The MC2 and the Ultimate Universe

 

It looks like Marvel Comic’s Ultimate Universe is having something of a resurgence with the release of the Ultimate Invasion mini-series and the upcoming Ultimate Universe relaunch. So, of course, I wanted to see if there were any connections between the MC2 and the Ultimate Universe.

 

There’s a humourous nod to the then-fledgling Ultimate Spider-Man series in the pages of 2002’s Spider-Girl #49 during the flashback to Peter Parker aka Spider-Man’s final battle with Norman Osborn aka The Green Goblin which resulted in Peter losing his right lower leg and Norman’s death. Interrupted during the Gathering of Five ceremony, Osborn declares he ‘was on the verse of ultimate POWER!’ to which Spider-Man quips ‘Sorry about that! I guess you’ll just have to settle for Ultimate Spider-Man—which is a lot more entertaining!’

 

Ironically, while we saw the MC2’s Spider-Man and Green Goblin face off in their final fight, their counterparts were also squaring off in the pages of Ultimate Spider-Man.

 

Now here’s a more direct connection from the pages of Ultimate Comics Ultimates #30. When Kang (actually an alternate reality future Susan Storm from Universe-13074) warns the villainous Reed Richards aka The Maker (of the Ultimate Universe-1610) of the coming cataclysm that will destroy everything. Informing him of the Infinity Gems (of which the Ultimate Universe apparently has 8 in total) needed to avert this disaster, The Maker and his team of ‘Dark Ultimates’ battled the Ultimates for their possession.  

 

However, just as Tony Stark aka Iron Man gains control of the Infinity Gems using his armour, everyone is struck down by an energy flux that shows visions of the various characters’ alternate universe counterparts. Among them, Ben Grimm aka The Thing see’s his counterpart from the Fantastic Five of Universe-982 better known as the MC2.

 

As for the cause of the sudden energy flux everyone experienced its origin lies in the pages of the Age of Ultron event wherein the space-time continuum itself is broken as result of it’s abuse in an attempt to stop the reign of Ultron (Age of Ultron #10).

 

Once again, I have to stress just how significant this time-breaking is/was and how useful a piece of continuity it truly is for any *ahem* future MC2 writers who may wish to make use of the fallout from the events of Age of Ultron to ignore certain plot points. As always a huge thank you to arias-98105 for helping me out on this one!

 

Until we get an Ultimate Comics Ultimate MC2 Universe reboot requel relaunch crossover spectacular in 10 years time, I remain

 

frogoat

Who Was Mary MacLeod?

 

I am going far a field for this one! I had trouble justifying my recent little post about William ‘Wild Will’ Fitzpatrick as it wasn’t directly related to the MC2 at all, and was just something I wanted to cover to break me out of my writer’s block. Today is a similar post not directly pertaining to the MC2, but I am hoping to build this and the previously mentioned post along with other related posts into a rather large combined entry in the MC2 Family Tree series. Today, we will be looking at the Marvel character Mary MacLeod.

 

Who is Mary MacLeod? Why am I talking about her? What does she have to do with anything? Well, let us start at the beginning…which is also the end. Confused? Let me explain. In 1990 the long-gestating, gorgeously illustrated graphic novel Spider-Man: Spirits of the Earth by Charles Vess was released. In its pages Peter and Mary Jane take ‘a sort of second honeymoon’ to Scotland when Mary Jane is bequeathed the estate of her relative, Mrs MacLeod.

 

We learn from a letter written and mailed before Mrs MacLeod’s death that her home county of Ross-Shire (which is a real place by the way) is being bought up by business developers with plans to destroy the area’s natural beauty. Travelling to Scotland to untangle legal matters, Peter and Mary Jane rent a room in the village’s local inn for a week. The publican Alan Sinclair correctly identifies the couple as ‘Mr and Mrs Parker’ and informs Mary Jane he has been expecting ‘the niece of Mary MacLeod’ for some time. While the village is not named, we can use context and geography to identify it.

 

The village is near Duncraig Castle (another real place, though greatly fictionalised here) overlooking Lochalsh or Loch Alsh (that’s ‘Lake’ Alsh for those not in the know, yet again a real place) and thanks to the letter Mary MacLeod wrote to her niece, we even have the postcode ‘IV40’. Putting all this together, it appears the village just might be Kyle of Lochalsh which looks out at Loch Alsh and is located a few minutes’ drive from Duncraig Castle. An essay written by Charles Vess’ which was published alongside the story confirms these very real locations he visited on his many travels to Scotland’s Highlands, with an additional point of interest being that Eilean Donan Castle seems to be the visual inspiration for Duncraig Castle, given it resembles a castle unlike Duncraig. Further, Mr Vess begs forgiveness from the people of the Highlands ‘for stretching and rearranging their landscape and villages to suit the requirements of my story.’ A class act.

 

Let us circle back to Mary MacLeod. As mentioned above the barkeep Alan Sinclair refers to Mary Jane Parker as Mary’s niece, but also says ‘A fine lady was our Mary, she spoke of you manys the time. It’s pleased I am to be meetin’ a relation of herself.’ When Mary Jane and Peter visit the church graveyard, Mary Jane reflects ‘the letters she wrote always made me feel so close. I almost felt as if I knew her.’ In the MacLeod Croft, while looking at Mary’s photos, Mary Jane notes ‘look…her whole life is in these pictures and, oh Peter, here she is at my christening.’ Together, these comments paint a picture of a solitary older woman who cherished her niece or grand-niece as she had no family of her own. While the honorific ‘Mrs’ may indicate MacLeod is Mary’s married name, ‘Mrs’ is also used for older women and those who preference it. If MacLeod were the maiden name, it could be argued that Mary Jane’s mother Madeline was also a MacLeod before marriage which would make Mary Jane’s family heritage almost indisputably Scottish.

 

As I’ve touched upon in my Osborn Family Tree and Osborn Name Origins there are some interesting real-world tidbits we can learn from surnames and their origins. Watson is a common Scottish and English with ancient Anglo-Saxon origins. MacLeod as a surname is of Scottish origin, being an anglicised form of the Scottish Gaelic surname MacLeòid meaning ‘son of Leòd’ and derived from Old Norse.

 

Finally, we learn that Mary attended the christening of Mary Jane, presumably an infant at the time, which further defines the family’s religion or cultural practices as some form of Christianity, which fits well with a Scottish background with it is the largest religious denomination in the country.

 

This last point is not factual, but worth meditating on. The story of Spirits of the Earth features three Mary’s: Mary MacLeod who’s correspondence and passing brings Peter and Mary Jane to Scotland where the events unfold, Dark Mairi of the Shore, a mysterious and magical old woman who communes with the fairies and spirits, and Mary Jane Parker who becomes heavily involved in events, even aiding Mairi by adding her own youthful spirit and energy to bring down a cavern at the stories climax. Notably, when glimpsed from afar, Mairi appeared as a youthful redheaded woman with a resemblance to Mary Jane. I wonder if Mary MacLeod had red hair too?

 

Despite not even appearing once, Mary MacLeod provides us a rare glimpse into the broader history, culture, religion, and geography surrounding Mary Jane Watson’s family. It is also nice to know that should the Parker Family ever travel to Scotland, they have a nice little cottage with a sublime view waiting for them. A wholehearted special thanks to both maydaymemer and arias-98105 for their help on this one, it’s greatly appreciated.

 

Until I crack the Watson Family Tree and retire to the Isles, I remain

 

frogoat

Mayday's Eyes

 

With Sony’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse bringing more attention to our favourite MC2-alumni with the introduction of Peter B Parker and Mary Jane Watson-Parker’s adorable baby daughter Mayday Parker, I thought now would be the perfect time to discuss Mayday’s Eyes.

 

One of the most notable talking points in the lead-up to Across the Spider-Verse was baby Mayday’s unique eye colour choice; heterochromia. This was seen in the officially released concept art which coincided with the first trailer’s debut online. With one iris blue and the other brown the design was distinctive, but having viewed the film, it did not appear to have been retained for the character as she appeared on screen. Unless I am mistaken, baby Mayday on the big screen had two blue eyes. Presumably in both cases the intent was to show Mayday inherited her eye colour from her parents, with Peter B having brown eyes and this Mary Jane having blue eyes in her brief appearances.

 

Now, let’s take look at the eye colour of the MC2’s May ‘Mayday’ Parker. While the comics have often been inconsistent with varying eye colours between issues, there is one colour that Mayday appears to have more consistently: blue. This is supported by a rather obscure source for official character information: Spider-Girl Battlebook: Streets of Fire. As I mentioned a very long time ago, with a cover date of November 1998, this was the first published source to provide officially approved physical characteristics for May ‘Mayday’ Parker.

 

However, when the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Women of Marvel 2005 gave us a full profile for Spider-Girl, Mayday was instead listed as having brown eyes. This was corrected to blue once again when the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z Hardcover Vol. 11 updated the profile information. It is worth noting that the Main Marvel Universe and MC2 Mary Jane is firmly established to have green eyes and similarly, Peter has hazel eyes.

 

Now, let us look at one other aspect of May ‘Mayday’ Parker’s eyes you may not have considered: poor vision. If we go all the way back to the beginning with What If #105, we do briefly glimpse May rocking glasses, presumably for some kind of vision impairment. Notably, this instance takes place shortly after Mayday’s powers first manifested during a basketball game and she does not continue to wear them in future appearances. As far as I can tell, the only other occasions of May donning eyewear are for the purposes of fashion, disguise, or safety such as Spider-Girl #42, #60, #65 and Amazing Spider-Girl #20.

 

What is interesting is May did not revert to using glasses when she lost her spider-powers following her battle with Killerwatt in Spider-Girl #25. Maybe Mayday only uses glasses in some circumstances or her spider-powers had already ‘healed’ any deficit in her eye-sight? It is not a certainty, though Peter has not returned to using his glasses on the occasions his own spider-powers have been lost.

 

Until I gain some perspective and take a long-sighted view on what I focus on, *eye* remain

 

frogoat

 

 

Omissions and Additions: The High Evolutionary and Jessica Drew

 

I always appreciate feedback on the posts I produce, especially if it leads me to learn something new. And so today I would like to make a small supplemental entry to my post about The High Evolution and Jessica Drew. Thanks to Richard at the MC2 A Day blog for pointing out these omissions and additions. Without further ado, let us jump straight into it!

 

As I noted last time, the High Evolutionary blasts off into space with his Knights of Wundagore in The Mighty Thor #135 (1966), while the evolved cow-woman Bova remains behind with the child Jessica Drew as seen in West Coast Avengers Annual #3 (1988). However, we first see Jessica under the care of Bova in a flashback from Spider-Woman #20 (1979) where we see it did not take long for her to realize she was unique among the New Men of Wundagore who ostracized her, keeping with her earliest origin story. This is where we first see a young Jessica alongside Bova watching the High Evolutionary’s ship leave earth. We also first learn that Bova raised Miss Drew to maturity before she was sent to an orphanage in a nearby village to be nurtured by her own kind. From here, the events play out similar to previous depictions, with Jessica being ostracized even among humans before her deadly bio-electric venom-blast leads the villagers to attempt to destroy her.

 

Jessica is rescued by the leader of Hydra’s European branch, Count Otto Vermis. Outfitted with a special costume and trained, Drew was brainwashed into believing she was an evolved spider in order to alienate her further, ensuring her loyalty to Vermis. Jessica recalls how she escaped Hydra’s clutches and learned more of her past from Mordred and a magician named Magnus, noting she only knows what these men had revealed to her. This issue also marks the inevitable meeting between Spider-Man and Spider-Woman, with Peter Parker giving Jessica’s super heroic alias the benefit of the doubt in a burglary case due to his own storied history of misunderstandings and bad publicity (Spider-Woman #20).  

 

Jumping back just a few short months to Avengers #186, published in May 1979, Bova recounts her own origin to the Avenger named Pietro Maximoff aka Quicksilver, beginning with the High Evolutionary evolving her as one of his first projects and tasking her with the caring for the children his New Men. Bova notes that the High Evolutionary was preoccupied with matters coinciding with the unexplained return of his assistant Jonathon Drew. Via these flashbacks we see that while Jonathon and the High Evolutionary were occupied, the pregnant woman Magda arrived seeking asylum and the two became very close over the weeks preceding the birth of Magda’s twins: Pietro and Wanda, later known as the Scarlet Witch. During their birth, Bova noted Wanda’s tiny form mirrored the mysterious lights which filled the sky that night. These strange lights, of course, relate to the manifestation of Chthon.

 

Shortly after the twins are delivered, Magda disappears, leaving only a note expressing fear that her unnamed husband might force the revelation of her children’s existence from her if she remained alive. This is a direct reference to Uncanny X-Men #125 and the master of magnetism himself, Magneto, but we will save talking about him for another time. We then glimpse the subsequent tragic events involving Madeline and Robert Frank and their own stillborn child, followed by the High Evolutionary appearing before Django and Marya Maximoff to entrust them with Wanda and Pietro. With Pietro unable to recollect his childhood clearly, Bova relates her own sense of emptiness when she elected to remain behind ‘for…personal reasons’ as the High Evolutionary’s Wundagore Citadel left for the stars. This is evidently in reference to the aforementioned Spider-Woman #20 and Bova’s duty as carer for the young Jessica Drew (Avengers #186).

 

It must be noted that all these interconnected and overlapping characters and events were woven together by the writer (or co-plotter) of Avengers #186, Spider-Woman #20 and the various ‘Evolutionary War’ Annual’s back-up stories which detail the history of the Herbert Wyndham aka the High Evolutionary; none other than the keeper of continuity himself, Mark Gruenwald. Rest in Peace, Mr Gruenwald.

 

Until I become miraculously infallible like Mobius M. Mobius, I remain

 

frogoat