H.E.R.B.I.E. in the MC2

 

There’s this highly-anticipated movie on the horizon called Fantastic Four: First Steps from Marvel Studios. Perhaps you’ve heard of it? One of the aspects unique to this big-screen theatrical adaption of Marvel’s First Family is the debut of the robotic companion H.E.R.B.I.E. So, let’s look at the history of H.E.R.B.I.E. in the MC2.

 

H.E.R.B.I.E.’s origins lie outside the comics, having been conceived by Stan Lee for 1978’s The New Fantastic Four animated series as a replacement fourth member of the team when the Human Torch was unavailable for use due to a planned but never realized solo film. Fantastic Four co-creator and comic book legend Jack Kirby provided the design for the character.

H.E.R.B.I.E. or ‘Herbie’ was soon after introduced into the comics, making his (‘its’?) first appearance in the pages of Fantastic Four #209 by Marv Wolfman and John Byrne in 1979. Built by Reed Richards (and Master Xar of Xandar), it is revealed the animated series itself exists in-universe as a licenced product and that Reed offered the design to the producers as a replacement for Johnny Storm aka The Human Torch who was out of town that day and unable to sign a contract. According to Richards, H.E.R.B.I.E. stands for Humanoid Experimental Robotic B-Type Integrated Electronics.

Let us hop on over to the MC2 Universe now, where what appears to be a version of H.E.R.B.I.E. makes a cameo appearance as a member of the Fantastic Five in What If #105. But is this really H.E.R.B.I.E.? When we next see the Fantastic Five in Spider-Girl #3, we learn the public story that Reed Richards body was mangled in an accident, leading him to use a robotic form resembling H.E.R.B.I.E. albeit under the codename ‘Big Brain’.

 

We learn more of the mystery surrounding Reed’s accident in Fantastic Five (vol. 1) #1 when the Big Brain robot is destroyed. Soon after we see flashbacks to a battle in the Negative Zone about 5 years beforehand between the Fantastic Four and the villainous Hyperstorm. In the aftermath of this battle, a doomsday device had already begun to tear a hole in the fabric of reality. When Reed Richards was forced to overload the device to stop it, Susan Richards attempted to shield him from the radiation with her force field. Caught in the blast radius, half of Reed's body was left in a melted and deformed state. With the rip in reality still widening, Susan used her powers to hold the tear in place, with the strain leaving her in a coma, forcing the misshapen Reed to place her suspended animation (Fantastic Five (vol. 1) #4).

 

In the wake of the tragedy, The Fantastistation was built in the Negative Zone around the tear in reality. This allowed Reed to keep Sue company while she remained in suspended animation as he worked to slowly repair the hole in the fabric of reality (Fantastic Five Vol. 1 #4, Spider-Girl #87). Over the next few months, while the Fantastic Four remained in seclusion, rumours and speculation spread about the fate of Susan Richards despite the team never releasing details to the public. Reed developed the Big Brain robot to allow him to remain on the team by remotely controlling it from the Negative Zone (Fantastic Five Vol. 1 #1).

 

With the destruction of the previous Big Brain robot in Fantastic Five (vol. 1) #1, Reed begins using a new model with a more humanlike shell, marking the last time we’d see the H.E.R.B.I.E. design utilized in the MC2.

 

Until I decide to put my brain in a robot to spend more time with my wife, I remain

 

frogoat

Christmas in Latveria

 

‘Tis the season! Once again, we near the end of the year, the time of decking halls, panic buying gifts and general chaos. To mark the festive season I wanted to take a look at the time the MC2’s Avengers went to Latveria for Christmas and found…Doom!

 

Our story opens with a prologue set in the ruins of Doomstadt, the former capital of the Balkan nation of Latveria. Two S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents discuss the destruction wrought by the long-ago war between Namor the Sub-Mariner and Doctor Doom as they search for a lost little girl. The pair are forced to cut their search short when they are attacked by Killer Robot’s. As they flee, they catch a glimpse of a distant figure on a rampart. Has Doctor Doom returned? (A-Next #5)

 

A few days later at the Avengers Headquarters in New York, J2 aka Zane Yama finds Thunderstrike aka Kevin Masterson reviewing old files about his father Eric Masterson, the original Thunderstrike. Meanwhile, a frustrated Stinger (Cassie Lang) brushes off American Dream (Shannon Carter) before confronting Mainframe about the unconfirmed reports of the return of Doctor Doom. While the Fantastic Five have been tasked with investigating, Cassie and her father Scott Lang (the former Ant-Man) convince them to let a team of Avengers go instead. However, Cassie is surprised to learn from Mainframe she’ll be accompanied by the new additions to the team American Dream and her fellow Dream Team members Bluestreak, Freebooter and Crimson Curse (A-Next #5).

 

Attempting to patch things up with her new team mates, Cassie tells them her real reason for wishing to travel to Latveria so much; Kristoff Vernard, a young boy and ward of Doctor Doom who she met and befriended when they all lived in the Baxter Building with the Fantastic Four. The pair grew close over the years until Kristoff returned to his home country Latveria when he heard a war was brewing between Doom and Namor. With Latveria devastated in the ensuing conflict, Doctor Doom was missing in action and believed dead, while Cassie lost all contact with Kristoff Vernard (A-Next #5).

 

As Thunderstrike, Kevin Masterson visits his father Eric’s grave, thinking about how he is trying to make him proud. A nearby awkward J2, unsure of what to do eventually puts his hand on Kevin’s shoulder to show his support before unintentionally reverting back into Zane Yama. Kevin invites Zane to join him for pizza (A-Next #5).

 

Arriving in the city of Doomstadt, the Avengers team plan to search Castle Doom for the missing girl, but are attacked by the Killer Robots. The Avengers make short work of them, especially once Crimson Curse demonstrates her abilities. Uncovering underground tunnels, Stinger ditches the others, shrinking to make her way through a blocked passage (A-Next #5).

 

Back in New York, Zane is impressed by Kevin’s apartment, including his Stunt Master poster. While Kevin feeds his cat Alex, Zane noticed a bunch of unopened letters from Kevin’s stepfather, Bobby Steele. Kevin reveals the two aren’t on the best of terms and that his mother would often have to play peacemaker between them. Zane responds that he dreams about having a father in his life and that Kevin is lucky to have had two and encourages him to call Bobby for Christmas (A-Next #5).

 

Hearing a child’s voice, Stinger eventually finds the missing girl Greta is not alone and appears to be talking with Doctor Doom. Listening to the pair talk, Stinger hears the girl ask Doom about his scary mask but before she can get a look beneath, the rest of the Avengers bust into the room. Stinger flies between them, demanding they stop their attack. With American Dream trusting her, Stinger explains the masked figure isn’t the real Doctor Doom. Cassie removes her helmet as Doom removes his mask to reveal himself as Kristoff Vernard and the pair embrace (A-Next #5).

 

Kristoff reveals that he returned home to ensure that Doctor Doom’s vast arsenal of advanced weapons of mass destruction never fell into the wrong hands. As Doctor Doom’s heir, Kristoff alone was given full access to all of Doom’s creations and ideas and therefore he concealed his own existence to ensure they could not be exploited. Kristoff Vernard bids Cassie a sad farewell and disappears (A-Next #5).

 

Returning to the outer perimeter with young Greta, the Avengers tell S.H.I.E.L.D. they saw no one else within the area just as Castle Doom is destroyed in an enormous flash of green light. As snow begins to fall, Greta tells the disbelieving S.H.I.E.L.D. agent that Father Christmas destroyed the castle as a gift to the world. With the Avengers coming together as a team, American Dream backs up the girl’s story as Stinger wishes her a Merry Christmas (A-Next #5).

 

I hope everyone has a wonderful time over the holidays and lets hope the New Year brings us all something positive.

 

Until I stop believing, I remain

 

frogoat

 

Video Games in the MC2

 

For today’s post, I wanted to try something a little different, by taking a look at video games and how they are referenced in the pages of MC2 comics. Video games, like comics are another often overlooked part of the pop culture landscape which gets little respect so this cross-pollination of media is an interesting lens to look through and get a glimpse of the world as it was at various points in the MC2’s publication history. This is Video Games in the MC2.

 

First up, we have an unidentified (and possibly fictional) video game that J2 aka Zane Yama is seen playing in A-Next #9. J2 tells Mainframe he is playing ‘one of those first person shooters’. Playing the game helped him decide how he would vote when the team were debating whether to make the perilous journey to another universe. Notably, the console’s controller has a retro design with only two face buttons which are contrasted by other elements; it is wireless and has a small screen and works in conjunction with what appears to be either Virtual Reality glasses or 3D glasses.

 

Next up, we have another video game device which Rina Logan aka Wild Thing enjoys playing. This one is a hand-held console that uses a VR headset. If Elektra is to be trusted on matters of up-to-date gaming technology, this unidentified console uses cartridges rather than disks. Rina has hacked and modified the fighting action game, allowing her to customise the main character’s appearance to resemble her costumed alter-ego, Wild Thing. This was apparently for a computer class project for which Rina received an ‘A’ grade. Kuroyama, the villainous assassin of the Hand, now rebuilt as a cyborg with a built-in attack computer that uses a virtual reality matrix is inadvertently defeated with one hit after appearing within Rina’s video game (Wild Thing #2).

Apparently in keeping with the MC2’s tradition of ‘themed months,’ we get another video game reference in another second issue. This time in Fantastic Five (vol. 1) #2 we are introduced to Doctor Lenny Gilcrest, a genius who designed a best-selling video game while still in high school who now works for S.H.I.E.L.D.  Gilcrest’s first project for S.H.I.E.L.D. is a Super Android dubbed Superoid which the Fantastic Five help field test. When Lenny is captured, the Superoid is quickly hijacked by the Wizard’s Warriors thanks to Gilcrest’s habit of using the same programming command structure for all his video games. I am curious if one of Lenny’s video games was among those played by J2 or Wild Thing?

 

Just two months later in the pages of Wild Thing #4 we see J2 playing what is almost certainly a Sega Dreamcast console, judging by the distinct controller. The Dreamcast would have been a very relevant console to reference, given its North American release in September 1999, mere months before this issue was released. Not a lot of lead time for artist Ron Lim, but the Dreamcast had already debuted in Japan the year before making it more plausible. I initially thought Juggie Junior was playing Doom, but having checked online, it appears the title never officially came to the Dreamcast. Suffice it say, the game appears to be another first-person shooter in the same vein as the Doom series.

 

The Wild Thing series is apparently the unlikely focus for this post, because in the very next issue we get a throw away reference to Rina’s school crush Colin Brewster’s father. According to Colin, his dad created a computer game with a giant robot that resembled their crash-site discovery: The Iron Despot. After his initial excitement, Colin soon realizes this is no game and eventually the day is saved when Wild Thing tricks the Iron Despot into a sinkhole (Wild Thing #5).

 

In Avengers Next #1 we glimpse yet another first-person shooter that J2 and Bluestreak are playing together in Avengers Compound. The controllers appear to be Xbox 360 controllers given their shape, design, and wireless status. This suggests they are playing on an Xbox 360 console, which was first released in late 2005 which fits with the Avengers Next mini-series which came out a year later in late 2006 Notably, the game display on the television has three player screens, so presumably Bluestreak is multitasking. We can also see three gamertags listed: 896-T, 569-BStreak and 998-J2.

 

That is it for today’s post but if I scrounge up enough material, I may produce a sequel to this post. I think it is interesting to look at the MC2 through the lens of the video game industry and see what was in the zeitgeist during the imprint’s run. It is fun to think the MC2 saw VR games as the future for the video game industry way back in the late 90’s and I had a blast trying to figure out what consoles were real and which were fictional. Special thanks to arias-98105 and the Video Game Console Library, I could not have produced this post without their help.

 

Until I learn how to mod old video games to add custom Spider-Girl player models, I remain

 

frogoat