I pretty much only own this for the article regarding the 1993 Annuals, that I’m obsess with. Owning this now, means that I own every appearance by Khaos of Excalibur Annual 1 fame.
More information about the annuals can be found here :
I really like this handbook – it is one of those ones that isn’t just a picture of a character and a summary of who they are. It is done in a very clever way. It feels like we are looking through the character’s eyes at his desk and what he is seeing.
The jist of this issue is that Ian McNee, a sorcerer, has this Tarot Deck that was given to him by Doctor Strange. He has had it for a decade and now he is noticing that magic is falling apart.
This issue serves as a jumping on point for the Mystic Arcana series of one shots. I own only a few of them. This one, the Magik issue and the proper Handbook.
There is this cool opening page of the four elements and Magik represents air.
Black Knight is Earth. Scarlet Witch is Water. Sister Grimm is Fire.
Magik’s Limbo and the Winding Way are referenced as The Archipelago of Anguish and Redemption.
This poor stylish Handbook regarding magic in the Marvel Universe, had to make a reference to the Superhero Civil War. For shame
The Winding Way gets its own page. On it, Amanda Selfton, her mother and Nightcrawler are referenced. Amanda’s time as Magik is mentioned, as well as, that her tenure in the role may be coming to an end. Which it really is.
Then on page 31, we see that Magik is the face on the Justice card. Except for when it is Valkeryie, both characters were dead at the time, so is unsettling.
Here is the collection of the Tarot cards that has Magik on it. There is some simply amazing art in this.
The rest of the issue is pretty interesting as well. I am not much of a magic type of reader but even trying to skim the issue just for Magik references, there is a lot of time and effort that went into designing this issue and researching it as well.
On June 21, Ian McNee first notices the Tarot cards are broken.
On July 7, 2007 – he starts doing the research into the cards and keeping track of it in his journal.
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.
By this point, I had stopped buying New Mutants as Magik had graduated to the big league and was a member of Cyclops’ Extinction Team. I had heard this was a great crossover, with it winning the Best Crossover Award over at the Comic Book Resources X-Books forum.
This was at the time when the Asgardians were living in Broxton, Oklahoma. I’m not sure why they are there, I vaguely remember it was due to that being where they were reborn after Ragnarok. My only interaction with it was during the Siege crossover as that is where the bulk of the story takes place.
The cast of characters are :
Journey into Mystery – Loki / Thor / Hela / Tyr / Leah / Fandral / Volstagg / Hogun
New Mutants – Warlock / Sunspot / Magma / Cypher / Dani / X-Man
The recap page is done by a young boy who is doing it as if it was a board game, which makes sense in the middle of the comic when we see him again. This is the only part of the crossover that I own (or will own) so any unanswered questions are just going to have to be that. Though it does a decent job of exposing the world.
This issue opens with the New Mutants, in San Francisco, and some people have disappeared, as Dani says. Doug corrects her, a running theme of the issue, that when gods disappear – they are banished. oh Doug, learn to read a room!
Dani wants to call the Broxton police as they will know who to contact in the Asgardian community to let them know that Aesir and Disir are either dead or banished.
Dani’s next step, and the reason why I bought this, is to go to Utopia and get Magik. Magik can trace the energy signature and be able to send the team after the trail. Sunspot pipes up stating that she is their resident magical guru.
Just then, they are home again and eating Doug’s muffins. They are acting as if that’s what they have been doing this entire time. Actually, the muffins are from next door but Doug is going to use his power as food is a language and he can get the receipe via eating it. I’m not sure if that is how his power can actually do, I know it is in a comic and he said it but from what I’ve read Abnett & Lanning, collectively known as DnA (their first names – though I do wonder if Lanning ever doesn’t care for it as it is essentially just Abnett’s initials), they really pushed Doug’s power to some high limits.
Dani also questions if that is how his powers works, which may be a meta message as Gillen might be questioning his partner writers in Doug’s powers.
X-Man walks into the room and slaps the muffin out of Dani’s hands (he’s a jerk!) and he explains how today is Saturday and the last thing everyone should remember is that it was only Friday night mere seconds ago. Doug pipes up that he can also see that time has been rewritten.
Dani starts speaking aloud, about how Sigurd had unrolled a piece of paper. To which Doug corrects her that it is called, a scroll. Oh Doug, if you ever had a chance with Dani – you are losing it!
The doorbell rings and there is a blonde mechanic outside, apologizing for the delay in fixing their vehicle. He’s speaking with the Asgardian font – which get use to it as once we leave the team, everyone talks in that font.
The mechanic had to repair the church and so that caused the delay in their car repair so he knock a few hundred dollars off. The church is where a woman support group meets, which that group gets mention later in the issue as well.
Magma is given the keys to the car, as they are mesmerized by the mechanic. He is force to comment on how they are just staring at the poor guy. He leaves as he is given no response.
Once he is gone, Sunspot shouts that was Thor and they all run after the mechanic. The mechanic has made it to his garage, so the New Mutants must have been staring off at him for quite some time.
I’m being confused by the setting of the story, are they in San Francisco or are they in Braxton with the Asgardians? Or is there a weird divide and they can be in two locations at the same time? I’m sure those types of answers were established in the first story.
So the New Mutants confront the mechanic, he laughs at being called, Thor. He is a blonde mechanic with a giant hammer, he gets a lot. He also makes a reference to the awesome Elizabeth Shue film, Adventures in Babysitting.
Thanks to YouTuber geligniteandallies for hosting the video!
Yes, that is Vincent D’Onofrio! He’s going to be the Kingpin in the Netflix Daredevil series.
I still wonder what made the scriptwriter, David Simkins, write Thor into the script. So funny now, back in 1987, Marvel would have let anyone use their characters (hence the reason why FOX owns X-Men and Fantastic Four and Sony has Spider-Man) but Disney made Adventures in Babysitting (via Touchstone Pictures) and now they own Marvel, so they can have Thor be in all of their films. If only!
Speaking of Thor, I like the character, I just have some caveats. I like him on Earth, for the most part. I get he’s an Asgardian but I have no real interest in the day to day of that. I mostly like him in team environments or when he is surrounded by other known characters, like in a crossover event. The only time I ever bought his solo ongoing was after Heroes Return when Dan Jurgens (of Superman fame) and John Romita Jr. was on art. That was such a great series! Plenty of guest stars and they did do Asgard but they made it interesting.
Anyway, what I’m getting at is that I really like Adventures in Babysitting and I’m surprised it took this long to make a reference to it in Thor related comic. Unless it happens more than I know but I doubt it.
So the Asgardians (who I’m not sure know that they are Asgardians or if they fake it in case people are ease dropping) dress in everyday clothes and have regular jobs. Fandral enters the garage and speaks with Thor about the mistaken identity. Fandral’s name is Andy and Thor’s is Arthur (get it?)
In another house, young children named, Luke and Leia (yep) are in their house alone. Luke is playing a board game of strategy and Leia is tired of him playing with himself (the comic makes the joke!). I get the impression that Luke is the one who is behind all of the mysterious goings on.
Leia gets bored of him and goes into their mother’s recycling truck as she just showed up. Helen shouts, bring out your dead (so she must be Hela) and Leia comments on how that makes everyone around them uncomfortable.
Luke apparently was dragged along on this quest. He goes into a bakery as he wants some glazed doughnuts. We see that Volstagg is the baker and that he has eaten all the glazed doughnuts as his face, belly and hands are covered in glaze.
A blonde lady enters the bakery (this must be the same baker that Doug was talking about) looking for the gluten-free, unseeded, non-dairy, unsugared, unleavened buns. Volstagg, of course, hasn’t eaten those and thus, the buns are available. She is buying them for the support group.
There is a cute moment when the blonde lady says that Volstagg looks delicious and he asks her to repeat it and she says the buns look delicious.
Luke leaves disappointed and gets chased by a dog.
Tiffany offers Luke to join her self-defense class and he turns her down. Another man states that he is happy with that decision as Luke is already a handful.
Luke runs into the New Mutants. Apparently, he is a fan of them. He is glad that he ran into them as he was thinking of stalking them. He likes that they are hated and feared and wonders if that means they get better service now. Poor Luke is hated but he’s not feared.
Luke goes on to comment about how he is half mutant and sent in an application to the Jean Grey School. Then he doesn’t know if that is insulting or not, and asks them which side (of the Schism) are they on.
Dani tries to put a stop to this one sided conversation but Luke keeps going on about how he was Wolverine for Halloween.
Dani finally breaks in and says that he is Loki. Which didn’t even dawn on me. Maybe because I’ve been saying it to myself as Luke in the traditional sense but sometimes the caption boxes call him “Luc” like “Look” which would make more sense.
Luke / Loki states that she has the wrong guy. So in the previous issue, is when Loki become Kid Loki – and started on his path of capturing the hearts and minds of comic fans. Dani is a Valkyrie and can see Kid Loki for who he really is. She tries to remind him about Sigurd and what happened the previous night.
Doug announces that he is the trickster of Asgard and no spell can hold him back. Poor Kid Loki goes into a spasm.
Magma gets bad at Doug, he was only trying to do what Magik would have done in this situation.
Kid Loki now remembers who he rightfully is. He wants a helmet to fell complete again.
Dani wants answers, Kid Loki tells them that they need to all go to Sigurd’s abode and search for clues – just like they do on television.
At Sigurd’s place. Doug has found some armor. Sunspot found a bunch of take-out food. Kid Loki arrives in a Grant Morrison styled X-Uniform. which is way to big for him.
Sigurd shows up, he’s hungry. Dani starts asking a slew of questions. She wants to know what happened to the Disir. Whenever Sigurd says the name, it is written D-i-s-i-r, I have no idea the significance of that.
Apparently the Disir eat Asgardians, so they are the woman who are starving themselves. So he cast a spell that made all Asgardians forget who they are. Magma states that there were good Asgardians who now don’t know who they are. Sigurd’s only response is that that is a shame. Dani’s comeback of, you took out one of the greatest heroes in history and all you can say for yourself is that it is a shame. That’s a funny line!
Sigurd isn’t a magician, he bought the spell so the dealer should have a counter-spell.
Kid Loki needs some time to come up with a counter-spell.
Sigurd starts hitting on Dani, she is the hot one of the group, even with Magma standing right there. Oh, the irony!
In an alley, a dog is barking at a cat. The blonde from the bakery picks up the cat and devours it. So the Disir are cats, I guess? Now the starving women have something to eat, they should all be happy!
That’s how the issue ends, seems like it should be a pretty good story but I’m out of it.
If you are like me, you may not know much about Doctor Voodoo. Here is what the caption states :
He has many names. Lord of the Loa. He-Who-Has-Died-Twice. Houngan Supreme. Now the Eye of Agamotto has chosen Jericho Drumm to protect the Earth from the forces of darkness, and given him his greatest title : Sorcerer Supreme. He is … Doctor Voodoo, Avenger of the Supernatural.
I own this issue and issue five is on my wishlist. I was going to scan the Magik appearances in the issue, but she’s on nearly every other page and I want to keep scans to when I bought a comic just for one page or two pages. I’m also not sure what the rule is about just pasting pages upon pages from a comic, so I try to limit myself to two to three, max. As a typical rule. Though I see Bendis over at his Tumblr, posting half of comics before – but he’s Bendis, so I imagine its okay when he does it.
Inside front cover is an ad for Ultimate X, I own the first issue, that was pretty good.
In the previous issues, Nightmare is slowly taking over Earth. The last place on Earth that is safe is Latveria. Doctor Doom and Doctor Voodoo are trying to correct that.
I still wish that Bendis in the New Avengers arc that determined who would be Doctor Strange’s replacement (as he was hurt and needed to recover) had chosen Magik but Bendis does love him some 70s heroes so it makes sense he would go with Brother Voodoo. Shame that only four years later, Voodoo is missing again from monthly titles. This was in New Avengers 51 through 54, Search for the Sorcerer Supreme. I don’t own issue 52 but the other three, Magik does show up in. We will get around to reviewing those eventually.
So Nightmare has taken over most of the magic based heroes, including Magik. They are searching for Doctor Voodoo, actually they are searching for the Orb of Agamotto and the Book of Vishanti, but Voodoo knows where they are. If they knew it was with Doom, they would probably just let it go.
We get a nice flashback to Voodoo’s origins, his family didn’t like how he was more modern than they were with their beliefs. We learn that his brother is a spirit and is trying to help Voodoo save the day, as well.
The Hounfour – Nightmare’s base. Magik is telling Nightmare about what they have learn, they know they have to go to Doom. Heroes are living their worst nightmares. Punisher is being haunted by his family. Hulk’s father is berating him. Cyclops is being tormented by both Jean and Emma.
Doctor Voodoo’s plan is to get Nightmare to come to Loa, where the gods of Voodoo live (from what I can tell). Once Nightmare gets there, he will be a physical opponent and can be defeated.
Nightmare and his army of heroes get to Latveria and Doctors Doom and Voodoo (though Voodoo is not a doctor, as far as I can tell) are ready for them!
For this issue and the previous three, they have been publishing the origin of Doctor Voodoo, I checked comicbookdb but it doesn’t state what section of a comic this is. I can confirm it isn’t his first appearance, Strange Tales 169 as the creative team is all wrong.
I’m not sure if Claremont read all of the previous issues of Exiles when he started his run with issue 90 but in this issue he repeats a story concept that happened earlier. So there is a team of heroes that are going around setting right with what once went wrong, called the Exiles. There was another team called, Weapon X, (such a horrible name for that group, unoriginal too!) whose job it was to make things go from bad to worst.
So that similar concept is brought back here by the master that is Claremont. Madame Hydra, an evil Sue Richards – I suppose she would be Sue Storm here (hopefully!) leading a team of Wolverine, Hulk and Slaymaster. Hulk is called, Boy-Bob Banner, not a great name, try saying it aloud, it doesn’t sound good, at all. They share the ability of the Exiles, in that they can travel the multi-verse.
This issue opens on a new Earth, this team – I wish they had a name, are killing everybody. A Sabretooth shows up and gives Wolverine a fight for his money. Since I was rereading this, I wasn’t sure if this was Exiles’ Sabretooth (from the Age of Apocalypse timeline) but that didn’t last long as they start talking about his wife Betsy (Psylocke) and their children.
Wolverine, in a running motif that Claremont clearly likes, slashes Sabretooth’s face, blinding him. Claremont will later blind Sabretooth in X-Men Forever, as well.
This Slaymaster is going around killing all the Psylockes he can find. He met our Psylocke, from the Proper Marvel Universe, and wasn’t able to kill her so now he is getting plenty of practice by successfully killing Psylockes. Except from this Earth, Wolverine kills her after telling her that they have killed her husband and babies – which is horrible! So now this Wolverine needs to be killed and horribly!
Of course, Sabretooth and Psylocke are married on this Earth, there could be no other pairings but those ones.
Slaymaster (the more I type this, the more I don’t care this name either) and Wolverine are about to fight when Madame Hydra shows up and stops them. Wolverine and her are in a relationship.
Exiles’ Sabretooth shows up and sees the massacre. He learns that he was married to Psylocke and promises to get revenge on whoever did this, once he sees that he had children here and they were murdered as well.
Crystal Palace. I’m not sure where the rest of the Exiles are, as only Cat and Sabretooth are at the base. Cat is investigating something on her own on the outside the palace. Sabretooth wonders where she is and the palace shows where she is via having monitors appear for him.
I don’t see the bugs anywhere from the previous volume, so I don’t quite remember if they are no longer in the series at this point or what the deal is.
Cat and Sabretooth can talk now via the monitors. She doesn’t explain to him what she is doing. He decides to wait until they can speak in person. He thinks to himself that Cat has a temper to her and that he really doesn’t know much about her. Or any of the team really. The team at this point are those two, Sage (also from the proper Marvel Universe), Gambit (an Atlantean), Morph, Mystiq (a male version) and Rogue.
Cat has discovered, that the omniverse is dying! She now knows why she is there, to prevent the destruction of all that is! Showing some rare emotion (besides the temper that she isn’t afraid to show) she shouts out to anyone to hear that she is done with death and that the reaper is not taking anything more from her.
There is a house ad for Amazing Spider-Man 572, Bullseye v. Spider-Man.
Cat goes tot he observation room to talk to Sabretooth and finds that he is now the one that is missing. She runs a scan and finds that he isn’t in the palace any longer. What she does find is a recording Sabretooth created, letting her know that he is running an errand.
Cat isn’t happy with that as an answer and goes about trying to retrace his steps. Apparently, he was able to create procedures that lock her from searching for him. She is impress with how there is no finesse with his skills, the blocks are strong, just like him but she is better at this than he is.
She finds some recordings of Sabretooth, playing the role of Slaymaster, and he is fighting with Psylocke, trying to prepare her for round two.
There is a house ad for the end of the Ultimate Universe, as Ultimatum is coming.
Cut to the new Earth where Madame Hydra’s team is located and where Sabretooth is tracking them. While doing research, Sabretooth has discovered that none of the Exiles have a counterpart on this planet. Eventually, Wolverine separates from the group, and Sabretooth makes his move.
There is a house ad for New Avengers 45, promising to reveal the secrets of the Skrull’s as Secret Invasion continues.
The two fight and then Sabretooth gets stabbed from behind by Slaymaster. Now Sabretooth is distracted as he couldn’t tell that Slaymaster was even that close to him until the stabbing began. Now it is Wolverine who is mad at Slaymaster for his interference.
While those two bicker, Sabretooth tackles Wolverine and the two fall off the floating city and into the rocky mountain side below. It appears as if they fall for miles before hitting the mountain peaks. They both land, eventually and Sabretooth is trying to shake off the fall. He isn’t healing as fast, which is unfornuate as Wolverine is already back on his feet and ready for round three.
Sue wants to see Sabretooth die, as she knows it will take a great deal to end him. Slaymaster wants Sabretooth to live so that he can lead Slaymaster to the Psylocke that he is obsessed with killing. Wolverine is more loyal, naturally, to Sue and dives in to kill Sabretooth. Lucky for Victor, he starts phasing into the ground. The villains are left to look at each other in confusion.
Issue ends with Sue giving the order to kill Sabretooth and whoever is helping him.
I mostly wanted to review this issue as my letter is printed on the letters page. I got lucky with Cat answering the page that month.
My fellow letter writers are – Adrian J. Watts of Melbourne, Austra and Penelope from Australia.
I really do miss reading letters page, even with being a pretty regular poster on four different forums. The Uncanny X-Cast Facebook Group, Unstable Molecules (UncannyXMen.net’s forum), Comic Book Resources’ forum and xcrescence.jcink.net forum. I was going to just call it the Comic Book Revolution forum but I did a Google search for it and that forum wasn’t on the first page so we have to work on that.
I will eventually get around to reviewing issue twelve.
Inside Front Cover is an ad for Honda Insight. So once people were done reading this issue, they went out and bought one of these. Or maybe they open the cover and just threw the comic onto the ground.
After House of M, Meggan is stuck in Hell. Her last name is Puceanu, apparently.
Cornell use to write for Doctor Who, so when Meggan – as a young lady – watched the show, she would shift into the creature. Though I don’t recognize the one she becomes and the Internet is really letting me down on this too. Like a greyish creature.
I like the glimpses of her origin via pages on the left. A little jarring once the story picks up speed but I like them. Especially the one with Excalibur!
Lockheed looks so cute!
Meggan isn’t being burned and she feels like she should be punished but she doesn’t feel like she is.
She meets the rules of Hell – a green fellow, Dormammu, Mephisto, Hela and Blackheart. If Dormammu is there then Magik should really be there too!
Dormammu tricks Meggan into tapping into Hell and seeing what it feels like and once she does, she looks like a mess up Swamp Thing.
She runs away and eventually gets an army around her and finds Pluto, who was also missing from the table. He gives her the power to shift again and she is now back to looking like her regular self but in a nice white dress.
Now empowered, she really starts building an army. Spreading hope wherever she goes.
The army starts calling her, Gloriana, and this becomes her superhero name, it only took her from 1988 to 2009 – almost 21 years! That’s from Excalibur’s very first issue but she predates that but that’s when I met her.
There is another car ad, Kia’s Soul – oh brother!
At the end, Meggan finds the source of the moonlight that has been giving her hope and she walks into and … is saved by Doctor Doom!
This story will continue in issue 14 of the series.
There is an ad for Batman Arkham Asylum, and for the PS3 – you got to play as Joker – and it was awesome! There is also an ad for Wolverine Origins Uncaged, another great video game! 2009 gave us two superb games!
British Magic
Writer Paul Cornell
Artist Adrian Alphona
Colorist Christina Strain
Letterer VC’s Joe Caramagna
Brian is thinking of Meggan while the rest of the team (and him) are playing Cricket.
I really like seeing Meggan through Brian’s eyes. He is always trying to make her stand up for herself and make her own decisions.
I forgot how sexual Meggan was! She’s pretty aggressive sometimes!
There is an ad for Spider-Man 600! An invite to a wedding that can only be Mary Jane and Peter but what could it mean. We are suppose to RSVP to 1-888-266-4226 – which is the Comic Book Store locator number.
Eventually, Brian thinks back to his Excalibur days – so we get to see Kitty! I imagine Rachel is the other pair of lady legs.
Pete Wisdom makes an awesome joke about how Brian’s hero name should be Swan. It is due to how Brian is calm on the outside but working like hell underneath. Also, he mates for life.
I like the flashback to Brian and Meggan when they first became the rulers of Otherworld. I would follow that more but unless they mention Excalibur, I don’t really follow the characters.
Artists Esad Ribic, Salvador Larroca, Mike Deodato and Butch Guice
Color Artists Dean White, Frank Martin, Paul Mounts and Laura Martin
Letter VC’s Cory Petit
Cover by Mike Allred and Laura Allred
Cover Dated February 2014
I only own this issue for the variant cover. For whatever reason, Marvel released multiple variants for this issue, which back in the day, they would have waited for the big issue 25 but 24 isn’t bad in today’s market. I still want to own the Anka variant.
I really miss the character square from the good ol’ days.
The theme with several of the variants was Avengers on famous X-Men covers and X-Men in famous Avengers covers. Unfortunately, there was no homage cover to Uncanny X-Men 141. Others are like the one above, where the artist just had fun doing a cover. Its by Allred, so of course Doop is there.
Onto the issue, which good thing there was a recap page!
So in previous issues, there are events called, Incursions, which I only know from the Facebook : Avengers Alliance game. A game I really enjoyed and was addicted to until they went crazy with the PvP Lockboxes. I always said I will quit playing once I wasn’t able to get one of the limited characters and that is what happened with Elektra. Now, they have gone crazy with the feature.
Incursions is when two different Earths come together and one of them is going to be destroyed by the other. From what I can gather, our Earth in the Proper Marvel Universe, is always being one of these planets and the Illuminati has to destroy the other Earth.
I guess at one point, Captain America was a temporary member of the Illuminati and he didn’t like the idea of destroying complete Earths so they, via Doctor Strange, mindwipe him. Just like Zantanna did to Batman in Identity Crisis.
Also, on the recap page, is a conversation Captain America had with Iron Man about how Cap realizes that their enemies are getting to be more dangerous, attack more often and there is just plain too many of them. Iron Man’s solution? To make the Avengers a bigger force to be dealt with.
So the Avengers are –
Captain America, Hulk, Falcon, Thor, Manifold, Black Widow, Captain Marvel, Hawkeye, Iron Man (in the big circle)
Spider-Woman, Hyperion, Smasher, Nightmask, Captain Universe, Cannonball, Sunspot, Starbrand, Shangi Chi (on the bottom)
18 Heroes! That is quite an army!
I don’t recognize : Manifold, Nightmask, this current Captain Universe and Starbrand sounds familiar.
Issue opens in the future, 3030, and Tony’s whatever number-great grandchild, Rhodey Stark (will they really be still naming their children after Tony’s friends at that long of a line?) and Franklin Richards are talking about time travel. Franklin is cool with Rhody going back in time. The captions imply that the Richards Foundation owns the Stark company – which I like.
In the present, Thor is barbequing and makes a joke about not recognizing what hot dogs are, or what meat they are. I sort of like a Thor who can crack a joke – he’s been on Earth and with this time, for a decade – at least, so he can feel comfortable and it shows that they are rubbing off on him.
He admits that he tried to barbeque a lobster but the creature defeated him. Good stuff!
Hulk brings out plates of pies : mead, beer and fimbulvinter.
I like the conversation with Spider-Woman, Black Widow and Captain Marvel.
Captain America and Iron Man talk about membership. Cap has let go of Wolverine, as he is too busy. Spider-Man has also been let go because he has been acting erratic. Due to him being Doctor Octopus.
They explain the cast sheet above. The circle is the main team, the others are reserved.
Then Iron Man 3030 shows up. Tony states it is December 2013, so there is still time to change the Future.
Future Iron Man gives the Avengers an additional monh to prepare for the Rogue Planet, the name of the issue, that is heading to Earth. A rogue planet is a planet that leaves its orbit and now is a giant marble heading towards anything that will stop it.
The Avengers set up a base on Mars and create a device that simply merges the rogue planet to Earth, creating a new source of energy.
Iron Man 3030 takes off her helmet and calls Tony, grandfather. Which, I am not sure if only one child of Tony’s grown up and had a child gets us from 2013 to 3030.
She reveals that in the original timeline, the Avengers destroyed the rogue planet and saved the Earth.
Because they saved the day, the way they did, now the Illuminati (who are also now the New Avengers) can use this new energy source for those pesky Incursions. That is the type of tight writing one can do when you write two titles.
Shadow and Flame with Magik 