American Dream Handbook Correction

 

I'd like to preface this little post by saying I love the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe series and have a lot of respect for the hard work and dedication of the people who work on it's various entries. I'm also aware that there are time and space constraints and that no one is infallible and errors sometimes slip by unnoticed. So, with all that said, here's another really pointless correction I'd like to make.

So, in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z Update #1 (published in 2010) American Dream received a full-page entry. Now, I could point out that Shannon Carter’s level of education in the entry is listed as ‘unrevealed,’ despite the fact that we know that she obtained her job as a tour guide ‘right out of high school,’ as I mentioned in my last post. Here's the original handbook entry for reference:

 

But, that’s not what I really wanted to address today. It’s the section that mentions the Dream Team. According to the handbook entry ‘Barton dubbed his trainees the “Dream Team,” and intended them to replace the Avengers, who had fallen in battle years ago but before they could do so, a new team of Avengers formed.’ Obviously, this explicitly identifies the former Avenger Hawkeye aka Clint Barton as the one who named his group of special students the Dream Team. But this is clearly not the case, as we see in American Dream #4, where Brandon Cross aka Freebooter is inspired by fellow student Shannon’s speech and gives the group the name.

 

 

There are obviously other minor issues in the write up, but mostly these come down to compressing information to fit on the page, and usually don’t explicitly provide factual errors.

 

Until I stop picking nits, I remain

 

frogoat

 

A-Next Ages: American Dream

 

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 fifth entry in this occasional series of A-Next Ages, it’s time to figure out the age of the team’s iconic, patriotic and statuesque blonde heroine: American Dream.

 

Much of the evidence you’ll see in this post was also used when I covered Freebooter’s Age but it’s important to lay out everything to make sense of it. Firstly, let’s take into account Shannon Carter’s height, which is first mentioned in-universe as 6’2” in A-Next #4 and later confirmed in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z Update #1. It’s a safe bet based on this that Shannon is an adult and unlikely to grow any taller.

 

 

Argo the Almighty refers to Thunderstrike, American Dream and Bluestreak as ‘all around my age’ in A-Next #6. It appears Argo himself is a teenager (albeit one of godly stature) which helps give us a ball park figure to determine American Dream’s own age.

 

While it was initially established that Shannon Carter was a Tour Guide at Avengers Compound first seen in A-Next #1 and revealed in A-Next #3-#4, we get plenty more details about her early life in the American Dream mini-series. We know that Shannon was training to become a ‘super-athlete’ like her hero Captain America while still in high school. It was during this period that she first met Clint Barton (formerly Hawkeye) and Brandon Cross (later known as Freebooter) as seen in American Dream #3.

 

 

As mentioned above, Shannon works as a Tour Guide. According to American Dream #1, Shannon used her great Aunt Peggy’s connections to secure the job ‘right out of high school.’ Shannon notes it put her on the front lines and helped pay her expenses. This tells us that Shannon has already graduated high school and also paid for her own living expenses.

 

 

Shannon is seen leaving work and returning to what is presumably her own apartment to meet up with her fellow Dream Team members in (A-Next #3). Later on, in the pages of American Dream #1, Shannon notes that she ‘moved into Avengers Mansion over a year ago.’ This makes it clear that after becoming a member of the Avengers, Shannon must have moved into the team’s headquarters. Additionally, we now know over a year has passed since the events of A-Next #4, making Shannon another year older.

 

 

In Last Hero Standing #2 when, during a visit to their former mentor and teacher Clint Barton, the narration box refers to both American Dream and Freebooter as teenagers. This estimation is reiterated in the follow up mini-series’ Last Planet Standing #1 when Vision describes the current Avengers team as ‘mainly a group of idealistic, enthusiastic and powerful teenagers.’ It should be noted that Shannon was not an active member of the team at this point, however.

 

 

As American Dream, Shannon ran one of Clint’s training exercises known as the Gauntlet. It was at this time that Barton’s fellow students learned of the new Avengers team. Shannon notes when reflecting on this time that she hadn’t thought about the Gauntlet ‘in years’ (American Dream #4)

 

 

As noted in this series’ Freebooter entry, Brandon and Shannon appear to be around the same age. While Brandon has moments of maturity, Shannon is the more mature of the two, as noted by Ron Frenz on Adam Chapman’s podcast Comic Shenanigans Episode 744:

 

‘I liked the way they interacted, I liked the way Brandon and Blue came across as brother and sister, carping at each other. And Shannon kind of came across as the oldest sister who was constantly going ‘Bluestreak!’ and telling her to mind herself and all that kind of stuff.’

 

 

Now let’s look at what we can conclude by putting several smaller points together:

·         Shannon began training under Clint Barton while still in high school

·         Shannon began her tour guide job at the Avengers Compound right after finishing high school, moving into her own apartment

·         While working at Avengers Compound, Shannon witnessed the formation of the new Avengers team in A-Next #1

·         Shannon runs the Gauntlet training exercise and Barton’s other students learn of the new Avengers team

·         American Dream joins the Avengers alongside the rest of the Dream Team and at some point afterwards, Shannon takes up residence at Avengers Compound

·         During the events of Last Hero Standing, Shannon is said to still be a teenager

·         By the time the events of the American Dream mini-series occur, Shannon had resided in Avengers Compound for over a year

 

With all of that out of the way, we have another case of an easy-to-ascertain age within the MC2. Shannon Carter aka American Dream is at least 19 years old, at least up until the events of Last Hero Standing. It’s very likely she’s 20 or even 21 years old by the end of the MC2’s publication history, given we know over a year has passed in-universe. If you have any arguments to the contrary or you feel I’ve missed something, don’t hesitate to let me know!

 

 

 

Until I adorn myself after a super-athlete patriotic war veteran super hero and attempt to honour his legacy, I remain

 

 

 

frogoat

Who Saved Peter's Life? (MC2 Theory)

While I’m not entirely satisfied with my post about Peter’s Lost Leg, upon my revisiting of it recently I was at least pleased that I had made my points well. I also realized I had made mention of an unexplained plot point regarding the MC2 Spider-Man’s final battle with the Green Goblin: Who saved Peter Parker’s life?

 

Let’s review the facts we do know of the situation:

 

•  Norman Osborn, for unknown reasons does not enact the Gathering of Five ritual until much later in the MC2, likely as a result of setting up other schemes and masterplans in the meantime.

•   Eventually, Kaine rescues and returns Peter and Mary Jane’s baby May Parker to them.

• Spider-Man has several adventures while raising May including those seen in the Mr and Mrs Spider-Man stories.

• Mattie Franklin, Norman Osborn, Greg Herd, Cassandra Webb (aka Madame Web) and Morris Maxwell willingly agree to participate in the Gathering of Five ritual. This ritual is interrupted by Spider-Man before it can reach its completion.

•  As Spider-Man, Peter Parker battles Norman Osborn as the Green Goblin. Mattie Franklin stands by watching her favourite hero as the other participants of the Gathering begin to flee.

•  Mattie Franklin is the last to flee, taking the pieces for the Gathering of Five ritual with her. Spider-Man loses his leg and Norman Osborn dies in their final battle.

 

By now, you’ve probably guessed where I’m going with this. With the Goblin dead and Peter haemorrhaging quickly from what remained of his right leg, I propose Mattie Franklin provided life-saving first aid to her fallen hero. There isn’t evidence, per se, but I’m going to try to form a convincing enough argument for why I believe Martha ‘Mattie’ Franklin was the one to save Peter’s life and in doing so become a hero in her own right.

 

As I’ve noted above and in previous posts, in the MC2 this Gathering of Five ritual took place far later than it did in the Main Marvel Universe. Naturally, this would mean Mattie was slightly older and presumably more mature. Additionally, if we assume the trajectory of young Mattie’s personal life played out similarly to how it occurred in the Main Marvel Universe, things quickly took a sharp turn toward the tragic. Firstly, with an additional in-universe year or two it can be assumed Mattie’s father Jeremy Franklin died at this point just as he is said to have died in the Main Marvel Universe (Alias #20). If you want to discard this point, there is still the fact that Mattie has obsessive and depressive moods when thinking about her mother who died in unrevealed circumstances while she was very young (Spider-Woman vol.3 #15).

I mention Mattie’s early parental losses because evidently it informs her morality and outlook. Seeing a dying man in front of her, particularly her favourite superhero Spider-Man would surely have provided the impetus for her to turn around and attempt to help him. Additionally, Norman reveals his duel identity as the Green Goblin to the other participants of the Gathering of Five. In her very first cameo appearance from Spectacular Spider-Man #262, we learn that Mattie’s father Jeremy Franklin is an unwilling associate of Osborn’s which must surely have made this reveal doubly confronting; the enemy of her recently deceased father is also the enemy of her close to death idol.

 

 

 

From a different perspective I also find the idea that Mattie’s heroic side emerged in this moment quite meta-textually satisfying. For those unfamiliar, Mattie Franklin’s introduction coincided with the rebooting of the Spider-Man titles of the time which saw the premature end to many creative team’s runs, with many plot threads left dangling. With the reboot, Mary Jane suddenly returned to modelling, Peter quit being Spider-Man and Aunt May was suddenly returned to life while baby May was brushed under the carpet. Empowered by the Gathering of Five ceremony, Mattie took over briefly as Spider-Man in the hero’s absence and soon after took on the Spider-Woman mantel with her own title under creator John Byrne’s writing pen. Along the way, Mary Jane was supposedly killed in a plane explosion and we got this infamous cover:

 

Now, imagine if instead of an extremely inappropriate kiss between a teenage girl and a married/widowed man, in the MC2 events might have depicted Mattie instead performing life-saving first aid and ‘the kiss of life’ via CPR on a dying Spider-Man? Instead of exploiting the potential death of a spouse, Mattie serves to save one of the Parker's. Seems way more heroic and endearing to me, but I’m no writer.

 

But let’s also back track again to discuss Norman Osborn during the post-Clone Saga era of the Spider-Titles, before they were rebooted. Norman Osborn had manipulated his way into a place of even more power and influence when he took control and ownership of the Daily Bugle and was even making private threats to J Jonah Jameson. With the reboot of the titles, these plots fell by the wayside and were I believe never satisfactorily resolved. Jonah and his wife Marla later became adoptive parents to Mattie when she ran away to New York and this tie was strengthened when Jeremy Franklin died in unrevealed circumstances leading the Jameson’s to adopt Mattie officially.

 

So, let’s really dive into the realm of fan theory here for a bit. We know Mattie’s mother died when she was young. We know Jeremy Franklin was unwilling to participate in the Gathering of Five, but still felt compelled to due to threats Norman made against him. Jeremy even swore to himself he’d make Osborn pay dearly. We know (thanks to references in the Mattie’s own series and some errors in continuity in Bendis’ Alias #20) that both Marla and Jonah knew Jeremy well. We know that Jeremy died without explanation. I propose Norman, at least in the MC2, held a dangling threat over the Franklin family. When Jeremy disobeyed, he was soon after killed and this led to Mattie moving in with the Jameson’s. This would also go some way to explaining why Jonah held back exposing Norman, fearing his adoptive daughter Mattie would be killed like her father (and perhaps her mother) before her. If Jeremy held off handing over the piece he had which was needed to complete the Gathering of Five ceremony, this might also have contributed to its delayed occurrence in the MC2 as well.

Would an older, more mature and freshly orphaned Mattie take the initiative and attempt to save her idol from certain death? I think so. With some first aid, Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation and quick decision-making Mattie could have not only saved Peter, but also preserved his secret identity by contacting the Fantastic Four instead of regular emergency services.

 

This theory allows Mattie to be characterised in a more heroic light, saving her hero from certain death and presents a better origin story and perhaps some more rationale for other aspects surrounding these otherwise unexplained events. We also already know Mattie goes on to become Spider-Woman and contacted Peter (Spider-Girl #39), but with this context we can speculate that she may have known his secret identity and kept it quiet.

 

 Again, this is just my wildly expanded theory to try to make sense of several dropped plotlines from that era of Spidey comics while also figuring out how it could all line up in the MC2 where things turned out drastically different. If you disagree, please tell me why and I’d be happy to have a discussion!

 

Until I stop dwelling on 20-year-old plotlines everyone would rather forget, I remain

 

frogoat