Sunday Splash Page #384

"Test Case", in New Warriors (vol. 1) #2, by Fabian Nicieza (writer), Mark Bagley (penciler), Al Williamson (inker), Andy Yanchus (colorist), Michael Heigler (letterer)

Aw yeah, now this is my jam. For the next several weeks, it's Sundays for the '90s!

The second issue of New Warriors was my first encounter with the team. I don't think I knew anything about any of the characters prior to that, so they were all new to me.

(Possible exception: I might have gotten Namor the Sub-Mariner #6 in the same batch of comics as this issue, so I would have had two introductions to Namorita.)

Other than Night Thrasher, all of them were pre-existing characters. Nova had his own series for two years in the '70s, Namorita appeared off and on in Namor's books. Firestar fought the X-Men and the New Mutants, courtesy of Emma Frost's excellent mentorship. Marvel Boy (or a version of him) was part of the Guardians of the Galaxy, off saving the Solar System of the 30th Century. Speedball was the most recent creation, and he'd gotten a 10-issue series a couple of years prior.

Again, I knew none of that going in, though Nicieza covers a lot in the first issue. Nova lost his powers, but they were really just buried deep inside. Firestar was trying to hide her abilities, Marvel Boy wanted to join the Avengers but got turned down. Namorita's in college, outspoken about environmental issues, and not hiding who she is. Speedball gets the biggest makeover from the absolute square he was under Ditko, as Nicieza turns him into a hyper-active chatterbox, looking for an escape from his parents' tense marriage.

But let's look at the new character, because in many ways, the 25 issues that mark Fabian Nicieza and Mark Bagley's tenure as creative team are about Night Thrasher's arc. The first issue establishes he's high-tech enough to hack the Massachusetts Academy's files to learn about Firestar (and SHIELD's to learn about Nova), but street-level enough to pay a hot dog cart guy to let him know who enters and leaves Avengers Mansion. Ruthless enough to blackmail Firestar into meeting him, or drop Nova off a roof on the chance the stress will trigger his powers (if not, Rich is street pizza), and enough of a dick not to apologize for it after. (He does apologize to Firestar, but phrases it like Nova and Marvel Boy were part of it.) He's also flexible enough not to fight it when his 4-person team picks up two more members during an impromptu fight against a, Terrax homunculus, basically.

His costume is black armor, with some red on the helmet, the belt, the pouches to break it up. Plus, the entirely unnecessary ribbon around his thigh. He carries a variety of weapons, and yes, he's a black character with a skateboard, but it was the early '90s, and I tell you, the skateboard was a major point in his favor with me - nerdy white kid from the 'burbs - as far as making Night Thrasher seem "cool."

The second issue delves more into Dwayne Taylor's backstory, what's driving (and eating) at him. It also sets the tone for a lot of the interactions between he and the rest of the team over the Nicieza/Bagley run. Dwayne's basically Batman. His parents were gunned down when he was a kid, and he's devoted the family fortune to fighting against the kind of people that would do that. He's intense, driven, not always in control of his temper. Given he's in his early 20s, it makes a certain amount of sense he's not always calm and collected, especially given revelations that come later.

Critically, he's not the best with other people. He tends to push them, or expect them to fall in line with what he thinks or wants, and doesn't keep his equilibrium when they don't. And either because Batman's dealing with Justice Leaguers who are a little older than the Warriors, or because Nicieza's not as committed to making excuses for Night Thrasher's behavior as writers are with Dickhead Batman, Dwayne's teammates don't take his outbursts and controlling tendencies with as much equanimity. Nova, in particular, pushes back, loudly. Maybe because he's got experience fighting wars in outer space, or because when you're used to flying full speed through obstacles like a human rocket, you don't do tact. Or maybe it was the whole "dropping him off a roof" thing.

The other Warriors are quieter, but no less capable of sticking to their ideals. Marvel Boy's typically got a well-researched and prepared argument for why they should do something. Namorita's level-headed, but also seems to best understand the code driving Dwayne. Maybe that's the result of seeing her mother killed in front of her. Nita's more likely to butt heads with Marvel Boy ideologically than Night Thrasher. When Thrasher seems ready to make deals with drug lords to get information he needs about dirty crap his company's been involved in, Firestar and Speedball are the ones who object to the ends justifying the means, and they not only don't back down, they sway Nova to their side (Nita and Marvel Boy are not present at the time.)

So Night Thrasher quits. More accurately, he declares the team disbanded and goes looking for answers alone. The rest of the team promptly ignores him and keeps doing their own thing. When they start to piece things together from another direction, their paths cross, and Dwayne has to not only rely on, but act to save these people who've become his friends. You can see the halting steps he makes in that direction at earlier points, especially when it comes to Speedball. His mentor, Chord, opines at one point Speedball is useless until he learns to actually control his powers. Dwayne's response is a hesitant remark that the, 'others seem to like him.' He might agree with Chord from a tactical standpoint, but he sees the value Speedball's lighter personality brings, maybe even to himself.

Outside Night Thrasher's broad arc of trying to emerge from a past that turned him towards vengeance, there are several other threads. It's the early '90s, so there are a couple of stories about the environment. One where Roxxon plans to dispose of nuclear waste by shooting it at the Moon (killing the Inhumans in the process), another where an environmental group has super-powered agents attacking and killing logging operations in the rainforest.

Nicieza and Bagley do a 3-issue "Days of Future Past" involving a new version of Nova's old enemy the Sphinx. Although a 3-issue test run for Age of Apocalypse might be more accurate, since it involves Sphinx rewriting the past to create a different present. It doesn't entirely make sense to have Captain America and Iron Man analogues in a world where Egypt dominates, but as narrative shorthand for the conflict a young Nova feels about risking his position as the token white guy on this version of the Avengers to do what his heart says is the right thing, it works.

Firestar gets a chance to confront Emma Frost and tell her to get lost. (Emma would, of course, repeatedly ignore this over the next few decades. Definitely a person to let be around kids!) Speedball makes some halting steps towards improving control of his abilities, even getting to punch a more-complete Terrax through a skyscraper. Namorita, while generally the one doing the best job keeping her shit together (she has real Cool Older Sister vibes in this stretch), also gets to show hints of how out-of-place she feels above and below the sea. Not truly at home in either, but trying to make it work.

The biggest single story is the trial of Marvel Boy. Vance, in the process of protecting himself from his abusive, bigoted father, kills his dad and is put on trial for it. Despite getting Foggy Nelson as a defense attorney, and having the Thing as a character witness, Vance is found guilty. It's especially rough since, with the whole mess with Night Thrasher reaching a crescendo, Firestar's the only member of the Warriors there to have his back. (Though that does play into their burgeoning romance, which would carry through the next 15 or so years before they split up.)

The team picks up a couple of new members partway through in Darkhawk and Rage, although neither is on the team long enough at this stage to do much. Well, Rage helps them steal a Quinjet and lie to the Cambodian Air Force. That was pretty cool! Silhouette, another new character and part of Dwayne's past, doesn't necessarily get a pronounced arc. When introduced, she seems to have settled into a quiet life, coping with the loss of the use of her legs. After crossing paths with Dwayne again, she's drawn into his world, and learns a few things about her past in the process of helping him with his own. I don't know if she gets closure, since the revelations open up new cans of worms, but she gains some connections. She'd shunned her brother, so her world might have been pretty lonely. Like Dwayne, the Warriors are a new family.

The costumes, never Bagley's strength, are a mixed bag. We already discussed Night Thrasher's. Bagley sticks to Firestar's original look, and Marvel Boy's costume is initially just Vance Astro's, but with a cape. Later, he ditches the cowl to let the hair flow freely. Maybe Speedball was feeling self-conscious as the only guy with flowing locks (the only real change to his costume from Ditko's design is the hair's longer.)

Namorita rocks a variety of green swimsuits, minus a few issues where she wears some Atlantean blood revenge armor. There's no mention of separate male and female versions of the armor, but I can't picture Namor wearing it. Still, it has a jagged and organic look that would suggest is was made from coral or shell and sharkskin or something similar. Nova's look is the biggest change. Initially, the red-and-yellow version seen above, it later shifts to something approximating the color scheme of Wolverine's tan-and-brown costume, before ultimately going back to the blue with yellow starbursts on the chest. So, kind of a mixed bag.

Bagley's strengths are, as usual, the clarity with which he depicts action and emotion. He never does anything flashy with page layouts, but conveys a lot with faces or body language. Thrasher broods a lot, rarely demonstrative (until late in the run where he feels like his life is falling apart), where Nova is constantly leaning into people's space, waving his fist in their face. Speedball tends to perch on stuff when his powers are active (the easier to fall off and trigger the kinetic field, I assume), but slouches a lot when he's regular Robbie Baldwin. Namorita walks or stands confidently. Chin up, calm, whereas Firestar is more tentative, almost hugging herself when she's getting caught up in her thoughts. Even when there's over a dozen characters involved in a fight, Bagley knows when to pull back and show the full battlefield, and when to zoom in on just a couple of characters.

I wasn't buying comics monthly back then, so I would have only picked up issues here and there. Still, this run stuck with me. Probably because they were younger heroes, closer to my age (although even Speedball was still several years my senior), but not true kids like the Power Pack, and not a "minor league" team, like the New Mutants or, to an extent, X-Force. The New Warriors were their own group. No telepathic bald guy inviting them to his school, or turning them into footsoldiers in his private war like Cable. Thrasher might have tried that, but he was in the same age cohort as the rest of them, he couldn't pull it off. They were a team because they wanted to be, but they still got to argue and disagree and almost fight each other sometimes. But crucially, they could do those things and still save the day. Nova did call in the Fantastic Four to help against Terrax (and the FF called in the Silver Surfer), but for the most part, the Warriors handle things themselves. They get to be good heroes, but still with their own causes and ideals they're passionate about.  

Random Back Issues #110 - New Warriors #8

Yes, Nova, fly through a rainforest while you're on fire. Maybe you used that bucket as a battering ram once too often.

This was the comic I was actually supposed to review last week, but for some reason when I was shifting longboxes, I stopped too soon. For this 3-parter, most of the roster's in Brazil, helping Speedball track down his mother, an actress that's joined with an environmental group called Project: Earth. There was a news report the group was attacked, with most of the the inner circle being kidnapped.

Or not. The leader, Omar Barrenos, staged that with Speedball's mother's theatrical expertise, to discredit the developers tearing down the rainforest. Even if that works in the long-term, in the short-term Barrenos has another plan: attack the developers, corporations and the Brazilian government directly with his own super-group, Force of Nature!

Woof. Not even the real Plant-Man, a 14th-rate Inhuman and a guy Walt Simonson used as one of the loser villains in his Acts of Vengeance tie-ins for Fantastic Four. I think Firewall's new, but I'm also not sure if she ever appeared again. More likely the codename got handed to some vaguely internet-themed bad guy later in the '90s.

Since this is the middle chapter, the Warriors got trounced before they even know what's happening. At least they had time to discuss the diversity of life in the rainforest, and why the developers would be cutting it down. Although Namorita's oddly understanding of the developers' position. possibly because the humidity is making her woozy? How is too much moisture in the air messing with her? To make matters worse, Speedball promised on behalf of the entire team to help Barrenos! Nicieza does have Nova (the one usually most annoyed by Robbie) be the only team member conscious at the time, so that Speedball explains to him. The Human Rocket shows unusual maturity in backing him up.

That's the B-plot, though. The main story revolves around Night Thrasher and his old flame Silhouette. A pastor friend of hers is being attacked by the Bengal (who Nicieza introduced in a fill-in issue of Daredevil he and Ron Lim did during Nocenti's run). Thrasher did pretty well against the Bengal, but then the Punisher showed up, rocking a long-tailed headband like either Rambo or Ryu from Street Fighter, wanting to ask Sil some questions.

The fight's narrated by Frank, who goes from mocking Night Thrasher for his bullet-proof skateboard to thinking maybe he needs one after he gets cut a couple of times by its razor edge. Frank's losing in close fighting, but manages to get enough space to do use the Budda Budda Budda style of Gun-Fu. Thrasher's armor keeps him alive, and with a few unbroken ribs, and Frank's injured enough to have to bail in his voice-activated battle van.

While Frank patches himself up - with stitches that will 'leave scars like the Appalachians' - his van's computer analyzes Dwayne's armor. All the money Punisher puts into guns, Thrasher put into that suit, which is bullet-proof (mostly), knife-proof, fire-proof, punch-proof. Which makes the Punisher wonder, in a startling lack of self-awareness, what could make a kid do that to himself? He's also left wondering what's in the shielded compartment on Night Thrasher's back.

Meanwhile, Dwayne and Sil are getting the pastor's story. He served in 'Nam. His unit gunned down and destroyed an entire village, save one kid who tried to climb on the chopper, only for this guy to kick the kid until he fell back into the jungle. Now the kid is back as a grown man, ready to stab someone, and Night Thrasher's not so sure he wants to protect this guy any longer.

That's about when the Punisher crashes his van through the church's front door, stunning everyone long enough for him to put a gun to Silhouette's head. Seems oddly destructive for Frank. Not putting a gun to the head of someone he thinks might be a crook, the driving into a church part. At least he finds out what Thrasher was hiding.

There's also a little over one page devoted to a) Emma Frost trying to find out who got access to her computer database, and b) a mysterious woman up to something in a pyramid.

{7th longbox, 195th comic. New Warriors (vol. 1) #8, by Fabian Nicieza (writer), Mark Bagley (penciler), Larry Mahlstedt (inker), Andy Yanchus (colorist), Joe Rosen (letterer)}

Saturday Splash Page #77

 

"Clint Barton's Big Mouth of Madness," in Thunderbolts 2000, by Fabian Nicieza (writer), Norm Breyfolge (artist), Joe Rosas (colorist), Comicraft's Jason L. (letterer)

Set during the first few months of Nicieza's run as writer of Thunderbolts, Clint Barton's approached by an associate of Daimon Hellstrom's with a message: Mockingbird's soul is trying to contact Hawkeye from where she's trapped in Mephisto's realm. Hawkeye recognizes Hell is probably not a place for his morally compromised team to go, and tries to handle it alone. His team, naturally, choose to follow anyway. Atlas gets himself in debt to the Enchantress to get an audience with Pluto so he'll open a doorway, and Moonstone brings a pair of Clint's underwear so Pluto can create a "sympathetic alignment" to help them find Hawkeye faster.

They naturally end up in the standard scenario of confronting their inner fears instead. The reactions are varied. Mach-IV acknowledges his guilt for murder and vows to do better. Atlas accepts he's never going to "get it right", but intends to keep trying. Songbird and Charcoal both deny any guilt whatsoever over what's used against them. Moonstone says she's prepared to handle whatever she's becoming.

The dialogue emphasizes how real everything feels to the team, but I feel like it missed a chance to let Breyfogle really go wild with the nightmare imagery. The man absolutely had that gear in him, as evidence by any number of Batman stories he drew, but this comic does not take advantage of that. Missed opportunity.

Hawkeye puts a temporary hurting on Mephisto with an arrow juiced up by a chaos magic and a battle stave loaded with the purer intentions of the trapped souls, and the team bails with a body wrapped up behind Mephisto's throne. A body which turns out to be Patsy Walker (Mockingbird would have to wait another 8 years to return in Secret Invasion.) This leads into the Avengers Annual of the same year, and eventually the Steve Englehart/Norm Breyfogle Hellcat mini-series we looked at in Sunday Splash Page #236.

This comic gives Hellstrom the air of a man pretending to be cold and heartless, but saddened by the distance between he and his ex-wife. Englehart paints a less-tragic picture, and Christopher Cantwell's seemingly trying to rewrite history to suggests Patsy's always just blamed Daimon (and everyone else) for her own shortcomings. Which smells a lot like bullshit, but he's using Daimon to shovel a good 40% of it, so it may very well turn out be bullshit.

Saturday Splash Page #76

 

"Sorta-New, Semi-Different," Thunderbolts (vol. 1) #57, by Fabian Nicieza (writer), Patrick Zircher (penciler), Al Vey (inker), Hi-Fi (colorist), RS and Comicraft/RD (letterers)

Bagley departed Thunderbolts after issue 50, off to an exciting life of drawing multiple issues of exceedingly pointless conversations in Ultimate Spider-Man. Patrick Zircher, who had drawn some fill-in issues previously, took over as regular artist. He and Al Vey combine for a heavier line, making everyone look bulkier and rougher than they did under Bagley. But this is a rougher stretch, if that can be believed, so it fits.

At this point, Atlas was presumed exploded, Hawkeye was in jail, and Moonstone, Mach-Whatever and Songbird were pardoned, as long as they didn't use their powers. Jolt, Charcoal, and a not-dead Techno were roped into a government Thunderbolts/Redeemers squad, initially led by Captain America, but later by Citizen V (although Zemo hijacked his body in some mini-series I didn't read.)

Graviton pops up for the third time in the series, drafting Moonstone as a life coach to help him realize his full potential. Which seems to be, "rule the world", though I'm unclear on how his gravity powers neutralized all the telepaths and magicians. Great, Dr. Strange's body is suspended upside-down in the air, held in place by gravity. That's not much of a problem for a Sorcerer Supreme or Jean Grey.

Whatever, end game, the team (part of it at least, and Atlas is a being of ionic energy that inhabits Dallas Riordian's paraplegic body) reunite, stop Graviton, but get sucked through a wormhole and end up on, sigh, Counter-Earth. Nicieza already referenced that mess earlier in this stretch, where the girl Bucky, Rikki Barnes, shows up trying to force Doom to relinquish control and criticizing Captain America for not making tough choices. I don't know, my eyes glazed over. A world that inflicted Adam Warlock on us deserves oblivion.

I much preferred he and Busiek both using Cyclone as this persistent pest throughout their runs. Really smug and irritating, but usually fast enough to get away to be a pain in the ass another day.

Nicieza alternates issues between the team on Counter-Earth, and Hawkeye and a group of escaped super-criminals. Clint's a mole for SHIELD, searching for a weapon Justin Hammer tucked away that is much in demand. But Dum Dum Dugan also enlists Songbird (who didn't get sucked into the gravity vortex) to track Clint and the villains (Mentallo piloting Dreadlox, Plantman, Copperhead, eventually some others). Meanwhile, the rest of the T'Bolts are on a planet that's falling apart and trying to decide between helping the people, or helping themselves by getting the fuck off the planet.

Manuel Garcia takes over as artist for the Hawkeye parts in the latter stages, while Chris Batista handles the Counter-Earth issues. Garcia's work has a grittier texture than Zircher, while the colors are more muted, Hanna's inks heavier. But that part of the story is more small-scale, at least at first. Seemingly just a bunch of crooks scrabbling for money or power. It's only near the end it gets bigger. Batista's stiffer than the others, but he's pretty good at rendering weird-looking machines and characters arguing about acceptable sacrifices.

Ultimately the two threads converge and at least some characters make it back to Regular-Earth. Zemo gets on a kick about actually trying to save the world from itself, but he had to wait to follow it up, because John Arcudi took over the book. I've usually heard that described as "Fight Club", and not fitting at all as a Thunderbolts book, but that's hearsay. Then Nicieza came back, then Warren Ellis did his Suicide Squad riff with Norman Osborn running the team, and then there was some other stuff.

Saturday Splash Page #75

 

"Gordian Archery," in Thunderbolts (vol. 1) #34, by Fabian Nicieza (writer), Mark Bagley (penciler), Scott Hanna (inker), Joe Rosas (colorist), RS and Comicraft's Jason Levine (letterer)

Kurt Busiek concluded his run on Thunderbolts with issue 33, the T'Bolts having put a dent into one of the Secret Empire's plans. Things were going pretty well for them since Hawkeye assumed command, but no winning streak lasts forever. The Thunderbolts' ended pretty much the moment Nicieza took over as writer.

First issue out of the gate, Hawkeye makes a public announcement they're gonna catch the Hulk. I don't know what ol' Jade Jaws was wanted for this time, but either way, the plan flopped. A town was destroyed and Banner got away. Whoops. 

Things continued downhill from there. A team member is killed in their civilian identity, shot by a bullet that left no trace. Moonstone's having weird dreams about Kree warriors and feels like she's changing, without being sure why. Their old police liaison, who seemed to be revealed as the Crimson Cowl leading the Masters of Evil, returns as a new Citizen V. Atlas gets ambushed by Wonder Man, the both of them put under Count Nefaria's control for a crossover with Avengers.

The team is back on the verge of disintegration between the disappearances, deaths and everything else. Which is when the team finds out Hawkeye lied about the deal he had set up when he first approached them. The Commission on Superhuman Activites never agreed to pardon the T'Bolts if Hawkeye got them to clean up their act. Oooops.

Basically Nicieza puts them through the ringer, see how they handle it. Hawkeye did real well when he could show up playing savior for people with no plan. Can he lead them when they realize he's fed them a line of bull all this time? Can he keep his promises anyway, make the 'impossible shot', as Nicieza describes it in issue 50. Well, it's Hawkeye, what do you think?

A couple of characters come back from the dead, one killed by Nicieza, one by Busiek. Hawkeye gets to shoot Gyrich, always a pleasure. Nicieza even works a little fallout from Avengers Forever into the book, having Genis-Vell run into Songbird, who is probably the member of the team on the most even keel through this stretch.

This is also the stretch where Nicieza makes Abner Jenkins a black man as part of the team's attempt to disguise him after they get him out of the villain muscle gig he was press-ganged into by Justin Hammer. I don't think that was one of his better ideas, nor did it feel like he did much with it, so what was the point?

Bagley's art is as it usually is. Not inventive with panel or page layouts, but all the information you need is there on the page. I like his work, others don't, this is definitely not the run that is going to change minds on either side of that line. I like the hulking Beetle armor Abner gets while working for Hammer, and the look for the new Scourge is ridiculous in a way that almost fits the concept.

Sunday Splash Page #255

 

"She's Nutty for Him," in I 💓 Marvel Romance #1, by Fabian Nicieza (writer), Paco Medina (penciler), Juan Vlasco (inker), A. Street (colorist), Dave Sharpe (letterer)

Believe me, I feel as dirty and foul for using an emoji as you think I should, but the title really does include a heart as opposed to the word "heart". This was one of a series of these Marvel released in 2006, this one with the subtitle "Masked Intentions". It's the only one I own, and I bought it up a couple of years ago out of curiosity.

There's two stories, each somewhat related to New Warriors. The other story, by Nicieza and Mike Norton, marks the end of Justice and Firestar's relationship, which had been going since the first year of the original New Warriors volume. Vance figures out Angelica's not as keen on getting married as he is (although he phrases it stupidly, declaring that he's being "the woman" because he's having to pick the invitations, the flowers, and her dress). They agree to put the wedding off, and I don't think they ever pick things up again.

As for this story, set some time after GLA: Misassembled, it establishes Squirrel Girl has a crush on Speedball, which gets referenced a few more times, like in the Deadpool/Great Lakes Initiative Summer Spectacular. Here, though, Doreen's on the Great Lakes X-Men, and Speedball's doing a public appearance in Madison, Wisconsin for the New Warriors reality show, so she goes to meet him. Her attempt to save him from an old foe doesn't go so well. Not because she fails, but the guy's only carrying paintball guns and so the cops feel she went overboard. Still, Speedball tracks her down, reveals he read all the fanmail she sent (and his manager alerted the FBI), and gives her a kiss.

It's bittersweet reading this with the knowledge the trainwreck of Civil War is only a few months away. I doubt this was ever going to go anywhere, but any chance got smothered with the damage Millar did. Speedball gets turned into Penance, and writers spend years digging him out of that hole. Minus his stint in Avengers Academy, Speedball never has gotten to the big-time, while Squirrel Girl had a decently long run as a solo star, which included being on an Avengers team. Admittedly, an Avengers team with Red Hulk, run by Sunspot with AIM funds, but an Avengers squad all the same.

Sunday Splash Page #230

 

"Rube Goldberg," in Hawkeye (vol. 3) #1 by Fabian Nicieza (writer), Stefano Raffaele (artist), Ben Dimagmaliw (colorist), Dave Sharpe (letterer)

Clint Barton had another 4-issue mini-series in the mid-90s, this time by Chuck Dixon and Scott Kolins. It involved Lady Viper, Clint getting a teen werewolf (or something) sidekick, and trying to come to terms with Mockingbird's death. It was collected as part of a trade I owned a while back, but I got rid of that trade and everything I just related was based off summaries I read online. I don't remember a bit of it.

Clint got his first shot at a true ongoing series in late 2003, this time with Fabian Nicieza and Stefano Raffaele as the creative team. Nicieza's run on Thunderbolts, which heavily featured Hawkeye, had concluded earlier that year. That run had involved Hawkeye being put in prison as part of a deal to get the rest of the team pardons as he'd promised, then later escaping as part of helping SHIELD with something.

Geoff (again I typed "Geoof" on my first try) put Hawkeye back in Avengers the same time this book started, but Nicieza doesn't make much reference to it. Clint only wears the costume in half the issues, and is actually at the mansion in only one issue (where he's sparring with Captain America.)

Instead, he sets Clint to wandering, perhaps eager to enjoy being out of prison, and the archer sort of finds his way into trouble. The first arc starts with Clint driving to Myrtle Beach to try some chili he read about in a guide book, and ending up trying to help a lady being harassed by a super-strong guy (the guy falling down in the foreground). The second story involves Clint investigating the murder of a guy who just ran a deli near a place Clint goes to practice archery. The guy is Russian, Black Widow is involved, it's a whole thing.

Nicieza sprinkles in flashbacks to Clint's days in the carnival. Mostly as a way of highlighting what kind of person Clint is in the context of a given story. That he tends to believe people, even as he's good at spotting liars. That he can't help pushing things, and that has consequences.

Raffaele draws the first arc. He seems to be going for a semi-realistic look, a busier Sean Phillips, but not so heavy on the shadows or heavy inks. Nothing too fantastic or eye-catching involved in the story, even as the plot gets progressively stranger. It's still just people doing bad things and thinking they have good reasons. Dimagmaliw's colors are muted and dull. Even when Clint does put on the costume, it doesn't really pop off the page. Clint's not bringing any 4-color brightness into the story, but getting pulled into all these other characters' messes.

The title ended after 8 issues. Clint got killed off by Bendis, then brought back by Bendis, then poorly written by Bendis (who made him extremely kill-eager, all the more bizarre on a team that had Wolverine, Winter Soldier and Carol Danvers), before getting another crack at an ongoing. This one would last longer - though not entirely because of the number of issues - and is a lot better known.

Sunday Splash Page #148

 

"The Vortex of Imminent Cancellation," in Defenders: From the Marvel Vault, by Kurt Busiek and Fabian Niceiza (writers), Mark Bagley (penciler), Andrew Hennessy (inker), Chris Sotomayor (colorist), Chris Eliopoulos (letterer)

So in late 2011, Marvel released a few different books as being "from the Marvel vault". Which mostly meant comics that were most of the way done, but never saw the light of day, for one reason or another. The only one I picked up was this one, and that was as much for the interesting history behind it. During the Busiek/Larsen Defenders run, there was a point when it looked like they might not be able to get an issue out on time. So the editors asked Nicieza if he could write something up real quick, and then asked Bagley if he could draw it up real quick.

As it turned out, the issue wasn't needed, so it went in a drawer somewhere until this whole "vault" thing. Nicieza was working for DC in 2011 I think, so he couldn't script it, so they asked Busiek if he'd do it. Except Nicieza didn't have his story notes, so he couldn't tell him what it was supposed to be about. Bagley didn't remember, either. So Busiek basically looked at the art and reverse-engineered a story from it.

It ends up being some sort of alien thing that gives you an opportunity for a dream world, except the Defenders' minds get swapped/merged with some average teenagers. So we get Hulk being surprised and happy Abomination wants to build sand castles with him, and the Surfer asking Dr. Strange if he knows what 'wrecked on Red Bull' means. There's also a bit where Strange uses the Eye of Agamotto to understand what's going on, and once he sees the creature's history, is completely confused.

Anyway, it's an interesting little artifact of an unusual creative process.

Sunday Splash Page #140

 "Great, Deadpool's Confused About His Powers Again," in Deadpool/Great Lakes Initiative Summer Fun Spectacular, by Fabian Nicieza and Dan Slott (writer), Nelson DeCastro (artist), Giulia Brusco (colorist), Dave Lanphear (letterer)

Skipping past Deadpool: Games of Death, which is an enjoyable, but sadly lacking in splash pages, one-shot by Mike Benson and Shawn Crystal where Deadpool goes undercover in a death stunt reality show with a bunch of parodies of various action heroes, we come to this. 

Released in the post-Civil War Marvel of 2007, when the Great Lakes Avengers were part of the Initiative as Wisconsin's official super-team, and Cable was "dead". It's a bunch of short comics with two threads that run through it. 

One is Squirrel Girl finding out that thanks to Mark Millar and Paul Jenkins, her crush Speedball is now the completely idiotic Penance, and setting out to fix this. This involves Doom's time machine, references to a story from the at-that-time current volume of Marvel Team-Up (the same volume Robert Kirkman used to do a Spider-Man/Invincible team-up), and Niels the bouncing cat becoming P-Cat, the penitent puss.

The other is that, after they team up to stop an AIM plot to incapacitate all the "real" superheroes with an inebriation ray created by harnessing the power of the completely wasted god Dionysus (seen above), the GLI invite Deadpool to join the team and then can't get rid of him. Eventually the two storylines dovetail and the comic ends. Speedball is still not released from the ridiculous hell the character was dumped in, but oh well.

It's silly, and treats the entire idea of Speedball becoming a character whose powers are triggered by pain so he wears an iron maiden for a costume with exactly as much respect as it deserves. I love it.

Random Back Issues #26 - Thunderbolts #38

You just know there was a joint congressional subcommittee that designed the look of that costume. Wow. To be fair, I actually like the helmet with the red eyes and teeth. That part's pretty cool. And the "To the DEATH" blurb is actually, technically, correct. One of these two does get decapitated in the next issue.

This is about one year into Fabian Niceza's run on Thunderbolts, and about one year from the end of Mark Bagley's run as artist on the book. A lot of threads are coming together, so this is the issue to stop and take stock of what's happened, plus do some foreshadowing. Also, a surprise (?) identity reveal.

Hawkeye's trying mountain climbing to clear his head. His time as leader of the Thunderbolts started well, but had hit a rough patch, starting roughly with their ultimately failed attempt to capture the Hulk. Then Jolt was killed by a sniper in her civilian identity, and they don't know who did it. The police report was sealed, which is definitely not suspicious. A reporter named Gayle Rogers had been working on a story on the T'Bolts, and turned up dead. They found Abner Jenkins, who Clint convinced to turn himself in for a murder he'd committed as the Beetle, running around in a new, more tanklike Beetle costume. Abe's back on the team as Mach-2, with an altered appearance, although there was a screw-up in the process and he looks African-American now. Whoo, yeah, don't know about that creative decision.

On top of all that, Clint had just recently returned from trying to rescue Mockingbird's soul from Mephisto, only to end up bringing out Hellcat's soul instead. And he's worried the relationship he's building with Moonstone is betraying Bobbi's memory.

(In the Hellcat mini-series Steve Engelhart and Norm Breyfogle did shortly after this, Patsy ends up back in Hell and encounters Bobbi again, and encourages her to escape to stop Karla from moving in on Clint, but Bobbi just wants him to be happy, which is pretty big of her. Although I guess that was really a Skrull that believed it was Bobbi. Yeesh, friggin' Secret Invasion.)

Moonstone herself is having some weird dreams about a blue warrior sporting a familiar gemstone, and feels she's not acting like herself lately. Meaning she's not being a horrible and entirely self-serving person. Charcoal is struggling to cope with Jolt's death and other underlying anger issues. Atlas is having trouble coping with Jolt's death, plus he knows one of the Masters of Evil is working in the town nearby as a bartender, but hasn't told anyone yet. What he doesn't know is the guy he's talking to, Ogre, who maintained the base before they arrived, and was part of some early '70s bad guy mutant group called Factor Three, is actually the fully mechanical version of Techno in disguise. The real Ogre is having trouble with being stuffed in some stasis tube or something by Techno, along with Jolt's body, and one other body (which doesn't become relevant for about another 20-30 issues).

Ogre doesn't actually say or do anything, because he's unconscious, but I didn't want him to feel left out.

On top of all that, Clint and Karla's discussion/picnic lunch/probable makeout session is interrupted by the arrival of a Citizen V. And right after Karla mentions how attractive the idea of Clint marching into Burton Canyon's police station naked is. Kinda kinky, but ok. Might explain why she's not real happy at the interruption.

This Citizen V is not Zemo in disguise. It's the one Hawkeye ran into several issues earlier, when the team was trying to stop the Crimson Cowl's Masters of Evil. Now she's on the run from the V battalion itself, over a difference in philosophy I think. The T'Bolts get drawn into the fight unwillingly, with Moonstone going from extremely frustrated to insisting they have to help Citizen V simply because she needs them in the span of a few pages (don't worry, she's confused by that, too).

The last two pages shift to a secret fortress in Central America, where Scourge smashes a bunch of Zemo's shit to draw him out for a fight. Next issue is pretty much one long battle between the two, as Scourge busts out a huge number of super-villain gimmick weapons while Zemo can't quite bring himself to just run for his life. It's actually kind of an interesting shift, taking Scourge from a guy (or guys) who wipe out second and third-tier villains, to being the weapon of a group of shadowy people who utilizes the arsenals of the same sorts of villains. Scourge does end up being a pre-existing character, and at least one of the people manipulating him is a longtime pain in Hawkeye's ass, but those things won't start coming to light until at least issue 47 or so.

[11th longbox, 196th comic, Thunderbolts #38, by Fabian Nicieza and Mark Bagley (storytellers), Scott Hanna (inker), Joe Rosas (colorist), Troy P. (letterer)]

Sunday Splash Page #100

"Cheaper Than Divorce Court", in Cable/Deadpool #33, by Fabian Nicieza (writer), Reilly Brown (penciler), Jeremy Freeman (inker), Gotham (colorist), Dave Sharpe (letterer)

Who doesn't enjoy seeing Cable get shot every once in a while? Be honest.

I actually started buying Cable/Deadpool during its Civil War tie-ins. The one and only time that trash fire got me to buy a comic. I had some space on the pull list since I'd hit my limit with Bendis' New Avengers and Adam Beechen's Robin the week before. 

This is when Cable's tendency to manipulate Wade finally hits the fan. Wade makes decisions Cable doesn't approve of - and even knowing why he's making them and why it's important to him - trips him up repeatedly. Humiliates him, actually. Which, rather than getting Deadpool to turn to Cable for help (because Nate couldn't just offer), gets Wade making more poor decisions. I'm not sure how Cable thought literally pantsing Deadpool on worldwide TV, then telekinetically launching him into another country would convince Wade to turn to him for help.

Then Mike Carey took Cable away to be part of his X-Men run (the one where some dumbass decided Mystique and Sabretooth were good people to have on the team). Then Carey destroyed Cable's floating island nation, with old time traveling metal arm guy seemingly going with it. 

At which point, Nicieza and Brown did the best they could, turning it into a rotating Deadpool team-up book. This is the point when Bob, Agent of HYDRA is introduced. Weasel pops up more often, Sandi, Outlaw, and Agent X become more frequent supporting characters. You do what you have to when it's supposed to be a buddy comedy book, and one of the buddies gets yoinked out from under you.

The low point of that stretch for me was Nicieza did a couple of stories involving T-Ray, who I don't care about one way or the other, because Joe Kelly's Deadpool run just doesn't matter that much to. Deadpool is Wade Wilson. Anything else is needlessly muddying the waters. Did people learn nothing useful from the Clone Saga?!

The book takes on a sillier tone minus Cable and his "save the future" gravitas. Bob presents a much different person for Wade to react to, since Bob's two settings are "confusion" and "terrified". There are a couple of issues of time travel hijinks, some matters of the soul with Dr. Strange and Brother Voodoo, a big fight with Wolverine that has several pages of Deadpool's severed head being kicked around while Bob tries to corral it.

Brown's art works for that. His Deadpool isn't nearly as muscular as Zircher or Brooks', to say nothing of Ed McGuinness'. He can still draw people scowling, can still draw violence, but his art seems to fit sillier moments like Wade being flung three blocks by a dinosaur covered in a symbiont.There's a looseness to the pencils that allows for more comic exaggeration.

Sunday Splash Page #99

"The Case of the Untrimmed Eyebrows", in Cable/Deadpool #13, by Fabian Nicieza (writer), Patrick Zircher (penciler), M3TH (inker), Gotham (colorist), Cory Petit (letterer)

As hard as it might be to believe now, there was a time when Cable was a bigger draw than Deadpool, thus he got top billing in their dynamic duo. They start out at cross-purposes, both after the same prize, and wind up tied together through the magic of comic book science. Cable can't actually get rid of Deadpool, so they end up working together, and just like in all those movies, love blooms.

Well, not exactly, but by their standards, close enough. Wade supports Cable in his plan to try and improve the world, and helps bring him out of his coma. Cable gives Nate a place to stay, up to a point, and tries to help with the memory issues his constantly regenerating brain causes. Cable gives Wade someone to believe in - since Wade certainly isn't going to believe in himself - and Deadpool gets Cable to loosen up a bit. Cable has that tendency to stand a distance, observing humanity as like a giant Rubik's Cube. Little harder when one guy is standing next to you, muttering random shit constantly, and poking you like hyperactive five-year old.

Nicieza writes a lot of exposition and techno-babble at times, which when combined with Wade's non-stop chatter can fill up a page in a hurry. He trots out some of his pet characters - Gareb (Commcast), Shen Kuei (the Cat, who almost everyone treats as like the coolest guy evah) - but he only uses Apocalypse once, which is a heck of an achievement for a Cable book, I'd say. His Deadpool is very much the constant dated references type of humor, which is going to vary in its effectiveness depending on the reader. It mostly works for me, so infer from that what you will.

Mark Brooks drew the first few issues, then Patrick Zircher took over for most of the next two years. He's the one who drew the short straw and had to draw Wade wearing Jean Grey's old Marvel Girl costume (the green one with the short skirt she wore the first time she died). On the plus side, that probably ruined all of Cyclops' happy memories of Jean in that outfit.

Of course, Cable has a nasty habit of tricking people into doing things he wants, rather than simply asking them to do them, which ends up causing some problems for he and Wade. Which we'll look at next week. . .

What I Bought 10/3/2018

The two books from last month I still needed. In other news, I'm taking another shot at Sketchtober. But I'm only going for one every other day. Mostly trying to redo the ones I did last year I wasn't satisfied with, but had other ideas to try. If I don't get one done tonight, I'm going to fall behind, so I better get this damn post done.

Coda #5, by Simon Spurrier (writer), Matias Bergara (artist), Michael Doig (color artist), Jim Campbell - The cover is actually a wraparound that shows the giant striking a tower of the city with his fist. It's pretty cool.

Hum and Serka infiltrate Thundervale by posing as aspiring criminals themselves. It takes some doing on his part to get Serka to go along with that, not to mention bringing the confused wizard some akker, but it works. Hmm is relating the story to the still-living head of the elf he took, who was not a useful source of magic, but is useful as a Jiminy Cricket for Hum. At the end, someone arrives who may try to kill Hmm, or may surprise us by being friendly. I really shouldn't judge based on appearances, right?

There's a bit of humor, mostly in Serka and Hum trying to maintain their covers. It's harder for Serka, since she's rather impatient to get that Whitlord, and Hum's the liar of the pair. The wizard is mostly out of his gourd, but really enthusiastic, which plays off Hum's no-nonsense approach. And it makes the sequence where the wizard gains control of himself and issues a warning more effective.

So Hum's initial plan to get that potion he needs ran into trouble, but Thundervale has a lot of akker, so the question hangs whether he'll go through with it or not, if he can make the potion he requires. I'm curious if this will be the point where he gets the substance, then the second half becomes a question of whether he'll use it or not. All the people he meets keep pointing out that he's simply avoiding discussing unpleasant topics with Serka, rather than just dealing with them, that trying to change people is dangerous. He never has a good rebuttal. I'm curious if he's doing it simply to help her (as he considers it) by keeping her together, or if he's doing it so she's still there to keep him together.

The illusions that either the wizard of Hum create are these bright things, vivid colors. But it's all fake, echoes of something long dead. Meanwhile, Hum is telling this story to the elf head in a dark room in a moving city of cutthroats and bandits. The only light is a blue flame Hum plans to use to erase the evidence of him crime, since the evidence could choose to speak at an inopportune moment. The fire is real, but it doesn't illuminate much but depressing surroundings and the two people conversing. But it does illuminate, rather than disguise.

Bergara draws, a double-page spread of sorts, to show the city on the back of the giant, centered around the device, the Destructor, that turns magic items into akker to keep the giant alive. The angle he chooses is slightly vertiginous, making it appear the buildings are bending over at top towards the Destructor, like they might topple in. It's an unsteady, haphazard look, a bunch of ants scrambling around, trying desperately to keep the giant alive with whatever scraps they can find.

Domino Annual #1, by Gail Simone, Fabian Nicieza, Dennis Hopeless, Leah Williams (writers), Victor Ibanez, Juan Gedeon, Leonard Kirk, Natacha Bustos, Michael, Shelfer (artists), Jay David Ramos, Jesus Arbutov (colorists), and Clayton Cowles (letterer) - When I first glanced at this cover, I thought it was by Amanda Conner, but no, Frank Cho. The fact the picture didn't feature her butt more prominently is what threw me. I bought it because this copy was in less-than-perfect condition, and therefore no more expensive than a standard issue these days, which wasn't the case for any of the copies with the standard cover.

Several stories about Domino's relationships, or off-time. The Simone/Ibanez story is how Outlaw got recruited, which involves a bar fight and a guy who combined an SUV with a Sentinel. Which sounds like a Reaver, honestly, but is not. Nicieza/Gedeon is Cable thinking about the fact he was close with Domino once, but it was actually Deadpool's old girlfriend, Vanessa/Coypcat. But he surely hopes it'll be a reality one of these days. Ohhhh-kay then. Dennis Hopeless and Leonard Kirk have Domino trying to cheer up Colossus after his wedding failed to launch. Leah Williams and Natacha Bustos give us Domino and Nightcrawler coming up with a support group for mutants with visible mutations, and the difficulties they experience in everyday life. Hey, Stacy X showed up as someone struggling with not being a mutant any longer! At least someone remembered she existed, and not just so they could brutally kill her for cheap shock value!

The Cable story is a weak spot, since it's barely about Domino. The story about Outlaw and the one about Colossus are light but entertaining. They play up the idea that Domino appears to take things lightly a lot, and some of that is her powers. But some of it seems to be just trusting others. She's fighting Outlaw, she trusts Diamondback to have her back, even if they were arguing about music five minutes ago, and even though Diamondback thinks Domino escalated this unnecessarily. She brings Crimson Dynamo down on Colossus, but trusts Piotr isn't going to throw up his hands and walk away from a friend in danger. Which is interesting, because Domino does not strike me as someone who would trust readily. Too long spent as a merc, too used to people betraying her or selling her out, too cynical. Maybe that manifests that she doesn't trust easily, or you can break it easily, I don't know.

Also, I wonder if Outlaw making two different comments about Domino's appearance within 10 seconds of their meeting is meant to be a nod towards the last story, about the mutant support group. I'm sure Domino's been called worse than "Ghost Lady" or "Spot", but it can't be fun.

Among the artists, Gedeon is the one I'd consider the weak spot, but apparently he's trying to ape some of Liefeld's perspectives and staging in the panels set in the bathtub, which is putting him under a severe handicap. Leonard Kirk's always good, and he draws a nice quick fight scene (Colossus should certainly use headbutts more often). I don't recall liking Ibanez' art when I've come across it in the past (although I can't remember where that was at the moment), but here it works well. The action is fluid, you can see how the fight is moving from one scene to another. The Design of professor Salvage's weapon is clever. It looks cobbled together, but you can the potential for it to be dangerous anyway. Natacha Bustos' art is expressive, but with some nice sense of fashion for the characters and a good grasp of body language. Which is important for a bunch of characters sitting in a circle, talking about stuff that makes them uncomfortable. Her work reminds me a little of Mike Allred, but not so Pop Art, which I consider a plus, Allred having never been a favorite of mine.

I don't know that any of the stories are essential, depending on how vital you feel it is to learn how Outlaw joined the group, but three of the four are at least fun, and maybe give a little insight into Domino's personality. And the artists seem up to the challenges of their stories, whether that needs fights, or dealing with emotions. The stories mostly get in, do what they planned to, and wrap up without overstaying their welcome.

Alternate Favorite Marvel Characters #4 - Namorita

Character: Namorita (Nita Prentiss)

Creator: Bill Everett

First appearance: Sub-Mariner #50.

First encounter: New Warriors #2. This issue is mostly about an once friend, now enemy, from Night Thrasher's past showing up to throw down (the fight ultimately leaving the Warriors to wonder how far they can trust the Thrash-man, not for the first or last time). Nita gets a couple of cool moments in there, and Niceiza starts teasing the attraction between her and Nova (in that she thinks he's a meathead, but he's a hot meathead).

Definitive writer: Fabian Nicieza. He and John Byrne have written the most comics featuring her that I've read, and I prefer Nicieza's take more than Byrne's where Nita was a more deferential to her cousin (who, to be fair, was the main character of that book and is an overbearing butthead to boot).

Definitive artist: Mark Bagley. Most artists give Nita more rounded facial features, which is how Bill Everett tended to draw her (I saw someone describe his version as "elfin"). Tends to make her look younger. Bagley typically draws people more slim and angular, and that fit the Namorita in New Warriors, where she seemed older and more mature than in other books, even if only in comparison to her teammates.

Favorite moment or scene: Nita trying to fight Terrax (even a less-powerful-than-normal Terrax) solo in the first issue was pretty cool, but I'm going with something from New Warriors #7. The Warriors are faced with a couple of problems. Night Thrasher's old girlfriend Silhouette is being pursued (or so she thinks) by a strange man in a tiger/ninja outfit. Speedball's mother has gone to South America as part of a protest about cutting down the rainforest, and may be a hostage. Thrasher stays behind to help Sil, while the rest of the team travels with Robbie in their civilian identities. Which is the first time the team finds out Speedball is actually a fairly small 15-year old.

Robbie is defensive about it, for good reason. He wasn't part of Thrasher's original plan for the team (neither was Nita). Chord thinks he's basically useless, Nova would agree. The rest think he's unreliable, and now they know he's a kid, more so than the rest of them. Even if they aren't outright voicing their doubts (except Rich, who is kind of a dick), he can guess what they're thinking. Except Nita, who walks up and makes it clear she's got no concerns about him not being the biggest 15-year old around, and that his team has his back. She's frequently the tough one on the team, but that role alternates between almost everyone at some point. But that consistent compassionate attitude was kind of a pleasant surprise (wouldn't really expect it from a relative of Namor's) and a key part of her.

What I like about her: One problem a lot of teen heroes run into in these shared universes is that, no matter how many times they may save the world in their books, they get treated as second-rate when they run up against the old guard. A lot of the Teen Titans struggle with that, and the New Mutants, and the New Warriors. That's an issue I always have to reconcile, how Namorita gets portrayed in New Warriors, which is the version I'm most familiar with and like best, versus most everywhere else.

On the Warriors, Nita gets to be the team powerhouse, at least as far as muscle. Kind of the Rogue of the team in that sense. Firestar is the most powerful overall, but rarely cuts loose, for various understandable reasons like not wanting reduce people to a pile of ashes. When Nita's possessed by a guy wielding the Darkforce, Nova admits he's not strong enough to knock her out. Rage turns out to be stronger than her, but only in terms of punching (something about how his powers work). Namorita has the edge everywhere else. When Emma Frost invades their HQ with her Hellions, Nita's the one who ends up fighting that team's muscle (the terribly named "Beef"), and she pounds him into the ground, to Emma's complete lack of surprise. The guy's no Hulk, but he's strong enough to feel like trying to throw down with Colossus, so he can't be a complete waste. She'll take a swing at Terrax, or throw a railroad car at the Juggernaut. There's one issue, #28, where either she threw a submarine to the surface, or it did an emergency surface to try and get away before she ripped it apart underwater. All of which is pretty cool and impressive.

In Namor, she's more like his plucky teen sidekick. Eager to help her cousin, but with Namor always trying to keep her out of the line of fire. They split up to search for the Griffin, Namor actually already knows which direction it went and he made sure to send her the other way, because he doesn't want her trying to tangle with it. Or it's OK for him to fight Super-Skrull by himself, but he doesn't want her trying it when Kl'rt decides to turn tail. In Agents of Atlas we're told her power was 'a pale shadow' of her mother's or Namor's (which ignores the fact writers had been dialing Namor and Namora's strength levels up the previous few years, after Nita was dead and unable to benefit from that same power creep).

That's frustrating to deal with, finding a character you like and then when you try to track down their backstory or other adventures, they don't get much respect anywhere else. But you find what positives you can. Nita is determined to help her cousin whenever he's in trouble, whether he wants it or not. She may do what he says initially, but she's more than willing to go behind his back. Which is probably easier than trying to argue with Namor. Wastes less time, certainly

She's adaptable and moves around in the surface world smoothly. She's always shown as having non-superhero friends, her own place, school, interests, a full life. Namor doesn't do subtle or fitting in. When they attend a gala thing where he doesn't want people to know he's alive, Nita's the one who figures out a fake beard and how to style his hair to disguise him. Some of that ability to fit in, at least outwardly, is probably Betty Prentiss, who knew Namor back when and kind of had Nita foisted on her, although they formed a strong bond eventually (Nita took Betty's last name as hers for her surface identity, after all). And maybe some of that ability to blend in came from growing up in a kingdom where her mother was poisoned by a romantic rival and believed dead. Nita probably wasn't sure how safe her own life was, or who might have back. She would have learned to step lightly in precarious situations from that. Namor doesn't really have the patience to tread lightly. Too used to making other people jump when he enters a room.

But she isn't timid. When she's been abducted by Tiger Shark and wakes up to find Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers variety) trying to rescue her, Nita jumps right in to help. It doesn't go well (even though fighting underwater should be as much a boon to her as her cousin or Tiger Shark, but there's that second-rate treatment again), but she's able to keep thinking and figure out a way to escape. Which is how she saves Carol's life when the serum Carol took to breathe underwater ran out near the end of the fight. When she's pulled from some earlier time and thrown into a war between Sphinxes against a much different Richard Rider than the one she knows, she rolls with it easily enough. There's an immediate problem to deal with, she can figure out the rest when there's time. She's reluctant to join Dr. Strange's Secret Defenders when he contacts her. She's already on a team, she's actually just finished stopping a yacht transporting drugs into the country. She ends up guilted into it with some bull about how "Namor always answered the call."

(Far be it from me to try arguing continuity with a Roy Thomas-written comic, but that is a total load. There is no way grumpy-ass Namor agreed to help every single time Strange makes his ghost body, singing telegram requests.)

Still, she gets between the Punisher and the extremely powerful monster loosed from some TV writer's subconscious. The punch puts her in the hospital for a day, but even Frank acknowledges it would have turned him into a bloody smear. That willingness to be all-in, even when you really don't even want to be there, is a quality I always like. You see it occasionally with the New Warriors as well, where the team may not all agree on what should be the priority, but even if she's disagreeing with them, she still has their back.

At least in the Nicieza/Bagley run, Namorita was the team member who most had her shit together, which I appreciated. I liked most everyone on the team for one reason or another, but they all had their hang-ups. Speedball was a goof with a unhappy home situation. Firestar wasn't sure she really wanted to the hero thing. Marvel Boy definitely did want to be a hero, but his home situation was worse than Speedball's. Night Thrasher was skilled and determined, but his people skills were a work in progress. Nova was the most experienced hero of them, but kind of a temperamental meathead. He might have been a little too jazzed about having his powers back, too eager to throw his weight around. Nita was on a super-team, going to college, helping her cousin run his company, getting involved in environmental causes, and she seemed in control of her life. I'm not against characters who have stuff going wrong in their lives that messes them up (see: Spider-Man, or Deadpool), but sometimes it's nice to see a character that appears to have their act together, their keeping themselves balanced.

The second issue of the series has couple of interesting points. The team's doing training exercises and while almost everyone else is pushing themselves, Nita is casually holding a weight machine over her head with one arm. Not straining at all, and she knows she's not pushing herself, but she knows what her limits are. Eventually things go haywire (Speedball and Nova are involved). The machine's about to fall on her, and Marvel Boy's attempt to hold it up fails. The smoke clears, and Nita's sitting there, completely unharmed, swapping semi-flirty banter with Nova while asking Vance if he's OK. At no point is she worried about the thing falling on her, because she knows what she can take. Later on, the team ends up fighting a street gang packing AIM weaponry. The team, Nita included, isn't sweating it, but she is the one who tries to get Nova to recognize they need to work together. Instead he tries flying in alone and gets blasted like a dope.

Confidence is a trait Atlanteans have plenty of. But Nita isn't so set on making a big show of telling everyone how great she is, unlike some Atlanteans *cough* Namor *cough*, which makes it cooler. It's not bragging, because it plays that she doesn't feel the need to brag. An easy confidence in herself and her ability to handle things.

(I'm bagging on Namor a lot when really, his ego is a lot of the fun of his character. But you have to admit that guy would be a pain in the ass to deal with regularly.)

It's the same way she doesn't have a secret identity. People know that Namorita Prentiss is Namor's cousin. The guy from Gentech in the first issue knows it as soon as she introduces herself. The Mad Thinker comments on the fact she doesn't keep her life compartmentalized (and notes it as a potential vulnerability, and he ends up being right), she's not hiding. But she also isn't making a big show of it, expecting special treatment because she's Atlantean royalty, barging in, ordering people around. It's part of who she is, but not all of her. Others can recognize it or not, respect it or not, she's not going to put herself out trying to impress them. She won't treat people like dirt just because she can, but she isn't going to let anyone else do that to her, either.

Even if she's comfortable fighting alone - when Terrax emerged in the first issue of New Warriors, she was the only one there to fight him initially and she went right to it - she recognizes she's on a team, and that's something to utilize. There's no reason to do everything yourself when you have people who will help you if you let them.

Of course, who she was exactly started to be called into question not long after that. Byrne decided to make her a modified clone of her mother, for reasons I am unclear on considering he had Namor make a big deal about how it didn't change anything about her as far as he was concerned. Then Nicieza had the rest of Atlantis find out and give her the boot because they're bigots when it comes to clones. Then her body continued to change. She turned blue, got webbed hands. Then her skin went white again at some point before New Warriors vol. 2, but she kept developing other powers, secreting toxins through her skin. Then she'd gone blue again by the time Zeb Wells and Skottie Young did the "reality TV show" version of the New Warriors (which is actually kind of fun, but did, of course, set the stage for them to be used as the "irresponsible heroes" Millar sacrifices at the beginning of Civil War, sooooooo, thanks a lot guys!).

As it turned out, despite how well she seemed to be doing on the outside, Nita has a lot of concerns about where she fits even before her genetics went completely wonky. She likes being on the surface, but she's not entirely a part of it. She's different, in a world that is not known for being kind to people who are different. She's an Atlantean, but not a full Atlantean, and with them all having blue skin and her not, she's distinctly aware of it. We don't know if she heard whispers and murmurs in the royal halls, but it wouldn't surprise me. Then she's told she has no place in it whatsoever, because she's a clone. (That changed at some point, I'm assuming Namor threatened to dismember some people. He does really care for her, which is sweet.) Like I said, she didn't make a big show of being Atlantean, but it mattered to her, and she tried to do right by that aspect of her life. She defended its culture and heritage from people who would exploit for themselves, tried to act in an honorable manner, worked towards ecological causes on the surface that would also benefit those underneath the waves, and they slammed the door in her face.

Despite all the upheaval, she always seems to find a way back to who she is. After Sea Urchin ambushed her, beat her, and humiliated her, she was ready to take his head, but ultimately she pulled back. That wasn't who she wanted to be, so even though it did go against Atlantean tradition, she turned him into the authorities, unharmed. When she turned blue she was ready to give everything up because she didn't think she belonged anywhere. With a little encouragement from Namor, she went back to her friends, who were there for her. And seemed to find her the person she was again fairly soon. I like that ability to roll with some pretty severe changes in her life, and still be herself as much as possible.

I think that's why she was a helpful influence for a lot of members of the team. She had enough confidence to disagree with Night Thrasher, but do so without getting loud and violent about it like Nova (which was rarely productive, since then the discussion turned into keeping those two apart). She could give Speedball a comforting word when he was uncertain because she'd been in the same boat. She knows what losing a mother is like, and how hard you'd try to avert it if you could. She gave Firestar and Turbo someone with a little more life experience to use as a sounding board. Not so much in terms of being older, where there wasn't a huge gap, but even compared to Firestar (who was originally under Emma Frost's control), Nita has been through some stuff. It doesn't make her Team Mom, which is often a thankless task. She's more Team Cool Older Sister, which lets her be a voice of reason or support, but still gives her more leeway to screw up.

She made some judgment calls during her stint as leader, about working with the Project: Earth people they'd already fought once. Those didn't turn out so well. They got involved in a civil war overseas, where they couldn't discern which side was the "bad" one, and may not have accomplished anything more than losing track of what they hoped to accomplish. They ran into Sea Urchin again, the criminal justice system having predictably failed miserably, and she though she almost let her anger get control of her, she held back. She trusted the wrong person, who found the Warriors' secret identities as a result, and their loved ones paid the price (that risk of not compartmentalizing her life). She decided she was doing more harm than good, and stepped down as leader, then stepped away from the team. Again, I can appreciate knowing when you need to get your head straight before you can be any use to anyone else. But once she did, and after she'd started coming to grips with all that other stuff, she came back to the team. She didn't re-assume command, but she did remain someone willing to share her views in a calm, but firm manner. A nice counterpoint to some of the hotter tempers on the team, and a nice bit of stability in a roster undergoing a lot of changes at the time.

She's strong, she's confident without being overbearing about it, she's willing to be passionate about things that are important to her, but can recognize when it's getting out of control and hurting those around her, and she's willing and able to be there for her teammates when they need a hand. Namorita always seemed like someone who would be a good friend to have.

Credits! Robbie's so worried about his mom he's not making inappropriate comments about Nita touching him in New Warriors #7, by Fabian Nicieza (writer), Mark Bagley (penciler), Larry Mahlstedt (inker), Andy Yanchus (colorist), and Rick Parker (letterer). Emma Frost learns not to waste Namorita's time with brainless meatheads in New Warriors #9, by Nicieza (writer), Bagley (penciler), Sam De LaRosa (inker), Yanchus (colorist), and Joe Rosen (letterer). I bet Nita's been waiting years to do this to Namor in Namor the Sub-Mariner #4, by John Byrne (writer/artist), Glynis Oliver (colorist), and Ken Lopez (letterer). Namorita will fight a magic werewolf barbarian king on his terms in Nova (vol. 4) #34, by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (writers), Mahmud A. Asrar (penciler), Scott Hanna (inker), Guru eFX (colorists), and Cory Petit (letterer). Nova will screw things up with her eventually, but not today in New Warriors #44, by Nicieza (writer), Darick Robertson (penciler), Larry Mahlstedt (inker), Joe Rosas (colorist), Chris Eliopoulos (letterer). Unfortunately, helping teammates with losing loved one is a fulltime job in New Warriors (vol. 2) #7, by Jay Faerber (writer), Jamal Igle (penciler), Walden Wong (inker), Kevin Somers (colorist), and Richard Starkings and Comicraft (letterers). You'd never know a ton of weights fell on her in New Warriors #2, by Nicieza (writer), Bagley (penciler), Al Williamson (inker), Andy Yanchus (colorist), Michael Heigler (letterer).

Alternate Favorite Marvel Characters #3 - Deadpool

Character: Deadpool (Wade Wilson)

Creators: Rob Liefeld and Fabian Nicieza

First Appearance: New Mutants #98.

First encounter: X-Force #2. Deadpool fights and loses to Kane, who was only notable for being able to shoot his cybernetic hand at people and choke them with it remotely. Deadpool talks quite a bit, though less then you might think. Deadpool comments that's pretty gross, although one imagines he'd make a more innuendo-laced comment these days. But the issue establishes that he distracts people with talking, people find him annoying, and he has a personal teleportation device.

Two issues after that, he showed up at the tail end of a Spider-Man/X-Force team-up to abduct both Juggernaut and Black Tom Cassidy for "Tolliver". I have never known who Tolliver was or what he wanted those two for. That's not a hint for you to tell me, either. I'm fine not knowing.

Definitive writer: Either Fabian Nicieza or Gerry Duggan. I don't like Duggan's take on Wade and Cable, so that's a strike against him, but I thought he covered Wade's tendency to wreck every good thing he manages to cobble together extremely well. Not surprising, since he gave him more to lose than any other writer. I could see Nicieza's pop-culture reference heavy writing getting on someone's nerves, but I mostly enjoy it.

Definitive artist: Reilly Brown's pretty good, Shawn Crystal worked for the more zany adventures Daniel Way occasionally wrote, and Declan Shalvey drew more haggard, dangerous Wade that worked very well for that particular story. But I'd go Mike Hawthorne now. He's very good at giving Deadpool an expressive mask, he draws a good fight scene, his version of Wade's face is pretty messed up, rather than "relatively normal with some lines in odd places scribbled across it", which is what you get with some artists. If Deadpool's face looks less messed up than Jonah Hex', you're doing it wrong.

Favorite story or moment: Cable/Deadpool #41. Wade and Nate were on the outs, because Cable kept doing his "I'm from the future so I know what's best for you" bit and messing with Wade's life. They took opposite sides in Civil War, so Cable arranged to make Wade look bad enough the U.S. government fired him, even though being treated as a legitimate agent meant a lot to him. Wade agrees to help make Cable look bad in Rumekistan, kind of as payback, Cable reveals he knew it was coming all along and literally pantsed Wade on international TV. Then he hooked Wade's subconscious up to the Infonet, so all Wade's issues he tries to ignore would be able to taunt him 24/7 on every TV screen in New York City. You will not be surprised to learn Wade eventually snapped and started shooting up a bar. With that grasp of human emotions and psychology, it's clear Cable is Cyclops' kid.

So things are bad between them. X-Men stuff leads to Cable's island nation getting trashed and beginning to sink. Sabretooth was loose on the island, because the X-Men thought having him around was a good idea, and is holding Irene Merryweather hostage against Domino. Then who comes dropping out of the sky?

My favorite part of all this, besides how much Wade enjoyed shooting Sabretooth repeatedly, is when Irene and Domino reach the evac boat and tell Cable who showed up.

Look at that. Even old grump Cable, who think he knows everything, is not only surprised Deadpool showed up to help, but genuinely happy about it. He goes to finds Wade, and after launching Sabretooth into the Pacific, they set about trying to wipe any dangerous information before other parties get their hands on it. Cable ultimately teleports Wade to safety before the island explodes.

That is why I was disappointed by how Duggan handled their relationship in "Deadpool Kills Cable" last year. For all they're very different and stubborn people, and for all that Cable can't stop trying to manipulate a guy who has been used and abused by people for his entire life, and Wade can't stop making the worst possible choices to deal with problems, they do still look out for each other when it counts.

What I like about him: I've written a lot about Deadpool, not a surprise considering how often I've bought his various titles and how often Marvel ships his comics. I've used him as a recurring character on the blog, largely as an element of chaos. The panda is too sensible to think of most of Deadpool's plans, Calvin wouldn't have the nerve or the skill. Deadpool's an opportunity to let things get really silly, or violent, as the desire arises.

But what about when people with actual skill use him? Well, he can be funny, and funny in a lot of different ways depending on the writer and artist. Bizarre pop culture references and metaphors, bodily humor, ridiculous props. Meta references to the fact he's a fictional character. I love Deadpool's commitment to branding, whether it's having his logo on the soles of his boots, or brass knuckles that say "DEAD" and "POOL". Even his grenades have been known to have his logo. Just how much he annoys other characters or makes them uncomfortable can be hilarious.

Or there's general absurdist behavior. With Deadpool, any action or decision is within the realms of possibility. He'll fight a Skrull invasion dressed as a baseball team mascot. He famously tried to pick a fight with Wolverine by giving Kitty Pryde the ol' Shoryuken (not a euphemism). He'll dress as a pimp to shake down a bodega to draw out the gang that's already shaking down said bodega. He'll get a bunch of Iron Fist's students to fight a super-villain (sort of) because his body is too shattered to use. He could take a bunch of money and buy a crappy little boat so he can be a pirate. He can decide the best way to keep a succubus Queen from having to marry Dracula is to marry her himself. That didn't end well, but that's the danger of applying questionable decision-making to problems. And he enjoys his plans so much, most of the time, that it's easy to be carried along with his enthusiasm.

His healing factor means he can take a lot of punishment, so you can do something with that. Have Logan decapitate him, then let Weasel spend a couple pages scrambling around trying to pick up the head while Logan kills HYDRA agents. In that sense, he's a very malleable character to the strengths of whatever creative team is working with him at the moment.

That's all well and good, humor's great. The interesting bit is you can flip that on its head and use it to make him terrifying. Like when he brings down ULTIMATUM's helicarrier, and after Coulson congratulates him, Wade explains he just used his plan for bringing down SHIELD's helicarrier if they didn't give him the money he was owed. Coulson clears his throat and goes to a) update Wade's threat level in his file, and b) figure out where that money is.

For all his jokes and zany hijinks, Deadpool is still a highly trained and periodically ruthless killer who is nearly unkillable himself. That guy kills a room full of ULTIMATUM guys and paints the walls with their blood as some joke? That's frightening. You can do jokes about how he doesn't remember fighting Captain America with the Fixer in St. Louis and all of them getting hit with a diarrhea ray. Or you can have him trying to solve how someone killed a well-known terrorist leader, and he figures it out while actually thinking about chimichangas the whole time, because he's the one who killed him, but he doesn't remember doing it. And he can't figure why he did other than, he felt like it. It can be funny to see him running around with his severed arm tied to his body fighting goon squads, until you realize he chewed his own arm off to get free to kill these guys.

Deadpool is very human, in that he falls prey to the same flaws as a lot of us, just in more spectacular ways. Wade wants to be a good person most of the time, but he wants to do it on his terms, when it doesn't inconvenience him too much. He'll take the easy way out sometimes, avoid tough conversations with people he cares about. The reason that move Cable pulled worked so well is because Wade didn't want to deal with his inner conflicts. When he realizes he doesn't know how many people he's killed, then he starts thinking about why he not, and what he even hoped to accomplish with those deaths. And rather than answer that, he lashes out instead.

Deadpool's been victimized a lot in his life. Department K, or Weapon X, whoever, that used him as a guinea pig, then dumped him down a sluice gate into a pile of corpses when they thought he was of no use to them. When someone in charge decided that was a dumb idea, they sought him out to harvest his organs and tamper with his memories, even having him kill his parents just to test how effective their mind-wiping drug was. Logan let him on X-Force, but treated him as a soulless killer, a weapon. You'd think Logan would know what that's like, but he treated his "daughter" the same way, so let's just leave it that Logan's a shitty mentor figure. Cable would hire Deadpool for jobs without letting him know it was him doing it, to let Wade think he had some autonomy. True or not, Deadpool feels like Captain America used him as a gun because Cap himself was old and Logan was busy being dead.

And so Wade has a tendency, publicly anyway, to blame his problems on others. Privately, Wade will acknowledge his own hand in the trainwreck his life routinely becomes, but when he's around others, he'll blame them, or anyone else. Maybe because everybody seems to dismiss the crap he's been through. People always makes excuses for Logan after he murders up 40 guys, how he's been through a lot, suffered a lot. They look the other way for the shady shit the Black Widow continues to do. But Wade feels he doesn't get that acknowledgement. I'd say his consistent friends - Weasel, Blind Al, Outlaw, etc. - recognize it and allow for it, and that Wade ignores that, because it's convenient to him. It's not one of his better traits, but it's understandable, and like I said, Wade does internally acknowledge how he often ruins things himself.

Jamie Madrox mentioned he pulls practical jokes as way to get people to notice him, so he didn't feel alone. I wonder if Wade acts so irritating because it forces people to acknowledge him as a person. They can't just treat him as a weapon to use or destroy, because he's pissing them off too much for that. They have to yell at him to shut up, or tell him how disgusting he is. Which undoubtedly hurts, but at least they see him, the person. Or a version of him, at least, which may be better than nothing.

Deadpool is fully capable of compassion, but like a lot of people, he's selective about who receives. He's more likely to show compassion to those he sees as victims, as opposed to people he thinks have made their own bed. He tried to do a lot for the Kim and the rest of Butler's Korean test subjects, those X-Men he partially created using Wade's body. Wade got them out Korea, got them money, and when their health began to fail, he convinced the X-Men to help. When Beast needed some of Wade's organs to keep them alive, Wade gave them. When the X-Men went temporarily evil - thanks Axis! - Wade found his friends another sanctuary. He'll save a random kid riding by on a bike while he was in the middle of fighting a demon. Just because. When some kind of tampering is making him try to kill Cable, he'll shoot himself rather than let that happen.

On the other hand, when he was trying to deal with that demon, he killed his necromancer acquaintance Michael and sent the guy to Hell so he could bargain with Mephisto. From Wade's point of view, Michael already sold his soul and was doomed to Hell. Wade was just using Michael's bad decision to help the rest of them. Same with Madcap. He was trapped inside Wade's mind, Wade was in a bad place, he tormented Madcap. Later, he tries to make amends when he feels he can afford to, but it's too late. He'll punch random people or threaten them because he's got problems he can't deal with and they happen to be annoying him at the wrong moment. That's not unusual, to take out our other problems and frustrations on people who have nothing to do with them. Although I can also see how having to share your mind with Madcap would get irritating real fast. Wade didn't ask for him to be there.

Deadpool is a good friend. Sometimes. We discussed the efforts he went to trying to help Cable out, and that doesn't cover the time Wade jumped across multiple dimensions trying to find Cable's soul to bring him back to life. Or when he was sent through time to kill Cable, but kept saving his life. Or the time he fought Power Man and Iron Fist to protect Weasel. Gail Simone didn't write Deadpool for long, but when his brain was increasingly scrambled by Black Swan, he had Swan use his powers to help his friend Ratbag instead (also an example of Wade helping someone who was a victim of circumstances outside their control). He worked hard to help Evan believe the best of himself, that he wasn't going to become Apocalypse, and to protect him from Stryfe. He went to the wall for Kim and the others, and he fended off a lot of people trying to keep Agent Preston safe until they could figure out some way for her to have a body. He killed everyone in ULTIMATUM to try and keep his daughter and her new family safe. Which is extreme, but he'd already tried letting their boss live in such mortal terror of Deadpool that he wouldn't think of messing with him. It eventually stopped working, sooooo, new plan. Or old plan really.

And sometimes he's a terrible friend. He kept Blind Al locked up in his house, and kicked the shit out of Weasel when he dared to figure out where Wade lived. He's tried to kill Cable on multiple occasions, even after they became sort-of friends. When Preston came after him, he shut her down and left her mind trapped in a deactivated, trashed LMD until he could get around to telling Captain America to fix her. He treats Bob like his personal punching bag. (Though Bob is an agent of HYDRA, so he probably deserves it, he's been a loyal friend to Wade.) He killed Irene Merryweather for Stryfe to protect his daughter. Wade is leery of letting people close, because there's a lot of ugly stuff in his history, and once they see it, they might not want to be around him. Better to drive them off first, even if he's confirming all his worst fears about himself in the process. He sabotages himself a lot. He's had a good thing, then wrecked it somehow so many times he's convinced it's always going to happen, and then he ends up making it happen. He pushes them away before they can turn against him, which causes them to turn against him.

It's just all very interesting to me because I can't ever be sure which way Deadpool's going to go at a given moment. Even when he's at his lowest points, or things are starting to spiral out control, he can still do something good or kind. And other times, he can be completely cruel and indifferent to the suffering he's inflicting. It isn't as though he has no moral compass - it may be skewed, but it's there - but he'll either ignore it, or justify his actions in some way. Which again, isn't all that different from a lot of us. We may do something unkind, but there were reasons, you see, so we should get a pass. Wade may very well believe he should get a pass - during the fallout from HYDRA Cap, he's been constantly trying to "I was only following orders" line of defense - but I don't know that he really believes it. And I'm positive he knew he wasn't gonna get it.

How aware Wade is of the fact he's a comic book character varies from time-to-time. He's as aware as the writer needs him to be to make a joke. But again, you can flip that to make it terrifying and sad, like when he addresses the audience about their complicity in the hell his life regularly becomes, as his suffering is our entertainment. In those moments, he's also aware of how writers love to give him friends or family, only to pull them away. If not by that writer, like Gerry Duggan did with everyone he gave Deadpool, then the next writer, like when Daniel Way threw out everything Nicieza had established. That has to be exhausting, to know, even just some of the time, that he's stuck on a treadmill of gaining friends only to lose them, and it's ultimately going to be played as his fault. He'll be written to do something shitty and awful that turns these people away - help HYDRA, beat up his friend for crossing a line the friend didn't know existed, neglect his wife - so he can be alone and terrible again. Wade ends up being very good at regrets after the fact, but not so good at avoiding the actions he'll end up regretting in the first place.

Given that, it's not much of a surprise he tries to kill himself sometimes, even though he knows his healing factor (or Marvel) won't let it take. He's stuck in his own Groundhog Day, but he's not ever going to get the happy end where he finds true love and becomes a better person. Every time he does, it's pulled out from under him, and he wakes up back in the hotel bed with the alarm playing the same damn song. Maybe all his bizarre adventures are just a way for him to keep occupied. If he's stuck existing, there's no reason he has to be bored. After all, if he's bored, he might start thinking, maybe about how he's going to live for a really long time, and suffer setback after setback, loss after loss. Misfortune, isolation, hatred, scorn, there's truckload after truckload of that waiting ahead for him. Better just not to think about it. Find something to do today, kick the can down the road. He can always try killing himself tomorrow.

It's this push-pull where Deadpool can be hilarious, or sad, where he can frustrate by tearing his life down around his ears one money, and then do something stupid and ridiculous that almost makes it funny. Where I want to yell at him about his bad decisions, but defend him against any character in-story that tries to give him a hard time or look down on him. I know Wade shoots himself in the foot a lot, literally and figuratively, but I also know that he's done the right thing a lot when no one would have expected it and no one was willing to help. I root for him to get to have friends and good times, even knowing it's all eventually going to fall apart. He's an interesting character in his good and bad times.

Credits! Wade didn't make a great first impression in X-Force #2, by Fabian Nicieza (writer), Rob Liefeld (artist), Brad Vancata (colorist), and Chris Eliopoulos (letterer). Cable appreciates that Wade had himself shipped air mail for overnight delivery in Cable/Deadpool #41, by Nicieza (writer), Reilly Brown (penciler), Jeremy Freeman (inker), Gotham (colorist), Dave Sharpe (letterer). Deadpool unveils his new DLC alternate costume in Deadpool (volume 3) #13, by Gerry Duggan and Brian Posehn (writers), Scott Koblish (artist), Val Staples (colorist), and Joe Sabino (letterer). Deadpool's career as a physiotherapist was brief, in Deadpool (vol. 3) #19, by Duggan and Posehn (writers), Declan Shalvey (artist), Jordie Bellaire (color artist), and Joe Sabino (letterer). Everybody wants someone else to solve their problems, then they complain how you do it in Deadpool (vol. 3) #10, by Duggan and Posehn (writers), Mike Hawthorne (artist), Val Staples (colorist), and Joe Sabino (letterer). Wade does a nice thing for his friend, he tells him to get away in Deadpool (vol. 1) #69, by Gail Simone (writer), Arnold Tsang, Andrew Hou, Eric Vedder, Omar Dogan, and TheRealT! (artists), Dave Sharpe (letterer). Deadpool makes sure you can always tell where he's been in Deadpool (volume 3) #17, by Duggan and Posehn (writers), Shalvey (artist), Bellaire (colorist), and Sabino (letterer).