S.H.I.E.L.D. in the MC2

I've been super busy of late, and I missed my self-imposed deadline for releasing anything S.H.I.E.L.D. related in time for the Agent's of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 6 premiere. So, without further ado, let's look at S.H.I.E.L.D. in the MC2.

S.H.I.E.L.D. makes it's first appearance within the MC2 in A-Next #4 via an appearance from Agent 33 (not to be confused with the Main Marvel Universe's Agent 33 also created by Tom Defalco and Ron Frenz) who is tasked with protecting the Wakandan ambassador, N'Kano and the Wakandan prince, T'Chaka during their visit to America. Notice Agent 33 wears a yellow and blue-black S.H.I.E.L.D. uniform.

Shortly after within the pages of Spider-Girl #5 we first learn of the organisation's Maximum Security Facility at Mount Athena, New York. It's here we glimpse the Venom Symbiote, who's been imprisoned here for over a decade. Notably, the unnamed S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent's seen here wear yellow (or perhaps orange?) and black uniforms.

The very next week, in A-Next #5, we get another appearance from members of S.H.I.E.L.D. operating in Latveria's former capital Doomstadt.  Here we see a few more Agents, this time clad in more standard looking military attire, attacked by Doombots while searching for a missing girl. We learn that thanks to political bickering, even S.H.I.E.L.D. is forbidden to set foot within Castle Doom. After the Avengers recover the missing child, they provide S.H.I.E.L.D. with a false story to hide the existence of Kristoff Vernard. This is also our first reference to Nick Fury in the MC2.

The title goes for 3 in a row with another S.H.I.E.L.D. appearance in A-Next #6 when the Avengers team accompanies Argo to the Mount Athena Facility in search of his father Hercules. Agent 33 returns to give intel to the Avengers team, advising them no one on-site has clearance high enough to know the identity of 'The Merchandise' (in actuality an insane and grief-stricken Hercules himself) but 'the Top Man himself' approved the Avengers team to take over custody.

Over in Fantastic Five (Vol. 1) #2 we witness the titular team field-testing the invention of Dr. Lenny Gilcrest, 'The Superoid,' for S.H.I.E.L.D. Things go awry when Gilcrest is knocked out by the villainous Dominator disguised as a S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent. Dominator and the rest of the Wizard's Warriors take control of the Superoid and attempt to steal it, coming into conflict with the F5 and S.H.I.E.L.D. Interestingly, Dominator mentions she used to work for S.H.I.E.L.D. Note the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. are garbed in yellow and blue uniforms.

We don't see S.H.I.E.L.D. again for quite some time until Spider-Girl #86 when we revisit Agent 33 at the Mount Athena Facility as Apox the Omega Skrull escapes his containment deep beneath the mountain. Notice again that the various S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents all wear the seemingly standard yellow and blue-black uniform.

After this, S.H.I.E.L.D. is mentioned to be attempting a rescue of Nova and Earth Sentry following the destruction of their spacecraft by Galactus' herald Dominas (Last Planet Standing #3).

We see some familiar faces among S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents during the Carnage story arc in Amazing Spider-Girl #9-12 with Maria Hill (more on her in the future!) and Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine and the shadowy Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. himself, Nick Fury all making their MC2 debut. We also see a more tradition S.H.I.E.L.D. colour scheme for the first time here with white on black uniforms.

Next up we have Fantastic Five (vol.2) #4 in which a freshly returned and cosmically-empowered Doctor Doom forcibly ejects S.H.I.E.L.D. forces from Latveria. Here, the S.H.I.E.L.D. forces are seen in the military attire seen previously in A-Next #5. Later in the issue we get our first and only glimpse of a Helicarrier in the MC2 as we learn of it's destruction.

For the final appearances of S.H.I.E.L.D. in the MC2, we turn to the American Dream mini series. These appearances are tricky. Maria Hill shows up so you'd think she was working for S.H.I.E.L.D. but dialogue and recap pages both state she's working for the National Security Force. I'd be inclined to accept that Hill simply changed employers since her last appearance, except every issue after she shows up in American Dream #2 clearly depicts her in full S.H.I.E.L.D. uniform leading other agents also clad in S.H.I.E.L.D. uniform. Perhaps I could cover this further at a later date, but for now, I'll simply include these appearances.

That's it for present-day appearances, but we also see S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Sharon Carter in flashbacks in both Spider-Girl #32 and American Dream #3 in addition to mentions elsewhere. For a bit more on this see The Carter Family Tree.

That's it for S.H.I.E.L.D. in the MC2. I find it interesting that all of the organisation's appearances prior to the Amazing Spider-Girl series seem to feature a distinct variation of the S.H.I.E.L.D. uniform with the yellow and blue-black colour scheme, while all appearances since feature the classic white and blue-black uniform colours. It brings to mind this old Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe entry:

Until I master spy craft and become a secret agent tasked with obtaining unpublished MC2 stories from Tom and Ron's desks, I remain

frogoat

That One Time Jim Cheung Drew Spider-Girl

Recently I've been thinking about well-established artists in the comics industry who's take on the MC2 characters we've yet to see. Then I remembered there are a bunch of artists outside of MC2 mainstays such as the wonderfully talented Ron Frenz, Pat Olliffe, Paul Ryan, Ron Lim or Todd Nauck who've in some way worked on my favourite fictional universe. Every so often I'll try and dedicate a short post to each artist's brief foray into the MC2 Universe.

Jim Cheung

As a fan of Jim Cheung's work on the Young Avengers characters, I've sometimes wondered what his take on the MC2's various teen heroes of Spider-Girl. While I'd long thought I wouldn't get to see Cheung's rendition of my favourite character, it turns out I'd already missed it! Thanks to regular reader arias-98105 for bringing to my attention to the Marvel Chronicle: A Year by Year History reference book by Tom Defalco published by DK (formerly known as Dorling Kindersley) and first released in 2008. Here's the cover:

   

Now, Mayday isn't visibly featured here and as near as I can tell, isn't featured on this editions back cover either. Some future releases of this book use different artwork too, but the copy I found online features a variation on this cover art. Luckily, if you want the full piece Mr Cheung produced for this book, it comes bundled as lithographs both in colour and black and white. Here, at last, we can see Jim Cheung's rendition of Spider-Girl:

It's a truly gorgeous piece of art from Cheung...but can you spot Spider-Girl? She's way off to the left there next to Tigra! Here, I'll crop the picture:

It's not much but I'll take it! Let me know if there's any other instances of Jim Cheung drawing Spider-Girl! I'd love to see more from him as I think his talent for drawing teenaged heroes is a great fit for the MC2.

Until I find more connections and every hidden gem, I remain

frogoat

Iron Man in the MC2

With all the build up for Avengers: Endgame, I've elected to cover some of the MC2 incarnations of the films main cast. For this entry, we'll be taking a look at the golden Avenger, the genius, billionaire, former playboy philanthropist: Iron Man. 

Making his first appearance in the MC2 in the A-Next #7 in a flashback to the last days of the original Avengers team, we learn that not only did Iron Man join the team on their final mission, he was among the few to return alive. After mourning their fallen comrades, Iron Man and the Scarlet Witch worked tirelessly for months to seal the portal permanently against future attacks. Unfortunately, to achieve this the Scarlet Witch was sealed within a stasis pod, holding the aperture shut. Tony Stark retired as Iron Man, but continued to work to help the world. 

We also learn through flashbacks that around this time Tony Stark developed Mainframe, a sophisticated robotic armour with Tony's own brain patterns, designed to ensure there would always be someone to answer the call to assemble (A-Next #7, Spider-Girl #95).

Jumping around a bit for context: Tony Designed and built a Nanite Agenda in an attempt to aid the Scarlet Witch. However, Tony discovered too late that his best friend James Rhodes aka War Machine had tested it on himself to protect Tony. The Agenda proved harmful, causing a slow erosion of Rhodes' humanity, making him less and less human over time whilst also gifting him increasing superhuman abilities (Spider-Girl #95).

Stark makes his first present-day appearance in A-Next #10 when the new Avengers team venture to the alternate world. When Tony learns of this news, he confronts Edwin Jarvis only to be stopped by Clint Barton aka Hawkeye who argues with him about their last mission. 

The three men were taken hostage by the Red Queen and her Revengers team prior to A-Next #12. While held captive, Stark manages to get a signal to Mainframe's satellite, enabling the robotic Avenger to return with reinforcements. Despite Tony's initial misgivings he is soon impressed with the team's performance, giving the new Avengers his blessing.

Next showing up in Spider-Girl #30-32, Tony warns Spider-Girl about interfering with the Avengers pursuit of The Buzz following her encounter with Stark's 'bodyguard,' the now super powered nanite-puppet James Rhodes. Refusing to stand down, Spider-Girl finds herself in conflict with the Avengers when she attempts to defend the wrongly-accused Buzz. During the battle, we learn that Stark contributed technology to the Human Fly Project which created the suit now worn by The Buzz and wishes to take  it back. Things are resolved when the Stark-controlled Rhodes strips the technology from the Buzz and allows him to go. Due to his manipulations of the team behind the scenes, the Avengers clash with Tony soon afterwards.

Despite most other retired super heroes being drawn back into costume during the events of Last Hero Standing, Tony Stark does not don his trademark suit of armour. In fact, we only see him in Last Hero Standing #1 visiting the comatose Wanda Maximoff aka The Scarlet Witch. When she is abducted, Stark alerts the Avengers. Notably, there is a brief exchange between Tony and Captain America, the only interaction we see the two old friends share before Cap's death.

With so many members of with injuries or otherwise absent, Stark takes it upon himself to recruits some 'experienced pros' to fill out the Avengers roster. The Scarlet Witch, Ant-Man and Hawkeye are joined by Stark's 'personal bodyguard'  James Rhodes on a mission to investigate and apprehend Normie Osborn. Things go awry when Rhodes (now more machine than man) is inadvertently hit by a hex bolt from the Scarlet Witch, triggering a violent rampage. Forced out of retirement, Stark reluctantly dons an old suit of Iron Man armour to help end Rhodes' rampage (Spider-Girl #93-#95). 

When we last see Tony, he's discussing the grave threat posed by the newly-returned Doctor Doom with the President of the United States G.W. Bridges, Mainframe and the Vision. After the crisis is ended, Tony concludes they have Reed Richards to thank.

Tony Stark is an interesting character in the MC2. I get the impression he is quite lonely, considering he lost many of his closest friends in short span of time. Several colleagues perished on their final mission, Captain America stayed behind, the Wasp died soon after returning home, Hercules was driven insane and the Scarlet Witch fell into a coma as a result of sealing the dimensional portal with Tony. Not to mention Tony's best friend Rhodey becoming trapped in a state living-death due to his invention. All that loss most definitely weighs on Tony. I'd love to see more of him.

Until I build myself a high-tech suit of armour in a cave--WITH A BOX OF SCRAPS, I remain

frogoat