Tag Archives: Marvel

Comic Book Question 13

by Revis Edgewater

What was your first comic book?

Well, I suppose if you want to get technical, my first comic book was a comic book version of the Bible that my aunt and uncle got me for my First Communion. Since nobody was wearing spandex in it, however, I’m not counting it as a valid answer to this question. I also don’t have a single answer for it because the next time I bought comics after that, during my high school years, I bought two of them. What happened in them? I honestly don’t remember. I do remember that the only reason I bought them was because I thought the covers were cool, and the covers are the only reason I found them again.

The first one is Ghost Rider/Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance.

Ghost Rider/Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance #16

Guys with flaming skulls shooting each other with fire? Pretty cool when you’re a teenage boy.

The second one is Punisher 2099.

Punisher 2099 #11

Cyborg guy with a werewolf arm? Also cool when you’re a teenage boy.

I never followed up on either of these series after buying these issues way back when. Mostly because I was a teenage boy who rarely had money, but also because I bought them at a flea market, as we had no comic book store where I was living at the time. At least, I don’t think we did. I’d actually forgotten about them until a guy at work asked me this question. I looked both series up on Marvel Unlimited, but it only has the first six issues of the Ghost Rider series and just one of the Punisher 2099, a crossover tie-in, so I can’t go back and try to read them again.

Oh, well. It’s just one of those things.

What about you? What was your first comic book?

Comic Book Question 11

by Revis Edgewater

If you could create one character to stick into any comic book world (it can be a hero, villain, or even just a supporting character), who would you create and which comic book world would you send them to?

I could go the cheap way and tell you all about the three mutant brothers I created for my X-Men fan fiction… again… but that’s three characters, not one. I thought about trying to come up with a new villain for Daredevil. He hasn’t had a good new villain in a while. Although Muse wasn’t too bad. I also thought about coming up with a new Nightwing villain, one not connected to any of the other Bat family or Titans, but then I remembered that’s what they’re trying to do with Heartless.

Ten or fifteen years ago, I had an idea for a new character in the Moon Knight mythos, but it’s eerily similar to Hunter’s Moon, who just debuted two or three years ago. I’m not sure how they did it, but I’m convinced that Marvel stole the idea from me and tweaked it just enough to be different. Also around ten to fifteen years ago, I had an idea for a DC character who would basically be a foul-mouthed Looney Toons character come to life, but the more I thought about it, the more it sounded like The Mask.

No, it’s time to come up with something new… think… think… think…

I got nothing. So, instead, I’m going to take the easy way out and just pick one of the brothers from my X-Men story. I’m not going to pick the most powerful of the three. In fact, you could make the argument that he’s the weakest. Still, I’d choose him over the other two because I think his mutant power would make his interactions with the X-Men more interesting.

His name is Antonio Rodriguez, an Army veteran, and his mutant power is that he’s immune to mutant powers.

That may not seem like much, but think about it. There’d be someone who couldn’t be influenced or have their mind read by Jean Grey, Emma Frost, or Professor X. Cyclops could hit him with his optic blast, and it wouldn’t affect at all. Colossus couldn’t use his super strength to lift him up or punch him across a room. It was a plot point in the story I wrote because one of the characters I used in it was Chamber, and the only way he can talk is through his mutant powers. Their inability to communicate caused problems.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I think that’s interesting.

What about you? Do you have an original character you’d like to drop into a comic book world?

Friday Question #4

by Revis Edgewater

And now, for the last of 3 questions that I stole from Joseph Mallozzi’s blog a long time ago…

Who is a t.v. character you initially loved but ended up hating?

This one was a little easier for me than the last of these questions that I did. Like the last question, I will preface this answer too by saying that there are many characters that I really like or really dislike, but there aren’t many that I invest in enough to love or hate. The answer to this question is one I really liked, but turned into one I disliked.

Grant Ward, from Agents of SHIELD.

SPOILERS AHEAD!

He started off the series as arguably the most capable member of the team. By the end of the first season, he’s revealed as an agent of Hydra. During the entire second season and the first part of the third season, he’s portrayed as a lovesick psychopath. Then, he’s killed off, only to have his body possessed by an evil alien.

As you can tell from the above paragraph, where he ends up is a far cry from where he started, and it wasn’t a good trip. They did him dirty. That character deserved better.

What about you? Are there any TV characters you liked at first, but started disliking after a while?

Agents of SHIELD

by Revis Edgewater

Whenever Mrs. Revis and I don’t have anything in the current TV season to watch, we’ll go back and rewatch a show we’ve already seen before. A while back, we went through the entire series of Castle again. Castle was such a good show. I just wish they would’ve gotten one more season so they could give the show the finale it deserved.

Our current rewatch series is Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD. There are 7 seasons of this show, but we only watched until somewhere between midway to three-quarters of the way through the fourth season when the show was originally airing. The first half of the fourth season was pretty good, but the quality dropped really quickly as the season went on. Back when it originally aired, there weren’t streaming services where you could stop watching something and easily pick it back up again. So, when we stopped watching it to focus on shows that we liked better, we never picked it back up.

We were scrolling through Disney Plus not too long ago and saw that they had added it. When we needed a new rewatch, we decided to go with it… and I’m glad we did.

At this point, we’ve only gone through the first two seasons and a handful from season 3, but right now, the series is just as good, if not better, than I remember it. There’s a good mix of humor, superhero action, and intrigue. Agent Colson is one of my favorite MCU characters, and each member of his team adds a little something to the show.

I’m hoping that we’ll be able to make it past the part we left it the first time and finish the show. Only time will tell, though.

Comic Book Question 8

by Revis Edgewater

It has been another awful week at work, so I’m picking a question that’s relatively quick for me to answer.

If you switched the rogue galleries of Batman and Spider-Man, which one would have the easiest time defeating the others?

To me, this one is simple. It’s Spider-Man. Spider-Man would have an easier time defeating Batman’s villains than Batman would have defeating Spider-Man’s villains.

I can hear all the DC enthusiasts now: “But, if you give Batman enough time to study his opponents, he could beat all of Spider-Man’s villains!” While that may be true, you don’t always get the time to study your opponents in the crime fighting game. If Batman were to come across Carnage in a dark alley, with no idea what the symbiote’s weaknesses were, I’m taking Carnage in that fight.

On the other hand, if you were to pit Spider-Man against any of Batman’s villains, he’d win those fights even without any prior knowledge of them. Plus, his quips and one-liners would probably annoy the crap out of villains like the Joker and Riddler.

What do you think? Do you agree with me, or do I have it wrong?

Comic Book Question 5

by Revis Edgewater

IF YOU COULD CREATE YOUR OWN AMALGAM UNIVERSE CHARACTER, WHO WOULD IT BE?

For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, I’ll explain. Back in the late 90s/early 2000s (I could look it up, but I’m feeling lazy at the moment), the Big 2 in the comic book industry, Marvel and DC, did a huge crossover event. During this event, the main Marvel universe and the main DC universe merged together, creating the Amalgam universe; a universe whose heroes and villains were a combination of one character from each of two original universes. For example, years ago, I mentioned in a post that the most badass character in comics came from the Amalgam universe: Dark Claw, a combination of Wolverine and Batman. Imagine Wolverine, with his adamantium skeleton, claws, and healing factor, but also having Batman’s intelligence, resources, and fighting skills. Most badass character in comics.

His nemesis, Hyena (a mixture of Joker and Sabretooth), was pretty badass too. Some of the others I remember are: Super Soldier (Superman + Captain America), Amazon (Wonder Woman + Storm), Speed Demon (Ghost Rider + Flash, a combination I never would have thought of), and Sparrow (Robin + Jubilee). There were many more, but those are the only ones I can think of off the top of my head.

As for my answer to the question, I put a lot of thought into it. I wanted to create a conflicted character, so I started thinking of two characters who were complete opposites. The first thing that came to mind was Superman and the Punisher, but Injustice Superman was basically that combination. Then, I went to Deadpool and Batman, the least serious comic book character and the most serious. But, finding a balance between the two would be tricky. It’s probably a little too tricky, so I moved on from that. That’s when I thought that maybe I should do two characters with opposite powers as opposed to opposite personalities. After pondering that one for a bit, I realized I was overthinking it, and I should just go with a combination I liked.

That’s when I came up with the Cajun Hood. I’m still not sold on the name, but I was trying to include both characters in it, and it’s the best I’ve come up with so far. The Cajun Hood is a combination of Gambit and the Red Hood. Both already wear body armor. When fighting up close, he’d use Gambit’s quarterstaff. When fighting from a distance, he’d use Red Hood’s guns, but he’d imbue his non-lethal rounds with Gambit’s mutant kinetic energy ability. He’d have Remy’s Cajun heritage and thief upbringing, but the Jason’s tragic backstory of being killed and brought back to life.

Personally, I think that would be an awesome character.

What about you? What would your Amalgam universe character be?

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.