From All New X-Men 2, with Lockheed! That makes three shirts that I know of that has Lockheed on it!
Writer Ray Fawkes
Artist Jonathan Marks
Colorist Lee Loughridge
Letterer VC’s Cory Petit
Issue opens with Junk and Shogun, back to back, as the Wolverines surround them. Mister Sinister actually refers to them as, my Wolverines. He is preparing to make one of his giant speeches when the Changling crashes into the lab, exploding all around it. Amazingly, no one dies in the explosion.
X23 starts attacking Shogun, he says her release word, Mangonel, and she is no longer under the threat of any control words. That doesn’t help much, as Sabretooth – in a blind rage – comes barreling down on them.
X23 wants Shogun to release Sabretooth but Shogun needs to release Lady Deathstrike first. She gets in a few swipes on him.
Shogun gets it together enough to say Lady Deathstrike’s release word, Flamberge. She snaps out of it, amazed that he went through with it.
Junk tries to help X23 with Sabretooth, which mostly translates as – giving Sabretooth another target to concentrate on.
Skel wakes up Endo, as he wonders where Sinister went off to.
Mystique is also alive and is upset that things have gone so wrong and off course.
Shogun says Sabretooth’s release word, Ulfberht, but Mystique has blocked Sabretooth’s ability to hear. I have to admit to being impress with the codewords, as clearly they never would have come across someone saying these words before.
X23 tries to get Sabretooth off of Junk but Sabretooth straight up rips off Junk’s head. That guy is dead. Skel and X23 starts wailing on Sabretooth.
I like Shogun telling Lady Deathstrike that Sabretooth’s release word is, Ulfberht. That way, if he dies, she can say it whenever Sabretooth can hear again. Lady Deathstrike is sort of falling in love with Shogun, as he could have made her into a puppet but chose to not do so.
Endo knocks Lady Deathsrike aside and confronts Shogun for leaving her behind with Sinister. He may have saved the three Paradise folks but he also made it impossible for them to die.
Sabretooth shoots Sabretooth in the head, putting him down. Well, as down as Sabretooth usually goes. Skel says Mystique killed Endo but I can’t tell whenever that happen besides seeing the BLAM on the previous page. Marks painted style is incredible but I can’t figure out when a quasi-important character has been killed.
Lady Deathstrike even kicks Endo’s body aside and Endo lets out an agh!
Lady Deathsrike is trying to help Shogun. He knows he is dying but Ogun will most likely just jump to another body. Lady Deathstrike loves both of them.
Mystique unloads her gun on Skel, but isn’t sure if the bullets are even having an effect on him. Mystique gives some orders but X23 is done listening to her.
They start bickering but Lady Deathstrike tells them to stop, as he wants to hear Shogun’s last words. She really doesn’t want to lose either of the men in her life.
He doesn’t look like a blond Logan there, right? It is hard to tell without the distinct mutton chops.
Shogun’s final words (of the issue, maybe ever?) are that Lady Deathsrike is the toughest person he has ever met and he is glad they got the time together that they had.
Lady Deathstrike pronounces him dead and Mystique wants to get the heck out of the lab – as the issue ends.
I just found out that at San Diego Comic Con 2014, that this box set is being offered! Hopefully I can get one of these through a proper purchase down the road as it will be super expensive to buy a con exclusive.
SDCC 2014: Diamond Select Toys Announces Days of Future Past Marvel Minimates Exclusives and More
I really like that cover homage too!
Writer & Designer Jonathan Hickman
Artist Esad Ribic
Color Artist Ive Svorcina
Letterer Chris Eliopoulos
Cover Chip Zdarsky
(So I typed this on May 26, 2015 – so I’m seven months behind on my reviews – I have lots of comics! I didn’t realize I had that many but I really don’t want to just do reviews every single day but I recognize that the event is nearly over and I’m just now reviewing the issues.)
I went with this variant, as I’m sure that is Kitty Pryde playfully punching Peter Quill’s arm. I posed the question to the Uncanny X-Cast Facebook group and I’m being told there that those two are Clint Barton and Kate Bishop, the Hawkeyes, which would explain the target on his shirt. Still, I had to buy this issue for one character in specific, so I took a shot with this variant.
Issue opens with Doctor Doom, Doctor Strange and Molecule Man are trying to plead with the Beyonders but Doom has a plan. This is the only pages, I feel, that one needed to read the entire Hickman Avengers opus to fully grasp. Instead, to me, it just reads like Doom is speaking to a mysterious force, which sort of still works.
The Multiverse is dying. Only two universes remain. Today, Earths collide.
Manhattan. Earth-1610. Incursion Event Imminent. Just for anyone who doesn’t know and may be reading this, for the first time – 1610 is the Ultimate Universe and 616 is the Proper Marvel Universe.
The Triskelion. Headquarters of this Earth’s SHIELD. Ultimate Fury wants Reed to explain how much time is left.
The City. Home of the Cabal and the Children of Tomorrow. Currently residing in Manhattan. Ultimate Reed has a weird helmet on his head. Reed gives Fury some hope, there is still time to fight this out. Once Reed ends the call, we see that Reed has been working with the Proper Marvel’s Cabal (the villain version of the Illuminati) – Thanos, Black Swan and Terrax. Reed reveals that the two Earths should have no hope, he lied to Fury so that Fury could feel decent about his last hours.
Once I saw that Ultimate Shadowcat was actually in this title, I knew I was in a for a good time. As I suspect that I will be jumping in and out of this series.
Another crossover and looking over the list, I feel pretty good for knowing all but a few characters.
I still don’t know who the Avengers Manifold & Pod are. I’m not sure about the X-Men’s Nation X Sentinels, I know Hickman’s Avengers 38 dealt with Cyclops and Nation X but that didn’t have Kitty at all. So I didn’t read that issue.
I’m disappointed that proper Kitty isn’t counted amongst the Guardians of the Galaxy.
I’m not sure who Inferno is of the Inhumans, but I’m sure he’s just a new Inhuman that won’t be around in a year.
Ultimate Universe, I just assume that The City and Children of Tomorrow are both related to Reed, I know that is true of the City but it sounds right with the Children of Tomorrow, as well.
The only members of the Cabal, that I don’t know are Proxima Midnight & Corvus Glaive. This is a more cosmic Cabal than Norman Osborn’s Cabal. I do like the note that they are on the Ultimate Earth but they are from the Proper Marvel Universe.
Manhattan. Earth-616. The Incursion Point between both Worlds.Though the narrative, we are informed that the this world’s populace knows that their end is soon. Unless the heroes can help.
Baxter Building. Near it, an explosion occurs. We see that the Fantastic Four have been making a Life Raft, with a bunch of brains being invited. I like Reed growing a beard. Black Panther is also on board. We get the first check in with Black Widow and Spider-Woman, who are bringing in the majority of the scientists. A few didn’t want to come, opting to spend their last hours with their families. That is an impossible choice but I can only imagine I choose to stay on Earth. Unless I can pull an Elijah Wood in Deep Impact and marry Leelee Sobieski and bring her along with me.
Manifold is trying to save the day, by following Black Panther’s instructions but it really isn’t explained how he is going to do it or what his powerset is. He isn’t successful, like, not even a tad.
Ultimate Iron Man is leading the Ultimate army (of SHIELD soldiers) against a main heroes listed on the character list, so the Ultimate side of things have no chance.
Spider-Man is about, saving civilians as is Iron Fist and Luke Cage. Representing the Guardians of the Galaxy are – Star Lord, Drax and Rocket. No mention of where the other members are. Not sure why they didn’t bring their cosmically enhanced members such as Gamora and Shadowcat. Thor (who is really Jane Foster) is fighting along with Storm.
FalCap and Iceman witness Sentinels coming to assist as Cyclops is leading them, as he is a leader of Nation X. Captain Marvel is directly fighting Ultimate Iron Man. Groot is on the scene, as well. Ultimate Iron Man inappropriately hits on Captain Marvel.
She-Hulk fights a weak spot in the Ultimate Hellicarrier and Colossus fastball specials Doc Green, in that direction. The Ultimate Universe is not putting up a decent fight, at all. Ultimate Hawkeye is on board, aiding Ultimate Nick Fury, they know they are not putting up a fight. Fury tells Reed to begin to use his doomsday worldkiller weapon.
Giant explosions star occurring. We get a panel with Ultimate Jean, Wolverine, Cloak & Dagger and Shadowcat! Hence, why I own this issue. I’m hoping, since they are included here, that they are crucial (or at least, involved) in Ultimate End. Which I can only imagine takes place right before this issue. So the final issue has to recreate some of this.
There are these, practically, city wide domes on Earth now. They slowly open, revealing a slew of smaller ships. Seems like Ultimate City is just the Proper version of The World, of the Weapon X facility.
Ultimate Spider-Man was standing on one of the globes. Now the Ultimate Universe has brought its big guns.
Kingpin sent a massive e-mail to his fellow villains. I like their e-mails
lizard@coldblooded.com
hitthetarget@hit.com
who@whocares.com
oz@amazinghair.net
wfisk@fiskindustries.com
I wish they were more imaginative e-mail handles, Fisk’s is pretty great. Punisher arrives at the party, he can’t bring his bullets to the afterlife, and so he kills all that are present. I imagine, the villains, didn’t put up much of a fight.
Natasha calls Susan, they are not going to make it to the Baxter Building. Black Widow is the first hero (and Spider-Woman) that we see die, on panel.
Oh, Manifold’s ability is to get the second life raft (you know, the one that contains named characters), and they take off. So we have Reed, Black Panther and Susan that are safe and the other Fantastic Four family members and fellow Foundation students.
Black Panther puts out the call to get the survivors that they need.
Cyclops grabs his Phoenix Egg, which I’m still not sure about.
Apparently, it just contains the Phoenix Force. Cyclops gets the Phoenix Force aura around him but not the red thong.
We get Drax, Groot and Rocket’s deaths – and Rocket did not want to be on Earth. We see Drax and an uncosmically enhanced Gamora, so that is odd. I imagine that Hickman was told everything before he wrote this issue, so he should have been told about the end of a very well promoted crossover, Black Vortex.
Star Lord disappears, as does Thor, Captain Marvel and Spider-Man. Manifold decides not to take off in the life raft, he wants to stay and keep gathering the needed heroes. The life raft launches from the Baxter Building. Phoenix Force empowered Cyclops is also on the life raft. Instead of a black mask with red cross, Cyclops’ mask is now yellow.
Reed if flying the life raft into the heart of the Incursion, as that is their best chance at survival. A lightning blast strikes the side of their round life raft. The carrier section breaks away, Black Panther tells Reed (and us) that Susan and their children are located there. Which is odd, as two pages earlier – Susan, Franklin and Val, are strapping in right behind Reed. What happened in the ensuing page (which was the full page of the lightning blast)?
Susan places a force field around the carrier section. Reed tells T’Challa to drop the shields, he is going to reach out and grab them. T’Challa tells him he only has seconds to make the attempt. Reed has five seconds and they go by so quickly and . . . this is so heartbreaking, fails. We see the carrier burn up – so Susan, Franklin, Val and Thing are all dead.
On Reed’s section – for sure – are, Star Lord, Thor, Captain Marvel and Black Panther.
How great is that narration? I full agree with it. You find your life partner, and you can’t believe you can love anyone as much and then you go ahead and have a child. You still love your life partner, but – somehow – you love this child more than you love anything you ever loved before. Reed has lost his family and, with that middle panel, has lost an entire planet and worst, a universe. Such a devastating page!
We end the issue with Doom, who use to believe in tomorrow but now he believes in nothing. Issue two will be defining Doom’s role and the new (temporary) Marvel Earth – Battleworld.
Such a great way to end the issue with the tombstone of the two great Marvel lines. The proper one, 1961 – 2015 and the Ultimate one, 2000 – 2015. I can’t believe the Ultimate Universe was 15 years old. Marvel was a very young, 54 year old.
Other famous 53 year olds? Michael J. Fox, Melissa Etheridge, Ralph Macchio, Eddie Murphy, Boy George, Richard Hatch, Scott Baio, KD Lang, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jane Leeves, Meg Ryan, Thomas Hayden Church, Enya, George Clooney and the Great One, Wayne Gretzky. All born in 1961 – how crazy how much they al accomplished for being born the same year and how different each of their careers are, no two have the same path. All with various levels of success.
While working at Hastings, I was trying to sell slash hype this issue and this one guy started flipping through the pages. I asked him to slow down as with each quick page turn, he was quickly killing the Marvel Universe. We had a good laugh after that.
Sadly, this fantastic issue is ruined with a six page preview of Uncanny Inhumans. Which is unwanted and unnecessary.
This handy website has a more detailed commentary of the issue :
Which is a pretty interesting read, as I read none of Hickman’s Avengers and two issues of his Fantastic Four run.
YouTuber ComicsIsland had this pretty awesome hour long episode –
Which is pretty great as I rather just watched this than buy the eventful Hickman Avengers Omnibus. There were parts that almost lost my interest but then the reveal with Doom and how everything starts paying off, sounds pretty great.
ComicsIsland has plenty of similar theme episodes, which is pretty great as well as review episodes and fun top ten lists and such.
. . .
Since I bought the variant cover at Hastings, I was awarded with a giant poster of the Battleworld Map!
I do enjoy being able to hold the entire map and seeing everything larger than I can on a computer screen.
I’ve tried my hand at scanning the one I have :
That isn’t any better but maybe someone with sweet skills can make that work.
I’m trying to find an image with all of the covers revealed, as at this point, only three portions of the map are still CLASSIFIED and no further information is available on those.
Apparently, Marvel released a trailer for this event and had started connecting with portions are which titles.
Thanks to Marvel Entertainment for hosting their own video, also this next video!
This was the first video of The Watcher’s that I have seen. I’ve seen previous videos of Lorraine Cink’s advertised before but I may have to check more of them out.
I was surprised that Wikipedia had the full list and the corresponding titles, that is pretty handy!
Battleworld map
Following numerous incursions across the multiverse, the remains of various realities have been fused together to create a new Battleworld. All of these realities are known as domains and have the ability to interact with each other, except for three (consisting of the Deadlands, Perfection and New Xandar) which are separated from the rest by the Wall for the simple fact that these domains contains threats that if set loose, would destroy all the others.
The following is a list of the domains and the Marvel Comics event titles that are their basis or reimagining as revealed on Marvel Comics’ Interactive Battleworld map. Secret Wars #2 will publish a complete guide to each domain:
- 1. Greenland – Incredible Hulk: Planet Hulk
- 2. Dystopia – Incredible Hulk: Future Imperfect
- 3. Domain of Apocalypse – Age of Apocalypse
- 4. Egyptia – New Warriors: Forever Yesterday
- 5. Technopolis – Iron Man: Armor Wars
- 6. *Currently Classified Valley of Doom
- 7. Spider-Island – The Amazing Spider-Man: Spider Island
- 8. The Regency – The Amazing Spider-Man: One More Day (with elements from both the Spider-Girl series and the The Amazing Spider-Man: The Wedding! storyline)
- 9. King James’ England – Marvel 1602
- 10. Weirdworld – Weirdworld
- 11. K’un-L’un – Master of Kung Fu (Map shows Iron Fist also)
- 12. Utopolis – Squadron Sinister (based on the Squadron Supreme that was first featured in The Avengers Volume One #69-70)
- 13. New Mars – Killraven
- 14. *Currently Classified – Doomgard
- 15. Higher Avalon – Captain Britain and the Mighty Defenders
- 16. Arachnia – The Amazing Spider-Man: Spider-Verse
- 17. Marville – Avengers vs. X-Men (namely the A-Babies vs. X-Babies one-shot)
- 18. The Eye of Agamotto – Doctor Strange
- 19. *Currently Classified – Doomstadt
- 20. Manhattan – It is split into four parts:
- 20A. Attilan – Inhumans: Attilan Rising
- 20B. Manhattan: Earth-616 Universe
- 20C. Manhattan: Ultimate Marvel Universe
- 20D. Manhattan: Monster Metropolis – Legion of Monsters
- 21. The City – Avengers: The Korvac Saga
- 22. The Warzone – Civil War
- 23. New Quack City – Howard the Duck
- 24. The Far East – Where Monsters Dwell
- 25. Valley of Flame – Devil Dinosaur
- 26. The Hydra Empire – Hydra
- 27. 2099 – Marvel 2099
- 28. Hala Field – Captain Marvel
- 29. The Monarchy of M – House of M
- 30. Sentinel Territories – X-Men: Days of Future Past
- 31. The Wastelands – Wolverine: Old Man Logan
- 32. Mutopia – Grant Morrison’s New X-Men
- 33. Westchester – X-Men: The Animated Series
- 34. Killville – M.O.D.O.K. Assassin
- 35. Arcadia – A-Force
- 36. Bar Sinister – Mutant Massacre
- 37. Limbo – Inferno
- 38. The Deadlands – Marvel Zombies
- 39. Perfection – Age of Ultron
- 40. New Xandar – The Infinity Gauntlet
- 41. The Wall – S.H.I.E.L.D.
Absent from the Battleworld map
-
42. Knowhere – While not considered a domain, the severed Celestial head orbits Battleworld like a moon as seen in Guardians of Knowhere.
-
43. Timely (may or may not be one of the classified domains) – The town of Timely where all the Marvel characters exist in an 1872 Wild West setting.
-
44. Genosha (may or may not be one of the classified domains) – The island that became the Mutant homeland and where the E is For Extinction mini-series will be set.
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45. Holy Wood and Forest Hills (may or may not be one of the classified domains) – Though mentioned in the solicitation for the Korvac Saga, they are not shown on the Battleworld map.
Special thanks and shoutout to whomever typed all of that up and figuring it out!
I was looking for this Marvel Interaction Secret Wars 2015 Battlemap page but unfortunately it is only a hotlink on their main page for the event, so I’m not sure if it will still be an active website but it should work for a while, I imagine.
http://marvel.com/comics/events/323/secret_wars_2015
Just click the “Enter Battleworld” and see for yourself. Pretty fun!
Comics Alliance actually had what I was looking for –
http://comicsalliance.com/battleworld-theme-park-map-secret-wars-clues/
A nice brief summary of what each portion of Battleworld and which comic series that it correspondences with.
The titles and sections of the map that I’m mostly interested in, and at the very least, tracking are –
Number – Region Title – Comic Title
3 – Domain of Apocalypse – Age of Apocalypse
Which is above Limbo (which I’m also tracking) to the left of both Egyptia and Technopolis (which I’m not tracking). To the left of it is – Mutopia to the top left, Westchester (the FOX X-Men Animated series by Chris Sims) shares a small border and The Wastelands makes up the bulk of it.
11 – K’un-Lun – Master of Kung Fu
Which is to the right of Regency (the world if Peter never made a deal with THE DEVIL to undo his marriage to Mary Jane, so that his elderly aunt can live a few more years) / below King James’ England (the 1602 world) / to the right of Utopolis and above Weirdworld
17 – Marville – Giant Size Little Marvel
Which is surrounded by Utopolis above it, Arachnia to the right and New Quack City – where Howard the Duck is from, below it.
20 – Manhattan – a) Attilan (Inhumans) b) Proper Marvel New York City c) Ultimate Marvel New York City d ) Monster Metropolis
Don’t care about the Inhumans, but I’m sure b & c are going to crucial to the main series and whichever titles are not associated with a certain portion (such as Star Lord and Age of Apocalypse Kitty Pryde) and Ultimate should be where Ultimate End takes place in. Monster Metropolis is where Shiklah‘s kingdom is.
They are surrounded by several locations too! High Avalon to the left / CLASSIFIED above / CLASSIFIED to the left / The City (but not the City from The Tick, unfortunately) below. I imagine those CLASSIFIED locations are important only because of how close they are to the most important locations.
29 – Monarchy of M – House of M
I highly doubt SHIELD agent Illyana Rasputin or school teacher, Kitty Pryde, are going to be in this at all. Killville (where MODOK is important) to the top right and 2099 to the bottom right. 2099 is suppose to be a title that survives this event, somehow.
30 – Sentinel Territories – Years of Future Past
Killville to the left / 2099 to the bottom left / The Wastelands (Old Man Logan) to the bottom right / Mutopia (Morrison’s E is for Extinction) to the right
37 – Limbo – Inferno
Limbo, being so vast, covers quite some ground on Battleworld. Well, until I realize it was suppose to be a globe, so now I want a gif of the map spinning so I can get a better grasp on it. To the top of it is Domains of Apocalypse, along with 36 and 31 and below it (but separated by the SHIELD) is both The Deadlands (Marvel Zombies) & Perfection (Age of Ultron). Which makes sense as there is a comic, Age of Ultron v Marvel Zombies, which seems highly missable to me now. New Xandar (where Thanos is kept) is also separated by THE SHIELD. The SHIELD is there to prevent the horrors from escaping into the rest of Battleworld.
So this is all pretty exciting!
I was looking at the map, to make this post an my wife had a few things to add. First, that the Battleworld doesn’t look like Earth. Which brought her to ask if America was even represented. Which sort of blew my mind, as Battleworld is now like 90 percent American. There is an England, Egypt, Howard the Duck world, and maybe Mars? but the other 30 sections are American. New Xandar is Xandrian. Limbo is a different dimension. K’un -Lun is also another dimension.
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2015/05/13/the-final-three-realms-of-secret-wars-battleworld-revealed/
Once Secret Wars 2015 2 came out, we learn the previous three classified locations were –
6. Valley of Doom
14. Doomgard
19. Doomstadt
Thanks to Bleeding Cool News for having the image!
Of course, knowing that Doom had three regions for himself, would have tipped off that he was the ruler of Battleworld.
. . .
My wife also just, once again, mention how dumb alternate universes are.
. . .
I also got the Skottie Young Baby Lithograph but minus the text but I can’t seem to find an image of that, anywhere.
In my continued quest to make the Internet have what I want it to have, I’ve scanned my copy of the lithograph.
I wish Superherostuff.com would say who the artist is, as I don’t recognize it.
I’m not sure what “Proud 30” means. She turned 35 in 2014.
I like that Lockheed is present for this.
Writer Ray Fawkes
Art Juan Cabal
Colorist Antonio Fabela
Letterer VC’s Cory Petit
The Gulf of Mexico. Arcadia. Mystique isn’t thrilled that she cannot community with anybody. Just then, three Sinister cronies appear and start attacking her.
Inside Sinister’s Lab. Neuro is acting pretty smug while the Wolverines make short work of the cronies. Unfortunately, there are hundreds of them, so the fight keeps coming, even though it isn’t a challenge.
The Wolverines rather be fighting Sinister, but he never gets his own hands dirty, unless Cyclops’ seed is involved.
Poor Junk, strangely, he is torn from fighting his former friends, even though two of them are just standing about while Neuro takes great pleasure in the bloodshed. Shogun wants everybody to fight with all of their might.
Skel wants Neuro to end teh fight with the control words but Neuro is all about making Sinister happy, and he is quite happy.
On Board the Changeling. The cronies know they are dealing with a shapeshifter but she still tricks them by shifting into one of them.
Meanwhile. Sabretooth is dead killing nameless crones and jumps towards Sinister. Sinister just electrocutes Creed back to the ground.
Skel really wants the fighting to stop, as it is needless. Sinister could stop it with the control words, at anytime. Sinister finally gets tired of all of the whiny and insults the treasonous and failures to entertain him. Neuro is really offended by this.
Sinister starts teh Oblation Protocol, so the cronies burn up, separating the Wolverines from each other and surrounding them by circles of fire.
Changeling. Mystique has taken a second crony down and starts teasing the third one. Instead of playing along, it blows up and the ship starts crashing towards the lab. Mystique tries to save Portal and Siphon but she has to make sure she stays alive too.
Junk reveals he has electric eel powers, knocking a few more foes but also knocking Daken out. He shocks Daken awake and I finally noticed that Daken doesn’t have his shoulder or chest tattoo. When did he lose that?
Shogun kicks Neuro to the face! Skel and Endo start punching Shogun.
Sinister starts walking away but X23 shkts Sinister’s left foot, through the floor. He takes this as a grave insult and says all of the command words at the same time. Daken, Sabretooth and Lady Deathstrike appear to be stun. The issue ends, with the very next page, with the Changeling crashing through the ceiling of the lab. The three villains no longer look like they are stun, so that didn’t last long.
I’m pretty excited about the final three issues and how they are leading to something.
Thanks to YouTuber Ewaldo Neto for hosting the video! I was hoping to get one where someone was using Kitty Pryde and Magik on the same team but I couldn’t find one.
So there was a while when I was addicted to this game.
By the time I started playing it, Kitty Pryde was already an available character AND had two costumes to choose from. As soon as I could recruit her, I made sure she was my first one of my own choosing to do so.
Somehow I was able to do it before recruiting Hawkeye, as he is most people’s third hero. I must have spent the in-game gold to get the necessary CP (Command Points) to get her.
I say Facebook game, but you could also play on Playdom’s own website too but you can’t transfer accounts.
Two events lead to my stop playing the game –
1) My home computer died
2) I couldn’t recruit Elektra, who was a Lockbox hero
I knew that the Lockboxes were going to be the end of my tenure with the game. Juggernaut was the first PVP (Player vs Player) Lockbox character and I was barely able to get him. Elektra was the next one, and I always said that once I couldn’t get the Exclusive Character, that I was done.
My wife hated that I played this game as much as I did. The clicking of the mouse drove her crazy.
I downloaded the Dolphin App for my Kindle Fire, so that I could use Flash and the game was practically impossible to play on the darn thing. It was a fun couple months.
To tie in with AvX, Playdom released Magik and that was an awesome! They did a really great job of tying in with the comic book storylines. They did their own version of the storyline (sort of like how the movies do) but had the same characters, for the most part. It was fun seeing their own continuity take place.
I tried recently to play the game again, as I heard they increased the max level cap from 12 to 14 but the Dolphin app was still impossible to use. There are very specific spots you are suppose to click and I cannot either increase the size of the screen or have the patience to locate all the spots. It just wasn’t fun anymore.
But if you had a proper computer and like Facebook games, I would recommend it though I imagine new players would be put off with how far behind they are and how all the Lockbox heroes are impossible to get unless you want to spend real money on them.
Here are the heroes I recruited, in order :
Iron Man, Black Widow, Kitty Pryde Hawkeye, She-Hulk, Iron Fist, Cyclops, Ms. Marvel, Invisible Woman, Luke Cage, Black Panther, Magik, Hulk, Daredevil, Quicksilver, Ghost Rider, Beast, Storm, Wolverine, Valkyrie, Emma Frost, Nightcrawler, Jean Grey, Deadpool, Tigra, Havok, Magneto, Mockingbird, Hank Pym, Black Knight, Psylocke, Captain Britain, Human Torch, Omega Sentinel, Vision, Punisher, War Machine, Union Jack, Rescue, Black Cat, X23, Thundra, Juggernaut, Wonder Man, Constrictor, Scarlet Witch, Fantomex, Angel, Damion Hellstrom, Satana, Gambit, Rogue, Spider-Woman, Doctor Strange, Shatterstar, Hercules and Cable.
Wonder Man was the hero you recruited when you finished the Special Operation, a bonus level that they released particular once every two months or so.
I had vowed to never recruit Colossus and I would just pay the 25 gold to skip the final task of any Special Operation to not do the Epic Boss that required certain characters to complete the final task.
If you know who the Special Operations characters are, which you can learn more from the Wikipedia page –
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvel:_Avengers_Alliance
You can tell exactly who were the required heroes to unlock the epic boss and get the character as that was the order I recruited heroes in. I saved and saved my CP until I got at least 325 points (enough to get three expensive characters) and from there, maybe I would be tempted to use any extra CP to unlock costumes (which I rarely did, except for Kitty and the rumored Magik one that has yet to happen) or other characters.
I was crazy involved on the Playdom boards and thanks to the boards, was able to anticipate which heroes were going to be needed for the next SO and trying my best to save enough CP to get them all.
Such a nice community, while I was there.
Mockingbird and Emma, I had to buy after they were rereleased as I missed out on their Special Operations. Actually, I got there just as Emma’s was starting but I had no idea what I was doing and I didn’t want to unlock Colossus so I just let it passed. Once she was gone, she was gone for good (or so I thought).
It was a fun ride, it occupied a bunch of time in my head and in RL and I have no idea would I would manage to keep up with my life now that we have Walker Dennis.
I can barely keep up with Criminal Case – the only Facebook game I still play now. And that’s mostly due to my wife playing it and so I can play it guilt free as we can play together. I tried Juice Cubes and Candy Crush Saga but they got to levels that just were no fun anymore to keep trying.
Facebook games as made me realize that these games are free and why I would ever pay $60 for a game and $600 for a game system? I barely have twenty minutes to play a free game so spending $700 for a system that I probably won’t even watch BluRays on, is maddening. Not sure how other parents do it. Or they wait until their children are older and can keep themselves occupied.
I wish I could do another screen shot of the heroes I recruited as I did enjoy looking at it, all that time and energy into recruiting all of them.
Okay, I was able to quickly get these screen caps of my roster –
I was trying to sneak and do this and I had to click so many buttons to skip all of the news items. Special Operation for Rocket Raccoon was happening and a new PvP tournament.
Getting those images, sort of makes me want to sneak and play the game on a good computer but I can’t risk that. If only the Kindle Fire would have Flash properly on their platform, I bet I could get back in there. Would be annoying for all of the exclusive characters I missed out on but these things happen.
57 characters I was able to recruit, that is pretty impressive!
Last I left, it was the Special Operation that Damion Hellstrom and Satana were available for. Also, Season Two had just been released and that’s why I started getting all of those additional characters as I was changing my game philosphy as I wanted to just stay current on who the game wanted me to have. I had plenty of gold so I could have an easily time with the Special Operations.
Another thing that killed my buzz for the game was that they redid PvP and made it so that you can have two teams – Defending Team and Attacking Team. So everyone, of course, made their defending team a high defense team and that’s who you had to beat. Playdom only required five wins a day but those five wins, for me, probably took ten to fifteen fights and I just couldn’t commit to that as it takes five minutes each (if you are lucky). That’s what the video above is all about, its a PvP match up.
Just to end on a higher note, here are two videos to show off Kitty and Magik!
Thanks to YouTuber mmagamers for hosting this video.
Thanks to YouTuber o PRIM0 o for hosting for this video!
Looking at so many of these videos, also makes me want to play the game. Also, to figure out how people even made those videos as I wouldn’t mind just making my own video with Kitty Pryde and Magik.
I do love so much how Kitty got a move that uses Lockheed AND that from time to time, Lockheed will just help out as well. Such a fun gimmick. They did the same with Magik, having Limbo demons make surprise attacks as well.
Since I’m trying to make this my Everything Avengers Alliance, I will share this as well :
My wife also thought the game just looked dumb as well. The heroes don’t have any special graphics. The images above would just move from their slot to the other side and then a graphic comes down. I thought it was good enough but she just hated how addicted I was (and I can’t blame her now that I’m months passed it now – almost a year passed it now that I think of it) but that it was such a simple looking game, she couldn’t see what I saw in it.
I mean, it is a free Marvel game with as many characters as you would initially want. What is there to not enjoy?
Emma / Spec Op 2 was during July / August 2012 and Season Two came out August 2013, which was when Elektra became available to start unlocking in PVP which was shorlty after Spec Op 11 ended.
So I played for close to a year and now a year as come and gone. I’ve kept the app on my Facebook profile so I see the logo from time to time but it sure left its hold on me.
I also liked how they gave Kitty, for her second costume, her blue Excalibur look.
The art used for profiles and dialogue was always nice too.
There, I’m pretty sure that’s all my thoughts on the game.
So I wrote the bulk of above, on August 18, 2014 – a long time ago. I then got sucked back into the game but after Special Operations 23, with Spitfire, I had to call it quits again – as it was sucking up too much of my time!
I did have a great time in playing again but I was so far behind that I spent $40 on Gold to get CP and Lockboxes and had plans to buy more but enough was enough (again).
Here are the heroes I recuited, after Cable and coming back for a second time –
Thing, Colossus (I know!), Thor, Hyperion, Wasp, Elektra, Fandral, Silk, Blizzard, Kang, Ares, Hogun, Silk, Angela, Domino, Agent Venom and finally, Spitfire.
I’m sure it was making this post, in the first place, that made me want to keep going back to the game but it was fun. I was mostly seeking characters that I needed to unlock the epic bosses.
I do feel bad, as I got four new allies but I will remain on their ally list, and at level 300, will be a pretty good ally for deploys and another ally to recruit daily items from my map.
Edit 12-6-15 – I think I’m going to try to keep playing when a new Special Operation is going on, as those characters cost 200 CP, later on. Which is pretty hard to save up on, after the fact.
I will play on Sundays too, as the Daily Mission offers CP, even though I have never won CP on Sundays. I’m trying to get 200CP now for Falcon, and I’m at 62 – so it is taking time.
I now have recruited Brother VooDoo and Jessica Jones.
Writers Andy Lanning & Andy Schmidt
Artist Gustavo Duarte
Colorist Marcelo Maiolo
Letterer VC’s Cory Petit
Cover Artists Humberto Ramos & Edgar Delgado
The cover is the only place that Lockheed can be found!
The Pet Avengers are – Lockjaw, Zabu, Furball, Ms. Lion, Redwing and Throg! No mention of Lockheed, which is unbelievable! Now I have joked in the past about being one of those X-Men conspiracy theorists but now that Lockheed isn’t considered a member of the team, I think there is something going on with the X-Office!
The Pet Avengers don’t have the Mind Gem, any longer, so they don’t sync up their minds with Rocket or Cosmo, so we don’t hear anything from the non-English speaking members, so we don’t get any reference to them, not talking about Lockheed.
This is a real shame that Lockheed has been kicked off the team. All due to editorial.
Issue opens with Rocket and Cosmo, on monitor duty. Cosmo, to pass the time, starts talking about other animal heroes. Twooatu, the Cosmic Owl. Graavalian Wormatoid.
Starting the running subplot of the issue, Rocket just wants to drink his very illegal beer. Cosmo keeps it away from him. Rocket gives chase and sees that Cosmo teleported off the spaceship so Rocket does the same. I guess at some point, Cosmo joined the Guardians of the Galaxy, or at least, stays with them on their ship.
Cosmo speaks with this interesting accent but it is hard to read sometimes – essentially, anything that ends with -ing ends with -ink. Listenink / shiftink / snoozink – maybe not hard to read but it makes me notice the spelling, thus takes me out of the story.
Somewhere on Earth . . . Rocket catches Cosmo playing poker with the Pet Avengers! Lockjaw / Zabu / Ms. Lion / Throg / Redwing / Hairball. Rocket is mostly upset that Cosmo never told him that the dog knew how to play poker. They could have been playing poker this entire time!
All of a sudden, the wall busts down. We get the Vulture Von Doom and the Pets of Evil Masters! I imagine the name is a take off of the first two minis being titled “Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers” which I always thought was a silly title, just call it “Pet Avengers.”
Good thing we are given who their masters are, as I don’t recognize any of them.
- Vulture Von Doom – Doctor Doom
- Thori – Loki’s hellhound
- Falconia – Lady Falcona’s Familiar (who?)
- Mikhol – One of the Red Ghost’s Super Apes – who I totally called as being a member of the team
- Tiger Wild – Doctor Doom’s Attack Tiger
- Cuddles – Princess Python’s Killer Snake – of Circus of Crime fame – I haven’t heard anything with them in a while
- Bitey McSpidey-Bite – Mutant Radioactive Spider – the same spider that bit Peter Parker and Silk – who I also thought was dead.
The Pets of Evil Masters take out the Pet Avengers, rather easily and take off with Lockjaw. Rocket now has to go save them, begrudgingly.
Cosmo can read minds, including animal minds, so that explains how he can play poker with the Pet Avengers. I’m not sure why Cosmo doesn’t link all of their minds.
Latveria. Castle Doom. Vulture Von Doom is evil-monologueingm. eviloguing? He is a vulture who has been hiding in the shadows of the castle. So he isn’t like a secret pet that Doom has been keeping, this entire time.
Editor, Xander the Xandarian Historian, informs us that Vulture Von Doom’s plan references the original Pet Avengers miniseries. He is planning on absorbing the cosmic energy that the Pet Avengers were exposed to, when they had the Infinity Gems as he is planning to create his own cosmic cube.
Rocket and the Pet Avengers get to the castle, rather easily. Rocket still only wants his beer back. The beer has been shaken so Rocket just shoots it and the cans explode. Everything is covered in sticky beer. With this sequence of events, the Pet Avengers take out the Masters of Evil Pets, quickly. It was the element of surprised that was their undoing last time.
Rocket gives the Pet Avengers a back handed compliment. He takes off Vulture Von Doom’s helmet and he freaks out as he believes he is hideous. Rocket informs him that all vultures look that way.
You decide –
or 
I still say turkeys are the more unattractive bird!
Some off model Doombots – actually, Servo Guards – arrive to clean up and take the vulture away. Doom is aware of the vulture and apparently, he gets up to these silly schemes in the past.
Sector QXM78-67EMX. Pleiades Quadrant. Planet Klaatu. Grott, the Man-Slayer has come back to this universe, from somewhere where he didn’t have a body. He will have his revenge. Unfortunately, for him, Rocket, Cosmo and the Pet Avengers are ready for him.
I can only imagine these two pages were added so that Lanning & Schmidt could work in a “I am Grott” gag and Rocket says he already knows a guy with that shtick. I imagine “Grott” and “Groot” sound alike, right? It isn’t just the spelling of their names.
Issue ends with Lockjaw teleporting and giving Rocket a fresh case of his beer. So the Pet Avengers are not that bad, now.
Not a bad story, I just wish Lockheed was involved or at least, mentioned.
http://www.newsarama.com/26638-buffy-alum-cast-as-cameron-chase-for-cbs-s-supergirl.html
Cameron Chase, my all time favorite DC Character – I’m that guy – is coming to CBS’ Supergirl. I’m hoping for a mutli-episode role. Couldn’t be happier that Emma Caulfield is going to portray her. Though I haven’t seen Caulfied in anything, since Buffy, but that’s more on me than anything else.
Chase was an awesome seven issue issue, plus a millionth issue, over at DC and it was awesome. Dan Johnson and JH WIlliams III slayed that title. She first appeared in Batman 550, which was also pretty great. The character has appeared in Manhunter, Pre52 and in Batwoman, Post52. Titles that I still need to seek out but from what I’ve read, she’s still pretty great.
We still haven’t watched Supergirl, being two episodes behind but I’m hoping we can marathon it soon.
In response to Who is DC’s Jessica Jones, Chris Sims had this to state –
http://comicsalliance.com/ask-chris-278-jessica-jones-dc-cameron-chase/
I’ll say Cameron Chase is a pretty good answer.
http://comicsalliance.com/chase-comic-jh-williams/
Back in 2011, Chris also had a series retrospective, which is quite good.
I really should hunt down those Manhunter and Nu52 Batwoman trades.
Since, initially, typing this post, we have watched the first three episodes of Supergirl – pretty good so far. I’ve read that CBS has given it a full series order, so that’s even better news!
Writer Charles Soule
Enhanced Pencils Ario Anindito
Enhanced Colors Sonia Oback
Letterer VC’s Cory Petit
The road to the finale begins here!
The Changeling. Six Miles Above the Atlantic Ocean. Two Hundred Miles West of the Azores. Issue opens with Shogun spitting blood into a sink.
Shogun is spitting blood, as the Paradise folks’ expiration date is coming upon them. Junk reveals that he is a little further along the path, as he now has tar like veins on his arms, and they are spreading. Neither Junk or Shogun are thrilled that their time seems to be shorter than they had expected.
Junk is now learning more about his powers, he just learn he has chameleon abilities. Junk really was hoping to join the side of the heroes and maybe one day, being an Avenger. Shogun calling Junk, brother, seems odd to me. Maybe the real Sharp is coming out now that Ogun may be completely out of his system. Shogun is curious about Mystique’s plan but they can’t wait for her time table.
Junk can’t believe how far off course the Paradise team has come. They keep getting distracted by the Wolverines nonsense. Though he makes a point of liking Fang’s adventures, which I can only imagine is a meta message, as fans have to be like me, right? In that Fang was the detour from the book proper?
Junk calls the Wolverines, all of them, monsters, as X23 walks into the room. Which is bad timing as she is the best one there.
Rome, Italy. The Arcadians, the ones the Paradise folks were being experimented on for so that the Arcadians can get the good material. They are attacking Endo (who is not dead, apparently), Skel and Neuro – which a handy editorial note that we first met this group in Weapon X Project 5. Neuro and his crew seem to be beating back the Arcadians, rather easily. Some more Arcadians show up and Neuro surrenders.
Epsilon, the field leader, goes on television and announces who The Arcadians are. On the Changeling, they are watching the news coverage. Junk really doesn’t want to leave his former allies behind in the hands of the clear enemies.
The Changeling Deck E — Detention. Mystique is checking in on Portal, who looks a tad by Wolverine – out of costume. Portal and Mystique don’t have any history together. She doesn’t want him as an enemy but she wants to save a friend, which I’m sure we haven’t had Destiny hinted or mention since issue two or three. Siphon is sleeping in the next cell.
Junk wants to go save his friends. Shogun has to explain who the Arcadians are, to Sabretooth, even though Sabretooth was in the room when the news was being aired. Daken brings up the good point that Neuro wouldn’t go save Junk and Shogun, so maybe they shouldn’t go after them. Shogun has to agree with Daken but Junk doesn’t care – Neuro may be horrible but he liked Endo and Skel.
X23 offers to help Junk save Endo and Skel, as they did seem like nice people. With X23 on board, Shogun is happy to go through with the mission. Which makes sense, he doesn’t want to be the sole fighter so that he has to do all of the fighting and still watch out for Junk.
Mystique comes in and does the one thing one shouldn’t do with this group. Mystique tells Junk and Shogun that they can go, but she still needs X23 for her primary mission. So X23 is definitely going now and Sabretooth and Daken are now a go for the mission to, as screw Mystique! Which I really like that turn of events.
Daken is definitely growing his hair out, so he is now going to look like a tall (Dark) Wolverine with a missing arm and eye.
The Gulf of Mexico. Arcadia. Later. Lady Deathstrike has also joined the team, Shogun tries to talk to Lady Deathstrike but she has no interest in him now that Ogun is no longer around. The team makes very short work of the Arcadians. It helps that the Arcadians are fake, as they are weak shells of people, filled with foam (or something).
The team opens the door and sees the real Arcadians but they are all dead. Mystique warns them to get out of there but they continue on. That Mystique, she doesn’t take any hints.
Neuro shows up and reveals that Mister Sinister is behind all of this. He wanted to get the team out into the open. Some light blue bald Mister Sinsiter cronies show up and pop two claws each, per hand – so Sinister really used Daken’s arm to beneficial results. The issue ends with Sinister on deck.
Shadow and Flame with Magik 