Game Changer?

Like or hate the idea, she looks Awesome!

Over the last few months, we’ve had a few major roster changes in terms of Marvel Heroes. Thor is being “replaced” by a woman. He still exists and his name is still Thor, but she's is the... superhero... Thor? Something like that. Falcon is taking Captain America’s alias now that the greatest American Patriot has retired. For now. The question is, how is this going to matter in the long run? Simply put, not much.

Don’t get me wrong, anytime a new character is introduced, a hero changes their identity, or an old hero is retired or killed is important for storytelling, but for the rest of us, it’s just a temporary change. I know what some of you are saying, “But Michael, they are saying this is a permanent change,” or something along those lines. To that I say “Bull Spit.” Here’s why.

Every now and then, comic books try to reawaken interest in a character or series that is lagging. The most common method is either A. give a character a major revelation that completely shakes the foundation of their being, B. create a world changing event, or C. change a major/titular character. I’ll do a brief example each.

I don't hate the new look, but the shades are a bit much.

For A I turn my attention to good old Spider-man. Back in the day he faced off against a vicious green sociopath with a PhD. No, not Green Goblin, this villain is Miles Warren aka the Jackal. Jackal had an unhealthy obsession with a student of his by the name of Gwen Stacy, yes that one, and obviously took her death very hard. He held Spider-man 100% responsible and set out to destroy him via cloning. He created many, many clones of Spider-man, many evil, one or two good, and implanted in Spider-man’s head that he himself was a clone of the original. This sort of jarring possibility really ate at Spider-man’s psyche, he even thought about turning his costume over to the 'real' Peter, until he discovered that Jackal was in fact, a lying, cowardly, monster. But for a while, things looked grim for the web-head.

Jason Todd as Batman. Kind of terrifying.

For B we have another Marvel example we have the “No More Mutants” era of the X-men. I say era, but it only lasted from 2006-12. Brief background. The previous Arc was titled “House of M,” in it reality warping Wanda Maximoff aka Scarlet Witch remakes reality so that her Father, Magneto, is Supreme Ruler of a Mutant controlled World. Things are about as violent as normal, only with many favorite heroes as villains in Magneto’s new world. Eventually Wanda grows sick of the fighting and death and returns the world to normal, but with an added twist. With just the whisper of “No More Mutants,” she ends Mutant life as we know it. Around 90% of mutants lost their powers and no more Mutants were born or gained powers during this six year span. Many of the next few story arcs revolved around picking up the pieces of the old world, and dealing with new waves of Mutant hate, and hate towards now powerless former Mutants. This saga was ultimately ended by the return of the Phoenix Force in the story arc Avengers vs X-men. The combined efforts of Scarlet Witch (who had pretend to be powerless) and the Mutant Messiah Hope Summers (Cyclops and Jean’s Granddaughter…time travel is confusing) destroy the Phoenix Force and reignite the flame, as it were, of the X-gene in humans. Took a while but the status quo was returned.

Here's another 'Permanent Change" The Superior Spider-man
Doc Ock in Spidey's body. It lasted a year and a half.

                There have been a number of instances of C. I won’t list them all in detail but here are a few. Captain America “dying” and being replaced by longtime friend Bucky aka the Winter Soldier. Spider-man took Human Torch’s spot on the FF for a while. Doc Ock took Spider-man's name and body for a while. Hal Jordan has given up his GL powers and/or sector to his successors like five or six times. Barry Allen (Flash 2) was replaced by nephew Wally West (Flash 3) as the main Flash for about twenty years. Thor was replaced for a time by an alien named Beta Ray Bill. James “Rhodey” Rhodes got his start as an armored hero while taking over the role of Ironman for a binging Tony Stark. Nightwing has taken the Cowl from Batman for a bit, and there was even a long arc where he and the Red Hood (former Robin 2) fought for the right to wear Batman’s suit. Need I go on?

I think I’ve made the point clear. That for every “major” change in the comic book universe, somehow we always find our way back to the old status quo. It’s not really good or bad, it’s just the way things work. The question is, what will become of this new Thor when her luster wears out?

Previous Thor Sub: Beta Ray Bill

                The writer for this new Thor character stated that she wouldn’t be something like a “She-Thor” or “Thorita,” which isn’t something we want these days. But I ask you, is Rhodey nothing more than Grey Iron-man? No, he has evolved into his own unique character with his own unique weapon set and skills. That is what they should strive for, a character that is interesting and unique enough that when the inevitable return of the Thunder God happens, we don’t want to see the new Thor go. She can be Storm-Caller or something.

                If you are saying “But Michael, how can she stick around if her powers are tied to Thor’s hammer?” Three words: Beta Ray Bill. I mentioned him above. He’s an alien champion who was shown to be the first being other than Thor to lift Mjolnir. Know what they did? They made him his own uru hammer, Stormbreaker, which gave him virtually the same powers and costume. So even magic heroes with a “one of a kind” item can have similar allies.

                It seems like an essential part of human nature, no matter what changes we find comfort in what is familiar. In the end we’ll always go back to the Unified X-men vs. the world. The Peter Parker pining after Miss M.J. Watson (She was Mrs. Parker for a while). And of course the same beloved heroes with their powers. I don’t want to belittle what is being done here. A Lady Thor? An African American Captain America? These are two great examples of how far our culture has come to have these two characters. I’m just saying, don’t treat this as an end all, game changer. This is an exciting new story for Sam Wilson, and an even more exciting first step for this She-Thor, but it’s just that, a phase. Hope these two are worthy of the titles they are being given.

A salute to the Original Captain. He's gonna take a break for a while.

 http://variety.com/2014/biz/news/marvel-introduces-first-female-thor-in-new-comicbook-series-1201262561/

 http://www.hitfix.com/news/marvel-reveals-the-new-captain-america-and-its-the-falcon

 http://batman.wikia.com/wiki/Jason_Todd

http://www.followingthenerd.com/ftn_news/comic-review-ftn-reviews-superior-spider-man-team-up-2/

 http://www.comicvine.com/images/1300-3205060

 http://www.comicvine.com/images/1300-3948389

Villain Profile: Brainiac

Here’s a Superman villain I hope they cover in movie form sometime in the near future. Brainiac, the evil bio-computer that often clashes with the Man of Steel. This Evil Cyborg is one of the few villains that can go toe to toe with Superman and walk away with barely a scratch. It takes a rare villain to actually add a term to the English language. Yep, the term brainiac didn’t exist until Brainiac the villain started fighting with Superman. Keep in mind the info I’ll be sharing is pre-New 52, so some of it might be outdated.

Do I look at the eyes or the purple brain plugs?

Believe it or not, Brainiac was born an organic life form. He was born Vril Dox on the planet Colu. He tried to use his immense intellect to overthrow his planets government. Things ended badly. Dox’s body was destroyed, but his consciousness remained intact. Because reasons. He traveled across the void in digital form and eventually traveled to Earth. He possessed a carnival mentalist, Milton Fine. Dox took complete control, taking on the name Brainiac. He clashed with Superman once or twice but was always overpowered. Fine’s body only lasted a short time, and after he started to break down, Brainiac sought newer more technologically advanced body.
          Later versions have Brainiac retooled, they keep the Colu origins, but skip over the Milton Fine stage. They depict him as a conquerer and collector of sorts, traveling around the universe, gathering knowledge. He gathers capitals of knowledge, storing them for his own personal use. His desire for knowledge puts him at odds with the Justice League. But, given his billions of worlds worth of knowledge, the resources of all the worlds he's destroyed, and a seemingly endless army of robot warriors, Brainiac has proven to be one of the most dangerous foes in the DC-verse. While Superman can take him on one-on-one, it usually takes the combined efforts of the Justice League to create the opening for the Man of Steel to take down his cybernetic foe.

So creepy.

Brainiac is an immensely intelligent organism. His intelligence is only limited by the technology of his body and environment, and his own imagination. Which is pretty limited at times. He's flown a lot of evil skull shaped ships. Try something new Brainiac! According to the DC-verse’s intelligence scale he’s a 12^th level intellect. To put that into context, the average intelligence of humans in the modern age is 6, and by the 31^st century it’s only level 9. To say he’s smart is something of an understatement. He combines his intellect with advanced weaponry and increasingly solid bodies.  He also has advanced telekinetic and telepathic powers. He can either rebuild or regenerate from most forms of damage, coming back even from being disintegrated.

Brainiac has appeared in a number of Superman and DC related franchises, mostly animated. He was primary antagonist in Superman: The Animated Series, where he was reimagined. In that version Brainiac was the computer intelligence that ran most of the day-to-day projects of Krypton. He intentionally misled the leaders of Krypton to believe everything is alright as the planet reached its final days. Brainiac rationalizes, as the center of cultural and scientific knowledge of Krypton, his survival was more important than the survival of the Kryptonian people. He escaped around the same time as young Kal-El. He spends the intervening years gathering knowledge and technology before assaulting Earth. Superman defeats him on a number of occasions but somehow Brainiac always finds a way back. When you think about it, this version is something of a foil for Superman. Where Clark Kent is a Kryptonian with none of the knowledge of his people, but has their heart and spirit, while Brainiac has all of the knowledge of Krypton but none of the heart or spirit. He's not one of those robots that gets a soul. Shocking, right? He's destroyed towards the end of the Justice League's original run along side the evil god Darkseid. He's later resurrected within Lex Luthor. Luthor actually convinces the evil robot to merge with him permanently, giving Brainiac ambition beyond gathering all the knowledge in the universe. Now Brain-i-Lex wants to do that and remake it in his own image. Brain-i-Lex is destroyed by the Flash, and afterwards Lex's ambition becomes to regain the power he had while he was part of Brainiac. He goes to some dark places.

More subtle, more dangerous.

He’s also the primary antagonist of Superman: Unbound, based on the storyline Superman: Brainiac. The film opens to the pretty graphic motifications Brainiac underwent as he was transformed from biological to bionic. They straight up pull out his eyes, gross. The basic plot, Brainiac is an advanced bio-computer bent on gathering all knowledge in the universe. The problem, knowledge isn’t static, it is constantly changing and evolving. The solution, Brainiac grabs the capital of knowledge on any given world, shrinks it down, puts it into his hall of planets, and then destroys the planet. The logical way, am I right? The citizens of the cities are made more or less immortal, and thus their knowledge remains forever. Superman is overpowered by Brainiac on his ship, but he’s finally able to beat the evil bot using the same method he used on Zod in Man of Steel. No, not neck snapping, Superman overloads his senses before breaking his face. This movie is also pretty awesome for having Lois Lane flipping Brainiac the double bird during his evil speech.

Brainiac has had only one live action appearance, in the 5^th season, and in several episodes in later seasons, of the TV show Smallville, played by James Marsters. In this version he’s once again a self-aware computer of Kryptonian origin, known as the Brain Interactive Construct. Get it? Unlike the animated version, thought, he has a plethora of Kryptonian powers like heat vision and super speed. Furthermore, he is immune to Kryptonite, being an android. Brainiac composition is a liquid metal this time round, giving him shapeshifting and weaponry similar to the T1000 in Terminator 2. He’s bent on freeing Zod from the Phantom Zone and destroying the young Superman. His plans vary from the simple, like destroying the Fortress of Solitude to free Zod, to the complex, manipulating the Doomsday monster to do the dirty work, to the insane, going back in time and killing baby Kal-El. How very Brainiac. Marsters’ is believably smart and just creepy enough to be an evil bot. He's also the most persistant of Superman's villains, appearing several times after the fifth season where he was the primary antagonist.
           Brainiac is the central antagonist of the video game DC Universe Online. In it, he's assaulting Earth with an immense mechanized army. A Luthor from the future brings back exobites, nanobot's Brainiac created to record data on individual superheroes' superpowers. To stop Brainiac's assault on Earth, Luthor releases the Exobites into Earth's atmosphere. The modified bots infect as many people as they can, granting them the superpowers of whomever was stored in their databanks. A decent explanation of how the player can make whatever hero or villain that they want to make. Brainiac, detecting his exobites, abducts everyone infected by them and puts them into cold storage. Unfortunately for him, the character breaks out, starting the tutorial level. It's a decent free-ish (main game is free, but expansions cost a few bucks) online game and I'd recommend it. If nothing else it's good way to shut down and just beat on baddies for a while.

Brainiac has been considered for a number of Superman movies, but has been discarded for other villains, mostly Lex Luthor or Zod.And I got to say that is really stupid. Don't give us the same baddy over and over again Hollywood, no matter how awesome they are. When you have guys like Brainiac here waiting in the wings, it just seems really unfair that Luthor keeps getting put up to bat.

I like Brainiac for being a rather unique villain. Usually you have the strong, or the smart, Brainiac is both. Despite being very machine like, his arrogance and hubris are usually the source of his downfall. Unusual for a computer. Usually you need to do a logic paradox to break its brain or something. Plus, his motivation, particularly the stealing cities before destroying planets, is such an unusual approach to knowledge gathering. What other evil being had thought of doing something like that? Not many. I hope to see him on a live action screen at some point in the future. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Bow and be destroyed.

 


 http://geek-news.mtv.com/2013/05/08/interview-john-noblebrainiac-superman-unbound/
 http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Vril_Dox_I_%28New_Earth%29
  http://www.guiadeseriados.com.br/2010/10/01/smallville-10%C2%AA-temporada-brainiac-e-clark/
 http://www.ilikewallpaper.net/ipad-air-wallpaper/brainiac-dc-comics/6008

Hero Profile: Jean Grey/Phoenix

Jean in her Phoenix gear, it looks
awesome.

Today is my niece’s birthday, and as such I thought I should do a special hero profile in her honor. The question was, which one? Well, my niece is one of a handful of people that affectionately call a Spitfire, that plus her bright red hair made the choice clear. So today I’ll cover one of the first X-men and first X-women, Jean Grey.

Jean was recruited by Charles when she was only eleven years old. She was an immensely powerful mutant even at a young age. She was so powerful that she was a danger to herself and others. Charles placed powerful psychic blocks to keep her powers in check until she was ready to handle her immense powers. She was a principle member of the X-men for many years and through many incarnations. While teammate, boyfriend, and later husband, Scott Summers was the official team leader Jean has shown to be a capable leader in her own right. Her most important story arc came in the form of the Phoenix Force. The cosmic entity bonded with Jean, transforming her into the Phoenix. Jean’s powers were forced to near Godlike power and also ultimately led to her death, and later resurrection.

Original costume. Never got the blue patch.

Jean is a unique mutant with two powers, telekinesis and telepathy. Other mutants have multiple powers as well, but Jean is the one that started the trend. Her telepathy was blocked off for a time by the blocks Xavier put in her mind. Jean is what is known as an Omega level mutant. Omega mutant’s powers vary, usually the Mutant has either an immense control of energy, matter, or the universe, and/or the ability to survive the destruction of their body. Jean is in this category because of her immense power over matter and energy, and to a lesser extent her ability to resurrect herself. These abilities were thrown into overdrive when she was bonded to the Phoenix. The Phoenix’s powers allowed Jean to tap into the sum of all life. In simpler terms, Jean draws power from all life that Could Be. With this near god-like power she was also given pyrokinetic abilities, and more importantly an ability to resurrect herself.

Jean has been a major character in most X-men related television and movies. I’d say that her best work is with the X-men show of the 90s. The Phoenix Saga is portrayed so well that the opening credits said it was inspired by the source material. The five part story arc covers every important aspect of the Phoenix storyline, but gives it a happier ending. I always appreciate happy endings. She’s also very important in X-men: Evolution, where she’s reimagined as a teenager at the Xavier Institute and Co-captain of the team alongside Scott. She is a bit quicker to anger than in other versions, but she’s a bit more fun too. The series ended before the Phoenix arc, but had it continued I’m sure it’d have been awesome. Finally, while she wasn’t a major character in the Wolverine and the X-men series, but she was the lynchpin of the entire first, and only, season. Her Phoenix power is what leads to the Days of Future Past style future where Sentinels rule most of North America. Stuff like that happens when people mess with power they don’t understand. Thanks Inner Circle of the “Heck” fire club. Jerks. I’ll get more into that when I cover the Dark Phoenix in a future Villain Profile.

Don't mind her, but the character
was such a let down.

The first two X-men movies did an excellent job portraying Jean and her growth from competent X-man to the immensely powerful Phoenix. Then the third movie flubbed it up. Downgrading the Phoenix Force from a cosmic entity to just a split personality? What the heck? That was just one of the problems with X-men: The Last Stand, but it was a sore spot for me. I hope Jean’s presents in the rebooted X-men timeline is better than her last major appearance. She was a minor character in The Wolverine, and while she was only a hallucination in Logan’s mind, it did do a good job showing the complex relationship between her, Wolverine, and Cyclops.
She's in just about every X-men game, as well as the larger Marvel Ultimate Alliance. Her telekinetic powers are what are highlighted, and her Phoenix power. Not too surprising, really, it'd be hard to show her shattering people's psyches. Fireballs and throwing things at peole is just so much easier to animated. She causes a lot of damage, shocking, right?

I like Jean because she’s one of the first great female heroes. She started out as the token female in an otherwise all male group, but she’s grown to be a great character in her own right. I’ve read some of the All New X-men, a new X-men title where the original team is brought forward in time by Beast in an attempt to bring Scott back from the brink of insanity. It didn’t go well, but afterwards, fearing that young Scott may go the same way that his present self, Jean assumed leadership over the team. She doesn’t take lip from anybody either. I hope future shows and movies will keep showing Jean, and the Phoenix, in all her glory. Happy Birthday Audrey!

Bet the power feels good.

http://www.comicvine.com/forums/gen-discussion-1/wonder-woman-vs-emma-frost-vs-power-girl-vs-jean-g-1454787/
 http://www.comicvine.com/forums/battles-7/jean-grey-vs-storm-vsiceman-vs-msmarvel-vs-human-t-564916/
 http://xmenmovies.wikia.com/wiki/Jean_Grey/Gallery
http://marvel.com/universe/Phoenix_%28Jean_Grey%29