It's There, If You Look Hard Enough

Hobgoblin of 2211, huh? Well, it's nice to see Peter David remembers a one-shot crossover between Spider-Man and Spider-Man of 2099. Of course, he wrote, so I guess that explains it. Still, I didn't come here today to complain about how horrible Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #8 was. No, see I have reason to believe that the events of that issue are symptomatic of something greater, something that's been building since before House of M, and was only exacerbated by that event. Let's look at some events of the last 18 months or so (not in chronological order, my memory's not that good):

Spider-Man meets an Uncle Ben from an alternate universe where Aunt May was the "parent" Peter lost, not Ben. Ben has arrived in this universe by means unknown, and indeed, he wasn't even aware of the trip until reaching his "home". But he didn't arrive alone. At the same time he meets Ben, Peter is attacked by a Hobgoblin from the future, though whether from the 616 universe or not, we don't know. . .

The Scarlet Witch brings Jack-of-Hearts back from the dead, to blow up Ant-Man, causes the Vision to give birth to Ultrons, the She-Hulk to go berserk, the Kree to pop up (well, maybe they took advantage of the situation she provided), and then remade history under her brother's desires. Then she remade it again, screwing around with the abilties of who knows how many people, possibly including. . .

Layla Miller, who I would absolutely swear has different powers now than she did during House of M. She's gone from a form of telepathy to some sort of reality-altering (between the precognitive sense, and whatever she did with that butterfly) ability, which is interesting because reality seems to be kind of fractured when you consider. . .

Nocturne, the child of an alternate universe's Nightcrawler and Scarlet Witch(?), and the Juggernaut reappear in the X-Mansion after last having been seen being sucked into the black hole (gateway?) in Zorn's head (the "real" Zorn, not Magneto pretending). They're brought back courtesy of dimension spanning media mogul, Mojo. The two have since joined New Excalibur where. . .

They've battled "evil" X-Men, who have, again, appeared with no explanation, and with uncertain goals. Dazzler has died, come back to life within the same night, and died again, again no explanation for her resurrection, but she has been known to do some dimension-hopping herself. They've fought a Black Tom that looks totally human, and is back to channeling his energy through his shillelagh. No big deal, except he hasn't looked like that since Cable shot him during their fight in the World Trade Center in X-Force #4, back in 1991. Since then he'd been moving towards a tree state, and looked a lot like an Ent the last time we saw him (when Juggernaut and Nocturne got sucked into the gateway). Again, no explanation as of yet for this unmetamorphosis. Plus, it's a book with Captain Britain, who's just one of several spread out across the Marvel Multiverse, and he's the brother of. . .

Psylocke, who mysteriously returned from death, without explanation. Since then, we've found out it was through the actions of her other brother, reality warping Jamie Braddock. He brought her back to life, but also supposedly made her immune to the effects of people with reality-warping/magical powers (though she wasn't immune to the Scarlet's Witch's hexes, go figure). Before he can explain why he did this, he's grabbed by some weird things that spirit him away. It's interesting that Jamie mentioned Proteus because. . .

Proteus has been hopping from one universe to the other, stealing bodies and causing havoc. The Exiles have been chasing him around, trying to stop him, and causing almost as much havoc, seeing as they keep taking people from universes that are supposed to stay, if they aren't getting those people outright killed. And pretty soon, the Exiles are going to land in Heroes Reborn Universe, which is pretty funny because. . .

Jeph Loeb is planning to do a big event (no I won't type the name of the other person involved!) concerning the return of this Universe, including Onslaught, who seemed to have the ability between his magnetic and psionic abilties to give the appearence of altering reality, or at least perception of reality. Given all the crap that went down when he showed up, this could be huge, and have potentially wide ramifications, which means we might see a certain bald fellow, named. . .

Uatu, the Watcher, who actually did show up - AGAIN, for reasons unknown - while Jamie Braddock was telling Betsy everything he could about what he did and why. That suggests something huge is in the air, and that's only amplified when you add in that. . .

He also showed up in Civil War #1. Could a bunch of heroes squabbling about whether to do what the goverment says really be important enough Uatu wants a front row seat? Or is he just trying to see what everyone is doing to prepare for something else that's on it's way? Is he seeing how these heroes bicker, whereas the Heroes Reborn may all work together?

Then add in these other elements from the last few years if you wish:

Emma Frost joins the X-Men, and only Shadowcat seems to be bothered by this. Keep in mind that when the Beyonder erased all evidence/knowledge of the New Mutants from existence, Shadowcat was the only one who remembered, due to some connection she had with Illyana (throw in token Claremont and closet lesbianism joke), who used portals to another realm to teleport.

It turns out that before Xavier recruited Wolverine, Storm, Colossus, etc., he tried to use McTaggert's students to rescue his from Krakoa. This has apparently been hidden from all the other X-Men, except Cyclops, who had forgotten until now. The survivor, Kid Vulcan, seems considerably more powerful than the last time anyone saw him.

Apocalypse is back from the dead. Sunfire, now Famine, is in his Age of Apocalypse outfit.

Colossus is not dead.

Peter Parker and Dr. Strange are thrown out of time, forcing Peter to relive his entire life from when the spider bit him, as well as witness his end. Dr. Strange actually has to relive his life, with things going much differently.

The Black Panther's origin is different that it was before. Ditto Tony Stark.

Bucky is not dead. Furthermore, Captain America now has memories of World War 2 that he apparently never had before.

Dr. Doom has somehow escaped from Hell, in the process ditching the mystical armor made of his dead love's skin.

A "D. Blake" (no word on his progress through med school) is on his way to the place Thor's hammer made planetfall.

She Hulk went on trial for trying to alter the timeline.

It seems Wanda's two "children" may have been "reborn" in two other children's bodies.

The Sentry seems to alter reality (at least as it relates to him) simply by thinking about it, including making the entire world forget about him.

Put all together, this gives the strong impression that the walls of the 616 reality have been seriously frayed by people doing mass alterations of this or that. And in the process, this has weakened the barriers that serve to keep the various universes of the multiverse separate. Thus you get all these weird duplicates, people reverting to earlier stages, origins changing, people who seem to be returning from the dead, may actually be getting replaced by versions from other realities, knowingly or not. In some cases, they're integrated seamlessly; in others, not so much. It sounds a bit like Post-Crisis DC, only it's being done mostly under the table.

Whew, that was a lot of stuff. Give me a minute. . . OK, I'm good to go.

I was talking about this with Len on Friday (not to this extent, a lot of stuff occured to me last night and even while typing this post), talking about how the pattern seems to be developing, and that you could see parts of it here and there in different comics. Len called it "good continuity", which probably explains why I'm so freaked out about this. But he's right because pieces are being placed; one in this comic here, another in that comic there. The more of them you read, the more you begin to see it. At the same time, it doesn't feel like the standard "Collect all 87 connected issues of this event!" cash grab, because none of the issues totally explain what's happening. They merely serve to strengthen the feeling that something is getting ready to happen.

Does that mean everything I mentioned is connected? Hell no, and there is probably plenty of other stuff that might fit in I have no idea about because I don't buy all Marvel comics. Is it really conceivable that ham-handed dumbass Joe Quesada could be setting the pieces in place for something like this, and the most we've heard about it is that, yes Chris Claremont will be taking Psylocke with him to Exiles, and yes, Loeb and that Other Guy will be doing Heroes Reborn? No gloating about how this will totally blow the "Dimwitted Competition" out of the water? That something like this could occur, when the majority of it isn't taking place in books written by Bendis or Millar?

Probably not. Lets face it, a lot of the stuff I listed up there is of questionable quality as stories, so it could just be an example of the artistic quagmire (I may not do introductory paragraphs, but let it never be said I can't turn a phrase!) Marvel has been in lately. Still, the mere thought that Marvel may actually have been quietly building this up, and not trumpeting it from the ramparts, or letting Wizard do a Twenty Questions style feature on what's going to happen, well, it's got me feeling pretty good actually.

Still doesn't change the fact that Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #8 sucked. Still, in the spirit of magnanomosity, I shall upgrade it from 0.9 out of 5, to an even 1.0!

. . .

Wait, back up. Doom made mystical armor, out of his dead lover's skin?! Seriously? Victor von Byrne, I know you have an incredible scientific mind, are a dab hand at magic, and a beloved ruler of a small Eastern European country. I know you stole the Beyonder's power, and to question you is to court Death. All the same, that is fucked up man. Do not make me send my mother to beat you down. She'll make what Bizarro did to Human Bomb look like pattycake.

. . .

Last thought. There is one thing that could ruin my good feelings about this, whatever it is. If the reveal turns out to be that the Sentry punched the walls of reality. Then all bets are off as to the body count that will ensue.