Ultron in the MC2

 

I might be a little late to the party with this post, but I still wanted to put something out to cover Ultron in the MC2, especially given I missed my chance last time he made a major appearance on the big screen, so now with his return to the small screen via the Disney+ animated series What If, I'm seizing the opportunity.

 

I briefly touched on Ultron in my History of the MC2: The Avengers post but let’s take a more focused look this time. At an unknown point in the team's past prior the original team’s final mission, an Avengers team which included Captain America, Iron Man and Thor fought Ultron Extreme, the newest model of the team's old foe. Iron Man eventually managed to erase Ultron's programming and the villain's indestructible body was sealed away ‘half a world away, in a cavern far beneath the Earth’ for over a decade (Avengers Next #2-#3).

The Avengers Compound contains an armory and ‘trophy room’ within which an inert head of an older model Ultron was kept. During Sylene’s staged attack on the Avengers Compound by ‘Zombie Avengers,’ her lackeys Warp and Ulik secretly stole this Ultron head. Sylene then used her magicks upon this Ultron ‘artifact’ so that it would guide her to the body of Ultron Extreme (Avengers Next #1-#2).

 

Still inert with its programming wiped, Sylene imbued the shell of Ultron Extreme with her magic and set it against the Avengers, while disguising herself as another ‘prime’ Ultron resembling that of the stolen head. However, when ‘Ultron’ Sylene’s assault module was suddenly destroyed leaving her vulnerable, she was forced to cover her deception by appearing to ‘self-destruct.’ Busy using her magic to disguise herself as the kidnapped and depowered former Avenger Kevin Masterson to enable her to enact her final plan, the Ultron Extreme body was left to collapse inert once again on the remote island atoll (Avengers Next #3).

It’s also worth mentioning that a model of statue of Ultron is on display in the Avengers Compound alongside many others representing past Avengers foes (American Dream #1). Presumably the actual head of Ultron and other villain ‘artifacts’ are kept well away from the public in the aforementioned armory or trophy room.

 

While this might be the last time we see of Ultron in the MC2, the ever-clever Stinger notes that the villain was previously only deactivated and that his programming could be copied or restored in the same way Avengers members Mainframe and the Vision have done in the past (Avengers Next #3).

 

Until I learn how to restore myself from some lines of code, I remain

 

frogoat

 

 

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