibur 125 came out October 1998 and Annihilation : Ronan 2 came out in July 2006, she is a forgotten character.

Then Illyana passes away, and before that, she is deaged, thus making no Magik, no more.

Now, I am not sure if it was due to a copyright issue or not, but Marvel gets the idea that they have to make a new Magik.  Storywise, someone has to be the ruler of Limbo.

Now, I’m not sure why that ruler couldn’t have their own special name, instead of making Magik a legacy character.  But they did and Amanda got the nod to take over in the miniseries, X-Men : Black Sun 1-5.  I only own issues 1, 2, and 5, it isn’t very good, if my memory of it serves.  I may also have been a stubborn fan and didn’t want to like it due to loyalty to Illyana.

Amanda becoming Magik II, pretty much ruins the character.  She got Black Sun in 2000, then within the same year (probably Marvel thinking it was going to create a new fanbase) and gave her the second Magik miniseries, also in 2000.  Sometimes, you will see the first Magik series titled : Magik (Illyana and Storm Limited Series) (1983) and the other as Magik (2000).  Which I never care for, as Storm is important to the original mini, but it is Illyana’s story and who cares about anyone else getting billing?  I rather we just refer to them as Magik-Illyana and Magik-Amanda, though only two people ever want to talk about the other one.  I want to say Magik-Amanda or Magik-2000 (like Knight Rider 2000) has a bunch of references to Illyana, thus, I own all four issues.  I may do a review on them, way down the line.  Might be nice to, as I barely remember it.  I do remember, the severe lack of Amanda appearances afterwards.

So Black Sun comes out November 2000, five weeks, five issues.  Excalibur 125 came out October 1998, so she was already in character limbo for two years.

Magik-2000 (makes more sense to do it by years as if you list it by character, I think you might confuse some people – Magik 2000 and Magik 1983). comes out monthly for December 2000 to March 2001.

Nightcrawler gets an ongoing series (richly deserved and pretty good, I believe I read all of them but only own a few of them) and  Amanda is essentially the co-star of the title.   Of the 12 issues, she is only not in issues 1, 5, and 7.  Pretty impressive!   I own issues 3, 4, 7, and 12.  12 is Kurt’s birthday, and a bunch of people show up.  It is awesome!  Also serves as a recap of the series.

Roberto Aguiree-Sacasa of Glee fame and of a horrible Marvel Knights : Spider-Man run wrote the series and Darick Robertson of Space Beaver – a series I am madly in love with and a real shame it only has 12 issues in existence!) drew it.  Darick is a huge Nightcrawler fan, and how could you not be!  He may not be anymore but he was at the time the series came out, that’s what I’m quoting.  (Just in case he has turn his back on the character).

I imagine no one bought Magik-2000, (the issues or the character) as 4 comes out March 2001 and Nightcrawler starts to came out November 2004.   That is another two years of being in Limbo, and only coming back when someone wanted to pair Kurt up with a former flame.

Then comes the awkward moment, when people want Illyana back (which they did as soon as she was deaged but once she was dead in Uncanny 303, people really wanted her back!).

Illyana sort of comes back in New X-Men 37, so they quickly put Amanda up in New X-Men 36.  These issues come out (along with Quest for Magik) in 2007.  Nightcrawler’s series ended in January 2006, and New X-Men 36 came out in May 2007, another solid year of no appearances.

Illyana shows up, it becomes official that Amanda is no longer Magik.  With Kurt not beign used and then being killed, she hasn’t had a new adventure since New X-Men 41 cover dated October 2007.

She showed up in a back up in Uncanny X-Men : First Class Giant Size Special 1 in August 2009, X-Men Forever 16 in March 2010 and X-Men Origins : Nightcrawler 1 in May 2010.

None of these are modern tales.

She is such a fun character but once you become a part of a Legacy, people only want the original back, and then you lose all that you had before then.  She became a place holder and it is a shame she isn’t used more.

Ideally, she would become a member of Amazing X-Men with how that story involves bringing Kurt back to life but Kitty isn’t involved in that mission so why would Amanda.

I also, don’t want her to just be Kurt’s girlfriend either but clearly she could have been part of any Supernatural style storylines.

She is a fun character, has a great powerset, hopefully still is a flight attendant – a job that I wish I had back in the day, I just like to fly in an airplane.  Imagine doing that professionally?  Has to be fun!  I also wanted to be a pilot as well, but that does seem to be a lot of responsibility, but I’m ready for it.

Probably too late for me though.  But it is not too late for Amanda Sefton, let’s get her back in a book, and a good one this time!  She got character assassinated!

The issues of her that I still need are only two :

Wolverine Saga (1989) 2

The Marvel Tarot (2007) 1

I doubt either are more than a dollar.

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Wolverine and the X-Men 29

Posted by John Klein III on February 1, 2017
Posted in: Review. Tagged: Aaron, BobKat, Caramagna - Joe, Lockheed, Martin - Laura, Perez - Ramon, Wolverine and the X-Men. Leave a comment

Wolverine and the X-Men 29

Writer Jason Aaron

Artist Ramon Perez

Colorists Laura Martin

Letterer VC’s Joe Caramagna

Cover Dated July 2013

Wolverine and the X-Men 29 Recap Page

In the previous arc, Wolverine thought it would be a good idea to go to the Savage Land with some students – even though nothing good has ever happened to him there.  Glob Herman left the Jean Grey School to join the Hellfire Academy, as that is the next storyline in this issue.  This is one of those rare (but beloved) downtime issues that we are not treated too nearly enough these days.  In that storyline, Dog, James Howlett’s half brother, who turns out is a time traveling adventurer (as of course he is!) ran into his younger brother and beat him up pretty good.  I didn’t get that many of these issues (parts one and three) so I didn’t follow it all that clearly.  From this recap page, Logan was sent back in time at the request of Dog’s older self – so we got a bit of a Kang / Immortus situation there.  Eye-boy, remember him? Barely? Yeah me too.  Eye-boy realizes his potential to come and gathered the students and Jimmy James Howlett sent his older brother back to the future to be confronted by his same but much older half brother.

Wolverine and the X-Men 29 1 Lockheed

Now.  The Jean Grey School for Higher Learning.  Most of the present scenes are made up of Logan giving a speech.  It isn’t graduation day but more of a ‘back on track’ sort of speech.  Kitty and Lockheed made it, as did most mutants who were appearing in a comic at the time.

Earlier.  The Canadian Rockies.  Wolverine and Beast are looking for Dog’s trail.  Wolverine doesn’t want to be called “Logan,” as it is a fake name that he has grown to not like the origins of his name, as it the groundkeeper, Thomas Logan’s name, who is his actual father.

Wolverine is giving a bit of a motivation slash mission statement speech to the assembled school.

Earlier.  The Jean Grey School, Basement Level C.  Beast is looking over the items they did find in Dog Logan’s cabin.  They found a small box that they can’t seem to open – this will make up the backbone of the plot for the issue.

Iron Man 3 is on its way to theaters and there are several products to tie-in to the film.

Wolverine and the X-Men 29 2 Kitty phase power

Beast has tried several different ways to get the box opened.  Even Kitty tried to help but she couldn’t phase through it.  The box must have future origins.

Beast wants to know why Wolverine never told anyone about his half brother.  I guess there really wasn’t time to do so, after House of M.  That was when he got all of his memories, but I imagine he had drinks with Kurt, once, and probably told him then.  House of M was in 2010 so a lot happened between then and now (with this issue) including Schism that launched this title 28 issues earlier.  Avengers vs X-Men happened and Battle of the Atom is being talked about at X-Men retreats.  Most likely.

Wolverine tells Beast that his real name is James.  Beast takes the news well.

This speech of Wolveirne’s is leading up to burying a time capsule.  Something that always appears to happen in works of fiction but I never heard of anyone doing it in real life.

Wolverine and the X-Men 29 3 Lockheed

Professor W tells everyone to go to class.  Kitty applauds as he has come a long way from barely speaking three words to her during their first six months of knowing each other.  He was going through a lot, back then, having to deal with the death of the Phoenix Force and all that.

Wolverine tells Toad, the current janitor, that he can dig his own holes.  I like that he takes the time to apologize for digging into Krakoa.

25 Years Later.  Old Man Logan, but not that one, but does have that look, sort of – and the bamfs are digging up the time capsule.  A passing of time that could only happen like this, in a comic book.  An American superhero comic.  Millar / McNiven’s Old Man Logan came out in 2009 so the look has to be intentional.

Wolverine and the X-Men 29 4 Carmen Drake

Over the telepathic intercom, Professor Xorn gives an update of today’s agenda.  Along the walls of the school, we get who I imagine must be Kate Pryde in this timeline.  I like how Iceman has a beard, well two at this point – which will be hinted at later – one of them during Battle of the Atom.

Sasquatch, or Mr. Langkowski if you’re nasty – tells Carmen Drake to stop throwing snowballs in the hall.  Of course he would be named after Kitty’s father as Bobby’s father is a jerk.  Young Carmen has both of his parents’ powers – he can phase and he can create ice.  This character should show up more as he has a lot of potential.

I like how there is eventually a Warren Worthington IV and a Summer Grey as why not at that point.

Old Professor Man Logan and the Bamfs are looking over the time capsule.  He tries to place when the capsule was buried.  He gets the Savage Land adventure right.

In a floating Sentinel head, in space, Eye Man watches over the world, looking for trouble and making it double.  Eye Man is 40 now.  OPML is looking for some time travel gear but Eye Man keeps trying to get him to not use any of that technology.  It never works out well for the X-Men.

Old Logan wants to send Younger Logan something to warn him of the future days that lay ahead.  Eye Man goes to Earth to help out a mission and Old Logan finds what he was looking for.

Present Day.  Wolverine is digging the hole and finds another item.  It is the key taped to a letter from his older self.

There is a full page house ad for the upcoming Hellfire Saga, that starts next issue – we’ve reviewed a few of them and will do the whole thing, one of these days.

That ad perfectly transitions us to Dog Logan punching his future self out, he doesn’t stop there and kills his older self.  Which why his older self would send his younger self on this mission, in the first place, is beyond me.  Kade Kilgore, and his assistant, The Philistine, offer Dog Logan a teaching position.

Wolverine opens the box and finds a sail boat – which is nice.

Epilogue.  Oya ties Broo (who is essentially an animal here as he was shot in the head in an earlier issue) to a base of a fallen X-Man’s statue.  Which I liked that touch, we never got to see them enough.  The issue ends with Oya, crying, as she joins the Hellfire Academy.  She’s going to work it from the inside.

X-Men Titles on sale in May –

A+X 8 – Captain America + Wolverine!  Hawkeye + Deadpool!  My issue eight is Spider-Woman + Kitty Pryde with Lockheed.  Cap & Wolverine get issue nine but this issue does have Hawkeye and Deadpool.
All New X-Men 11 – Which member of the original X-Men is leaving the team to join the Uncanny X-Men?
Astonishing X-Men 62 – In the aftermath of X-Termination, Iceman faces his worst enemy: himself!
Cable and X-Force 8
Deadpool 9 & 10
Gambit 12 & 13
Savage Wolverine 5
Uncanny X-Men 6 – Lost in Limbo.  Set upon by the dread Dormammu and his mindless ones!
Wolverine 3
Wolverine and the X-Men 29 & 30 – First: The Future of the Jean Grey School!  Then: How far will Beast go to save young Broo?
X-Factor 255 & 256
X-Men 1 – An all-new series from Brian Wood and Olivier Coipel, starring the women of the X-Men!
X-Men Legacy 10 & 11 – Legion tracks down an anti-mutant activist — but is he really who he claims to be?

I can’t recall if this is the beginning of double shipping, the middle of it or the ending of it but those are a lot of comics for one month.

I own so many of these, for once!

. . .

Walker Dennis is three years old today!  This may be my last of my Pryde’s Pride issues, unless I can buy that variant cover to Wolverine and the X-Men 25 and Marvel Zombies Halloween Special – if not, I’ll just have to do a back issue post or something to celebrate my little mijo’s birthday on this blog.

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Fun With YouTube : Todrick Hall

Posted by John Klein III on January 31, 2017
Posted in: Fun With YouTube, Songs. Tagged: Music, YouTube. Leave a comment

In finding different videos for Walker Dennis to enjoy, I came across Todrick Hall’s YouTube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/user/todrickhall/videos

I didn’t realize he had so many videos until writing this post!

I first saw his Evolution of Disney video and really enjoyed it –

Then YouTube offered that I may enjoy his 90s Disney video

Which I enjoy more and it features Shoshana Bean, who I really enjoy in this video.

After watching the Evolution of Disney, I always feel like relistening to “I’ll Make A Man Out of You” from Mulan –

Thanks to YouTuber XFliiy for hosting the video and todrickhall for hosting his own videos.

Whenever I see Yao, I always think of him as Disney’s Wolverine – but then I can’t think of other Disney characters to match the rest of the X-Men but I would always start with that match.  Am I the only one who has that thought?  They are both short and hairy, with an attitude, I guess is what cements it for me.

. . .

Happy Birthday to me!

 

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Ultimate Spider-Man 95

Posted by John Klein III on January 30, 2017
Posted in: Review. Tagged: Bagley, Bendis, Morbius, Palmiotti, Petit - Cory, Ultimate Spider-Man. Leave a comment

Ultimate Spider-Man 95

Writer Brian Michael Bendis

Penciler Mark Bagley

Inkers John Dell and Jimmy Palmiotti

Colorist Richard Isanove

Letterer VC’s Cory Petit

Cover Dated July 2006

Morbius, Part One of Two

This issue takes place right after the conclusion of the Deadpool arc, which this is a two part story – so that makes six, which is a trade!

Months Ago.  Spider-Man breaks up a would-be mugging but that isn’t what is happening.  We see Ultimate Blade, and of course, Spider-Man thinks he is the heavy in the scene.  The person Spider-Man thinks is being mugged, turns out to be a vampire and Spider-Man loses his mind and panics.  Blade cuts himself out of the webbing and kills the vampire.

Ultimate Spider-Man 95 Shadowcat 1

Today.  Peter calls his girlfriend, Kitty Pryde.  During the Deadpool arc, with all of the hidden cameras, the world has discovered that Shadowcat and Spider-Man are dating.  So now the Internet is blowing up about the pair.  Xavier has grounded all of the X-Men, so Kitty can’t hang out with him.  Her being in Storm’s room implies they are good friends, but are any of them decent friends?

So now that the world knows Shadowcat is dating Spider-Man, and on such a huge stage – Kitty Pryde can’t date Peter Parker, so they have to keep hiding their real relationship.

Ultimate Spider-Man 95 Shadowcat 2

For once, Peter gets to show that he is concerned with the relationship being over.  Kitty assures him that they are still together.

What would their celebrity name be?  Spider-Cat is way to obvious.  As far as I know, the online community in RL never came them a name, like they did with Proper Kitty Pryde and Iceman (Bobkat) and Kitty Pryde and Peter Quill (StarKat).  ShadowSpider is pretty cool.

Peter overhears Jameson shouting vampires at Ben Urich.  Jonah is not going to run some silly story about vampires.  Phil has the extremely excellent point that the world they live in as – mutants, Spider-guys, super soldiers and billionaires in flying tanks, vampires shouldn’t be too far fetch.  Both Marvel Universes have not been the same since the 1940s.

Peter borrows a copy of the article and sees that Ben interviews Jennifer Grunwald, who is based off of the then head of the trade collections at Marvel.  She was an active poster over on the JoeQuesada.com message boards.  We get to read the article and see the images of Ben’s interview.

Ultimate Spider-Man 95 Shadowcat mention 1

Later at school.  Peter runs into Mary Jane, who is not happy.  Peter didn’t tell her of his new girlfriend, she had to read about it in People.  Did the Daily Bugle not want to cover the story?

Ultimate Spider-Man 95 Shadowcat mention 2

Mary Jane is acting like there is some sort of betrayal here.  He broke up with her as she wouldn’t stop getting herself almost killed.  Now he has a girlfriend who can take care of herself.  It was two weeks ago, that they broke up.  Her calling Kitty, a gangly-girl, is pretty insulting.

Mary Jane asks a hard question, does he love Kitty?

There is an add for the MC2 Universe story – Last Planet Standing – which is fun with Secret Wars 2015 on the verge of coming out.

Ultimate Spider-Man 95 Shadowcat mention 3

Peter says no, not yet – which is pretty honest.  He and Kitty do have loads in common and are perfect together.

Mary Jane asks if he knew Kitty while they were dating.  He did but they were not even friends.

Mary Jane walks away, Peter mistakenly suggests that she may want to start dating other dudes.  She gets all weird about it, asking him if he is ready to see her making out with dudes and going out on dates – like it even matters to him.  I do enjoy that her ‘revenge’ on him is all physical acts.  As she walks away, Peter confirms that they are still friends – her reaction is pretty boss – Yay for me.  Peter mutters to watch out for vampires.

Someone not taking that advice is Ben Urich.  Jennifer is in the traditional slutty vampire gear and she bites him on the neck.  Over at the Daily Bugle, Betty Brant (who never gets much play), tells Peter that Ben hasn’t been seen in over a day.  She suspects that Ben was finally killed by the Kingpin.

There is an ad for X-Men Fairy Tales, it isn’t very good.

Spider-Man swings across town, he looked up Jennifer’s address and sees a cloud of bats and that cloud turns into wolf.  Spider-Man has to fight off the wolf as the issue ends with Morbius telling Spider-Man that he can’t win this fight.  I don’t own the next issue but I can tell you this, Ben Urich doesn’t die.

Inside back cover ad is for X-Men : The Official Game, the game that ‘bridges’ between X-Men 1 and X-Men 2.  The Wolverine levels are fun, Nightcrawler’s are my favorite and Iceman’s are tedious.

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Uncanny X-Men (1990) Collection by Tor Books

Posted by John Klein III on January 29, 2017
Posted in: Review. Tagged: Uncanny. Leave a comment

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I keep stating that my first X-Men comic was Classic X-Men 81. Which I bought off the shelf in March 1993.  But it really was this small, nowadays would be considered Manga sized trade. It collected Uncanny X-Men 110 (which I didn’t remember until I looked it up for this post).  It also collected Uncanny 123 & 124, which sadly I don’t own as it doesn’t involved Kitty Pryde at all, we have to wait five more issues after 124 for that.

This trade here, which is in black and white, I must have read at least hundreds of times.  It is the reason why I am such a huge fan of Arcade as a villain.  Murderworld, as a concept, a giant amusement park, meant to kill you, is an awesome plot device.  Artists can have loads of fun drawing whatever the writer can come up with.  There are times when I feel like it can be far too elaborate, like this one time Nightcrawler went into a Murderworld to rescue this one gal and that Murderworld had to be seven cities wide.

I bought this trade when it was in my school’s book catalog, that I sort of miss, super inexpensive books and that’s where I fell in love with R.L. Stine’s Fear Street novels.  Which that series got way out of control.  I wonder why Goosebumps is the more popular series?  There was a time when I thought HBO should have started adapting Fear Street novels as a television series, whenever I think of Fear Street, I always get a Meatloaf CD in my mind as I use to read those books to his music.  Great addition to the experience.  Now I can’t think of the one without the other.

I am sure I must have bought it as the summary for it would have stated “guest starring Spider-Man” and he is in like two pages, if that.  And those two issues are pretty funny in retrospect, as at this point, Spider-Man has gone up against Arcade so he knows the sound of Arcade’s dump truck when it abducts people.  He hears the same sound, wonders about warning the other X-Men, decides against it, and swings off.

It was a great way to learn the characters, get a very slim slice of who they are and what their powers are, their interactions.  It is written by Chris Claremont, so what I mean by that is, it was a slim slice in terms of, out of hundreds of issues, I got exposed to three of them.

The production of the trade is a little bizarre, as it isn’t a clear copy of the issues proper, like you get with trades.  Each page has maybe four to five panels reproduced.  Which is probably while it is a decent book size.  It does add to the pace of the story, and if they copied it page for page, panel for panel, it would be extremely hard to read with the size of the book.  All the panels are accounted for, it is an odd way to reprint the story.  The panels are also a tad larger than they were on the page originally.

This came out in November of 1990, so I got exposed (eXposed?) to the X-Men and clearly got so excited I waited nearly 28 months before wanting to read another adventure of theirs.

Funny now, this was Claremont/Byrne/Austin about to hit their superstar status and I enjoyed it but there was no way I would have cared how these stories were created.  I am pretty sure that I was taking creative teams for granted.   I was eight in 1990 and 11 in 1993 (had to do my own math there).  I was in 3rd grade and I still remember that brown classroom at James D. Elementary School, with Mrs. Hendrickson.  It is a real shame we can’t look up old elementary school friends on Facebook, as I would love to see what those classmates are up too these days.  Like how we have High School information and College, add it as a feature.  Though last I checked, they modified the high school so that you can’t just look up your graduating year, which is a silly revision in my opinion. I was obsessed with the idea of that school doing a Sixth Grade reunion like you hear High Schools do.  I’m sure we are all drastically different, even by the time we get to high school in those two years time.

Arcade shows up again to harass the X-Men, not too many issues later for Uncanny 146 and 147, which stars either Dr. Doom or a Doombot, pending on your reading order.

When I decided to invest in buying all of Magik’s appearances, I got my two Arcade stories confused and had to take a deep breath (before doing the research) as Illyana (before all of the cruelty that happens to her in 160) shows up in 146 and not 123.  Illyana doesn’t make any appearances outside of Giant Size to this Arcade story.  Debut 1975 as a plot device for Colossus, and then shows up in 146 in 1981.  Six years of stories of her on the farm, is what we missed out on!

When I was 8, I was just happy to read anything with superheroes and didn’t even think that some guy had to write the story, then some other guy penciled it and I’m sure I thought someone wrote the words and then this other guy did all of the actual visual stuff.

It probably wasn’t until much later in my comic reading habit where I even took note of who wrote the comic and that the inker is a separate person from the penciler.   These are the things a young comic reader takes for granted.

I’m sure it wasn’t until I started buying Wizard monthly where I even gave the reality of making comics a second thought.  Just took for granted that these stories were coming out month in and month out.  Hey, what is Spider-Man up to this month?  Instead of, what adventure of Spider-Man is Howard Mackie with John Romita Jr. giving me this month.

Arcade, there was a moment a couple months ago when I thought about downloading some Arcade stories through Comixology but apparently writers have not been consistent in his portrayal.  If he isn’t in a completely white tuxedo with a big floppy head of red hair, that’s not my Arcade.  I should have at least been reading Avengers Arena, but from what I’ve heard, he is the overall villain, but he isn’t in every issue.  When they first announced Avengers Arena, I thought it was one of those dumb cash grabs to take advantage of Hunger Games (a lesser Battle Royale) but once I read that it is all due to Arcade, I gave the series instant points for how clever that is, as that is right up his alley.

One of these days I will have to do proper reviews of the time Arcade put Excalibur through Murderworld.  Every member got to be spotlighted.  That is another awesome thing about Arcade, when he goes after groups, he puts each separate member into a deathtrap, so each member gets a chance to shine.

Of Arcade’s 92 appearances, I already own 21 of them, and just need to buy X-Men Classic 49 to get all of the ones that Kitty is also part of the adventure.

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Ultimate Spider-Man 200

Posted by John Klein III on January 28, 2017
Posted in: Review. Tagged: Bagley, Bendis, Brooks, Hennessy - Drew, Lafuente, Marquez, Miles Morales, Petit - Cory, Pichelli, Ponsor, Ultimate Spider-Man. Leave a comment

Ultimate Spider-Man 200

Writer Brian Michael Bendis

Art Dave Marquez

Art (Kitty Pryde Sequence) David LaFuente

Art (Miles Morales Sequence) Sara Pichelli

Art (Gwen Stacy Sequence) Mark Brooks

Art (MJ and May Parker Sequence) Mark Bagley & Andrew Hennessy

Colors Justin Ponsor

Lettering VC’s Cory Petit

So I bought this issue with my Christmas giftcard to Mile High Comics.  I went with the Peter cover as he is my Ultimate Spider-Man.  If Kitty’s face was on the Miles’ cover, I would have gone with that one but she isn’t.  I had special ordered this issue from Hastings, but they didn’t get their shipment that week (for two weeks!) so I missed out on the issue originally.  If they were out of the Peter covers, I would have been fine with the Miles one.

Ultimate Spider-Man 200 Shadowcat 0

It is weird that Mary Jane and Gwen are both captioned with being Peter’s ex-girlfriends but Kitty isn’t, right?  What is up with that?

I suppose that it is nice that Kitty Pryde isn’t ‘just’ his ex-girlfriend, she has a proper identity outside of him.  I do like how Kenny is only Kitty’s ex-boyfriend – nice that both genders have people with that label.

Queens, Today.  Miles and his friend, Ganke, are on their way to the Parker home.  Ganke is Miles’ plus one, so he brought a gift.  Apparently, he likes Legos and made Gwen a Lego related gift.

The Home of Peter Parker.  Which is up for sale by Realtor Alison Blaire, who is Dazzler’s real name but I don’t see Ultimate Dazzler as a Realtor.   Plus, she died during Ultimatum.

Mary Jane is walking towards the house, with Liam, some dude who understands that she doesn’t want him to go into the house with her.  He kisses her on the cheek, so there’s that.

In a limo, Jessica Drew and Bombshell is arriving.  Their driver almost hits Liam, which on the page before, Mary Jane tells him to not get hit by a car.  The driver references Galactus, so this issue takes place after Cataclysm.

Liz Allen, Firestar, catches up with Iceman, who is on his way to the Parker home as well.  The Human Torch flies on the opposite side and of course, Iceman’s slide melts and he drops.  Which is super funny!

We see the e-mail that May sent to everybody.  Her e-mail address is – silverhippy@jeemail.com

Miles hugs Aunt May.  Ganke gives Gwen the Lego present and she really likes it, Miles watches on as he is concern how this will go.  Gwen gives Ganke a big ol’ kiss, and goes upstairs to put her present away.  Is that ever revealed, what it was?  Or do they ever kiss again?

The doorbell rings and Aunt May answers it.  She sees a giant catering service, Tony Stark couldn’t attend so he sent truckloads of food.

Ultimate Spider-Man 200 Shadowcat 1

Kitty phases through the door, like only she can!  Kitty hugs Miles for saving her life.  This issue takes place after Cataclysm.  Kitty had punched Galactus to his stupid purple hat wearing face and she was about to get sucked into the N-Zone but Miles saved her from that fate.  Thor had already gone through as Kitty was already shrinking and Galactus needed that extra shove.  Invisible Woman also assisted in saving Shadowcat.

I’m not sure exactly how Kitty’s hair goes from long in that first panel, to short for the rest of the issue.

Is that look from Jessica foreshadowing All New Ultimates 4 reveal?

Johnny and Gwen start talking about the fallout from Kitty saving the world.  Kitty wasn’t that impressed with meeting the President.  I imagine not, having being screwed over with the whole Nation X fiasco.

I still don’t get the whole mutant racism in either Marvel Universe.  Liz puts it best, how she is essentially a female Human Torch (plus the daughter of the Blob) but she is hated and feared and he gets to be the poster child of superhero cool.

Aunt May greets Kitty, who says that she thinks about Peter all of the time.  Poor Kitty, I still don’t get why he downgraded from her to Mary Jane.  Except that Mary Jane survived Clone Saga and Peter took petty on her.

Ultimate Spider-Man 200 Shadowcat A

So the knock on the door Aunt May answered, was Kenny!  Kitty came through the back, so Kitty’s entrance happened at the same time.  Which is a fun art / story choice.

Kitty hasn’t seen Kenny since they ran away with each other and lived in the sewers for a while.  When next we saw Kitty, she told everyone that they broke up as Kenny couldn’t take living on the run.  This all happened during the “Tainted Love” storyline in Spider-Man.  Well, the school trying to harass Kitty and her and Kong leaving together.  Kitty reveals Kenny’s fate in Ultimate Spider-Man 155, when she comes back to publication and Peter’s surprised birthday party.  His last before his death, mere days later.  Kenny and his parents moved to Wisconsin, so no one has seen him since he disappeared.  He looks like he lost some weight.  People give Kenny the reputation that he is Bendis’ avatar in the story, which was cool until he started dating Kitty Pryde – then it became a tad . . . creepy isn’t the right word.

That is a nice hug from the two of them.  I mostly remember Kenny being a real jerk to Peter, when he was closer to Flash, but he told Peter he knew his Spider-secret and they became a tad closer after that.  I’m not sure if Mary Jane is right in that they were close friends.

Kitty wants to talk to Kenny later, but I’m not sure if they ever do.  It is never referenced again and Kenny isn’t seen again.

Ultimate Spider-Man 200 Shadowcat B

I do like Ultimate Jameson, it makes sense that after seeing Spider-Man’s heroism, that he would dedicate his online newspaper, is there a better word for that?, to covering Spider-Man.  Not the menace he originally thought but the hero he really is.  He took Peter’s death rather hard, as he knew Peter.

It makes sense that Jameson wouldn’t want to be inside the Parker home, what would he even do there besides be wall paper?  May could chat with him but after the initial ten minutes, what is the point.  His presence would probably change the atmosphere, with what people can talk about with him around.

Mary Jane and Gwen hugging Kenny is nice, supporting characters should appreciate each other.

Aunt May directs everyone back inside.

Ultimate Spider-Man 200 Shadowcat 2

I like Ganke’s idea of inviting Stark to everything, just for the free gift – that’s a genius right there!

That’s a great panel, representing that super awkward silence.

Mary Jane sets up the concept of the next few pages, with people talking about What If Ultimate Peter Parker Was Still Alive?  Or what would the future be like if he was still alive.

Mary Jane starts the sequence with her dream.

Spider-Man is in his Iron Spider costume slash armor.  Bagley gets to draw Spider-Woman, Giant Man, Human Torch, Thor, Iron Man, Nick Fury, Hulk, Miles Spider-Man, Cloak and Dagger and Thing.

Mary Jane describes how Nick Fury came into her room once, which will have to be intense.  Fury was grooming Peter to be the greatest hero the world has ever known.

Ultimate Spider-Man 200 Shadowcat old costume

Aunt May goes next.  I’m including her vision because of the inclusion of Kitty Pryde’s other costumed identity that she debuted in Ultimate Spider-Man 91 – the beginning of the Deadpool arc.  Man, I really should review some Ultimate Spider-Man issues as I’m sort of loving this memory lane that this issue has me going down.

I’m not sure why Aunt May includes it in her thought.  Or why Bagley did.  I do like that robotic Scarlet Spider, I’m a nut for that design.

I completely get May’s thought that Peter would maybe outgrow this superhero idea of his.  It reminds me of Kevin Smith’s Daredevil run, where he wrote Murdock’s end-game being that once he had a child, he would hang up the red costume.  Which seems like a natural time to stop.  Karen told him that she rather kept trying to save the world, so that their child would have a future to grow up with but I side with Murdock on this one.

May’s idea of how Peter would most likely combine his two loves – Spider-Man and Science, for some Spider-Science!  Then I think about Proper Peter Parker and how he only now has Parker Industries and that is only because Doctor Octopus, being the Superior Spider-Man – in every way – came up with that idea.

Gwen talks about one of Peter’s life goals.  He wanted to, one day, combine his love for fighting crime in a blue and red leotard and his love for the news.  He would want to combine the two, so he could fight crimes that no one knows about, or know about instantly.  Or he would want to expose stories that he heard about in the superhero community.  Sort of like Superman.

Miles’ thinks about how nice it would be if he could have teamed up with Peter, sort of like he did during Spider-Men.

Ultimate Spider-Man 200 Shadowcat splash

How tragic is Kitty’s page?  Done all the better by LaFuente and (I imagine) Ponsor.  Great use of purple.  She would have married Peter, if he wasn’t an idiot.

Her in her Shroud identity and him as Spider-Man, fighting crime.  Spider-Man teaming up with the latest incarnation of the X-Men, would have been fun.  I don’t get why Morbius is there, at all.  She wasn’t in even that storyline, except for a small part, which was Non-Morbius related.  This was Ultimate Spider-Man 95.

I do like adult Peter and Kitty together, also, how sweet and sour those bottom images are, as they are simply them spending quiet time together.

I imagine with Kenny in the room, she doesn’t want to voice any of this.

Iceman finishes the sequences with how he and Peter would have owned the superhero community, becoming super popular.

Ultimate Spider-Man 200 Shadowcat C

More awkward silence.

Gwen, who luckily wears a black headband (classic!) so we can tell her apart from Liz – wants to do some good.  Miles gets the great idea to donate the food, which leads into the conclusion of the issue.

a

Ultimate Spider-Man 200 Shadowcat D

Everyone heads back to the Parker home, so they can say their goodbyes in private.

Garke gets a second kiss, this time on the cheek, from Gwen.  Does this get followed up on?  It must, as Bendis has a proper Spider-Man title to write.

Kitty whispers something into Kenny’s ear and waves good to the rest of the crew.  This, though, does not get followed up on as Fiffe gets to write her in All New Ultimates.  Which I imagine this issue is suppose to come first, as the Ultimates don’t seem to be hanging out with each other in this issue.

People start departing, the heroes first by flying or sliding away.  The normal folk leave last.  The issue’s last panel is that someone is watching on.

The last section of the comic, is all of the Ultimate Spider-Man covers up to this point – which is a fun way to show how they came up with the number 200.  As there isn’t 200 issues of a comic title, Ultimate Spider-Man, so to make it work, some funny math is used.

Ultimate Spider-Man – 133 issues
Ultimate Six – 7 issues
Ultimate Comics Spider-Man Volume One – 15 issues
Ultimate Spider-Man 150 – 160 – 11 issues
Ultimatum : Spider-Man Requiem – 2 issues
Ultimate Comics Spider-Man Volume Two – 28 issues
Cataclysm : Ultimate Comics Spider-Man – 3 issues
Ultimate Spider-Man 200

So yeah, that is 200 issues.

Pretty great issue!  I read that the mysterious figure is Ultimate Spider-Man himself, Peter Parker,  Anyone who has the Oz formula in them, is immortal.  So Norman and his son Harry, and Peter Parker.  But I’m not sure if that is still true.

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Amazing Spider-Man 370

Posted by John Klein III on January 27, 2017
Posted in: Uncategorized. Tagged: Amazing Spider-Man. Leave a comment

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Sometimes I look at Amazing Spider-Man 370 and I’m amazed with how I wasn’t turn away with how intimidating it should have been for a new reader.  It is in the middle of a storyline.  The Scorpion and Black Cat are on the cover, not the two biggest names in Spider-Man’s cast of characters.  Though I do like the Black Cat.  This is before the 90s FOX Spider-Man cartoon, so I didn’t really know Scorpion yet.  Promoting the mystery of Peter’s parents.  It is shipping twice that month, so I’m going to have to come back soon to get the next issue.  Right there in a corner, Spider-Man turn 30, so there is 30 years of history with the character.  I think about when Quesada was running Marvel and how he made a point, for a year there, that all covers had to be essentially posters with no hint at what was going on inside the covers, that was a disappointing era, artistically.

The comic is cover dated December 1992, so it probably came out sometime in October of that year.  I have been reading comics, essentially straight, for twenty two years with no real breaks.

Spider-Man One More Day came out in 2007 so I was a hardcore Spider-Man fan for 15 years.

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Spider-Men 4

Posted by John Klein III on January 26, 2017
Posted in: Review. Tagged: Bendis, Miles Morales, Petit - Cory, Pichelli, Ponsor, Spider-Men. Leave a comment

Spider-Men 4

Writer Brian Michael Bendis

Artist Sara Pichelli

Colorist Justin Ponsor

Letterer Cory Petit

Cover Dated October 2012

I got this issue for the two Ultimate Shadowcat references.

This is the first crossover between the Proper Marvel Universe and the Ultimate Universe.  Ultimate Mysterio, turns out, was really Mysterio using an avatar.  This issue, is the downtime issue, where a bunch of fan service is done.

Queens, New York.  Peter Parker is taking his mask off in front of Ultimate Aunt May and Gwen Stacy.  He can’t believe how young both of them are.  May slaps him and knocks him to the ground and Gwen starts stomping on him.

Miles is there, and those two know him, so he tries to quickly explain the situation.  He’s from an alternate Earth, meanwhile, Peter is ashamed of his decision to come to Queens.  He had only wanted to see where his counterpart lived.  I don’t get why, of all of the alternate Earths and timelines, this one seems to effect him the most.  Maybe, it is due to how much time he is spending here or how similar it is to his home.  Aunt May faints, so some things never change.

The Triskelion — Headquarters of SHIELD.  The US Sanctioned Task Force.  Fury and Stark are chatting.  Stark is mostly embarrassed, as he doesn’t know how Mysterio broke the barrier between worlds.  Fury tries to be helpful, he agrees that they have to bring Parker back in.  He still feels guilty for not doing enough to save his Peter.

Gwen calls Mary Jane, she wants her to know that an older Peter Parker is here.

Now, we get to the fun part of the issue.  Aunt May wakes up and overhears a conversation as she goes upstairs.  Gwen is explaining to Peter the plot of Ultimate Spider-Man 66 / 67, when Ultimate Spider-Man and Wolverine switched bodies.  I own the second one of those issues, so I’ll review it one of these days.

Peter confirms that Gwen lives with Aunt May, she explains it is because her father is dead and her mother left.  Gwen asks about her counterpart, and Peter evades the questions for the most part.  Gwen wants to know if they dated, which he quietly explains that it is complicated.  She mentions MJ and his ears perk up.

Peter states that his MJ is a model, which blows Gwen’s mind.  She fancies herself much more the model type, as Ultimate Mary Jane is more of a bookworm sort.  Gwen really wants to know where she is on Peter’s world.  I get him not wanting to tell her that his Gwen cheated on him with his best friend’s father, who is also his second greatest enemy.  Then she made out with Peter, went to Europe for four months, gave birth to full formed twins and came back, made out with Peter again and then his best friend’s father throws her off a bridge.  In a lame attempt to save her, he breaks her neck with a webline.  So yeah, I get that he doesn’t want to ruin the laughs that they are having.

Peter notices Aunt May and asks her how she is doing.

There is an ad for the Honda Civic, so go out and buy one. It has 41 MPG Highway, so that’s pretty good.

Gwen is super excited to try to explain what and where Peter is from,  Peter tells Aunt May that he isn’t stuck here, or that he is, but it is only temporary.  Miles wonders what Peter’s world Miles is up too.  When this series was officially released, I read the first two or three issues and then maybe the fifth one.  Hastings didn’t have any copies of four – so that’s why I had to buy this as a back issue.  But the fifth issue ends with Peter, on his world, doing a Google search for “Miles Morales” and that is how the series ends.  With his eyes going wide and we haven’t had any teases to it since.  Since Miles may be coming to the Proper Marvel Universe, we may find out what that is.

Peter confirms he has an Aunt May and she raised him along with Uncle Ben.  She wonders if he is alive there, and sadly, he is dead due to Peter’s inaction.  Peter starts his “With Great Power” and she finishes “Comes Great Responsibility.”  This confirms that he is her Peter.

Spider-Men 4 Ultimate Shadowcat mention 1

They hug and that’s a nice moment.  Aunt May appreciates having this opportunity to finally say goodbye to a Peter.  Aunt May tells Peter that she knew he was Spider-Man before he died.  Good thing, as he died on her front yard, that would have been awkward otherwise.  Once he died, the world learned that Peter Parker was Spider-Man and he died a hero.  Gwen mentions, Osborn, and Peter goes cold.  Next, she mentions Kitty Pryde knowing him and that intrigues him, as it should.

Spider-Men 4 Ultimate Shadowcat mention 2

Gwen tells him that his Ultimate version dated Kitty Pryde, of the X-Men.  One would think think that he would go straight back to his world and date his version of Shadowcat.  That is the right thing to do.  Bendis could have done two more issues of just him telling them about his world and them doing the same with their world.

I like Gwen being shocked that Mary Jane is a supermodel as she fancies herself the better looking one.

Miles notices the SHIELD limousine.

Fury enters the Parker home, and Peter knows he has to go and hugs Aunt May.  He also hugs Gwen, which must keep him awake at night.

Once outside, Fury tells Miles to go home.  Peter rather Miles sticks near him and Fury concedes.  Before Peter gets in the van, he sees Mary Jane.  Why he feels so comfortable walking about in full costume but with his mask off, who is he, Tobey Maguire?

Peter takes a step towards her and she darts off.  Once in the van, Miles wonders if Peter has a Nick Fury.  Peter says his is white and Fury is sorry to hear that.  Which is pretty funny.

Aunt May is proud of how she raised Peter and Gwen tells her that she is going to write a book.   The van that the boys are in, flies off.

Peter meets Ultimate Tony and Tony quickly learns that he has an equal in the room.  He tells Tony that his Stark quit drinking a while ago.  Fury like the idea of a sober Stark.  I like Peter telling Tony that Stark hired him, for a time.

Miles recognizes where Mysterio was broadcasting from.  Tony is all types of confused by how a guy like Mysterio figured all of this out.  I do like the idea of a Mysterio taking to YouTube and making his own videos, that makes sense.

I guess they are still seeking Ultimate Mysterio and Fury sends everybody to the location.  The issue ends with who everybody is – Spider-Men, Thor and iron Man.  So I guess only Thor was the only new addition.

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