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Max Modell

Wednesday, February 1st, 2012

Art by Humberto Ramos

Modell is a renowned scientist and head of Horizon Labs, an innovative tech development firm. In Amazing Spider-Man #648 Modell became Peter Parker’s boss. While chatting, Parker notices a watch that Modell is wearing. Modell comments that it’s an early birthday gift from his partner Hector.

Modell is introduced in Amazing Spider-Man #648 and is confirmed as gay in #678. Created by Dan Slott and Humberto Ramos.

© and ® Marvel Comics. All rights reserved.

Thanks to Mart for the info and image.

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Moondragon

Saturday, June 4th, 2011

By Mike McDermott

[Note: this profile dates from its original appearance on this site and does not reflect any info or events from the Annihilation mini series or Guardians of the Galaxy comic.]

When she was three years old, Heather Douglass and her parents were driving back to L.A. after a short vacation. They saw in the sky a scout ship belonging to the mad Titan named Thanos. In order to prevent them from telling anyone what they saw, he attacked their car, forcing it off the road, and killing both of Heather’s parents. Heather was the only survivor of the crash. She was rescued by Mentor, ruler of Titan, and Thanos’ father who opposed his son’s violent activities. Mentor took Heather back to Titan, where she was placed in the Shao-Lom monastery. She was raised by the monks, and taught their extensive physical and mental disciplines, as well as helping her develop her latent psionic abilities. She grew up to become an accomplished athlete, martial artist and geneticist.

Upon reaching adulthood, she took the name Moondragon, and joined in the fight against Thanos. This fight brought her into the company of the Avengers, whom she briefly joined. Being raised apart from humanity, and having attained physical and mental perfection, Moondragon considered herself a goddess, and superior to most of her teammates. Her somewhat arrogant attitude prevented her from fully fitting in with the team, and she stayed with them only a short time, although she remains an ally.

During her time with the Avengers, Moondragon learned she had her physical and mental training had been part of preparing her for the role of the Celestial Madonna. The Celestial Madonna was to be a perfect human woman who would mate with the perfect plant-being and become the mother to the Celestial Messiah, who would herald in a new golden age for the universe. Moondragon was one of two women who were groomed for this role. The other was the Avenger known as Mantis. Although the two of them possessed equal training and skill, Moondragon was found to be lacking in humanity, so Mantis was chosen instead.

Moondragon’s had a tumultuous career as a superhero, and was even briefly a villain, when she was corrupted into imposing her will on others “for the greater good”. She even enslaved the entire population of an alien world, but was defeated by the Avengers. She was eventually freed from the corrupting influence, and has since made every effort to atone for her past mistakes.

More recently, she returned to Los Angeles to help train the new Captain Marvel, to properly control his cosmic awareness. During her training of Captain Marvel, she also got to know his friend Marlo Chandler Jones. When it was revealed that Marlo had developed a potentially dangerous ability known as the “death wish”, Heather began training Marlo to safely control this new ability. Heather and Marlo became close during this process, and even shared a passionate kiss, which came as a shock to both women. Although Moondragon had past relationships with men, they were lacking any real emotion and were mostly a means to an end for her. Marlo was the first person whom Heather really made an emotional connection with. Marlo explained the situation to her husband, and she and Moondragon began to explore their new relationship.

They spent a few happy months together, but eventually Marlo decided she wanted to return to her husband. Moondragon understood, and they agreed to remain friends always.

At this time, Marlo and Moondragon were targeted by the Magus, an evil sorcerer who is an enemy of Captain Marvel. Marvel’s younger sister, Phyla, was sent to bodyguard Marlo while he went into the future to deal with the Magus’ schemes elsewhere. Moondragon was gravely injured fighting the Magus, and he saved her life, to make her indebted to him so that he could continue to manipulate and control her in the future. During his time travelling, Captain Marvel saw a distant future where Moondragon was a faithful servant of the Magus.

In the present day, after the Magus was defeated for now, Moondragon moved out of the apartment once her relationship with Marlo ended. She also told Marlo and Rick that Marlo’s attraction to her was the result of the Magus’ manipulations; that he had been stimulating emotional responses out of her to make her easier to manipulate, and that due to her telepathic powers, that spilled over and affected Marlo as well.

However, this was simply a story Moondragon came up with in order to allow Marlo to find happiness again with Rick, without their brief affair complicating matters. Phyla overheard the story, and told Moondragon that she knew it was a lie–and that she found that noble sacrifice to be very attractive. She apparently became attracted to Moondragon while helping protect Marlo, and now that Moondragon was single, wanted to pursue a relationship with her. Moondragon was interested, and they were lasted seen heading off together into a spatial portal into an unknown adventure.

Moondragon has had a number of past involvements with men, but they all were lacking any emotional connection. She once unsuccessfully pursued Quasar as her “perfect mate”. That was more about conceiving a child rather than any kind of relationship.

Moondragon’s recently revealed lesbianism possibly puts her mentoring of Patsy Walker, the Avenger known as Hellcat, in a new light. Like Marlo, Patsy was an attractive, brave red head. When Moondragon first left the Avengers, she took Patsy with her and trained her. While it has never been suggested that there was any kind of romantic relationship between the two, the physical similarities between Patsy and Marlo does raise a few questions.

As a very powerful psionic Moondragon is very capable of projecting her thoughts to others, reading other people’s thoughts and even taking control of their minds. She also has telekinetic abilities, allowing herself to fly, and move objects with her mind. She can also project bursts of pure mental force, or create a Her body is trained to ultimate human perfection, and she is a master of martial arts.

Moondragon has served as a priestess, and as a superhero she has been affiliated with the Avengers, Defenders, Infinity Watch and most recently the Guardians of the Galaxy. On Earth she was based in Los Angeles, New York, and Colorado. Off Earth she as was located on Titan and the Knowhere, a space station situated in the head of a dead Celestial.

Her first appearance is in Iron Man #54 (vol 1) and her sexuality is shown in Captain Marvel #32 (vol 3).

See the entries for Phyal-Vell and Quasar.

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Phyla-Vell

Friday, June 3rd, 2011

By Mike McDermott

Phyla-Vell is a heroine who has taken on various identities during her adventuring career, frequently trying to live up to the legacies of others.  She is the daughter of the original Captain Mar-Vell, and trained all her life in combat in order to follow in her father’s and brother’s footsteps as a hero.  She eventually got her chance when her brother Genis, who was carrying the “Captain Marvel” legacy at the time, went insane from his Cosmic Awareness.  Phyla adopted the Captain Marvel name and uniform and fought to subdue Genis and help restore him to sanity.  Phyla fought alongside the recovered Genis for a time, along with his ally Moondragon (Heather Douglas).  The two women soon become involved, and left to explore the universe together.  After Genis’ death, Phyla realized she was not yet ready to carry on the “Captain Marvel” legacy, and willingly gave up the title.

Phyla was one of the many intergalactic heroes who joined forces to fight the Annihilation Wave invasion of our universe.  During the final battle against Annihilus, Phyla gained possession of the quantum bands of the fallen hero Quasar (Wendell Vaughn).  Feeling that the bands had chosen her, Phyla decided to become the new Quasar.  She and Moondragon also helped battle the Phalanx invasion of the Kree Empire, but Moondragon was killed in action.

As Quasar, Phyla was one of the founding members of Star-Lord’s team of interstellar heroes, the Guardians of the Galaxy.  While on leave from the team, Phyla and Drax the Destroyer (Moondragon’s father) rescued Moondragon from the realm of the dead and restored her to life.  In exchange for Heather’s resurrection, Phyla made a deal with Oblivion to become the new avatar of Death, replacing the late avatar, Thanos.  Phyla kept this deal secret from her teammates and took on the new identity of Martyr, relinguishing the Quasar identity and quantum bands back to a newly-resurrected Wendell Vaughn.

Becoming Martyr seemed to affect more than just her powers; Phyla was more aggressive and violent, bringing her into conflict with team leader Star-Lord when she became insubordinate.  To fulfill her agreement with Oblivion, Martyr attempted to assassinate her fellow Guardian, Adam Warlock.  However, Warlock survived the attempt–but transformed into his own dark reflection, the Magus.  The Magus captured Phyla and several other Guardians, tricking their teammates into believing that they were killed.  However, Phyla’s psychic bond with Moondragon allowed Heather to learn that Phyla was still alive.  Martyr and the others managed to escape, but Phyla was killed by Thanos when he was resurrected and resumed his role as Avatar of Death.  Whether or not Phyla will manage to cheat death yet again remains to be seen.

Phyla’s powers varied from identity to identity.  Her natural-born powers as a Kree/Titanian hybrid include flight and superhuman strength.  As both Captain Marvel and Quasar she was able to absorb and project large amounts of energy.  As Captain Marvel she possessed cosmic awareness (a form of psychic link with the universe itself), but that ability faded away for unrevealed reasons.  As Quasar she was able to create constructs out of quantum energy, limited only by her imagination–anything she could visualize, she could create.  She frequently used a sword constructed out of quantum energy–a weapon she that continued to use after she became Martyr.  If she had gained any new powers as Martyr, they were unrevealed at the time of her death.

Read a more in-depth profile of Phyla at this page. Please also read the Moondragon profile.

© and ® Marvel Comics. All rights reserved.

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Rob Silverman

Sunday, May 29th, 2011

By Mike McDermott

Rob is the boyfriend of Jean-Paul “Frenchie” DuChamps, the former mercenary who has served as pilot and sidekick to the superhero Moon Knight.

In addition to co-owning a restaurant called “En Table” with Frenchie, Rob also works as a physiotherapist and helps Moon Knight to train and recover from injuries he sustains while crimefighting. Rob is a supporter of Moon Knight’s violent vigilante activities, believing that “evil people should be punished for their crimes” and that they should be hurt too, “so they know how it feels”. However the friendship between Rob and Moon Knight sparked conflict in Rob’s relationship with Jean-Paul. Jean-Paul worried that being in Moon Knight’s life was too dangerous, based on his own injuries and what he had observed happening to MK’s other friends over the years, but Rob argued that he was simply jealous. Jean-Paul’s fears turned out to be justified when Rob was savagely beaten into a coma by enemies of Moon Knight. This prompted Jean-Paul to come out of retirement and join Moon Knight in battle again to take revenge against the attackers. Rob has since
recovered from his injuries.

First Appearance: Moon Knight vol.6 #3 (2007)

© and ® Marvel Comics. All rights reserved.

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Alpha Flight: Following The Northstar

Sunday, May 22nd, 2011

By Dyl Martinez

An overview of the new #0.1 preceded by a brief retrospective of the team book that brought us comics’ most famous gay character.

A kiss, a rescue & cohabitation; all in store for Northstar and his established long-term boyfriend in this first issue of a new volume of Alpha Flight. We also see a return of all the other classic Alphas barring the pocket bear Puck; but first a bit of history for those of you not so familiar with the Canadian super team or their book.

Note: Please scroll down to the New Beginnings section if you want to get right to the sections discussing Jean-Paul and Kyle.

The birth of a dream

Mystery, mysticism and lives worthy of any TV soap opera were the raison d’être for Alpha Flight of old. The first incarnation spun off from a Wolverine back-story in Uncanny X-Men #120 from 1979 and was created by the much-admired John Byrne. It lasted 130 issues from 1983 to 1994 and introduced us to a number of staple characters in the lives of a super team managed by a secretive Canadian government department “H” tasked with protecting the country from paranormal and super-powered enemies. We had the upstanding and rigid Guardian, his friendly wife and team engineer Heather who later became Vindicator, the mystical and world-weary Shaman, the shapeshifting demigoddess Snowbird, a fun-loving scientist in Sasquatch, and the flying speedster twins Northstar and Aurora. To this roster from the X-men issues Byrne added, in the first issue proper, the aquatic alien Marrina and the diminutive bearish acrobat Puck.

That first volume is the classic which most Alpha Flight fans hark back to filled with drama and ripping yarns. If you’ve never read those I do recommend them; those of you like me with a penchant for the bizarre served with a slice of boreal mysticism and whiff of S&M may get a kick out of classic villains like the Dreamqueen, run-ins with the X-Men or the various spirits and other maniacs the team face off with. It also includes Northstar’s coming out in Alpha Flight #106.

Apart from the classic team members others worth mentioning might include Madison Jeffries who if you’ve been reading the X-Men recently will know as a member of the X-Club and his ex Diamond Lil who was recently murdered by Dazzler’s sister. As I said; just like Dallas or Dynasty.

Then in 1997 came a second volume that only lasted 20 issues to 1999 and centred mostly on some new characters with only a couple from the original team; it dealt with some shenanigans in the workings of department “H” and possibly got bogged down in intrigue rather than giving the fans an equal measure of action.

Reinvention continued in volume three which only involved Sasquatch from the classic line-up. I actually enjoyed this tongue-in-cheek interpretation but even with guest appearances by all the classic Alphas it failed to get past 12 issues running from 2004 to 2005.

Death of Heroes

The ultimate insult to Alpha Flight fans came in 2006’s New Avengers #16; half of the classic team (Guardian, Vindicator, Shaman, Puck) were killed at the hands of an out-of-control mutant called The Collective. There was a huge outcry from fans which was only made worse when some Marvel writers began to refer to any senseless deaths in comics as ‘doing an Alpha Flight’.

In order to appease fans 2007 came with a 5-part miniseries entitled Omega Flight that included two former Alphas (Sasquatch and Talisman) and a handful of Americans! That short-lived team soon fell apart.

The lives of the remaining living teammates were full of more soap opera fabulousness. Marrina, wife of Namor the Submariner, was driven insane by Norman Osborn (yes, the Green Goblin) during the Dark Reign crossover and her estranged husband was forced to kill her in order to protect the X-Men. Snowbird meanwhile had a fling with Hercules (during her stint in the God Squad – yes really!), Northstar joined the X-Men (for a second time, after being brainwashed and dying) and Aurora had therapy (with a delightful appearance in Dark X-Men: The Beginning after the same brainwashing as her brother).

Then came Chaos War, a major cross-over centring on Hercules that gave Marvel the chance to visit a variety of pantheons and related constructs. Most of our deceased Alphas (Guardian, Vindicator, Shaman, Marrina) joined their living ex teammates in the Chaos War: Alpha Flight one-shot, the upshot of which meant all of them bring brought back to life as a gift from the gods.

Our remaining deceased Alpha, Puck, was last seen in 2011 in a Wolverine storyline helping his old mucker escape from hell, literally; everything points to his impending resurrection in the next few weeks.

Which brings us to the present. Alpha Flight 0.1 represents a jumping on point for new readers of the Canadian super team in the ‘point one’ tradition promoted this last year by Marvel, as well as giving long-term fans a brand new chance to enjoy their heroes in this 8-issue maxi series.

New Beginnings

The story in #0.1 begins with a loss of electricity across the whole of Quebec. We get to see our heroes respond to a summons to deal with the threat at the dam and in doing so we have a lovely series of vignettes into the every day lives of our protagonists. I don’t wish to spoil the storyline so I will avoid too many details, but Pak  & Van Lente have done their research on the characters and their personalities and reactions shine through brilliantly and are spot-on with their classic portrayals from Byrne’s era, augmented by an updated cynicism and edginess which was a joy to read. The art from Ben Oliver et al is crisp and works well with the story giving appropriate hints of nostalgia and realising an obvious affection for the characters.

Our villains of the piece are the armoured terrorist Citadel and a certain young purple lady who Alpha Flight fans will be overjoyed to see again. Interestingly, and intriguingly for the future of the story, there are hints that something is not right in the state of Canada and our felons may not be quite as felonious as it seems…

Of particular interest to this forum is the appearance of Northstar and his boyfriend Kyle.

Introducing Kyle

Kyle was first seen in Uncanny X-Men #508 when Northstar was most recently recruited into the X-Men. Wolverine visits Canada in order to recruit Jean Paul into the team. We get a cameo from Aurora who we find out is running his extreme wintersports organisation called Team Northstar. Jean Paul argues he’s not interested in being the X-Men’s gay mascot and Wolverine admits a gay teammate would be good for the X-Men’s PR, but they’re desperate for a speedster as they were recently defeated by a “twenty year-old kid on a Ducati bike”. We see some friendly teasing between Northstar, his then unnamed companion and Wolverine as they discuss the idea before Northstar acquiesces.

Kyle reappears in Nation X #2 in a story entitled “LDR” which explores Northstar’s difficulty in keeping a work/life balance; not only does he have to keep his personal life on track in the face of challenges to his new base of operations with the X-Men in San Francisco Bay, he also needs to deal with a long distance relationship as Kyle is still living back in Canada. That story was the first time we have Northstar being truly affectionate with anyone in the character’s long history rather than his usual portrayal as an arrogant prima donna. We see Kyle having a good relationship with Northstar’s sister and the culture shock of experiencing first hand the day to day lifestyle of a superhero when he takes a vacation to visit Northstar in the X-Men’s base. We have some scenes in a bedroom (as opposed to bedroom scenes) and lots of hugging. The closing shot of the pair holding hands and Northstar promising to visit Kyle in Canada rather than subjecting him to the madness of the X-Men boded well for their story to continue.

Back to the New Beginning

And thankfully continue it does in Alpha Flight #0.1 with Northstar and Kyle together in their hideaway apartment in Montreal as Northstar responds to a summons for aid. We have a sweet exchange between the pair followed by Kyle being adamant in joining his other half in the fray in order to fulfil his job as PR rep for Northstar & Aurora’s company.

Interestingly we find out that Northstar has refused to rejoin Alpha Flight due to issues with department “H” when he has a meeting with Guardian on the way to the incident; a barb at corporate largesse and a questioning of Alpha Flight’s mandate ties in well with his recent X-Men membership and their disillusionment and distrust of the world at large after mutants have been virtually exterminated.

Inevitably Kyle is embroiled in the incident and Northstar makes a comment to Guardian to take care in vanquishing their foe as Kyle would be caught up in the crossfire. While the remark was of course unnecessary as Guardian would naturally be careful with any civilians being involved, it nevertheless added a bit more realism and gave us a further clue if we needed it that Northstar’s relationship with Kyle is much more than just a fling.

Later as Alpha Flight celebrate their victory Northstar is significantly missing as the team poses for photographs. We find him at the disaster scene looking for Kyle amongst the casualties. Their reunion is wonderfully apt. As a parting note, Northstar’s throwaway line of not caring about politics and forgetting to vote in the election does not harbour a peaceful time for Canada’s superheroes in the issues to come.

I for one can’t wait for issue #1 to find out what’s going on and how this affects Northstar, how we get Puck back on board, why Marrina has become oddly xenophobic and, reading the teasers for this storyline, who the traitor is in their midst…..

Alpha Flight #0.1 is out now and Alpha Flight #1 is released on 15th June 2011.

Follow Dyl on Twitter http://twitter.com/#!/mutantraccoon

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Nigel Clowes

Sunday, January 2nd, 2011

Thanks to the "anonymous" pic contributor!

Contributed by Michael McDermott

Nigel was a member of the covert paramilitary organization called the V-Battalion, assembled at the end of the second World War to quietly deal with threats to world peace. He served under the command of Roger Aubrey, the Mighty Destroyer.

Recently, Aubrey stepped down as head of the V-Battalion and retired in order to deal with his clinical depression, caused in part by his unresolved grief for his lover Brian Falsworth (Union Jack II) who had been killed in a car crash decades earlier. After Roger retired, he and Nigel became romantically involved. Nigel helped Roger to overcome his depression and move forward with his life.

However, they were unable to leave the life of action behind them entirely. When the Thin Man assembled a new team ofInvaders, Roger offered his services to the group on a part-time basis. Nigel and Roger were also present at a gay andlesbian pride festival when it was attacked by Nazi vampires who were members of the Axis Mundi superhuman terrorist organization.

Roger has since returned to his former position as head of the V-Battalion. Whether or not Nigel also returned to his previous post is unknown. Nigel was last seen with Roger attending the funeral for Jim Hammond, the original Human Torch.

Although writer Allan Jacobsen intended Nigel to have been a member of the V-Battalion, that background detail was never actually confirmed on-panel. However, it is implied in Nigel’s conversations with Roger about his work with the Invaders and the V-Battalion, since Roger would not be likely to discuss the workings and memberships of top-secret covert organizations with a civilian.

Creator’s Comments: The intended back story is that Nigel worked with the V-Battalion, and that while working they became good friends–something Roger Aubrey had precious few of. I always assumed he was a tactitian or something like that. He would’ve been one of those background guys who was sitting at a computer console on the bridge of the V-Battalion’s big ship (the Vanguard).

Nigel is an easy-going speak-your-mind type, and outed Roger very early in their dealings. Although the two never shared a physically intimate relationship, they became quite close, as Nigel was the one person Aubrey could truly openly share his feeling with. The relationship was ultimately strained to breaking by Roger’s obsessive quest for justice and inability to come to terms with his personal life.

Frustrated, Nigel eventually retired, and returned to private life as a Professor of Literature in the UK.

Their relationship re-ignited when Roger himself retired, and finally sought out “the one that got away”. Nigel represents Aubrey’s decision to out himself, and finally live the life he always dreamt for himself and his deceased partner Union Jack.

As a member of the V-Battalion, Nigel served as one of the many tactical support technicians on the bridge of the Vanguard,  so Nigel likely has certain tactical and/or technical expertise. It is also possible he has had training for hand-to-hand combat or weapons use, but that is unconfirmed.

Nigel first appeared and is shown as gay in New Invaders #4. See the Destroyer & Union Jack II entry.

© and ® Marvel Comics. All rights reserved.

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Black Cat

Saturday, January 1st, 2011

Art by Ron Frenz

Contributed by Ronald Byrd

The daughter of infamous cat burglar Walter Hardy, Felicia Hardy decided to follow in his footsteps and trained herself to become an expert combatant and thief, the Black Cat. Early in her career, she became attracted to the super-hero Spider-Man, and she eventually joined him as a lover and a fellow crime-fighter, earning amnesty for her past misdeeds. However, their relationship had several problems; Felicia was more enamored of Spider-Man’s costumed persona than she was of his true identity, Peter Parker, while Spider-Man felt that costumed crime-fighting was too dangerous for a non-superhuman. To compensate, Felicia acquired super-powers from a mysterious source who turned out to be the Kingpin of Crime, one of Spider-Man’s deadliest enemies, a revelation which further complicated matters, as did the revelation that Felicia’s new bad-luck power might eventually kill anyone in her vicinity, including Spider-Man. Felicia intended to end her relationship with Spider-Man to save his life but, unaware of this, Spider-Man himself broke off the relationship due to their personal differences.

Following the breakup, the thrill-seeking Felicia returned to crime but took to donating her ill-gotten gains to others. Meanwhile, Spider-Man underwent a string of misfortunes as a delayed effect of his association with her; sorcerer Doctor Strange cured Spider-Man by altering Felicia’s powers, removing her bad-luck power but giving her additional abilities in return. Felicia renewed her relationship/partnership with Spider-Man on an irregular basis but finally departed for Paris, France; when she returned some time later, she learned that, as Peter Parker, Spider-Man had married another of his long-time girlfriends, Mary Jane Watson. Felicia began dating one of Parker’s friends, Eugene “Flash” Thompson, as a way of ingratiating herself into Parker’s life and eventually wrecking his marriage, but she developed a true affection for Thompson and abandoned her scheme. She was also robbed of her remaining super-powers by a device of the criminal Chameleon, but, undaunted, she began a career as a private investigator, at times finding herself on both sides of the law, as it seems she wanted all along.

By about fourteen years in the future (or on a present-day alternate Earth where time has proceeded differently and everyone is thus some fourteen years older than on Marvel-Earth, accounts vary), Felicia’s detective agency has achieved worldwide success, and it is known that during the intervening years she married Eugene Thompson (currently a coach at Midtown High School) and bore him two children, Gene and Felicity. However, she has also divorced him, apparently because she fell in love with Diana, formerly a contract operative for her agency. Felicity disapproves of the relationship, possibly because she regards Diana as an opportunist out for Felicia’s wealth; it is not known how her son reacted. Felicia apparently maintained the costumed identity of the Black Cat at least until her divorce and gave it up not long after, but no further details of her later career are known; her abandonment of her costumed identity is another sore point with her daughter.

As of the timeframe of “Spider-Girl,” Felicia and Diana have known each other for nearly six years, although it is not known how long their relationship has been a romantic one. Felicia, Diana, and Felicity move from Paris to Forest Hills, a suburb of New York which is also the home of Peter Parker, who in this timeline remains married to Mary Jane Watson and has a daughter, May, who herself has superhuman powers and fights crime as Spider-Girl; Felicity also adopts a costumed identity, the Scarlet Spider, and attempts to convince Spider-Girl to accept her as a crime-fighting partner, thus furthering the connections between the two families.

For a time, the Black Cat possessed two separate sets of super-powers; the treatments given to her by the Kingpin augmented her strength and agility and enabled her to, either consciously or subconsciously, psionically alter probability fields so that those around her experienced bad luck. After Doctor Strange removed the latter power, her abilities mutated further to grant her even greater strength and agility, as well as the ability to form her hands and feet into claws. In the mainstream Marvel universe she lost this second set of abilities some years ago and again became a non-powered human; whether or not she might have regained or retained these powers in the alternate timeline of “Spider-Girl” remains to be seen.

In her prime the Black Cat was, even without super powers, a highly trained athlete, martial artist, and thief; she usually traveled via a grappling hook swing-line which could also serve as a tightrope or a wall-scaling device. Whether or not she has retained these talents in her late thirties/early forties is unclear, although as the head of her detective agency she presumably remains a skilled investigator.

Felicia Hardy/ Black Cat first appeared in Amazing Spider-Man #194. Though Felicia’s bi-sexuality has been primarily established in the alternate timeline of Spider-Girl (Spider-Girl #45 & #47), there was a scene in the Spiderman/Black Cat mini in which she said, “It’s been so long since I’ve had a boyfriend … or a girlfriend”. Director of a private investigation firm; formerly cat burglar, adventurer, private investigator. Felicia lives in Forest Hills, New York.

© and ® Marvel Comics. All rights reserved.

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Tara Algren & Bethany Flynn

Saturday, January 1st, 2011

Art by Bart Sears

Contributed by Ronald Byrd

Tara and Bethany, a interracial lesbian couple who are both writers for the Midnight Sun tabloid, are turned into vampires by the recently resurrected Dracula. Oddly, when Dracula clashes with the vampire hunter Blade and vampiric challenger Aaron Thorne, the two women do not join the fray and, in fact, apparently slip away unnoticed. It is not known what became of them.

Tara and Bethany possess superhuman strength, the ability to change shape into bats or mist, invulnerability to most forms of physical attack, and other such abilities common to the vampires of the Marvel Universe.

The women are shown to be lesbians in Blade the Vampire Hunter #2

© and ® Marvel Comics. All rights reserved.

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I Want My $2.99!

Friday, December 10th, 2010

Arune Singh sent the below press release (titled “I Want My $2.99!”) announcing an initial round of limited series titles priced at $2.99 in response to “fan and retailer feedback”. Well, maybe I’m confused because as I recall the previous press releases Marvel issued about the $2.99 price point were confusing in themselves. Many of the comments I’ve read on GLA’s forums since Marvel raised prices on many of its books to $3.99 have been negative, in many cases causing people to cut back on the comics they regularly buy. And personally, I feel the same way. I kept reading positive things about Incredible Hercules, but the $4 cover price was unjustifiable for me, and later I picked up back issues for a buck. Maybe it’s a Catch-22 situation.

Singh is right that I want my $2.99! But I want it across the board though! And while I’m at it, I want DC books to keep the page counts at 22! And if neither publisher can do that, then a $3.25 price seems reasonable to me. But a dollar, Marvel? Really?

Oh, and I don’t want Hawkeye & Mockingbird canceled either!

I Want My $2.99!

Because you asked for it, Marvel made it happen! Here is the first wave of fantastic new limited series at $2.99 per issue. Featuring Marvel’s biggest characters and helmed by some of the industry’s most fan-favored creative teams, these limited series cover new and exciting ground from all corners of the Marvel Universe!

These new series are:

CAPTAIN AMERICA: HAIL HYDRA
WOLVERINE AND JUBILEE
ARCADE: DEATH GAME
HAWKEYE: BLIND SPOT
5 RONIN

“Based on the feedback we’ve received from both retailers and fans, there’s a definite desire for limited series like Captain America: Hail Hydra or Hawkeye: Blind Spot to be priced at $2.99 per issue,” explains Senior Vice President of Sales, David Gabriel. “We’re extremely impressed with the stories our writers and artists want to tell, and we’re committed to providing these book for a great price.”

Fans demanded new titles for $2.99 per issue and Marvel listened! Now it’s time to show your support for these books in your shops by asking your retailer to order them and more are sure to come! This is the start of something big at Marvel and for fans, so get onboard now!

To find a comic shop near you, call 1-888-comicbook or visit www.comicshoplocator.com

Marvel Entertainment, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, is one of the world’s most prominent character-based entertainment companies, built on a proven library of over 8,000 characters featured in a variety of media over seventy years. Marvel utilizes its character franchises in entertainment, licensing and publishing. For more information visit www.marvel.com

Arune Singh Manager of Sales Communications

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Architect Schmarchitect

Tuesday, December 7th, 2010

Yesterday Marvel’s C.B. Cebulski sent a press release hyping five of its writers (Brian Michael Bendis, Matt Fraction, Ed Brubaker, Jonathan Hickman, and Jason Aaron), referring to the quintet as “Marvel’s Architects” laying the groundwork with “upcoming top secret” projects, events, or new series for the company’s properties in 2011. Sounds great, doesn’t it? Except the release has nothing of substance, and really, hasn’t the Marvel Universe been in a state of flux for a number of years already? As far as I’m concerned singling talent out like this just helps to further entrench the “celebrity mindset” in comics. They may be great writers, but I see the list as five reasons why Marvel comics are priced at $3.99.

As the rest of Marvel’s writers, well, maybe one day your writing will be considered important enough to merit becoming an “Architect”. Until then, maybe you’re just an Amish barn-raiser. That’s no insult either! Those Amish men can build a barn like nobody else in record time, and they do it out of a sense of community.

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