5 Horribly Un-PC Characters in the Marvel Universe

5 Horribly Un-PC Characters in the Marvel Universe

Marvel has (debatably) always striven for inclusiveness in their universe. Just look at the international X-Men squad that was debuted in Giant Size X-Men. Then look in that very same issue at Thunderbird. Yeah, Marvel tends to miss the mark. Sometimes it all comes out OK, as Luke Cage went from blaxploitation caricature to Avenger. But some heroes never quite make the recovery. Here are some of the most stereotypical heroes, villains and otherwise, with all the fun criteria of discrimination … race, sex, religion, sexual orientation …

1. El Aguila

You’re a Spanish mutant who can generate electricity. Logically, you’d want to live up to your cultural heritage. Being from Spain, the one that’s in Europe and not in imaginary land, you decide that your course is to imitate Spain’s greatest hero: Mexican-American swordfighter Zorro. Your tiny, donkey filled village of Madrid (population 3 million) can barely contain your zest for adventure, so you go abroad for your superheroic adventures. Sadly, his days drew to a close in the post-House of M period, losing his mutant powers. But he retained that zest for life, incorrectly applied non-Castilian Spanish and (assumedly, at least) awful mustache.

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Q & A – Miss Lasko-Gross

I discovered Miss Lasko-Gross quite by accident. Escape From “Special” was kind of jutting out from the shelf at my library, and I picked it up as an afterthought. It had been previously discussed by Van Jensen, a.k.a. Jean Claude Van Doom, but where he didn’t take something from it I, on the other hand, was captivated by the off-beat art and seeming mundanity of day to day life … if your parents are dead heads who send you to alternative schooling, at least. Still, though, it had the cathartic highs and lows of being the weird kid in class.

A few weeks ago at Small Press Expo (where I got to have some Chinese food with the ever illustrious Mr. Jensen), I stumbled across the table for Lasko-Gross and, seeing that there was a sequel to Escape from Special, decided to give it a go. Here, we find the weirdness subdued, segueing into the illusive quest for identity. The worldview felt different.

Miss Lasko-Gross was kind enough to answer some questions for Doomkopf about her style, her work and her work to come:

How did you develop the artistic style that went into Escape From Special and A Mess of Everything? Was the way you do more muted colors deliberate or just something that naturally evolved? Who are your own influences in comics, and what drew you to the medium? (more…)



Our long national nightmare may soon be over

Bryan Singer wants to return to the X-Men franchise.

I’m still looking to possibly returning to the ‘X-Men’ franchise. I’ve been talking to Fox about it.

Not a lot to say here. X2 was one of the strongest comic movies of all time, and I think he can steer it back on a course towards relevance instead of whizz bangs. This also means I’ll stop bitching for at least three hours about the sharp and sudden turns of the series.



Reviews: XKCD Volume 0

In my secret, not very interesting real life, I’m a web “professional,” which is to say I spend eight hours a day fixing HTML code. My sweet, sweet refuge is XKCD, updated every Monday – Wednesday – Friday.
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Deadpool: The Movie

From Rob Liefeld’s Twitter.

In junior high, we’d call this an “easy target.” It’s like I caught the slightest hint of underwear peaking out from sweat pants and now my hands can’t wait to put a wedgie death grip on them.

Instead, I’ll let you write them. Put your comments below, and speculate on the awful ineptitude that Ryan Reynolds and Rob Liefeld are in the process of santoruming on the world.

EDIT: I should note that, as a comic fan, I was the one getting my pants pulled up in junior high.



X-Men: First Class: The Movie

New X-Men movie? Say it ain’t so! Please, if there’s a god, you will say it’s not.

But Internet rumblings say it is. Check this news.

MTV’s Splash Page blog noticed that Tim Pocock, who played the young Cyclops in this summer’s retro X-Men movie had left the following update on Twitter:

currently shooting Australian TV series till February 2010…then X-men first class 😉

This can only end poorly. Expect a multitude of cobbled together mutt continuity from a music video director. Any guesses on the class to be? Will we have a Lil’ Bishop storyline? Is there a mutant untouched (or, thanks to Brett Ratner, scathed) by the X-Men movie Juggernaut that can join this team? By my count … Banshee, Warpath, Dr. Reyes and Cable will be on the team.



Disney is buying Marvel

A friend told me “Disney is buying Marvel.” I told him Monday morning is the wrong time to give me the information like that. But it’s true, folks. Disney is buying Marvel. Spider-Man can, theoretically, swing his way into Hannah Montana, and future Marvel franchises will be likely appearing on ABC and the Disney Channel.

But what can it all mean? I see this as akin to Time-Warner’s ownership of DC. With the WB / CW, they are able to bring us series such as Smallville and Birds of Prey. With a “home network,” Marvel may be able to franchise characters in ways we haven’t seen before – beyond cartoons and back into the game of the TV series, without the low budget pitfalls of the older shows – The Incredible Hulk and The Godawful Spider-Man. It’s a hope. Who knows – maybe we’ll see a live action Runaways or New Mutants on ABC to compete with Heroes.

But the real hope is that the House of Mouse keeps their fingers out of Marvel, and lets Marvel just be Marvel. No changing of Marvel business as is, or making it conform to some Disney standard. As seen with Miramax, they’re capable of respecting the wishes of directors and Weinsteins.

Anyway, here’s the news link: CLICK



Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer contest!

So with Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer author Van Jensen being a friend and former poster of this fine blog, he asked us to pass this along. Participate!

Hyphothetical question time. What if you were a magically sentient wooden puppet? And what if whenever you told a lie, your magically sentient wooden nose would grow suddenly? And what if you suddenly were confronted by a gang of bloodsucking vampires, and you needed to snap off a shank of magically sentient wooden nose to kill the undead? Hypothetically speaking, what lie would you tell?

If you can come up with a funny, creative lie, you could win some serious swag from the upcoming Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer graphic novel. The book, created by Dustin Higgins and Van Jensen, will be released by SLG Publishing on Sept. 30. All you have to do is post your best lie at the Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer Facebook group or send one by e-mail to pinocchiovampireslayer@gmail.com. All entries must be received by Sept. 23.

The best lie, as chosen by Dustin and Van, will receive a signed copy of the book and a page of Dustin’s original artwork. Two runners up will both receive signed copies of the book.

Mark Twain may have said “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes,” but it can also help rid the world of vampires. So get creative! Get hypothetical! Get lying!

Disclaimer: The creators of Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer are not liable if a submitted lie appears in the current or any future Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer book. Dozens of lies appear in the book, and any submitted lie matching one in the book is purely coincidental.

And if you’re curious what the hell this book is, you can check out my passive-aggressive interview with Van here.



Q & A: Van Jensen of Pinocchio: Vampire Slayer

Van Jensen was one of the original five posters here – then going under the name Jean Claude Van Doom. Together with Jim Doom and Fin Fang Doom, he comprised the bulk of the first few years of posts before Doom DeLuise joined our ranks. I was too busy posting twice a year, and Colonel Doom doing less than that.

Anyway, Van is releasing his debut graphic novel, Pinocchio: Vampire Slayer, and it’s been getting a lot of play in the latest issue of Previews. Slave Labor Graphics is airdropping it into stores in September, so be on the lookout. I sat down with Van, on the Internet, and discussed his upcoming book and other projects on the horizon, and what a horrible person he is …

Doominator: What was the genesis of “Pinocchio: Vampire Slayer”?

Van: I was working as a crime reporter, and one of my coworkers, Dusty Higgins, an illustrator at the paper, jotted down a doodle of Pinocchio killing vampires and showed it to me. I laughed, then forgot about it. Then a couple years later Dusty called me out of the blue and asked if I wanted to script a story out for him about this vampire-slaying Pinocchio.

Did you read the original Pinocchio story before launching in?

The concept in and of itself is essentially a one-panel joke. “Pinocchio kills a vampire with his nose, ha!” So to expand on that, I immediately went to Carlo Collodi’s original story, which is very dark and weird.
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Book of Doom Preview: The Unwritten #1

We dropped the ball on last week, folks, so hopefully, your hearts went on without the Book of Doom. But we’re back! This week’s pick is The Unwritten #1, courtesy of Mike Carey, who was nice enough to do an interview with me about the book a bit back.

So the rundown?

Everyone’s read the Tommy Taylor books, the popular series of novels turned pop culture phenomenon about a boy wizard’s adventures. And everyone knows about Tom Taylor, the boy the novels were based on, whose life was so overshadowed by his Dad’s fictional epic that Tom’s become a lame Z-level celebrity at best and a human viral marketing tool at worst.

But what if the resemblance goes even deeper? What if Tom is the boy-wizard of the books made flesh? And if that sounds crazy, why is it bringing him into the crosshairs of an ancient faction that has never been named in any book or text?

To discover the truth about himself, Tom must search through all the places in history where fiction and reality have intersected. And in the process, he’ll learn more about that unwritten cabal and the plot they’re at the center of –– a plot that spans all of literature from the first clay tablets to the gothic castles where Frankenstein was conceived to the self-adjusting stories of the internet.

Can’t argue with that, right? To participate, email me at doominator_at_doomkopf.com.