Even though she used her signature power – and even the accompanying catchphrase – the results looked a little different in the MCU than in comics.

In comics, when Kamala embiggens, she actually changes size and shape. But in the MCU, true to her crystalline energy powers, she forms a sort of larger, armored body around herself.

If you’re like us (total comic book nerds) that moment, along with the episode’s big reveal, put you in mind of a totally different Marvel Comics character.

Speaking of that big reveal, spoilers for Ms. Marvel episode 6 – and we mean serious spoilers. Be warned!

In the episode’s first stinger scene, Kamala’s tech-genius friend Bruno reveals that he’s discovered that the true source of her powers isn’t her ClanDestine DNA – that simply provides a connection to the mystical energy of their home dimension. 

As it turns out, Kamala’s powers themselves come from a genetic mutation.

As in, Kamala Khan is a mutant. The first confirmed mutant in the mainstream MCU, in fact.

By now, you’ve probably put together that the way Kamala uses her powers plus her newly revealed mutant DNA put us in mind of Hisato Ikichi, AKA Armor of the X-Men from Marvel Comics.

First introduced back in the landmark Astonishing X-Men, Armor has the power to create armor of spiritual force powered by her ancestors around her body.

If that sounds a little bit like what we just explained about Kamala Khan in the MCU, you’re not alone.

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Kamala Khan’s new MCU powers, though not limited to body armor that forms around her body and “embiggens” her, are certainly somewhat reminiscent of Armor’s mutant abilities – down to a connection to the spiritual power of her ancestors.

Now, we’re not saying Marvel Studios just gave Armor’s powers a palette swap for Ms. Marvel in the MCU. And we’re definitely not saying Ms. Marvel should somehow take Armor’s place in the X-Men when they eventually come to the MCU.

But we are saying that it’s interesting that some of their themes and abilities line up – especially given Kamala Khan’s newly revealed mutant nature.

There’s one other thing Armor and Ms. Marvel have in common, and unlike the possible resemblance between their powers, this one’s straight from comic books: they’re both extremely good at annoying Wolverine during team-ups.

Both Armor and Ms. Marvel have had adventures alongside the most violent and hardcore member of the X-Men, and both have earned his respect through those same adventures, even as they annoyed the ever-loving crap out of him (as teen girls often do to old men).

So maybe, if nothing else, that’s something we’ve got to look forward to.

Kamala Khan’s team up with Wolverine is one of the best Ms. Marvel stories ever.

The post Did Ms. Marvel borrow her MCU powers from a comic book mutant? appeared first on Game News.

But what are the best Thor stories in Marvel Comics? If you’re champing at the bit for more Thor, these are our picks for the best Thor stories of all time.

10. God Butcher/Godbomb (Thor: God of Thunder #1-11)

It’s safe to call this one a modern classic.

Jason Aaron is a man who was truly born to write Thor, and his first arc is appropriately ambitious, pitting three different versions of Thor (from three different time periods) against the terrifying Goor the God Butcher. By showing us the once, current and future versions of Thor, Aaron is able to examine the character from many different angles, something that’s not always easy to do in a medium in which change is often just an ‘illusion.’

But thankfully, it’s not all character psychology as Aaron throws in action sequences and fight scenes (expertly drawn by Esad Ribic) that will inspire metal bands for years to come. This run is a perfect distillation of the stories that came before turned up to eleven.

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9. Thor: The Mighty Avenger

Believe it or not, there was a time before Chris Samnee was a household name. But for Thor fans who were paying attention, he was a best kept secret.

In the lead-up to the theatrical release of the first Thor movie, Roger Langridge and Samnee presented a different kind of Thor than the one comics readers were used to. His adventures were a little bit more lighthearted, but still maintained an epic heart, pitting Thor against Fin Fang Foom and Namor. 

But more than anything else, it thrived in providing an essential look at Thor’s relationship with Jane Foster. It simply hasn’t been written better before or since.

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8. Mangog (Thor #154-157)

You can’t have a best Thor stories list without a story from Stan and Jack. They were always ready to take Thor in bold new directions, and this story featuring Mangog introduces a Ragnarok scenario that it seems even the God of Thunder cannot survive.

As one would expect, Thor wins the day – but not through sheer power. In fact, he can only fight Mangog to a draw. Odin is able to revive the monster’s family, quelling his hatred and in turn his strength. This is a mighty Marvel tale that stands up with the best of them.

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7. The Eternals Saga (Thor Annual #7, Thor #283-301)

This classic story was started by Roy Thomas and finished by Mark Gruenwald and Ralph Macchio, with artist John Buscema eventually giving way to Keith Pollard. But it was born from the imagination of Jack Kirby, as all the creators involved tried to take Kirby’s vision of the Eternals and the Celestials – which mostly inhabited its own universe prior and marry it to the Marvel Universe.

The result is something that has left an impact on Asgard ever since, with future creators finding new ways to weave in those familiar Kirby elements whenever possible. Even Thor: Ragnarok bears that mark – and ‘The Eternals Saga’ may have at least a little bit to do with that.

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6. Thor: Disassembled (Thor vol. 2 #80-85)

All good things must come to an end and as the ‘Disassembled’ storyline ripped through Avengers, it eventually fell to Thor as well. 

The beauty in this ending is Michael Avon Oeming’s reverence for the character’s history, revealing the nature of the cycle of Ragnarok and how it all weaves together.

It’s a love letter, not only to Thor but to comic books in general and the cycles of death and rebirth within them.

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5. Mjolnir’s Song (Thor #380)

Part of the way through his run, Walt Simonson ceded art duties to the still exceptionally talented Sal Buscema – but he would occasionally jump back to the drawing board. Thor #380 sees our hammer-wielding hero facing off against a seemingly insurmountable foe, the Midgard Serpent.

To this point, readers had seen Thor stare down against any number of men, beasts, or demons, but this time things are different. Hela casts a curse that weakens Thor’s bones and the Midgard Serpent, Jormungand, is large enough to encircle the entire planet with its body!

But the issue isn’t memorable just for being a helluva fight. Simonson decided that the best way to translate the sheer size of the serpent was to do the entire book as a series of splash pages. The result is a comic that looks nothing like anything that came out at the time and served as a precursor for the big, bombastic storytelling tropes of the ’90s.

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4. Thor vol. 3 #1-6

A lot happened when Thor was taken off the board in the years before the first Marvel Civil War. But after Tony Stark’s failed attempt at cloning the Thunder God, it was time for Thor to return. And boy did he.

J. Michael Straczynski and Olivier Coipel were up to the task of redefining Thor for a post-Civil War Marvel Universe. They did so by acknowledging the gap and taking their time to establish Thor’s supporting cast, even if they did have to put him in a strange new place (Broxton, Oklahoma) to do it.

The result was a run that humanized Thor while also reminding readers what made him so cool to begin with.

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3. The Ballad of Beta Ray Bill (Thor #337-340)

You had to know this one would have a spot on the list. When Walt Simonson introduced the horse-faced Korbinite known as Beta Ray Bill and imbued him with the power of Thor, he flipped everything we knew about the God of Thunder and his hammer on its head! But in doing so, he created a new hero and added to the mythology of the character.

With this story, Thor became more than just a singular hero but rather a heroic ideal. And the selfless Bill became a lens for readers (and Thor himself) to examine the Odinson through. Bill became Thor’s reminder that he needed to continue to strive to be the best hero he could be despite his brash and sometimes impulsive demeanor and his friendship with the worthy alien has been a mainstay and fan-favorite ever since.

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2. Skurge’s Last Stand (Thor #362)

Part of the reason that Walt Simonson’s run is so revered is for the way that he was able to elevate characters that had never really been given a chance to shine. To this point, Skurge the Executioner was little more than a hapless henchman serving the will of Amora the Enchantress.

But with Hela’s armies bearing down on Asgard, Skurge made a character defining decision. Sick of being laughed at, Skurge stayed behind to face the hordes and claim his place in Valhalla. It’s a hero’s turn coming from one of the most unlikely of places and Simonson plays it perfectly.

“…and when a new arrival asks about the one to whom even Hela bows her head, the answer is always the same. He stood alone at Gjallerbru and that answer is enough.”

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1. The Surtur Saga (Thor #340-353)

“The sound of thunder reverberates through a billion billion worlds… DOOM!”

With that, Walt Simonson began to build up the threat of Surtur the fire giant, and by its end “The Surtur Saga” would cement his legacy as the greatest creator to ever work on the character. It’s one thing to tease out a threat over the course of a year – it’s another to deliver on it. By the time Thor and Surtur were forced to come to blows, readers were enthralled with the journey and cared about Thor and his supporting cast in a more meaningful way than they ever had before.

And it wasn’t just Simonson’s writing but his art and collaborations with letterer John Workman and colorist Christie Scheele that made this run, and this story specifically, the quintessential take on the Thunder God.

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The post 10 Best Thor stories of all time appeared first on Game News.

And though such a list may always come down to a matter of opinion, perhaps the toughest part of ranking the best Marvel Comics characters of all time is establishing a set of criteria that transcends taste to include a given character’s importance to the Marvel Universe, their popularity among fans as well as creators, and perhaps most importantly, the stories they’ve been featured in.

What follows is Newsarama’s ranking of the best Marvel Comics characters ever – including some who will likely be your personal favorites, and some who may surprise you. 

Ultimately, this is merely Newsarama’s opinion – and we look forward to you sharing your own list of the best Marvel Comics characters of all time with us on Twitter (opens in new tab) and Facebook (opens in new tab). 

10. Black Panther

First appearance: Fantastic Four #52 (opens in new tab) (1966)
Recommended reading: Best Black Panther comics 

The Black Panther is a different brand of superhero than most because he not only wears a heroic mantle, but also a crown; a crown that carries with it the weight of an entire nation. And, we’re not being colorblind here – he’s not white like most comic book heroes then (and now). 

Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in what later Marvel staffers said was an effort to feature Black superheroes in an era in which that was rare, the Black Panther was also an outsider to the Fantastic Four (and even the Avengers) and carried a dignified exoticism and connections to a near-mythical country that was refined and more technologically advanced than modern humanity at the time.

But through works like recent stories by writer Ta-Nehisi Coates and John Ridley with artists including Brian Stelfreeze, the Black Panther has grown into a complex, multi-faceted hero who struggles to be a better version of himself – and it’s T’Challa’s willingness to embrace and learn from his failures that sets him apart from many other ultra-competent heroes with all the resources in the world.

The Black Panther sits in a unique place at Marvel – as the king of a nation who has recently realized that his own monarchy is at odds with democracy and the equal rights of his subjects, but who is still trying to find better ways to contribute to his home nation and Marvel’s world at large.

9. Wolverine

First appearance: The Incredible Hulk #180 (opens in new tab) (1974)
Recommended reading: Best Wolverine comics

Wolverine is the ultimate brooding loner. Combine that with a gritty tenacity and knives on (and in!) his hands, and you have a unique superhero cut from a very different cloth than those who came before him – who has carved himself a niche that countless characters have since tried to occupy.

Wolverine entered the Marvel Universe like a classic Clint Eastwood western character – as a mysterious stranger who rides into town; short on words, long on violence. That profile has propagated an intense mystery about his past that continues to deepen even as creators try to fill in the blank pages of his history.

And again, he’s got knives on his hands – and it’s actually cool, despite how silly the idea sounds on its face.

Wolverine’s catchphrase is ‘The best there is at what he does.’ And that’s proven to be true, over and over again as imitators, variants, and clones (sometimes metaphorically, sometimes literally) come and go.

8. She-Hulk

First appearance: The Savage She-Hulk #1 (opens in new tab) (1980)
Recommended reading: She-Hulk by Soule & Pulido: The Complete Collection (opens in new tab)

She-Hulk began comic book life as a way for Marvel to protect its turf. Originally a female knockoff of her famous cousin Bruce Banner AKA the Hulk, Jennifer Walters was created by Marvel to establish ownership of a female Hulk before CBS could create their own version as part of its then-contemporary Incredible Hulk TV show. 

But she quickly became more than a way to establish ownership of the concept in-house, eventually surpassing many of the most intrinsic qualities that make the original Hulk a great character himself – the juxtaposition of strength, anger, and the duality between the human being and rampaging monster. 

She-Hulk was also Deadpool before there was a Deadpool – a hyper-aware, sometimes metatextual, fourth-wall-breaking character who can fit in alongside other mainstream heroes without skipping a beat.

From the novel idea of a lawyer specializing in superhero law to a successful businesswoman dealing with the realities (and fiction) of controlling (or not controlling) her anger issues, She-Hulk isn’t a cliché or an archetype, which makes her one of top (eighth-best, actually) characters in the Marvel U.

7. The Thing

First appearance: The Fantastic Four #1 (opens in new tab) (1961)
Recommended reading: Fantastic Four #51 (opens in new tab) (1966)

The Thing is the heart of the Marvel Universe. That’s right, beneath that orange, craggy exterior and gruff demeanor lies a wounded, underdog soul that was emblematic of the Marvel Universe in its earliest years. Unlike the Marvel we all know today, in the early ’60s it was a more upstart publisher with dogged perseverance and individualistic spirit that made it stand out in the crowd. Yup, just like Big ‘ol Ben.

Unlike many powerhouses like Thor, Captain Marvel, and DC’s Superman who are also easy on the eye, the superhuman strength that allows the Thing to trade punches with gods like Galactic comes with the price of a giant, lumbering, monster-like appearance. And that steep price has driven some of the greatest Marvel stories of all time like the classic ‘This Man, This Monster.’

But underneath his literally gruff exterior, Ben has the proverbial heart of gold, and it’s the display of his human qualities – like playing pranks on Johnny Storm or his fierce loyalty to best friend Reed Richards – that contrast with his appearance and makes the Thing so endearing and enduring.

Ben fits in the tapestry of the Marvel Universe like one of those patchwork pieces of his rock-like skin. And readers who were alive during the ’70s know he along with Spider-Man were the face of Marvel during that decade. But even today the Thing is a keystone – the one piece in the proverbial arch that is the Marvel Universe that makes everything and everyone else around him work better.

6. Thanos

First appearance: Invincible Iron Man #55 (opens in new tab) (1973)
Recommended reading: The Infinity Gauntlet (opens in new tab) (1991)

Thanos is the kind of character that can be (and probably is) a case study in a  college psychology class. Inspired by the Greek god Thanatos and a heaping helping of Jack Kirby’s New Gods (particularly Metron and Darkseid), Thanos’ beginnings were humble (a throwaway Iron Man villain on a janky helicopter) but he developed and grew in stature through stories in Captain Marvel, Warlock, and Silver Surfer series to eventually reach his ultimate destiny in the seminal 1991 Marvel Comics event The Infinity Gauntlet.

Birthed of regret and raised with animosity, the grown-up Thanos has an obsession with death (both the lower-case death and the actual Marvel entity Death) which has led him on a single-minded crusade for order – his order – in the Marvel Universe, often leading to body counts in the millions.

All that power, it fits like a glove  … or gauntlet … in this case.

Since then, Thanos has been Marvel’s ultimate bad guy. Creator Jim Starlin and subsequent writers like Jonathan Hickman, Jason Aaron, Donny Cates, and Kieron Gillen have made him more than just a Jaws-like force of nature, adding depth and pathos — while still keeping his proverbial teeth sharp and menacing.

With his MCU role culminating in Avengers: Endgame, Thanos has reached an even higher level of stature to become one of the most iconic villains, and even, we daresay characters – good or evil – in all of popular fiction.

5. Storm

First appearance: Giant-Size X-Men #1 (opens in new tab) (1975)
Recommended reading: X-Men: Lifedeath (opens in new tab)

Strong women have been a mainstay of Marvel Comics – particularly in the X-Men – and Storm, without a doubt, is one of the strongest and hardest to break. Born in Harlem but forced to raise herself as a street thief in Egypt after becoming an orphan, she made a path for herself that included titles like a goddess, X-Men member, X-Men leader, queen of Wakanda, and now the ruler of Mars.

While her mutant ability to control the weather is a pivotal part of her, thanks to the writers and artists that have added layers to her character, it’s Storm the woman and her often dueling qualities of tenacity, anger, forgiveness, and compassion that have forged her into a titan of modern fiction and cemented her into the bedrock foundation of Marvel Comics most important characters.

4. Captain America

First appearance: Captain America Comics #1 (opens in new tab) (1941)
Recommended reading: Best Captain America comics

Captain America is a quintessential part of the Marvel Universe, but it took decades for him to reach that potential. 

One of the dozens of flag-waving patriotic superheroes created during the early  ’40s during Second World War, it wasn’t until the early 60s when he was thawed from an icy tomb in a story by Stan Lee and his co-creator Jack Kirby in an Avengers story that he started on the path to become who he is today.

In that era he became an anachronistic version of Americana, battling the dark turns America can take. He wasn’t the first US patriotic hero that carried a shield, but it’s those more modern stories that made everyone forget who the other guy was (Archie Comics’ The Shield, by the way, created months before Captain America).

Although not a founding member of the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, he quickly became the face of the team which for many readers added to his profile as the classical heroic ideal for Marvel’s brand of superheroes. 

Chris Evans’ portrayal of Cap in MCU films over 60 years after the character’s creation only raised his stature further. While comic book Captain America is still as young and vital as always, Evan’s live-action Cap will cast a shadow over the MCU for years to come, as evidenced by 2021’s The Falcon & Winter Soldier Disney Plus streaming series and lingering rumors of Evan’s return in some form or another.

Captain America is not just a flagbearer for the United States, but for Marvel Comics as well – and that’s something even fans that aren’t from the US can (and do) appreciate.

3. Kitty Pryde

First appearance: Uncanny X-Men #129 (opens in new tab) (1980)
Recommended reading: Uncanny X-Men #143 (opens in new tab) (1981) 

The X-Men are amazing – uncanny, even – but it wasn’t until Kitty Pryde entered the picture that readers gained a real perspective of how uncanny. Created as a ‘girl next door’/grounded character in the original Chris Claremont/John Byrne era, Shadowcat was a hit character from the start – and she only got better over the years.

The secret? Unlike many young comic book heroes, she was allowed to grow up, and all of us readers could grow up with her.

Kitty Pryde is one of the few characters that have significantly grown, matured, and evolved over the years – from a fresh-faced early teens student to a full-on adult team leader today. Even while she was in her teens and early adulthood, readers met hardened versions of her such as ‘Days of Future Past (opens in new tab)‘s Kate Pryde and Excalibur’s Widget. But she also grew up for real in such touchstone series as Kitty Pryde: Agent of SHIELD, Mechanix, and especially the current Marauders ongoing.

Of all the mutant characters, Kitty Pryde has proven to be the most human when it comes to evolution and growth, And that doesn’t just make it stand out among her fellow X-Men, but among the entire Marvel Comics pantheon as well.

2. Doctor Doom

First appearance: Fantastic Four #5 (opens in new tab) (1962)
Recommended reading: Doctor Doom: The Book of Doom omnibus (opens in new tab) 

There’s a common adage in fiction writing that also applies to life that villains think of themselves as the hero of their own story. That their motivations are noble and just even if the world sees them as misguided or evil.

For Marvel Comics, there’s no better example of the nobility of villainy than Doctor Doom.

Like most of Marvel’s greatest characters, Victor Von Doom has a tragic origin story – but whereas so many of Marvel’s best characters overcame their tragedies to become superheroes, Doom took a different route. 

While his descent into supervillainy is a thorn in the side of most of the Marvel Universe, Doom is not without a sense of honor and watching a complex, flawed, but at times noble and sometimes even regal character evolve, grow, and become steeled like the armor he wears is one of Marvel’s greatest literary achievements.

Whether it’s fighting the Fantastic Four, Luke Cage, or the entire Marvel Multiverse, Doom is always the star (if not hero) of his own story – no matter whose logo is on the cover.

1. Spider-Man

First appearance: Amazing Fantasy #15 (opens in new tab) (1962)
Recommended reading: Best Spider-Man comics

Spider-Man redefined what a superhero could be, and although many have followed in his footsteps, he’s still number one, definitively at Marvel and arguably anywhere else.

Spider-Man works because he’s the plucky undersized street-level teen underdog with a heart of gold – burdened with great regrets but gifted with an eternal desire to do better, for himself and others. In a world of mostly adult superheroes who seemingly have their life all figured out, Peter Parker works because whether as a teen or young adult, he’s both who we all are and some of us want to be – flawed but trying, always punching upward and reaching a hand to help those who need it.

Add to it his quirky but mesmerizing costume design by Steve Ditko and the nearly-trademark ways he and his powers are visually depicted in comic books (and later in television, film, and video games), what you have is not just one of the world’s most famous superheroes, but one of the most unique characters in modern fiction of any medium.

So why is Spider-Man deserving of being not just on a list of Marvel’s best characters but alone on the top spot? 

Because what Ditko and Stan Lee created back in 1962 is constantly being fine-tuned, revisited, and remade in a way that keeps him current yet classic. Today you can still tell a Spider-Man story about the awkward teen learning to exist in a world of adult superheroes and villains, while also telling a story about the Peter Parker who’s been married and a father, or a corporate CEO, or in the animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and the MCU’s Spider-Man: No Way Home, a mentor to a younger Spider-Man.

Spidey is Marvel’s best character because he was, and is, and probably always will be the most interesting character in any supervillain battle or superhero team-up, and his stories speak to the generations of comic readers who have grown up with him – and a generation that is growing up with him now.

The post The best Marvel characters in the publishers history appeared first on Game News.

Following Matt Murdock’s official MCU big-screen debut in Spider-Man: No Way Home, it seems Daredevil is getting a rebooted streaming series on Disney Plus. Though it’s unconfirmed whether Charlie Cox will reprise his role for what appears to be a full-on story reboot, there’s a safe bet that he will. 

Cox has been through the wringer as Daredevil a few times in three seasons of his Netflix series and in the Defenders crossover series, but there are tons of classic Daredevil comic book tales that are still ripe for adaptation in the MCU – including the ones on this list of the best Daredevil stories ever.

10. Wake Up (Daredevil vol. 2 #16-19 Brian Michael Bendis, David Mack, and Mark Morales)

‘Wake Up’ picks up in the proverbial wake arising from the trial of Wilson Fisk. While most of The Daily Bugle is focused on that expected trial coverage, reporter Ben Urich is chasing a different story: the disappearance of a relatively C-list villain named Leap-Frog, and the obsession with Daredevil that consumes Leap-Frog’s son.

Writer Brian Michael Bendis, artist David Mack, and inker Mark Morales deliver a thrilling comic-within-a-comic story that elevates this beyond the standard superhero fare and gives us an early example of Bendis’ ability to tap into the humanity behind the capes and cowls. 

The writer uses this story as an exploration of childhood grief – something Leap-Frog’s son and Daredevil, the son of boxer ‘Battlin’ Jack Murdock, have in common.

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9. Typhoid Mary (Daredevil vol. 1 #254-263 by Ann Nocenti and John Romita Jr.)

As the title suggests, this one-off Daredevil story introduces the mutant assassin, Typhoid Mary. She simultaneously sparks up a relationship with Matt Murdock while kicking off an assassination attempt on his alter-ego Daredevil. Typhoid Mary is introduced not as just another love interest for Murdock, but as a credible threat to Daredevil. 

Thanks to her martial prowess, telekinetic powers, and overall instability due to her dissociative identity disorder, Mary Walker would shift from her more passive state to the more dangerous Typhoid Mary and outright sadistic Bloody Mary, leaving heroes and villains alike to stay on their toes when she arrived on the scene then, just as she does now. 

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8. The Purple Children (Daredevil vol. 4 #8-10 by Mark Waid, Chris Samnee, and Matt Wilson)

Mark Waid, Chris Samnee, and Matt Wilson tell the story of what happened in the wake of Zebediah Killgrave’s (The Purple Man) many years of sexually abusing women and impregnating them. 

‘The Purple Children’ storyline not only provides a means of retconning the fact the world knew of Daredevil’s secret identity as Matt Murdock but also tells a difficult story where the children of the Purple Man try to come to grips with their parentage. 

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7. Roulette (Daredevil vol. 1 #191 by Frank Miller, Terry Austin, and Lynn Varley)

‘Roulette’ provides readers with the bookend to Frank Miller’s historic run on Daredevil. Pairing with legendary artists Terry Austin and Lynn Varley, Miller pushes Daredevil to the brink as he faces a hospitalized Bullseye in a game of Russian Roulette. 

Interestingly, this only provides a backdrop for the real conflict. Daredevil confronts the long-lasting implications of his choice to serve justice through force, as he sees the son of a client follow in the hero’s footsteps by using lethal force to right the wrongs in his life. 

In a world where problems are solved with fists, Miller challenges his scarlet-clad superhero to consider if he might be contributing to the problems rather than solving them. 

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6. Underboss (Daredevil vol. 2 #26 by Brian Michael Bendis, Alex Maleev, and Matt Hollingsworth)

Brian Michael Bendis, Alex Maleev, and Matt Hollingsworth tell a modern classic through Silke’s attempted coup of the New York crime syndicate by trying to assassinate Wilson Fisk. With Fisk seemingly out of the way, Silke removes the gag order on discussing Daredevil’s secret identity along with the immunity clause Fisk enforced. Facing an open bounty on his head, Matt Murdock sees his rogues’ gallery show up in droves to score the hit as Fisk struggles to regain his health and influence. 

Ultimately, this Julius Caesar assassination revamp not only unsettles the status quo in Hell’s Kitchen but sets the stage for the eventual public outing of Daredevil as Matt Murdock.  

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5. Guardian Devil (Daredevil vol. 2 #1-8 by Kevin Smith, Joe Quesada, and Jimmy Palmiotti)

Many readers will remember this story for not only helping to kick off the Marvel Knights line but for introducing film director and long-time comic aficionado Kevin Smith to writing for the House of Ideas. 

The eight-issue story arc introduces both Karen Page as being HIV positive and dying from suicide. This leaves Daredevil in a state of mental anguish and uncertainty as he also juggles caring for an infant who may or may not be the antichrist, alongside combating a terminally-diagnosed Mysterio in search for one last hurrah with an NYC hero.  

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4. The Last Hand (Daredevil vol. 1 #178-182 by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson)

Daredevil #181 sets up one of the best single storylines in the Daredevil mythos as we see the rise of Elektra as a hired assassin for the Kingpin, only to watch her fall at the hands of one of Daredevil’s greatest foes: Bullseye. 

Frank Miller and Klaus Janson first introduced Elektra Natchios only a year earlier, as a past love of Murdock’s life before his fateful accident, which would see him become a hero while she would become a deadly Hand assassin. 

Like any pair of star-crossed lovers, these two eventually find themselves faced with tragedy and death – one that would haunt the hero for years after their last rooftop dance and drive the desire for revenge upon Bullseye to levels beyond where even heroes dare to tread.

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3. The Man Without Fear (Daredevil: The Man Without Fear #1-5 by Frank Miller and John Romita Jr.)

When it comes to definitive artists on Daredevil, John Romita Jr. is no doubt at the top, and his work alongside Frank Miller’s writing on ‘The Man Without Fear’ offers what many consider to be the best origin story of Matt Murdock and his becoming Daredevil. 

Miller and Romita Jr. take a decompressed approach to exploring Murdock’s earliest years before and shortly after the accident that both blinded and empowered Matt. What fans often fail to recognize, however, is the nuanced and careful storytelling in this limited series that stands in stark contrast to many other comics from the early 1990s, where bombast ruled the spinner racks. 

Even years later, comic creators, television series, and films all continue to lift aspects of Daredevil’s earliest years on the streets from this acclaimed story.  

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2. Daredevil: Yellow (Daredevil: Yellow #1-6 by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale)

In the early aughts, Joeb Loeb and Tim Sale teamed up for several limited series that retold origin stories for popular Marvel heroes. Each one was associated with a specific color and dealt with a major relationship. In Daredevil: Yellow, Loeb, and Sale weave a poignant and melancholic story told from the framework of Matt Murdock writing a letter to his long-lost love, Karen Page, looking back on his earliest adventures and their initial meeting. 

Where this limited series stands head and shoulders above so many other Daredevil stories is the succinct and graceful way Loeb and Sale weave this tale of loss and life. They not only introduce new readers to the emotional and spiritual core of the main cast but breathe new life into the street-level hero.  

Buy: Amazon (opens in new tab)

1. Born Again (Daredevil vol. 1 #227-31 by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli)

‘Born Again’ may very well be the Mount Everest of Daredevil stories. This story arc brings Frank Miller back to the series after his celebrated initial run where he was joined by regular Daredevil artist David Mazzucchelli. 

As the name implies, one can only be born again after they’ve suffered death, and Miller’s story is all about bringing Matt Murdock to the lowest of lows as we witness the return of Karen Page, now a heroin-addicted pornography actress, who has sold out Matt’s identity for her next hit. 

With Kingpin eventually discovering his identity, we see Murdock’s personal and professional lives implode, leaving broken relationships, careers, and bodies in the wake. One could argue that the themes of faith and redemption that are a signature of the Daredevil line found their footing in this critically-acclaimed story arc where Matt Murdock must rebuild himself and be born again after suffering continued loss and failure as a man and hero.

‘Born Again’ is so iconic, that even MCU Daredevil actor Charlie Cox has namechecked the story in reference to his return to the role.

Buy: Amazon (opens in new tab)

The post Best Daredevil stories for the Disney Plus series to adapt appeared first on Game News.

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Speed Force users have a long history of being deeply involved in DC’s Crisis events, and Dark Crisis is no exception. As the rest of DC’s heroes mourn, the Flash family will need to locate Barry Allen who, despite not dying with the rest of the Justice League, is nevertheless missing.

Writer Jeremy Adams will be tackling their search along with artist Amancay Nahuelpan, in a storyline they’re calling ‘The Search for Barry Allen.’ 

Ahead of this adventure, which begins in Flash #783, Newsarama sat down with Adams to talk about the Flash family, what they’ll have to do to find Barry, and how it will affect the Flash storyline moving forward. Read on for more.

Grant DeArmitt for Newsarama: So this story is called ‘The Search for Barry Allen,’ and you’ve got the whole Flash family using this incredible technology to do just that. Can you just tell us about the tech?

Jeremy Adams: Sure. This issue isn’t just a Dark Crisis tie-in, I think it’s also going to be the first opportunity for some people to join the Flash fold, to know what’s going on in the series. What’s been happening since Flash #768 is that Wally was leaping into other speedsters’ bodies. During that time, Barry and Mister Terrific, with a little help from Oliver Queen, developed a way to kind of track Wally through the Speed Force. Then Mister Terrific refined that tech because he’s a genius.

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Barry is one of those speed conduits. [The other speedsters] know he’s connected to the Speed Force, so though they don’t know where he is, they have to track him. The technology isn’t perfect, so they kind of created this gate that allows them to speed conduits to go in and look for him.

Nrama: Where are you getting all these ideas about the Speed Force? Obviously, the frequency thing goes all the way back to Flash #123, Flash of Two Worlds. But are you pulling from other sources as well?

Adams: Well, the Speed Force is so nebulous. Some people are like, “Oh it’s an intelligence.” Then others, “no it’s just a force.” So there’s a little bit of super-science that I’m picking up from the DC proper and from former Flash books, whether it’s from like Johnny Quick stories or Wally being trapped in the Speed Force. However, there’s this kind of indication in former books that there are tributaries to the Speed Force. And that it’s something that you can enter and exit. 

One of the things that’s fun is, if you look at the Grant Morrison multiverse map, you can see that there’s this vibe that the Speed Force connects everything. That seems like it’s already there in the zeitgeist. I’m codifying that a little bit, at least for this book. Then you have somebody like Mister Terrific, who has employed Wally as an engineer, who knows about this technology and has used it before in other issues. 

Nrama: Very interesting. Well, something else that’s being codified in this book is the whole Flash family. You’re bringing them all together. Can you tell me about writing that group? Did you come into it with any favorites? Are you coming out with any?

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Adams: I’m coming out of it with some favorites, yeah. This is kind of the first time that I’ve been able to write them all together. Sans Bart, sadly. All the Bart fans are going to come at me. But it’s not my fault! You put that in your article.

Nrama: Done.

Adams: He’s out with Young Justice! I swear it’s not my fault.

Nrama: We’ll tell them, don’t worry.

Adams: Good. Anyway, the joy of my previous runs was that Wally got to jump into those characters’ bodies. This time, I get to explore those characters, at least in a minor fashion. It’s a way for me to acclimate myself to the characters. As the Flash book expands, it goes from a book about Wally redeeming himself to being about his family and his kids and his sidekick and the bigger Flash family. That’s going to be more of a recurring theme for the book as I move forward. Especially with some stuff that I have planned for next year.

I’m a big fan of Jai and Irey. I love those kids. I think they’re hilarious. I love exploring those characters. I love Wally too, I love Ace, but I found myself really liking Max Mercury and Jesse Quick. I really like Jesse Quick a lot. There’s something about her that’s special, something that I’ve almost got my hands around. 

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Then Max is this Enigma to me. He’s this weird Highlander speedster that went forward in time, but now he’s stuck here and he’s made his life here. I want to give him an aspect of the time that he was born in, you know he was born in the Old West, the 1880s. So I have him saying Old West sayings and stuff that just kind of gets worked into the conversation. 

This book, it’s a search for Barry Allen, but within it is a lot of crazy ideas and really fun adventures. You’re not going to pick up this book and only think, “oh, so they’re looking for Barry.” No, you’re thinking, “Where’s Jai and Irey? What is that behind them in that one panel? Why is Max in the desert?” That’s the joy of doing something with Amancay Nahuelpan.

Nrama: Yeah, talk to us about working with Amancay. There are three different realities that we know the Flash family is going to have to hop between, so what’s the process look like developing those realities with him?

Adams: I’m a child of Star Wars. Aren’t we all? One of the things that was always great about Star Wars was the different environments. That’s definitely something that got in my head. In this book I’m thinking, okay, I want this desert environment. Okay, I want this urban environment. Then we have the environment that has already been established by Josh Williamson when we see Barry in this kind of dreamified Silver Age planet. When you see those colors it’s really going to solidify what that is. I think that’s an issue of Justice League Incarnate?

Nrama: Justice League Incarnate and Infinite Frontier…

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Adams: Yeah, Barry is sitting at a table, and everyone is there and they’re having a meal. You’re like what is this? So we’ve got two environments juxtaposed against that one. 

Working with Amancay, well, he’s not going to get much direction from me, because he’s a genius. The art is always better than what I had in my brain. There’s a scene, for example, in the urban environment, in this city environment, that I said would be cool if it looked sort of like one thing. Then I get it back and I’m like, “Oh, you went crazy. And it’s amazing.”

Nrama: I know what you’re talking about and, yeah, that scene looks incredible.

Adams: It’s great! And the next scene after it, when you see behind the characters and you’re like, who’s that? It’s exciting.

Nrama: It is very exciting. Speaking of characters, there are some really interesting new ones in this book, some alternate versions of Barry Allen. Will we see any of those outside of the Search for Barry Allen?

Adams: I don’t know yet. But I do find myself thinking that some of the character designs might be too cool to just stay there. You know what I mean?  I think there’s one in particular that I’m like, “Oh man, I like that so much.” I will also tell you that there will be characters that probably will come over to the Flash book after this. But they may not be the ones you think. That will be very clear in the next couple issues.

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Nrama: Interesting.

Adams: It’s all about mystery.

Nrama: That’s true. That’s so clear in this book. How do you make a good comic book mystery?  After all, you’ve got so much information to share. How do you pace it out?

Adams: Well, some of the pacing comes from the mysteries ongoing in the actual Flash book proper, whether it’s Linda with her powers or what’s going on at Irongate penitentiary.  I have to postpone those because now that there’s a crisis. So there’s some of that. 

But also, I’m just a huge comic book nerd, so I’ve read innumerable amounts of comics and I know what I like and I know how I like pacing. For the first three books, there are facts I have to roll out, and I want them to feel like when you’re reading a Stephen King novel, and you just got invested in a character, and then you turn the chapter and suddenly you’re with another character now. You’re like, what? What do you mean? I want to know what happens! You want to keep turning the page. I want people to be like, “I don’t understand. I want to get back to this Jesse and Max or Irey and Jai,” so you want to keep reading. That’s what I hope happens here.

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I know that there are going to be a lot of people to pick this up because of Dark Crisis, and this is going to be their first foray into this version of The Flash. I just hope that they have fun and they want to keep reading, even after Dark Crisis.

Nrama: Yeah, it’s a great way to get into Flash, and into the Flash family. To wrap up, I want to go back to the future of the Flash family, like you mentioned before. What’s in store for them?

Adams: I think what this is going to solidify, and you see it in the opening pages is, that the Flash family is, you know, a family. Not a dysfunctional family like the Bat-family, where it’s all anger and curmudgeonly. 

They’re a family that supports each other, and that’s kind of a unique setup. I think Wally’s probably the most well-adjusted hero. He has a wife and has kids and has a job. Is there anybody else? That doesn’t have kids that are assassins?

As you’re coming out of this book, it’s going to solidify the fact that they’ve got your back. Even if you’re on another world, they’re going to come find you. That’s going to carry over. I will tell you, though, there’s going to be a point in the future of the Flash book that the family bond is going to be tested. There’s going to be a moment where… it’s almost like people going off to college. You know, people move on as well.

Nrama: What do you mean by that?

Adams: You’ll just have to see.

Ahead of ‘The Search for Barry Allen,’ be sure to catch up on the best Flash stories of all time.

The post “The Search for Barry Allen” kicks off in Flash #783 appeared first on Game News.

But She-Hulk’s love life won’t be the only obstacle in her path, and the trailer shows off no less than three villains who will appear in the streaming series – one of whom has a known quantity in the MCU for some time, one who has been expected to debut in She-Hulk for a while, and one surprise villain who is about as off-beat and obscure as it gets.

Who are this trio of terror – Abomination, Titania, and Leap-Frog, respectively – and what history do they share with She-Hulk?

Bring on the bad guys, cause we’re looking at the comic book origins of the villains of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.

Abomination

First up, actor Tim Roth appears in the trailer both as Emil Blonsky and his monstrous alter ego the Abomination. Though his only starring appearance was way back in 2009’s The Incredible Hulk (Hulk’s lone MCU solo film), the villain had a cameo in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings under somewhat different circumstances than he finds himself in in the She-Hulk trailer, in which he’s apparently being held captive, possibly awaiting legal defense from She-Hulk herself.

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In comic books, Abomination is one of the Hulk’s most iconic enemies, and one of the first Gamma-powered villains to stand toe-to-toe with Hulk’s physical strength. Like Hulk, Abomination’s incarnations have run the gamut from fiendishly cunning to brutal and monstrous, and he’s often been as much a henchman for other villains as he has an Avengers-level threat in his own right. 

Interestingly enough, Abomination has formed something of his own Gamma legacy in the Marvel Universe, with his specific transformation later informing the Hulked-out physical appearances of Rick Jones/A-Bomb, a spin-off villain named Teen Abomination, and the hideous mutated form of the villain General Fortean, all of whom share Abomination’s scaly, somewhat reptilian features and massive Gamma-powered strength.

Titania

Next up is Titania, played by actor Jameela Jamil, who is seen bursting through the wall of a courtroom, and briefly in combat with She-Hulk. Titania’s MCU debut in She-Hulk has been expected for sometime, and appropriately so, as Titania is the closest thing She-Hulk has to her own arch-nemesis.

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Originally created to round out the villain team of 1985’s Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars with a physically powerful woman, Titania got her immense strength from a machine built by Doctor Doom during the events of the crossover. She quickly found a rival in She-Hulk before branching out into other clashes with other Marvel heroes, earning a one-time reputation as the strongest woman in the Marvel Universe, and even getting married to fellow Hulk villain the Absorbing Man.

Most recently, both Titania and Absorbing Man were part of the Hulk-hunting Gamma Flight task force, turning over a semi-heroic new leaf together in pursuit of a somewhat more stable life as a married couple.

Leap-Frog

Finally there’s Leap-Frog, a total surprise who is also a totally obscure weirdo who usually fights heroes such as Spider-Man and Daredevil. Leap-Frog is just barely glimpsed in the She-Hulk trailer, and we don’t actually know who’s playing him since his mask covers his entire face, and Marvel Studios hasn’t released the show’s full named credits. 

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In comic books, Leap-Frog is the villainous alter ego of failed inventor Vincent Patilio, who wears a special suit that allows him to leap up to six stories in one jump. His son, Eugene Patilio, also wore the suit as Leap-Frog after his father’s retirement, eventually turning over a new leaf (new lily pad?) and joining the now-defunct Avengers Initiative program as a superhero in training.

Leap-Frog’s appearance in She-Hulk may simply come down to Marvel Studios wanting a fun, funky minor league villain who fits the tone of the show for an episode. But considering he’s mostly associated with Daredevil, it’s hard not to speculate whether his appearance could also signal a cameo from She-Hulk’s fellow superhero attorney Matt Murdock, who was officially confirmed as part of the larger MCU in Spider-Man: No Way Home.

She-Hulk premieres August 17 on Disney Plus.

Spoiler warning, but the Abomination, Titania, and Leap-Frog are NOt among the best Marvel supervillains of all time. 

The post She-Hulk will introduce Leap-Frog, Titania, and the Abomination to the MCU appeared first on Game News.

In the Marvel Universe, those words are as ominous as DC’s Crisis on Infinite Earths (opens in new tab) and its spin-offs. The words ‘Secret Wars’ denote a series of events in which Marvel’s reality has been rewritten and remade, and many Marvel characters have had their own stories drastically altered along the way. And now, a Secret Wars event in the Marvel Cinematic Universe may be inevitable, if a less-than-subtle line in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is anything to go by.

In both the original 1985 Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars (opens in new tab) and its 2015 Secret Wars (opens in new tab) spiritual sequel, extra-Multiversal beings set about to monkey around with the very fabric of Marvel’s reality, destroying and creating whole worlds in the process.

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The MCU is diving headlong into its own Multiverse with the burgeoning presence of Kang the Conqueror as a Multiverse-spanning villain, and Kang’s many ‘Variants,’ as well as the current What If…? MCU animated series, which explores alternate worlds. All that, combined with the new MCU lore that Doctor Strange of Earth-838 caused an ‘Incursion’ – combining two worlds and destroying both – is plenty of evidence to suggest a cinematic version of Secret Wars. 

Plus, we know the story is on the minds of at least some Marvel Studios filmmakers, with Avengers: Infinity War (opens in new tab) and Avengers: Endgame (opens in new tab) directors Joe and Anthony Russo namedropping Secret Wars as a story they could hypothetically be enticed to return to Marvel Studios to create.

“I read [Secret Wars] when I was 10 or 11, and it was the scale of getting all of the heroes together,” Joe Russo said in a 2020 interview. “It was one of the first major books to do that – that was really event-storytelling to me at its finest. And what happens when you put all of those personalities together…To execute something on the scale of Infinity War was directly related to the dream of Secret Wars, which is even larger in scale.”

But if Secret Wars was adapted to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, what effect could that have on the MCU going forward? We’re digging into the legacy of Secret Wars – both the 1985 original and the 2015 spiritual sequel – as well as the stories’ effects on the Marvel Universe at large to gain some insight into what it could mean if Secret Wars were brought to the MCU.

Secret Wars (1985)

The original Marvel Super-Heroes: Secret Wars limited series ran from 1985-86, and is considered the first official Marvel crossover event title. Written by then editor-in-chief Jim Shooter with art from Mike Zeck and Bob Layton, Secret Wars was created in conjunction with toy manufacturer Mattel as part of a plan to create a toy line of Marvel heroes alongside a comic book that would simultaneously promote the concept in the mainstream Marvel Universe.

To match the concept, Shooter developed a story in which Marvel’s most popular heroes and villains are transported to another world to be pitted against each other in combat for the entertainment of a mysterious, all-powerful villain known as the Beyonder.

The Beyonder was an omniscient, nigh-omnipotent cosmic being, later revealed to be just one of a whole race of Beyonders, who became fascinated with the heroes and villains of Earth and their conflicts. Summoning members of the Avengers, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, and their foes – most importantly Doctor Doom and Molecule Man – the Beyonder creates a warzone known as Battleworld out of pieces of different parts of Earth and other planets. Setting both factions against each other, the Beyonder promises the winners that he’ll grant their hearts’ desires with his wish-like powers.

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Throughout the 12-issue story, the Beyonder engineers conflicts between the heroes and villains designed to test not just their mettle, but their sensibilities and morality. Through it all, as the heroes attempt to band together and overcome the villains, Doctor Doom makes plans of his own to overthrow the Beyonder and steal his power, manipulating and commanding his evil cohort into following his schemes. 

Central to Doom’s plans is Molecule Man, a particularly unique being who acts as a kind of key to every world in the Marvel Multiverse, and who initially gained his reality-bending powers from the Beyonders (though this wasn’t yet revealed at the time of the original Secret Wars). Doom plans to use Molecule Man as a battery for a machine to steal the power of the Beyonder, which he then plans to use to conquer the Earth.

In the end, the heroes are able to defeat both the Beyonder and Doctor Doom when Molecule Man turns coat and breaks free of Doom’s manipulations. Despite their victory, many of the heroes undergo significant status quo changes as a result of the story.

Most famously, Spider-Man receives a new, all-black costume that turns out to be a living alien symbiote, which tries taking over Peter Parker’s mind before bonding with Peter’s rival Eddie Brock to become the villainous Venom (who has had some major shifts himself over the years).

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Additionally, Secret Wars led to Ben Grimm not only being able to revert to his human form for a time but also exiting the Fantastic Four to remain on Battleworld, while She-Hulk quits the Avengers to take his place on the FF. 

Several new characters are introduced in the story, including She-Hulk’s archenemy Titania; Molecule Man’s wife Volcana; and Julia Carpenter, the second Spider-Woman. And in a few more changes, the X-Men Colossus and Kitty Pryde end their romantic relationship, while the Hulk becomes increasingly savage due to injuries suffered on Battleworld.

A few years later, a sequel titled Secret Wars II (opens in new tab) brought the Beyonder to Earth, reprising some of the themes of the original limited series but without the impact the original had on both readers and the Marvel Universe.

The legacy of the original Secret Wars wouldn’t come back into the Marvel Universe till decades later.

Secret Wars (2015)

In 2015, to mark the 30th anniversary of the conclusion of the original Secret Wars, Marvel launched a new event that served as a true spiritual sequel to the original, while also doing something Marvel had never done before: destroying and rewriting its entire Multiverse, including making some changes to continuity.

In the year leading up to Secret Wars, writer Jonathan Hickman (current head X-Men writer, at least through his upcoming Inferno title) used the titles Fantastic Four, Avengers, and New Avengers to establish a multiversal threat in which different realities were colliding, destroying each other, and shrinking the Multiverse in the process. 

The story, ‘Time Runs Out (opens in new tab),’ led directly to 2015’s Secret Wars from Hickman and artist Esad Ribic, in which the Beyonders, now established as an entire race of beings who exist in the so-called ‘Omniverse’ beyond the bounds of Marvel’s Multiverse, are destroying the entire Multiverse to restart it as a new experiment in creating their own reality. 

To do so, they rely on Molecule Man, the sort of Multiversal ‘key’ who also played a central role in the original Secret Wars. A unique Multiversal being, Owen Reese/Molecule Man is the only person who exists in basically the exact same context and identity in every world of the Multiverse – a Beyonder-empowered time bomb whose abilities can be used to destroy entire worlds at the will of his alien masters.

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But the Multiverse has one unlikely hope in the form of none other than Doctor Doom, the old adversary of the Beyonder from back in the original Secret Wars. Once again teaming with the Molecule Man of the core Marvel 616 Universe, Doom uses his mastery of science and magic to defeat the Beyonders at the moment of the Multiverse’s collapse – only to harness their power to remake the Marvel Universe in his own image as a new Battleworld composed of bits and pieces of dozens of random worlds from the Multiverse.

Aside from a few heroes, including Miles Morales, Peter Parker, and Doom’s hated nemesis Reed Richards who were sequestered in an ‘ark’ that saved them from the destruction, nearly every Marvel character found themselves in totally different identities and status quos on Doom’s Battleworld – with Reed’s wife Sue Richards becoming Doom’s consort, and their children Franklin and Valeria his wards. As a result, Marvel canceled its entire line of titles aside from Secret Wars, replacing all of their titles with stories set in the alternate reality of Battleworld for the length of Secret Wars’ publication.

With Doom ruling Battleworld through the power of Molecule Man serving as his battery (much like the original Secret Wars), the heroes who survived being rewritten launch a plan to defeat Doom and restore the Multiverse to its original form – or at least something close to it. 

In the end, they are victorious, with Miles Morales and Peter Parker freeing Molecule Man from Doom’s clutches, allowing Reed Richards to defeat Doom. Reed and Sue, reunited with each other and with their kids, as well as the students of the Future Foundation, team up with Molecule Man to use his abilities to rebuild the Multiverse itself, staying behind in Battleworld’s extra-dimensional space to complete their mission.

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As with the original Secret Wars, 2015-16’s Secret Wars led to major status quo upheavals for many Marvel characters. First and foremost, Reed, Sue, their kids, and the Future Foundation students are all presumed dead by the larger Marvel Universe thanks to the after-effects of reality being restored. This leads to the end of the Fantastic Four not just as a team, but as a title, with Marvel outright canceling the Fantastic Four, not to return for several years, marking the first long term break in the title since the original Fantastic Four #1 (opens in new tab) launched the Marvel Universe back in 1961.

Additionally, some aspects of Marvel’s Ultimate Universe – one of the worlds destroyed in the lead-up to Secret Wars – are incorporated into the mainstream Marvel Universe, specifically Miles Morales and his supporting cast. Miles has since become a second full-time Spider-Man in the core Marvel Universe alongside Peter Parker, with stints on the Avengers and Champions.

The entire Marvel Universe also underwent a time jump between the end of Secret Wars and the start of the renewed Marvel Universe, which led to many small changes and differences from the place readers last saw many Marvel characters.

Doom, who survived Secret Wars, had his once brutally scarred face healed, leading to his brief reformation as an anti-hero, even using the name Iron Man briefly while Tony Stark was out of commission. And the X-Men and Inhumans went to war over a mutant-killing plague caused by the Inhumans’ Terrigen Mists.

Overall, though it wasn’t technically a full reboot of continuity, Marvel’s 2015-16 Secret Wars is likely the closest the publisher will ever come to a Crisis On Infinite Earths style relaunch – at least as long as the current prevailing philosophy remains in place at Marvel (though the publisher isn’t shy about retconning stories without rewriting continuity, as seen in September 8 2021’s Amazing Spider-Man #73).

Secret Wars in the MCU

If Secret Wars comes to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’ll likely be in a form somewhat like the way Infinity War and Endgame adapted the story of Infinity Gauntlet (opens in new tab), or how Captain America: Civil War (opens in new tab) brought in the themes and concept, though not the specifics, of the comic book Civil War (opens in new tab).

Still, it’s all gotta come down to the Multiverse, the MCU’s new toy, which is at the center of Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

Along with the connections shared by those movies, both of which feature Doctor Strange (if not Spider-Man, in Strange’s film sequel), the advent of the Multiversal Kang the Conqueror as the big villain of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania seems to hint at major turmoil in the MCU Multiverse, given his origins as the source of the MCU Multiverse’s last massive conflict.

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Kang, and whatever Multiversal forces he unleashes, could easily stand in for the Beyonders in an adapted Secret Wars saga that spans numerous realities. While he wasn’t one of the driving factors of the story, Kang was part of the faction of villains in the original Secret Wars (and was also one of the few villains included in the original wave of the Secret Wars toyline).

And, especially if a Battleworld style scenario of different realities butting up against each other were to come to pass, that could provide Marvel Studios the most sought after storytelling Holy Grail of all – a way to top the every-hero-ever cast of Avengers: Endgame by bringing top MCU stars such as Robert Downey Jr and Chris Evans out of their retirement for one last ride, while also opening a door directly to bring in more heroes from the X-Men and Fantastic Four – both of whom had leaders introduced in Multiverse of Madness. 

Adapting Secret Wars could even be a direct conduit to send Peter Parker to Sony’s burgeoning Spider-villain spin-off universe – or bring him back to the MCU for a cameo down the road.

Will it happen? Could even Marvel Studios pull something like that off? Well, given that, when it comes to the cinematic universe they’ve created, Marvel Studios has the omnipotent power of the Beyonders, we wouldn’t put it out of their reach.

Secret Wars – both of them – are among the most impactful Marvel Comics events of all time.

The post Secret Wars in the MCU seems more inevitable than ever appeared first on Game News.

Moon Knight episode 6 finally answers the question viewers have been waiting for, and while we won’t spoil all the details here (you can read on for more about that), the hints the series has been planting all along come to fruition in the show’s finale.

And it seems that many of viewers worst fears about how Lockley could fit into Marc Spector’s life seem to be well-founded – which is a bit of a departure from Lockley’s comic book personality.

In Marvel comics, Jake Lockley plays a specific role in how Moon Knight operates and we’ve got all the answers to your questions about what it could mean for the Moon Knight finale and the future of the character in the MCU.

Who is Jake Lockley?

Originally, Moon Knight’s opposing personalities were depicted as disguises taken up by Marc Spector to further his personal goals as a crimefighter (you can read all about how Marc Spector became the avatar of Khonshu and what that means here).

While the core identity of mercenary Marc Spector remained Moon Knight’s traditional secret identity, he adopted the guise of posh millionaire Steven Grant to hobnob with the white-collar criminals at the top of society’s ladder (a marked difference from Grant’s somewhat timid portrayal in the MCU).

And on the other side of the coin, Spector took on the identity of Jake Lockley, a rough-and-tumble cab driver with his finger on the pulse of the deepest reaches of the seedy underworld and a wealth of criminal connections (not unlike Batman’s alter ego Matches Malone). 

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While undercover as Jake Lockley, Moon Knight developed a network of informants and spies that allowed him to stay one step ahead of his enemies and criminal targets. But at the same time, the addition of Lockley to Spector’s arsenal of disguises marked the start of his deeper struggles with his identity. 

Stretched thin maintaining the ongoing lives of Moon Knight, Steven Grant, Jake Lockley, and of course his core identity cause Marc Spector to start psychologically fraying at the edges, with Khonshu‘s mystical influence complicating things even further. 

Though Moon Knight’s many personalities were initially shown as disguises and alter egos rather than full-on dissociative identities, he eventually broke down with his dormant Dissociative Identity Disorder fully fracturing his mind into separate personalities with their own interior lives, memories, and awareness.

Moon Knight still uses the various skillsets of his different alters as part of his mission, much like he’s also developed different incarnations of his superhero identity such as the ‘Mr. Knight’ persona – but their relationships with one another are consistently evolving, sometimes contentiously.

Jake Lockley in the MCU – spoilers ahead for Moon Knight episode 6

Moon Knight episode 6 wraps up the showdown between the philosophies of Khonshu and Ammit, with Moon Knight and Arthur Harrow (their respective Avatars) finally duking it out in a superhero-size showdown. 

In the end, it seems Marc Spector may be done with Khonshu. And though he initially fears that Khonshu will claim Layla as his new Avatar, something much worse for Spector actually happens – Jake Lockley arrives.

Waiting all the way until the episode’s final scene, Harrow (with the essence of Ammit trapped inside him thanks to the villain’s defeat) is escorted into a car where Khonshu is sitting. As Harrow tells Khonshu he can’t interfere or kill Ammit, Khonshu signals the car’s driver – who turns around to reveal Marc Spector’s face, but who Khonshu introduces as “Jake Lockley.”

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Khonshu states that Marc Spector was much more broken than even Marc himself realized, allowing Khonshu to take on Lockley as the most violent aspect of his Avatar – a role it seems he’s fully fallen into now that the fight against Ammit has ended.

With that, Lockley shoots and kills Harrow, and presumably Ammit with him, and that’s it for the Moon Knight streaming series … at least the first season, anyway. 

In this one act, it seems all the violent outbursts and hidden murders committed by Marc Spector, which were implied to be the product of a hidden, third persona, are seemingly revealed as the work of Jake Lockley, as expected.

Lockley’s emergence may signal bad news for the larger MCU – especially if Khonshu’s bloodthirsty methods are amped up by his brutal new Avatar. The comic book story Avengers: Age of Khonshu may offer some clues to the worst possible outcome of Lockley as Khonshu’s Avatar. 

In that story, Khonshu empowers Moon Knight to take on the entire Avengers, as he tried to remake the world in his image to prevent the rise of the devilish villain Mephisto. Could Jake Lockley’s arrival set up Moon Knight as an actual MCU villain in his next appearance?

We’ll have to wait to see where that is. Moon Knight season 2? A feature film appearance? 

Marvel hasn’t revealed where Oscar Isaac, Moon Knight, and Jake Lockley will show up next, but the final scene makes it pretty clear he’ll be back, perhaps to the detriment of the entire MCU. 

Moon Knight is just one of the new characters coming to the MCU, including Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, Dane Whitman-Black Knight, Jane Foster Thor, America Chavez, Blade, and Eros/Starfox.

The post Who is Jake Lockley? Moon Knights third personality in Marvel comics explained appeared first on Game News.

And since this is comic books we’re talking about, you can bet that Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman, and the rest won’t stay dead forever. Hell, most of them have already come back from the dead at least once.

The idea of heroes returning from the dead has been part of fiction as long as, well, heroes themselves. Even in popular fiction, characters such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes perished on the page, only to return later when time and authorship demanded. In terms of superheroes, the number of villains and minor heroes who seemed to die only to return with little or no fanfare in the early years of the genre is almost uncountable. 

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In the early ’80s, Marvel Comics began popularizing the idea of superhero death and rebirth as a storytelling (and even marketing) tool ‘Dark Phoenix Saga (opens in new tab),’ in which Jean Grey died only to be resurrected a few years later when the course of storytelling demanded it. 

And of course, there’s Marvel’s first-ever graphic novel The Death of Captain Marvel (opens in new tab), from which the title hero, Mar-Vell, has never actually returned. DC didn’t shy away from the idea itself, with the deaths of Barry Allen, the Silver Age Flash, and Kara Zor-El (the original Supergirl) serving as centerpiece moments for the crossover Crisis on Infinite Earths (opens in new tab) – which was, in a way, about the death and rebirth of an entire superhero multiverse and its continuity.

But the concept of superheroes dying and returning from the dead truly took hold in 1992’s landmark story ‘The Death of Superman (opens in new tab)‘ (still some of the highest-selling comic books and then subsequent collections of all time), which took not just the comic industry but mainstream media by storm, leading to fans lining up around the block across the country to purchase copies of what was, at the time, one of the most famous stories ever told in comics.

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This flipped the comic industry on its head, and along with Todd McFarlane’s 1990 relaunch of Spider-Man and then the subsequent 1991 X-Men relaunch by Chris Claremont and Jim Lee, 1992’s ‘Death of Superman’ sent the comic book market into a speculation boom with sales numbers that were (and still are) nearly unheard of – all on the back of the death of one of the most popular characters in fiction.

Readers today can get salty over the fact superheroes dying and returning soon after have become commonplace and a tool to boost sales, fully embracing (and some would say chasing) the industry highs that arrived on the back of the ‘Death of Superman’. 

Still, Newsarama’s most-read and far-reaching articles over the past few years show that, whatever fans may think of the concept, the idea of superheroes like the aforementioned Justice League or the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles dying remains a tried and true way to attract widespread attention and can move units like little else in the comic book industry.

But it all comes back to the ‘Death of Superman’ and its subsequent ‘Funeral for a Friend (opens in new tab)‘ and ‘Reign of the Supermen (opens in new tab)‘ arcs – the collective three-part story that codified the place occupied by superhero death and resurrection in both storytelling and comic book marketing to this day, for fans, publishers, and retailers alike.

The Death of Superman

Though the idea of Superman dying wasn’t brand new in 1992, it was a fresh concept for the era of more interconnected mainstream superhero comics with bigger ongoing arcs, which rarely veer into what DC once called “Imaginary Stories” that don’t factor into the continued narrative of a character. This means that, for the first time, readers, retailers, and even a publisher were faced with what was purported to be the true, real death of a character of Superman’s popularity in mainstream continuity, where it ‘counted.’

At the time of the story, Superman had four separate ongoing titles – Action Comics, Superman, Superman: The Man of Steel, and The Adventures of Superman (a model that would later be copied by Marvel for Spider-Man, eventually leading to the idea of weekly series at both publishers, such as in the current ‘Spider-Man Beyond’ era). ‘The Death of Superman’ stretched through all four of these, as well as Justice League of America (where Superman was a central character) and Green Lantern (one of the first subsequent titles to chase the ‘Death of Superman’ hype for itself).

Throughout November 1992, the issues of the various Superman titles teased the arrival of a monster known as Doomsday – a threat massive enough to scare even the supposedly invulnerable Superman. When Doomsday and Superman finally clashed in Superman #75 (opens in new tab), Superman’s fears were proven completely founded, as the villain managed to beat Superman to death, with the Man of Steel dying in Lois Lane’s arms, surrounded by his allies in the Justice League.

The hype around Superman’s death almost couldn’t have been bigger. Mainstream media outlets published high-profile stories that mourned Superman almost the same way they would cover the death of an important real-world figure.

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Still despite the hype, few comic shop owners or fans held onto the illusion that Superman may stay permanently dead, with some even publicly acknowledging that the story was ultimately a marketing gimmick well before it was published.

“Superman’s death is being done for the same reason that a TV series may throw in a wedding: to give ratings a boost,” stated Don Thompson, then co-editor of Comics Buyer’s Guide, in a September 1992 Newsday article from the time, which was syndicated through numerous major newspapers.

(h/t to Superman fan-site Fortress of Baileytude (opens in new tab) who have archived numerous articles and publications from the time of the ‘Death of Superman’).

That same article quotes retailer Glenn Fischette of Fourth World Comics in Smithtown, New York (still open, and still owned and operated by Fischette (opens in new tab)), who told the publication “I wouldn’t be surprised, and I heard this from someone else in the industry, if they reconstructed him and brought him back even more powerful.”

Then as now, however, this inherent skepticism to the genre trappings of superhero comics did little to curtail sales of Superman #75 and the subsequent milestone issues of the story. 

Fans flocked to retailers, lining up and waiting to hoard multiple copies of the death of Superman which, it was widely believed, would undoubtedly skyrocket in value. Few fans made their fortunes reselling those millions of copies, but retailers – who collectively moved the mind-boggling number of over six million copies of Superman #75, including variant editions – managed to make a mint for themselves and for DC, putting the burgeoning speculation boom into overdrive and sending fans flocking to buy any and all comic books they perceived could appreciate in value.

Superman – Funeral for a Friend

Just about everyone who doesn’t actually live in the DC Universe was of the understanding that Superman would return. But in the DC Universe, Superman’s death was feared to be permanent and was as momentous an occasion among Kal-El’s fellow heroes as it was among fans and retailers in the real world.

The arc immediately following Superman’s death was titled ‘Funeral for a Friend,’ and dealt with exactly what the title implies – the effect on the world of the loss of its greatest protector, and the impact of both Superman’s life and death on his fellow superheroes.

The emotional tragedy of the larger story doesn’t stop at Superman’s death, and in fact, only ramps up in ‘Funeral for a Friend’. In the wake of Superman’s death, Metropolis is overrun by a wave of crime that even a team of heroes funded by Superman’s former foe Lex Luthor can’t overcome, while Superman’s closest friends – and even some enemies – begin wearing black armbands with Superman’s logo on them to openly display their mourning.

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But it all caps off with Superman’s human father, Jonathan Kent, suffering a potentially fatal heart attack, a compounded horror for those closest to Clark Kent just as they’re already caught up in Clark’s death.

In the real world, DC took another relatively unprecedented move in the wake of Pa Kent’s death (pun not intended), suspending all four of Superman’s ongoing titles for several months to prolong any chance at maintaining some surprise in Superman’s return by delaying the publication of solicitation text that would undoubtedly give away the timeframe in which he was planned to come back, if not how it would happen (something that has only become more prevalent for modern readers thanks to the rapid turnaround of the entertainment news cycle).

This had the added impact of delaying readers’ knowledge of whether Pa Kent had died or not till after the break, when it was revealed that he was still alive, but comatose – and that in his coma, he had a vision of Clark, telling him to return.

‘Funeral for a Friend’ wraps up with the arrival of four new heroes, each claiming the right to be Superman (or even that they truly are the original Superman, returned) – and the reveal that Superman’s grave is empty.

Reign of the Supermen

Following ‘Funeral for a Friend,’ DC turned to another tried-and-true superhero concept by replacing Kal-El in the mantle of Superman – sort of. This idea was, again, nothing totally new for superheroes. Just a few years prior, in the ’80s, Marvel Comics had a whole wave of replacement heroes taking on established mantles, from John Walker becoming Captain America, to James Rhodes becoming Iron Man, and more. 

And at DC, that idea was even more baked in thanks to the publisher having rebooted many of its Golden Age heroes (such as the aforementioned Green Lantern and Flash) as totally new characters in the ’50s and ’60s to kick off the superhero resurgence of the Silver Age – with the Silver Age Flash himself, Barry Allen, having been permanently replaced by his protégé/sidekick Wally West a little less than a decade before Superman’s death.

But true to the story’s nature, the third chapter in the saga, ‘Reign of the Supermen,’ kicked things up a notch by replacing Kal-El with not one but four heroes – Superboy, Cyborg Superman, Steel, and the Eradicator – each occupying one of the four Superman ongoing titles, while each also claiming to be the rightful heir to Superman’s legacy. 

If you were a Superman fan at the time, you undoubtedly had a favorite from among the four, all of whom have stuck around in one form or another since their introductions, with Superboy and Steel embarking on superhero careers that forged their own legacies, Eradicator and Cyborg Superman have remained recurring villains, owing to their secret malicious nature which was hidden when ‘Reign of the Supermen’ first started.

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The idea was so popular that it even spun off into a video game titled The Death and Return of Superman, in which players took control of Kal-El until his death, and then played through the rest of the game as the four Supermen – until Superman’s inevitable return, just as in comics.

Nowadays, it’s perfectly common for multiple heroes to use the same codename – there are two Supermans, two Batmans, two Captain Americas, two Spider-Mans, who knows how many Green Lanterns, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. But in 1993, the idea of having four different versions of Superman all running around, even competing for the right to be Superman, was a fresh twist on the concept of legacy heroes.

But Superman himself had to return eventually – few folks who followed the story, be they readers, retailers, or even some of the creators, held onto the illusion that Superman’s death could be permanent.

Before the story actually even started, then Superman line editor Mike Carlin stated in a faux-obituary, published in now-defunct comic distributor Capital Distributors solicitation catalog Advance Comics (h/t to Fortress of Baileytude again), that fans should recognize the possibility that Superman may come back from the dead.

“We don’t really know what death means to a Kryptonian,” Carlin stated at the time. “Never say we wouldn’t kill Superman, never say we wouldn’t bring him back.”

And of course, that’s exactly what happened – Superman returned with a slightly redesigned costume (the infamous mullet haircut), and after a short while resumed his life as the protector of Metropolis and the greatest hero of the DC Universe, while both his fans and his DC Universe contemporaries readjusted to his presence, after almost a full year of absence. 

Superman Returns

Superman’s full return arrived in Adventures of Superman #505 (opens in new tab), but by the time it was on shelves, the sales bubble of ‘The Death of Superman’ had somewhat peaked with Adventures of Superman #500 (opens in new tab), the issue in which Superman was initially planned to return before that aspect of the story was delayed. 

Still, the impact on the industry as a whole – in terms of both the expectations of fans when a superhero dies or is retired and on the way comic books are marketed to mainstream audiences that drive larger sales numbers – had already taken place by the time the Superman bubble burst and the story went back to business as usual. 

DC immediately chased the spike caused by a ‘death and return’ type plot by killing off or retiring and replacing Green Lantern, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Arrow, and others all in rapid succession, with varying levels of sales and story success, and Marvel followed suit in its own ways.

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And in the years since its publication, the ‘Death of Superman’ has become one of the Man of Steel’s most enduring stories, having been adapted as the aforementioned video game, a pair of animated films, multiple prose novels, several spiritual comic book sequels, and of course serving as a main plot point in the story of the films Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (opens in new tab) and Justice League (opens in new tab).

The trend started by Superman’s death and return continues to this day, with DC even specifically repeating itself on this year’s 30th anniversary of Superman’s death in Superman #75. April’s Justice League #75 is slated to kill off nine major DC heroes, including Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, John Stewart, Martian Manhunter, Zatanna, Black Canary, Green Arrow, and Hawkgirl (one of whom, we don’t know who, will survive the deadly mission that kills the rest).

But unlike 1992’s ‘Death of Superman’, DC is taking a slightly different tactic with its marketing, with writer Joshua Williamson doing his best to sell readers on the idea that these heroes, and the Justice League they once formed, will be dead and gone for some time to come (even we’re somewhat skeptical of what it all means).

Whatever happens, one thing is for certain – the story reporting on April’s ‘Death of the Justice League’ has been one of the most widely read and shared articles Newsarama has published in years, and nearly everyone, long time reader and non-comic fan alike, has some level of reaction to the news of the impending death of DC’s greatest heroes.

‘The Death of Superman’ altered comics forever, but it took some major cues from Todd McFarlane’s 1990 launch of Spider-Man #1.

The post Death of Superman changed the game for superhero death 30 years ago appeared first on Game News.

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In fact, artist Ribic’s work has such a strong impact on the film, at least one shot shown in the trailer is taken almost directly from one of Ribic’s panels from Thor: God of Thunder.

What’s more, though we haven’t seen his official look for movies, Ribic is the co-creator of Gorr the God Butcher. He’s also the artist who designed Jane Foster’s costume as Thor as well as drawing her first appearance wielding Mjolnir in Thor: God of Thunder #25 (opens in new tab), before the secret identity of the new Thor was even revealed as Jane Foster.

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After Ribic’s run on Thor: God of Thunder, artist Russell Dauterman took over as the main artist of Aaron’s 2014 launching volume of the simply titled Thor (opens in new tab), with Jane Foster in the title role, as well as the subsequent volume, Mighty Thor (opens in new tab), which concluded Jane’s story as Thor (though she’s picking Mjolnir back up in comics just in time for the release of Love and Thunder this summer). Dauterman put his own spin on Jane’s look as Thor, as well as redefining a sci-fi influenced, high fantasy look for Asgard and its inhabitants.

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The influence of both Ribic and Dauterman’s art on Thor: Love and Thunder, down to the direct recreation of some of Ribic’s work on Thor: God of Thunder, highlights just how crucial the design and storytelling work by comic artists is to the process of creating superhero movies.

Jane Foster is just one of the heroes who are worthy of wielding Mjolnir.

The post This Thor: Love and Thunder trailer shot is taken directly from Marvel comics appeared first on Game News.