They've Arrived... To Tell You What To Applaud!

Just too, too many books for one Adorable Baby Panda, so the whole Panda Squad parachuted in to lend their aid. They are a rough, tough, dedicated group of comics' readers, but damn if they didn't eat all my ice cream.

Sigh. What've you got for us, roly-polys?

Respect Your Elders! To Peter Parker, for defending notorius thief The Black Fox from Doctor Doom, even though Doom just tore Websy up. What took Morlun multiple issues, Doom did in about, oh, eleven pages. And most of that was Spidey running for his life.

And while we're at it, hugs to Victor von Doom, for not taking the theft of his mother's keepsake lying down. This is a man who loves his mother. {Not that way! Who are you, Deadpool?}

Using The Whole Deck. To Fabian Nicieza. Marvel may not have the character library DC has, but there are plenty of characters who don't get enough love, and Nicieza's the one most consistently giving it to them. Diamonback? Asp? Prestor John? Solo? I hadn't seen him since those sporadic appearances in Amazing Spider-Man back in the pre-Clone Saga days, but there he is, working with the Six Pack.

Friends Take Bullets For Friends. To Deadpool, for taking a gunshot to the head for Cable. Granted, he was the one doing the shooting, but still...

And also, panda love to the New Warriors. Whether Firestar stays to help Marvel Boy through his trial, or the team agreeing to go to South America to help Speedball check on his mom, or Marvel Boy stopping Nova from punching Night Thrasher, they had each others' backs. That's what friends are for right? {No, I will not break into song. You go to hell.}

Fashion! To Frank Castle, for sporting a stylish red headband. Because nothing draws attention away from the Kevlar-protected, attention-grabbing skull, like a bright red piece of fabric tied around an unprotected part of your body! {Seriously, I tried to explain this to the ABPs, and was roundly shouted down. They insist it's cool. Baby pandas, what you gonna do?}

Sometimes, the Greatest Heroes Are Those Who Endure. For Edwin Jarvis, who put up with Hercules, and retained enough sanity to see the Son of Zeus was crushing a poor boy's spirit. {Hey, Hercules is Greek, the kid should be glad spirit-crushing is the worst that happened! Deadpool, get out of these notes! Only I can use them! Save the fourth wall breaking for your book!}

Obsession, In A Kind Way. Because Armor Wars-Tony Stark, despite being a law-breaking, double-crossing loony, went out of his way not to hurt innocent people. Wanted to keep unarmored SHIELD agents out of his Mandroid skirmish, gave The Captain a light tazing so he could finish the Guardsmen, fired himself so his Stark employees wouldn't be affected, and worked to keep Rhodey out of the line of fire as often as possible. Still nuts, but not "Clone Thor and beat Captain America senseless" nuts.

Toughness. Power Girl grabbed hold of Sand's body, and dragged him to the surface... from 200 miles under it. That's well into the Earth's mantle, so we're talking about liquid hot magma and all that. Adorable Baby Pandas, salute!

Oh, and the pandas would like Barry Windsor-Smith to know that just because they hid under my bed while reading Iron Man #232, that does not mean his art made the issue a scary story. Nope, they weren't scared at all. Until I turned off the lights and started moving towards their hiding place. Slowly, slowly...BOO!

The next thing I remember is waking up bruised, with all my ice cream gone. Little guys got no sense of humor...