Where is Cletus Kasady in the MC2?

 

While I’ve been busy lately, it’s perhaps a good thing I already jumped the gun and detailed Carnage in the MC2 years back when the first Venom movie came out. That said, with Venom: Let There Be Carnage out in cinema (well, in some parts of the world! Not here yet, sadly) I figure I should at least try and put out something to tie-in. One question not specifically addressed in my previous post is the whereabouts of Carnage’s first and most iconic host: Where is Cletus Kasady in the MC2?

 

Cletus Kasady made his very first appearance in Amazing Spider-Man #344, cameoing as Eddie Brock’s prison cellmate. When the Venom symbiote busted Eddie out, it left behind it’s offspring which bonded with serial killer Cletus to become the mass-murdering Carnage and the rest is history (Amazing Spider-Man #345, #359-#361). 

 

When a splinter of the Carnage symbiote (specifically Specimen 297 of 300) appeared in the MC2 starting in Amazing Spider-Girl #9, Cletus was nowhere to be seen. To explore why, we should look to the last published appearance of Cletus Kasady prior the MC2’s own publication history, a two-part story in Amazing Spider-Man #430-#431. The story starts out as a fairly standard ‘Carnage on a rampage’ plot until the Silver Surfer shows up and the Carnage symbiote abandons Cletus and bonds with the Surfer (Amazing Spider-Man #430).

 

While at first it seems as though Cletus is merely suffering a kind of withdrawal in the absence of his symbiote ‘other’, when Spider-Man takes Kasady to a hospital it’s discovered that he is suffering from an advanced case of stomach cancer and that the symbiote has been keeping him alive (Amazing Spider-Man #431).

 

By the story’s conclusion, the Surfer allows the Carnage symbiote to re-bond with Kasady…only to leave him encased in an unbreakable shell of ethereal energy ‘for the rest of his life’. Ironically, the Main Marvel Universe never really addresses Cletus’ situation, either how he escaped this seemingly permanent imprisonment nor recovered from his terminal cancer. Instead, the next time we see him he’s just in prison and shortly afterwards has his symbiote eaten by Venom with almost no ill effects. Wasted potential.

 

While we also don’t have an explanation for how the Carnage symbiote escaped the Silver Surfer’s encasement (though perhaps I could present a theory on that someday?) we can assume that Cletus Kasady is probably long dead in the MC2. The interesting thing to note is that both stories here were written by Tom Defalco and both refer to the symbiotes ability to keep a host alive even with a terminal cancer diagnosis, with the Carnage symbiote promising to help save new host Moose Mansfield’s father in exchange for his co-operation (Amazing Spider-Girl #9-#12).

 

Well, hopefully you got something out of this. I know I was pleasantly surprised when I realized the similarities between the two Defalco Carnage stories. I’m also fairly sure Defalco was the first person to associate symbiotes with cancer in anyway.

 

Until I find another tangential connection to the Venom films, I remain

 

frogoat

Thunderstrike's Costumes

 

 

 

My past MC2 Costumes posts have looked at every variant costume (or robotic shell) worn by Bluestreak, J2, Freebooter, Mainframe and American Dream and even a few I missed until recently. While I haven’t completed a full-blown new entry in this occasional series for a long while, that changes today because we are looking at the costumes of Kevin Masterson aka Thunderstrike.

 

Kevin’s most iconic costume made it’s first appearance in What If #105 during a cameo appearance from the next generation of Avengers, before they were fleshed out at all.

 

Notably, both Kevin’s adult civilian design and at least the beginnings of his unique Thunderstrike costume were developed at least as early as late 1995 by artist, co-creator and the most dedicated fanboy ever, Ron Frenz. Courtesy of Mr Frenz’ Facebook:

 

A Little Slice Of Kevin!

Design sketches for young Kevin Masterson.

One from the original THUNDERSTRIKE series and two from the development of the A-NEXT series years later.

 

As usual, we’ll be doing things from an in-universe chronological order. While Kevin’s first appearance as Thunderstrike is What If #105, his first chronological appearance is a flashback seen in A-Next #1. With all that said I’d first like to point out that Kevin’s civilian attire in A-Next #1 shares a colour scheme with his super hero costume seen shortly afterwards in the same issue which acts as an origin story for the second generation Thunderstrike. It’s a nice touch. Here’s both for comparison:

 

 

Now, I know these are really just colouring mistakes but I’ve kind of made it my business to point out as many as I can find in previous entries. Besides, it bolsters the number of variations! One common colouring mistake is the bands around Thunderstrike’s wrists, which are sometimes brown (I believe the intended colour), sometimes red like the rest of the arm covering and sometimes one arm band is brown and one arm is red (A-Next #1, #2, #3 etc).

 

Another fun variation, which sometimes comes with different wrist band colours is the Thunderstrike costume with the red ‘T’ logo design on Kevin’s chest (A-Next #3, A-Next #6, J2 #5-#6, American Dream mini-series). I suppose you could No-Prize these minor changes and modifications as the artistic Mr Kevin Masterson tinkering and playing with his costume. I mean, it is magical in nature and appears as he wills it!

 

This next one is one I think is possibly the most oft-miscoloured, at least after the wrist bands. Colourists seem to struggle to keep Kevin’s axillary area exposed, instead colour the whole of the chest and underarm area the same brown as his costume when it should be his flesh tone. As far as I can tell, this first occurred briefly in A-Next #4 in just one panel but we see it many times afterwards.

 

Next up is probably my personal favourite one. After electing to stay behind on an alternate world, Kevin’s appearances naturally trailed off for some time but he still managed to appear in a black/grey version of his standard costume in a photo seen with fellow Avenger Stinger (Wild Thing #4). Interestingly enough, this basic colour scheme returns in the infamously miscoloured Spider-Girl #81 which has proven a great source for variant Avenger costume colours.

 

Just a few issues later in Spider-Girl #83, we get another Thunderstrike tweak, this time with a costume absent the arm guards. Again, another colouring mistake and this one is pretty egregious. Keeping with this theme, we also catch a glimpse of Thunderstrike red-handed in Spider-Girl #87!

 

Over on the cover of Last Hero Standing #1, Mark Bagley depicts Kevin’s Thunderstrike costume’s ‘T logo’ without encircling it. A minor detail perhaps, but it certainly changes the overall look.

 

In the Avengers Next mini-series, Kevin spends most of his time without his powers and is thus depicted in civilian attire. However, Kevin does go into battle wielding the Grim Reaper’s Scythe in Avengers Next #5 before his ability to transform into Thunderstrike is restored.

 

I may have missed out on a costume, if so please let me know! Otherwise, let me know what variant costume you’d like to see the MC2’s Thunderstrike don once more.

 

Until I find more time amid burping a newborn to dedicate to pawing through old comics for colouring mistakes, I remain

 

frogoat

 

 

 

 

 

Missed MC2 Costumes

 

It’s been a long time since I did a MC2 Costumes post. For anyone unfamiliar, I’ve so far detailed every variant costume (or robotic shell) worn by Bluestreak, J2, Freebooter, Mainframe and American Dream. While I’m not going to hit you with a full-blown new entry in this occasional series today, I did want to do a sort of update to cover some of the costumes I’ve missed from passed entries.

 

This first one I found while rereading J2 #11 for my recent posts covering Howard the Duck in the MC2 and Shang-Chi in the MC2. I genuinely don’t know how I missed it the first time, but here’s Zane Yama in his own standard looking martial arts training uniform or ‘gi’ after realizing he should have some fight training for when he isn’t a nearly indestructible behemoth of a boy as J2.

 

Next up is a very minor one I missed for American Dream: Shannon’s standard costume as it appeared in the American Dream mini-series (with wings on the helmet) sans her iconic gloves and disk launchers. I figured for completeness’s sake I’d include it here (American Dream #2).

 

Finally, while it’s not actually seen in the issue proper, from the Ron Frenz drawn cover of American Dream #4 we have a depiction of Shannon transformed into one of Silikong’s ‘crystal creatures’ which were alternatively referred to as ‘crystal soldiers,’’crytal slaves’ or simply ‘crystal monsters’. The cover is a reference to the Red Queen and Silikong’s plan to turn American Dream into crystalline form to ‘publicise’ his elicit army building process.

 

That’s all I have for today. I may find time in the future to return to this series but I’m not sure when due to time constraints. If you think I’ve missed any more costumes or ‘looks’ let me know in a comment.

 

Until I develop my own line of super hero attire, I remain

 

frogoat

Shang-Chi in the MC2

 

By now you all know the new Marvel Cinematic Universe movie Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is out and that means it’s time for another of my usual cheap tie-in post about their MC2 counterpart. Without further ado, here is Shang-Chi in the MC2.

 

Shang-Chi makes his solitary appearance in the MC2 in a story written by Tom Defalco and pencilled by Ron Lim from J2 #11. When American Dream of the Avengers turns down an invitation to participate in a martial arts contest, J2 aka Zane Yama takes it upon himself to attend in her place. Travelling via mystical amulet to a small island, J2 meets the (apparently) blind Howard the Duck, the self-proclaimed Master of Quack-Fu.

 

From Howard we learn that a few dozen of the world's greatest martial artists were invited to the contest, but only a few of the previous generation's 'old fogies' showed up. Among these ‘old fogies’ is Shang-Chi, sparring with Shen Kuei aka Cat. Other characters glimpsed include Iron Fist, the Sons of the Tiger and White Tiger.

 

 Suspecting a trap, Howard had hoped to stack the deck in his favour with American Dream, Stuck with J2 instead, Howard attempts to train the big lug to defend himself but has no success. When J2 reverts back to Zane Yama after his powers temporarily wear off, he encounters Blind Al. Concerned for Zane's well-being in the upcoming contest, Al attempts to get past Weasel to talk to the mystery person who organised the contest: Wade Wilson aka Deadpool.

 

 

Having followed Blind Al, Zane learns the contest will have a deadly ending. Encountering Deadpool, Zane turns back into J2 to duke it out with the mercenary. Deadpool reveals he set up the contest to alleviate his boredom. Having overheard his plans, Shang-Chi, Iron Fist, White Tiger, Cat and the Sons of the Tiger proceed to kick Wade’s butt off-panel.

 

While that’s it for Shang-Chi in the MC2, I’d like to quickly cover where this version of the character may branch off from the Main Marvel Universe. My best guess is similar to speculation for the Black Widow, with Shang-Chi making only a few major appearances in the late 1990’s. This leads me to suggest either Journey Into Mystery #514-516 or Elektra #16 as the point of divergence, the latter of which was published in early 1998. Feel free to disagree and leave me a comment!

 

Until I stop finding new excuses to discuss my favourite comic universe, I remain

 

frogoat