I had to add the Adi Granov variant to my wishlist as Hastings didn’t get the variant for this issue or Secret War Journal.
In this region of Battleworld (but it doesn’t have the Battleworld banner, for some reason), Limbo won Inferno instead of the X-Men. Now it is five years later.
Inferno : Year Four. Empire State Building. Colossus is Cyclops’ perfect soldier, all year long. But on the anniversary of the X-Men’s defeat, Colossus gets to lead a team into the Limbo controlled section of the realm and attempt to save Illyana.
On the fourth year, the X-Men got closer than they have ever been before. This level’s boss fight is with N’astiah — Silver-tongued demon lord. The X-Men on this mission are – Nightcrawler, Boomer, Cyclops, Jean, Beast and Colossus.
Jean uses her telekinesis to throw Cyclops at N’astiah. In a counter attack, N’Astiah deeply hurts Cyclops. This enrages Jean and it blows up the top of the building.
Colossus sees his younger sister, for the first time in four years. Instead of being a baby, she is still a teenager. Illyana plays sweet and innocent to get him closer and then she turns all types of evil.
Illyana converts to Darkchild, Illyana Raputin’s demon form, ruler of Inferno. In doing so, she twists Colossus’ dumb arm so much that it is no longer functional.
364 Days Later. (so the present day).
6am – Colossus has been awake and his girlfriend, Domino, is now waking up. I do enjoy the Colossus / Domino relationship, I’m glad that their relationship has survived into Secret Wars 2015.
6:01am – They talk about how tomorrow this the big day.
6:13am – They bone in the shower
6:48am – Colossus is reviewing his former paintings of his sister. Domino rather they used the room as a guest room or a gym.
7:23am – The couple go on patrol.
11:45am – They fight Inferno-infused Omega Red.
1:19pm – They chase down Pyro.
5:32pm – Boomer can’t wait for tomorrow.
11:11pm – Colossus has marked the day off.
3am – Colossus can’t sleep.
Inferno. Year Five. X-Headquarters. The couple, plus, Boomer, are excited about who the team and what supplies will they be bringing. The X-Men have learned that they need to combined magic with technology, if they are to ever stand a chance. Doctor Strange, Wiccan, Nico (of Runaways fame) and a fourth person, make up the magic side of the research time.
Colossus asks Beast about what tech they are bringing. Beast doesn’t know how to respond. Turns out, earlier, when the narration box states that Scott’s sacrifice was enough to set Jean off, they just meant his use of his legs. Scott, of course, is in a hoverchair, just like Professor X, but he gets to keep his hair. Scott says that last year’s price was too high and they are no longer going to do this. Which seems like a dick move, to not tell Colossus prior to this day.
Scott also mentions how he is the baron of the region, which I’m surprised it isn’t Magik. I imagine Doom can work easier with Scott.
Kitty, according to Marvel Database – but I agree it has to be her, but why she isn’t more interested in pursuing the rescue mission, or on the mission itself, is beyond me. Kitty tells Scott that is is a dick move and he agrees to allow Colossus to go, but he is on his own and with any other fools who want to go with him.
Later. Colossus, Domino, Boomer and Nightcrawler are in Inferno. Kurt had to come to get them in and out of the dome. They take out the first wave of demons, rather easily. Too easily as thousands of demons come at them. Boomer is killed by N’astirh – via arm through her chest.
Darkchild is thrilled to have Kurt, as a prisoner, as he can teleport. I imagine, since Limbo is a place on Earth, that Illyana can’t teleport as she can’t access the other dimension. Darkchild, her right hand demon and Kurt leave.
Colossus attempts to fight his way away from the demons. The day is lost but he won’t know by how much until it is too late. Domino starts being dog piled on by the demons.
The issue ends with Madelyn Pryor — Jean Grey Clone and Goblin Queen, arriving and has grabbed Domino. With her is Alex Summers — former X-Man, current Goblin Prince and Queen’s concubine. Which gives me an awesome Mutant X vibe, and I’m all for that.
This series seems to be about the darker aspects of Battleworld, and i’m all for that. I can only imagine that Magik keeps playing a major role in the series, so I imagine I will be getting all of the issues and I can’t wait!
Whenever I see this statue, I think about the move from Arizona to Montana. This was my only request if I agreed to move to a completely different statue and take our chances, I really wanted to own this.
This is also the last statue slash high ticket item I’ve bought that is comic book related.
I like how much older Kitty looks with this statue, she looks like she is in her mid-twenties and really for battle. I also like the touch with the Ogun mask, an important part of her character growth, once the Kitty Pryde and Wolverine miniseries concluded, she was a completely different person. Gone was the innocent young girl and now she was a harden trained ninja.
I don’t have much experience with Shang-Chi. I’ve read the few appearances he had when he was on the Marvel Knights team and I’ve read the various team-ups he has had with Spider-Man over the years. And now, this series.
Issue opens with some world building, to explain how we got here. Which is nice that Doctor Doom saw fit to include thousands of years of back story, for this region of Battleworld called – K’un Lun. All of the Great Masters went to war. Every school was represented – Red Hand, Panther Clan, House of the Jade Tiger, and the poor bastard from the Spider Cult, is it worth being included if it is only to be insulted? I imagine some Spider-Fan would have been offended if the Spider Cult was left out.
The battle boiled down to Ten Rings (which makes me think of the Mandarin) and the Iron Fist – who we should mostly associate K’un Lun with. The two Masters practically destroy the region. They decided to make a truce. They created a tournament called, Thirteen Chambers, the winner will rule K’un Lun. Shang-Chi’s father – Zheng Zu – has been the ruler for a hundred years. The next tournament of Thirteen Chambers is about to begin.
We start the present day story with a very drunk, Shang-Chi, in the park with his dog. This Shang-Chi is a very funny drunk.
Three goons from the Ten Rings arrive to escort Shang-Chi out of the park. Shang-Chi jokes that they are trying to get rid of the dog. They threaten to burn the pet and Shang-Chi jokes that he is the pet to the dog. A bald young lady witnesses the commotion. As she watches, Shang-Chi starts taking out the goons so easily. Even drunk, he makes short work of them.
The lady runs off to tell Callisto what she was watching. Callisto calls the young lady, Kitten, so we know this is the Shadowcat – which makes sense as we’ve seen from the promo piece –
Kitten tells Callisto that someone is finally fighting back.
The goons finally recognize him as Shang-Chi. The audience can’t believe he has return! We see a very pale fellow, who is Caliban. Caliban reveals all of Shang-Chi’s nicknames or titles – The Rising Spirit / Son of Emperor Zheng Zu / Seven-Time Winner of the Dragon Cup. He is cut off after saying, “Nine-Time Winner of” so we don’t learn that one. He does finish with the reason why no one has seen Shang-Chi for a while. He is wanted for the murder of Lord Tuan, Great Master of the Iron Fist.
Shangi-Chi knocks down the goons.
The goons start getting up, and Shang-Chi asks them to stay down. He tells them that he is no longer a killing man, so now he has a weakness and they press him on it. Just then, this region’s X-Men (I’m not sure what they are going to be called here) show up to even the score. Lockheed is the dragon in green! I rather he was purple but I guess green is a more traditional color for dragons.
This page, we get Callisto calling him by his name in this region, Lock. Which is all the confirmation I need. You can add this character to your favorite list over at comicbookdb!
Lock surrounds the goons with high flames as the heroes make their escape. Callisto tells Shang-Chi that they are outcasts, which works for who the X-Men are. Outcasts and rejects, which also works for the Morlocks. They all go inside a statue to their secret hideaway.
The goons try to catch up and once they realize that they lost Shang-Chi, they know they will have to beg for sweet mercy.
Temple of the Ten Rings. Great Master Zheng Zu recruits a Laughing Skull.
The Halls of the Red Hand. Red Sai is also recruited.
The Citadel of Emperor Zheng Zu. The Emperor is not happy that his son has returned to K’un Lun. Iron Fist is okay if Laughing Skull and Red Sai kill Shang-Chi’s accomplices but he wants the honor of killing Shang-Chi, as he killed Iron Fist’s Master.
Hopefully we keep getting lots more of Kitten and Lock throughout this series.
With the fourth volume of Guardians of the Galaxy, Kitty Pryde has joined the team. She is their new Star Lord. Leading the team is Rocket Raccoon. Along for the ride are old standards – Groot, Drax and Agent Venom. Fellow new face to the team is Ben Grimm!
Peter Quill, old Star Lord and new President of Spartax, is still an honorary member as is Gamora. Time will tell when these two rejoin the team, on an official basis.
Issue opens with the Punisher preparing to kill every costumed fool in this new Battleworld.
Great use of the page break to keep the two worlds’ heroes apart. The left side has Magik and the right side has Ultimate Shadowcat, so this is on! There are a lot more heroes on the left, as there isn’t that many heroes left alive on the right.
This is our first look at seeing what the Manhattan region looks like, of Battleworld. I do enjoy looking at a fictional map. There are two Baxter Buildings. Bold to not go with 4a & 4b or rather, 4P and 4U.
Unfortunately, that two page sequence above is the only reason why I own this issue.
Three Weeks Ago. Proper Spider-Man is swinging along. He comes across the Ultimate Serpent Squad. He gets help from the All New Ultimates, minus Shadowcat. Since the image above has her in her all white uniform, I take it that Bendis is back to ignoring the All New Ultimates title written by Fiffe. Bendis used this team of characters a lot in the Miles Morales comic, so he knows them rather well. He typically writes Shadowcat like how Wood did in Ultimate Comics X-Men, when Bendis had a chance to write her in both Catacylsm and the arc where the All New X-Men visited the Ultimate X-Men.
Black Widow, the female clone of Ultimate Peter Parker, talks to Spider-Man, who is still very uncomfortable with her existence. There is some vague reference to the miniseries, Spider-Men.
The All New Ultimates are insulted that they have not been invited to the big meeting that Spider-Man is going to.
The Triskelion. Headquarters and home of the Ultimates, the US-sanctioned superhuman task force create by Nick Fury and SHIELD.
At this meeting is – Ultimate Fury / Ultimate Tony / Ultimate Human Torch / Proper Tony / Ultimate Hawkeye / Proper Hawkeye / Proper Black Widow / Proper Doc Green / Proper Scarlet Witch / Proper Emma Frost, back in white / Proper Cyclops / Proper Storm / Proper Spider-Man
So the only ones I have to do the universe tag for will be the Iron Men and Hawkeyes – which is pretty handy. I thought Cyclops was seen in the Proper Life Raft in Secret Wars 2015’s first issue? The same for Spider-Man.
The Two Iron Men talk to each other and it is then that I noticed the awesome choice, that I can only imagine should be credited to Petit. The Proper characters speak in all caps and the Ultimate characters speak in proper capitalization. Which is an awesome way to distinction the two universes’ characters. I read somewhere, after I noticed it, that this practice was first used in Spider-Men but I just checked Spider-Men 4 (the only issue of the mini that I own) and Proper Spider-Man is speaking in the Ultimate capitalization so that person got it wrong with that comment. I really do enjoy that decision and glad someone had thought about it.
Here, is isn’t that big of a deal, as Proper Tony is in his red and yellow Iron Man suit and Ultimate Tony is both drinking and out of armor. I’m not sure why Proper Tony isn’t in his white Superior Iron Man suit but Emma is back in white, so maybe they all reverted to their last big change. Except Doc Green is in his current look. I’m not sure. Proper Tony is disgusted with Ultimate Tony is drinking alcohol.
Spider-Man taps on the window and Fury lets him in. Spider-Man is freaking out as everyone knows his name, as when Ultimate Peter died, they plastered his name all over the newspapers. So the Ultimate heroes know his name and Emma knows his name. He then, mistakenly, says his name – so now everyone knows his name.
Proper Tony accuses Ultimate Tony of causing all of this, with his research into the dimensional rift. Which we have seen now in Spider-Men and the Ultimate / All New crossover. I wish that arc had a handy name. I like, that in the flashback, we see the S symbol from that crossover.
Scarlet Witch wants to know what Doom has instructed Fury to tell them, I guess Fury is the head of this shared region. Fury wants to find a way to put everything back to the way it was. Spider-Man wonders if there even is anything to go back to.
The Proper Heroes are going to keep working on Doc Green’s virtual reality simulation program. The Ultimate heroes are going to keep working on dimensional solutions. Fury stresses that Doom cannot find out about any of this.
Issue ends with Ultimate Hawkeye telling Fury that Doom has discovered their plans as the final page, the Battleworld Police Force aka The Thor Corp. All of them came out for this, including – Thor Groot (Thoort?), Throg, Destroyer Thor, Thor Storm, Beta Ray Bill, and two proper looking male Thors.
Issue two promises to have the Ultimate Hulk fight Doc Green!
The famous Kitty Pryde and Colossus have sex issue! Before that, this stuff happens!
Issue opens with Scott’s memory of Uncanny X-Men 132, where Phoenix holds back Scott’s optic blasts and then they make sweet sweet love, like one does with a cosmic entity, in New Mexico.
This entire flashback sequence is Emma’s attempt to take Scott off the board. To make matters, more hurtful, she turns Scott into Logan and we are treated to Logan and Emma kissing.
“Logan” pushes Emma away and claw punches her but silly Scott, he no have claws! Which he will throw back in her fact, in issue 17. Well, not her face but Perfection’s face – but he doesn’t know that then.
Meanwhile, Piotr and Kitty are up to no good and we see Kitty phase through the floor.
We learn that she was receiving oral sex (good job Piotr!) whens he phased through the floor. Either Wisdom never did that or she kept herself in control.
Over with Scott and Emma. Emma is taking Scott apart, piece by piece. She is now attacking his leadership skills and his original leadership position. Jean was Xavier’s favorite, Beast was a genius and good with people, Angel was so good looking and Bobby was funny, I guess. Emma claims that Scott had nothing else, so that is why Xavier picked him for leader.
Does Emma and Scott ever talk about these scenes, once they are on the other side of it?
Scott tries to shut it down. Emma tries to claim that she is trying to get to the root of who Scott is.
Emma points out that the one time Scott had to fight for leadership, in the legendary Uncanny X-Men 201, he lost to a powerless Storm.
Emma segues this into the topic of Scott not having any control.
SWORD Peak Station. Brand, Sydren and the other dude are discussing the result of which X-Man is going to destroy Breakworld. They know who it is but we are not shown which X-Man it is, yet.
Back to Emma and Scott. She has taken Scott to his “Bug Room” a concept that Grant Morrison / Cassandra Nova came up with, where you see your essential. Scott’s is three giant cockroaches. She goes over Scott’s brief origin, that he hit his head once he landed from the burning plane, along with his brother, Alex.
Daily Bugle news page. Adventure Starts Here – Civil War 1 of 7, MC2 Last Planet Standing 1 of 4, X-Men Fairy Tales 1 of 4 (not very good). New Beginnings – Wolverine 42 / She-Hulk 8, both tie-ins to Civil War. Ultimate Fantastic Four 30, return of Doctor Van Damme, Ultimate Spider-Man 95, introducing Ultimate Morbius and Exiles 81, visiting Heroes Reborn slash Counter-Earth. What Are You Doing Here, guest appearances – Incredible Hulk 95 – Silver Surfer / Ms. Marvel 3 – Fantastic Four and Cable / Deadpool 28 – Domino. Can’t Miss Moments, anniversaries and climatic battles! – Fantastic Four : Death in the Family one-shot – death of Invisible Woman? Yes but not our Susan. Sensational Spider-Man 26 – guest artist, Clayton Crain. Spider-Girl 97, the return of the original Hobgoblin!
We get a never before scene, that I know of, of a young Scott sitting in a bed. Young Scott is deciding that he will forever be in control of his power, so he made sure that he wouldn’t be. I guess?
In the morning. Logan is eating cereal and he split a little milk.
Kitty and Piotr come into the room and Logan instantly knows that they have boned. Which is super awkward that he even addresses it. The two of them don’t really play it off well. Was Logan always sniffing her, in the mornings?
Beast, in his lab, is confronted by Cassandra Nova.
Issue ends with Scott, with his brown eyes open, but no optic blasts.
Mails to Astonish – Letters from – John Cribbs / Adrian J. Watts of Melbourne, Australia and Brent Hand of Fort Worth, TX.
There is a blurb for all of the X-Titles that shipped in April 2006 – Astonishing X-Men 14 / Uncanny X-Men 472 / Sentinel Squad O*N*E 4 / X-Men 198 4 / X-Men Deadly Genesis 6 / Cable/Deadpool 27 / New Excalibur 6 / Wolverine Origins 1 / X-Men The End Book Three 4, As the Shi’Ar burn, Kitty awaits the election results in Chicago! (Man, Kitty just sounds lazy). Storm 3 / New X-Men 25 / X-Men Unlimited 4 / X-Men Apocalypse/Dracula 3 / Exiles 79 / Wolverine 41 / X-Factor 6 / Nextwave 4 (since when is that considered an X-Title?) and X-Men 185.
With this, we end our short revisit to Astonishing X-Men. We’ll get to the rest of the issues, eventually.
I really adore the Alvin and the Chipmunks cartoon that went from 1983 – 1990. I was surprised to see a lack of “Best Of” websites for the show.
I keep thinking about how great it would have been, if the creators – Ross Bagdasarian, Sr, his son (Jr) and Junior’s wife, Janice Karman (who created the Chipettes!) had paired up the Chipmunks and the Chipettes, not by archtypes but with different pairings.
For anyone who doesn’t know, the proper pairings are –
Alvin – Brittany
Simon – Jeanette
Theodore – Eleanor
Imagine, instead, if we had
Theodore – Brittany
Alvin – Jeanette
Simon – Eleanor
Simon and Eleanor may be the boring or normal pair there but I like the idea of Theodore and Brittany together, as I imagine that they will bring out different aspects of each other. Instead, as of now, the traditional pairings are just putting up a mirror to each other and that is working.
Simon – Brittany
Theodore – Jeanette
Alvin – Eleanor
Isn’t a bad pairing, except now, Theodore & Jeanette are the normal pair. I guess I’m all about the energetic and the lovable members being paired and the smart characters are throwing me off. Though Jeanette and Alvin together, could be fun.
I’m a much bigger fan of the later episodes, with the change of the art direction, than the earlier ones. Also, making this list, I realize that I (apparently) am a big fan of when they parodied other shows.
What brought on all of these Chipmunk related thoughts? I keep trying to put Walker Dennis in front of music that I think he would like and that I haven’t listen to a thousand times. Then I remembered my love for the Chipmunks and threw up the best song from the film, The Chipmunk Adventure –
The Girls / Boys of Rock n Roll song!
Thanks to YouTuber Loren Sylvester for hosting this video!
Also great? That YouTuber hipped me to this –
Thanks to YouTuber Stuart Danaher for hosting this video!
It is crazy faithful to the original, seen above. It also looks like a lot of fun!
Here is my list of my favorite episodes of Alvin and the Chipmunks, in no real particular order, so I went with production order, according to this website –
Here are my Top 25 Episodes! I had a hard time hitting 25, 17 was easy but I figured a round number would be great and then I thought about going for 25 – but that would fill the list with just also rans and such.
YouTube doesn’t have all of these so I’m only able to provide the ones that I could find. When I couldn’t find the episode, I provided the handy link from the excellent Munkapedia website.
I had more videos but each time they go up, they are forced back down.
I’ve always liked this episode for how it shows that Alvin really does like Brittany and it isn’t just that they are both chipmunks and are the leaders of their own bands, is the reason why he likes her. Him having to woo her is terrific.
Homage to Miami Vice, though I didn’t know that at the time. I liked how rugged Alvin is in this episode. The cast really get into their side roles too.
This one took a while to figure out which episode it was. One of my favorite Dave centric episodes, as I sort of like learning about the man who discovered the Chipmunks. I couldn’t remember how they went back in time, who would have thought it was with the aid of a merry-go-round?
A homage to the Breakfast Club but I never really view it as such. It is a far better mystery Roshomon concept, so to dismiss it as a simple homage, I feel is a disservice. Probably my favorite episode of the series.
This is one of those that I remember fondly as Simon tries to get Theodore to remember history, through the use of food. I want to say this helped me remember key dates and such but really, the stuff Theodore is trying to remember, is pretty simple facts.
Great use of continuity and clips from previous episodes. The whole “We’re bigger than Mickey Mouse” line is pretty awesome, homaging John Lennon’s belief that the Beatles have surpassed Jesus Christ’s fame.
A homage to Charlie’s Angels, which I would have known at the time but I never watched that show. I saw the two films but they are only okay. Another great use of the characters in other roles, and the Chipettes really come off well, as they are the focus of the episode. Eleanor’s fear of high heels has stuck with me to this day.
One of those that I added to the list to get to 25. I mostly remember the episode fondly and how the stakes were pretty high. Is it just me, or does the in-universe reality of the Chipmunks not make any sense. They are suppose to be mega-successful rock group. I can see their high school, just being cool with it but then we get episodes where they worry about money and such. Like, couldn’t Dave just bail them out of the problem with a little cash? I get that their earnings may be placed in a trust account, which probably explains Alvin’s get-rich schemes, so that he can get more money now – but couldn’t they access that money for emergencies?
I like this episode, as it shows that Dave may not want to go down in history as a producer or a stage dad, he wants to see if he can make the cut on his own.
I always think of these as one episode but for the sake of the list, I made it two (so that I could get to 25 episodes). The Chipmunks finally meet their mother! I love the emotional balance beam the special walks. Poor Dave is afraid of losing his boys. Poor Vinny, can’t keep her boys as they are city chipmunks and are use to a certain way of life. Poor Chipmunks, having to realize that they can’t live in the woods with their mother. The sequel, essentially, just proves why she can’t live with them in the city.
This is probably the episode I reference to, the most. So that probably makes it my second favorite episode. The Chipmunks to Berlin, and it is eleven months before it will come down – which I can only imagine that they wrote and created the episode probably a year and a half before Germany becomes one country again. This episode gets pretty real. Shame that it ends with the adventure being an imaginary tale.
Chipmunks Go to the Movies
Every episode of this season is a homage to a known film property.
I don’t really recall this, I must have stopped watching at some point, but I love the idea of how much this is like a comic book plot. The Chipmunks of the 90s meet their original counterparts from the 1950s.
That’s my list, the Top 25 episodes of the series!
Just due to me wanting to add this somewhere in the blog –
Cartoon All Stars to the Rescue
Thanks to YouTuber Ryan Willey for hosting the video!
This miniseries has an awesome premise – What If Deadpool was involved in the Original Secret Wars? And the story is pretty great.
The Surface of Battleworld. Now… (Circa 1984…) Deadpool is surrounded by the remmants of Cap’s shield and Thor’s arm and hand grasping for Mjolnir. Deadpool is healing, so this scene takes place around the third issue or so.
Days Earlier. We get the recreation of the top panel of the page below from the first issue of Secret Wars. I like that the introduction scene is giving the double page splash page – it seems like a moment that should be highlighted.
Plus we get some additional scenes and dialogue (as Deadpool is now there). Points still go out to Colossus for making sure that Lockheed is introduced. I’m sure the Avengers are pretty impressed with the X-Men having a purple space dragon counted amongst them.
Magneto has an awesome introduction, he should present himself more often.
Deadpool comments Wasp on her big balloons, her word balloons. Secret Wars really should have been funnier than it was. The stakes were not that high. Deadpool is just like Spider-Man but with guns and charm. Just to let everybody know how ‘off’ this issue is – Secret Wars 1 came out in May 1984 (cover dated) and New Mutants Volume One 98 is cover dated, February 1991. Which is seven years before Deadpool’s first appearance.
Deadpool makes a reference to Iron Man but he doesn’t know that the man in the iron mask is Rhody and not Tony Stark.
Deadpool asks if the X-Men recognize him and no one does, including Wolverine. Captain America states that everyone is noble and just and Deadpool points out that Magneto is on their ship.
We see the ships that the two groups of costumed individuals are on. It was pointed out to me that the ships they are on (seen in the image above) is the same style ship that the Proper Marvel characters used as their Life Raft in Secret Wars 2015 1.
Xavier senses that there is overwhelming evil from the other ship. Deadpool doesn’t miss a beat to point out how he is on the hero ship.
The Beyonder announces the goal of the miniseries (and the maxiseries) slay your enemies and what you desire is yours. Deadpool whips out his swords and wants to murder the villains so quickly. This scares the assembled heroes. Deadpool whispers to Wolverine, I love all of Deadpool’s asides in the issue – and asks how Wolverine can tolerate all of this goody good shoes. Wolverine states that the bulk of his healing factor is used to repair his pride. It is this page that I realize that Deadpool has a “DP” in the same style of Daredevil’s DD – and he isn’t in this series.
The heroes, including Lockheed!, teleport to the surface of this, Battleworld. Reed doesn’t see any villains but Wasp points out that Magneto is standing right over the hill. Magneto is tired of all of this finger pointing, and knocks the heroes backwards. He flies off after stating that only Thor deserves to stand counted amongst him.
Xavier asks who should be their leader, he is in a wheelchair. Reed turns it down, as he is distracted as his wife is pregnant with their second child, and back at home. Hulk isn’t interested. Wasp defers to Captain America, who accepts the role. Wolverine won’t follow a mere human but Deadpool tells him to get in line as you don’t want to be seen as Anti-American.
Now… Deadpool is resting and healing.
The first battle. Look who Lockheed is bravely taking on! The Absorbing Man! That Lockheed, he goes for the tough foes.
Cyclops is tending to Colossus, as he is the worst. Wolverine v Wrecker. Cap v Thunderball. Spider-Man v Doctor Octopus, careful! I forget that Kang is involved in Secret Wars. He doesn’t do much, from what I can remember.
Deadpool fights Lizard, who scratches his outfit. This enrages Deadpool as there isn’t a machine that repairs clothes here – which there is and Deadpool knows in a fourth wall breaking fashion. Deadpool flirts with Enchantress and She-Hulk. Enchantress is disgusted and She-Hulk wants him to focus up.
Absorbing Man absorbs Deadpool, hoping to learn what his powers are. That isn’t how Absorbing Man works, right? It has to be inanimate objects – that is how I know his powerset. Absorbing Man absorbs Deadpool’s cancer, so that isn’t great.
Deadpool takes out Kang, single handedly – which is up there with Squirrel Girl’s abilities!
The heroes are getting the unconscious villains ready to be their prisoners. Cap sends Storm to do some recon.
Now. Deadpool is feeling better and starts heading outside. As this section of the issue ends with us seeing Deadpool, fully healed, shirtless and with a beautiful head of blonde hair and a mustache to match!
Here is hoping that Lockheed keeps showing up in this! He appears in three issues of the original Secret Wars and in two issues of the four of Spider-Man & Secret Wars. So if his track record holds, he should appear in one more issue of this. I imagine it will be the final and fourth issue.
. . .
Contest of Champions : Bonus Round
Writer Cullen Bunn
Artist Jacopo Camagni
Colorist Veronica Gandini
Letterer VC’s Joe Sabino
Contest of Champions’ first issue came out in June 1982, two years prior to Secret Wars; thus nine years before Deadpool was a thing.
Camagni really likes to draw Kitty from behind!
Can’t really blame the art team for not making sure costumes match from the original series. It shouldn’t have been hard to get it right, as the trade is still in print – I believe. Shamrock and Kitty both should have a full head mask, but that’s okay.
Deadpool is speaking on the behalf of the the B-Level characters (perhaps C-Level) as the Grandmaster and Death have chosen their champions. So the two contestants make a bonus round.
In addition to their proper champions –
Grandmaster’s Team is – Captain America, Talisman, Darkstar, Wolverine, Captain Britain, Defensor, Sasquatch, Daredevil, She-Hulk, le Peregine, Blitzkrieg and Thing.
Deaths’ team is – Iron Man, Vanguard, Shamrock, Iron Fist, Storm, Arabian Knight, Sabra, Angel, Invisible Woman, Black Panther, Sunfire and the Collective Man.
For the bonus round, their champions are –
Grandmaster’s Team – Rocket Racer, She-Man-Thing, Vile Tapeworm and Frogman
Death’s Team – Deadpool, Howard the Duck, Doop and Pink Sphinx
She-Man-Thing is terffic in this issue, I wish she was a real character – or that she became a bigger character now. I’m all for Death’s team. I forget that I actually do enjoy Doop.
Deadpool wants to split up, immediately but Howard tells him that is foolish. Pink Sphinx, also a new character (along with Vile Tapewom) reveals the hidden object is in Patricia’s Platinum Playroom. Deadpool wishes she just whispered the information as now the other side knows where to look. Deadpool knows where that location is, in St. Louis so he will seek it out and asks Doop and Howard to hold back the other side. Essentially splitting from the group.
Deadpool grabs the object and the issue ends with the object just being a Participant globe, which upsets everybody. Well, except for Death who makes out with Deadpool – in an awesome reference to Joe Kelly’s run on Deadpool, wherein Death is attracted to Deadpool. Which, yes, Kelly does involved Thanos eventually, which may be my favorite Thanos appearance.
I like how the first two pages are laid out. The panels on the first page go – Wing dead in the Danger Room, two dudes looking down at something and Emma, the Cuckoos and Blindfold hearing something.
Second page – The telepaths are taken out, the two dudes are bathed in red light and the Danger Room’s door is electrified. So it goes down one page and the opposite panels on the next page.
Scott looks over Emma. Wolverine confirms that all of the psychics are taken out. Kitty goes to check on the rest of the students.
I sort of like the nice touch that Scott and Logan don’t know the kids names but Armor is there to name check Wing.
Some ink kid, comicbookdb nor Marvel Database names him, tells Kitty that the non-ink kid passed out.
Over at the two dudes, we see that whatever they were looking at, is gigantic. I do enjoy Laura Martin bathing their scenes in red. The item breaks out of the roof and we see that it is a damaged Sentinel, that states “I hear you, Lord.”
The team is outside. Wolverine isn’t smelling anything. Kitty wonders if Logan can track Wing, but he doesn’t know him. Like a jerk, though, he promises to kill him, when he finds him – which seems like quite the overreaction. Of course, Wing is dead at this moment, so that isn’t great.
Scott is with Emma, he doesn’t know how she is still knocked out. Beast told him that there is nothing physically wrong with the telepaths. While Emma is passed out, we get a very narration captions, of a second voice in her head.
The Sentinel is slowing making its way towards the mansion.
In space, Abigail Brand is doing some push ups. We see that on her arms, she has tattoos – “Anna” and “Grace.” An agent comes in and tells her that the mansion has gone silent, including their mole.
Look at those amazing backgrounds!
I like that the school only has nine telepaths, that really shouldn’t be a power that too many have. Wolverine confirms that they are isolated in the county.
Lockheed arrives! He must have been attempting to contact Brand. Kitty requested him to do some long-range recon, and he is back. Look at the muscles that Cassaday gives Lockheed! That dragon is a star!
Wolverine asks how Kitty and Lockheed are able to communicate with each other, if all of the telepaths were shut down. Kitty explains that their connection is intuitive, more instinct than thought.
Scott wants some lights.
So Lockheed lights up the sky, revealing the Sentinel. Sentinel eye beams the team, Colossus proves useful by blocking Wolverine, Kitty phases through the beam and Scott jumps aside.
The Sentinel goes on stating, destroy the oppressors! It flings a gate and both Lockheed and Scott dodge it. That Sentinel has gone too far! Scott makes a poor field decision and instructs Kitty to take the students into the Danger Room.
Scott optic blasts the Sentinel and gets back handed, which is impressive that he can take that hit and get back up.
Kitty is getting the students into the Danger Room and avoiding eye beams.
Scott tells the boys to get behind him, as he wants the Sentinel off his lawn. He takes off his visor and leaves a small crater.
Colossus notes that he heard the Sentinel say, oppressors.
Kitty and Lockheed finally lock the students into the Danger Room.
Cassaday straight up reuses the bottom panel of the previous page for the middle one of this page.
Kitty and the students (not sure where Lockheed is) see Wing’s dead body. Kitty calls Armor by her real name, Hisako. She asks Armor for help but Armor is too busy reeling from the sight of her dead friend.
Some kid notices that the exit door is missing.
Outside, the Sentinel is going on and on about father’s sins, as Wolverine slices into it.
Kitty attempts to phase through the wall but she can’t leave the room. Just then, Wing stands up – which is quite the sight!
Outside of the room, Colosus is putting his entire body to try to open the door. He fails as he sucks at everything. Scott feels pretty silly for doing exactly what was expected of him.
Emma has woken up and ends the issue stating that the enemy is not in the Danger Room. THE THREAT IS THE DANGER ROOM!!! WHAT!?! The Danger Room is angry!
Mails to Astonish, letters from – Luis of Bridgeport, CT / Glen Wadleight of Austin, Texas / Ian Rothe / Mark of Springfield, NJ / A Happy Fan / David Bolung of Melbourne, Australia and Joel Padre of Glendale, Ca.
Shadow and Flame with Magik 