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So the weirdest part about this entry is that Redstone didn't die at the end of the Squadron mini. I mean, he had basically no actual character or impact in the series so I don't care that much but it's weird that they randomly decided he was dead (the dude has no actual name, for example). Also it's possible he was supposed to be Native American which is kind of terrible. (I'm only guessing that based on him being colored funny in the original printings and combining that with the horrifying truth about Asp from the Serpent Squad that was revealed to me in another one of the threads here.)
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Apr 10, 2017 02:50
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| # ? May 16, 2024 19:23 |
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TripleU posted:I ain't got my glasses on but I ain't see it -- just mentions of Left-Winger and Right-Winger. My bad! Loving this thread, regardless.
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Apr 10, 2017 03:29
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Michael Redstone (actual name) is Apache, and derives his powers from his contact with the ground. He died in Death of a Universe due to going into orbit.
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Apr 10, 2017 03:53
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NorgLyle posted:So the weirdest part about this entry is that Redstone didn't die at the end of the Squadron mini. I mean, he had basically no actual character or impact in the series so I don't care that much but it's weird that they randomly decided he was dead (the dude has no actual name, for example). Also it's possible he was supposed to be Native American which is kind of terrible. Redstone died in the Squadron Supreme: Death of a Universe graphic novel. He actually got a thin shred of characterization as the Redeemer who was overseeing the Squadron's dismantling of their Utopia Program; he was pissed off that they weren't going fast enough. Then the Squadron members who were still alive at the end of the mini all got in a jet to go fly into space to try and stop their universe from being destroyed, and once they left the atmosphere Redstone sickened and died; it was briefly theorized that his strength came from a connection with the Earth, like Antaeus of myth, and when that connection was lost he kicked it. There was maybe two panels of addressing this in total. This is the same GN where Inertia tried to use her powers to push back the Big Glowy Thing that was going to eat the sun and the resultant feedback literally turned her into a fine red mist. A lot happened very fast, is what I'm getting at. I'm not sure why Gruenwald decided that that would be a good capstone to the Squadron - unless, now that I think of it, he was going for a kind of Crisis pastiche? That would fit him - but it was pretty brutal.
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Apr 10, 2017 03:53
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Endless Mike posted:Ronald McDonald? I'm lovin' it (your post)
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Apr 10, 2017 03:57
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quote:Whizzer quote:original golden age heroes quote:Golden Archer
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Apr 10, 2017 08:19
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Does Ape-X have a handbook entry? I remember her having a pretty "Silver Age DC" design.
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Apr 10, 2017 08:50
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I can only assume that Whizzer is an alternate universe Charlie Brown.
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Apr 10, 2017 14:23
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Green Intern posted:I can only assume that Whizzer is an alternate universe Charlie Brown. The Kite Man Charlie Brown?
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Apr 10, 2017 21:09
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Does anyone mind if I jack this thread but for DC's Who's Who?Lurdiak posted:I always found it neat how the far future guardians of the galaxy were inspired by classic Marvel heroes, especially Cap. I like how the Jim Valentino GotG is full of crazy poo poo like a street gang inspired by the Punisher or Simon Williams, except instead of Wonder Man he's now Hollywood and has white hair and green wraparound shades.  
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Apr 10, 2017 22:04
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You should start a separate thread for DC.
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Apr 10, 2017 22:08
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Endless Mike posted:You should start a separate thread for DC. That's what I meant, jack the thread's concept.
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Apr 10, 2017 22:12
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Wheat Loaf posted:Does Ape-X have a handbook entry? I remember her having a pretty "Silver Age DC" design. Is that a Peter David name?
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Apr 10, 2017 22:14
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I'm one of the people who really enjoyed the brief early 90s push for Wonder Man. It has always confused me that people don't do more with him but at this point he's been dead and resurrected so many times that I'm not even sure what his deal is. Did he ever get over his random pacifism from the beginning of Uncanny Avengers?
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Apr 10, 2017 22:16
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Lightning Lord posted:I like how the Jim Valentino GotG is full of crazy poo poo like a street gang inspired by the Punisher or Simon Williams, except instead of Wonder Man he's now Hollywood and has white hair and green wraparound shades. I liked the Stark, who formed a cargo cult around a spaceship full of Iron Man armour that Tony Stark shot into space to prevent the Badoon from getting hold of it. Valentino's greatest creation for GOTG, though: 
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Apr 10, 2017 22:17
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Wheat Loaf posted:I liked the Stark, who formed a cargo cult around a spaceship full of Iron Man armour that Tony Stark shot into space to prevent the Badoon from getting hold of it. I've never been sure if Valentino was trying to make fun of the 90s xtreme stuff through his work (this and Shadowhawk too) or if he was just trying to make an enjoyable version of it, kind of like what that recent Bloodstrike revamp was.
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Apr 10, 2017 22:22
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Lightning Lord posted:Does anyone mind if I jack this thread but for DC's Who's Who? Sure, I was hoping someone would do a DC ripoff thread since I don't have those books. I think they're a bit more history intensive like the early Marvel Handbooks though. Day 50: M.O.D.O.K. The greatest character ever? Possibly so.  
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Apr 10, 2017 22:22
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We're missing a really important part of this: https://twitter.com/philhester/status/851545794716946432
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Apr 10, 2017 22:22
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Endless Mike posted:We're missing a really important part of this: I'd really rather not see MODONK
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Apr 10, 2017 22:25
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That's his cousin G.O.D.O.T. - Genital Organism Designed Only for Thrilling
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Apr 10, 2017 22:37
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Edge & Christian posted:That's his cousin G.O.D.O.T. - Genital Organism Designed Only for Thrilling I'm waiting for him.
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Apr 10, 2017 22:38
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Fun! I was going to say Mental Organism Designed Only for FUN!
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Apr 10, 2017 22:40
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Reminder that Matt Fraction introduced MODOGS in his Iron Man run, only to make them just super evil MODOK clones (designed only for GENOCIDE)
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Apr 10, 2017 22:41
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George? GEORGE?! I never knew MODOK had a regular person name. And it's loving George.
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Apr 11, 2017 00:12
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He's back to just being George now, and he's not doing too great. Turns out being MODOK for a decade+ is emotionally traumatizing. But don't worry, MODOK made a clone before he got reverted, because he realized his human limitations and obsessive nature were going to keep him from achieving his goals. The new MODOK is mostly the same, but is slightly more chill.
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Apr 11, 2017 00:15
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I get that MODOK's design lends itself to jokes in the irony-soaked present day, but that's a little tiresome and fatuous considering that MODOK was not only an early example of body horror but a legitimate threat in the MU. I think the last time he was taken seriously at the level at which he was originally conceived was that insane MODOK Virus storyline in Priest's "Captain America and the Falcon". Since then it's been just like ha ha surly big head guy, which is a waste. Also his death, as listed in that Handbook entry, was hosed up by the standards of its time, and really played to the body horror aspect of MODOK:   He's just a helpless, pitiful freak here.
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Apr 11, 2017 01:21
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Isn't he brought back as a mindless animated corpse a year or so later in... I want to say Denny O'Neil's Iron Man? That really pushed the body-horror aspect too (and always reminds of the frankly horrifying New Mutants issue where Warlock inhabits Doug Ramsey's slack-jawed cadaver). I think you're right that that aspect of abject revulsion and monstrosity has been missing from MODOK but I think he's been used well here and there in recent years. For all of its flaws I thought Nick Spencer's Secret Avengers was strong on its villains, and I liked his MODOK in particular. When Ales Kot took over I thought his sense of hyperbolic camp goofiness meshed better with MODOK than it did a lot of other aspects of that book. And really I think the spider-body design is solid and could lend itself to that sense of violent disquiet that Kirby got out of him.
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Apr 11, 2017 01:55
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Ghostlight posted:He's actually a double-reference. Note he's credited as Whizzer II - this is because The Whizzer was one of Marvel's original golden age heroes Whizzer I was one of the Six Forgotten Warriors in the 90s Spider-Man animated series story arc of the same name. They were a team from World War 2 (and so were all elderly) with connections to Captain America who was trapped in another dimension wrestling Red Skull for 50 years, etc. Upon introducing himself as The Whizzer and getting an incredulous reaction from Spider-Man he just says "It was a different time, okay?"
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Apr 11, 2017 12:04
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Man it's bad enough being called the Whizzer in the first place, imagine having to introduce yourself to Spider-Man of all people. You're never gonna live it down.
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Apr 11, 2017 12:16
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Brofessor Slayton posted:Whizzer I was one of the Six Forgotten Warriors in the 90s Spider-Man animated series story arc of the same name. They were a team from World War 2 (and so were all elderly) with connections to Captain America who was trapped in another dimension wrestling Red Skull for 50 years, etc. Wasn't Electro like Red Skull's son or something? I just remember those episodes leading to an Electro action figure with his Revenge of the Sinister Six cannons, and a Captain America with a dinky little shield. I think that line had a light up gimmick.
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Apr 11, 2017 15:48
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Open Marriage Night posted:Wasn't Electro like Red Skull's son or something? Electro was Red Skull's (initially) unpowered son. Chameleon was Red Skull's adopted son with no relation to Kraven, I think?
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Apr 11, 2017 15:56
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Electro was supposed to be the main villain in the James Cameron Spidey movie that never happened so that's why he debuted so late in the game and with a different origin.
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Apr 11, 2017 17:06
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Brofessor Slayton posted:Whizzer I was one of the Six Forgotten Warriors in the 90s Spider-Man animated series story arc of the same name. They were a team from World War 2 (and so were all elderly) with connections to Captain America who was trapped in another dimension wrestling Red Skull for 50 years, etc. That episode was a bit odd because it replaced The Invaders with, essentially, the All-Winners Squad as Cap's WW2 team. Open Marriage Night posted:Wasn't Electro like Red Skull's son or something? I just remember those episodes leading to an Electro action figure with his Revenge of the Sinister Six cannons, and a Captain America with a dinky little shield. I think that line had a light up gimmick. Yeah they did a totally different take on Electro where he was the son of Red Skull and had powers on a level that would scare Magneto. There's a scene where he shows up on every single screen in the world and decides to stop a bunch of car batteries in London or something, just because he can.
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Apr 11, 2017 17:40
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Lurdiak posted:Nightbatmanhawk is conspicuously absent from that lineup. Did they want to avoid confusion with the 616 Nighthawk? (aka the only OG Squadron Sinister member that ever went sort of anywhere) Hyperion was great recently in Avengers, like post humanist Superman. edit: Lightning Lord posted:I've never been sure if Valentino was trying to make fun of the 90s xtreme stuff through his work (this and Shadowhawk too) or if he was just trying to make an enjoyable version of it, kind of like what that recent Bloodstrike revamp was. Holy poo poo Shadowhawk. quote:Later in his career (and as his lifespan shortened due to the progression of HIV to AIDS), Johnstone eventually grew to be less violent. He encounters Trencher and his dispatcher Phoebe; who agrees to assist him in his search for a cure to his infection or another way to extend his life. This led to encounters with the likes of [2] Youngblood's Chapel (another hero also infected with HIV), Bloodstrike and Shadowhawk team-up with each other in the hopes of finding a cure, he then teams up with the WildC.A.T.s. (who offered a possible solution involving a robotic body to transplant Johnstone's consciousness into - which would ultimately fail to work), That guy deserves a thread. Imagine just pages upon pages of spreads of a guy in metallic chrome yelling about having AIDs. I mean it was kind of awesome. Shageletic fucked around with this message at 19:20 on Apr 11, 2017 |
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Apr 11, 2017 19:11
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Shageletic posted:Hyperion was great recently in Avengers, like post humanist Superman. Yeah but that was a different Hyperion. Who's also a different Hyperion than King Hyperion. Who's also a different Hyperion than the one from Thunderbolts. Nighthawk is, as far as I understand it, the original Nighthawk from the classic Squadron Sinister story in Avengers, and has been active as a c-list to d-list superhero for a long time, usually as part of teams.
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Apr 11, 2017 19:19
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Shageletic posted:Holy poo poo Shadowhawk. Now imagine a ten year old boy pretending to be Shadowhawk as his friend acts like Spawn. That was me. I also have the entire card set. Never owned or read a Shadowhawk comic.
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Apr 11, 2017 19:40
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Shageletic posted:Holy poo poo Shadowhawk. Like I said, not sure if Valentino was taking the piss out of X-TREME COMI-X or what  Open Marriage Night posted:Now imagine a ten year old boy pretending to be Shadowhawk as his friend acts like Spawn. That was me. I also have the entire card set. Never owned or read a Shadowhawk comic. So how many spines did you break?
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Apr 11, 2017 19:51
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Shadowhawk was such a weird series of comics, and I do kind of get the impression Valentino was at least half-parodying the trends of the day. His even potentially "straight faced" superhero work is limited almost entirely to Guardians of the Galaxy and Shadowhawk, and both of those are questionable. He's a dude that broke into comics 30+ years ago by pitching "normalman" parody strips in the back of Cerebus, has spent the majority of his time outside of those two properties working either in autobiographic/roman a clef comics or things that are straight up silly (Normalman, Samurai Penguin, Sonic the Hedgehog vs. Sabrina the Teenage Witch(?)) From the bits and pieces of Shadowhawk I remember, it very very quickly went from "A GUY BREAKS BACKS AND HAS AIDS" to "breaking people's back is really lovely" to "what if there was a Silver Age Shadowhawk?" to "what if like, there are Shadowhawks throughout the millenia?" to "uh I dunno, what if a new Shadowhawk fights corporate crime? Can you break a corporation's back? Also who wants to write this, not me!"
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Apr 11, 2017 20:58
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Hot 90s fact: Shadowhawk almost had a game released for the SNES, but apparently Valentino didn't budget for the cost of printing the cartridges( ), so he pulled the plug at the very last minute, after the entire game was done. It remained unreleased for decades until the rom recently surfaced.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uZI7S5OdRI
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Apr 11, 2017 21:08
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Wasn't Valentino also the de facto head of the business side of Image for a good long while?
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Apr 11, 2017 22:02
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