That guy at the end of the Avengers movie goes jewelry shopping.

Twinkle, Twinkle

Thanos, the mad titan, has had a hard life, growing up shunned by his family (probably due to his death-obsessed fetish).  At an early age, he started having an inappropriate infatuation with Death; the cosmic being not the concept, but I guess those could go hand in hand.  As Thanos got older, he did what he could to impress her.  Yes, Death has a female persona, (makes sense.)  He travelled throughout the cosmos, murdering left and right.  He constantly sought more power so he could commit even more murder.  He was a murdering madman.  

In his journeys, he had run-ins with Captain Marvel (the original), Silver Surfer, Adam Warlock, the Avengers and many more, he even died a few times.  Death was growing smitten with him and kept bringing him back to the living and sometimes adding to his power.  

That brings us to The Thanos Quest. One day, Death gave Thanos an enormous task; Murder half the universe!  (You know, to balance things out.)  Thus began Thanos’ quest for the soul gems which he called Infinity Gems.  That makes sense, since only one of the gems had control over the Soul.  The others have control over: Time, Space, Reality, Power and Mind.  These gems of great importance were currently in the possession of beings who are part of the Elders of the Universe (except In-Betweener).   Thanos set out to confront each of these beings and either outwit them or force the removal of the gems.

First up was the In-Betweener, who held in his possession the Soul Gem.  In-Betweener was already in a dire predicament.   He was currently imprisoned by Lord Chaos and Master Order (2 floating heads in space).  Thanos struck up a deal and helped him escape.  Unbeknownst to In-Betweener, he  was in a realm where his powers were weakened, so it was a easy defeat for Thanos.  One down, five more to go.

Next, Thanos found Champion on some planet doing what he does best.  To make a long story short, Champion destroyed the planet and was left with no transportation, so at the cost of the trinket on his forehead, Thanos agreed to ‘tow’ him to the nearest planet.

(one of the better stories featuring Champion, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=989WHICDnGw) 

To close out the first issue, Thanos then went after Gardner, who possessed the Time gem.  This was a very anti-climactic encounter. They walked and talked through the garden, then sat across from one another, talked some more, then suddenly Thanos won.  Off panel, Gardner got inundated by thorny vines.  Victory, Thanos!

Going into issue #2, Thanos only needed 3 more gems.  His first run-in was with the Runner.  What he did was run and he ran well.  He was a cocky runner of the spaceways and in his possession was the Space gem which gave him a boost (that he was unaware of) to his speed, and of course his ego (not the Living Planet Ego).  It was an annoying encounter for Thanos, but with his newly acquired Time gem, he aged the immortal Runner into an old man whose pace came to a halt.  Then with ease, Thanos plucked the gem from his unworthy opponent.  For his next quest he knew he would need a bargaining chip in order to acquire his next gem, which belonged to the Collector.  With that in mind, he reverted the Runner to a newborn babe and took him along.

The Collector, unaware of the power he had in his possession, kept the Reality gem in a mere display case.  Ripe for the taking, but Thanos wanted it fairly so the Collector was eagerly willing to trade a minor trinket for an immortal baby elder of the universe.  Once in Thanos’ hands, he showed a fraction of the gem’s power and the Collector freaked out and told Thanos to leave.  Upon his departure, he mentioned the Runner’s current state was only temporary.  So as soon as he left, Runner returned to his normal self.

Last on his list is the Mind gem, which was held by the Grandmaster.  He was a player of games and

liked to use Earth’s heroes as his pawns (Contest of Champions anyone?).  In this contest he would pit himself against Thanos in a virtual reality combat field.  The battle went back and forth.  With Thanos seemingly defeated, Grandmaster assured victory.That is if Thanos played fair,  for it was not the real Thanos who engaged in the battle.  He had sent a fake to take his place. 

With Thanos victorious, he now had all 6 gems.  He knew in his cold dark heart Death would now embrace him, but when he returned to her presence it was not the reception he hoped.  It seemed he gained too much power (d’oh). He was now above Death, so whatever he said or wanted was his.  If he wanted Death to be his consort, it was so.  Death had no choice.  This was not what he wanted so he stormed off in huff to contemplate his next move.  (Spoiler:  Infinity Gauntlet)

This is a classic tale brought to you by Jim Starlin and Ron Lim, which shows Thanos as the schemer that he is.  At the same time, you get to see the sadness and loneliness that comes with becoming a god.

Sabretooth, one mean kitty

Sabretooth: Mary Shelly Overdrive (2002). Where the hell did this story come from? It seems out of place. Even the series title is confusing. Mary Shelly, okay something about Frankenstein. Overdrive? As in Maximum Overdrive? Really?
The story starts off with Sabretooth at the wrong place at the wrong time. Then it becomes a day in the life of Sabretooth (when he is not harrassing Wolverine).

The story plays out like a movie, which I guess was the author's intent. Boy meets girl. Bad guys are after girl. Boy needs to protect girl. In this case, bad guy meets girl. Undead mercenaries are after girl. Bad guy needs to protect girl from bad(der?) guys, kill some mercenaries, and save the day. Oh, and the girl is infected so she'll probably need to die. The end.

Sabretooth definitely takes a beating in this series, so let's take a look at what he goes through.

It all starts with a knife in the throat.  Then shot a few times with a semiautomatic, followed by shots from a pistol.  His arm gets broken.  He gets shot with multiple traquilizer darts followed by many many many rounds from multiple high impact assault rifles.  Then shot a few more times, his throat slashed, and stabbed in the heart.  At one point he even got pinned to a wall crucifix style.

Knowing Sabretooth, he did give just as much as he got.  He ripped a guy's head off.  He chopped a guy's head off with some very large handheld mallet-like hatchets.  He ran over a guy with his motorcycle.  Then to top it all off, he threw a guy into the ocean wearing cement shoes.

Quite the day in the life of Sabretooth.  (Did you know he has a brothel that he frequents?)

Stand out moments in this story would have to be the variety of sound effects.







The story is action packed for sure, but the artwork is very...ugly.  The more I think about the story, the more it grows on me, but that artwork.  I know he is out of costume and all, but he looks like some skinny punk drug addict.

Fantastic Four and X-Men

The year was 2005, in the early morning.  There is a knock at the door.  Open the door and you are face to face with the Fantastic Four.

Morning, sunshine

What would Wolverine do in situation like that. Slam the door shut of course, cuz you know, he's tired.  Thus begins the typical fight before the all important team up.


I must say, I really  did enjoy  this 5 issue series.  It was a well written story and the content was not too questionable (but to kick off the story I really don't see the F4 heading to Westchester in order to use Cerebro to scan a space shuttle for survivors, one would think that Reed could whip something together).  Since Cerebro ends up being a dead end, they are need of a ship.  Since they are already at the X-Mansion they can use their plane.

Oh no she didn't

Unfortunately it is only a six seater so a specific away team needs to be chosen. Since they are going into outer space, Beast suggests that since they will be in a pressurized environment, they would not want any energy emitters.  He excludes Cyke, Human Torch, and Storm but does want Gambit on the team.  (I'm pretty sure he's an energy projector.)  For the muscle they send Thing and Wolverine, followed by Emma and Invisible Woman (along the way they have an interesting back and forth which ends with a Namor burn, if only Sue could see into the future or past depends on how you look at it).  Oh yeah, and Nightcrawler.

Can they even drive?

 As they investigate the shuttle they find the culprits. The dreaded ... Brood! So they fight the ones on board and find the passengers impregnated with the Brood, cuz you know, that's what they do. The moral dilemma then arises on what to do with them. Invisible Woman wants to take them back, but gets talked out of it. Oh yeah, did I mention that there is a cosmic storm on the way so they are crunched for time? Well they aren't quite quick enough and the storm hits them as they crash back to Earth.

 Thing and Invisible Woman emerge from the crash unscathed. The others, not so much. Introducing the new Fantastic Four: Wolverine with the powers Mr. Fantastic, Gambit the new Human Torch, Emma Frost, as the Thing, and Nightcrawler is the new Invisible Elf. Beast deduces that the change is elemental in nature and with Reed's help they can revert them back. Which of course they will, because this is just a limited series and will have no lasting ramifications.

 While the remaining F4-X-Men corral the new F4, the Brood invade Earth. Of course Wolverine is the last to be captured, because he is the coolest and is the bestest fighter in the world. Alas, eventually falls to the might of Cyclops and Thing.  Now that they are captured, Beast and Mr. Fantastic can begin working on the cure (which of course won't work on the original F4 because the mutant's mutant gene has different effects on the body.  Yet again Reed has failed to cure his good friend Ben). Once the X-Men are cured, Emma used cerebro to launch a mental attack on the Brood. She projects the image of Galactus and Phoenix preparing to battle.  So of course that is going to scare any invading force away.  The End

Quite the sight

Fear the Scarecrow

A character runs full circle.

Scarecrow got his start as a contortionist name the amazing Umberto and was first introduced in Tales of Suspense with the invincible Iron Man.  He helped Iron Man catch a petty thief and thought to himself, maybe he could do that full time.  Instead he went on to be a criminal and tried to rob Tony Stark.





After a few B & Es he started hanging out with the Porcupine, Eel, Unicorn, and Plantman, and they managed to capture the X-Men for Count Nefaria.  Then went solo again and started feuding with Captain America.  Slowly his mind started to dwindle and some of his past was starting to be revealed.  It was unsure what exactly was true.  He even had a chauffeur...who was his brother.  That was odd.











At this point he didn’t have any special powers.  He was naturally flexible and used trained birds.  Yes, he was quite gifted.


Things started to take a darker turn for Scarecrow when he was featured in the Captain America/Ghost Rider graphic novel.  It seemed like he was being positioned to transfer into Ghost Rider’s cadre of villains, which was what happened.  Now Scarecrow was starting to take a supernatural turn.

He kinda died a few times, but rebuilt and given the power to emit fear pheromones which in turn gave him strength.

He fought Ghost Rider pretty steadily and was beaten and battered pretty regularly.  Even had all his bones broken and healed in crooked form, but he got better.  He then showed up in Hell and hung out with Blackheart.  Here his spirit returned to Earth and he started body jumping until he got control of Dan Ketch’s body.  He also had control of Dan’s sister’s dead body (Barbara) as well.  (It was a very traumatic time for the Ketch’s matron.)  Eventually that plan was foiled when the Ghost Rider took over Barbara’s dead body and saved the day. Blackheart was a little disappointed in Scarecrow and left him to rot in the pits.


Then the next thing you know Scarecrow is back, depowered.  Not sure if it was ever explained.  Now that he was back doing “regular” crime you would expect him to battle Captain America, but nope, he first runs into Falcon.  Close enough

More Morbius - He Found a Cure!

I was going to move on to a different character/series, but I felt compelled to continue on with some Morbius chronology.  Especially since after many years of being a ‘living vampire’ he finally found a cure.  All it took was getting struck by lightning (during a battle with Spider-man).  Although he was now in human form, he still had a thirst for human blood.

While in police custody, he was allowed to continue his research for a cure.  This led to a run in with Jennifer Walters and an attempt to help her affliction (you know, turning into She-Hulk).  Well that didn’t work.  And in the end Ms. Walters actually agreed to defend Morbius during his trial.  

Morbius was found guilty, but was not in control of his actions at the time.  So he did serve some prison time and at one point Reed Richards sought out his help for the birth of his second child.  (The child not make it.  But don't worry the child did make a comeback many years later and that my friends is a tale for another day).

Next up Morbius becomes a vampire again due to some voodoo woman looking for vampire blood and he starts hanging out with Dr. Strange and Strange’s brother, whom Stephen accidentally turned into a vampire many years ago by improperly reciting a spell.  Whoops!

After a few months of hanging out at Strange’s house, good ol Morbius takes off and is next seen in the brand new Spider-Man series by Todd McFarlane.  There Morbius is living in the sewers and feeding off “bad people” that are brought down by the simple/inbred dwellers living in the underground realm.  Spidey tracks them, finds Morbius, they fight, Morbius learns what the simpletons have been doing, Morbius feels regret and flies off.

In the 90’s he finally hit the big time and got his own ongoing series as part the Midnight Sons group.  The group consisted of Ghost Rider, Blaze, The Nightstalkers and The Darkhold Redeemers.  These misfits dealt with everything supernatural. Even though Morbius was a vampire created with science he still fit in with the group.  His series lasted a miraculous 32 issues!  And towards the end you could definetly see the decline in the storytelling and artwork.

   

Morbius #2 (1992)

30 issues later Morbius #32 (1995)

The series did reintroduced the lovable scamp Simon Stroud.  This time around the 70s banter was gone and Stroud was crazy.  Apparently he never worked for the CIA, or maybe he did I’m not sure.  He became delusional in his quest to capture Morbius. 

Martine, Morbius’ ex-fiance was also brought back into the scene.  And then killed.  And then brought back by Morbius using a page from the Darkhold.  So of course she was then evil, but later cured of her evilness and remained undead.  In a way her evilness did continue because she constantly nagged Morbius to find a cure for her undeadness.  She nagged him to the point that he had to kick her out of his place so he could “move on”.  She later started shacking up with Morbius’ good buddy Werewolf by Night.

Throughout this series Morbius worked on a cure and was able to temporarily cure himself during the day. Thus allowing him to get a day job at a local hospital.  And since Michael Morbius was declared dead, he created the name Morgan Michaels.  He also took the vow to never drink the blood of an innocent and only preyed on criminals.  

One character that I really enjoyed out of the series was Vic Slaughter.  He started as a crazy, ruthless, sociopathic (and rather psychopathic) mercenary hired by Stroud and became the “son of Morbius”.  His team attempted to take Morbius down, but Morbius bit him, broke a bunch of bones in his body (like when Ghost Rider broke the bones of Scarecrow that one time) and buried him alive.  

Snap, Crackle, Pop
Rice Krispies Treats, Original Marshmallow, 1.3oz Snack Pack, 20

Slaughter crawled his way out of the grave with life renewed.  His vendetta with Morbius did make for some interesting tales.  Of course like most “crazy” characters from the 90s, Slaughter fell out favor and was soon forgotten about.  Much to my surprise, he had a profile included in Dark Reign: Files, so I had hopes that he would soon return.  Then I finally got around to reading Wolverine: Best There Is. Lo and behold, Slaughter is back!

Troll on crack?

When Morbius’ series ended he was back to being bounced around a few other titles.  He had a couple run-ins with Blade and then in a few Spider-Man tales Hydra wanted Morbius and he under went some genetic manipulation.








So closes another chapter in the world of Morbuis.  When next seen he is involved with some.... zombies.....and the Punisher(?).


X-Men Origins: Wolverine For Nintendo Wii

What I'm reading: Morbius- the early years

You've come along way!

90s

70s

   
In the early 1970s, Morbius splashed onto the scene.  He was the ‘living’ vampire; made by science, not supernatural.  His craving for blood tormented his soul and whenever the thirst came over him he always screamed out and brooded over his victim.  “Why?!”  

From his first appearance in Amazing Spider-man #101 (1971) (you know the one where Peter had 6 arms!!) Morbius grew in popularity and got his own feature in Vampire Tales.  (Vampire Tales is an interesting comic.  They had a couple vampire stories and in between they had essays about vampires in literature and movies.) There he traveled to San Francisco and battled hippies and satanic cults.

Next up, Morbius began some adventures into Fear.  And what followed were a demon sorcerer and thousand year old aliens trying to fix Earth.  In the final battle, the sorcerer is revealed to also be an alien and allies with his alien brethren in hopes of destroying Morbius (and a little girl who the aliens created).  He also happens upon his fiance, Martine who was under possession by the sorcerer.  The storyline was very strange, in that Morbius got transported to various ‘worlds’.  One was a land of cat people who had found peace and kept breeding to the point of overpopulation.  They brought in Morbius in hopes that he would start killing some of their kind.  He ended up getting tossed into a river which transported him to Arcturus IV, where he met grotesque mutants (who also wanted to die) and robots.  Turns out they were created by the aliens that Morbius had met.  One of the mutants had a spaceship so they were able to get back to Earth.  After it crashed back to Earth, Morbius ran into Blade.  Since Morbius isn’t a normal vampire, crosses don’t work, so Blade needs to use his wooden stakes. Also Morbius doesn’t believe in real vampires.  Go figure. Morbius gets away and needs finish his objective of destroying the aliens.  Once this debacle finished up, he and Martine relocate to the east coast.  

Now in Boston, life for Morbius is turning around.  He has his gal, they have a house, he is being hunted by an ex-CIA agent and he continues getting thrown into other dimensions/worlds.  There also seems to be a theme going on about characters who are eyeballs.  The mutant who had a spaceship had an eye for a face.  Then in another dimension he battled a creature with a thousand eyes. Can you guess his name?  Helleyes!  I kid you not.

 

The banter from ex-CIA agent Simon Stroud is some of the best 70’s dialog.  His nickname for Morbius is “leech”.  They became fast friends in their battle with Helleyes.  Afterwards, they fight real vampires and Morbius is dumbstruck by this.  And then his fiance gets turned into a vampire.  Then cured.  Then Morbius almost kills her by sucking her blood.  Life is too much for him so he takes off.

For additional interesting Morbius tidbits on this time in Morbius’ life check out this blog I happened upon.  
What kind of hijinks will Morbius get into throughout the 80’s?  Stay tuned...

X-Force '99 Annual

Shatterstar and Rictor go to Mexico (then to Colorado, then Germany).  Fabian Nicieza brings a wonderful tale featuring Shatterstar and Rictor.  Nicieza has been the go-to 'X' writer for many years now.  'Star and Rictor are in Mexico taking out Richter's family business, gun smuggling.  They are met by a 'mysterious' person who offers them an opportunity to make some money by battling.  Around this time mutants were still everywhere.  If you needed a new character or some side characters, mutants were the choice.  Heck, even scientists were trying to create mutants or increase latent mutant powers.  Anyway, this story also brings back Martin Strong, from X-Force Annual #2 which featured one of my favorite new mutants, X-treme (Adam-X, the true 3rd Summers brother, god I hate how they created Vulcan as the 3rd brother).  So 'Star and Rictor fight some girl with prehensile arms that stretch and have spikes coming out, then her half-brother shows up to rescue her but accidentally kills her.  Turns out at least 8 people were created, same mother all different fathers.  Different powers, some are dead already, so the trio head to a different laboratory to find out what is going on.  There they run into Martin Strong and Neurotap, who called Cannonball, Moonstar, and Warpath for backup.  Once they figure out the real villain, its off to Germany.  Apparently Rictor's powers allow him to fly/ride logs (interesting mode of transportation, never knew he could do that).   Big battle with the 'mother' who turns out was trying to kick start her own mutant power.

Overall, a good story.  Shatterstar is still trying to find himself, now that he has 2 personalities floating around in his head.  That whole Benjamin Russell thing gets a little confusing, but hey it's comics.  

This is my comic book collection

Here I will post random selections of my vast comic book collection.  I've been collecting since the late 1980s and my all-time favorite comic has been Fantastic Four.  My older brother had the subscription first, while my  subscriptions were from the Marvel Comics imprint Star Comics which included Heathcliff and the Get Along Gang.  The oldest FF comic I have is #67, 1st full appearance of Him (aka Adam Warlock).

My collection is also comprised of some DC Comics as well, mostly Green Lantern, Lobo, and some Batman.  I have some Image Comics; Savage Dragon, Shadowhawk, and some Spawn.  There are a few Chaos Comics too.

Some comics may even be for sale.  If interested please contact me.

Enjoy!