Electro in the MC2

 

With Spider-Man: No Way Home on everyone’s mind, I figured now is a great time to cover some of the MC2 counterparts of the villains confirmed to appear in the film. For the third entry in this little series, we are taking a look at Maxwell ‘Max’ Dillon aka Electro in the MC2.

 

Maxwell ‘Max’ Dillon first appeared in Amazing Spider-Man #9 but makes his MC2 debut in the pages of Spider-Girl #81 where he once again dons his classic Electro costume for an expected reason. For those who might be interested, I’ve previously detailed the Dillon Family Tree, which can be found here.

 

But first, an unnamed female villain clad in an Electro-inspired costume makes an appearance in Spider-Girl #51. The aforementioned Electro-styled villainess who briefly appears goes unnamed, though Spider-Girl does point out the apparent connections to Electro and jokingly refers to her opponent as 'Electra', quipping that it's already taken.

 

We wouldn't learn anymore about this character until she was re-visited in Spider-Girl #81 in what has to be one of the best stand-alone issues of the series. Showing up at the Avengers front door and asking to speak to Spider-Man, Dillon eventually meets with the original webhead face to face and explains the situation.

 

We learn that years ago Max fell in love with a woman named Marilyn, though the two never married. They had a daughter together named Allison Dillon who was born with similar electrical powers. Sadly, Max and Allison were never able to make physical contact due to their 'electrical auras' causing one another extreme pain. Marilyn told Max to stay out of Allison's life and he obliged, later winding up in prison. While there, Marilyn died, leaving Allison to be shuffled between foster homes, eventually donning a costume and starting a life of crime like her father before her. Which is why, having only recently learning of Allison's situation, and apparently having served his time, Max reaches out to the Avengers to obtain help from his old enemy Spider-Man.

 With the assistance of the Avengers, Spider-Man and Spider-Girl, father and daughter are reunited after Max shows Allison he wouldn’t give up on her nor himself. The pair fight through the pain of their electrical auras, finally overcoming the barrier between them, with Max promising they will go through whatever happens next together.

 

It’s not known what happens for the two after this, though Peter does speculate that given Allison is a minor, she’ll either get a light sentence or be paroled into Max’s custody. Either way, Max Dillon has proven he’s grown and is perhaps ready for parenthood.

 

Until I figure out how to travel along power lines using electrical fields, I remain

 

frogoat

The Lizard in the MC2

 

With Spider-Man: No Way Home on everyone’s mind, I figured now is a great time to cover some of the MC2 counterparts of the villains confirmed to appear in the film. Today, we are taking a look at Dr Curtis ‘Curt’ Connors aka The Lizard in the MC2.

 

Dr Curt Connors first appeared in Amazing Spider-Man #6 but makes his MC2 debut as both Connors and The Lizard in Amazing Spider-Man Family #1 within the first of the (sadly cut short) Mr. and Mrs. Spider-Man series of short stories. This story takes place at some point after the infant May Parker is rescued and returned to Peter and Mary Jane Parker by Kaine and prior to Peter’s final battle with the Green Goblin.

 

After having had a few ‘gloriously normal’ weeks as a family, Peter and Mary Jane leave May with Anna Watson to meet Dr Connors and his wife Martha for dinner. However, Curt hasn’t returned from Empire State University and isn’t answering calls. Martha reveals that she and their son Billy have been unwell with symptoms that led Curt to suspect their drinking water in Florida was compromised. With Billy appearing very unwell, Peter and Mary Jane head to Empire State University to check on Dr Connors.

 

Mary Jane and Peter discover Curt’s Empire State University laboratory has been smashed up and find his notes for a formula to purify the water in the Everglades, however the process could threaten the reptiles there. Believing this conflict between his family and the environment may have driven Curt over the edge, and with Mary Jane’s blessing Peter sets out to find Connor’s as Spider-Man.

 

Finding Connors has transformed into The Lizard, Spider-Man battles various reptiles to reach the doctor’s alter ego. The Lizard reveals he is trying to protect his reptilian family from Connor’s water treatment plan until Spider-Man tells him that Connors intentionally called forth the Lizard because he didn’t want to use a formula that would only save one of his families at the cost of the other. Apparently accepting Curt saw the reptiles as family too, the Lizard reverted back to Connors. Dr Connors returned to the drawing board, determined to find a mutually beneficial solution to the problem, once more hiring Peter as a lab assistant to help in this endeavour.

 

That’s it for The Lizard in the MC2, though it’s worth noting with this story taking place nearly 15 years in the past, we don’t know the ultimate fate of Dr Curt Connors and his scaly other half. Another odd note is Martha Connors acting as though she’s meeting Mary Jane for the first time, despite having met more than once prior to this occasion in the Main Marvel Universe. But we can give her a pass here as she states she and Billy haven’t been very well.

 

Until I figure out an explanation for the ever-young Billy Connors, I remain

 

frogoat

Doctor Octopus in the MC2

 

With Spider-Man: No Way Home on everyone’s mind, I figured now is a great time to cover some of the MC2 counterparts of the villains confirmed to appear in the film. Today, we are taking a look at Dr Otto Octavius aka Doc Ock aka Doctor Octopus in the MC2.

 

Doctor Octopus first appeared in Amazing Spider-Man #3 but makes his MC2 debut behind the scenes in The Buzz #1. Well, technically he’s only alluded to in the first issue and really makes his debut in The Buzz #2 albeit partially obscured, with his identity finally revealed in The Buzz #3. Let me break it down.

 

In The Buzz #1 we learn from J Jonah Jameson that Spider-Man vanished right before Jameson needed him most, though we don’t get any further details. Jonah’s wife Marla, Dr Sonja Jade and Richie Robertson were key members working on Project: Human Fly, a superpowered suit designed to empower Buzz Bannon and intended to be keyed to his specific brainwaves. However, when Dr Jade reveals her true self and her intention to take the suit, Bannon is shot and dies before his encephalograms can be linked to the Human Fly suit, leaving JJ Jameson to be keyed with the suit and foil its theft, though not before Dr Jade makes off with the project's data and erases all remaining records. Evidently, Dr Jade is being well-paid by Doc Ock and the suits of the henchmen accompanying her distinctly resemble those seen way back in the classic Master Planner story from Amazing Spider-Man #31-33.

 

Doctor Octopus makes his partially obscured first MC2 appearance in The Buzz #2, receiving a report from Dr Jade regarding the henchmen’s failure to obtain the Fly suit, which he attributes to the decrease in quality since the Taskmaster retired. Otto provides Jade with a device that would allow him to remotely take control of the Fly suit. Teaming up with Richie Robertson to maintain the suit,  JJ (dubbing himself The Buzz) sought out Dr Jade with little success for several weeks until confronted by her in a prototype of the Human Fly suit. With the device attached, the unseen Octavius downloads himself into the suit’s operating system and attempts to remotely pilot The Buzz back to his hidden base only to be interrupted by Spider-Girl.

 

Otto forces The Buzz to target Marla Jameson, resulting in JJ’s grandfather J Jonah Jameson being taken hostage. In order to force Doc Ock to leave the suit, Richie hits the kill switch and leaves The Buzz plummeting to earth. With the threat of the suit being destroyed and with Jonah being rescued by Spider-Girl, Doctor Octopus abandons control and Richie wipes him from the suit’s system, allowing The Buzz to pull out of the drop just in time (The Buzz #2).

 

JJ learns from his grandmother Marla the reason why Jonah blames himself for two murders following Buzz Bannon’s death. Marla explains that shortly after the original Spider-Man disappeared in battle with the Green Goblin, an old enemy attacked the Daily Bugle and murdered Jonah’s closest friend, Joe Robertson, Richie’s grandfather. It’s this inciting incident that led to the idea for Project: Human Fly (The Buzz #3). 

Using the control module device, Richie traces Dr Jade and her boss to their base and The Buzz and Spider-Girl follow this lead deep below the East River. The pair encounter Jade and Doctor Octopus is finally revealed as the mastermind who secretly aided in the development of the Human Fly suit, specifically the encephalo-gate which ties brain waves into the suit’s operating system (The Buzz #3). 

Otto also reveals he is dying from cancer and intended to use this method to transfer his consciousness. Unveiling his prototype Octopod, Otto uses the machine to battle The Buzz, but is left in a coma following an electrical backlash when the underwater base beings to flood. Confronted with the man who killed his grandfather, Richie insists The Buzz brings him in to face justice, but when given the choice between proving Dr Jade's involvement and saving Doc Ock, he was more than happy for The Buzz to leave Ock to die. Conflicted, The Buzz instead helps save Octavius and Dr Jade escapes (The Buzz #3).

 

It seems Doctor Otto Octavius never regains consciousness, and by the time Dr Jade re-emerges her partner Carolyn Trainer has assumed the mantle as the new Doctor Octopus in honour of her ‘recently deceased mentor’ (Spider-Girl #69). At least the name is in good hands.

 

Thus ends the life of Otto Octavius, at least in the MC2. Unless, of course, he managed to transfer his consciousness like he had planned and is still out there somewhere trapped inside his Octopod…

 

Until I stop the rampant rumour-mongering about versions of Doctor Octopus somehow surviving beneath the water, I remain

 

frogoat

 

Thena: Who's Your Mama?! (Part 2)

 

A while ago, I took a stab at figuring out just who the Asgardian goddess Thena’s mother could be in the MC2. Well, now is probably the best time to dust off the topic and discuss another option, given that the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe movie Eternals is in cinemas right now. Why? Let’s jump straight in and find out!

 

While we never saw any of the Eternals in the MC2, we nearly saw prominent member Thena in a perhaps less than unexpected place. If you’ve read the title, you may already know where this is going. Here are some extracts from Comic Shenanigans Episode 744: Interview with Ron Frenz on A-Next:

 

‘I was not lucky enough to be a part of the later A-Next mini-series and stuff. That was always something that I was all for, the roster changing just like it did in the original Avengers, you know. That there would be new characters introduced and all this kind of stuff. I played a much smaller role behind the scenes. I had originally conceived of a daughter for Thor in some of my sketches. So, when she finally did show up, Ron Lim was working off of those sketches. He made adaptations of his own which is only right since he was the one handling the character. Originally the name I had for her was Thera, T-H-E-R-A, which I thought was a nice kind of sort of Thor-sounding-but-not. Tom ended up going with Thena and I don’t know if at the time he realized that was already the name of a character in the Eternals. But in my head now I have this story we could tell at some point, if anybody cared, where Thor actually named his daughter after the leader of the Eternals upon the signing of some peace treaty or something like that.’

 

This idea could have made for a fun story and if it was canon, would have worked as a nice detail to add to the lore of the MC2. But Mr Frenz goes on to further add the following even more intriguing notion:

 

‘So when Tom did that, my brain immediately went to ‘now, why would he name his daughter after the leader of the Eternals?’ and there’s a story there. If you really want to be dirty about it, maybe Sif wasn’t her mother, I don’t know. Maybe Thena is her mother, I don’t know. I don’t know exactly how much we were committed to because as I said I wasn’t involved directly in Last Hero Standing or Last Planet Standing or any of those mini-series so I don’t remember what has exactly been established or not.’

 

So Thena, the Asgardian goddess and child of Thor, was nearly or could potentially be the daughter of Thena of the race of Eternals. I would love to see these story ideas explored in someway in the future, one way or the other.

 

Until I find more time to write these little tie-in posts, I remain

 

frogoat