Galactus in the MC2

 

Eons ago, we were all hotly anticipating the release of Marvel Studios Fantastic Four: First Steps. Mere millennia ago, the movie debuted on Disney+ and now, just centuries late, I would like to finally deliver this post about everyone’s favourite planet-devouring, eternally hungry space giant. This is Galactus in the MC2.

 

The prerequisite backstory: Galactus made his debut in Fantastic Four #48 after being preceded by his herald Silver Surfer, a figure of fear among the shape-shifting Skrulls which causes even Uatu the Watcher to break his vow of non-interference by attempting to hide the entirety of planet Earth from Galactus and warning the Fantastic Four of the space titan’s threat. Fantastic Four #48-#50 form a trilogy of issues known colloquially as ‘The Galactus Trilogy’.

 

Galactus’ origin would be first detailed in the pages of Thor #168 and #169. This story would be largely reprinted in Super-Villain Classics #1, reworked and combined with material from other prior appearances, albeit with altered and additional panels which changed the original context to harmonise and update elements of the story. This version of the tale is the one consistently referenced in future retellings, establishing Galactus (formerly a scientist Galan) was a survivor from a universe before the current Marvel Universe came into existence before becoming a universal threat with insatiable hunger.

 

It's possible that Galactus’ last MC2niverse-relevant appearance in the Main Marvel Universe (prior to the two universes branching into divergent realities) is 1996’s Fantastic Four #414, wherein Galactus clashes with powerful foe Hyperstorm, leaving the two trapped in a dimensional void. Alternatively, Silver Surfer (vol.3) #144 which was published in 1998 depicts the space-god Galactus’ return from this void.

 

Now let’s look at the Galactus of Universe-982 aka the MC2. During the events of the Last Planet Standing mini-series, Galactus is poised to destroy the entire universe in an attempt to rid himself of his never-ending hunger, having stockpiled the energy from planets across various galaxies. A gathering of the Great Powers of the Universe took place to discuss the threat posed to reality. The cosmic forces in attendance included Master Order, Lord Chaos, The In-Betweener, The Shaper of Worlds, The Stranger, The Gardener, The Collector and of course The Living Tribunal (Last Planet Standing #2).

 

The Great Powers of the Universe’s attempt to reason with the World-Eater one last time fails. Ultimately deciding they must destroy Galactus using a combined destructive bolt strong enough to wipe out the Earth and the entire Milky Way Galaxy, the Great Powers are halted in their attempt when Reed Richards is forced to use his Transdimensional Cannon's single shot on the cosmic beings (Last Planet Standing #3).

 

With Galactus enacting his final solution on Earth, the combined forces of the superhero community work to penetrate his force field and combat his doomsday weapon’s launch. When Spider-Girl, Stinger and American Dream manage to reverse the polarity of the device’s flow, the resulting backlash causes Galactus to be overloaded with enough energy to kill him and destroy the entire galaxy. As his end approaches, Galactus perceives the presence of Death coming to embrace him.

 

However, at the last moment, Galactus’ former Herald, the Silver Surfer encases them both within an indestructible ethereal force cocoon.  Soon after the assembled heroes of Earth witness the birth of a new gestalt entity composed of the Silver Surfer and Galactus which could harness a new form of energy known as The Power Essential (Last Planet Standing #5).

 

Fortunately, the newly birthed gestalt being composed of Silver Surfer and Galactus harnesses The Power Essential to reassemble The Vision, resurrect others killed during the battle and repair the mass destruction before departing the Earth with a new mission of restoration (Last Planet Standing #5).

I think it is important to mention at this point that the concept of reforging Galactus into a kind of cosmic ‘life bringer’ first appeared in the Last Planet Standing series written by Tom Defalco, pre-dating by nearly a decade a similar storyline in the Main Marvel Universe in the pages of Ultimates (vol. 2) series by writer Al Ewing. Just another example of the MC2 being ahead of the Main Marvel Universe!

 

I’d love to read suggestions for new names for the new being birthed in Last Planet Standing #5, and here’s hoping we see the silver celestial sentinel again some day.

 

Until I satiate my own endless hunger, I remain

 

frogoat

  

 

 

 

 

The Surprising Connection Between the MC2 and Doctor Who

 

Another relatively short and sweet post today, but one that I stumbled upon, delighted at having uncovered a sneaky link between another of my favourite fandoms, Doctor Who.

 

In a long-ago History of the MC2 post, I pointed out that the established history of the MC2 includes the events of Onslaught, Heroes Reborn and Heroes Return as is confirmed via a reference to Franklin Richards creating a pocket universe in Fantastic Five (vol. 1) #4.  While it’s not exactly clear precisely when the published history of the Main Marvel Universe (aka Universe-616) branches off into what we know as the MC2 (aka Universe-982), it’s evident they share a great deal in common from the 1960’s up to and including the real-world published comics of the mid-to-late-1990’s.

 

This brings me to today’s tiny tidbit of confirmed comic commonality: Pier Four. This was an apparently unassuming building located on the docks which the Fantastic Four used as their temporary home and headquarters following their return from Franklin’s Counter-Earth pocket universe, having discovered the Thunderbolts had been given their former home, Four Freedoms Plaza, in their absence.

 

Pier Four first appeared in Fantastic Four (vol. 3) #2 and we learn from Johnny Storm that stored on the premises is a second hand ‘antique London Police Call Box’ obtained by Reed Richards from a ‘weird “Doctor” friend of his’,  one which from the outside appears barely able to fit a single person but once inside, the interior is near infinite, allowing Reed to use it as a kind of warehouse (Fantastic Four (vol. 3) #9) . While the exterior 'Police Box' is red in colour, this is no doubt a reference to the iconic blue time and spaceship known as The TARDIS owned by the time-travelling Doctor from the world’s longest-running science fiction show Doctor Who.

 

Now, Pier Four is also canon to the history of the MC2’s own Fantastic Five, being utilized once more in the pages of Last Planet Standing #4 as the team’s temporary base of operations during Galactus’ final plan following the destruction of the Fantastic Five Headquarters.

 

Here is where I get to really geek out, because The Doctor is not just a throwaway reference, he is an established colleague to Mister Fantastic himself Reed Richards. Marvel held the comic publishing rights to Doctor Who during the 1980’s in much the same way they published other licenced works such as The Transformers. In fact, it’s through the Transformers by way of Doctor Who that the Freelance Peacekeeping Agent known as Death’s Head would first arrive in the Main Marvel Universe proper, having once been shrunk down to human size (Doctor Who Magazine #135) and later being deposited atop the Four Freedoms Plaza, headquarters of the Fantastic Four, by The Doctor (Death’s Head #8-#9).  

 

Bringing this all back to the MC2, the established existence of Pier Four in Earth-982 implies events following the Fantastic Four’s return from Franklin Richards pocket reality transpired in a similar manner to those on Earth-616. This means some version of events depicted in those early issues of Fantastic Four (vol. 3) played out in the MC2 also. On Earth-616 Pier Four was destroyed by Diablo in Fantastic Four (vol. 3) #36, though it appears this was not the case in the MC2. While I admit it’s speculation, we can also assume that the MC2 Fantastic Four (later Five) at some point returned to the former site of their most iconic headquarters and rebuilt it into the Fantastic Five Building (first seen in What If #105 and more fully in Spider-Girl #3). This presumes in the MC2 the  Four Freedoms Plaza was likewise damaged significantly in Thunderbolts #10 and the remains teleported to the Moon in Fantastic Four (vol. 3) #13) as it was on Earth-616.

 

That is all for today, everyone. I truly live for these little pieces of continuity that the MC2 incorporates into its

own unique history. The implications of Doctor Who and Transformers being connected to the wider shared Marvel Multiverse (or Megaverse if you prefer) are exciting to consider.

 

Until I stop delighting at these unexpected connections, I remain

 

frogoat

 

 

 

Spider-Girl's Live-Action Debut is Kick-Ass

 

Apologies for the clickbait-y title but a friend of mine brought this to my attention and I just had to share it with everyone! While there’s lots of rumours and theories swirling about May ‘Mayday’ Parker aka Spider-Girl making her debut in a live-action movie, they are all far too late. It’s already happened.

 

A big shout out to friend of the blog Jesús Arias for discovering this little tidbit. At 57 minutes and 30 seconds into the live-action comic book movie adaptation Kick-Ass, we get this shot:

 

Did you spot it?

 

There’s a closer look at it at 1 hour 13 minutes 57 seconds. Yes, I have no life.

 

 

Yup, the cover of Amazing Spider-Girl #10 by artists extraordinaire Ron Frenz and Sal Buscema featuring the alien symbiote Carnage can be glimpsed.

 

A nice piece of trivia for all you self-styled vigilantes out there.   

 

Until I stop getting a kick out of these kinds of things, I remain

 

frogoat

Stinger: A Case For Cassie Lang's Codename in the MCU

 

While I’ve been particularly busy and going through a lot of personal turbulence, I felt an odd impulse to just throw this together. It’s something I’ve been thinking about since Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was announced and has grown into a bit of a personal obsession. This is my case for why Cassie Lang should be called Stinger in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

 

Let’s start with a little background: Officially Marvel Studios hasn’t assigned a codename to their interpretation of Cassie Lang in the MCU. However, there is precedent for official sources to refer to and, as a result, canonize information gleaned from fan-produced sites. An example of this would be the Across the Spider-Verse animated movie from Sony legitimizing the designation of their Venom films as ‘Earth-688’ after the Marvel Fandom wiki used the place-holder designation ‘Earth-TRN688’ (TRN referring to Temporary Reality Number) to refer to it in lieu of any officially provided designation. This itself had a knock-on effect that presents further issues which are beyond what I want to discuss today. Needless to say, sometimes widely accessed fan-curated content, well-meaning though it may can end up creating unintentional ‘Ascended Fanon’.

 

 This brings me to the well-considered Marvel Cinematic Universe wiki, a fantastic resource on anything related to Marvel Studios. While I have the utmost respect for the many contributors to the site, I can’t help but notice they have elected to assign Cassie Lang the codename ‘Stature’ despite the character never being referred to by any superhero title in any official MCU-related material. A look at the character’s talk page revealed the matter has been closed, with the only cited source I can see for the name ‘Stature’ being an early Deadline article that refers to the comic character’s origin and codename. Nothing else.

 

 My main concern, if you can call it that, is that an unassuming and well-meaning Marvel Studios employee will do a brief online search, encounter this wiki entry first and take it at face value, thereby making it official. Not that I dislike fanon being elevated or embraced per se, but it does rather bias the odds of the MCU Cassie being known as Stature rather than Stinger.

 

Here are some examples that reinforce a lack of official codename for the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Cassie Lang at this point. Here is the Funko Pop figure, exclusive to the Marvel Collectors Corps, titled ‘Cassie Lang’.

 

Here are some official designs seen on shirts, socks and various other merchandise, again referring to the character as ‘Cassie’ or ‘Cassie Lang’.

 

The Marvel Legends action figure line released a series of 8 figures in its ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania Build-A-Figure Cassie Lang’ line which came packaged with various parts which combined to make the character as depicted in Quantumania.

 

Another tie-in to the Quantumania movie, Cassie was introduced to the Marvel’s Contest of Champions mobile game under the title ‘Cassie Lang’. The same is true of this adaption of the character in another mobile game, Marvel’s Future Fight.

 

 

All this to say, clearly the powers that be at Marvel Studios haven’t settled on the character’s codename just yet.

 

Now I’d like to make the case for using the superhero moniker ‘Stinger’ rather than ‘Stature’. Firstly, Cassie adopting Stinger as a superhero title pre-dates Stature, with the MC2 comics A-Next #1 being published in 1998 well before her Main Marvel Universe comic counterpart became a hero and took the name Stature in Young Avengers #6. Yes, the MC2 comics originated the concept of Cassie as a superhero.

 

Secondly, the costume. Cassie debuts her Pym Particle suit in Quantumania and it is primarily purple. The colour purple was first associated with Cassie Lang as Stinger in the MC2 but also inspired her Main Marvel Universe counterpart years later in the pages of Astonishing Ant-Man #6.  In addition, Cassie would ditch Stature too, also adopting Stinger as her codename. Both costumes are nearly identical, and both sport a insect inspired helmet, another element the movie would adapt albeit a full-face mask in keeping with their established rules for shrinking.

 

Additionally, the MCU’s Cassie demonstrates a gifted intellect, another character trait first and most closely associated with the MC2’s version of Cassie. Correct me if I’m wrong, but the Young Avengers Cassie isn’t known for her scientific ability.

 

I’ve talked about all this before and I’m sure I’ll probably bring it up again some time. I’m also aware there are elements of Cassie in Quantumania that are more aligned with the Stature name, such as her ability to grow to giant size, but I think it’s important to make the argument all the same. I’d personally love to see ‘Stinger’ make the jump to the big-screen and see Tom Defalco and Ron Frenz’s creation get more recognition.

 

Until I stop questioning how they are growing and shrinking at subatomic size, I remain

 

frogoat

Spider-Girl in Spider-Man: Ultimate Power

With new studies and life in general taking much of my free time, I won't be able to post here anywhere near as often, so please accept this as a 

 Spider-Girl appears as an alternate costume in the 2014 mobile game from Spider-Man: Ultimate Power, the only playable female character in the game. Until recently I was unable to find the game to obtain this gameplay footage as it is no longer available on mobile app stores. Fortunately, the world is full of dedicated fans and the game was preserved by archivists. Please excuse my less than stellar performance, this game was not built for PC play and I am far from skilled at the best of times.

Until I run out of things to throw up in a hurry, I remain

frogoat

Wakandan Technology in the MC2: Wakandan Airship

 

While I am late to the party (as I often am) I still wanted to offer a short post tangentially related to the recent Eyes of Wakanda mini-series. Here is that post, a kind of cousin to the Spider-Symmetry and Patriotic Parallels posts, but without a set name just yet (any suggestions welcome!).

 

The world is first introduced to T’Challa aka The Black Panther in Fantastic Four #52 when a snazzy Wakandan Airship (identified as a Magnetic Wave Rider) greets the Fantastic Four and whisks them away to the nation of Wakanda.

 

Reed would test a new model of the Magnetic Wave Rider sent by the Black Panther in Giant-Size Super-Stars #1. As an aside, it’s obvious the Magnetic Wave Rider influenced the Black Panther movie’s Maglev Trains concept.

 

In the MC2, the next generation of Avengers are introduced to the son of The Black Panther, Prince T’Chaka aka The Coal Tiger in A-Next #4. As confirmed by Ron Frenz on Adam Chapman’s podcast Comic Shenanigans Episode 744, a version of the Magnetic Wave Rider returns for this Wakandan related story:

 

‘It’s one of the Wakandan Ships. It was originally Kirby’s design for a Wakandan Airship that the Fantastic Four then had a model that they hung on to. Since we were dealing with Wakanda I thought it would be kind of cool to throw it in there.’

 

Now, I think it’s worth mentioning that the text and dialogue in the comic does explicitly refer to this aircraft as a ‘Quinjet’. However, given Ron’s statement and the obvious visual similarity to the Magnetic Wave Rider and the discontinuity with the design of the Quinjet’s seen in other issues of A-Next, we need to develop a No-Prize explanation.

 

I submit the following: Given the vehicle is adorned with the Avengers livery, and the Black Panther is credited with earlier Quinjet designs, and considering the outward resemblance to the Wakandan Magnetic Wave Rider gifted to the Fantastic Four, the aircraft seen in A-Next #4 is a new version of the  Magnetic Wave Rider equipped with quinjets (meaning five jets) developed by T’Challa, perhaps as a gift to his former team. The Avengers colloquially refer to their various air vessels as Quinjets, and technically this would also count, which explains their referring to it as such.

 

Either way, it’s a great little reference to the past from Mr Ron Frenz and helps further the connection between Wakanda’s Royal Family and the Avengers. Let’s hope J2 has learnt how to fly by now!

 

Until I learn how to Flintstone a vehicle like J2, I remain

 

frogoat

 

Spider-Symmetry: Spider-Girl 31 and Spider-Girl 45

 

For today’s post we have a brief entry in the occasional series where I endeavour to highlight the visual or narrative symmetry between the Spider-Man and Spider-Girl comics. For this entry of Spider-Symmetry, we are taking a look at just the MC2 comics. For this installment, we must credit the amazing penciller Pat Olliffe and as you’ll note soon enough, MC2 co-creator, artist extraordinaire and friendly fella, Ron Frenz.

 

Spider-Girl #31 gives us this delightful cover from Pat Olliffe, first published in February 2001, of May ‘Mayday’ Parker as Spider-Girl surrounded by floating heads of guilt.

 

Now, here is Pat Olliffe’s gorgeous cover to Spider-Girl #45 which was first published in March 2002. In a direct reference to his earlier cover, we now have May ‘Mayday’ Parker in her civilian attire surrounded by Spider-Girl costume design concepts from the in-universe clothing store, the Spider-Shoppe.

 

And with the Spider-Shoppe connection, lets segue to the cover of Spider-Girl #91 by the rambunctious rascal Ron Frenz, which was first published in October 2005. This cover continues the Spider-Girl costume designs concept from the cover of Spider-Girl #45 by continuing the theme. There are even some repeated designs both here and within the story itself.

 

Okay, that is a wrap for this entry!

 

Until I find myself surrounded by cosplay costume variations or floating heads of guilt, I remain

 

frogoat