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Tae_Kwon_Dan
2003-12-18, 04:05 AM
Unlike the trivia game, which rocks BTW, this actually a thread to get your comics questions answered. It probably will go much more slowly, but oh well.

I'll start since I know Rich is a fan of all things DC.

Who is John Constantine? I know he has a title called Hellblazer and that he helped Dream retrieve his bag of sand, but that's about it. Is he related to Johanna Constantine also of the Sandman titles?

WampaX
2003-12-18, 04:45 AM
http://www.insanerantings.com/hell/faq/

I think that might answer your questions.
Anyone else want to add anything?

The Giant
2003-12-18, 06:49 AM
I don't read that book, so I am giving you the "general DC" perspective.

Constantine was a character created by Alan Moore in the pages of Swamp Thing in the 1980's. He was Swampie's "Deep Throat" character, giving him bits and pieces of mystical knowledge, just enough to tease the creature into going someplace new and doing what Constantine needed him to do. He was a magician, but more of a "magically knowledgeable guy" rather than full-on spellcasting wizard. Anyway, he became popular for his attitude, kind of a British ornary bastard, and began popping up in other mystically-oriented DC titles like Sandman. Eventually, he got his own series, Hellblazer.

I would assume he is related to the Johanna Constantine character you mentioned, but I don't know for certain.

Bogotter
2003-12-18, 07:41 AM
I have a question. Could someone give me some backstory on Jean Gray's transformation into Phoenix? I don't know much about how it happened in the comics. Was it similar to how it happened in X2?

The Giant
2003-12-18, 08:12 AM
Eh...not overly.

Basically, the X-Men were on this space station (it doesn't matter what they were doing there) and it was about to blow up, so they all hopped on a space shuttle and it was heading into the atmosphere, and somehow there was a contrivance that one person had to stay and pilot the ship while everyone else was safe in the radiation-protected hold. So Marvel Girl (as she was then known) piloted the ship because she could use her telepathic skills to "borrow" the knowledge. The ship crashed into the ocean, but Jean seemed to die of radiation poisoning...

...until a minute later, when she burst out of the water and declared she had been reborn as the Phoenix, because a cosmic entity had resurrected her and her powers now kicked ass and she didn't have to call herself "Marvel Girl" anymore. After that, she got more and more powerful each issue until she went all Dark Phoenix and started eating planets.

WampaX
2003-12-18, 08:30 AM
And then it got complicated . . . ::)

I have two questions, which might be pretty major undertakings.
What is the current state of the Marvel universe?
What is the current state of the DC universe?

I know that both were going through some of those massive changes on the scale of Crisis on Infinate Earths when I got out in the mid-nineties. Has anything major happened to the two universes after Zero-Hour (DC) or Heroes Reborn (Marvel)?

Tae_Kwon_Dan
2003-12-18, 08:54 AM
X2 seemed to be dealing with the more modern incarnation of what was known as the "Phoenix Force" which apparently Jean could tap into. Once it fully manifested itself her Psionic abilities started rivalling those of beings like Galactus.

Shanna
2003-12-18, 09:42 AM
Jean was piloting the shuttle because the computer was fried. The reason SHE was piloting it was because it was going to go through some serious radiation storms or something on the way down, and the regular, human pilot would never survive. So she stole his knowledge, with the idea that she could use her force field to block some of the rads (how a telekinetic barrier would do this is beyond me, but....), and telepathically K.O.ed Scott to keep him from stopping her.

Everything pretty much went as described after that.

The Phoenix Force, back then, was described as the most potent psychic force in the universe. In game terms (if people care), as Phoenix, Jean had access to Class 3000 powers of Energy Creation, Energy Manipulation, Telekinesis, Telepathy, Matter Transmutation, etc, etc. Pretty much anything she wanted.

Power corrupts, and absolute power.... She went nuts (with help), and the dark side of her personality (hey, everyone has one) took over.

Eventually she ate a star, causing it to go supernova, killing six billion people or something, and generally getting the entire galaxy ticked off/terrified of her.

Then they ruined the ending of that storyline later by twisting the entire thing around in a 'happened, but not really' sort of way. I'll avoid spoilers, in case they actually get to movie X6 and decide to do the same thing.

The Giant
2003-12-18, 10:43 AM
I have two questions, which might be pretty major undertakings.

What is the current state of the DC universe?

The short answer is, that kind of huge crossover event has fallen out of favor over the last few years.

The long answer is long. I'll start from the beginning for the uninitiated...

In the beginning, DC had Superman (1938) and Batman (May 1939), both of which were huge, and a number of other heroes who were, to be honest, less popular. In 1939, though, DC had an innovation: They took all of the less popular heroes and put them in a single team, called the Justice Society of America, in More Fun Comics #3. This was a landmark in comics history, as it was the first superhero team ever, as well as the start of the shared-universe concept. Superman and Batman never appeared in the JSA issues because they had good enough sales on their own; indeed, as heroes became popular enough to boost the sales of their solo book, they were rotated out of the JSA and replaced with lesser heroes.

Things were going great for DC until the late 1940's, when superhero comics fell out of favor. Supes, the Bat, and Wonder Woman stayed in print, but the majority of other DC heroes titles were phased out and replaced with Western, Horror, and War stories. And the Golden Age of the superheroes was pretty much over.

Until 1956, when comics legend Julius Schwartz convinced DC to revive The Flash. Except rather than keep the Golden Age character, Schwartz created a new guy with a new costume and the same neame and powers. The title picked up the old Golden Age numbering, starting with issue 105, and was a success. He soon followed the same formula to create a new Green Lantern, Atom, and ultimately, a new JSA: the Justice League of America. The Silver Age was a huge boost to comics and new characters were introduced monthly.

Then, things got complicated, at least in the stories. Schwartz was so enamored of the Golden Age Flash that he published a story where the current Silver Age Flash travelled to an alternate dimension, where the Golden Age Flash and all his old JSA buddies lived (until this time, DC had simply pretended those stories hadn't happened). The story, "The Flash of Two Worlds" was a huge success, and soon the Flash was popping over to "Earth-2" every year. In time, the whole JLA was zipping across dimensions to visit their JSA friends, to the delight of readers.

But there was a catch; Earth-2 had its own Batman and Superman and Wonder Woman—the ones that had been around in the 40's—that were different than the ones in the JLA. DC started to publish comics that took place entirely on Earth-2, which caused confusion in their readers. Various titles began introducing dozens of other worlds: Earth-3, where the heroes were villain, Earth-X, where WW2 never ended, Earth-S, where Captain Marvel and the other characters purchased from defunct Fawcett Comics lived, and perhaps worst of all, Earth-Prime, where the authors and artists of the characters lived, allowing for wince-inducing crossovers between a hero and the guy who wrote him. Since dimension-hopping stories boosted sales, there were a lot of them, and the editors didn't really work too hard to keep things consistent. By the early 80's the DC continuity was a mess.

Enter Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1985. This was a year-long miniseries in which all the DC worlds were crunched together into one continuous history. Now the JSA had lived on the same world as the JLA and been their inspiration, among other changes. The Silver Age Flash was killed off, largely because his solo book had taken a nosedive into soap opera silliness. Plenty of other characters were killed off too, allowing creators to clean house of decades-old baggage and straighten out what "really" happened.

And it was good...for a time. Unfortunately, the editors at DC used the Crisis as a clean slate to "reboot" a number of heroes, including Superman and Wonder Woman, as if they had just arrived. Soon, more contradictions arose, and there was the sticky issue of whether or not characters remembered that there used to be a lot of alternate worlds. Toss in a few ill-conceived "future timeline" mega-crossovers (Monarch, anyone?) and in less than 10 years (1994), it was time to clean house again. The Zero Hour miniseries had the heroes go back and restart the Big Bang, and rewrote the history as one continuous flow, with no indication that anything weird had ever happened. Of particular note, the Legion of Super-Heroes, which took place in the 30th century, was completely wiped out and restarted as if no Legion comic had ever been written.

That set things pretty straight, until Alex Ross created Kingdom Come. This was a beautifully painted miniseries that delved into a dark near-future of the DC universe, where older versions of the JLA heroes leave retirement to combat a new generation of younger violent "heroes". It is rightly a modern masterpiece, but it caused a new wrinkle: it existed wholly outside of traditional history, which flew in the face of all the reshuffling DC had done with Crisis and Zero Hour. DC thus create the Elseworlds imprint, which was a way of saying, "These stories are just pretend." (Which is kind of silly, since it's ALL just pretend.) Elsewords stories flourished and were enormously popular, but fans wanted to see things like the Kingdom Come characters interacting with core DC versions of themselves. In 1999, DC released The Kingdom, a 7-issue series that revisited the Kingdom Come era and found a way to "mix" it with standard continuity. They invented soemthing called "Hypertime" which amounts to them saying, "Every story happens, y'know, somewhere." Frankly, it was a cheap ploy to milk Kingdom Come's success that was not well-received. Today, you pretty much never hear the word "hypertime" in DC comics.

Since then, DC has shied away from the big multi-character crossover series, and focuses on making their core titles good and putting out the occasional Elseworlds series. The most important recent development is the surge in JSA popularity over the last 2-3 years which began with Starman in the 90's. JSA is one of DC's top books now, and the old heroes are getting more play in the DC universe than they have since the 1940's. There's also a trend to bring back characters that were killed off or retired; Green Arrow and Hawkman were both raised from the dead (literally) and now have high-selling solo books.

So that's DC, I guess. Confusing, ain't it?

WampaX
2003-12-18, 11:08 AM
Thanks Giant, that was a bit more than I expected, but will be helpful to the un-innitiated.

Anyone want to try and tackle Marvel?

Tae_Kwon_Dan
2003-12-18, 10:35 PM
Another one for Giant. I know that Mr. Miracle was a new God and that his name was "Scott Free" what is\was his story?

*I just found him an interesting character in the few times I saw him.

The Giant
2003-12-18, 10:47 PM
My knowledge there is limited.

He was the son of Highfather, the ruler of the New Gods, who was traded to Darkseid as part of a peace treaty. (Darkseid's son, Orion, was sent to New Gensis in return.) Scott was raised as a warrior in Apokolips' army, but was still "good" and wanted freedom. He escaped with the help of one of Darkseid's other warriors, Big Barda (member of the Female Furies), who fell in love with him. The pair escaped to Earth, where Scott was taken in by a circus escape artist. He learned the craft and using his advanced slien knowledge, extended it to new levels. Thus, he became the "greatest escape artist ever". Of course, all that happened as backstory; the meat of the book was him on Earth fighting Darkseid and escaping amazing traps. After Kirby stopped writing the series, he eventually kind of merged into regular DC continuity and even joined the Justice League in the late 80's.

Basically, from a comic publishing point of view, "Mister Miracle" was the part of Jack Kirby's Fourth World setting that intersected with Earth. The "New Gods" book usually dealt only with New Genesis and Apokolips.

WampaX
2004-01-05, 01:20 AM
Stormy, I've got a Dr. Strange Q for ya.
What was up with the eyepatch? What caused him to need it and when did his eye heal back?

Tae_Kwon_Dan
2004-01-05, 01:24 AM
Crap, I'm not at home. I believe I have the issue where they discuss his needing the eye patch (or maybe that's Nick Fury.)

I'll double check when I get home tonight if you don't hear anything.

Shanna
2004-01-05, 02:05 AM
Deep Breath.

During the second Strange Tales series, Dr. Strange became a black magician. This was due to his destruction of all of his items of power, to keep them from the slimy mitts of the alien sorcerer Urthona (a fabulous story arc). It turns out later that most of them weren't destroyed after all (cheesily - an attempt to bring the series back on line), but stolen at the time of destruction by Agamotto - one of Dr. Strange's White Magic patrons (and 1/3 of the Vishanti). You'd think the giant caterpiller would have told him, but nooo....

Unfortunately, this weakened him, and he was forced to use black magic to defend himself and the world from the released beings of power (the destructions of the items broke lots of seals - thus royally confusing people who later found out the seals hadn't been broken, but ripped off by Agamotto. Major continuity issue, there). Under the mentorship of an old enemy of his former master (and black magician), Kaluu, he fought a number of Elder Beings and old ones.

During his first battle as the disciple of the Black Magician, against the creature Ghaszash Nyirh, Dr. Strange disobeyed Kaluu's commands, and took a spear of dark magic in the eye. It destroyed the eye, but his master wove an eyepatch that would trap the energy, allowing him to summon it for use.

Eventually, Dr. Strange battled Shuma-gorath, a monstrous, Cthulunoid old one, for the earth, giving up his own spirit in the process in order to gain the power to battle this being (stealing it from the Chaoslord Arioch, a blatant Elric ripoff). He did the impossible, slaying the old one, and managed to return to Earth. In the process, it seems he purged the darkness from his spirit, and became a white mage again.

In the next Dr. Strange series (Dr. Strange, Sorcerer Supreme, occurring after Strange Tales, volume 2), he received a gift from Agamotto, in addition to his stuff - his eye was 'replaced' with the eye of one of his former foes, Silver Dagger.

Phew. That's the short form. :) For more information, see Strange Tales, Volume II.

Further questions? More detail would have to wait until I got home from work and checked my issues...

WampaX
2004-01-05, 02:23 AM
Ah, I was just confused by the eyepatch during the Atlantis Attacks Annuals that I've been re-reading. Thanks for the info.

Shanna
2004-01-05, 02:31 AM
How does Doc do?

I think I developed a case of "Too Much Information". Sorry. :)

WampaX
2004-01-05, 02:57 AM
He joins with Thor, the Thing and Quasar to combat an embodiment of Set within the giant Serpent Crown that is created. Since he didn't get an annual that year, he doesn't get much big screen time. Mainly figures out where and when to strike and runs some exposition.

I will not, however, regale you with the details of the GIGANTIC crossover as even I do not own all the annuals.

Tae_Kwon_Dan
2004-01-27, 08:13 PM
Okay, so I saw the "Eclipso" episode of Justice League this last weekend and am just curious as to how the origin shown there synchs up with the origin used in the original DC comics.

I noticed a distinct lack of super strength, energy blasts, and imperviousness on the part of those taken over by the Heart of Darkness unless they already possessed such abilities.

Bogotter
2004-02-03, 09:04 AM
Sorry if this is off topic but I have a question. How exactly did Black Cat lose her powers (claws, strength, agility)?

Thanks.

The Giant
2004-02-04, 12:29 AM
Sorry if this is off topic but I have a question. How exactly did Black Cat lose her powers (claws, strength, agility)?

It's not off-topic at all, but I don't know the answer. As far as I was aware, the Black Cat's only "superpower" is the ability to grant bad luck to people. Her agility and strength were just gymnastic training, and she wore claws on her fingers. However, it's more than possible that at some point in Spider-Man lore she actually did gain strength and agility, so never mind. ;)

The Giant
2004-02-04, 12:33 AM
Okay, so I saw the "Eclipso" episode of Justice League this last weekend and am just curious as to how the origin shown there synchs up with the origin used in the original DC comics.

I noticed a distinct lack of super strength, energy blasts, and imperviousness on the part of those taken over by the Heart of Darkness unless they already possessed such abilities.

The Eclipso in Justice League had almost nothing in common with the comic book version. In the books, he is a literal vengeance demon, trapped in a black diamond that was shattered into 99 pieces. Dr. Bruce Gordon collected them all and willingly injected himself with some kind of extract, and this turned him into Eclipso. As Eclipso, he could release people's evil side, essentially turning them evil, as well as shoot darkness bolts and take a beating.

(Oh, and Eclipso the HeroClix has Mind Control, Impervious, and Barrier, not super-strength.)

Shanna
2004-02-04, 12:50 PM
Sorry if this is off topic but I have a question. How exactly did Black Cat lose her powers (claws, strength, agility)?

Thanks.


I got this one!

Black Cat's enhance probability manipulation also came with an increase in speed and agility. It was a result of the Kingpin's scientific experiments on her, at her request (silly girl!).

Unfortunately, her bad luck also affected Spiderman. Gee. Setup, anyone? Spiderman, not understanding the source of the bad luck (and also having broken up with the Black Cat) did a very wise thing (wait for it). He went to Dr. Strange! :) The two had cooperated a couple of times previously, so who better to ask about 'bad luck'?

When Dr. Strange mystically removed his bad luck...poof. There went the Black Cat's powers, the cause of said bad luck.

Dr. Strange comes through again!

WampaX
2004-03-30, 09:28 PM
Alright Giant,
I noticed on the DC unleashed thread that you were pretty happy with all the Us in the set so you are probably knowledgeable about this question.

Who are Mr. Bones and the General?

The Giant
2004-03-30, 11:14 PM
Bones was born with transparent flesh and a cyanide touch. As an young adult, he was forced into being in a supervillain group by the scientists who engineered him, and they fought Infinity Inc. once or twice before the whole thing was broken up. Bones was kind of "adopted" by the Infinitors, though, since he was an unwilling villain, and kind of served as an unofficial member. Unfortunately, Inifinity Inc. member Brainwave went nuts and psychically controlled Solomon Grundy into using Bones' cyanide touch to kill the original Star-Spangled Kid (aka Skyman, leader of II). Traumatized that he had been part of his friend's death, he disappeared.

When next he showed up, however, he had been recruited into the DEO (Department of Extranormal Operations), a shadowy government agency that monitors all superhumans. Eventually, he has risen to be the director of that agency, and has since clashed with the JSA and his former Inifinity Inc. allies.

------
The General is a simpler story, and not one of the ones I am overly looking forward to. Basically, he's a literal army general who manipulated the JLA and got his brain put into long-time JLA foe The Shaggy Man (an indestructable artificial life form that could only be trapped or outsmarted, not destroyed). Of course, being a military guy, he gave the Shaggy Man a military crewcut (hence the bald look of the figure). The JLA kicked his ass anyway.

WampaX
2004-03-31, 12:29 AM
Ah, amazingly, I have one of the JLA issues with the Shaggy Man. They shot him off on a missile ride.

Follow-up Question. What/who are Infinity, Inc.?

The Giant
2004-03-31, 12:51 AM
Heh heh. Fear for your sanity, WampaX, for once again we must tread...Pre-Crisis!

Back in the day, there was Earth-One, where the JLA lived, and Earth-Two, where the heroes from the Golden Age, the JSA, lived. JLA stories featured frequent trips to Earth-Two, and they were very popular, but the problem was that the E2 heroes were old. They had fought during WW2, after all, and it was the early 80's. The editors at DC had a running title called All-Star Squadron, which followed their WW2 exploits, but modern readers couldn't relate to fighting Nazis anymore.

So they introduced a new concept called infinity Inc. The comic focused on the children/heirs/replacements of the aging JSA in the present era. So you had Jade, daughter of the Golden Age Green Lantern; Hourman II, son of the original Hourman; Nuklon, godchild of the Atom; Huntress, daughter of the deceased Earth-2 Batman; etc, and led by the former child hero, Star-Spangled Kid, now grown up and named Skyman. The book ran for a few years to middling sales, up through the Crisis. After that, though, editors made the decision to scrap it as a means of pruning the Earth-2 references wherever possible.

Recently it has had something of a critical appreciation, especially since the new JSA series uses many of the characters created during Infinity Inc. Nuklon, Jade, Obsidian, Northwind, Hourman II, a new Star-Spangled Kid, Power Girl, Hector Hall, Brainwave, and others have all made their way into the pages of JSA.

Gannes
2004-04-14, 12:50 AM
Recently it has had something of a critical appreciation, especially since the new JSA series uses many of the characters created during Infinity Inc. Nuklon, Jade, Obsidian, Northwind, Hourman II, a new Star-Spangled Kid, Power Girl, Hector Hall, Brainwave, and others have all made their way into the pages of JSA.

Hector Hall? But, but he's dead. Even his ghost got sizzled in Gaiman's Sandman!

The Giant
2004-04-14, 12:54 AM
Reincarnated. In JSA #1. His soul was plucked from some limbo and stuck into the body of a child composed of equal parts Order and Chaos so he could serve as the new Dr. Fate.

No, I don't know what that really means.

MaxMahem
2004-04-15, 03:32 AM
Well I couldn't say much about whats going on in the Standard Marvel Universe, however I do know that Marvel is currently do a re-launch of many of there titles (X-Men, Spider-man, Avengers, Fantastic Four, Daredevil) under a new "Ultimates" line.

There like the old titles, but slightly darker (generaly), more realistic, and perhaps even more over the top (though this may very from series to series). They all seem to be concurent in a new "ultimates" universe.

As far as the individual comics go, "Ultimate X-Men" gets a hearty thumbs up from me, being an excelent read with good art. "The Ultimates" (the Avengers re-launch) is also very good. The Spider-man and Fantastic Four are also pretty good, if thematicly diffrent from the re-launches of the X-Men and "The Ultimates", which makes it kind of hard to integrate their more lighthearted atmosphere with the darker and grity ones. I've only read a little bit of new "Ultimate Daredevil and Electra" but what I read was pretty good.

WampaX
2004-04-28, 08:26 PM
Whatever happened to Lockheed?

What happened to the Darkhold to scatter its pages and has it been completely restored yet?

roquon
2004-04-29, 06:57 AM
does anybody know who this guy with the black coat and white eyes is who takes timothy hunter on the journey through time (right at the beginning of 'books of magic')? he appears very shortly in kongdom come as well.

mfg

Shanna
2004-04-29, 07:55 AM
What happened to the Darkhold to scatter its pages and has it been completely restored yet?

No idea. Last I heard of the Darkhold, Dr. Strange had it. That was before Marvel REALLY messed with his character, and I retired from the series in disgust. :(

Poot.

The Giant
2004-04-29, 10:08 AM
Whatever happened to Lockheed?

To the best of my knowledge, he still hangs around with Kitty Pryde. He was living in her college dorm room, last I saw.

I don't know what a Darkhold is, though, and I never read Books of Magic.

SimonMoon5
2004-05-01, 03:10 PM
does anybody know who this guy with the black coat and white eyes is who takes timothy hunter on the journey through time (right at the beginning of 'books of magic')? he appears very shortly in kingdom come as well.


It's been a while since I've read the Books of Magic miniseries, but I presume that you're talking about the Phantom Stranger, who was a member of the Quintessence in Kingdom Come.

SimonMoon5
2004-05-01, 03:21 PM
Superman and Batman never appeared in the JSA issues because they had good enough sales on their own;


Just to nitpick: they did actually show up to help raise money in one story, and they were present (as a disembodied head) on the roll at the beginning of each story (at least for a while), as honorary members.

WampaX
2004-05-02, 11:20 AM
[Marvel] Whatever happened to the Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation?

[Marvel] Is Man-Thing still guarding the Nexus of Realities in the Florida Everglades?

[DC] Is Swamp-Thing still around, what's he been up to in the last 10 years?

[DC] And what has become of Tefe Holland?

roquon
2004-05-02, 01:04 PM
@SimonMoon5: that's him. i would like to know what kind of being he is, angel or whatever. some allusions are made, but i never found a confirmation for any of them.
do you know more?

mfg

SimonMoon5
2004-05-02, 04:25 PM
Ah, well, the Phantom Stranger is one of them there riddles wrapped in an enigma type of guys.

There was an issue of Secret Origins that tells his origin... well, his origins. Just to keep the mystery, there were four completely different and incompatible origins given for the Phantom Stranger.

In one of these stories, it is revealed that he is the famous "Wandering Jew". In another, he is a man from ancient times who was cursed by an angel to wander forerver, never remembering his past identity. In the third story, he is a scientist from the future. The fourth story is most likely to be true: during the rebellion in Heaven, one angel took neither side, and had his wings torn away.

So, the Phantom Stranger might be an ex-angel, a scientist, or just an unlucky guy.

What is known is that he is currently a servant of Order (the "good" side in the war of Order vs Chaos), and that he has undefined but substantial magical powers that he usually uses to a minimal degree, preferring to let men find their own solutions to their problems, though he helps out if there's an occult problem that a normal person can't deal with.

SimonMoon5
2004-05-02, 04:29 PM
Is Swamp-Thing still around, what's he been up to in the last 10 years?

[DC] And what has become of Tefe Holland?

There is a current Swamp Thing series (issue #3 is the current one, I think) that answers these questions. Unfortunately, since my comic shop doesn't get extra shelf copies, I haven't been able to browse to see what's going on.

SimonMoon5
2004-05-16, 01:41 PM
Having now read the first three issues of the current (fourth, I think) Swamp Thing series, I can say a little bit about Swampy's current status.

He still has the powers of all the types of elementals, that he gained near the end of his previous series (the second Swamp Thing series; the third series was devoted to Tefe's shenanigans). His Alec Holland memories and personality have been removed, however, leaving an all-powerful elemental with no moral center.

Tefe, meanwhile, is beginning to realize that she has power not only over the green but also over the Red (fleshy animals stuff), thanks to some help from a resurrected Sargon the Sorcerer. Swamp Thing recognizes that Tefe is a potential danger to him, so he's trying to kill her.

However, John Constantine has put the Alec Holland memories and personality that Swamp Thing previously possessed into Alec's rotting corpse, and the two of them have traveled to meet Tefe, just as Swamp Thing arrives to destroy her.

And that's all that's happened in the first three issues.

Mrs._Miggins
2004-12-08, 02:43 AM
The Giant posted:

I don't know what a Darkhold is, though, and I never read Books of Magic.

Though it may be drastically different by now, I do know it is considereda tome of Evil.

In my Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Update '89 ::), it states this:

"The Book of theDarkhold is a volume of parchments transcribed eons ago by the demonic Elder God Chthon containing all of the arcane knowledge that he had amassed through the millions of years he spent learning to control the dark mystic forces of the cosmos."

Also, the last thing the entry has about it is that Dr. Strange kept it in his house (poor Wong!) but was stolen by the alien sorceror Urthona, who used the book to transport away from a fight with Strange.

After getting away, the Darkhold vanished from Urthona's possession and Agamotto returned the book to Strange.

That and the Darkhold's first appearance was in Marvel Chillers #3. ;)

By the by, Strange was a sort of snotty mentor in the recent series Witches. So-so, but the characters deserve a second miniseries.

eta: The Giant posted:

Heh heh. Fear for your sanity, WampaX, for once again we must tread...Pre-Crisis! (in regards to Infinity Inc.)
Marry me! :-* Loved that series and few folks even know what I'm talking about.

eta: What happened to Snapper Carr and Guido, a.k.a. Strong Guy?

WampaX
2005-02-13, 08:26 PM
So I just watched the episode of JLU with Mr. Miracle and I would really like to know about the Comic Book history between New Genisis and Apakalypse.

Also, who the heck was Baron Wunderbar?

RBPRX1204
2005-02-14, 09:59 AM
To the best of my knowledge, he still hangs around with Kitty Pryde. He was living in her college dorm room, last I saw.

I don't know what a Darkhold is, though, and I never read Books of Magic.

BTW, Kitty Pride is back with the X-Men (at least one of the bazzillion x-titles) and has Lockheed in tow. To make things interesting, they resurrected Colossis, and she seems all up into her dead boyfriend. Also, I leafed thru an issue of X-Men, The End, that takes place in the near future, and Lockheed is still at the X-Mansion, although the mansion did get nuked (and I'm not talking boom, knocked down a few walls. Nooooo, I'm talking they had an overhead view from a mile or two up, and big big explosion that would make a big mushroom cloud, and take out NYC to boot) at the end of the issue by warskrulls. Kids these days have no respect for property, you know.

My question is, is Nate Pryor, X-Man, refugee from the Age of Apocalypse, still around? And if he is, what's he up to? (My guess is flipping burgers at White Castle in New Jersey.) ;D

yersch
2005-02-14, 01:10 PM
Hey, what ever happened to the 2099 books that were coming out for awhile in the 90's? And what ever happened to Lobo?

Thanks.

RBPRX1204
2005-02-14, 01:18 PM
Hey, whatever happened the Death's Head. He kicked but. Even broke one of Wolverine's claws, in an alternate future.

AtomicKitKat
2005-02-14, 02:18 PM
While on the subject of Comic Book Questions, why did AtomicKitKat only get pimples, body hair, and a broken voice when he hit puberty, rather than cool mutant powers? >:( ;D

RBPRX1204
2005-02-15, 09:28 AM
Mutant genes in the real world are not as much fun as in the comics. Genetic anomolies happen all the time. Cancer is a genetic anomoly, that I think could be considered a mutation. Cancer cells gain a special quality that normal life does not have, Immorlity. I read somewhere that there is a tumor, taken from a llady around 1897, that is still being used for research. The tumor is still alive, and will continue to grow as long as researchers keep it supplied with a nutritious environment. Mutations involving fetuses also occurs, but are usually spontaneously aborted (naturally, not with assistance of a doctor). Those that do survive to be born are often your cases of minor to severe birth defects. Why you didn't gain superpowers or become a mutant, is because you probably are a health meatbag, oh, I mean human. Sorry. Playing way too much KOTOR.

AtomicKitKat
2005-02-15, 01:08 PM
Well duh I'm a "normal, healthy human" :P

I just think it's a little sad that I don't get to run/fly around in cool spandex outfits or run around naked and LOOK like I'm in a cool spandex outfit. ;D

I think the lady's cells were called HeCa or something like that. Helen Carver, something along those lines.

RBPRX1204
2005-02-15, 03:04 PM
Do you have any idea what it takes to look good in one of those spandex outfits? We are talking Size 0 for the ladies, and really buffing up if you are a guy. Even then, you are probably pretty suspect flying around in spandex/lycra. Honestly, does the Blob really look good in his outfit? Come on. A nice military unifrom, similar to what Bishop started out with in Uncanny X-men looks good. Now, at this point I could be a sexist pig, which I probably am, but I'll take the high road and not go into female superhero fasion. ;D

AtomicKitKat
2005-02-15, 03:31 PM
Do you have any idea what it takes to look good in one of those spandex outfits? We are talking Size 0 for the ladies, and really buffing up if you are a guy. Even then, you are probably pretty suspect flying around in spandex/lycra. Honestly, does the Blob really look good in his outfit? Come on. A nice military unifrom, similar to what Bishop started out with in Uncanny X-men looks good. Now, at this point I could be a sexist pig, which I probably am, but I'll take the high road and not go into female superhero fasion. ;D

Bah, I wouldn't have this gut if I had my radioactive metabolism... Then again, if I had my radioactive powers, I'd probably have to make the suit myself by fission/fusion of atmospheric molecules... ::)

Mystique looks good in anything. Granted, she's naked 99% of the time, using her powers to simulate clothing(and even spectacles, apparently)

SGent
2005-02-15, 06:24 PM
Okay, so I saw the "Eclipso" episode of Justice League t.......I noticed a distinct lack of super strength, energy blasts, and imperviousness on the part of those taken over by the Heart of Darkness unless they already possessed such abilities.

Eclipso taken minions do not have Energy blast unless they hold the shard of the diamond up on thier eyes. Mainly the increase in physical strength is due to the channeling of their absolute hatred and the removal of those little blocks that keep people from going all out. They don't really get any extra power.

Also Eclipso was created (er well brought back... created in continuity is what I mean) when Doctor Gordon visited the caribeian island "Diablo" during an eclipse. The local witch doctor slashed his arm with a part of the diamond then comited suicide. Transfering the curse of Eclipso to Gordon. Gordon then returned to the states and spent the remainder of his life battling Eclipso and developing light based technology, Eclipso's one major weakness. He eventually cast off the Dr. Hyde persona of Eclipso, but I believe he died in one of the more final confrontations in one of the later major cross over's DC did.

Eclipso is the spirit of vengence, one of the orginal forms of the spectre. Twisted and evil he was cast out and banished into the black diamond where he can only leave when a fragment of which is held by somoene expressing hatred and a desire for vengence. He's banished by pure light from that person and his powers increse dramatically during Eclipses of the sun. So his general pattern is to seed the crystal all over, make people mad, then block out the sun.

RBPRX1204
2005-02-15, 06:36 PM
What's the deal with Solomon Grundy? The dude can take it almost as good as he gets. I know he can't truely die, and that he has some kind of new personality everytime he comes back from death, but where did he come from? What's his purpose, besides wanton destructions and mayhem?

SGent
2005-02-15, 06:46 PM
The General is a simpler story, and not one of the ones I am overly looking forward to. Basically, he's a literal army general who manipulated the JLA and got his brain put into long-time JLA foe The Shaggy Man (an indestructable artificial life form that could only be trapped or outsmarted, not destroyed). Of course, being a military guy, he gave the Shaggy Man a military crewcut (hence the bald look of the figure). The JLA kicked his ass anyway.


Keeping with the "Too much information" the orginal Shaggy man was one of a pair of creations by the old fashioned insane scientsit type. A complete robot/android thingy (it was artificial, but they didn't go into detail beyond that... hey it was like the 60s) they were immensely powerful and indestructable. Eventually the JLA sealed the two monsters in the earth where they'd fight each other forever....

Forever lasted about thirty issues until the next evil mastermind teleported one out and let it run wild, the JLA stepped in again, and basicly Hal Jordan shrunk the Shaggyman A down with his ring and stepped on him. Leaving B in the earth, trapped forever, alone.

Forever lasted about seventeen issues until Shaggyman B broke free of the earth and made a rampage until the JLA stepped in again, and this time tricked him onto a rocket and shot him into space. Where he'd float around the asteroids.

He was latter brought back to Earth and used as a body for a military man's brain. Until he was shot into space once more... then eventually returned to fight again. I believe he was finally done away with, when he was sent to another dimension with one of Orion's war hounds (New Gods thing) and there to fight forever until the end of time, (I'm betting thirty issues.)

-----

The brain of the "General" is from Wade Elling, an Air Force General and one of the few persistent, non-major characters in DC. For awhile he had a hand in an amazing amount of stuff for being someone without a big name. He created Captain Atom and Major Force, and was Captain Atom's major foe. He also had a hand in the Invasion plotline, the Janus Directive and quite a few other cross overs and splits between different teams. He was usually the guy who was implicated but never prooven any time the Military in DC tried to take over.

Eventually, he developed cancer and was dying, after creating the top secret Marine force "Ultramarines" he used their superpowers to obtain the Shaggyman from space, and put his brain into it. Where upon he got a hair cut and went rampage mode. He was shot into space and landed on an asteroid until Luthor bailed him out and brought him back as part of the second Injustice League, until he ran into that whole Orion, wardog, different dimension thingy.

SGent
2005-02-15, 07:00 PM
So I just watched the episode of JLU with Mr. Miracle and I would really like to know about the Comic Book history between New Genisis and Apakalypse.

Also, who the heck was Baron Wunderbar?


This is have to really truncate, simply to keep sanity and not spend five years writing....

New Genesis and Apok are basicly, good/evil. New Genesis was a happy wonderful world, and Apok was a toliet evil world. Being Good/Evil they fought all the time. Eventually the big cheese of Apok got some action, had a baby and it turned on him and killed him. That kid was Darksied.

The war simmered down for a bit until Darksied's uncle started it up again by "accidentally" killing a New Gensisian king. This war got real ugly, however the New Gensians eventually started to win. So Dark went to talk peace. Part of the deal was to trade sons, thus Mr. Miracle went to Apok, and Orion went to New Genesis.

Eventually Orion went good, and Mr. Miracle escaped Apok with Big Barda, one of Darksied's top fighters and they went on to be heros.

New Gen and Apok exist solely as forces in oposition to each other. Ying Yang stuff.


Verman Vunderbar is one of Darksied's top hencmen, like all of Darksied's people he went through the "Orphanage" which is a military training camp that's big on hate and death. Now, way back when one of the plot devices that were used in the New Gods setting was that the New Gods all traveled to Earth off and on. They were also usually immortal. So Verman here has a Prussian/German affection, he's all wanna be Reichsmere. He basicly is one of the main tacticians, he's the guy with the plans and his troops are top notch military units (all major Apok people except Kanto, have their own armies) he eventually tried to take advantage of Darksied when Dark got back from being imprisoned in the Source Wall (The energy field protecting ... whatever is the source of everything, god, tacos, whatever you want) Dark of course is the man, and vaporized him. However, everyone Dark vaporizes he can bring back to life, so we may not have seen the end of Verman.

SGent
2005-02-15, 07:09 PM
What's the deal with Solomon Grundy? The dude can take it almost as good as he gets. I know he can't truely die, and that he has some kind of new personality everytime he comes back from death, but where did he come from? What's his purpose, besides wanton destructions and mayhem?


Solomon Grundy is one of the old fashioned, old school villains who hasn't been destroyed yet.

Orginally... well theres this cursed swamp in Gotham. waaaay back in 1894. This guy named Cyrus Gold was killed in it (he was a merchant) and for decades he was mulch there, getting the chia pet treatment. Finally however, during WWII he came back to life. His tormented spirit and the powers of the swamp bringing him back (This is and /old/ school character, I mean this dude is OOOOOLD School, very few left like him) being a mindless cursed behemouth made out of peatmoss and lizard droppings he went into rampage mode and was eventually stopped by the orginal Green Lantern Alan Scott (Old GL had a vulnerability against wood, not yellow, so Mr. Swampy, Solomon was his super arch nemesis)

He spent the rest of his time trying to kill Scott, and being a flunky anytime a villain needed someone to balance Scott's powers or Supermans/Doctor Fate's(pre-crisis time here) Strength.

Grundy gets whacked every few issues but he's basically immortal. His spirit floats back to the swamp and is reformed as a new monster, manfiesting some other part of Cyrus's personality.. Greed, Hate, Anger, love for Tacos etc.... He can be intelligent..er..kinda, or he can be a box of rocks with molasses added in.

Now, since he's been around for so long, eventually they started playing around with giving him a good side. So he's been friends with Scott's daughter Jade, and that new Starman, Jack Knight. However he's pretty much one of the last big heavy hitters left in the villain pool who doesn't have megomania-baggage so he'll probably not be spent any further on that.

His purpose is basicly, be a foil for Alan, or be muscle on a team, or break stuff, or just really smell like an armpit.

Hope that answers your question.

RBPRX1204
2005-02-16, 04:49 PM
Okay, I think I got a stumper her. Way back in the '90s, Image comics had many successful comics, but there were also some that didn't make it. My question is, was there a conclusion to Ascension, and Spirti of the Tao? They seemed like cool books, but I had to start cutting down on my buying at around the same time.

WampaX
2005-02-20, 01:55 PM
Well, The original Death's Head is encased in Cobalt. But I doubt you are refering to the one in Daredevil 56-57.

Death's Head (the freelance peacekeeping agent), was killed by Minion and his consciousness was absorbed into him in Death's Head II #1.

The Death's Head controlled Minion . . . umm, well, he was all over the timeline in his last recorded appearances such as meeting Doctor Who and stopping himself from being killed by a prototype of Minion.

But hey, he got to battle Galvatron (yes THE Galvatron from Transformers). ;)

RBPRX1204
2005-02-20, 02:44 PM
Yep, Death's Head II. He could kick butt. I just remember him and a big crossover that had most of the Marvel Hero's getting gacked by Mystek (the spelling may be wrong). I'll have to get the old comics out and seach for that. The cross-over was cool because almost everybody got killed, including Thor taking explosive rounds that ripped parts of his body off, and Jean Grey morning Cyclops, what, third of forth death?