The New Improved Official Stupid Question Thread Marvel Edition

[Havok83]

She wore her old costume, displayed flaming powers, and performed psychic feats so strong everyone was muttering "Phoenix" under their breaths. The entire storyline was Jean exploring the massive depths to her powers that she had been afraid of exploring before, merely because others like Scott and Xavier didn't like her exploring it. I.e., her natural born connection to the Phoenix Force. You're right, the storyline wasn't resolved, but after that story Jean would continue to manifest her powers in Phoenix form -- if only visually -- right up until Morrison. And, again, that's even discounting that her connection to the Phoenix was already back in some small way by the time X-Factor ended.

Look, for some reason people have the misconception Morrison brought back the Phoenix out of the blue. No, he really really didn't; He may have been the first to literally say "Hey look, the Phoenix Force is completely 100% officially back with Jean, officially," yes, but he merely worked with what loads of writers were already doing long before his run. I mean, goodness, we haven't even touched on Niceaza's "X-Men: Forever" miniseries yet, which was basically one giant tongue-kiss makeout session to the concept of Jean as the Phoenix (and also introduced the concept of omega class mutants).

All I'm saying is that I don't get it when people cite some supposed halcyon era of Phoenixless Jean which basically amounts to a couple arbitrary years here and there. You're pretty much saying, "I don't like 75-90% of this character's entire canon." Yes, the Phoenix is a confusing thing and a lot of writers can't write it, but that's like saying a lot of writers can't write Gaiman's Sandman, or that a lot of writers can't write Giffen's Annihilation. The concept has beyond assloads of potential, and again I cannot stress enough the excellent stories that can and has come from it, such as the trade I mentioned above.

you know what tends to happen to characters when they get too powerful? They either get killed off or thrown to limbo. Such was the case with Jean Grey as it was with the Scarlet Witch. With the PF, she became too powerful for the X-men stories as that power is way too convenient. The X-men dont have many villians in their rogue gallery that she cant handle single handely without any trouble. Thats the problem with a full PF Jean Grey. She'd work off in Marvel's cosmic stories such as Annhilation and War of Kings, but here on earth, where people actually want her, she's really beyond that. A PF-less Jean Grey with reasonable power levels in the X-men world works better than the uber powerful one towards the end of Morrison's run.

BTW, X-men Forever didnt introduce the concept of omega mutants. That was first brought up in the 80s with Rachel Summers

 

[Shockdingo]

The X-men dont have many villians in their rogue gallery that she cant handle single handely without any trouble. Thats the problem with a full PF Jean Grey. She'd work off in Marvel's cosmic stories such as Annhilation and War of Kings, but here on earth, where people actually want her, she's really beyond that. A PF-less Jean Grey with reasonable power levels in the X-men world works better than the uber powerful one towards the end of Morrison's run.

I agree with this. That's my issue with the Phoenix force. I loved the whole shebang when introduced, but I kept looking at the future and didn't feel comfortable:

-Apocalypse going batty and tyrant-tastic? PF his Immortal can into an ashtray.

-Mr. Sinister stroking a magnificent villain beard? PF off his face.

-Naruto shows up and wont shut up about "believing it?" throw him into the sun.

-300 uber boosted sentinels have the X-men dead to rights; Iceman has been knocked unconscious, Cyclops has several broken ribs and is barley able to stand. Colossus is plowing his way through the hoards alongside Rogue, but is quickly tiring. A massive blast by the front lines has mortally wounded Wolverine, his muscle tissue is exposed, he's out of the game. Storm is doing all she can to cut into their numbers. Varying between dazzling bursts of lightning, divine gale force winds, her arsenal is helping to preserve this fragile balance. What can the X-men do?! Jean smells Wolvie's burning spandex and hair and sneezes, Phoenix Force throws the mech menace into Naruto who careens further into the sun.

Ok so I went off on a goofy tangent, but that's the thing. She belongs on earth, but on earth, there aren't too many threats that could harm her, thus everything instantly becomes super easy and that defeats compelling story telling. I grew up watching the 90's X-men, so I really really do miss Jean, but I'd like to see her returned to a reasonable power level. The Phoenix Force is interesting to me, but if Jean returns, I hope she's separated from it.

TL;DR: PF makes everything easy win. Make me sad. Grawwwl

 

[JewishHobbit]

What's TL and DR?

 

[Shockdingo]

Too long, didn't read. Hehe, learned that a week ago from my sister.

 

[LexCorp]

Why does the Juggernaught have to wear a helmet?

 

[JewishHobbit]

To hide the Helmet hair... duh.

I'm actually not sure. I'm guessing to protect his head from impact as he charges. I know he has a cap that protects him from telepathy but he wears that under the helmet.

 

[Manic]

Keeps his face pretty.

 

[Hypestyle]

So now that Disney owns Marvel, will we finally get to see the Malibu Characters, maybe Disney can simply throw some cash and legal weight into finally securing these characters for new publishing.. same thing for Cross-Gen..

 

[TheCorpulent1]

To hide the Helmet hair... duh.

I'm actually not sure. I'm guessing to protect his head from impact as he charges. I know he has a cap that protects him from telepathy but he wears that under the helmet.

The helmet protects him from telepathy as well. He only started wearing the skullcap that protects him from telepathy under the helmet after everyone kept cutting his damned helmet off.

 

[JewishHobbit]

I would LOVE to see both of them brought back. To one day see Sojourn completed is a dream come true. And I LOVED the All New Exiles from the Ultraverse stuff. Warstrike/'Strke was cool. And for some reason I just loved Lord Pumpkin.

 

[javi1024]

so Hulk vs. Thor....was that based off an actual fight like Hulk vs. Wolverine, and if so was it accurate? the only thing they followed in Wolverine was they fought in Canada but they made theyre own story(which didnt bother me at all). since i know pretty much zero about both Hulk and Thor i was just curious.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

It wasn't based off of any fight I know of. The only time Loki influenced the Hulk to attack others was when he inadvertently formed the Avengers.

 

[Ipodman]

And so i picked up part 5 of 5 of American Son... but i havent been reading ASM, so... Why is Lilly suddenly Menace? What happened to the old one?

And in the last page... is that Norman or Harry with Lilly? (i cant really tell them apart tbh)

 

[Punisher RULES]

Is Captain Britain and the MI13 as good as people say?

 

[Manic]

It was. You know, when it was still running.

 

[Tron Bonne]

And so i picked up part 5 of 5 of American Son... but i havent been reading ASM, so... Why is Lilly suddenly Menace? What happened to the old one?

And in the last page... is that Norman or Harry with Lilly? (i cant really tell them apart tbh)

Lily was always Menace. The old one? There's only been one that I know of. Unless you just mean the look, in which case, she just changed it. She is basically a shapeshifter, so she can more or less look like whatever she wants to.

And that was Harry

 

[Ipodman]

Lily was always Menace. The old one? There's only been one that I know of. Unless you just mean the look, in which case, she just changed it. She is basically a shapeshifter, so she can more or less look like whatever she wants to.

And that was Harry

Oic.. thanks for explaining. I thought the 'old' menace was another fellow

 

[Punisher RULES]

Was there a lot of Blade in Captain Britain?

Also, for those who read the Guggenheim/Chaykin Blade maxi, did the Captain Britain title wrap up the whole vampire loose end?

 

[Manic]

Was there a lot of Blade in Captain Britain?

Blade joins MI:13 during its second storyarc, Hell Comes to Birmingham (probably issue #5 or 6). The series ended at #15 with him still a member.

 

[Midnite]

Is there anyone besides Wolverine that can take on Mister X?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mister_X_(Marvel_Comics)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mister_X_(Marvel_ComicsÇ

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Apparently the Black Widow can't. He stomped the hell out of her in Thunderbolts this week. I was kind of annoyed to learn that he's a Wolverine villain, since Wolverine shouldn't logically stand a chance in hell against him if he's skilled enough to beat practically anyone.

 

[Franklin Richards]

I bet the Torch could take him.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Songbird rocked him pretty hard. She got close enough so even his precog powers wouldn't help him against her sound powers. Knocked him halfway across the jungle. It was sweet.

 

[Shockdingo]

Songbird makes sense. I figured that he's limited to his own reflexes and durability. Say Hulk is going to thunderclap, well Mr. X can see it coming, but there isn't much he can do about it. Same as if Torch goes Nova, Anti-Venom shoots tendrils everywhere like in Prototype or if storm raises hell with a lightning charged whirlwind. I forgot about this guy. This was around the time I was really enjoying the Wolverine run and it was cool to see a guy be able to keep up with him without having some overpowered ties or something tied to weakening his healing factor. Sure he had low grade telepathy, but he also had enough skill to put Logan down for fighting like a nob. I hate how Wolverine never uses martial arts anymore. :\ A mix of that with claw strikes would make for interesting and dynamic panels. I remember when he was tracking down a cult that kidnapped a girl. Her dad, thought Logan was to blame and brought along a bunch of big truckers. Wolverine FLAWLESSLY took them all down with martial arts and never once popped his claws. He did this and then said his peace to her dad, it was such a greatly executed scene that made me appreciate the restrain and finesse he displayed. Sorry off topic with nostalgia.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Yeah, I was mostly talking about non-powered people earlier. Although I bet Captain America could still ricochet his shield off half a dozen surfaces while holding Mister X's attention so that it slips behind X and knocks him out. Cap's hardcore like that.