The White Tiger in the MC2

 

With the return of Matt Murdock as Daredevil to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the revival series Daredevil: Born Again now out on Disney+, it’s the perfect time to look at one of the series new additions, Hector Ayala aka the White Tiger. This is The White Tiger in the MC2.

 

First some of the basics: created by Bill Mantlo and George Perez, Hector Ayala first appeared in Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #19 from 1975, where he becomes the White Tiger. Strap in for some pre-history! First appearing in Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #1, Abraham ‘Abe’ Brown, Lin Sun and Robert Diamond were martial artists trained by Master Kee in San Francisco. When their master is slain, the three set out to avenge him, each wearing one of the three Jade Tiger Amulet pieces (originating from K’un Lun) as the Sons of the Tiger. Eventually, the Sons would part ways and all three of their Amulet pieces were used by Hector Ayala to become the White Tiger, though the trio would occasionally reunite and work alongside the likes of Luke Cage, Iron Fist and the Daughters of the Dragon, Misty Knight and Colleen Wing.

 

Hector becomes a student at Empire State University where he became friends with Peter Parker, secretly the fellow superhero Spider-Man and the two share several adventures together including confronting the villainous Carrion (Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #9 - #10). After his identity becomes public, Hector’s family are murdered when he is targeted by the maniacal Gideon Mace, causing him to permanently retire as the White Tiger (#20 - #21, #49 - #52).

 

The White Tiger makes his solitary appearance in the MC2 in a story written by Tom Defalco and pencilled by Ron Lim from J2 #11. When American Dream of the Avengers turns down an invitation to participate in a martial arts contest, J2 aka Zane Yama takes it upon himself to attend in her place. Travelling via mystical amulet to a small island, J2 meets the (apparently) blind Howard the Duck, the self-proclaimed Master of Quack-Fu.

 

From Howard we learn that a few dozen of the world's greatest martial artists were invited to the contest, but only a few of the previous generation's 'old fogies' showed up. Among these ‘old fogies’ is Shang-Chi, sparring with Shen Kuei aka Cat. Other characters glimpsed include Iron Fist, the Sons of the Tiger and Hector Ayala aka the White Tiger.

 Suspecting a trap, Howard had hoped to stack the deck in his favour with American Dream, Stuck with J2 instead, Howard attempts to train the big lug to defend himself but has no success. When J2 reverts back to Zane Yama after his powers temporarily wear off, he encounters Blind Al. Concerned for Zane's well-being in the upcoming contest, Al attempts to get past Weasel to talk to the mystery person who organised the contest: Wade Wilson aka Deadpool.

Having followed Blind Al, Zane learns the contest will have a deadly ending. Encountering Deadpool, Zane turns back into J2 to duke it out with the mercenary. Deadpool reveals he set up the contest to alleviate his boredom. Having overheard his plans, Shang-Chi, Iron Fist, White Tiger, Cat and the Sons of the Tiger proceed to kick Wade’s butt off-panel.

 

While that’s it for White Tiger in the MC2, it does offer a more hopeful fate for Hector when compared to his Main Marvel Universe counterpart. There is the small question of how and when Ayala regained the Jade Tiger Amulet after sending it back to the Sons of the Tiger, but it’s not like that was addressed in the Main Marvel Universe either.

 

Until I have my entire family killed only to have more previously unmentioned family members take up my mantle after I’m killed, I remain

 

frogoat

 

Avengers Headquarters in the MC2

In my ongoing effort to delay returning to my Clones in the MC2 series, I am currently procrastinating by focusing my attention on the home of the MC2’s own Avengers team. I thought I might channel this hyper focused tangent into a little post looking at the history of the Avengers Headquarters with particular focus on Avengers Mansion.

What is later known as Avengers Mansion made it’s first appearance way back in 1963’s Avengers #2 where we see the interior, referred to simply as ‘the library of Anthony Stark’, with the exterior of Stark’s Mansion first glimpsed in Fantastic Four #26 when the Hulk emerges from the sewers nearby.

 

The Avengers’ stalwart butler Edwin Jarvis made his first appearance in Tales of Suspense #59 before making his debut in the Avengers title itself with Avengers #16. The building is first identified as ‘Avengers Headquarters’ and ‘Avenger Mansion’ in Avengers #38 and aside from some pedantic variations (such as Avengers #51, Avengers #53, and Avengers #60) is referred to as the ‘Avengers Mansion’ from Avengers #61 onward. There is a two-page cutaway look at Avengers Mansion in Avengers Annual (vol. 1) #1 (or Avengers King-Size Special #1 if you prefer).

 The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (vol. 1) #1 features a fantastic profile detailing the history of the Mansion and includes a mention of several extensive remodels, including moving the Mansion 35 feet from the street. This is referenced in Avengers #230 where Hank Pym recalls Thor and Iron Man were responsible for the move. This write up also fleshes out details published previously, including that it was built in 1932 by Howard Stark (Avengers Annual #9) (though the sliding timeline may someday change this to an earlier Stark) in addition to confirming the address is ‘890 Fifth Avenue between 70^th and 71^st Streets in New York City’ which has remained almost entirely consistent since then with the exception of it being listed as ‘721 Fifth Avenue between 70^th and 71^st Streets’ in at least some reprints of this profile. The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Deluxe Edition #1 has a few minor updates to details, and a new additional schematic of ‘Sub-Basement Level Two’. A correction for this profile notes the depth of lowest Sub-Basement was left blank and should read 110 feet.

 

During the iconic ‘Avengers Under Siege’ storyline, the Avengers Mansion is destroyed, leaving team demoralised and with no base of operations (Avengers #270-#277). After temporarily using an office suite in Four Freedoms Plaza the Avengers move their headquarters to the artificial floating island Hydrobase while plans for renovation of Avengers Mansion began (Avengers #278). The rebuilt Mansion itself would be moved to Hydrobase in Avengers #288 and the island was dubbed ‘Avengers Island’ in Avengers #301, though the whole island was soon after sunk during an assault orchestrated by Doctor Doom (Avengers #311).

 

Without a base of operations once again, the Avengers temporarily utilize the remaining Sub-Basements beneath the grounds of 890 Fifth Avenue, the location having been recently converted into ‘Avengers Park’ (Avengers #300, Avengers #312).

 

Eventually, construction would begin on a brand new ‘Avengers Headquarters’ with the help of architect Eric Masterson (Avengers #314 - #328, Avengers Annual #19, Thor #423, Thor #434). Construction on Avengers Headquarters was completed in Avengers #329 before an official opening was held in Avengers #332. This version of the Avengers Headquarters is wrecked by the Avengers team member and Eternal Sersi during in Avengers #373, when she was driven mad by the effects of ‘Mahd Wy’ry’ or ‘Eternal Madness’ and the manipulations of the evil alternate-reality version of Dane Whitman known as Proctor.

With the Avengers Headquarters ruined, the alternate reality Watcher known as Ute uses his dying moments to supposedly restore the Avengers Mansion in its place (Avengers #375). However, the team quickly noticed things were not as they seemed (Avengers #378) and soon Black Widow discovers something hidden behind a wall deep in the Sub-Basements, identified as a ‘chronal displacement field’ by Dr Henry Pym aka Giant-Man, which explodes when the Vision attempts to phase through the wall, revealing a strange door (Avengers #382). After further attempts to investigate this strange trans-temporal door (Avengers #385, Avengers: The Crossing), the Avengers make use of the strange door to time travel to the past and recruit the younger ‘Teen’ Tony Stark from Earth-96020, who was not yet corrupted by ‘Kang’ (in actuality a disguised Immortus) (Avengers: Timeslide). Following this time travel adventure, the mystery door disappears and is never satisfactorily elaborated upon (Iron Man #325).

Soon after this point, the events of Onslaught occur, and at its conclusion the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, Doctor Bruce Banner and even Doctor Doom apparently perished saving the world from the psychic entity known as Onslaught, a massively powerful psionic manifestation of the combined consciousnesses of Professor Charles Xavier and Magneto (Onslaught: Marvel Universe One-Shot). Consequently, this replacement Avengers Mansion was the final headquarters prior to events branching into the MC2. Oh, and don’t worry! The Avengers are okay thanks to Franklin Richards using his amazing abilities to create a pocket dimension to save his parents and all the other heroes. The reborn heroes would awaken in this pocket dimension to live out new lives, unaware of their pasts. Long story short, the heroes were all eventually returned to the Main Marvel Universe and things went back to some semblance of normality (Heroes Reborn: The Return #1 - #4). The Fantastic Four and Avengers reformed in their respective third volumes and that leads nicely into the MC2 portion of this post.

The MC2’s present day Headquarters first appeared in What If #105 when civilian Peter Parker visits hoping to recruit help. We get a much better look in the Avengers own MC2 series starting with A-Next #1. The Maria Stark Foundation runs tours with all gift kiosk proceeds going to charity. The property grounds still maintain a defensive grid with metallic restraining tentacles seen when Rock Trolls sent by Loki target Kevin Masterson. When Loki’s magical energy bolt is detected by monitors built into the Avengers Compound defences, they bring online a ‘long dormant program’. The program sends out an emergency call to assemble to over a dozen locations, but which is only received by two former Avengers; Jubilee and Jolt who would be joined by Stinger, Speedball and J2, while the program itself activates Mainframe.

 

It is worth noting it is referred to as ‘Avengers Mansion’ in What #105, though usually referred to as ‘Avengers Headquarters’ or ‘Avengers Compound’ (A-Next #1- #3). Characters such as Cassie Lang aka Stinger and even the narration calls the location ‘Mansion’ (A-Next #4, A-Next #8, Avengers Next #1) but it does not appear to be in common use by this point in time. I believe ‘Mansion’ is a colloquial and traditional term, while the building acts as the team’s ‘Headquarters’ and the grounds in their entirety are the ‘Compound.’ As Chief of Staff, Jarvis’ hires Scott Lang as a technical advisor responsible for upgrading and maintaining the team’s hardware (A-Next #3). The training room is located two floors below the ground level (A-Next #6) and the building has at least seven Sub-Basements (A-Next #6). The Avengers stylised ‘A’ logo is rendered on the roof (A-Next #7).

We know from Avengers Next #1 that there is a library, gym, and med lab as well as an armoury which is frequently updated by Tony Stark in areas restricted from the general public, in addition to many more areas. The Headquarters’ arsenal includes at least some of Tony Stark’s old Iron Man armours, the scythe once used by the villain Grim Reaper (Avengers Next #5). Some members of the Avengers take up residence within the Avengers Headquarters, such as Shannon Carter aka American Dream (American Dream #1)

 

This version of the Avengers Headquarters has strong visual similarities to the build designed by Eric Masterson, which raises some questions. Based on what we know of the shared history of the MC2 and Main Marvel Universe, the Avengers Headquarters designed by Masterson was destroyed and replace by a nearly exact duplicate from an alternate universe by Ute the Watcher. While this is most likely a case of artistic licence favouring Masterson’s design, I do have a theory to explain this. Given the interior of MC2 Avengers Headquarters retains many of the Mansion-style fittings and fixtures of old, it’s possible this is (at least in part) the ‘restored’ Mansion with various modifications and additions (such as a reinforced exterior modelled upon or inspired by Eric’s existing designs) made through the intervening years between what we know of the original Avengers team and the rise of the new Avengers in the present. This is partly supported by the mishmash of elements seen throughout, including the (at least) seven Sub-Basement levels.

 

Speaking of the Sub-Basements, there’s another (or possibly the same) mystery door behind which lies a cryogenic chamber containing the unconscious Wanda Maximoff aka The Scarlet Witch, who had been holding closed the mysterious portal to another universe following the original Avengers last mission which left many of them dead (A-Next #6- #9). I find the notion of their being a different doorway in the basement too similar to be merely a coincidence, though we never learn exactly where this interdimensional aperture originated, nor how the original Avengers first learned of the threat posed by the alternate reality on the other side. Just something to think about if you like to draw crazy patterns like I most certainly do.

 

That is about it for this post; the current Avengers Headquarters fortunately has not been destroyed in the MC2. Let us hope it stays that way.

 

Until I stop using these posts to dig deep into Marvel Lore, I remain

 

frogoat