Villain Profile: Kraven the Hunter

He's hunting the most dangerous game, Spider-Men.

I’ve never understood the appeal of trophy hunting. Oh yes, how amazing, you used a high-powered rifle, a machine designed to kill with the minimum amount of effort possible, to kill a lion, a creature that would rip you to pieces if you tried using virtually any other weapon against it. How impressive. <SARCASM> The one trophy hunter I sort of get is the subject of this next post, Kraven the Hunter. This crazy Russian royal hunts things like Lions, Tigers and Bears (oh my) and kills them with his bare hands. And his magically/chemically enhanced strength and reflexes… but mostly his bare hands! Let’s get to it.

Honestly, the only thing holding this look back from greatness
are the paw print spotted leggings.

Kraven was born Sergei Kravinoff, an immigrant from the Russian aristocracy. His father was a duke or whatever the equivalent was in Russian that fled their homeland during the February Revolution and the execution of Tsar Nicholas II. The life of a wealthy aristocrat being denied him, due to that pesky communist revolt, Sergei spent his early life traveling around the world, working as a mercenary. While in Kenya, he got a taste for hunting. Not too shocking, given how rich folks seem to love it. What was unusual was that Sergei quickly grew bored with killing animals with guns or even bows, switching to knives and later his bare hands and teeth. His ability to hunt was then increased by taking an herbal potion from a voodoo witch doctor named Calypso (whom he was also romantically involved with for a time). Her potion gave Sergei strength, speed and senses on par with a big cat. It also made him live longer, which is a special bonus. With these incredible powers, he mostly just hunted animals in a manner similar to our early simian ancestors. Hey, they’re his superpowers, he can use them how he wants.

Over the years, even hunting Lions, Tigers, and Bears (oh my) with his bare hands started to bore him. Huh, guess he has something in common with Atticus Finch. … Read To Kill a Mockingbird if that reference is over your head. His boredom ended thanks in part to Dimitri Smerdyakov. Oh, don’t recognize that name? It’s the real name of the Chameleon, the master of disguise enemy of Spider-Man, and Sergei’s own half-brother. Dimitri needed some back up taking care of this pesky neighborhood Spider-Man. Getting the chance to not only hunt the most dangerous game, but the equivalent of an apex predator filled Sergei with a rush he’d never felt before. Sergei, just ask Zaroff how hunting something smarter than a big cat can and will bite you in the ass. What? If you don’t get it, read the Most Dangerous Game, it’s on the public domain now. I’m just pulling classic literature references out left and right today.

The brothers faced off against Spider-Man in Central Park, which the Chameleon disguised as Sergei to disorientate Spider-Man and allow the superior hunter to ambush Spider-Man. Despite the two of them working together and using a poison dart to weaken Spider-Man, the Web Head was able to defeat them both and see them arrested. While this first encounter infuriated Sergei, it formed an obsession in him, and he swore to never stop the hunt until he finally killed Spider-Man. Random thought, but it seems amazing to me that the expert hunter and tracker has never thought to try and follow Spider-Man to his home and attack him when he’s asleep or something. Don’t give me that look, Sergei might want a “fair” fight with Spider-Man, but the dudes not above grabbing someone in their sleep to force a confrontation.

I think Sergei Kravenoff and Gaston have the same interrior
decorator.

He was one of the founding members of the Sinister Six, joining Doc Ock’s little cabal in an attempt to kill Spider-Man. While the group in concept was smart, the execution of their plan was somewhat moronic. What? You get six of Spider-Man’s most dangerous enemies together, and you fight him one at a time? The only one that could possibly benefit is Doc Ock, who obviously would attack last, so he got to fight an exhausted Spider-Man. Anyway, Sergei attacked Spider-Man in Central Park with a trio of tigers while the hero frantically searched for his kidnapped Aunt May, and Betty Brant. Betty being Gwen Stacey/Mary Jane Watson before either character was introduced. Spider-Man over powered Kraven and his big cats, forcing the villain to give him his clue to the ladies’ location.

Kraven battled Spider-Man several times over the years, but was routinely defeated. Sergei began to grow frustrated as the years wore on, knowing that despite his potion keeping him younger and fitter than he should be, he was still slowing down due to his advancing age. Sure, fifty is still pretty young (relatively speaking), but I doubt there’d be a fifty-year-old in history that could wrestle Lions, Tigers, and Bears (oh my). He decided to perform one final hunt to defeat Spider-Man. He used a poison dart on Spider-Man, knocking him out and putting him in a coma. He then buried Spider-Man on his estate. After that, he donned a fake Spider-Man costume and impersonated him. In his Spider-Guise, he hunted down a mutant villain called Vermin, an enemy that Spider-Man had never been able to beat on his own. Spidey needed Cap’s assist to stop him before. Kraven captured Vermin and put him in a cage. Spider-Man emerged from his grave about two weeks later. Kraven told Spider-Man why he’d done all of this, released Vermin and bit Spider-Man farewell. Peter went after Vermin, and Sergei recorded a full confession of all of his crimes and then committed suicide.

This wasn’t the end of Kraven, obviously. He was actually resurrected by a dark ritual performed by his wife and children. Somehow, though, their ritual had a weird side effect that made Sergei unkillable, except by the hands of Spider-Man. So, while he might have let go of his grudge in death, it returned with vengeance in his new life. He’s continued to menace Spider-Man to this day.

Other than having me question if a laser spearhead is in anyway
better than a metal one, this is probably his best look thus far.

Kraven the Hunter is a skilled hunter and fierce hand to hand combatant. He’s on par with an Olympic athlete in terms of strength, speed, and dexterity even without enhancement. He also has a working knowledge of pressure points, using precise strikes to nerves to great effect. His own skill and power are improved by his potion, pushing his physical strength, speed, and senses to Wolverine levels. He’s also more durable than average, and can rapidly heal from most injuries. Not on a healing factor level, but much faster than normal. The potion has also greatly slowed his age, while he’s chronologically (in universe) in his fifties physically speaking he’s closer to his mid-thirties. He also has an almost encyclopedic knowledge of poisons and tranquilizers, which he uses to enhance his fighting prowess.

Kraven has appeared in several Spider-Man series outside of the comics. While certain aspects of him are tweaked from incarnation to incarnation, all versions retain his obsession with killing Spider-Man as he views the Wall-Crawler as his ultimate prey. Personally, I’m shocked he never decided to try hunting Black Panther full time, just sayin’.

He’s a recurring antagonist in Spider-Man: The Animated Series. He’s introduced in “Kraven the Hunter.” In this episode, Peter is going to interview a scientist named Mariah Crawford, only to find her at her office being attacked by a crazy man in a lion vest. After scaring the wild man off as his alter ego, Crawford explained to Spider-Man that was Sergei Kravinoff, her ex-lover. He’d been seriously injured protecting her from hyenas. To save his life, she used a “wonder drug” given to her by a colleague. It healed his wounds, and gave him superpowers but sort of drove him insane. Or more accurately turned his mind into something more similar to a predatory beast. Mariah came to America to create a cure for him. With Peter running interference on her unstable ex, Mariah was able to develop a serum that restored Kraven’s mind. They returned to Africa together. He returns in “Duel of Hunters.” In it, Spider-Man’s mutation had gone into overdrive, turning him into the horrid Man-Spider. Dr. Crawford returned to cure Spider-Man, as she owed him at least that much, and force Kraven to help. Kraven was able to Track down Man-Spider, but was sidetracked by an attack by the Punisher, whom had also been hunting Man-Spider. They team up and are able to subdue Spider-Man long enough to return him to normal. He returned one final time in “The Return of Kraven.” In it, Mariah had turned into a horrid monster after Kraven gave her the miracle drug to cure her of a plague. He and Spider-Man are able to restore Mariah’s mind, and the two depart together. This is easily the happiest story to involve Kraven, EVER.

Kraven the Hunter appeared in the second season of Spectacular Spider-Man. He’s introduce in “Destructive Testing” as a famous hunter that had come to New York to battle Spider-Man. Spidey is challenged by Sergei’s hand to hand fighting skills, but he’s able to disable his opponent. Sergei, unwilling to believe that he truly lost, believes that Spider-Man only won because of his powers. He enlisted the help of Professor Miles Warren, whom used a formula based on Curt Connors Lizard Formula to turn Sergei Kravenoff into a monstrous cat creature with a black lion’s mane. Changing his name to Kraven the Hunter, he battles Spider-Man again. He overpowers and outraces Spider-Man throughout their fight, but is stopped by Peter’s webbing. He returns in “Reinforcements,” as a member of the new Sinister Six.

The one version to have a happy ending. Well... happy enough.

A retooled version appears in the Ultimate Spider-Man series. This version, unlike other, uses high-tech old school tools. Think laser-knives, and energy shields instead of his hands, or more mundane knives and shields. He’s also more of Spider-Man’s ally White Tiger’s enemy in his initial appearance, as he had killed her father years before to steal their family amulet and get white tiger powers. He uses a magic drum to drive White Tiger into a fury, in an attempt to kill her while she’s enraged. She and Spider-Man are able to take him down. He returns in “Return of the Sinister Six,” “The Savage Spider-Man” “Contest of Champions” “Hydra Attacks” “Double Agent Venom” “The New Sinister Six” and “Graduation Day.” It should be note that his desire to kill and steal White Tiger’s powers is dropped after that first episode, as White Tiger and the rest of Spider-Man’s initial team are largely dropped in favor of an all Spider-Man themed team in later seasons. They had this same issue with their version of Scorpion, whom was reworked into a rival/enemy of Iron Fist, only to have the character seemingly drop a decades long grudge after only an encounter or two with Spider-Man. Weird.

They’ve tried to put Kraven into several movies, but production issues seem to be Kraven’s greatest enemy. There were plans to have him appear in the Amazing Spider-Man spin off The Sinister Six, and the third film, but those plans were shelved when the series was cancelled. His name is referenced in the new Morbius trailer, in the form of Kraven Pastries and the Kraven National Ballet. He’s got a film upcoming in Sony’s Spider-Verse movies, and has been hinted at possibly appearing in the third MCU Spider-Man film.

Like Rhino, Scorpion, Lizard and Mysterio, he has appeared in nearly every Spider-Man game in one form or another.

Kraven the Hunter is a fun Spider-Man villain. He’s strong, fast, and another of Spider-Man’s visually distinctive enemies. Say what you like about early Spider-Man comics, (the writing hasn’t aged well), but Steven Ditko was a master at making visually amazing characters. Kraven also gets points for being one of Spider-Man’s more honorable foes. Sure, he will repeatedly pick fights with someone that has zero interest in fighting him, but when Sergei promises, say, to release all of his captives if beaten, you never have to worry about him pulling a double cross. And, like I said at the beginning, I kind of get his style of hunting. Instead of using the largely “auto win” button of a gun, he truly pits his strength against that of his prey. If I could wrestle a Lion and kill it, you bet I’d display it in my living room. Though I would never do that, as I am an animal lover and largely pacifistic. Just sayin’. I do hope that Kraven get’s his film soon, especially since he makes significantly more sense to me as a star of a movie than Michael Morbius, just sayin. What? Just pit Kraven off against some fellow hunter or big corporate type like Osborn or Kingpin, boom, done, likeable anti-hero/villain story. And that's all I have to say about that. Have a good night, everybody.

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Anti-Hero Profile: Morbius the Living Vampire

Starting the new year off with a blood sucking monster. Huh, in retrospect, I don't think I'm doing this right.

So, Sony, I guess, is still attempting to make its own separate and yet loosely connected Spider-Man Cinematic Universe work. Things are getting a little weird. As seen in the new Morbius trailer, we can see images of the MCU Spider-Man with the word MURDERER graffitied over it, and I guess that Michael Keaton’s Vulture is going to have some role to play in the film? And yet, when the next solo Spider-Man movie comes out, I bet there will be no reference to any of this. Ugh, this is going to be a consistent headache for me moving onward, isn’t it?  Anyway, since the trailer just dropped, lets talk about Michael Morbius the Living Vampire. I’m going to refer to him as Morbius throughout, as writing my own first name over and over again feels weird. Let’s get to it.

Bleh bleh bleh, he's come to suck your blood.

Dr. Michael Morbius was born in Greece, where he spent much of his youth in relative isolation. He suffered from a rare blood disease that caused him to be physically frail, as well as unpleasant to look at. That’s just a low blow, universe, not cool. His condition motivated Morbius to become a biologist, he even earned a Nobel Peace Prize in biochemistry for his work on blood disorders. He eventually found a treatment for his own affliction which involved vampire bats and electroshock therapy. That’s all I can find on the subject, which is mildly disturbing.  The treatment did cure Morbius of his particular disorder, but had the unforeseen side effects of turning himself into a pseudo-vampire. I say pseudo because, while he has all of the typical powers of the undead (superstrength, speed, flight, rapid regeneration, and liquid diet) since he wasn’t killed and resurrected, he doesn’t have the same weakness to articles of faith and his heart still beats. And, while he transfers his disease to anyone he feeds upon, since they’re technically still alive his victims can be cured and returned to a pure human state. Something that Morbius cannot do due to being the progenerator. So, he has most of the positives without all of the negatives. Oh, and he does now need to drink blood to survive. Feels like he just exchanged one blood problem for another, if I’m being honest.

Morbius eventually traveled to New York, devouring the crew of the ship he’d traveled in, in an attempt to find a cure for his semi-vampirism. While there, he was discovered by Spider-Man, whom had tracked down the gifted biochemist looking for help with his own recent mutation, growing four extra set of arms. Morbius, hungry for blood, attacked Spider-Man, but their one-on-one brawl was interrupted by the Lizard who was also out to kill Spider-Man. He bites the Lizard before escaping. Much to both Spider-Man and the Lizard’s shock, Morbius’ bite seemed to have partially reverted him back to his human form. The two quickly theorize that something in Morbius’ blood must work as an antidote to genetic mutation. They decide to work together to track down Morbius and get enough of his blood to formulate cures for themselves. They’re able to track him down rather easily, and are able to beat him up and take enough of his blood to turn the Lizard back into Connors and remove Spider-Man’s extra arms. Whoo.

Morbius, tossed into the Hudson River during their fight, was eventually washed ashore and after snacking on two people, once again went on the hunt to find a cure. He set his sights on a former colleague of his, Dr. Hans Jorgenson and tries to kidnap him to force the doctor to help him. While this was going on, his fiancé, Martine Bancroft, had made it to the US from Greece and had contacted the Fantastic Four to find and help cure him. Johnny is the only one of the four who decides to look into it, he and Spider-Man team up and save Jorgenson, forcing Morbius back once more. He escapes, briefly, but is ultimately defeated by Spider-Man once he gets backup from the X-Men. Charles new Jorgenson too and sent his team to save him.

You know, you have to be really trying to dress sillier than the
guy in bright red and blue spandex. Just sayin'.

Since his introduction, Michael Morbius has constantly bounced back and forth between Villain and Anti-Hero. His alignment seems to rely heavily on how desperate he is for a cure, and what new method is available to him to restore himself to his human form. He’s worked for the Legion of Monsters, a group of Marvel Anti-heroes that all have some monstrous Origin, and whom kill monsters that go berserk. He has also teamed up with Blade and Ghost Rider on a few of their missions battling more usual Vampires and minions of Hell as they crop up. There are also instances of him losing control of his vampiric hunger and going on rampages, those of which are usually stopped by Spider-Man, Blade, Ghost Rider or whomever is in range to handle a Scourge of Vampires. He did receive a longer-term cure which came in the form of being struck by lightning during a fight with Spider-Man. Huh, guess Thor must have owed Peter one. He was human for several years and became a support character for several Marvel heroes before returning to his Vampire form once more.

Dr. Michael Morbius was once just a gifted scientist in the field of Biochemistry. After attempting to cure himself of his rare blood condition with an untested treatment that involved Vampire Bats and electroshock treatment, he became a Living Vampire. This comes with several Vampiric powers, including Super strength, speed, agility, stamina, reflexes and senses. He has an above average healing factor that causes him to rapidly recover from wounds. He also has unusually sharp teeth and claws which he uses quite effectively. He can also use his minor mental powers to cause himself to glide short distances. He has an unquenchable thirst for human blood, and spreads his condition to his victims. But, since they are still technically alive, his vampiric spawn can be cured.

As he’s a vampire created by science, not magic, he’s immune to most of their usual weaknesses. Silver doesn’t burn him, holy symbols don’t weaken him, a steak through the heart won’t kill him, and he’s only mildly annoyed by direct sunlight. So, while being a Vampire in general kind of sucks, at least he’s got some fringe benefits.

Michael Morbius has only appeared a handful of times outside of the comics, and usually in a villainous role.

Does it get more 90s than blue hair, a black duster,
and one of those stupid chin goatees?

He was a recurring antagonist in the 90’s Spider-Man: The Animated Series. He’s introduced at the start of season two “The Insidious Six” in his human form. At first, he just seems like a vaguely European exchange student that is battling Peter for the affection of Felicia Hardy. Peter and Mary Jane weren’t exclusive at the time, so he’s not cheating, FYI. He doesn’t shift into full monster form until the sixth episode “Morbius.” In it, he steals a sample of Spider-Man’s blood to use in an experiment. Peter had been suffering from sporadic power loss and had been shopping around ESU for a cure, FYI. During his experiment, a Bat flies in, gets some of the blood and then bites Morbius, turning him into a Vampire. He’s a recurring villain for the rest of the season, appearing in “Enter The Punisher,” “Blade, The Vampire Hunter,” and “The Immortal Vampire.” Yes, Spider-Man does work with Blade to hunt a Vampire, and it’s as cool a concept as 90s censors would allow. At the end of his first run, Morbius is turned into a much more monstrous Vampire bat form and flies off to live in seclusion. It closes on a very sad scene of him wrapping himself up in his massive wings and thinking that he’ll always remember the kiss he shared with Felicia in the bell tower. He returns to normal… well, his more human vampire form, in the fourth season “The Awakening” when Mutant hating scientist Herbert Landon kidnapped him to study his condition. Spider-Man swings in to stop what Landon and his boss the Kingpin were working on, and Morbius escapes in during the battle. He makes one more appearance in “The Vampire Queen” where he’s used by Miriam the Vampire Queen, Blade’s mother, as one of her minions and unwillingly gives her the idea to use the Neogenic Recombinator (the device that transformed Morbius) to make more Vampires. He’s eventually freed and starts working with Blade to hunt Vampires.

It should be noted that censorship at the time was very weird and Fox made several changes to Michael Morbius to make him more “kid friendly” or so they seem to think. Is it moronic to try and make a Vampire, a creature that subsists on the blood of humans, kid friendly? Yes. But here we are. While Morbius does have his usual massive fangs, in this version he drains his victims from these gnarly looking suckers on the palms of his hands. That feels more starfish than Bat, if I’m being honest. And, while they do confirm that he feeds on people, what he’s drinking is never referred to as blood. Instead they claim he drains “plasma.” Which is in blood, so I don’t see why they need to change it. But then, these are the same people that changed the Sinister Six into the Insidious Six, for no reason I can think of since both words are about the same level of not nice.

I'm starting to think Jared Leto likes playing unnaturally pale
skinned monsters.

He appears in Ultimate Spider-Man in the fourth season. He’s a HYDRA scientist attempting to create a new, improved Venom Symbiote. Spider-Man, Agent Venom, and Harry Osborn in his Iron Man style Patrioteer armor track them down, but the three teen heroes are surprised by the release of the new Anti-Venom. The suit possesses Harry, and drives him into a berserker’s fury. In the resulting Battle Morbius Escapes, Agent Venom is injured and Harry is put into a coma. Morbius returns in the three parter Symbiote Saga. In the first episode he steals another sample of the Venom symbiote and tries to force a restrained Doc Ock to help him experiment with it. In the fighting that results when Spider-Man and Agent Venom track him down, Octavious breaks free and injects Morbius with one of his animal DNA serums, turning him into Morbius the Living Vampire. He help the bad guys prepare to launch the upgraded Carnage symbiote across the world in part three before being captured.

Michael Morbius, as mentioned above will be receiving his own Sony film this July. It will star Jared Leto as Michael Morbius, and from the trailer looks like it’ll hit most of the usual plot beats. Meaning that he’s a biochemist attempting to cure his rare blood disorder but accidentally turns him into a creature of the night.

Okay, so, I’m not completely certain how Morbius got his own film. As far as villains and Anti-Heroes go, he’s always been pretty “meh” to me. Maybe the new film will turn me around on him, but he comes across as kind of generic. He’s the Lizard if Connors experimented with Bats instead of Lizards. Or any number of other scientists that experiment on themselves and become a monster. The fact he’s a not-totally-a-vampire thing is kind of cool, but I don’t think it’s enough to carry a film. And his somewhat limited filmography seems to suggest that show and movie execs agree with me that he’s far enough down on Peter’s rogue’s gallery list that he doesn’t get used much. Then again, I’m someone that isn’t super impressed by Vampires as a concept, so maybe this is just one of those concepts that’s lost on me, like understanding the fine sport of Football, or the idea that the Snyder’s cut of Justice League would somehow be better than the theatrical release. At the moment, I’m less curious about how the new movie will turn out on its own, and more of how it’ll incorporate the other Sony-centric Marvel films and how Tom Holland’s Spider-Man will fit into it. We live in uncertain times, so it seems. And since I’m talking about Sony’s properties already, I suppose I should finally sit down and watch Venom. I hope I like Tom Hardy in it. 

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Anti-Hero Profile: Toxin (Patrick Mulligan)

One of Spider-Man’s most dangerous foes is Venom, the alien symbiote that he brought back from Battleworld. The hate filled pile of living black ooze has been a constant threat to both Spider-Man and Peter Parker since their ‘falling out’ back in the 1980s. But, another serious danger lies in the offspring of Venom. The Venom Symbiote has given birth asexually several times over the years, his most famous spawn being Carnage, but there are a few others like Scream, as well as Phage, Lasher, Riot and Agony, better known collectively as Hybrid, Mania, and, technically, Anti-Venom. I mean, calling Anti-Venom his “son” is easier then calling him a mutated clone or whatever the heck he was. Carnage has also budded a few times, the one we’re going to focus on is his first son, Toxin. Let’s get to it.

Imagine seeing this thing coming at you in
the dead of night.

  Toxin’s first day was violent, to say the least. His “parent” Carnage had realized he was pregnant and was trying feverously to find a way to stop the birthing. Why? For one, Carnage is completely disgusted by the thought of reproducing. And for another, Carnage feared that, as he is obviously more powerful than his sire, that his spawn would be stronger still and thus a threat to his existence. Venom, on the other hand, also sensed Carnage’s pregnancy and was trying to stop Carnage for destroying his grandson. Venom’s logic being that the future symbiote would be a potential ally, and thus worth saving. Also, since the new symbiote would be the 10000 of their line, chances of psychosis and extreme violence were pretty high, so it’s in everyone’s best interest that Venom look after things. Looking at his extended family, listed above, I can safely say that this creature had no chance of being ‘normal.’ Venom and Carnage battled across New York City, Carnage eventually losing his father by knocking him into the East River, gross, and buries himself in an attempt to stop the birthing. This resulted in an explosion.

Said explosion brought police attention, specifically Officer Patrick Mulligan. What he found was a mostly exposed Cletus Kasady, the Carnage Symbiote having expended most of its body and energy in attempting to stop the birth, and then the birth itself. Weakened to the extreme, Carnage decided to implant his son in the unwitting police officer, so he can come back and kill it later once he’d recovered a little. Around the same time, notorious cat burglar Black Cat stole some new age painting during the whole symbiote hullaballoo.

Not realizing that he’d been infected with an alien parasite, Patrick returned home to his pregnant wife. They start playfully arguing about what their son’s name and profession will be, but are interrupted by Venom crashing into their apartment. He had sensed his grandson’s location and came to protect it. Venom gets kind of creepily close to the Mulligans, wanting to know what it’s like to actually give a darn about one’s offspring, but is also interrupted by someone. Spider-Man. The Web-Head was able to track the hulking black monster thanks to the trail of dingy East River water Venom left. Venom and Spider-Man duke it out while the Mulligans high-tail it out of there. Venom explains the whole Carnage Pregnancy thing, just in time for Carnage to show up. The red menace chucks Pat’s wife off of the stairs and takes Pat out of the building to disembowel him. For some reason. Villains, they always like wasting time. Thankfully, Gina Mulligan was saved from going splat by Spider-Man, who then had to rush Gina to a hospital. Apparently near death experiences can induce labor. Who knew?

He has his father's eyes.
And fangs. And claws.

Because Carnage is the sort of psycho that likes to play with his food, he delays killing Pat, and chase him around a rooftop. It might have been slightly cathartic for Pat, if Carnage wasn’t trying to skewer him. Carnage and Pat cause enough of a ruckus to get the attention of Black Cat. She’d been a building over selling her stolen goods and rushed over to save Pat. Good kitty. And while the shadowy feline-themed burglar would have been ripped to shreds by Carnage, Venom shows up just in time to discipline his son. During their wrestling match, Venom reveals that he decided to name the new symbiote Toxin, as a tribute to himself. Vain goo monster, isn’t he? He throws Carnage under a train, and Pat escapes. He meets his wife and new born son, Edward, at the hospital. Venom and Spider-Man spend the next few days watching over the Mulligans, independent of each other, as Toxin… incubates.

Once he gets back on the job, Pat gets a lead on the art thief from a few days ago and tracks down Black Cat. He tries to arrest her, and she resists. Despite her strength and feline agility, Pat shows off some inhuman speed and strength as well. He’s just about to cuff Black Cat when Carnage, as Cletus Kasady, busts down the door. Kasady symbiotes up to kill them all, but unfortunately for him, his son decided to make his first appearance. Pat is engulfed by the new symbiote, becoming Toxin. Toxin trounces Carnage, and hurls him across the city. He and Black Cat come to an agreement, he doesn’t implicate her in the art theft, and she doesn’t spread that he has a black and red goo monster living inside him.

A few days later, the Mulligans move to a new apartment and have something of a housewarming/christening party. Pat feels uneasy, but a visit from his father inspires him to do something about Toxin’s father. Using Toxin’s unnatural tracking ability, he found Cletus’ apartment. Unfortunately, Carnage detects Toxin too, so they’re forced into another brawl. Toxin proves stronger, but, despite his earlier impulses, can’t bring himself to kill Carnage. He runs off.

After seeing that Toxin may prove too… noble for his purposes, Venom decides it’s best to go with Carnage’s plan. Father and son form a temporary alliance to kill the next generation. The next day, Toxin stops a bank robbery, but Pat starts losing control of the alien. He threatens to drink their brains, but regains enough control to just arrest them. Spider-Man lowers himself from the ceiling and congratulates the fledgling superhero. A few days later, Pat meets Black Cat at a funeral. The dude she was selling the stolen painting to had died during the Carnage confrontation. The funeral is interrupted by Venom and Carnage.

Think he feels it, crawling
under his skin?

Venom laments how his plans for Toxin were all for naught, before the fight starts. Spider-Man, across town, senses the trouble and starts swinging at high speed. Now, Toxin is stronger than either of his forebears, but the two combined quickly overwhelm him. Black Cat is able to distract Venom and Carnage long enough for Spider-Man to arrive. He and Toxin are able to fight off the other symbiotes. After the fight, Pat realizes that it’ll be impossible to balance his home life, with his wife and son, with the life of being a symbiote host. He quits his job, walks out on his family, and resolves to be the kind of thing that monsters fear. Pat goes on a few adventures, battling some minor Marvel villains like King Cobra. After some time, he and the symbiote reach an understanding. For 22 hours of the day, Pat is in charge, he can use the suit however he likes. But, for 2 hours each night, he has to let Toxin out for his own “play time.” But, Toxin isn’t allowed to commit grand theft, arson or murder. Twist his… tendrils why don’t you? Pat is unfortunately brutally killed by Blackheart, the demon son of Mephisto during the Civil War. The Toxin symbiote is taken, and put into storage for a new host.

Like Carnage and Venom before him, Toxin has many abilities that were copied from Spider-Man. The ability to cling to walls, super-strength, and the overall design of his form are all lifted from Spider-Man. He’s immune to Spider-Man’s spider-sense, and can track just about anything if he’s got a sample of it. While Pat is calm and in control, he looks like a red-and-black version of Spider-Man. But, if he gets anger enough he’ll morph, adding a lot of muscle mass and getting the family grin. Like Carnage, he can morph parts of his body into weaponry. Mostly spears. Toxin is the strongest Symbiote to date, but has some quirks. Unlike his father, grandfather, and siblings, he doesn’t try to control his host or bond with Pat to the extreme degree. Where Venom is “We,” Carnage is “I.” Pat and Toxin are “him and me,” essentially. Toxin is also very childlike in his thought process, prone to temper tantrums and such.

To date, Toxin hasn’t been used outside the comics. But who knows when that will change.

I like Toxin, and Pat. I had a general knowledge about both of them before writing this post, but have only just recently read their story in the Venom vs. Carnage mini-series. For the first time, since Spider-Man, we see what happens when a decent human being is bonded to an alien organism that feeds on aggression. Every time he uses Toxin, it seems like he’s worried he’s losing a bit of himself. There is a very good moment at the close of the V vs C mini-series, where Pat is looking after his son, when “something” from his earlier fight with Venom and Carnage drops on the baby. It’s an innocuous object, mostly, but it really shakes up Pat, and is what makes him resolve to cut himself off from Gina and Edward, to protect them from his new other life. It’s a simple moment, but understandable. In his stories that follow, you get to appreciate his loss, and how difficult it must be, being bonded to something that is slowly driving him insane. Not pretty. He’s the savage alien, the strongest symbiote, the terrible Toxin. Next time, one last Spider-Man thing. Let’s talk about his original movie, 2002s Spider-Man. 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/36/TOXIN3.jpg

http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/marveldatabase/images/9/90/Venom_Vs._Carnage_Vol_1_4_Textless.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20051026192734
http://i.annihil.us/u/prod/marvel//universe3zx/images/6/64/Toxin_inline.jpg

Hero Profile: Cable

There’s that old cliché that heroes aren’t born, they’re made. Now, on the metaphysical level, that is very true. You can be born with unique skills, talents, or abilities, but it’s only through experience that once learns to use those skills for the betterment of others. But, I wonder how that cliché fits in with a character that was literally made for a “heroic” purpose. Well, semi-heroic. Mr. Sinister was involved, that decreases overall heroism by a good percentage. Let’s get to it.

Wait wait wait wait wait.

What is it Deadpool?

Cable is going to mess some people up.

Nothing, just want to get comfortable. Popcorn, check. Comfy chair, check. Bertha the Shotgun, check.

Why do you need a shotgun?

Because I expect to enjoy myself. But if not, I wish to quickly show you my displeasure. Nobody misrepresents my bestie.

You refer to Cable as your bestie?

I refer to him by all sorts of names that he hates. It’s a hobby.

Okay… Well, let’s get to it.

As stated above, Cable’s origins can be traced back to Mr. Sinister. The centuries old geneticist was obsessed with creating the perfect mutant, one that could even challenge his master Apocalypse. And, he believed that said super-mutant would be the offspring of Scott Summers and Jean Grey. The problem? Jean had recently died, do that fiasco with the Phoenix. Not one to be deterred, Sinister found an alternative solution. Using genetic samples that he’d acquired from Jean some time ago, Sinister created a clone of Jean. He named her Madelyn Pryor, gave her a backstory and set up her meeting with Scott. The two hit it off, quickly marry, and have a son. They name him Nathan Christopher Charles Summers.

Things were complicated by the return of the actual Jean Grey, and Madelyn being corrupted by demonic forces. It’s a comic, these sort of things tend to happen. Her masters forced her tried to try and sacrifice Nathan to open a portal into his dimension of Limbo. Cyclops, his new team X-Factor, and his old team the X-Men, stopped it. After that, it looked like Sinister’s plans were back on track.

And then Apocalypse found out about Nathan. Believe it or not, but immensely powerful, despotic immortal Mutants don’t take kindly to minions plotting their downfall. He kidnapped the infant, and infected him with a techno-organic virus. Said virus would spread throughout Nathan’s body, transforming his cells into a bizarre living machinery, and would quickly kill him. X-Factor saved Nathan, but there wasn’t much they could do to help Nathan. Now.

Thankfully, hope came in the form of a time traveling sisterhood called the Clan Askani. They’d been fighting Apocalypse in an alternate timeline, and believed that the son of Scott and Jean would be key in defeating their version of Apocalypse. As much as it broke Scott and Jean’s hearts, they handed their son over to the head of the Clan, Mother Askani, and she transported him to her timeline. Now, while they had methods to slow the virus, there wasn’t a guaranteed cure in their future. Mother Askani just said that to get her hands on the baby. She cloned Nathan from his uninfected cells, making a perfect Nathan clone free of infection. But then Apocalypse attacked, stole the clone, and planned to raise Nathan 2.0 as his minion. Named him Stryfe. How subtle.

My best friend, my best friend
My. Best. Friend. And me!

Being somewhat stuck with infected Nathan, they had to make the best of it. In order to help with Nathan’s development, she nabbed the psyches of Scott and Jean, jammed them in two people of her era, so they could raise their son. Unusual, but hey, it works. They were able to teach Nathan how to use his powers to fight the virus back, which limited his immense power, but did keep him alive. As a teenager, Nathan had his superpowered smack down with Apocalypse, and came out the victor. There was much rejoicing. Unfortunately, Stryfe survived and did his best to assume his surrogate father’s place as the supreme Mutant. Nathan and Stryfe battled many times, which ultimately claimed the lives of many of Nathan’s Askani’s clansmen and his son Tyler. Realizing that Nathan was out for blood, Stryfe attempted to feel to the past. Nathan followed. He met Moira MacTaggert, who taught him English and some modern era customs. He also met Charles Xavier, who helped him adapt further to 20^th century Earth. Nathan took up the codename Cable, a metaphor about how he was the link between past and future. Nintendo might have grounds to sue.

Over the years he’s lead a number of different X-Men style teams, like Six Pack, and a new incarnation of X-Factor. He also formed the most unlikely of friendships with…

ME! Yeah, me and ol’ Cable are two peas in a pod. We get along like Peas and Carrots. We’ve traveled across eras, fighting the good fight, and protect Mutants across time and space. He’s the joke, I’m the punchline. We’re like Abbott and Costello, David Spade and Chris Farley, Optimus Prime and Bumblebee.

He barely tolerates you, doesn’t he?

60% of the time. 40% of the time, we’re besties.

More recently, he helped raise the new Mutant Messiah, the first Mutant baby born after Scarlet Witch depowered 90% of Mutants on earth. He raised the baby, Hope, in the far future. All the while evading another time traveling Mutant, and former friend of his, Bishop. They had an Iron-Man/Captain America style falling out over the whole “should the Mutant race be saved?” question. Life is sure complicated for a guy who uses time travel regularly.

Cable is one of the most powerful Mutants ever born. He has telekinetic and telepathic powers that surpass even his mother, Jean Grey. These immense powers are somewhat limited as he has to focus a good percentage of his mental focus to keep the techno-organic virus from consuming his body. Despite limits being placed on his power, he’s been shown to be strong enough to lift an entire city with telekinesis while battling the Silver Surfer. Neither task alone is easy by any stretch of the imagination. He’s an expert hand to hand fighter. To put it into perspective, he’s fought Captain America hand to hand, and won. That’s really hard to do.  There are also a few benefits to his infection. The techo-organic virus gives him the ability to interface with machines, his infected arm has superstrength, and his infect left eye can see into the infrared spectrum and see great distances. He’s also a master of firearms, specifically the advanced blasters of his era. He shoots with extreme prejudice.

Cable has had limited appearances outside the comics. It’s hard to get to him with all the other X-Men stuff to go through.

Pretty messed up when your worst enemy is pretty much
yourself.

His biggest appearance was in X-Men: The Animated Series. He appears in several episodes, usually hounding his sworn enemy, Apocalypse. They never expressly stated that he’s the son of Scott and Jean, but it’s implied after Jean reads his mind and says that he’s “Important” to her and Scott. One of the odder episodes was a two-parter “Time Fugitives.” In it, the time traveling Mutant Bishop traveled back in time to stop a plague that Apocalypse engineered. Said plague nearly wipes out the human race, which helps lead to the Sentinel controlled future Bishop is from. In the farther future, things start unraveling for Cable. Apparently, while that virus was deadly, it is instrumental in stabilizing the Mutant Genome, allowing Cable’s future to occur. When his super computer informed him of this, Cable angrily remarks “I have to help Apocalypse? I hate Apocalypse.” Cable finds an option b, he throws Wolverine into the virus containment thing. Wolverine gets infected, but instantly creates anti-bodies to it, stopping the rampant death. High fives all around. He seen again in “Beyond Good and Evil,” in it, he nearly defeats Apocalypse, but the super mutant steals Cable’s time traveling device, and exits the timeline. Apocalypse creates an elaborate plan to destroy all of time and remake it in his image. Cable teams up with mom and pop, and the X-Men stop Apocalypse. Hooray.

In the post credit’s scene of Deadpool. Deadpool flat out states that Cable will be in his sequel.

Together at last!

Indeed. Personally, I hope they push it back a year or two.

BLASPHEMY!

Hear me out. While it hasn’t been confirmed by any legit sources, one of the biggest rumors going around is that Fox is considering a deal with Marvel, much like Marvel’s deal with Sony. Again, this hasn’t been confirmed, and odds are we won’t hear yay or nay about this until after Spider-Man: Homecoming has aired. If that is the case, can you think of a better time traveling duo to smoosh these two timelines together?

Oh, I get it. Yeah, that would be pretty awesome. Me and Cable could be on like a time travel adventure, go back in time to like the prehistoric era, and I can hit it off with a fine cavewoman and through that make Mutants a thing in the main Marvel universe.

Won’t Vanessa be upset with that?

What about Vanessa? I’m like James Bond. She might be the love of my life in one movie, but in the next I’ll never mention her again.

That’s coldblooded Wade.

Yeah, that’s how I roll.

Anyway, I love Cable. He’s an immensely powerful character, gruff but likeable. He’s one of the most powerful Marvel characters, has all the hallmarks of a “Christ Figure” character but never comes off as Superman level “holier than thou.” Heck, in one story he willingly goes through a lobotomy to protect the world from his immense psychic power. It’s sort of like he died for our sins, isn’t it? It is also kind of cool that, while the techo-organic virus infecting his arm can be, well, awful, it is at times his strongest weapon. One trick I’ve seen is that, when the virus rages out of control, it transforms his arm into a giant mass of robotic tentacles that he can use to pierce through anything. And, considering the era he’s in, being able to interface with machines is a very very handy ability. He’s the time-traveling super mutant, link between the present and future, the immensely powerful Cable. Next time… still deciding. Have a good one.

http://marvel.com/universe3zx/index.php?title=File:Cable_head.jpg&filetimestamp=20070808160618

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cable_%26_Deadpool#/media/File:CABLEDP005l.jpg

http://edtadeo.deviantart.com/art/Cable-vs-Stryfe-X-Men-Blank-CVR-407593321

Villain Profile: Harley Quinn

I’ve been wracking my brain trying to figure out which post to do next. I knew that I wanted to do another villain, and DC character, as they’re the smaller post pools that I’ve done. I finally narrowed it down to Superman’s mischievous imp of a nemesis, Mr. Mxyzptlk, and the terror of the DC Multiverse, the Anti-Monitor. Then, I decided to say screw it, and go with someone with more name recognition, Harley Quinn. That’s how I roll. Let’s get to it.

The most famous dysfunctional relationship since Ralph
and Alice from the Honeymooners.

Before she donned the black and red jester costume, she was Dr. Harleen Quinzel. She had just began working at Gotham’s #1 vacation spot for the criminally insane, Arkham Asylum. Harleen was a model student, receiving top marks at Gotham U, and was a dedicated gymnast. She had a lot of potential, and might have done some great things in the world of psychological science if she hadn’t met a certain someone. Harleen was fascinated by the criminally insane, particularly The Clown Prince of Crime, the Joker. She believed that the obviously psychotic clown was merely a misunderstood man who desperately needed psychological help. I applaud her passion, just not her common sense. She had to petition the heads of Arkham for three months before they finally said “Screw it,” and let her analyze the Joker. Now, this was profoundly stupid since the Joker is a well-documented master manipulator. At this point in his career, he’d already broken the minds of several previous doctors that have tried to “understand” his madness. But, they still allowed the INTERN to give it a shot. She must have really, really pestered them over those three months. Also, once again, Arkham is run by idiots. The Joker started off strong, getting the naïve young doctor to believe a sob story about his supposed abusive childhood and traumas he’d suffered as an adult. I say supposed, since there’s a chance that the story ‘might’ be true. At least a little. It’s hard to tell with this psycho. He even made her feel sorry for his constant “abuse” at the hands of Gotham’s Dark Knight. How you can make well documented stories of you picking a fight with the Batman the Batman’s fault, I’ll never know. After reeling her in with his stories, he seduced Harleen, and got her to help him escape on several occasions. The higher-ups of Arkham caught on, finally, and had Harleen’s license revoked and had her committed. Sucks for her, am I right?

She eventually escaped Arkham, thanks to a devastating earthquake. She reunited with her ‘puddin’’ and created a costumed identity of Harley Quinn, the Joker’s #1 henchman. Henchwoman? Hench-person. Their relationship is best described as complicated. On the one hand, Joker is incredibly abusive (emotionally, physically, and mentally) and often doesn’t seem to give a rat’s backside if she’s hurt and/or arrested during his crimes. And yet, he does eventually free her from Arkham when she’s arrested. Every jokester needs a punching bag, I guess. On more than one occasion she’s been described as the “only one to see the Joker cry.” Which suggests a certain level of intimacy and or dependence between them. Or, the Joker is just really into messing with her head. What? He’s the biggest psycho of DC, making a woman believe he’s emotionally vulnerable is right up his alley. Harley has wised up and left him on several occasions. When she does she usually hits up her only actual friend, and occasional girlfriend, Poison Ivy. They actually met after the Joker had ‘broken up’ with Harley by launching her on a rocket. Ivy discovered Harley after the rocket crashed and quickly became, as I believe the teenagers say, besties. Ivy gave Harley an inoculation that made her immune to Ivy’s usual toxins. The femme fatales usually work really well together, even getting the upper hand on Batman, but their partnerships end whenever Harley falls for Joker again. A toxic relationship ruins yet another wonderful partnership. In more recent stories she’s definitively broken up with Joker, she basically smashed his face in, and is now a regular member of groups like the Suicide Squad.

Her original look.

Harley is a gifted gymnast and has a rather high IQ. She’s well versed in psychological techniques, as it was her job for a while. Harley is also remarkably strong; given that she regularly wields an enormous mallet. The thing is enormous and unwieldly, and yet she swings it around like it’s nothing at all. She’s demonstrated a mental instability on par with the Joker’s, which isn’t all that shocking. You’d have to be insane to find pale skin, red lips and green hair attractive. I think. To however many female viewers I have, Joker: Attractive or Unattractive? And I’m talking the Heath Ledger or Jack Nicholson Joker, not the Jared Leto one.

Harley has appeared in just about every Batman series since her creation for Batman: The Animated Series back in the early-90s. I feel that it’s important to note that Harley had been predominantly played by only two actresses. Two voice actresses, to be specific. She’s seems to either be played by Arleen Sorkin, her original voice actress and whom partially inspired the character. In terms of mannerisms, accent and general kookiness. Not in the whole “in abusive relationship with psycho.” In more recent years she’s more or less handed off the role to Tara Strong. I guarantee that if you don’t know the name, you know the voice. Look her up on Wikipedia or IMDB, I guarantee you she’s played a role on some animated show/movie that you’ve seen.

She was created back in 1992 for Batman: The Animated Series. Her first episode was “Joker’s Favor.” In this episode and most of her early appearances she’s largely a comic relief character and target for Joker’s misplaced anger. Her most important episode, and ultimately the saddest, occurred in the sequel show The New Batman Adventures. Harley, tired of being ignored by the Joker, decides to take out her biggest competition for Joker’s attention, Batman. She flashes back to how she met the Joker, when she worked at Arkham Asylum. Lies and advise about the “dark side of comedy” followed. In the present, Harley is actually able to capture Batman and hangs him over a piranha tank. Why is this different than other times he’s been hung over a death trap? One, Harley took his utility belt, so no tools. Two, she used chains instead of rope, so he can’t just break out. And three, she injected him with some drug that left him feeling groggy, so only very limited access to his magnificent brain. She’s about to drop him in the tank, when Batman points out that the Joker will never believe that Batman is dead without seeing it himself. So Harley calls her Puddin’ in, expecting praise. She does not receive praise. I believe his exact reaction was “YOU’VE GOT WHO? WHERE?” while making a face like he was about to pass a kidney stone. Upon arriving, he beats the heck out of Harley with a plastic swordfish. Why? Because she dared to take his victory against Batman from him. He knocks her out a window, and then turns to kill Batman himself. He’s a complicated psycho. Batman frees himself, thanks to his hidden-in-glove lockpicks, and he and Joker do battle. Batman points out that Harley’s plan would have worked. He was immobilized, dizzy, and had his back to the wall. The only thing that saved him was knowing that Joker couldn’t stand to let anyone else kill him, and that Joker and Harley’s fight would give him time to clear his head and escape. He captures Harley and sends them to Arkham. Joker escaped. Harley, having finally woken up to the fact that Joker is an irredeemable psychopath, a lying, manipulating, abusive and all around bad dude, swears that this time she’ll try to get help in Arkham and live a normal life. No more Joker. This lasts all of 3.5 seconds until she sees a rose and a get well soon card on her bed. She calls Joker “an angel,” and seems to immediately fall back in love with him. Dude literally defenestrates her, and all it takes is a, probably, stole flower and card to get back in her good graces. Makes my head hurt.

Her modern look. She's less Harlequin
and more... Clown tramp.

We see what became of her in Gotham’s future in the TV Movie, Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. Commissioner Barbara Gordon explained via flashback, after the Joker’s mysterious return, that the last time she saw the dysfunctional duo, Harley and Joker had kidnapped Robin (Tim Drake) and transformed him into Joker Jr. While Batman actively tries to kill Joker for the first time that I’m aware of, Batgirl did battle with Harley. Harley explained that she felt bad for what they did to Robin, but promised that she’d make it up to him by being a dynamite mother. Yeah, I don’t see that working out. She and Batgirl have a scuffle, and she ends up falling into a chasm, disappearing. Barbara explains that if Harley was still alive, she’s probably too old to be stirring up trouble. In the films ending, we see two members of the Jokerz gang that Joker had recruited being released into their grandma’s custody. Dee-Dee and Dee-Dee are immediately berated by their wizen grandmother, to which one of the Dee-Dee’s shouts “Shut up, Nana-Harley.” So either A. Miss Quinn found a nice man and started a family, and her grandkids just ended up part of a gang inspired by her former puddin’ or possibly B. she had the spawn of Joker, and their granddaughters had some inbred drive to join the Jokerz and spend some quality time with their Grandpa. Not sure which I find more disturbing.

She’s had minor appearances in shows like The Batman, and Batman: The Brave and the Bold. They pretty much just cover the basics, henchwoman of Joker, former Psychiatrist and all that jazz.

One of her biggest roles was in Batman: Assault on Arkham. In this movie, she’s recruited by Amanda Waller as part of the Suicide Squad. Their mission is to infiltrate Arkham and steal the Riddler’s Cane, which has some incriminating information on it. She and team leader Deadshot have a quick fling (did I mention this movie isn’t for kids?) before the group breaks into Arkham. While on mission, she and Deadshot run into Joker in his special cell. Harley pretty angrily breaks up with Joker, actually pulling a gun and shooting at his cell several times screaming “I HATE YOU” with tears in her eyes. This later proves to be an elaborate ruse, as the shots she fired allowed Joker to escape. And when I say ruse, I mean she intended to get him out, but I don’t doubt she was venting a little with the gun. Just saying.

She’s set to appear in the DC Cinematic Universe in Suicide Squad, portrayed by Margot Robbie. She’s already set to reprise the role in other projects.

Harley is one of the few characters that I’ve got to see progress almost from the get go. While I was only about 3 when Batman: The Animated Series first aired, the reruns were one of my favorite shows growing up. And I have to say her progression has fascinated me. Much like Deadpool, and X-23, she’s a character that started off in a pretty minor role that has just exploded in popularity as time has marched on. Her background story makes a rather tragic character, as it was her desire to help the most damaged of minds that led to her own psychological break. That’s just sad. She’s also a rather…confusing character. Young girls seem to really like her for her zany personality, wacky villainy, and, in more recent stories, her “I don’t need no man” attitude. That last sentence pained me so. And yet, she’s perhaps the most… exploited-by-men character in comics. Let me put it to you this way, if you are a parent with a child that likes Harley Quinn, always make sure that Google’s “safe search” function is on. You’ll thank me later. She’s the unstable former shrink with a passion for smashing, Harley Quinn.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/12/HarleyqLG.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b1/Harley_Quinn_%28model_sheet%29.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a5/HarleyQuinn.png

Villain Profile: Deadshot

Other than the scope-eye placement, great
costume.

What do you get when you combine killer accuracy with an amoral personality? You get Deathstroke. Or Bullseye. Or the Punisher. Or even Hawkeye in some iterations. I’m getting off track here, we’re talking about Deadshot today. I just used that little intro to point out that there are a few characters that boast skills on or above Deadshot’s own. Just keep that in mind. Let’s get to it.

Deadshot began life as Floyd Lawton. Oh my, that’s right up there with Leonard Snart on the list of worst real names ever. Lawton’s father was an abusive SOB that regularly beat Lawton and his beloved older brother. During one of his father’s outbursts, where he beat the older son, Lawton decided to take matters into his own hands. He grabbed his father’s hunting rifle, climbed a tree, and took aim at his hated sire. But, when Lawton pulled the trigger, the branch he sat on snapped, and he plummeted to the ground. This also caused his shot to arc wildly, and strike his brother instead. While it hasn’t been stated outright, its believed by many that it was the death of his brother that caused Lawton to perfect his marksmanship and why he seems to have no regard for his own life. Killing a relative will have that effect on a boy.

Years later, Floyd Lawton somehow amassed a sizeable fortune, and set up shop in Gotham City. When Batman and Robin were out of the city on vacation, it was the 50s Batman did a lot of goofy stuff back then, Lawton decided to make his move. He dressed up in a tailored suit, top hat, and little domino mask, stopped a robbery with his trick shooting skills, and introduced himself to the police and mayor as Deadshot. Despite the incredibly aggressive moniker, the Mayor chose to trust Deadshot, and even went so far as to replace the Bat-Signal with a Shot-Signal. Bullseye Signal? Target Signal? Whatever, Deadshot became a bigtime hero in Batman’s absence. When the Dark Knight returned, he was very suspicious of the new “vigilante superhero.” His suspicions panned out when, after tracking Lawton to his home, he discovered that Lawton was planning on killing Batman and becoming the criminal overlord of Gotham. Batman was able publicly expose Lawton, and saw him sent to prison.

People took him seriously in this?
Really?

This turned out to be a pretty bad idea. While in prison, Lawton trained constantly to improve his strength and fighting skills for his next confrontation with Batman. He was able to escape prison with the unwilling help of the Penguin. Lawton stole a special, laser firing monocle that the Penguin had smuggled into prison to facilitate his escape. My question, what idiot let the Penguin keep a monocle in his cell? Do prisoners get to keep specialized eye-wear like that? Anyway, Lawton fashioned a new red costume, complete with a creepy one eyed mask, and set his scope on Batman once again. The two battled across Gotham City, and Batman came out on top. This time, when he was sent to prison, he was intercepted by a few government officials. Seeing his skills as a marksman, and his complete disregard for human life, someone in the upper echelon of shady government deals decided to offer him a deal. Deadshot would have to perform a suicide mission, in exchange for a reduced sentence. Lawton agreed, and became a member of the Suicide Squad. Deadshot excels as a member of the Suicide Squad, and becomes a regular on the roster. Not sure if he’s happy with that or not, as part of the reason he joined was to die. Apparently he’d developed some kind of “Hate life” complex, and, while he didn’t want to commit suicide, he didn’t care whether he lived or died. He almost got his wish, however, with one mission.

There was a powerful Senator that had threatened to expose the Suicide Squad to the general public. Lawton’s immediate Superior, Rick Flag, didn’t take this kind of threat too kindly, and set out to kill the Senator. Lawton was ordered to stop Flag, by any means. His means? Kill the Senator himself. When questioned later, he stated that his mission was “Stop Flag from Killing the Senator. Exact Words.” That’s some crazy, Terminator/I, Robot movie rule bending right there. Lawton was gunned down at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial by police, but survived his wounds and continued working for the Suicide Squad.

It's raining Lead, Hallelujah,
It's raining Lead. 

The last thing I’ll mention is Deadshot’s daughter. Apparently he’d had a fling with a woman years ago, that resulted in his daughter, Zoe. I imagine his reaction went something like this, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGSIzFEFK6Y. Just replace Son with Daughter. But, he was not so happy to learn that he lived in one of the more…scummy districts of Star City. Deadshot decided to clean up the neighborhood. After killing a few thugs, getting the attention of Green Arrow, and then faking his death, yet again, Deadshot slipped back into the woodwork. Knowing that Green Arrow would patrol the area more often seemed to relieve Lawton’s consciences. So he could kill more people. Priorities.

Deadshot is an expert assassin and marksman. While he has a number of deadly firearms, he’s best known for his high powered sniper rifle, and a pair of machine guns mounted to his wrists. He once pulled a William Tell, shooting an apple off of someone’s head, but while also being blindfolded. After his first appearance, he’s trained in hand-to-hand combat, and is now more or less on par with Batman.

Deadshot has made a number of appearances outside of the comics. Interestingly, I don’t think there’s been a single version that has had a particular history or grudge with Batman. Much like Deathstroke, he’s kind of evolved past his initial concept. He has fought Batman on several occasions, but I’ve just never noticed the intensity that his history implies.

He appeared as a character in Justice League: Unlimited. In his first episode, “The Enemy Below” he was hired to assassinate Aquaman. After the second or third attempt, he’s chased down by the Justice League and is forced to reveal who hired him. He later appeared as a background villain in “Hereafter.” He’s one of many baddies celebrating the supposed death of Superman by rioting in Metropolis. Personally, with guys like the Flash, Batman, and Green Lantern running around, I’d have held off on the celebrating. In “Task Force X” he’s recruited by Colonel Rick Flag, Jr. as a part of said Task Force. He’s pretty much forced to go along when he learns that his last meal was laced with nano-explosives. The Mission of the Task Force is to steal The Annihilator, a magical war machine that the Justice League had stashed away in the Watchtower. They break into the JL’s floating fortress, and steal the suit. He’s rather “annoyed” to learn that he’ll need to work for five years before getting his sentence suspended. But, he seems to have escaped capture after Task Force X’s backer, Project Cadmus, dissolved.

Lawton is a minor villain in the final season of Smallville. In his first episode “Shield” he’s got his sights set on reporters Clark Kent, and Cat Grant. Imagine his surprise when Clark turns out to be Bulletproof. He’s a background character after that, working alongside Rick Flag and the Suicide Squad.  

Green Arrow needs to watch his back.

I’d say his biggest appearance to date is in Arrow. He’s the second major villain that Oliver Queen encounters after dawning his mysterious Green Hood. They battle across Starling City, and the fight ends with Deadshot apparently killed. He returns in “Dead to Rights” where it’s revealed that Oliver just seemed to have left him blind in his right eye. He’s given a new targeting device in the form of a red cybernetic eye. He’s hired to assassinate billionaire Malcolm Merlyn, but is once again foiled by Oliver. He later joins the Suicide Squad. This series also introduced a sort of rivalry between him and original character John Diggle. Apparently, Diggle’s brother had been killed by Deadshot years ago, and after discovering it was Deadshot that had done the deed, swears vengeance. Things get more complicated when they’re forced to work together on the Suicide Squad.

He was the “main” character in Batman: Assault on Arkham. He’s put on a team with Harley Quinn, Killer Frost, King Shark, Captain Boomerang, and Black Spider. He’s apparently worked with the Squad before, as he’s unsurprised when he’s captured for the team. He’s tasked with stealing the Riddler’s Cane from Arkham Assylum, which has a flashdrive on it containing sensitive information about the Suicide Squad. He’s the de facto leader of the group, which does accomplish its mission, despite a few hiccups.

A Suicide Squad movie is set to release in August of this year. This version of Floyd Lawton is going to be played by Hollywood Heavyweight Will Smith. Did I just make that reference because he also played Muhammad Ali? You bet I did. There’s just one small thing about the movie promos thus far that makes me nervous. It’s a silly little thing, completely pointless really, but… his scope eye is on the wrong side. I know, minor nitpick, but in my experience, it’s little changes like that that hint at much, much bigger problems. Like making Pa Kent “Okay” with Clark letting people die, which leads to unconvincing Dark Superman. Just saying.

Honestly, not the biggest fan of Deadshot. I feel that his skill set, while impressive, is handled better by guys like Deathstroke and even Hawkeye. As I said in the opening, there are a lot of characters with killer accuracy, it’s really not that new of an idea. I am also not the biggest fan of how a lot of series bring up his daughter. Not sure how most people respond to it, but for me, it’s like seeing Sandman’s daughter in Spider-Man 3. A transparent attempt to make me believe that an otherwise awful human being “isn’t all that bad” and sympathize with him. If’s he’s a stonecold killer, go with it, if he’s a loving father using the only skill he has to provide for his child, go with it, I’m just not a fan of this mix and mash stuff. That being said, it should be interesting to see how Will Smith’s character holds up against the other versions. Provided he has enough screen time to be fleshed out. What? He’s sharing the screen with the Joker and Harley, if those two aren’t trying to steal the show in every scene, they’re doing something wrong. He’s the master marksman, the cold contract killer, the impeccable Deadshot. Next time, Batman’s avian themed baddie, The Penguin.

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Anti-Hero Profile: Legion

While Multiple Personality Disorder has largely been debunked in psychological science, we continue to see characters with this odd disorder in works of fiction. Some are boring, like in soap operas. Others are incredibly dangerous, like our next character, Legion. This Omega Level Mutant has suffered from MPD from his earliest versions, and despite getting control of his subconscious on a number of occasions, seems to lose control each time. But more on that in a second, let’s get to it.

No, i don't know why his hair looks like a paint brush.

Legion was born David Haller, the illegitimate son of Charles Xavier and his ex-girlfriend Gabrielle Haller. Charles was unaware of his son’s existence for many years, as Gabrielle chose to never tell him. David grew up in Israel. It wasn’t a perfect life, but I don’t think he had any major complaints, even when his mother married and moved him to Paris. She’d become an Israeli diplomate. Things were fine in Paris, until a terrorist attack. A group of terrorist broke into their home, and started executing every Israeli they could find. When David’s step-father was murdered, it unleased the beast. His firsts Mutant ability manifested, Telepathy, which he used to fry the brains of the terrorists. The problem was, this was a double edged sword. Each time David connected his mind to a terrorist to kill them, he was forced to feel all of their thoughts and emotions leading up to their death. The trauma was too much for David to handle, and as he blasted the terrorist’s leader, he was rendered catatonic. Which was somewhat beneficial to the terrorist leader, Jemail Karami. As David lost consciousness, his mind somehow grabbed hold of Karami’s and pulled the terrorist mind into David’s. David was moved to Muir Island, and was looked after by another of his father’s old flames, Moira MacTaggert.

While David was comatose, Karami was working. The terrorist struggled for years to, one, split himself off from David’s main consciousness, and two, take over David’s body for his own nefarious purposes. Thankfully for David, Karami had some competition. The trauma that put him into his comatose state fractured his mind, creating multiple personalities, each with their own will, and surprisingly, their own superpower. Two of David’s most powerful alternate personalities were Jack Wayne, a swaggering adventurer that was pretty obviously based on John Wayne, and a temperamental rebellious teenage girl named Cyndi. While Karami seemed to take hold of David’s telepathic abilities, Jack claimed David’s telekinetic power, and Cyndi claimed his pyrokinetic power. It was a battle royal for control of David’s body. This proved to be the perfect situation for one of Xavier’s oldest enemies, the Shadow King to strike.

Put as simply as possible, the Shadow King is a former human telepath with powers on par with Xavier. His body was destroyed some time ago, and he somehow survived, becoming a colossal demon of psychic energy that feeds on the misery of others. Shadow King possessed David, and used the young man’s formidable psychic abilities to psychically make people more aggressive and depressed, which fed Shadow King’s power. He also murdered Destiny, the longtime friend and partner of Mystique. This drew the attention of Charles, and the X-Men. While reluctant to do anything to hurt his new found son, Charles lead his team into David’s mind, and excised the Shadow King from David. He slipped back into a coma afterwards.

Perhaps the most effective mind within David's troubled head.

A few years later, Mystique tracked David down. She wanted payback for Destiny’s murder. Unfortunately for the blue shapeshifter, David chose that exact moment to awaken. He seemed to have mastered his mind and the various personas that inhabit it. He was able to easily best Mystique, and then set out on his new goal. What goal, you may be asking. Why, helping Charles realize his dream of human-mutant coexistence. Hooray. He plans to do this by going back in time and murdering Magneto before he got the chance to amass his powers and become a threat to Charles. Less hooray.

Using his immense power, David leaped back in time. The transfer greatly drains David, and for a short time he suffered from amnesia. Magneto somehow trigger’s David’s memories, and he goes on a rampage. Using his abilities in full view of the public, David unwittingly revealed Mutants to the world decades before they were supposed to. He attacks Magneto with a “psi-knife.” Basically, he focused his immense power into a single point on his hand, creating a weapon capable of destroying anything it touched. Unfortunately, Charles nobly gets in the way, and is killed instead.  Charles’ death causes a ripple effect across time and space, and creates an alternate timeline known as the “age of Apocalypse.” This universe is where Apocalypse pretty much rules the world. Thankfully, the time hoping X-Man Bishop was unaffected by the change. Because reasons. He recruits the X-Men of this timeline, Magneto named his followers after his fallen friend, and goes back to fix things. They arrive just before Legion attacks. Bishop gets in the way this time, and forced Legion to stab himself with the Psi-blade. In his last moments, Bishop shows Legion the ramifications of his actions via telepathy. David apologizes as best he can, and then dies. His mother makes a vague comment of feeling a “maternal loss” and it’s implied that the events of this time hopping seemed to erase David from existence.

Yeah, this image sums him up pretty well.

Years later, Legion is discovered trapped in a concrete box in Colorado by the New Mutants. It’s another X-Men off-shoot team. While they try to figure out what to do with Legion, he accidentally absorbs the mind of the New Mutant’s telepath, Karma. Inside Legion’s mind, Karma discovers that David is pretty much under siege from an army of split personalities. They’re all fighting to get to a girl named Marci, who has a doll they call Moira. Apparently in his absence from…existence, David had created Moira, a totem of sorts. Whoever has Moira gets control of David’s body, and access to all of his powers. In the physical world, Legion escapes his prison box and flies off to kill another X-Man, Dani Moonstar. In his head, one of his lesser personalities revealed that he was transported to the Age of Apocalypse timeline, and had lived as a slave. During his newest rampage, he absorbed another New Mutant, Magik, into his mind. Magik, little sister of Colossus, is a powerful wielder of magic, and has the mystical “soul sword.” She uses this magic sword to kill some of David’s more dangerous personalities, including Jack Wayne. The New Mutant’s then find the real David, and give him the Moira doll. David is then taken to Utopia, the new homebase of the X-Men, and they start reorganizing his brain. Various telepaths use their powers to lock Legion’s alternate personalities away, leaving David the only one powerful enough to control himself. They learn that Marci was in fact a little girl from the Colorado area that’d been keeping Legion company when he somehow returned from the other timeline. One of David’s evil personalities killed her, but David himself was able to absorb the girl before he was besieged by personalities. Marci is left free to be David’s source of stability and comfort. While David reclaimed his body, he’s periodically lost control again to other powerful personalities. Like with many who suffer from Mental Illness, David’s battle is never really done.

David Haller is easily the most powerful mutant born since En Saba Nur (Apocalypse) himself. At least in terms of the number of abilities he has. He seems to have every superpower imaginable, telepathy, telekinesis, pyrokinesis, warping time and space, super strength and speed, electrical manipulation, teleportation, and magnetic powers. To name a few. The down side is, that each of these powers has a separate personality connected to it. Some are benevolent, most are more interested in being the “one” personality within Legion. Through strenuous mental training, and occasionally advanced technology, Legion has gained control of his immense power. But he’s always walking the razors edge, always risking falling and being consumed by another persona.

For those that didn’t recognize the term, I’ll quickly explain Omega Level Mutants. Omega Level is a classification given to the most powerful Mutants in the X-Men Universe. The classification is rather vague, but an Omega Level Mutant is always immensely powerful. Some powers that could give one the OL qualification include immortality, extreme manipulation of matter and/or energy, powerful psionic (mental) abilities, and the potential to exist outside the normal boundaries of the physical universe. Jean Grey, Iceman, and Apocalypse fall under this classification. Storm I feel is right on the border.

So far, Legion is a character that hasn’t appeared much outside the comics. This could be due to the mental illness that is connected to the character. Who knows?

His hairs ability to stay pointy like that is a power all it's own.

His first and to date only major appearance was in X-Men: Evolution. This version is largely true to the comics, in that David is an immensely powerful Mutant with multiple personality disorder. David is seemingly kidnapped by a Scottish Punk named Lucas. In reality, Lucas is alternate persona of David’s. He’s essentially a composite of all of David’s evil personas from the comics. He’s cruel, vain, sadistic, and selfish. There’s another personality named Ian, who is a mute boy, and somehow in league with Lucas. In the episode’s conclusion, Charles’ tries to use his powers to force the other personalities out. It works, but instead of forcing David into the forefront, he releases Lucas. Lucas then reveals that this was his plan all along, to use Charles to get rid of the others, as Charles was the only Mutant strong enough to do it. He then laughs manically as he flies off, using not only his original telekinetic powers, but also Ian’s pyrokinetic, implying that Lucas now has control of all of David’s possible powers. The series ended before the show could continue David’s story, but from the sound of things they fully intended to bring Lucas/Legion back as a recurring antagonist.

I guess that FX, 20^th Century Fox Television and Marvel Television are collaborating to create a live-action show focusing on Legion, to be released sometime this year. It’s set in the same universe as the X-Men films. Should be interesting to see what happens.

Legion is an interesting character. The whole “huge power in an unstable mind” thing has been done before, but Legion does it very well. Part of what makes him interesting is just seeing how Charles reacts to seeing his son. In his episode of X-Men: Evolution, it ends with Charles stating that he was saddened that he never got to know the real David before seemingly destroying him. To see Professor Xavier, the quintessential teacher, suffer a personal failing like that is such an interesting character moment. Personally, I’d love to see what would happen if Legion at his full power battled Apocalypse. I think it’d shake the foundation of reality. He’s the broken Mutant. The potent powerhouse. The Legion, for they are many. Next time, something DC related. 

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