Tag Archives: comic book

Comic Book Question 1

by Revis Edgewater

A couple of guys at work are into comic books, like I am, and one of the things we do to pass the time is ask each other questions about them. Sometimes it’s picking two characters and debating who would win in a fight between them. Sometimes it’s picking characters we’d like to form a superteam with. Other times, it’s random off-the-wall stuff. I think I’ll save that last category for next week and start with something a little more normal for this first question.

IF YOU COULD BE GIVEN COMPLETE CREATIVE CONTROL OF ANY MARVEL CHARACTER, WHICH ONE WOULD IT BE?

It would be very easy to answer this with my favorite Marvel character, Daredevil, but that’s not who I would choose. There are other characters that I’ve read a lot of over the years that would be easy to answer with: Wolverine (the original), Deadpool, and Gambit, to name a few. I wouldn’t choose them either.

The character I would pick is Chamber.

I know a lot of you out there probably aren’t familiar with him. Jonothan Starsmore is a mutant who first appeared in Generation X, later joined the X-Men, Weapon X, and the New Warriors at various times. He had his own miniseries at one point, as well.

Cover of Chamber #1 by Marvel Comics

When he was first introduced, and at other times throughout his publication history, it was hinted that Chamber would eventually become one of the most powerful mutants on the planet. Over the years, however, that never happened. In fact, he’s been used less and less as time has gone on. The last I saw of him, he did a storyline with the New Mutants around 4 or 5 years ago that lasted probably 6 issues.

If I was ever given the opportunity to do so, I would love to do a story where Chamber finally reaches his potential. A story where he becomes one of the heavy hitters in the X-Men universe.

Although, at this point, I’d just be happy if they started using him more.

A New Favorite

by Revis Edgewater

I was looking around Marvel Unlimited a while back when I found a limited series called Night of the Living Deadpool. Zombies + Deadpool? Absolutely. I was all over it.

The series was pretty good. Not the greatest, but it was an entertaining read. It did well enough to spawn a sequel series called Return of the Living Deadpool. Overall, it was pretty good too. There was, however, one moment of pure brilliance.

From Return of the Living Deadpool.

“Post-chimichanga toilet rodeo”. That is my new favorite Deadpool-ism.

The Last Ronin

by Revis Edgewater

Over the past couple months, my Hoopla app has been flooding my Recommended list with a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles story called The Last Ronin. Why? I have no idea. I’ve never read a Ninja Turtles comic before. My knowledge of the TMNT lore is the basic plots of the 3 live action movies from the early 90s and some of the villains from the original 80s cartoon: Shredder, Bebop and Rocksteady (although I have no clue which is the rhino and which is the warthog), Baxter Stockman, and the brain who lived in the robot’s stomach whose name I can’t remember.

The first few times the issues of this story showed up on the list, I ignored them. Then, when they continued to stay on the list, I clicked on the first issue to read the synopsis: In a future NYC far different than the one we know today, a lone Turtle goes on a seemingly hopeless mission to obtain justice for his fallen family and friends.

It sounded like a story that had potential, but I still wasn’t sold. Not at first, anyway. Then I saw that Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, the two men who originally created the Ninja Turtles, had helped write the story and I thought that if anyone could write a good Turtles story it should be those two. Still, I wasn’t going to assume that it would be good, so I only borrowed the first issue instead of all five.

The first issue does a very good job of keeping you interested, mainly because it makes you wonder which of the four Turtles was the one who survived. Instead of an eye mask that is one of the normal colors you’d expect, this Turtle wore one that was dark gray, bordering on black. Also, the Turtle used each of the four weapons at least once before the identity is finally revealed in the last panel of the issue.

I decided to go ahead and finish the series. For the most part, the rest of the story is pretty formulaic. There were flashback sequences telling how the other three Turtles (and some of their friends) died and those were mixed in with the continuing story of the survivor’s quest for vengeance.

Overall, it wasn’t a bad story. It just wasn’t as good as the first issue made me think it would be. Definitely worth a read if you’ve got some time to kill.

Paintballer

by Revis Edgewater

As you may have seen, I did a “Captain Procrastination” story a few days ago. When I first wrote a story about him (many, many years ago), I had no plans on making a series out of it. To me, it was just a humorous concept. It was a person who had good superhuman powers, but was still a lame hero. Eventually, the novelty wore off and I tired of writing them.

So, I thought I’d flip the concept with my follow up character, DICO. He was a good (or at least decent) hero who had lame powers. That novelty wore off pretty quickly too. But, the recent CP story (which honestly only came about because of a joke between Matticus and myself) made me think back to a character I had come up with probably close to 15 years ago named Paintballer, who was both a lame hero and had lame powers.

Well, I guess technically he had no powers, but that’s beside the point.

A coworker of mine had heard about a contest at a comic book convention (it wasn’t the local one in Cincinnati. I think it was the one in Indianapolis or something). The contest involved making your own comic book/superhero movie, lasting between 5 to 10 minutes long. I don’t remember what the prize was for winning, but the two of us made plans to enter. We were going to do two movies, one for each of us.

There were two main problems we had to overcome. The first was budget…. we had none.

Neither of us had any money, so anything we did would have to involve things we either already had or that could be obtained for little or no money.

The second main problem was safety. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but a lot of superhero movies have a lot of fighting in them and are pretty special effects heavy. As neither of us had any experience in either of these areas, the story couldn’t include things that could cause any permanent damage.

Paintballer solved both of those problems. The basic premise of the story was that a guy was being harrassed/abused by a couple of drug dealers in his neighborhood and decides to take action with the only weapon he has: his cheap, single shot paintball gun.

It solved the first problem because I already had one of those paintball guns. I never tried to use it to actually play paintball. It was only used to goof around/target practice before then. It solved the second problem because, barring getting shot in the eye, getting hit by a paintball wouldn’t cause any serious injuries. Plus, I was going to write it to where nobody got shot in the face. But, just to be safe, I was going to have my “drug dealers” wear sunglasses to cover their eyes in case something went really wrong.

Paintballer wasn’t going to win the day through skill. It was going to be pure luck. Five to ten minutes isn’t a lot of time to tell a story, or plan a fight, so I was going to have it be a slapstick, people getting shot in the nuts (wearing a cup, or other type of protection of course) kind of thing.

Sadly, Paintballer was not meant to be. We got started on it too late, and my coworker and I were never able to get enough time off together to ever put anything down on film, for either his project or mine. I thought about making the video anyway, even if it didn’t get submitted for the contest, but it didn’t seem worth it. Besides, not too many people would probably volunteer to let me shoot paintballs at them without getting some sort of compensation for it.

Over the past few days, I’ve thought about reviving Paintballer and making him more modern. Such as, giving him special paintballs kind of like how Hawkeye and Green Arrow have special arrows. Maybe he has a paintball that releases knockout gas when it ruptures, or one that packs a small amount of explosives so he can blow the lock off a door.

Or, maybe he’ll stay on the trash pile. I don’t know.

The Return of Captain Procrastination?

by Revis Edgewater

He looked over the paper in front of him and sighed. Being the mayor was not something he’d ever envisioned for himself. The only reason he had the job is because the last mayor was killed by a crime lord who called himself The Boss.
Despite the unimaginative name, The Boss had successfully taken over the city’s underworld after the death of its costumed superhero, Captain Procrastination. The city’s lame replacement hero, DICO, managed to score a couple of minor victories against The Boss, but he disappeared after the mayor was killed while under his protection (for the full story of DICO’s disappearance, please see his new story arc… that I haven’t written yet).
“Excuse me, Mr. Mayor.”
The voice from behind made him jump. He turned to see a figure standing in front of his office window, but the glare from the sun blocked his full view. All he saw was the outline of a head and a body wearing the costume of…
“Captain Procrastination,” he breathed in disbelief.
The mayor rolled his chair to the side to get out of the glare and got his first real glimpse of the person standing there. It was clearly not Captain Procrastination. “You’re not him,” the mayor said.
“I’m not the original, no. I’m the new one, and I’m better.”
“Oh really?” he asked, playing along with the clown dressed in the Captain Procrastination costume. “The first one was super fast. Can you do that?”
“No.”
“Then what’s your superpower?”
“I look good in tights.”
While the mayor had to admit that the man had the body for the outfit, he didn’t have time, nor the inclination, to keep the charade up. “That’s not a superpower.”
“When you look this good, it is.”
“Get out of my office. And how did you get in here? The door is on the other side of the room.”
“Captain Procrastination away!”
The mayor watched in confusion as the man in the costume jumped out the window. When he heard the sound of the man landing on metal, he remembered that there was a fire escape outside. “Captain Procrastination” ran down the stairs with his arms out in front of him, making an airplane noise with his mouth as he went. The mayor shook his head, closed the window, sat back down, and went back to work reviewing the documents, hoping to never see that idiot again.

Ghoul Fan Fiction Part 7

by Revis Edgewater

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Aa much as I wanted to run out the door to help the Punisher, there was some unfinished business to take care of here first. The fate of an innocent child was far more important to me than the fate of a man who spends his nights on a murder spree. “Why’d you take the boy,” I asked. “Are you, or one of your sons, his father?”

“What,” Cook cried, his face crinkling up in disgust. “God, no. I’ve known her since she was born. She grew up with my kids. She was like a daughter to me and a sister to my boys. It’s just that if I didn’t get him, who knows where they would’ve stuck him. I took him because I thought he should stay with family.”

I let my gaze drift over to Robert, who was studying Cook’s face. Making up his mind, he gave me a slight nod of his head. “Ok, Cook,” I said. “Here’s the deal. From now on, you’re out of the business.”

“Dallos will kill me if I try to back out.”

“After tonight, you’ll never see Dallos again, so don’t worry about it. I’m going to assume that, like McKenzie, you have a number of legitimate enterprises?” Cook nodded, so I continued, “Good. You’re going to focus on those and raising Amanda’s son. You will care for him as much as you do your own. I will have someone watching you at all times, Cook. If you do anything to hurt that boy, I’ll be back and when I get done with you, you’ll look worse than me.”

That last part put a little fear in him. I didn’t have time to stick around and press the issue. Instead, I took the elevator back downstairs and ran outside. A couple was out front about ready to climb into a taxi. Once again, my horrid appearance worked in my favor. Not only did the couple run away upon seeing me, but the driver did too. It was about time something went my way.

I punched the address McKenzie gave me for Dallos  into the GPS and gunned the engine, letting the navigation unit catch up as I went. I knew the general area fairly well, from my own time as a taxi driver, but I didn’t know exactly where. Another throwback to my taxi days was knowing the best routes to take to avoid traffic. It still took longer than I liked to get there, though.

The last few blocks were a little odd. Through the city, I moved at a frantic pace. Out here, among the large estates that made up this neighborhood, everything seemed calm and serene. I started wondering if I had come to the wrong place. That’s when the sounds of gunshots began echoing through the night sky.

A gate barred the entrance into Dallos’ estate, so I plowed the cab right through it. Or, I  attempted to, at least. The gate was a lot sturdier than it looked. It stopped the car flat. Still, the taxi did enough damage to it that I was able to squeeze through it. I ran the rest of the way to the front door. When I flung it open, I was greeted by one of Dallos’ men.

With one look at me, he dropped the automatic pistol he was carrying. “Oh, hell no,” he said as he raised his hands and started walking out the door behind me. “First, the Punisher and now some dude who looks like he’s right out of Night of the Living Dead? Nope. I’m done. I ain’t getting paid enough for this bullshit.”

I watched him go, not knowing what to do. That was definitely a first for me. Shaking it out of my head, I picked up the gun he dropped and went deeper into the house. Trying to pinpoint where the gunshots were coming from based solely on the sound was impossible for me. Having no ears has its drawbacks, folks. So, basically, all I was doing was blindly walking around.

In the second hallway I walked down, I found the billiards room. Going inside, I quickly located the flash drive behind the vent, grabbed it, and put it in my pocket. Before I had a chance to put the vent back, a shot rang out behind me. The bullet tore through my trenchcoat and out of my chest.  I turned to see another henchman standing there with a smoking gun. His hands trembled when he saw that his shot did no damage to me.

“We gonna do this the easy way or the hard way,” I sighed.

He replied by repeatedly pulling the trigger. The only thing he accomplished was putting more holes in my coat. Now, I was angry and he wouldn’t like me when I was angry. One squeeze on the automatic pistol sent a small spurt of lead in his direction. He fell backwards, landing with a groan. I didn’t see any blood coming from his torso, so he must’ve been wearing a vest. There were holes in both his left thigh and the opposite shoulder.

I thought about finishing him off, but just walked out of the room instead. As a general rule, l avoid killing people, especially since they might come back to haunt me. If this guy ends up going, it won’t weigh on my conscience. I gave him the chance to walk away and he chose to shoot me.

I checked my pocket to make sure that the man’s barrage of bullets didn’t hit the flash drive and breathed  sigh of relief when I found it intact. I continued on into the next corridor and hoped that the growing decibel level of the gunshots meant that I was getting closer to the action. I was.

As I rounded a corner, I saw that there were five men firing into an open doorway. Three other men lay dead around the room. Obviously, I had found the Punisher. I raised the automatic pistol just as one of the men threw something into the room with Frank. “Punisher,” I yelled to get his attention. “Grenade!”

The men, hearing my cry, turned their guns on me. My weapon started barking out seconds before the grenade exploded. I glanced at the doorway long enough to see nothing but a cloud of dust come out of it.

Ghoul Fan Fiction Part 6

by Revis Edgewater

ghoul-ultraverse-exiles-ultraforce-a

Once again, the Punisher looked pissed that I was having a conversation that he couldn’t hear both sides of. I didn’t care. “Cook took your grandson,” I asked, not really believing. “With you and Amanda both dead, your grandson gives him no leverage over anyone. Why would he do that?”

“I’m a ghost, not a mind reader, you jackass,” McKenzie retorted. “How the hell should I know?”

“He has two sons around that age,” the Punisher interjected with a shrug. “Maybe one of them is the father. Or, maybe it’s Cook himself, if she had a thing for older men.”

“They had better not be,” Robert fumed. “She told me it was some boy from school. I swear if any of those three even thought about touching my daughter, I’ll kill all of them.”

“Focus, people,” I hollered. “Let’s get back to what matters. We have a deal, McKenzie. If you tell me where you hid those files, we’ll go get your grandson.”

“It’s behind an air vent in Dallos’ billiards room.”

“You hid your files in Dallos’ house?”

“If I was trying to hide something from you, would you look in your own house for it?”

“Good point. Wouldn’t he notice that the air flow is being disrupted, though? There’s no way those files are letting air go by them.”

“They’re on a flash drive.”

“Amanda said you kept all your files on paper because you didn’t trust computers.”

“Do you know how many people in this city are in the business? I’d need a warehouse to keep files on all of them on paper. I was forced to make an exception.”

“It’s really annoying when you talk to people who aren’t there and don’t tell me what they say,” the Punisher grumbled.

“It’s not important,” I countered. “Let’s just go get his grandson.”

“I don’t think so. I’m going to Dallos’ house to get the files.” The look on my face must’ve shown my confusion  because he clarified, “I still heard your side of the conversation, genius.”

I thought back. Had I said where the files were out loud? Damn it! I had.

By the time I turned to try to convince the Punisher to change his mind, he was already halfway out the door. “Let him go,” McKenzie said. “We don’t need him. You’re immortal, right?”

“More or less.”

“Then you’ve got nothing to fear from a bunch of guys with guns.”

I stood up and got my gear together. Once I had both of my shoulder holsters on, and full, I put a couple of extra clips of ammo in my pocket. An old rickety jacket was thrown over my shoulders to cover the guns up as I walked out of my office.

When I was around halfway to Cook’s house, I ditched the old jacket in an alley and put on my tan trenchcoat, that I had been carrying underneath the other jacket. I put on the other garment that I had under my jacket, my brimmed hat, and pulled up the collars. My face needed to be as obscured as possible. Once I had it hidden as best I could, I pulled off the magic ring. Immediately, I returned to my actual appearance.

“What did you do that for,” McKenzie griped disgustedly.

“As far as the world knows,” I replied, ignoring the ghost’s tone of voice, “Jonathan Martin is just a regular private investigator. If a surveillance camera catches him entering, or even near, a place right before a gun fight breaks out, his life becomes far more difficult. For tonight, I’m Ghoul.”

“If you say so, pal,” I thought I heard Robert mutter, but I ignored the dead bastard.

The remainder of the walk was fairly uneventful. Most people ignored my horrid appearance. I told the few who didn’t that I was on my way to a zombie walk, which they applauded. That’s one of the great things about living in New York City. Nothing is considered weird here.

Unlike Dallos, who had a house out in the suburbs, Cook resided in a fairly swanky building in the city. Swanky enough to have a doorman, anyway. I had a way around him, though. All I had to do was walk up to him and show him my face. Naturally, he freaked and tried to run away, but I  grabbed him by the collar of the ridiculous looking jacket they made him wear and made him open the door first. Once he did, I released him and he ran away screaming.

After I got inside, McKenzie, who had been here many times before, directed me on where to go. I got on the elevator and hit the floor number he indicated. While I was going up, I pulled my guns out of their holsters, expecting trouble as soon as the doors opened. There was none.

The doors opened up directly into the living area, an entertainment room by the looks of it. Cook sat on the couch watching TV, with the infant in his hands. Obviously, he heard me approach because without turning around he said, “It wasn’t supposed to happen like that. Amanda wasn’t supposed to die. But, Dallos moved too quickly. I couldn’t stop him.”

“Where are your bodyguards?”

“I don’t have any. I’m a secret mobster, remember?”

He turned to face me for the first time. To his credit, he didn’t react to my visage. “I thought you were the Punisher,” he admitted.

“No,” I responded, “I’m much more charming than he is. I can, however, kill you just as dead as he can if you keep lying to me. Now, where are your bodyguards?”

“I’m not lying. Not tonight, at least. There’s nobody here but us. Everyone else is at Dallos’ house.”

Uh oh. “What are they doing there?”

“Dallos killed Amanda  because he didn’t believe her when she said she couldn’t get the file for us. He thought she was working with someone else to hide it from us. After he killed her, he said we wouldn’t need to look for her partner because they’d come after him for revenge. So, now he’s got all of our guys, plus some extra muscle he hired on, waiting for whoever shows up.”

Damn, I thought. The Punisher is about to walk into an ambush and I have no way of warning him.