BAB2K

 2000

Doug: A long time ago and in a mobile classroom during summer school, in collaboration with my partner Karen I set up the first post for bronzeagebabies.blogspot.com. And here we are, almost 6 1/2 years to the day later, publishing post #2000. What a long, strange trip it's been! Honestly, I am in Karen's debt for bringing me along for the ride. She's pretty tolerant of me in many regards.

Doug: I wonder if we have much to say beyond what's been said in our last six anniversary posts, other than to reiterate that this has truly become a community. Sure, we've had many regular commenters come and go through the years (and you're missed if you're one of the "wents"). But this place never fails to provide at least a little respite from the daily grind. I think the fact that we've had 32,000 comments on 2000 posts says it all.

Doug: I can't recall which of us was the first to come up with one of our conversation categories, but you'll see sprinkled throughout the bottom of today's post some memorable logos. Sure, some others were tried and they didn't stick. But many of those below have become mainstays around here, like The Open Forum, Discuss, and our Who's the... twins. Hopefully we always manage to throw out an interesting nugget for your rumination. It's not always easy to be original (as evidenced by the number of times we've repeated ourselves), but we try!

Doug: Lastly, I'd again come back to the notion of community. Back at the beginning of February Karen and I recognized that our lives were in places where we couldn't meet our own expectations. So we reached out to our readers for a little assistance and you rose to the occasion (as you always do when we need a pick-me-up). I'd offer you a stat in support of our pleasure at the success of the Guest Writer request: as you read this we have run 51 guest posts/reviews/strips. That number may be more amazing to me than 2000!

Karen: I can't add much to that. A lot of water has gone under the bridge since we started this blog, but BAB has been a consistent part of our lives. While it's true that we've both had more on our plates lately, and we haven't been able to do quite as much, it's been terrific to see the community step up and truly transform the blog into more of a group effort. All in all, I'm very proud of this place and very happy to have met my partner Doug all those years ago -even if we still have never met face to face, or even spoken on the phone!

 

 

 

 

BAB Firsts (the 1st Versus): Who ya Got? Kang the Conqueror or Ultron?

This post was originally published on February 17 2010

Doug: The New Year brings with it some new features here on the BAB blog. Today we'll begin a semi-regular series called "versus", where we'll pit two opposing yet similar entities against each other -- not in some faux battle, but more along the lines of who we've liked better, why one is better than the other at "X", and so on. Today it's the two greatest nemeses of the Avengers, but who knows? Next time it could be Elton John versus Billy Joel! Maybe later it'll be Karen's favorite baseball player versus my nominee. So let's get on with the debate.

Doug: I guess any discussion like this can't help but start with one's personal preferences -- hey, throw objectivity out the window! So I'll begin by saying that I like the "Celestial Madonna" storyline better than I like the "Bride of Ultron" (but close -- how does one choose between two masterpieces?) -- those would be my favorite Avengers stories involving these two do-badders.
Karen: Well, you already know I'm biased! I mean I did write a whole article on Ultron for Back Issue! (on the shelves now! -Doug). Both Ultron and Kang are great adversaries for the Avengers, but I give the edge to the mad robot because of the emotional response he always evokes from the team. He's definitely the black sheep that no one wants to talk about. The son of Hank Pym, father of the Vision, and he's tried to make wives out of both the Wasp and Mockingbird. There's a lot of twisted history there! On top of that, throw in indestructible adamantium skin, and you've got a heck of a threat.

Doug: Yeah, I wouldn't discount any of that, and I would never say that I don't like Ultron. I don't know... there's just something about Kang, time travel, and the possibilities. I will admit that I've read some bad Kang stories -- the "Council of Cross-Time Kangs" that ran in the Avengers #290's didn't do much for me. I think the intent was good, and there were some good elements, but overall I didn't like it.

Doug: I really like "Celestial Madonna" 1) for the scope of it and 2) for the little extras: the Legion of the Unliving (good Kang add-on), the origin of the Vision, as well as the origin of Mantis. Kang's certifiably maniacal, he has an interesting goal, and scribe Steve Englehart executes a grand tale. I'll admit that the story ends on a clunker in GS Avengers #4 when Kang is ridiculously shoe-horned back into the story, but there's redemption in the pages of the "Serpent Crown Affair" that ran shortly thereafter. Kang's the star of the substory involving the Wild West heroes and Hawkeye, Thor and Moondragon, and meets a memorable end in combat against Thor. Really good stuff, with art by a young George Perez.

Doug: I'd be remiss if I didn't give a shout-out to two fine Kurt Busiek stories -- the "Kang Dynasty" and Avengers Forever. Although Perez was not along for either ride, the art in both stories was ably handled by Ivan Reis, Brent Anderson and Keiron Dwyer and Carlos Pacheco (respectively). While "Kang Dynasty" is a bit long (I believe 16 issues total), either would be recommended as two latter-day Kang classics.

Karen: Kang has given Earth's Mightiest a huge heaping of trouble time and again (no pun intended). Doug, you know I am also a fan of the "Celestial Madonna" saga, and it was fascinating how Englehart explored the different identities of Kang -how he connected Kang, Rama Tut, and Immortus. That's one of the cool things about time travel stories: you have endless possibilities to play with.

Karen: That being, said, I think I can toss out some of Ultron's greatest moments here and find that they measure up nicely. I think his rebirth as an adamantium-coated nightmare in Avengers 66-68 is a great early example of just how devastating he could be. The "Bride of Ultron" storyline upped the ante quite a bit; now, instead of just wanting to kill Pym, we saw Ultron also wants to supplant him and take what is his - his wife! Disturbing on a lot of levels, and it certainly left the Avengers shaken.

Karen: But Kurt Busiek -funny how that name has popped up again, isn't it? - came up with the most dangerous and devastating Ultron story yet, "Ultron Unlimited", in the third volume of Avengers. Not only does the maniac take over an entire nation, slaughter its people and turn them into cyber-zombies, he kidnaps five Avengers with plans to use their brain patterns to create an entire android race under his dominion! The remaining Avengers have to battle their way through hundreds of Ultrons to get to the true villain, giving Thor a chance to utter the famous line, "Ultron, we would have words with thee." Besides the thrilling battles, we also learn a startling fact, one that makes absolute sense, of the kind where you slap yourself in the head and say, "Of course! Why didn't I see that before?" It is revealed that Pym used his own brain patterns when he created Ultron - in effect, Ultron really is Pym's son, he has a piece of him inside him. No wonder these encounters always weighed so heavily on Pym - Ultron's actions were reflecting something inside of Pym!


Doug: That Thor line you cited is one of the all-time greats! You're making a great argument here -- were you a lawyer in a former life?? But seriously, let's evaluate: both characters have evolved through different incarnations involving technology as well as personality, both have taken on Avengers teams showcasing line-ups that could truly be called Earth's Mightiest Heroes, both have raised some serious Cain on the Earth in terms of destruction, human casualties, etc., and both seem to keep popping up every few years. You could argue, too, that Kang's constant pining after Ravonna creates a love interest somewhat akin to Ultron's quest to make himself a complete man/robot by fulfilling that need with Jocasta, etc. Kang and Ultron are head and shoulders above any other nemesis the Avengers have faced, based on longevity alone!


Doug: So if our faithful followers determine that your argument was stronger, should I feel badly? Negative -- because in this "versus", could one really go wrong on a rainy day with a stack of comics featuring either super-baddie?

A Marriage Made In...

Doug: It's been a long time since we've had a good, ol' fashioned Versus! Today we're going to ask you about five books that suddenly had a guest-star thrust upon (or within) them. Of the five, which was your favorite, which would be non-favorites, which worked better with the line-up change and which should have been left alone? For your musing, we've provided the last cover under the old title and the subsequent change the following issue. Of course, in all but one case, the new resident had been in, well -- residence for some time prior to the official renaming of the book. Have at it!

 

Classic vs. Modern Monsters

Karen: When it comes to horror and monsters, I am decidedly old school. Growing up, the Universal Monsters -Frankenstein, Dracula, Wolfman, Mummy, Creature - were always on TV, usually on Saturdays, and I sat in front of the screen mesmerized by their tales. Each one had such a distinct back story and personality. Three of them, the Frankenstein Monster, the Wolfman, and the Mummy, also had tragic elements that made you feel for the characters. For me Dracula was just flat-out evil, and the Creature was more like a wild animal. But all of them had something that made them exciting and scary, but in a fun way.

Then in the 70s and especially 80s, a new type of monster came along: The slasher. This monster was far closer to our reality than the old monsters had been. He was essentially a serial killer with supernatural abilities or origins. There's Freddy from the Nightmare on Elm Street series, Jason from Friday the 13th, Michael Myers from Halloween, Chucky from Child's Play, and many others. Most of their victims are teenagers. While some of these characters were somehow wronged in their past, most of them are just plain evil psycho killers that deserve little sympathy, if any. Certainly the child murderer Freddy can hardly be considered worthy of our concern. And yet, these monsters are immensely popular with some fans.

So I'm curious: I know some of you also enjoy monster stuff. Where do you fall in this discussion? Classic or Modern? And if it's modern, I'd really be interested in hearing why.

Check out the new Avengers movie trailer here!! Wow!

X-Men vs. Avengers

Just for fun: compose a six person X-Men team, a six person Avengers team, and then tell us who would win in a fight between the two.

Thor vs. Hulk: The Movie Version

Karen: Just for fun: Movie-Thor vs. Movie-Hulk: who wins??