Sunday 19 March 2017

Wild Thing: Random Appearances

There's nothing earth-shattering or particularly interesting about cameo-appearances in comics. Usually, writers use them as a quick nod to fans or sometimes a character is used as simple canon-fodder to make a threat look more credible. That said, I think the following Wild Thing cameos belong in the first camp....though the first one is probably a little of both?


This first cameo is a weird one. Well, I guess both cameo's are weird, but you'll see what I mean. This story takes place during the massive multiverse-altering event Secret Wars. In a short story printed in Secret Wars: Battleworld #3, Mojo has taken various Wolverine-related characters from across every domain of the patchwork Battleworld and pitted them against one another in a battle royale fight to the death. The story focuses on a pacifist Wolverine who refuses to fight. Wild Thing (or, possibly an alternate-reality version) appears in a single panel of the story....apparently dead or dying after being bitten by a vampiric Wolverine. That's gotta suck.




The second cameo is similarly odd and coincidentally also features various Wolverine-related characters. Deadpool: Too Soon? #3 (which collects Deadpool: Too Soon? Infinite Comic #5 and #6)  presents Deadpool trying to solve the mystery of who is beheading his 'friends'. In an attempt to warn some of them, he pays a visit to Spider-Ham who is in the middle of a baseball game between a team of Spider-Men and Wolverines, the Amazing Arachnids and the Seething Snikters. I am not making this up. Anyway, one of the Snikters is, of course, Wild Thing. What the heck is she doing there? Deadpool does speculate that the team is comprised of clones, so that might go some way toward explaining things....sort of. But not really. The issue is penciled by MC2-alumni Todd Nauck, so it's likely just a fun Easter egg.





There you have it, folks. While the nature of the Secret Wars event has a built-in explanation for why Wild Thing is meeting (and possibly being killed by) alternate Wolverines, the Deadpool cameo just raises more questions. It may be worth mentioning that Wild Thing hasn't made any appearances in MC2-centric stories since before Secret Wars. Maybe she's stranded in another reality? Maybe I'm overthinking....

Until I stop scouring comics for cameo appearances of obscure characters, I remain

frogoat

A Late Discovery- Red Queen in Gaming

Obviously, I don't pretend to know everything there is to know about the MC2. I doubt even the great and legendary Ron Frenz and Tom Defalco could make that claim, though they'd come close. That said, I've endeavored to note, cover and document every appearance of any MC2 character in other media, be it film, television or video game. Which brings me to my point, at last. I've just discovered another appearance!

Hope Pym, better known as the villainous Red Queen appeared in an electronic collectable card game called Marvel: War of Heroes published by DeNA and Marvel Entertainment. The game was officially released on mobile devices on October 18th 2012 and the game was shut down on May 31st 2016.


As for Hope Pym, she appeared on digital cards which were collectable within the game, specifically called '[Angry Daughter] Red Queen'. The artwork appears to be taken from the previously published American Dream mini-series which featured pencils by Todd Nauck. I'll include links to where I found this information:

http://marvel-war-of-heroes.wikia.com/wiki/Angry_Daughter_Red_Queen
 
 http://marvel-war-of-heroes.wikia.com/wiki/Marvel:_War_of_Heroes
 
http://popnerdtv.com/the-end-of-a-digital-era-marvel-war-of-heroes/?cbg_tz=-600

If I discover any other MC2 characters amongst the various cards in this now-defunct game, I will, of course, make another post.


Until I stop discovering new little bits and pieces relating to my favourite fictional world, I remain

frogoat