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maxwell-grant · 3 years

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if Wolverine is on every team, would he be an agent of the Shadow in an X-Men/Shadow crossover?

It's interesting to think about The Shadow existing in the same world as mutants, because the premise of The Shadow's agents is that they are people defined as "from all walks of life", working their talents to the same cause, which would definitely include mutants. At the same time, The Shadow would be forced to oppose mutants who threaten innocents, and most likely with mutants on his side, which is a recipe for trouble. One of the major problems with the X-Men is that they are constantly forced to share a universe with a setting that's not set up to accomodate mutants on a large scale, which cripples a lot of their potential, but I think the premise of "The Shadow exists in the same world as mutants" invites a lot more possibilites than just crossing The Shadow with the X-Men specifically.

Where does he fall on the Xavier-Magneto dychotomy? Is it acceptable for him to even be involved in mutant struggles if he's not a mutant himself? How do other mutants react to him? Obviously he cannot be stopped from giving a shit and helping them, but what happens when they don't want his help? What if he is a mutant? Technically speaking, the movie version of The Shadow and Margo already are mutants, since they were born with psychic powers and we never get any explanation for it.

Regarding Logan specifically: Would Wolverine be an agent? If there's any X-Man who's likely to have met and known The Shadow prior to his entry in a story, it's Wolverine. Usually it falls to Xavier or the resident telepath to give exposition on a new character, but The Shadow's older than all of them and you can bet that, in a world where telepathy exists, he would have figured a way to protect his thoughts from them, if he's not an outright telepath himself or something other. Would Wolverine be an acquaintance of The Shadow? Likely. Would they have worked together at some point? Probably, because Wolverine's worked for literally everyone. Would Wolverine be an Agent of The Shadow? I'd say no.

For one, even if he did work as an agent once, he's clearly had his hands full in the last decades, and there's hardly a point to having an agent you can't call on because he's busy fighting supervillains or gambling in Madripoor or mentoring kids and whatnot. Wolverine has the whole "lone wolf loose cannon doesn't play by the rules flips you off with one claw" routine down pat, plus the Berserker Rage making him put those around him in serious danger, all of which are incredibly poor traits for a Shadow agent, especially since The Shadow cannot have Wolverine work with another agent lest he bring danger to them (and Logan's a magnet for danger). The main thing The Shadow demands upfront everytime he enlists an agent, no matter what he's promising them, is absolute obedience. They obviously are expected to think and act for themselves and act according to their best judgment (and sometimes that judgment saves The Shadow in situations he hadn't accounted for), and they are all given the choice to refuse and back out, but The Shadow's word is final. He cannot abide distractions when lives are at stake, and Wolverine cannot promise that.

I mentioned before that The Shadow does not employ agents for assassin missions and that they are not supposed to be killing or even shooting anyone outside of gunfights, and Wolverine's whole catchphrase and job description is murder. If they worked together, it would not be with Wolverine as an agent. I don't see Wolverine accepting being a full-time agent, and I don't see The Shadow wanting him to be one. Instead, he'd be something akin to The Shadow's other allies that work with him or for him on occasion but otherwise have separate lives, like Myra Reldon and Yat Soon. Ultimately, there's a bit too much overlap between The Shadow and Wolverine for him to be an Agent.

Generally speaking, while the agents come in many different types and they should be as diverse a group of characters as possible, I'd say the number one rule that should go into making an Agent of The Shadow is that they must be good, heroic characters who contrast The Shadow in some way. The light to his darkness, the presence to his absence, the POV that grounds us so he can be cool and distant, the solid, likeable friends you can always trust to carry a story when he's off slinking through the dark in a thousand faces, and all that. So really it would be preferable to go with X-Men characters that are farther from the darker anti-hero side of the equation. Some of my suggestions would be: Jubilee, because I always really liked her energy and style and she seems woefully underutilized, and she would be a great character to not just contrast The Shadow in some of the most literal ways possible but also Wolverine should they team up. Or Colossus, who's got a very lovable simplicity, is probably the most straightforward superhero in Marvel after Cap, always makes a great contrast with edgier characters like Wolverine, and whose delightful portrayal in Deadpool was by far the greatest thing about that film, and who's already got seeds for a crossover considering he's canonically related to Rasputin, someone The Shadow personally knew.

Dazzler, who provides a more literal contrast than Jubilee in design and powers, and probably would be the last person anyone would expect to secretly be an agent of The Shadow, which makes her perfect for it. And Nightcrawler, who's got exactly the kind of personality and powerset that would make him perfect as an agent, perfect for working with the agents, and who I'd argue is, even more so than Wolverine, the closest thing to a genuine Pulp Hero currently among the X-Men, and who is just begging, begging, to get to star in his own separate franchise separate from the X-Men where he gets to go on realm-hopping Bugs Bunny swashbuckling adventures with a cast of misfits picked along the way. Put him in a Castlevania-esque game or something, I can't think of anything (at least, anything SFW) that would make the legions of Kurt fangirls happier than if he got to ditch the X-Men baggage and just shine solo more often, he's an incredible character and a very good bean who deserves very nice things, and he'd be my number one pick for partnering with The Shadow on this crossover.

#replies tag #comic books #pulp heroes #the shadow #x-men #wolverine #jubilee #dazzler #colossus #kurt wagner #nightcrawler #i can't stop thinking about how well michiru yamane's sotn score goes with nightcrawler #especially the groovier songs #we deserve more nightcrawler solo adventures

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phantomwitch16 · 3 years

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Humberto Lopez is a goldmine of a character

I haven't posted anything that was my content for a long time now, and I decided to change that with an essay about my favorite character from Marvel. With the new development that has happened, I decided to celebrate this Marvel character's return which has been in a limbo state for over half a decade. I will be going into spoiler territory, so if you want to read the comics to learn more about this character, go and read the comics and have your adventure experiencing his journey along with his friends. If you are interested in the character but don't want to read the comics (or go to the wiki), there will be a quick synopsis of his character later on down in the post, but I won't be putting down the necessary details so that this post won't get too long.

He first appeared in the comics was in Avengers Initiative: Featuring Reptil #1 in 2009 and reappeared in Avengers Academy comics that went on from 2010 to 2012. He was also part of the Avengers Arena comic series as one of the game participants and lasted from late 2012 to 2013. However, most people may recognize him from his animated appearance on the Super Hero Squad Show from 2009 to 2011, voiced by Anthony Del Rio. He was also in Avengers Assemble: Frost Fight, made in 2015 with Del Rio returning to voice the character. With these recent developments, in May of 2021, Reptil will be getting his mini-comic series by Terry Blas, and Enid Balám called Reptil...on the Brink of Extinction.

The main reason why I am making this post is that I believe Reptil is a severely underrated character within the Marvel universe. At the time of first writing this, he had not appeared in much since 2013 in the comics or 2015 in an animated setting. I began writing this over a year or so ago after glancing through the Marvel wiki to see anything new that happened since I lost interest in the comics after his supposed 'death' in Avengers Arena. Since then, there have been no new developments to his story until a while ago when there was an announcement on Twitter about his comics' return with his comic series and an appearance in a one-shot Spider Man comic.

To start this rant about him, I'm going to recount his origin story to bring people up to speed to explain who he is, what powers he has, what kind of person he is, his journey and my personal feelings about him before going into the possible story lines Marvel could do for after this short series. On the other hand, pray that they decide to take him out of the creative limbo within the next few years again, straight after this when his journey is getting better. And if you're wondering, yes, I'm still salty that he's been pretty much dead for nearly a decade.

Who is he?

Humberto Lopez is a Marvel character who is a Mexican-American teenage superhero known by the code name Reptil. Like many young kids, he wanted to be a superhero, mainly an Avenger. His parents, however, mainly wanted him to follow in their footsteps and become a paleontologist as they did.

In his first appearance, he was about sixteen years old when he joined the Initiative after his powers appeared to locate his missing parents. When they were declared dead, he went to live with his grandfather in Nevada. Not long after his arrival, he almost gets caught in a landslide that almost kills him when the amulet turns his legs into those of a dinosaur.

What are his Powers?

Humberto's powers are directly tied into the amulet he found in the dig with his parents. With it, Humberto can turn his body parts into those of a dinosaur or any prehistoric animal. If he wanted to, he could turn his entire body into that of the dinosaur. With this power, he runs, flies and becomes as strong as any dinosaur he desires. The major drawbacks of this power are that when he transforms into a dinosaur, he loses control over his instincts and becomes a threat to others. This would make him similar to the Lizard almost when you think about it in that way.

His origin story

His origin story is told in Avengers Initiative, where he made his first appearance. There, we learn that Humberto found his amulet during one of his parent's archaeological digs. During another dig, his parents disappeared without a trace, leaving Humberto to be placed into the care of his grandfather.

After nearly getting killed during a rock slide, he finds out that the amulet transforms his body parts into those of a prehistoric animal and only seems to be reactive to him specifically. He registers with the Initiative during the Skrull invasion. Still, it isn't until a year later, after his parents go on missions when Stregon starts attacking SHIELD bases, that he is quickly trained and joined a small squad led by Tigra to track him down.

However, they later learn that the attacks were Stregon's attempts to locate and rescue Moon Boy, captured by SHIELD scientists. Humberto sacrificed his place among the Initiative to bring Moon Boy back to the Savage Lands and meet Ka-Zar, who swears to help him find his parents.

His Journey as a Superhero

Months after his time with the Initiative, he is kidnapped by Norman Osborn and several other kids to push their powers to the limits. These kids include Hazmat, Finesse, Striker, Mettle and Veil, most of whom were kidnapped or captured against their will and were pretty much tortured to gain results. Soon enough, the Avengers come in to rescue them just before Osborn's HAMMER agents attempt to destroy all evidence of their crimes, which included the Reptil and the other kids and offer them a place to join Avengers Academy.

At the Academy, it isn't long before the kids find out why they are there. While they are led to believe that they were brought in to become the Next Avengers, they were brought in to prevent them from becoming rogue. While Pym and the others know that Humberto is a good kid who wants to help the others with Tigra even telling Pym about him, the major threat with him, as stated previously, is that transforming into a dinosaur will make him lose control over his instincts.

Anyway, Humberto begins to learn more about himself, his powers begin to develop, more students come to the Academy, and relationships develop with the team, primarily a romantic relationship with Finesse. However, the relationship gets strained after he switches bodies with his future self so that the future Reptil will become a definite one. There he learns of the possible future that he has Finesse and their daughter Maria, which strains his relationship with Finesse in the present. He eventually starts to distance himself from her and eventually develops a close relationship with White Tiger due to their similar powers following a fight with Jeremy Briggs.

During Christmas, he, along with several other teens, get kidnapped by Arcade to be part of a game where he and the teens would have to kill each other until one remains to walk away. He, Hazmat, Mettle, X-23 and Juston were just some of these kids kidnapped by Arcade.

On the first day, several of the kids died, with one of them being Mettle, who chose to sacrifice himself to protect his girlfriend, Hazmat. It's a downward spiral from there where it leads to the Hazmat and X-23 fighting to the death after X-23 got affected by a trigger scent, several of the kids dead and Humberto's fate is left ambiguous for several years.

My feelings for his journey and the new solo series

Overall, I am excited to see Reptil coming back to the comics. He was one of the characters that got me interested in the Marvel Universe when I started watching the Super Hero Squad and other animated shows made at the time. Shows like Wolverine & the X-Men (Nightcrawler), Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes (Wasp & Ant Man) and Spectacular Spider Man (Spider Man).

This series and an appearance in another comic is a big step for Reptil, and I hope he gets the recognition he deserves and hopefully has more story lines in the future.

Possible story lines

I'm excited about this series is the possible story routes that the writers could go in for the series and afterwards.

For me, I hope that we get a better look at his mental state and the struggles that he had to face since. Given what he had been since the disappearance of his parents and what had happened at the end of Avengers Arena, it made me wonder if the writers will mention the difference between the person he was and the person he is now. I kind of hope he isn't entirely the same person after that. The experience that he and the other kids went through was very traumatic, and I want there to be some acknowledgement of it like there was with Hazmat and the other kids in Avengers Undercover.

Before this, I considered making a fan-fiction about Humberto just leaving the Academy, trying to overcome the mental hurdles that are likely PTSD, depression and anxiety. I wanted it to be kind of angsty while showing a bit of truth of someone who is battling those hurdles, feeling alone and showing a bit of self-hatred over his inability to help his friends. Being the leader of his group of heroes in the Academy, a big piece of responsibility that's placed on a sixteen to a seventeen-year-old kid, then being put in a situation where your teammate and one of your best friends died in front of your eyes, I think would lead to Humberto also developing an inferiority complex. It wouldn't surprise me if he felt partially responsible for Mettle and Juston's deaths or even some of the other deaths that happened in the Arena.

And with that, I will be listing nearly everything that has happened to him since he had the amulet. His parents going missing at fifteen, he gets kidnapped a total of three times (first by Osborn and the second and third being by Arcade), having trouble controlling his powers. He is scared to do so, being the leader of his team of Academy students, getting mind-swapped with his future self and seeing the possible future he could have with Finesse and their daughter Maria, having his powers briefly ripped out of his chest (yeah, that happened), losing his friends in Avengers Arena and almost dying from getting nuked by Hazmat.

I hope that we get to see the extent of his injuries because I feel like it would tie in well with the first point above. I mean, you can't say that Humberto isn't resilient. He survived Hazmat having a meltdown and almost got blown to bits. Traumatic experiences can leave a devastating blow on a person. One such injury that might profoundly affect him because it has a tie in his possible future with Finesse. A part which may not exist anymore… Yeah, this sounds dark, but it is plausible.

I hope that Reptil will appear in other Marvel story lines as the main character or make brief appearances here or there. Maybe even join the Champions since we saw him staring at the news looking at Miss Marvels, and maybe even other heroes his age. Maybe interacting with Moon Girl due to their connection to Devil Dinosaur as a partner, hell, maybe even going back into his roots at the Super Hero Squad and maybe developing a mentor-student relationship with Wolverine...if he's still alive, that is...I don't know; it's been a while since I've been keeping up with the comics.

#marvel #reptil #avengers academy #humberto lopez

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briangroth27 · 7 years

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Fox Should Wait to Recast the X-men's Logan

With Hugh Jackman retiring from the Wolverine role as of Logan, I can imagine the pressure to introduce a new Wolverine is overwhelming. He’s the most popular X-man and has been the face of the film franchise since it started (and arguably, the face of the comics franchise since at least the 80s). He’s the only X-man besides Deadpool proven to be a solo hit at the box office. There are three new X-films coming out in 2018—New Mutants, Deadpool 2, and X-men Dark Phoenix—any of them an opportunity to introduce a new Logan within a year. However, that’s the opposite of what Fox, Bryan Singer, and Simon Kinberg should do. The X-films are still my favorite superhero film franchise, but I think they can stand to give Logan a rest for a while.

Can Anyone Measure Up to Hugh Jackman? Wolverine was around decades before Jackman put on the claws and he’ll be around long after whoever suits up next. However, Jackman’s made his Logan the iconic version for many, despite the physical differences from the source material (comics Logan is just 5’3,’’ for instance). Any actor hired to take his place is immediately going to face scrutiny from both comic fans and general audiences, making it that much harder to sell someone else in the role.

Certainly, not just one actor gets to play each character and just because selling a new actor is difficult doesn’t mean the role should never be recast. Most would say Christopher Reeve is the iconic Superman, but that hasn’t stopped others from being (at least arguably) just as good in the role. Each actor brought different aspects of Clark Kent to the surface, making the role their own. And we do already have a great, recast Professor X in James McAvoy, as well as strong actors cast as young Cyclops, Storm, Nightcrawler, and Jean Grey, so the X-roles aren’t sacred and recasting doesn’t take anything away from the original. Sabretooth, Colossus, Jubilee, Gambit, Psylocke, Angel, Moira McTaggert, and Emma Frost have been reimagined as the movies’ narrative evolved, casting new actors in every case (three actresses have been Kitty Pryde!). However, Jackman’s tenure as Logan feels different from those roles, since he’s existed in both the not-so-distant-future and the prequel eras of the franchise. He’s already been established as the Logan of the Apocalypse era, so it’ll be a larger disconnect to see him recast now. It also feels a little dismissive of Jackman’s 17 years in the role and the character’s recent death in Logan to recast him in the near future.

The X-men are Bigger than Wolverine Wolverine’s one of my all-time favorite X-men, but he’s far from the only one worth telling stories about. The team is more than just “Wolverine and his Uncanny Friends,” and it’s past time the movies reflected that. With McAvoy, Fassbender, and Lawrence wrapping up their contracts (though I’m sure at least McAvoy will be back for New Mutants or Dark Phoenix) and Jackman retiring, now is the perfect time to put more focus on the younger cast and flesh out the other A-list X-men. We don’t need Gambit, Deadpool, or a new Wolverine to act as the franchise lead. I’d love it if the X-men films were reframed as true ensemble pictures, like the first movie was. At least let a different trio of characters headline each film while the rest of the team acts as supporting players, rotating them each film so everyone’s fleshed out. I’m more than ready for the films to focus on the other X-men and reintroducing Wolverine could very easily derail that. So many of the characters we’ve already got on screen have compelling stories to showcase:

Cyclops Explore Scott dealing with the pressure of saving an entire species while he learns to be a leader. What if he’s secretly not confident he’s the right mutant for the job (reflecting his belief that Alex was supposed to be the guy who changed the world, not him), but like his optic blasts, he feels he has to keep those doubts bottled up or the team will fall apart? How does he learn to open up and let go when he’s been trained to believe strategic planning is the only way to save everyone? How does his usual status of “married to his job” (leading the X-men) affect his relationship with Jean? Can she get him to open up and relax? In addition to his weaknesses, let’s see his strengths! Show his ability to rally the X-men—and mutants in general—to his side to fight to protect a world that hates and fears them. Rather than the team blindly charging into battle, let’s see Cyclops’ strategic brilliance at work. Scott’s the X-men’s Captain America (with hidden some insecurity/confidence issues) and it’s time the movies played that up.

Rogue Reintroducing Rogue with her comics origin—a supervillain who permanently absorbed the super-strength, flight, and memories of a hero (there, Carol Danvers, here, it can be any random mutant), leaving her to question who she is—would give us a hero with a dark past seeking peace and redemption, much like Logan was...only comics Rogue balanced her angst with a flirty and fun side. The question of whether her heroic instincts were absorbed from the random Flying Strong Mutant or are her true nature coming out as a result of the kindness the X-men showed her would be a great line to walk. If Jean dies or loses her powers in Dark Phoenix, the field team will need a telepath and Rogue’s ability to absorb memories could come in handy, with the built-in disadvantage of also taking on the personalities of people she absorbs. And including that ability instead of just mentioning it happening offscreen, that’d be a fun challenge for any actress.

Storm Ororo stood by while Cairo was leveled—what’s she going through? How does her experience as the beloved leader of that group of Cairo children (making her the only mutant in history willingly followed by humans) inform her choices, viewpoint, and leadership style? Could this drive her to be overly proactive and overprotective of the New Mutants? Could we see her go a little dark, like punk Storm in the comics? Play up both her desperate thief past and her serene, nurturing side from the comics (of all the characters in the original trilogy, Storm’s multiple facets and complexities were flattened out the most). While her villainous arc was my least favorite part of Apocalypse, it’s certainly left her in an interesting position and I want to see her explored more. Could being party to the near-destruction of the planet lead her to take on the responsibility of bending nature to her will to revive the Earth? Controlling the weather is an immensely important power that has practical applications, and I’d love to see how she uses it to improve the world.

Nightcrawler Can Kurt find and keep his faith (and sense of humor) in spite of a world that largely hates his face? How does a religious mutant interpret God’s will and Word, if humans were made in God’s image? It’d be a departure from the comics, but could Kurt start his own denomination of mutant-based Christianity? Let’s explore the mutant subculture in New York through the guy who sticks out the most—we know some humans think they’re cool, we know others hate them, we could meet the Morlocks, etc. A jovial, swashbuckling skirt-chaser with the face of a demon and a strong faith is a great comedic (and potentially tragic) juxtaposition that deserves to be explored more. What happens when he realizes Mystique is (maybe) his mother?

Jean Grey Dark Phoenix will likely focus on Jean’s evolution into the comics’ cosmic force (that was Singer’s original plan for X3). How does she deal with the primal force of her evolved state? Will she want to continue to control herself, or will the power she displayed in dispatching a deadly threat like Apocalypse be too easy an answer to mutants’ problems? What can she do for the world with endless power? Is she the only mutant to achieve the next stage of evolution, or are there others? Are her concerns bigger than human/mutant relations now? What does a person do when they essentially become a goddess? Hopefully she’ll do much more than achieve ultimate power, only to stand behind a different villain like in Last Stand.

Quicksilver Will Peter find his purpose not that he’s gotten out of his parents’ basement? Will he make Erik a better man, or will Erik’s crusade rub off on his son?

While there are some interesting aspects of Logan we’ve yet to see (which I discussed here), I can wait to get to those until we’ve gotten more from the others. We don’t need to see the Cyclops/Jean/Logan triangle again (particularly after they already resurrected it in Last Stand after it was settled in X2) and we’ve seen him mentor tons of people now, so the comics’ recent “teacher Logan” isn’t really needed here either. Just like the films need to use villains beyond Magneto and Stryker, lest they wear them out, they need to dig into the untapped potential of heroes beyond Wolverine.

There’s a Great Wolverine Already Cast It’s possible they’ll have another version of Wolverine, like Jimmy Howlett, Logan’s son from the Ultimate X-men comics, take over the mantle in the main X-men films (which is the plan for the current X-men Blue comic). He’d be young enough that it’s not creepy to be in a love triangle with Jean and Scott (though if Dark Phoenix is set in the 90s, they’d be in their 20s). Daken, Logan’s son from the main Marvel continuity, is another possibility, though he’s a villain.

Still, there’s already a perfect Logan replacement. Her name is Dafne Keen. Fox should follow her adventures in the future in Logan sequels. The best way to avoid Jackman’s shadow is to do the opposite. While either of Logan’s sons are valid options, it’d probably feel forced and redundant to introduce yet another guy with claws who happens to also be Logan’s child. Keen, however, already had the torch passed to her and is ready to go. She’s got the grit to do the crowd-pleasing berserker rage when needed, displayed a more vulnerable and caring side (as well as comedic chops), and she’s young and talented enough that they can take her character wherever they want as she grows.

Plus, Keen would be a ready-made and audience-tested female superhero franchise lead, something Fox could’ve had with Storm, Rogue, and/or Mystique already but haven’t and something WB and Marvel Studios are unfortunately only just starting to dig into. I also wouldn’t hate it if they rolled Laura into the New Mutants film and set it in the future of Logan, which I think should be relegated to its own timeline because of how defeatist in terms of Xavier and the X-men’s legacy it is (as I discussed in my Logan review). No matter where she pops up next, Keen was fantastic as Laura/X-23 and if she’s up for more, Fox would be crazy not to capitalize on this star in the making.

I’m sure at some point, the X-universe will be fully rebooted and a new Logan will be cast. They’ll probably recast a new Logan before that, but I think they should explore the rest of the universe instead of relying on the cache of one mutant. Keen can carry the Wolverine name while Fox gives everyone else time to become stars too. If they must bring back Logan sooner rather than later, I just hope they remember he’s only one member of the team, not the entirety of the X-men.

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