berkeleyplace

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Ok but I counted at least 5 POC in this picture.

Being the only black person in the room is normal to me. I didn’t grow up that way, but since I began working in the tech industry, it has become commonplace to walk into an event and never come across another black or brown face. It’s not surprising; a severe lack of diversity has plagued the industry and Silicon Valley for years. But as one modern philosopher recently said, “the tides they are-a changing.“

[berkeleyplace]

INVINCIBLE: Man, the Avengers, huh? I’m totally impressed– shaking in my boots even. Was that Nice Old Lady and Super Hot Redhead? What are their powers? PETER: Actually that was my aunt and my wife–they just live here. INVINCIBLE: Wife? Really? Wow, I’m impressed–you hit the jackpot, man. PETER: Yeah–no kidding… Actually, that’s what she says. Heh. wait a minute? You’re not surprised? Most people are surprised. INVINCIBLE: Why would I be surprised? You’re an athletic dude–you look okay, you’ve got a sense of humor– what’s so unbelievable? It’s not like you’re some skinny little nerd with glasses… PETER: Y'know–I think you’re my favorite super hero right now, Invulnerable.

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U.S. Agent #1-3 (2001): Machete dies

Look, I get that Jerry Ordway is a comic book legend.  I appreciate his role on so many great and important series.  But I hate U.S. Agent, and even a legend can’t make me like him. Picking up from the Maximum Security event, Agent Walker gets a job working with SHIELD and locking up super villains.  Val Cooper sets him up with his own team: S.T.A.R.S. (Superhuman Tactical Activities Response…

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UNCANNY X-MEN #395-398 (2001): Poptopia!

Here’s the story in a sentence: Amidst all the anti-mutant hate, new British pop superstar named Sugar Kane decides to date a mutant.  How cool an idea is that? The issue starts with Kane getting mobbed by fans and saved by Chamber.  She’s clearly smitten with him, and they end up getting involved.  Admit it: When I led with the fact that a pop star was dating a mutant, you didn’t think it…

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PETER PARKER SPIDER-MAN #30-32/128-130 (2001): 1st Fusion

This is a really cool arc. A new villain who has the power to “fuse” the abilities of known super-heroes (he’s named Fusion) debuts and tricks Spider-Man into failing to defuse a bomb that kills 300 people. It turns out, though, that Fusion doesn’t actually have that ability. Rather, he can make people think that he has powers. Spider-Man defeats him, of course, but not until after Fusion makes…

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UNCANNY X-MEN #394 (2001): Joe Casey run begins

While Grant Morrison was beginning a legendary, legend-breaking run on New X-Men, Joe Casey started writing the oldest of the X-books, Uncanny, and took an unorthodox approach to a much more traditional type of X-comic about the usual mutants trying to save the world that hates them… But this first issue was a damn fine book. A new mutant named Warp Savant celebrates his 18th birthday, which…

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MARY JANE BY RON FRENZ

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Punisher by Travis Charest

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Storm by Stephane Roux

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MARVEL KNIGHTS #11-15 (2001)

Luke Cage joins the Knights to take on Fu Manchu. It’s the first time Luke and Shang Chi meet. The story is…Basically nonexistent. I didn’t really understand why any of the things in it were happening. But in the end, Fu Manchu attacks the building that serves as the Marvel Knight’s base, and blows it up. Since Moon Knight paid for it, the cost of the loss forces him to retire and stop funding…

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Alias #2-5 (2001-2002)

Picking up from last issue, Jessica has a tape of Steve Rogers changing into his Captain America uniform. She doesn’t want to have it. She recognizes that she has to deliver it to her client, and it could undermine one of the most important and best people in the world. But at the same time, the woman Steve Rogers was with right before he changed into his super alter-ego is now dead. Strangled.…

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PUNISHER: YEAR ONE (1994-1995)

Let’s talk about that cover for a sec.  Why is Frank’s shirt ripped—he’s not shot or anything.  Why are there no bullet holes in the kids or the wife?  They’re dead, and their clothes are fine!  Why are the angel wings on his children but not his wife?  Is this a hint that she wasn’t really the mother of his kids? So many questions. The angel motif continues on the cover to #2. Quite…

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Iron Fist by Mike Deodato Jr

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DAREDEVIL #16-19 (2001): Wake Up

These issues are the first to offer David Mack’s painted art on the interior, which is nice. “Wake Up” is mostly about Ben Urich trying to locate the “villain” Leap Frog, who has gone missing. Urich learns this from Leap Frog’s young son, Timmy, who is basically a zombie–sitting on his bed chanting a story about Daredevil fighting a made-up villain called “The Fury.” Ben Urich is a reporter, not…

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Fantomex by Matteo Scalera

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X-TREME X-MEN #1 (2001)

If you were worried that Marvel was signaling a big change when Grant Morrison took over the X-Men series, rebranded it, and made it something intimate and comprehensible, this book should assuage that. It’s another X-series. It’s written by Chris Claremont. It has a huge cast. It’s extremely (no pun intended) thick with continuity. In other words, it’s the same old X-Men and it’s most of the…

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NEW X-MEN #114-116 (2001): E is for Extinction; 1st Cassandra Nova and Emma Frost's diamond skin

By 2001, Marvel had run the X-Men through more than a half-dozen team titles and at least 100 solo, miniseries, spin-offs and graphic novels. Probably a lot more than that. What could possibly by “new” about them at this point? Well, for one thing: Grant Morrison. For another: Frank Quitely. The first page of the first issue tells us that we’re leaving the past behind–by paying sarcastic tribute…