Today's Lunchtime Reading West Coast Avengers 36 Return of the Ant-Man

West Coast Avengers 36 Return of the Ant-Man

Published: September 10th, 1988

Writer: Steve Englehart Penciler: Al Milgrom

Cover Artist: Al Milgrom

The West Coast Avengers head back to Hungary. They face Quicksilver again, who is now allied with The Voice.

The Voice forces Henry Pym to run through a gauntlet at Hungary's Super Human Research Complex, hunted by the other Avengers. Since it's his Tales To Astonish arc, Pym does well against the other Avengers with his miniaturized arsenal. Best KO: enlarging a floating video camera to crush the Scarlet Witch. Another good move is shrinking the braces that hold Mockingbird's staves. 

Pym is aided by Khonshu, who has become dominant in Moon Knight's body. He isn't actively helping since he doesn't want to give away the fact that he's an actual god living in Moon Knight, but he does misdirect Tigra.

Pym is lucky enough to not bump into Wonder Man before getting to his end goal, which is his thought-to-be-dead first wife, Maria. She's got a big brain now.

 

She says that after her father's death, the Hungarian Communists tried to force her to continue his work. When she refused, they used the device that makes the Beasts of Berlin into super-smart apes on her. But they've kept her heavily drugged to avoid a repeat of what happened when AIM created MODOK (he took over their organization). It's said that her super-brain was used in the creation of the Crimson Dynamo, Titanium Man, and the Red Guardian.

At that point, the Avengers close in on Pym, but he appeals to Maria and gets her to use her super-brain to stop the Voice from controlling them. All the bad guys are rounded up and Maria shuts down their powers. And Pym decides to quit the Avengers to work full time on restoring his wife. Hank and Janet also come to the conclusion that since Hank's first wife was never really dead, they were never really married and so they never got divorced.

 

But for now, that sort of settles things between Jan and Hank (although it's not like it erases the history between them!). And Vision and Scarlet Witch remind us that they are still lovey dovey. But Mockingbird announces that she and Hawkeye are splitting up.

 

NYSQ Highlights of 2020

The NYSQ Nerds go over our highlights from 2020, it was a slow year for comic book movies and all that, but we still manged to find four wonderful things to talk about to close out 2020!

 What was on your list?

Today's Lunchtime Reading West Coast Avengers 35 The Voice of Doom

West Coast Avengers 35 The Voice of Doom

Published: August 10th, 1988

Writer: Steve Englehart Penciler: Al Milgrom

Cover Artist: Al Milgrom

Hawkeye and Mockingbird wake up in bed together in the castle of Doctor Doom. The castle is currently occupied by Kristoff, who thinks he's Dr. Doom. Kristoff is looking for allies against Doom. The Hungarian Ministry of Defense has agreed to ally with him if he'll turn over the Avengers, but Kristoff would prefer to have the Avengers as allies.

Hawkeye and Mockingbird will be kept prisoners in the bedroom until midnight while they make a decision. Of the other Avengers, some are held prisoner elsewhere in the castle, and unlike the Communists, Kristoff has come up with power-cancelling devices with a little more individual flair. The Wasp tries her new antennae again… ...but finds that Kristoff has been keeping up with his payments to the exterminator and the castle is bug free. Kristoff shows up and makes the appeal to them as well. Then he goes to where Tigra and Moon Knight are being held. Since they are (relatively) new to the Avengers, Kristoff is not aware of their capabilities, so he puts them to the test in a Danger Room.

Meanwhile, Hawkeye and Mockingbird have it out. For Hawkeye, it's a trust issue; the fact that Mockingbird hadn't told him about it already. The conversation goes downhill from there and the Phantom Rider is certainly enjoying the fight.

 

Moon Knight eventually gets tired of being tested by Kristoff, so he tells Tigra to keep fighting no matter what happens, and then he lets himself get knocked out. What happens next i guess dispels any doubt over whether the guy in Moon Knight's head was really Khonshu or just another voice in his head. Khonshu faces off against Kristoff. Their fight actually ends when Khonshu addresses Krisfoff as Doom.

 

Hearing that a god believes he's the real deal is enough to get him to agree to release the Avengers. That decision is furthered when Hungary sends an emissary that turns out to be Quicksilver, who had previously insulted Kristoff when they were both held captive by the Fantastic Four. Kristoff tries to kill Qucksilver, but the Avengers stop them and Kristoff just kicks everyone out.

 

Wonder Woman 1984 Breakdown and Review

We sat through Wonder Woman 1984 and have thoughts, did it live up to the orginal Wonder Woman movie or did it let it's viewers down? What did you all think?

 Wonder Woman 1984 (also referred to as WW84) is an upcoming superhero film based on the DC Comics character Wonder Woman. It is the sequel to 2017's Wonder Woman and the ninth installment in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU). The film is being directed by Patty Jenkins from a script she wrote with Geoff Johns and David Callaham, and a story by Johns and Jenkins, and stars Gal Gadot as Diana Prince / Wonder Woman, alongside Chris Pine, Kristen Wiig, Pedro Pascal, Robin Wright, and Connie Nielsen. It will be the fourth live-action theatrical film featuring the title character, following Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Wonder Woman, and Justice League; it will also be the second full-length feature film centered around the character. The film follows Diana as she faces Maxwell Lord and Cheetah in 1984.

Theory-Palooza on the Future of Star Wars the Filoni-Verse

What is the future of Star Wars (Filoni-Verse) on Disney Plus and the movies, well no one knows for sure, but we have some thoughts that turned into a Theory-Palooza!! The Book of Boba Fett, The Mandalorian, Rangers of the New Republic and Ahsoka! 

 

The Mandalorian Season 2 Chapter Titles:

 

9. The Marshal directed by Jon Favreau
10. The Passenger directed by Peyton Reed
11. The Heiress directed by Bryce Dallas Howard
12. The Siege directed by Carl Weathers
13. The Jedi directed by Dave Filoni
14. The Tragedy directed by Robert Rodriguez
15. The Believer directed by Rick Famuyiwa
16. The Rescue directed by Peyton Reed

 

The second season of the American streaming television series The Mandalorian stars Pedro Pascal as the title character, a bounty hunter trying to return "The Child" to its home. It is part of the Star Wars franchise, set after the events of Return of the Jedi. The season was produced by Lucasfilm, Fairview Entertainment, and Golem Creations, with Jon Favreau serving as showrunner.

 

The eight-episode season premiered on the streaming service Disney+ on October 30, 2020. A third season was confirmed in April 2020.

Today's Lunchtime Reading West Coast Avengers 34 Prisoners of the Slave-World!

West Coast Avengers 34 Prisoners of the Slave-World!

Published: July 10th, 1988

Writer: Steve Englehart Penciler: Al Milgrom

Cover Artist: Al Milgrom

Meanwhile, the rest of the Avengers have recovered from their poison. Madam X says that they can all leave except Mockingbird and Moon Knight, who are considered criminals due to their past SHIELD and mercenary roles. Which, of course, the other Avengers don't agree to so they get back to fighting.

 

 

And they avoid getting poisoned this time and the gorillas have such a bad showing that I'm not even going to include a scan. But they find out that Mockingbird and Moon Knight have already been shipped away somewhere. The American Ambassador convinces the remaining Avengers to come back to the US embassy, where he's got Phantom Rider waiting.

Phantom Rider just happened to be in Budapest on business and he heard about Mockingbird being captured, and says that he feels like he owes her a debt because of his Old West ancestor. Meanwhile, the Communists are transporting Mockingbird and Moon Knight, and one of the apes lets it slip that he knows that Mockingbird spent some time at the Vault in the US. The apes dump the heroes in the same prison that was holding Vision and Scarlet Witch, and we find that Hank and Jan wound up getting stuck in there too. There is an anti-super power beam in the prison. 

 

The comparison to the Vault brings up a contrast. The point of the Vault is that it takes pains to find a way to counteract each individual prisoner's powers. There isn't just a simplistic anti-power beam. But the Communist Vault here is just a quick hand-waving plot device. Anyway, Vision and the Scarlet Witch say that they were lured to Eastern Europe by a note purportedly from their cow-nanny, Bova. And it's soon revealed that this whole thing is another scheme by Quicksilver.

 

Quicksilver's plan is to help the Communists develop super-powered soldiers by experimenting with mutants, and also to take up his father Magneto's mantle as "King of the Evil Mutants". Those two goals seem somewhat at cross purposes. The Avengers try to fight Quicksilver for a bit but they're unable to and he runs out of the cell again.

 

Scarlet Witch worries that she too might go mad one day, but the Vision says that won't happen as long as they are together. And also breaks the camel’s back for Mockingbird, and she confesses that she killed the Phantom Rider in the past. The ghost of the Phantom Rider had been lurking in the room during the discussion. And he wants Mockingbird to suffer for letting him die ("She must not be happy") so when he sees that the other Avengers are accepting of what Mockingbird did, he goes back and tells Hawkeye about how he died, spinning it his own way. We nonetheless see Hawkeye and company busting in to rescue the other Avengers, and before any discussion can happen, they find themselves facing a swarm of Scarlet Beetles. 

It's during what should be this goofy fun fight that the "murderess" stuff comes out. The conversation is deferred as they escape into a quinjet, which is blasted out of the sky by a missile from the People's Security Forces. And the Avengers crash land in Latveria. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Mandalorian Chapter 16 The Rescue Review and Breakdown [Full Spoilers]

The Mandalorian Season 2 Chapter Titles:

 

9. The Marshal directed by Jon Favreau
10. The Passenger directed by Peyton Reed
11. The Heiress directed by Bryce Dallas Howard
12. The Siege directed by Carl Weathers
13. The Jedi directed by Dave Filoni
14. The Tragedy directed by Robert Rodriguez
15. The Believer directed by Rick Famuyiwa
16. The Rescue directed by Peyton Reed

 

 

Chapter 16: The Rescue

 

Bo-Katan and her fellow Mandalorian Koska Reeves agree to help rescue Grogu in exchange for Bo-Katan getting the Darksaber from Gideon and the Mandalorian considering her offer to help them liberate Mandalore. The group kidnaps Dr. Pershing and use his shuttle to get close enough to crash land on Gideon's cruiser, with Fett pretending to attack them in Slave I before attacking the Imperials. Bo-Katan, Koska, Fennec, and Dune fight through stormtroopers to the cruiser's bridge. Meanwhile, the Mandalorian finds the Dark Troopers, defeats one of them with the Beskar spear, and ejects the rest into space. He fights Gideon with the spear and overpowers the Moff, making him the new rightful owner of the Darksaber. The Dark Troopers return, but they are all destroyed by Luke Skywalker, a Jedi that Grogu had contacted on Tython. The Mandalorian gives Grogu permission to go with Skywalker to complete his training. Later, Fett and Fennec travel to Jabba's Palace on Tatooine where Fett kills Bib Fortuna and claims Jabba's throne.

 

The Mandalorian is a television series that premiered on Disney+ on November 12, 2019. Set in the Star Wars universe, the series takes place five years after the events of Return of the Jedi and follows a Mandalorian bounty hunter beyond the reaches of the New Republic.

 

The second season of the American streaming television series The Mandalorian stars Pedro Pascal as the title character, a bounty hunter trying to return "The Child" to its home. It is part of the Star Wars franchise, set after the events of Return of the Jedi. The season was produced by Lucasfilm, Fairview Entertainment, and Golem Creations, with Jon Favreau serving as showrunner.

 

The eight-episode season premiered on the streaming service Disney+ on October 30, 2020. A third season was confirmed in April 2020.