A-Next Ages: Mainframe

I thought it might be fun to work out the approximate ages of the various members of the MC2’s Avengers. Keep in mind this isn’t definitive unless it’s spelt out on the page and is merely a rough estimate based on in-universe information or- where necessary- statements from the creative teams involved in the characters creation and development.

 

For the fourth entry in this occasional series of A-Next Ages, it’s time to figure out the age of the team’s by the book mysterious machine-man: Mainframe!

 

Unlike my prior three post in the series, we don’t have to look to far to figure out the age of this artificial Avenger. Let’s revisit Mainframe’s debut to start with: A-Next #1. It’s here we get the first hint about Mainframe’s identity. 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.

 

This may seem a little pointless to mention, but shortly after when Jubilee asks who sent out the Avengers distress call, Mainframe’s responds ‘That would be me’. So, in the very first issue we had a major clue to Mainframe’s true identity right on the page.

 

After a few more clues, including Mainframe being seemingly killed when torn in half by Namor the Sub-Mariner and the Incredible Hulk in A-Next #3, we got answers in A-Next #7. Having exhausted all of their current supply of mechanical bodies during a battle with Ion Man, Mainframe reveals to Stinger (Cassie Lang) that they are in fact a program based on the encephalograms of Tony Stark to ensure there would always be Avengers.  Left unable to download into a new body and suffering a system-wide shut down, Mainframe is fortunately saved the by the intervention of Cassie and her father, Scott Lang (formerly Ant-Man) in A-Next #8.

 

So, when did Tony Stark create Mainframe? We learn from Jarvis in A-Next #7 that the Original Avengers disbanded some 10 years prior to the new team’s formation, and that the fateful mission which saw so many of the team perish occurred a year and a half prior. This places their final mission at around 11 and a half years prior to the events of A-Next #1 as I’ve discussed previously here.

 

Iron Man (Tony Stark) and the Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff) toiled away for months afterwards deep beneath the Avengers Mansion, eventually succeeding in closing the portal between worlds by sealing Wanda in a stasis pod which used her immense power to hold the aperture shut. Immediately after this event, Tony retires from super heroics, vowing to instead help the world using his other talents.

 

Around this time -though it's unclear whether it was before, after or both before and after the team's final mission- Tony Stark developed and completed work on Mainframe, the sophisticated robotic armour imbued with Tony's own brain patterns, designed to ensure there would always be someone to answer the call to assemble (A-Next #7, Spider-Girl #95). From this we know that Stark completed work on Mainframe around the time he left the Avengers, which was about 11 years prior to A-Next #1.

 

As a program inhabiting an armoured robot suit, it’s difficult to assess Mainframe’s age by human standards, but we do see hints throughout the MC2 titles of the character’s development and personality. This includes his strained relationship with his creator or ‘father,’ Tony Stark. But as for how long Mainframe has been in existence in-universe? Mainframe is only at most 11 years old in A-Next #1 and that’s probably the first ever time the being had been out in the really world. By the conclusion of the MC2 publication history, another full year may have passed, making Mainframe at most 11-12 years old and ironically the youngest member of the Avengers.

 

Until I spend 11 years sitting on a computer in a dark basement, I remain

 

frogoat

Star Trek in the MC2

As you may know Sir Patrick Stewart portrayed Captain Jean-Luc Picard on the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation for seven seasons and four feature films before returning to the role with this year’s Star Trek: Picard series. I recently finished watching the first season and I wanted to do a little something that’s tangentially related, as always. So, let’s explore some references to Star Trek in the MC2!

 

You’ll notice quite a few of my posts recently have referenced the Ron Frenz interview on Adam Chapman’s podcast Comic Shenanigans Episode 744. The reason is pretty simple: it’s genuinely a great well of information about the MC2, especially the characters from the A-Next series on which the interview focuses. Now, here’s why I bring it up yet again: Edwin Jarvis is Patrick Stewart! When asked about his decision to depict the Avengers most loyal member of staff as slender in A-Next, Ron had this to say:

 

‘He gained weight for a while under Perez and everything but I was using as a model the John Buscema/Tom Palmer Jarvis. Which went into the Sal era; that’s kind of when I first started reading the Avengers. The book was being passed off at different points between Sal and John and they both had a more slender Jarvis and that’s what I ended up going with. Plus, we wanted to age him and everything. But I saw him as being someone who took great pride in his appearance, wearing a tuxedo as he does as a butler and now that he was chief of staff and everything else.  I always kind of pictured him, quite frankly, when I was on Thunderstrike and we had Jarvis appear a few times, I actually pictured Jarvis as being Patrick Stewart. I think a lot of people would be surprised that Jarvis could be that but that’s kind of who I pictured as Jarvis. The one I really remember it striking me as ‘wow, that’s kind of what I’m thinking in my head’ was when we did an issue of Thunderstrike where a character with electrical devices posed as Thor and was robbing banks and there was a scene there where Eric goes to the Avengers Mansion to go down to the lockers and Jarvis is walking into the locker and they’re having a conversation back and forth about Thor and all this kind of stuff. It was just during that scene; handling Jarvis in that scene that I went ‘I’m actually picturing Patrick Stewart in this whole thing’. Had Thunderstrike continued I would have loved to have explored Eric’s relationship with Jarvis a bit more. I tried…we tried to touch on it quite a bit in A-Next. I believe at one point Kevin is thinking that his father Eric always told him that there was one guy that you could always trust in Avengers Mansion. I was kind of retroactively touching on something that I would have loved to have explored with some of the other characters.’

 

 

It’s fairly easy to see the inspiration and I can just imagine Patrick Stewart’s voice when reading his dialogue. For comparison, here’s a picture of the MC2’s Edwin Jarvis as pencilled by Ron Frenz alongside an actual image of Sir Patrick Stewart:

 

 

There’s also a nice reference to Star Trek: The Original Series found in A-Next #10 when the new team of Avengers travel to a dark alternate reality under the rule of Victor Von Doom. At first believing they’ve arrived in a dystopian future, J2 is left bewildered by Mainframe’s scientific explanation.  Fortunately, Thunderstrike provides the young hero a relatable pop culture point of reference: ‘Juggie, think Classic Stark Trek – “Mirror, Mirror”!’ Even more amusing is the revelation immediately afterwards that Mainframe is not only familiar with Star Trek, but actually a self-described huge fan.

 

For those who don’t know, ‘Mirror, Mirror’ is the fourth episode of Star Trek: The Original Series’ second season. The plot of the episode involves the main cast of characters being swapped with their counterparts from a ‘mirror universe’ following a transporter malfunction. The Enterprise crew learn that their mirror universe counterparts are evil members of a conquering empire. Even if you’ve never seen the episode, you may know it through pop culture osmosis: The Mirror Universe’s Evil Spock sports a Van Dyke style beard or goatee which has since become a trope in various works of fiction to symbolize an evil counterpart. Shout out to Community’s Darkest Timeline! The concept of this Mirror Universe has been revisited several times within the Star Trek franchise, including 5 stories in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, 2 episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise and most recently during a story-line of Star Trek: Discovery.

 

I’m sure there are more Star Trek references to be found within the MC2, so please be sure to let know if you come across any!

 

Until I find myself in a universe where I fashion facial hair from felt until able to grow my own evil goatee, I remain

 

frogoat