Doc Magus: Who's Your Daddy?!

 

I must admit I’ve been devoting a fair bit of time and thought to the MC2’s present Sorcerer Supreme, the youthful Doc Magus. With that being the case, today I’m going to take a look at Dormagus’ parentage. In particular this post will provide the answer to the question of just exactly who is Dormagus’ father.

 

So, this one is easier than you might think. Let’s take a look at the not so subtle and numerous clues from throughout Doc Magus’ appearances: Firstly in his debut in A-Next #3, the former Sorcerer Supreme Doctor Strange refers to Doc Magus by his real name Dormagus upon his encountering him. The pair are on very familiar, albeit somewhat antagonistic or strained terms with one another. Doc Magus refers to Stephen Strange as ‘Old Man’ and is well aware that the Doctor was ‘fired’ as the MC2’s current Sorcerer Supreme. Dormagus refers to Doctor Strange as ‘the Old Man’ a few more times and later states he’s become ‘more ruthless and bitter with age’, meanwhile Stephen reminds the young Sorcerer Supreme that his ‘skills were honed in this realm long before [Dormagus’] birth' so evidently, they have a pretty personal knowledge of one another’s history.

 

While in an unknown dimension alongside the Avenger J2 battles a Darkling posing as the original Juggernaut, the dark lord Nemesus taunts Dormagus’ about the mystic’s strained and dysfunctional relationship with his own father. When he is thwarted and retreats, Nemesus’ parting words to Dormagus are ‘give my regards to your own dear father!’ (J2 #4).

 

Doc Magus later summons Zane and informs him he has found his father being held in a small, unexplored pocket dimension for years. Ignoring a protective warning from Doctor Strange (whom Dormagus calls ‘Old Man’) to wait for reinforcements, Dormagus and Zane make their way to the pocket dimension to rescue Cain Marko aka Juggernaut. Despite reuniting Zane with his father, Nemesus appears and reveals Doc Magus had fallen into his trap and closed the heroes gateway home, trapping them. Fortunately, Doctor Strange appears alongside his fellow Defenders the Hulk and the Sub-Mariner to help the others escape from Nemesus’ dimension. Nemesus comments ‘I should have known you wouldn’t let Dormagus fall into my hands without a fight’. With their escape route seemingly blocked, Dormagus begins what he believes may be his final words with ‘We may have had our differences over the years, but I want you to know that I’ve always been real proud of the fact the you’re my—’ before he is interrupted. With their escape secured, Dormagus responds to Doctor Strange’s comment about closing the door behind him with the quip ‘Really? My father must have skipped that lesson.’ I think these *ahem* clues are adding up now (J2 #12).

 

Around this time, Doctor Strange made an appearance in Wild Thing #0 where he makes a knowing comment to Wolverine: ‘Independent children can be such a trial, eh, Wolverine?’ This is remark is not well received by Logan, but it’s also very telling of Doctor Strange.

 

When next he appears, Doctor Strange is greeted by Doc Magus with far more appreciation due to his lack of expertise when attempting to save the demonic hero Darkdevil. Even so, Dormagus still calls Strange ‘Old Man’ and when asked for help, Stephen responds ‘And you shall have it, my boy!’ (Spider-Girl #83)

 

Let’s finish this out, shall we? When Doc Magus rebuffs Doctor Strange’s offer to work together to solve the mystery of various kidnapped heroes, Strange quips ‘You certainly have the arrogance of youth, my son.’ Yet again, Dormagus calls Stephen ‘Old Man’ (Last Hero Standing #2).

 

By now it should be pretty darn clear that Doc Magus aka Dormagus’ father is none other than Doctor Stephen Strange. The real mystery is what has transpired between the two that makes them so often unkind to one another. It’s obvious that Stephen keeps an eye on his son and is prepared to jump in to protect him despite all their animosity. For a future post I’ll be covering the inevitable follow up question of who Dormagus’ mother could be...

 

Until I stop pointing out the obvious, albeit not explicitly stated, I remain

 

frogoat

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wolfsbane in the MC2

 

Well, it looks like the New Mutants movie is finally being released after several delays. I figured it might be worth a quick post to cover possibly the only connection between the New Mutants film and the MC2: the mutant Rahne Sinclair aka Wolfsbane.

 

As I’ve previously detailed in my History of the MC2: The X-Men entry, we don’t have a huge amount of information about the famed mutant team, the X-Men in the MC2. What we do know is that at some point in the past, Wolverine was the leader a team of X-Men that included Cain Marko (Juggernaut), Synch (Everett Thomas), Siryn (Theresa Cassidy), 'Hopper' and of course Wolfsbane (Rahne Sinclair) as seen in J2 #7, J2 #12 and Wild Thing #5.

 

Rahne remained a member of this X-Men team for some time and participated in a mission to save the Earth from the Overlords Eight. While on their way back from the Crossroads of Infinity, the X-Men ran into an army of creatures called Darklings. Rahne and her fellow teammates managed to escape the creatures thanks to the sacrifice of Cain Marko who stayed behind to destroy the X-Men’s dimensional jumpjack transport device, preventing the Darklings from following them to Earth (J2#7, J2 #12). Cain would spend many years trapped in the evil Nemesus' dimension, eventually inadvertently transferring much of his powers as Juggernaut to his son, Zane (J2 #1).

 

We don’t know what happened to this particular team of X-Men after this mission, though as we know Wolverine retired, we can assume the other members went their separate ways. Presumably Wolfsbane is still out their fighting to protect a world that hates and fears her.

 

Until I develop lycanthropic abilities, I remain

 

frogoat

J2's Costumes

Now that I’ve done a post about Bluestreak’s Costumes and discussed both Blue’s and J2’s approximate age as part of a series about the members of A-Next’s Ages, I figured it’s a no-brainer to take a quick look at the different costumes worn by Zane Yama through the years. This should be fun!

For starters, Zane’s most iconic costume is his original J2 costume, which sort of appeared in What If #105, but let’s be honest, that was originally intended to be Zane’s father Cain Marko aka the original Juggernaut as an Avenger. A happy accident led to this retroactively being the first appearance of everyone’s favourite bulky boy hero J2, and I’ll always be grateful for that!

It’s revealed in J2 #1 that the transformation from Zane Yama into his hulking, muscular form doesn’t come with clothes provided:

The first J2 costume makes its proper debut in J2 #1 and A-Next #1, designed by costume designer extraordinaire Ron Frenz. While Zane spray paints an old set of armour belonging to his missing father, he adds regular footwear and poignantly his dad’s favourite shirt as personal touches.

While Zane retains this costume throughout both the J2 and A-Next series, I’d be remiss not to point out the wonder that is…The Masked Midget! This brilliant disguise of young Yama’s has a couple variations, likely depending on whatever colour and design of balaclava or ski-mask is available at the time (A-Next #2, J2 #10).

Whether it counts or not is debatable, but I’ll err on the side of caution by including ‘The Day Juggie Lost Nearly 1000 Pounds’ during his battle with the villainous Parody:

There’s also the masterful mystery man known only as ‘Patch’. I wish I had more information to give you on this character, but he’s shrouded in mystery and intrigue! Thanks, Wolverine! (A-Next #10)

Boy, J2 #10 is a treasure-trove of alternate looks for Juggie Junior, isn’t it? Here’s Sir Jugalot from one of ‘J2’s Funny Fairy Tales for Fools and Felons’ in all his noble glory:

After saving his father Cain Marko from captivity in another dimension, Zane returns his father’s shirt in the pages of Wild Thing #2 and is seen without it in the series subsequent issues (Wild Thing #3-5).

As an aside, it's in Wild Thing #3 that we get another transformation for J2, only this time 'Juggie Goes Ape!' Or as I like to call him the Juggernape.

The no-shirt-around-waist iteration of the J2 costume would stay the norm throughout the characters appearances in Spider-Girl with the exception of a fantasy sequence dreamed up by Felicity Hardy wherein J2 can briefly be seen with a fancy F5-style belt (Spider-Girl #52).

When Ron Frenz became the regular artist on the title and redesigned ol’ Juggie’s costume in Spider-Girl #58, added a new piece of civilian clothing; cargo shorts!

This would become the standard design from this point onward, showing up throughout the Last Hero Standing, Last Planet Standing, Amazing Spider-Girl, Avengers Next, Fantastic Five and American Dream series.

Allowing for a few minor colour changes, these cargo shorts remains the same red-brown colour, though the MC2 story seen in Spider-Island #1-5 clearly depicts Zane rocking blue pants.

That’s it, that’s a wrap! I’ve got nothing else. Let me know if I’ve missed anything or if you have any questions. I’ll keep doing these costume posts as long as people are interested! What’s your favourite J2 costume? Who’s should I cover next?

Until I stop liking shorts even though they are comfy and easy to wear, I remain

frogoat

Cyclops in the MC2

Because I'm desperate for page views and I'm shameless about tangentially tying into the X-Men: Dark Phoenix, I figured we could take a quick look at the stalwart leader of the X-Men, Scott Summers aka Cyclops.

It appears that the newer team of mutants, the uncanny X-People, is overseen by members of the original X-Men, including Cyclops, who makes his first appearance in the MC2 during a training exercise in the Danger Room. Not only does Cyclops take out the whole team in mere seconds, he also gives J2 a much needed info-dump about the Juggernaut's past including his last mission where he was lost at the Crossroads of Infinity.

Next up, we see Cyclops overseeing Wild Thing's tryout initiation for the X-People in legendary writer Larry Hama's first story for the MC2 (J2 #11). On an unrelated note, Cyclops rocks a unique costume in these two stories for the first time which looks to be a combination of some of his previous costume designs.

We don't see ol' Scott for quite some time, only learning through Jubilee that Cyclops is among those heroes captured by Loki's forces in Last Hero Standing #2. Jubilee later reports Cyclops unexpected return to Stinger and we glimpse him along side other Loki-corrupted heroes facing off against an assemblage of various heroes.Cyclops is last seen in this series attempting unsuccessfully to stop the Loki-controlled Hulk (Last Hero Standing #3-#4).

Cyclops makes a few brief appearances in the follow up mini series Last Planet Standing, attempting to stop Galactus alongside many other heroes. It's worth pointing out that in both these mini series, Cyclops dons his classic costume instead of his MC2-exclusive outfit (Last Planet #4-#5).

For his final appearances in the MC2, we don't actually see Cyclops, but merely a energy duplicate created by Loki's daughter Sylene in her attempt to restore the devastated Asgard by recreating it on Earth. Cyclops is among those rendered comatose in the process of creating duplicates of various super humans. When Sylene is defeated, Cyclops' duplicate dissipates and he is presumably restored (Avengers Next #4-#5).

That's it for Cyclops in the MC2. We don't learn any personal details about him apart from the fact he was on sabbatical when the Juggernaut joined the X-Men and that he still clearly has ties to the X-Men and the newer X-People. Keeping in mind my previous post about the History of the X-Men in the MC2, Wolverine's comment about Scott and his 'final missions' suggests perhaps he drags his former teammates out of retirement a little too often (J2 #5).

Until I suffer a head injury rendering my ability to control my powerful optic blasts, I remain

frogoat