#Arctic Sub Lab

[longitudinalwaveme]

The Rogue Backstory Information Masterpost

Or, everything you always wanted to know about the Rogues' canon backstories, but were afraid to ask.

This post would be much simpler and less confusing if writers weren't constantly retconning each others' work.

Captain Cold

Showcase #8 (1957): Len Snart is a, quote, "ambitious" crook, who has realized that, if he's going to be successful as a criminal, he's going to have to find some way of dealing with the Flash. Conveniently, the newspaper he's reading informs him that a "scientific magazine has prepared a comprehensive article on Flash!" Hoping that this article might give him an idea, Len breaks into the office of the magazine, takes the manuscript home with him, and reads it. From this article he learns that "a cyclotron might effectively interfere with Flash's speed". Cold decides to imbue a weapon with the power of a cyclotron, and, to this end, breaks into the cyclotron building that is located "in a a suburban area" a few nights later with what appears to be a toy gun. He turns on the cyclotron and starts fiddling with it, but pulls the levers the wrong way, irradiating the gun and alarming himself. Assuming that he's failed, he goes to leave, only to run into the watchman, who pulls a gun on him. Len, in response, points his own gun at the watchmen in the hopes of scaring him off, and accidentally pulls the trigger...which causes the watchman to be frozen solid. Surprised but pleased by this turn of events, Len designs a uniform for himself (his classic parka---which we would learn in Flash #141 was sewn by a tailor named Paul Gambi), and comes up with the costumed identity of Captain Cold. (Rejected names included Mr. Arctic, the Cold Wave, Sub-Zero, and the Human Icicle.) He then goes out to commit crimes and fight the Flash.

Flash #250 (1977): We learn that Captain Cold has a younger sister named Lisa Snart. She's a professional figure skater who goes by the stage name of Lisa Star, presumably in part to avoid being connected to her infamous brother. Len tries to talk her out of taking revenge on the Flash for the death of Roscoe Dillon (aka the Top), her boyfriend and his fellow Rogue, but fails pretty spectacularly. This issue also is the first time one of Len's parents is mentioned, albeit in an offhand way; Lisa says "mother would never forgive you for snuffing her only daughter!"

Flash #300 (1981): The backstory presented here is mostly the same as that seen in Showcase #8, with a few minor differences. "Many years ago, Len Snart was a small-time crook who broke into a research lab, looking for an experimental weapon he could use against me [me here referring to Barry Allen, who was reviewing all of his enemies' backstories in the hopes of determining which of them was behind the most recent plot against him]. What he stole was the prototype of a revolutionary cold-gun." The main change here is that Snart appears to have stolen his gun, rather than having created it by complete accident after pulling some levers the wrong way...though it is possible that perhaps Barry has been misinformed about the creation of the cold gun.

Secret Origins #41 (1989): This retelling of the origin is completely identical to the one found in Showcase #8; although the fact that it's being narrated by the Rogues' tailor Paul Gambi does give it some extra flavor. The only new detail is Gambi's suggestion that Len didn't do too well in school: "The trouble is---and this would not have surprised your teachers---you figured it wrong!"

Justice League Quarterly #2: This story may not be canonical, but in it, we learn that Snart calls his cold gun Shirley, after his mother, indicating that her name may be Shirley Snart.

Flash vol. 2 #165 (2000): "The place reminds me of my parents' house. Smells like cigarettes and pine sol. All my dad did was smoke; my mother cleaned. They didn't drink much. That was me and my sister's job." This was written by Geoff Johns, and he would later retcon out most of this information. This story was also the first to suggest that Captain Cold didn't have a good relationship with his parents: "My name's Leonard Snart. It's a bad name, I know. But my parents were bad people."

Flash vol. 2 #182 (2002): This is the famous Cold origin story, and still the best one. It establishes that Leonard Snart grew up in a trailer home outside of Central City. His father was unemployed and on disability; he had once been a police officer but was fired for being drunk on the job, which led to his partner getting killed and himself being shot in the arm. He abused his wife (who would leave for days, but would always be forced to come back due to lack of resources) and both of his children, both physically and verbally. He was especially aggressive in response to words of affection or love from his children.

Leonard's grandfather (who was his father's father) was "the only real adult in my young life". He intervened to protect Len and Lisa whenever he could, but due to his poor health, wasn't able to take the children in himself. The grandfather drove an ice truck and used the truck to take his children to visit places like ball parks and restaurants that they otherwise didn't get to visit. Unfortunately, this grandfather died before Len turned twelve, leaving him alone with his sister, his often-absent mother, and his abusive father.

Len left home himself in his late teens. At this point, his mother had been dead for over a year, and he was fed up with his father's abuse. His sister, Lisa, wanted to leave home with him, but Len had already gotten involved with a bad crowd, and didn't want to put his sister in danger. "Keep skating, kid. You've got talent. You'll be fine." It's clear that leaving his sister alone with their father later haunted him, and it seems to be one of his biggest regrets.

Leonard quickly joined up with a gang, and one of its members invented goggles that protected their eyes from gunfire and contained a police band receiver as well. Len thought that these were cool, and they would ultimately serve as the goggles he would wear as part of his Captain Cold uniform. He and this gang then went out to rob a pharmacy...only to be stopped by the Flash and sent to prison.

While in prison, and seeking revenge on the Flash, Len "studied kinetic motion and thermal energy. But what really caught my eye was an article on absolute zero....Absolute zero means zero atomic motion". When he was released on parole, he "broke into one of the labs I'd read about. I never was too great at all the science, so I needed some help. I stole some blueprints. And I made a weapon." From here, Len used this gun to become Captain Cold.

Flashpoint Citizen Cold #1 (2011): Technically, this takes place in an alternate universe, but it included a recap of the Snarts' past, and it seemed identical to the one provided in Flash vol. 2 #182, so I'm going to note a few relevant details that this issue added. First, Len's dad is named Lawrence, and second, he's suspected to have mob ties. In other words, there's a good chance that Leonard's father was a corrupt cop.

Rebirth Flash #14: Most of the backstory remains the same as what we saw in Flash vol. 2 #182. "I'm sure you know their father was a real piece of work. After their mother died, he lived off hate and drink. Lisa used to tell me that her grandfather would take them on his ice deliveries. It was their only escape. They felt protected with him in the cold." That being said, the notion that Len's dad only became abusive after his wife died is new; in Johns' version he was just as abusive to his wife as he was to his children. This version also claims that Len was directly responsible for Lisa's turn to crime; in all previous versions of the story she didn't become a criminal until Roscoe's death.

Rebirth Flash #38: "Y'know, Flash, every time my dad would hurt my sister and me? He would beg for forgiveness afterward. And then he would just do it again. [I'm not like my father.] I would never ask for forgiveness." I'm not crazy about Williamson's version of Captain Cold's past, and this is a big part of the reason why.

Rebirth Flash #72: We learn that Clive Yorkin (the criminal who is experimented on, A Clockwork Orange-style, and then becomes a monster in the 1979 Death of Iris Allen arc) was part of the gang Len was in before he became Captain Cold. Yorkin is a wild card, and nearly shoots Iris (who is reporting on the scene of their crime) despite Cold's attempts to talk him down. Barry saves her, and then defeats the gang and takes them to prison (as we saw in Flash vol. 2 #182).

Golden Glider

Flash #250-251 (1977): "The girl at the grave is Lisa Snart---younger sister of the notorious Captain Cold! Small wonder, then, that ice played a vital role in her life, too---as a champion skater who performed in ice shows all over the world!" Lisa performed for the Futura Ice Company under the name Lisa Star and was internationally famous for her unparalleled spinning ability---something that had been taught to her by her boyfriend, Roscoe Dillon, who was also her (presumably unofficial) figure skating coach. Their romance "blossomed for months--but undercover", during which Roscoe followed her from city to city to watch her performances---but then Roscoe died from a brain hemorrhage; the result of his battles with the Flash (see Flash #243-244 for more details on this). Lisa swore revenge on the Flash for her lover's death and became the Golden Glider in response, using her brother's cold guns, her boyfriend's tops, and a pair of ice skates which produced ice in mid-air (also invented by her brother, Captain Cold) as the tools of her deadly scheme.

Flash #257: We learn that Lisa can read lips. Where and how she learned this is never explained, but she can. We also learn that she apparently has quite the inventive prowess, as she is now armed with a whole arsenal of jewel weapons.

Flash #300 (1981): Barry's recap of Lisa's past: "At one time she was a world-renowned figure skater travelling all over the country as the star of an ice show by day....while carrying on a torrid secret romance from city to city by night. The object of her passion---an infamous costumed criminal who just happened to be one of my most cunning long-time foes---one Roscoe Dillon, better known to the rest of the world as the villainous Top!" After a brief detour into Roscoe's past (more on that later), he gives us some new information about Lisa's past: "Dillon shared the grim details of his imminent doom with only one person---his grief-stricken sweetheart, Lisa! The final spin for the Top came the following day---as Roscoe Dillon became the first of my personal Rogues' gallery to die in his prime." This story also reaffirms the notion that Lisa frequently made visits to Roscoe's top-shaped tombstone after his death.

Flash vol. 2 #165: Len claims that he and Lisa drank frequently.

Flash vol. 2 #182: Most of the backstory overlaps heavily with Len's; since they're siblings and thus had the same runaway mother, abusive father, and kindly but sickly grandfather. Lisa was left alone with her father by Len, but managed to escape a few years later by becoming a figure skater. The rest of her backstory is basically identical to the one that was already established for her, but this issue claimed that Lisa, in addition to wanting revenge for Roscoe's death, became a Rogue because "I wanted to be like my brother. With my brother."

New 52 Flash Annual #1: We learn that Lisa is Sam's girlfriend, and that she was not properly a member of the Rogues until Len got the bright idea to give the Rogues superpowers and she was put into a coma but also given astral powers. This backstory would be retconned out only a few years later by DC Rebirth.

Rebirth Flash #14: We learn that Lisa was coached in figure skating by a woman named Glenda Dillon (Joshua Williamson says she's Roscoe's mother.) Glenda implies that Lisa gave up figure skating and went into crime in order to protect her brother. "Leonard always thinks he's taking care of her. But the reality is Lisa takes care of him. It's why whenever he asks for help she follows him." This backstory also seems to suggest that Lisa never became a professional skater or dated Roscoe in this version of events and makes Lisa's motivation entirely about her brother, who appears to have led her into a life of crime in this version of the story (in contrast to all of Len's earlier appearances, where he tried to dissuade her from becoming a criminal until she made it clear that she was going to become one no matter what he said).

Flash Rebirth #83: We learn that Lisa, for some reason, was terrified of dogs as a kid, and that Len knows this and thus also presumably knows why. Did it have something to do with their father's abuse?

Trickster #1 (James Jesse/Giovanni Giuseppi)

Flash #113 (1960): James Jesse is the youngest member of the Flying Jesses, a family of high-wire walkers who work for the creatively-named Big Circus. His mother's name is Helen; his father goes unnamed. Unfortunately for James, he's afraid of heights (or, more accurately, of falling) and thus is resistant to practicing. He prefers to read books, particularly books about his "reverse-namesake", the outlaw Jesse James. James' parents do not approve of his reading choices, and insist that he focus more on practicing (in part, I think, since he hasn't ever told them about his fear of heights).

In spite of his fears, James still wants to be a famous aerialist, so he invents a pair of shoes that use jet propulsion systems to let him walk on air. It takes him years to create and master the shoes, but once he completes them---from all appearances, when he's still a teenager!---they allow him to become a champion tightrope walker and the star of his circus. He also earns his parents' praise for his abilities.

However, this soon proves too boring for James, and he decides to become an outlaw like Jesse James in order to get more excitement. "But instead of holding up railroad trains like he did---I'll be a 20th-century version of Jesse James---and hold up airplanes!" James proceeds to do just that, and becomes the Trickster.

Flash #300 (1981): "I'll become a famous criminal--like him...a 20th century version of Jesse James! With my jet-shoes I can pull of the trick! And that gives me my name, too! I'll become---the Trickster!" That seems like a bit of a stretch, but I guess that's where the name came from. Barry also calls James "the most famous acrobat of all", implying that he did pretty well for himself in the circus.

Secret Origins #41 (1989): We learn that James Jesse is a stage name, with James' real name being Giovanni Giuseppi. His family comes from Naples, so James is either Italian or of Italian descent. This version of the origin story also strongly implies that his father was an unpleasant man; he insults James for reading and wrenches James' arm out of his socket when he gets distracted by some of the women who work with them at the circus. "It wasn't the heights you were afraid of---it was the old man dropping you!" This story also suggests that the Giuseppis did some trapeze artistry in addition to their high wire walking.

And then there's James' explanation (in song, no less!): "Oh, I flew through the air with the greatest unease, till I thought it all over and came up with these! My airwalker shoes were undreamed of by sages, and I did in one song what took Gambi two pages!"

New Year's Evil: The Rogues (1999): We learn that, twelve years prior to the start of the story, James had a relationship with a woman named Mindy Hong, whose family had its roots in a fictional Asian country called Zhutan. It's not 100% clear that this relationship happened prior to his becoming the Trickster, but it seems likely. This relationship also produced a son named Billy.

Rebirth Flash #66: The basic backstory for James remains the same (circus, reading about Jesse James, fear of heights, airwalker shoes) but a lot of the details are different. This story doubles down on making his parents awful; both of them are neglectful of and verbally abusive towards James. They're also portrayed as being con artists who use their act as a distraction while they pickpocket people, rather than being legitimate performers as in previous versions. The origin of the airwalker shoes is also quite different in this version of the story. Instead of making the shoes on his own so that he can better perform in the family's act, in this version he ran away from his parents and the circus, and pulled a "long con disguised as a lab tech at S.T.A.R. Labs. Fooled some lonely scientist into falling in love with me. And I stole her research and sold it to Lexcorp. But I was living that scam long enough that I picked up a few things. Like how to make shoes that run on air." Then he became the Trickster. Interestingly, this version of the story also removes any hint of James' family being of Italian descent.

Captain Boomerang, Sr. (George "Digger" Harkness)

Flash #117 (1960): Digger Harkness, a criminal who has spent "years hiding in the Australian bush hiding out from the law", is reading a newspaper when he finds an ad from W.W. Wiggins' toy company. Wiggins is looking for a person who can throw boomerangs expertly to be a mascot for his toy boomerangs, and Digger, who has been thinking about becoming a costumed criminal and becoming famous, decides to apply for the job himself under the alias of George Green. He is promptly hired, due to his incredible skill with boomerangs, and is given the name and costume of Captain Boomerang. Digger does work for the company for awhile, serving as the mascot, but commits crimes at the same time. Eventually, he and the Flash come to blows and he is exposed and arrested as a criminal.

Flash #227: We learn that Digger's father is called "Aussie" Green, and that he's a small-time crook from Australia.

Flash #300 (1981): Barry gives a beat-for-beat retelling of Digger's origin story from Flash #117. No new information is given.

Flash #310 (1982): We learn that W.W. Wiggins has a young son named Willard Wiggins Jr.; later revelations would make Willard Jr. Digger's younger half-brother.

Flash #311 (1982): "Regardless of the exact year, we calculated the arrival would take place somewhere over the South Pacific---which means a splashdown in the ocean---and my parents never taught little Digger how to swim!"

Secret Origins #41 (1989): Gambi gives another beat-for-beat retelling of the origin story from Flash #117.

Suicide Squad #44 (1990): This is the famous Captain Boomerang origin. It establishes that Digger grew up poor in Korumburra, a rural town in Australia. He lived with the man he believed to be his father, Ian Harkness, his mother, Betty Harkness, and his older half-brother Tom Harkness (who would eventually become an accountant). His mother was loving towards him, but his father was neglectful and abusive.

George made his first boomerang in elementary school, and, after being taunted about it by a kid named Mick Wentworth, he threw it in anger and managed to hit a kookaburra with it...which set him on the path of using boomerangs as weapons. Digger and Wentworth (so called as to not have him confused with Mick Rory/Heat Wave) promptly became friends, and proceeded to cause all sort of trouble together as juvenile delinquents. (His mother bailed both of them out of trouble frequently.)

When Digger turned 18, he tried to rob a general store, got caught, and narrowly managed to escape using a boomerang. This led to an argument with his father, and, after his mother tried to take his side, arguing that he was Ian's son, Ian flipped out and slapped her across the face. Digger responded by punching out his father, and his mother, in a panic, contacted W.W. Wiggins and had Wiggins give him a job in America. Wiggins made him a toy salesman, but after a few weeks (maybe months) on the job, Digger got sick of being a toy salesman and tried to pick somebody's pocket. The Flash saw him and tried to intervene, but Digger managed to tag him with a boomerang and knock him out. This led to Digger's official career as a costumed criminal.

It wasn't until Digger attended his mother's funeral that he learned (from W.W. Wiggins) that his mother had had an affair with W.W. Wiggins when he was a soldier stationed in Australia, and that that affair had been reignited many years later when Wiggins returned to the country, this time as a toy salesman, albeit only for one night. This affair produced Digger---and was the main driving force behind his father's dislike of him.

Flash (2010) #7: This origin is basically the same as the one from Suicide Squad #44, although in this version instead of completely ignoring his son for 18 years, W. W. Wiggins sends little Digger boomerangs. Also, Digger tried to rob a pawnshop instead of a general store at age 18, and it was he rather than his mom whom his father hit. This version of events also implies that W.W. Wiggins went bankrupt trying to promote the boomerangs, and that it was this financial difficulty that led to Digger becoming Captain Boomerang---he wasn't getting paid because Wiggins had no money, and so decided to steal money instead.

Suicide Squad #47 (2019): Most of the backstory remains the same, but now Digger was also at some point a secret agent for the Australian government. No, really. This is actually a thing that was established in this issue.

Heat Wave

Flash #140 (1963): "I used to be a fire-eater in the circus, but I lost my taste for the work! And then one day a week ago I finally made up my mind for---er---private reasons, I must say--- to embark on a criminal career in a big way! Naturally, with my circus background you understand why I chose the character of Heat Wave! I created my own uniform---and my weapon--a heat gun!" The "private reason" for Heat Wave's criminal career was...a desire to impress a local TV personality called Dream Girl. No, really, that was why.

Flash #266 (1978): Mick, at the age of nine, went on a field trip with his school to a meat packing facility. Being curious, he wandered off on his own, and accidentally shut himself into a meat locker. After nearly freezing to death, he managed to use the heat of his breath to "un-numb" his fingers enough to open the latch on the door and escape. This near-death experience gave young Mick intense cryophobia and a love of heat and warmth. Mick felt comfortable only when wearing several layers of clothes (even in the summer) and he spent his teenaged years experimenting with heat. When he became an adult, he became a fire-eater in the circus, and then fell into crime (presumably for fame and/or to impress girls as per Flash #160). It's also worth noting that we see two people who look very much like they're probably supposed to be Mick's parents looking at their teenaged son with concern as he experiments with fire, indicating that his parents did not die when he was a child.

Flash #300 (1981): Barry gives a beat-for-beat retelling of the origin from Flash #266, with one exception...Mick is said to be ten years old, rather than nine, during the meat locker incident. This was probably just an error on writer Cary Bates' part, rather than a deliberate retcon.

Secret Origins #41 (1989): Gambi gives us a mostly beat-for-beat retelling of the origin from Flash #266; the only new information we learn is that Mick ran away from home in order to join the circus as a fire-eater.

Flash vol. 2 #218: This is the famous Heat Wave origin. It mostly follows the facts established by the previous origins, but adds a really disturbing twist to them.

Mick Rory grew up on a farm with his mother, father, grandmother, and brother. He had a mostly idyllic life---but he was a pyromaniac, obsessed with flames. (In all previous retellings, Mick was obsessed with heat more than with fire, and his obsession only manifested after the meat locker incident.)

When Mick was 12 years old, he couldn't resist the urge to set the family house on fire...and was so transfixed by the flames that, even though he wanted to help his family, all he could do was watch as they burned alive. Mick was then sent to live with his uncle.

Mick's classmates made fun of him because he wore winter clothes at all times of year, and one day, on the tour of a local slaughterhouse, Brad Riker locked Mick in a meat freezer. Mick took nearly an hour to free himself, and the next night, he felt compelled to lock Riker and his family in their house and burn it down. Horrified, Mick then ran away from his uncle's house and joined the circus, where he became a fire eater. He was happy there for a few years, but then his urges surfaced again and he set the circus on fire. And this time, he took pictures.

When Mick saw the developed photos, he was disgusted with himself and what he had done, and, when he saw Captain Cold on the news, he decided that the best way to get his urges under control was to make them into a gimmick for costumed crime.

"I designed a heat-gun based on the flame-thrower. I compacted the fuel in catridges at the base of the gun, focusing on a mixture of Greek fire and butane gas. Originally, the ignition system in the tip was the typical electrical coil. Through the years, I managed to improve it, adding in a laser that super-heated the fire and helped me control its shape. I lined my fireproof suit with hoses filled with the fuel. And gave the gun a quick reload system which would replaced the tanks whenever I locked it down into the holster." After completing his gun, Mick set off to become Heat Wave.

I'll be honest and say that, while this origin is iconic at this point, I don't really like it. I feel like the death of his family was sufficiently horrible and tragic to make the point about his pyromania; having him kill another family and burn down a circus was a bit much.

Mirror Master II (Evan McCulloch)

Animal Man #8, #17, and #21 (1989-1991): Evan McCulloch is introduced as a Scottish hitman, and is hired by an organization composed primarily of three powerful corporate businessmen to scare Animal Man away from crime-fighting, since his focus on protecting animals was cutting into their profits. They give him the Mirror Master costume and gear so that people will assume that the attacks are supervillain shenanigans rather than a corporate hit.

Evan readily agrees to harass and beat up Animal Man, but when this fails to scare off the hero, the organization then orders him to kill Animal Man's wife and two young children. McCulloch promptly refuses, as he doesn't kill women or children, and he is replaced as an assassin by someone willing to take the job. We also learn that he has spent a considerable amount of time in Glasgow.

Justice League #10-12, 15: We learn that Evan McCulloch grew up in an orphanage. Batman offers to donate money to it in order to get Evan to turn against the Injustice League formed by Lex Luthor.

Flash vol. 2 #212: This is the famous Evan origin.

As a baby, Evan McCulloch was abandoned in a basket on the doorstep of an orphanage in Kirkaldy, Scotland. A picture of his parents was tucked inside the basket with him. The orphanage was run by a kind-hearted woman named Miss McCulloch, who did her best to be a mother to all of the children at her orphanage, including Evan. As such, while he obviously wished for his parents, Evan was generally pretty content at the orphanage.

There was only one problem: an older boy named Georgie, who came into the rooms of the younger children at night, dragged them outside, and sexually assaulted them. When Evan was eight, Georgie dragged him outside and attempted to abuse him, prompting Evan to kill him in self-defense.

Evan left the orphanage when he was 16 and ran away to Glasgow, where he spent a few years on odd jobs, then drifted into crime. Eventually, he became a hitman, and was hired to kill two people in one day. The first target put up a fight and cut Evan across the eye, thus impeding his vision and preventing him from realizing that his second target was his father (whom he knew from the photograph) until it was too late. Evan shot his father, and, when he went to confess to his mother after his father's funeral, he found her dead in the bathtub from suicide. After killing the man who hired him to kill his father, Evan planned to turn himself in, only for the American government to turn up and hire him as their hitman. When Evan agreed, they gave him the Mirror Master costume and gear (again, to ensure he wouldn't be traced back to them). Mirror Master worked for them for awhile, then got fed up with them, trapped them in a mirror dimension, went to Central City, and joined up with the Rogues.

Pied Piper

Flash #106 (1959): "I am a master of sound! For years I studied sound in all its phases! Do you know what it's capable of? Maybe you've heard of sonic booms---explosions caused miles away by an airplane passing through the sound barrier!...Don't worry, I'll stop the Flash!" And for over twenty years, that was all the backstory we had for the Pied Piper!

Flash #300 (1981): Barry on Piper's mysterious past: "In all the years I've been battling the Piper, I've never been able to learn much about his pre-Piper days or the origins of his expertise in the science of sonics!"

Flash #307 (1982): Cary Bates provides us with what is effectively Hartley's definitive backstory.

Hartley Rathaway was born to the millionaire publishing magnates Osgood and Rachel Rathaway. He was born deaf, and his parents spent millions of dollars for highly-advanced hearing aids that would allow him to hear. Once he could hear, Hartley became fascinated with music, but didn't seem to have an aptitude or interest in much of anything else, much to his parents' frustration. What they didn't realize was that Hartley had begun to tinker with musical instruments----or that he would learn how to use them to control minds by the time he was a teenager.

For his sixteenth birthday, his parents gave him a silver-plated flute.

When Hartley graduated from high school, his parents bribed his way into a top college, bribed his professors into giving him good grades, and then bribed his way into an executive post at a major firm. Hartley wasn't interested in any of this, and instead just used his hypnosis to make things even easier for himself. Bored out of his mind by how easy life was for him, Hartley decided to become a criminal to finally experience risk and excitement (or at least, that's what his parents, Rachel and Osgood, seem to think). And so the Pied Piper was born.

To keep anyone from learning that their son was a costumed criminal, the Rathaways bribed everyone from the chief of police to the FBI to created the identity of Henry Darrow for the Pied Piper, and it was by this name that Hartley was known for much of his criminal career.

The Pied Piper himself also gives his own opinion on his childhood later in this issue, when he arrives at the Rathaway mansion with stolen goods and reveals that he has been giving much of the money he's been stealing to his parents---"At last I've paid back every Rathaway dollar my parents spent on trying to mold me into someone I could never be!" He also argues that his parents never wanted what was best for him, but rather "what was best for the Rathaway name! What I wanted never really mattered much to either one of you!"

Secret Origins #41 (1989): Gambi gives a beat-for-beat retelling of the origin from Flash #307.

Flash vol. 2 #32: This story establishes that Hartley has a younger sister named Geraldine, who appears to be about eight to ten years old.

Flash vol. 2 #190: This story is mostly the same as the one in Flash #307, but it does change some details and add a few things. This issue establishes Hartley's middle name as Robert and identified Dr. William Magnus, the inventor of the Metal Men, as the man who invented Hartley's hearing aids (when Hartley was nine). It also establishes that these hearing aids give him super-human hearing.

In this version, Hartley's parents are obviously neglectful---they went out every night for the first month of his life rather than spending time with him, and they don't even notice he's deaf until he turns two.

Hartley loves listening to music, but doesn't have much talent for playing it. He also felt as though he could never relate to his parents or their friends; the people in his social class looked down on him and gossiped about him behind his back.

Hartley got himself kicked out of every college he was sent to, apparently as a form of rebellion, and things only got worse when he came out to his parents. It sparked a huge argument, and in response, Hartley ran away from home, taking his musical instruments and some of his parents' money with him. He then used his knowledge of sonics in the hopes that he would be able to create and sell his own instruments...and then stumbled upon his mind-controlling flute, which gave him a sort of power he had never had over his life before. Intoxicated by this control, and angry at the world, he took to a life of crime as the Pied Piper.

Weather Wizard

Flash #110 (1959): Mark Mardon was a petty crook, and had been arrested for burglary on at least three separate occasions; once by a Central City police lieutenant named Jim Harvey. On his third arrest, he was sent to Tri-State Prison on a train...and escaped by jumping off of the moving vehicle! After his escape, he decided to hide out with his brother Clyde, whom he knew lived along the shores of Big Water Lake as something of a hermit.

When Mark arrived at his brother's house, he was surprised to find what looked like a scientific laboratory, and even more surprised to find that his brother was dead of a heart attack. Shortly thereafter, Mark stumbled upon his brother's notes and learned that his brother had been about to announce to the world that he had learned how to build a device that could control the weather. Clyde had intended to use his device to help the world, but Mark had a "better" idea: he would follow his brother's notes and build his own weather-controlling device to get rich and revenge himself on the men who had sent him to jail. After building the wand using the notes, Mark dubbed himself the Weather Wizard, donned a costume that even he called "bizarre and original" and set out on a life of crime.

Flash #300 (1981): Barry gives a beat-for-beat recap of the origin from Flash #110.

Secret Origins #41 (1989): Gambi gives us what is mostly a beat-for-beat recap of the origin from Flash #110, but adds a few new details. "Your brother Clyde---who had always had everything better than you except a first name (and your mom almost made you switch that)---lived not far away on Big Water Lake." This is the first evidence we have that Clyde was favored over Mark by their parents. Or at least their mother.

The Flash: Iron Heights (2001): We finally get confirmation that Clyde was Mark's older brother, and that he was a meteorologist. This is also the first time that Geoff Johns starts hinting that Mark killed Clyde after escaping prison (as this had not previously been part of the story).

Final Crisis: Rogues' Revenge #3 (2008): We get confirmation that Mark killed Clyde after escaping prison (albeit by accident). When Mark arrived at his brother's laboratory, Clyde went to call the police, telling Mark that he had to turn Mark in and that it was for Mark's own good. Mark reacted in a panic, insisting that he couldn't go back to prison (and perhaps hinting that something rather bad might have happened to him the last time he had been sent to prison--though that's speculation). In his panic, he grabbed the Weather Wand, and accidentally killed Clyde.

New 52 Flash #10: Marco Mardon is from Guatemala, and his older brother is now named Claudio. His family ran a drug cartel (because stereotypes). Their father didn't think either of them were fit to run the cartel, but after he died, Claudio became the head of the cartel anyway. Marco, on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with the cartel and ran away to Central City, where he would ultimately join the Rogues. His brother, Claudio, later came to the city on a "business" trip, and attempted to convince him to join him in running the cartel. "When we were kids, you said you'd always look out for me." While he's on the phone with Marco, he gets murdered, and, as we find out later, the hit was ordered by his own wife, Elsa, who thought that Claudio was too weak to do what needed to be done as the head of a drug cartel. When Marco found out about this (after he became the Weather Wizard), he was understandably upset and attempted to kill both her and himself with a lightning strike (though he managed to survive).

Rebirth Flash #85: "Marco was a loner in a family of criminals. He tried so hard to escape that life---that family--and it hurt people he loved. He can never escape the pain." Weirdly, the art makes the Mardons look more like 1920s gangsters than a modern drug cartel.

The Top

Flash #122 (1961): When Roscoe Dillon was a boy, he discovered some toy tops in the attic and became fascinated with them, to the point that he preferred spinning tops to playing with other children. As he grew older, he drifted into crime, and, after the second time he was caught (he wasn't the most successful criminal), he hit upon the idea of using his old boyhood hobby of spinning tops as a way to improve his criminal career. He immediately plunged himself into research on tops and learned everything he possibly could about them.

"Tops are amazing! They're linked up with intricate scientific devices like gyroscopes! Although they've been just about forgotten, they are the basis for some of the most startling advances in science! The theory behind tops gave rise to guided missile systems---to the gyrostabilizers of ocean liners! And unless I miss my guess, the same theory will help me reach the top of my profession!"

Roscoe invented a huge array of weaponized tops, and also taught himself how to spin at incredible speed. This spinning also increased his brainpower, and, filled with newfound confidence and weapons, he set out to take over the world as the Top.

Flash #300 (1981): Barry gives us a beat-for-beat recap of Roscoe's origin from Flash #122, although the art does seem to indicate that Roscoe was playing with tops well into his teenage years.

Flash vol. 2 #120-121: Roscoe offhandedly mentions that growing up on the streets of Brooklyn didn't provide him with the education that he would need to become president. This doesn't really jive with any of the other backstory information we're given on him (the scenes of his childhood from Flash #122 seemed quite suburban, for example).

Flash vol. 2 #216: "His name was Roscoe Dillon. But you know him better as the Top. For a long time he was just another one of the Rogues. A crook from Central City who got creative like Len Snart and Digger Harkness. He had a talent for inventions and explosives, and an obsession with, of all things, tops. The only good memory of a horrible childhood, he claimed."

More specifically, it appears that his parents were extremely demanding of him. "When I was growing up, it was always be the best, be the greatest. Show the world you're my son. When I couldn't, I lashed out. I rebelled against everything."

We also learn that, while he was inventing his tops, Roscoe tested them out, hurting innocent people in the process.

Flash vol. 2 #217: This issue reveals that Roscoe visited a Wiggins Toy Company toy shop every day when he was a child, presumably because they sold tops there.

Trickster II (Axel Walker)

Flash vol. 2 #183: Axel Walker comes from an upper-class family. When his parents divorced, he drifted into juvenile delinquency, doing drugs and vandalizing buildings. Then he broke into one of James Jesse's old storage units in Keystone City and stole his costume, his tricks, and a pair of airwalker shoes. Axel then used these to become the new Trickster.

Flash vol. 2 #1/2: "When my mom divorced my dad, Pops told me, 'There's two things you can be in life, Axel. Either you're the Trickster, or you're the one getting tricked!'"--Axel, on his dad's life advice.

Mirror Master I (Sam Scudder)

Flash #105 (1959): Sam Scudder was sent to prison for robbery. While he was working in the prison's mirror factory, he made a mistake, putting a wrong chemical in the silvering of the mirror. The prison foreman (Tyler) ordered him to throw it out, and, as he was in the process of doing so, he was stunned to discover that the mirror had held the image of the foreman like it was a camera. Sam decided to hang onto the mirror, and hid it so that he could study it later. He spent the rest of his time in prison studying mirrors, and, upon being released, put his knowledge to good use to invent what was effectively a 3-D printer, which he used to commit crimes as the Mirror Master.

This issue also implies that Sam feels some level of resentment towards society generally: "Besides, why should I try to help science and society? What did they ever do for me--besides put me behind bars?"

Flash #206 (1971): "Posters of famous movie cowboys! That's why Mirror Master went through that gunslinger bit---he was a rabid cowboy fan! Probably wanted to be in a real showdown ever since he was a kid!"

Flash #255 (1977): "A nice save, old foe! How'd you know I couldn't swim?"

Flash #300 (1981): We get what is effectively a beat-for-beat recap of the origin provided in Flash #105, although Barry describes Sam as "a hard-case prison inmate", implying that he might have been arrested more than once prior to becoming the Mirror Master. Barry also claims that Sam didn't really start studying the strange mirror until after his parole.

Flash vol. 2 #212: "I'm not the first Rogue to go by this name. No. Sam Scudder was. Kansas City boy. Simple thug."

Flash: Rebirth #2: In a frankly unnecessary bit of grimdark retconning, Sam is sentenced to prison for burglary and murder instead of robbery. Barry Allen, police scientist, is responsible for his conviction (I have no problems with Barry Allen convicting Sam---but couldn't he have convicted him for robbery rather than murder?)

Flash: Blackest Night #2 (2009): "I know where you're comin' from, McCulloch. I was like you. Hatin' who Sam Scudder was. Puttin' on a mask to escape it. Like all the Rogues. Running away to Wonderland."

As you can see, we don't know much about Sam's backstory....

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

New SpaceTime out Friday

SpaceTime 20241213 Series 27 Episode 150

Venus was never habitable according to new study

A new study has shown that the planet Venus has never been habitable, despite decades of speculation that the Earth’s sister planet was once much more like Earth than it is today.

Perseverance exploring the Jezero crater rim

NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover has been continuing its sightseeing tour of the Jezero crater rim, with this week's travel itinerary including an up-close look at Pico Turquino.

NASA Demonstrates ‘Ultra-Cool’ Quantum Sensor for First Time in Space

NASA’s Cold Atom Lab, a first-of-its-kind facility aboard the International Space Station, has taken another step toward revolutionizing how quantum science can be used in space.

The Science Report

Permafrost thawing could lead to an increase in wildfires in Arctic and sub-arctic regions.

New DNA forensics to help fight crime.

Earth’s oldest, largest, and most experienced animals being wiped out by human activity.

Skeptics guide to new Nessie images.

SpaceTime covers the latest news in astronomy & space sciences.

The show is available every Monday, Wednesday and Friday through Apple Podcasts (itunes), Stitcher, Google Podcast, Pocketcasts, SoundCloud, Bitez.com, YouTube, your favourite podcast download provider, and from www.spacetimewithstuartgary.com

SpaceTime is also broadcast through the National Science Foundation on Science Zone Radio and on both i-heart Radio and Tune-In Radio.

SpaceTime daily news blog: http://spacetimewithstuartgary.tumblr.com/

SpaceTime facebook: www.facebook.com/spacetimewithstuartgary

SpaceTime Instagram @spacetimewithstuartgary

SpaceTime twitter feed @stuartgary

SpaceTime YouTube: @SpaceTimewithStuartGary

SpaceTime -- A brief history

SpaceTime is Australia’s most popular and respected astronomy and space science news program – averaging over two million downloads every year. We’re also number five in the United States.  The show reports on the latest stories and discoveries making news in astronomy, space flight, and science.  SpaceTime features weekly interviews with leading Australian scientists about their research.  The show began life in 1995 as ‘StarStuff’ on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s (ABC) NewsRadio network.  Award winning investigative reporter Stuart Gary created the program during more than fifteen years as NewsRadio’s evening anchor and Science Editor.  Gary’s always loved science. He studied astronomy at university and was invited to undertake a PHD in astrophysics, but instead focused on his career in journalism and radio broadcasting. Gary’s radio career stretches back some 34 years including 26 at the ABC. He worked as an announcer and music DJ in commercial radio, before becoming a journalist and eventually joining ABC News and Current Affairs. He was part of the team that set up ABC NewsRadio and became one of its first on air presenters. When asked to put his science background to use, Gary developed StarStuff which he wrote, produced and hosted, consistently achieving 9 per cent of the national Australian radio audience based on the ABC’s Nielsen ratings survey figures for the five major Australian metro markets: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth.  The StarStuff podcast was published on line by ABC Science -- achieving over 1.3 million downloads annually.  However, after some 20 years, the show finally wrapped up in December 2015 following ABC funding cuts, and a redirection of available finances to increase sports and horse racing coverage.  Rather than continue with the ABC, Gary resigned so that he could keep the show going independently.  StarStuff was rebranded as “SpaceTime”, with the first episode being broadcast in February 2016.  Over the years, SpaceTime has grown, more than doubling its former ABC audience numbers and expanding to include new segments such as the Science Report -- which provides a wrap of general science news, weekly skeptical science features, special reports looking at the latest computer and technology news, and Skywatch – which provides a monthly guide to the night skies. The show is published three times weekly (every Monday, Wednesday and Friday) and available from the United States National Science Foundation on Science Zone Radio, and through both i-heart Radio and Tune-In Radio.

[werewolf-biter]

Vexen Character Analysis Week Day 2- Appearance in other worlds

This one is focused on speculating what animal and type of merfolk he would be in the Pride Lands and Atlantica. This one is going to be bit short and somewhat less of a proper analysis.

Pride Lands

The first thing that came to mind for me was a lion. His design could be translated into a lion pretty easily, especially a Lion King style one. His hair lends itself well to designing a mane and he just has a rather cat-like appearance in general. Being a lion also suits Vexen well since they are animals associated with pride, something he has no shortage of.

I think a species of antelope could also suit him well and are a good way to tie in his weapon of choice. In particular I went with a sable antelope, a large savanna dwelling member of the Hippotraginae family, due to how their horns are used for both bashing and stabbing/slashing, similar to how he uses Frozen Pride. He would have a lighter coat color than an actual sable antelope to better match with his hair, but I still think this choice suits him quite well.

Primates are another fitting choice on account of how smart they tend to be. A species of Baboon would be a fun pick thanks to their intelligence and some species having a golden coloration. Like with lions, I think his design could be translated into a baboon and still be easy to recognize as him.

Atlantica

My first choice for this was a bottlenose whale. I picked this both for whales being very intelligent animals, fitting him as a character, and because these whales tend to have a brownish-grey coloration and far down dorsal fin that would make for a really neat looking merfolk tail. A beluga would be another fun cetacean pick.

Another one I think would be a neat pick is a vampire squid. The main reason is that not only would the webbed tentacles make for a cool tail, they would also resemble both a lab coat and the signature Organization coat. This also have bright blue bioluminescence that kind of reminds me of how ice magic is represented in KH.

I’ve seen people in the past do Atlantica designs for him based on cold water seals and sea lions. My preferred pinniped pick would be a ribbon seal. They are a species of seal that live in arctic and sub-arctic areas that have mostly black fur broken up by large white stripes, hence the ribbon part of their name. This one is pretty much just because they’re arctic seals that have a really cool fur pattern. Sometimes you just have to go with something purely because it would look cool.

As said this one is less a proper analysis and more just speculation based in aspects of his character, but it was still fun to do. Feel free to chime in with your picks for this!

Day 1 <3 Day 3 <3 Day 4 <3 Day 5 <3 Day 6 <3

Day 7 <3 Bonus

[creature-song]

so I finished s2 of The Rig the other day, and really enjoyed it! mostly enjoyed it. thought it was good but could have been better.

spoilers below the cut

suspension of belief plays such a large part of enjoying the show tbh, and it falls apart when the physics does, which I know can be a bit of an absurd claim to make when the shows central premise is magic psychic extinction mold, but it does. I have agreed to pretend the magic mold is real, so the show doesn't need to convince me on the mold, I've agreed to the premise. what it does need to convince me on, is the science.

those billionaires taught us all that when your sub implodes, you get squashed into a fine mist, so the finding and retrieval of bodies from the bottom of the arctic ocean that aren't even a little bit squashed and still look exactly the same as they should at sea level breaks the immersion somewhat.

same with the second sub beginning to crack courtesy of the mold, that I'm choosing to believe in. but using the sonar should have destroyed the sub. if the glass is so damaged that any movement might break it, the vibrations from the sonar at max should have shattered it into a million tiny pieces and taken Cameron with it (speaking of Cameron. Easter is protected by the decompression chamber, so if the sub goes he might have a bit more time to be found. Cameron has a suit, it's right there, so why wasn't he wearing it?)

as for the antagonists. Coake and Bremner are cartoon villians. children's storybook evil, no motivation or character beyond Being A Bully and Evil, no depth and little to no reason given for their motivations, beyond the vague suggestion of potential money

imo though, the shows most egregious flaw was Rose and Fulmer surviving. the poison failing to kill the ancestors in any meaningful way defangs the entire last few episodes. had Rose not gone out there, the ancestor would have recovered anyway. what i was expecting, given that Rose and Fulmer were both infected, was that between them they would have enough ancestor to restart the colony (say nothing of whats in Askell's lab), requiring a sacrifice from the pair of them to restore the colony, giving meaning to both of them being infected, meaning to their big race to the heart, and meaning to the threat of the poison. but since the poison failed, there was none of that.

The Rigs big win for me is the characters. i loved the crew, new and old, their dynamics and who they are, and how they work together. I like how well Cameron and Askell meshed with the original crew and how the dynamics from s2 carried forward, and I loved Huttons development throughout the season, since he was character that really fell victim to cartoon villianisation in s1.

Frankly my opinion right from season 1 is that it never needed a season 2. 1 season ending with the tsunami (and no mysterious rescue by a powerful oil execs) would have landed better for me than a second season, I like the potential for ambiguity, I liked the message of the first season, and I especially liked how much the ancestor could manipulate it's environment, a skill that was entirely absent from s2.

all this to say. I really enjoyed it! I like the show! I like it's silly premise and the characters and the settings and because I liked it and thought it was good, I think it should have been Better

[24worldnewsnet]

Day a success, the Allies thought they might have to break through formidable German defences. One unconventional idea was a "giant firework" that would deliver a one-tonne bomb: the Panjandrum.After conquering much of Western Europe in the first few years of World War II, Nazi Germany then diverted a huge effort into protecting what it had invaded.Once the United States entered the war on the side of the Allies in late 1941, the threat of invasion from the sea went from a distinct possibility to certainty.To prevent it, hundreds of thousands of forced labourers – some of them Russian prisoners captured on the Eastern Front – were set to work. They built walls, tank traps and reinforced-concrete emplacements. The fortifications stretched around 5,000km (3,105 miles) from France's border with Spain all the way to the northern tip of Norway. Adolf Hitler called it the "Atlantic Wall", and there are still many traces of it, littering beaches from the Bay of Biscay to the sub-Arctic fjords. Allied military planners had many challenges to wrestle with during their long preparations for the liberation of Europe. Seizing a port made the most sense – it would be easier to get vital supplies to the troops on the beachhead by unloading ships more speedily on the docks. But the ports on the English Channel coast had been heavily fortified by German defenders.The 1942 raid on Dieppe showed that the German defences around Channel ports were too strong for beach landings (Credit: Alamy)A bold plan to temporarily take over one of these ports – Dieppe, in France – in August 1942 showed how difficult a port would be to capture. Thousands of mostly Canadian troops were killed or captured in a botched attempt to push through defences; supporting tanks became bogged down on loose shingle sand and the built-up surroundings gave the defenders plenty of cover from which to fire on the invading forces.Dieppe, it turned out, had the wrong kind of beach. The French coast had plenty of beaches firm enough to support tanks and other vehicles coming ashore, but these beaches would be overlooked by the Atlantic Wall defences the Germans were quickly building. How could they be breached, with the minimum loss to Allied soldiers? An eccentric idea was born… *** Nevil Shute Norway was an accomplished aeronautical engineer who had worked on one of Britain's most high-profile airship designs. The R100 airship had been designed by engineer Barnes Wallis – who would later invent the bouncing bomb of Dambusters fame – for engineering firm Vickers, with funding from the government. Norway later took over as chief engineer when Wallis left to work on other projects.The R100, intended for long-distance voyages across the British Empire, carried out successful publicity tours as far afield as Canada. It was developed alongside a similar airship designed and built by the UK's Air Ministry, called R101; this design was fatally flawed, and crashed with the loss of 48 lives in northern France while on its maiden flight. News of the crash flashed around the world, killing Britain's emerging airship industry for good, and Norway drifted into more conventional aircraft designs, including the highly successful Oxford trainer designed by his own aircraft company, Airspeed.When war broke out, Norway joined the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve, initially serving on naval ships. But his flair for engineering took him in a different direction: into the navy's secret department for experimental weapons.The Directorate of Miscellaneous Weapon Development was known informally as the "wheezers and dodgers". They drew bookish, lab-bound talent from the UK's universities and research institutes and challenged them to come up with new weapons that could be used in the war. No idea, however outlandish, was discouraged.One of the weapons the British armed forces needed was something that could be deployed from a ship and was powerful enough to breach the strong concrete sea wall now in place across much of Europe.

[bikerlovertexas]

[manda-kat]

Wanna hear about my dream?

Of course you do.

This dream was called PENGUIN WORLD. That's what I call it. Basically, at the arctic circle or some such place there is a portal to another world that is very cold and arctic-y but also with magic and megafauna. It is mostly penguins. In order to study this world, this organization funds a ship that is half lab to study Penguin World and half a cruise ship so that brave adventuring citizens can experience the World of Penguins.

The THING IS there is a reason this world was shut off. It emits an energy that, if people give into it, will transform them into denizens of this world, which usually means they become some form of arctic sea life, disappearing into the waves never to be seen again. So bringing tourists onto this boat was a bad idea.

The boat is huge and basically is a museum, showing off the artifacts that they've collected from the ice. And for the most part it's a fun trip. Until a giant orca, twice the size of the boat, attacks and causes massive damage to the ship which starts taking on a lot of water. Now about half of the boat is under water.

So in this crisis there are three groups.

One group is in the very bottom of the boat. They have been locked down there and it is slowly filling with water. This group includes a scientist who is tasked with studying the most secret of their findings, including two people found frozen in the ice. They were unfrozen and found to be alive. One looks like an elf and has a spellbook he can use to do all manner of things and the other is a frog woman who seems fine with the extreme cold. She doesn't talk, but the elf man seems to understand English somehow. The scientist is supposed to study them without letting them escape and he is pretty cruel and evil. But since he can't unlock the door, he releases them and gives the elf back his book. So they hate each other and have to work together to escape.

The next group was with the captain of the ship when the orca attacked. He really didn't want to leave the helm, but his crewmates convinced him that it would be fine to leave the ship with the first mate while he went with them to enjoy a party. The party was interrupted by the orca, and it was a mad dash as the ballroom flooded with water and everyone was separated. The captain led a small group to an escape sub, but after launching they discovered that the sub was damaged and they can't make it to land in time. They are stranded and taking on water. The captain is sort of like Dwight from the Office. He is not very socially aware and takes his job really seriously. His friends are a quiet man with glasses and a woman who likes seals. Seals are her personality because in order to save them she answered the call of Penguin World and became a selkie, basically, calling the seals together to push the submarine to safety. Also there are three teenage girls who's class won a trip on the ship. There's a rebel and her nerdy friend as well as a girl who bullies them. However, the two outcast girls bully her back just as bad. They all have to learn to look out for each other despite their hatred. After they escape, they hide in an ice cave, which ends up nearly crushing them and the nice guy with glasses saves the rebel girl, but ends up losing his arm because he refused to take the power that Penguin World offered him.

Last group is stuck in the helm which is one of the only safe spots. There are a few tourists and crewmates huddled in there. There's also a guy who's like the star in the movie. He's probably a hot marine biologist who was against the whole idea in the first place. There's also his love interest who is also a hot marine biologist. There's also a boy who is there with his parents who, when the orca takes a second pass at the ship, hears the call of the strange energy thing and decides he wants to fight the whale. He then transforms into literally the KRAKEN and starts beating up the whale. The hot biologist guy feels responsible for this and also gives in to the call to bring the kid back. It gives him a spellbook like the elf has and he can use that to communicate with beasts. He calls the kraken boy back and tells the Orca to leave them alone. The kid transforms back, but is still a giant squid monster on the inside, they just don't know it yet.

I am seriously considering finishing this off in my head to figure out what happens next.

[aemperatrix]

Keats Is Coughing

by Marianne Boruch

Everything is made of everything. — Leonardo da Vinci

I found Rome in the woods.

Fair to admit it’s mostly tundra to the west in the park, past Toklat the Denali I revised, low grasslands engineered to freeze deep by October — this being Alaska — the great

           Tabularium close to the Temple of            Castor and Pollux I rebuilt that same summer —             not superimposed, exact as any scheme

in secret — the Arch of Septimius Severus at the gravel bar        where fox drank from a river turned stream,           a Theater of Marcellus near               the ranger station where one raven,                                                                                    such a brat,   complained of                      my Circus Maximus, Trajan’s Column,                              my Baths of Diocletian, too many spots soaked in unpronounceable Latin.

                   I really did, I shouldered bits of it,      a ruin-hushed haunted business, my brain                                                         a truck bed, a lift, pulleys big as a whale’s heart, expletives of cheap wonder all over                                                                  my woodlot and expanse.                          One self-anoints to embellish day, years, life thus far, and think oneself so...    

                      Then busted — 

by a raven!

Well, that’s memory for you, that’s so-called        civilization for you, to layer up,                         to redo the already done.

I mean it’s a fact, the puny life span we’re allotted.              And proof — Denali in August, fireweed, spunky scrawny first Latinate — Erechtites hieracifolia — 

              giving off flowers to mark               what weeks left, little               time bomber, time traveler, ancient               slips red-flagging the countdown to winter               by climbing its own stalk.

Something perverse about that. Something perfectly fiendishly self-conscious about that.

•

From the start perverse, any premise.      Ask...We can’t know. To be compelled

           makes an occasion. Rome’s grand     past horrific, fire and ash, swamp into bog, lust              and bloodlust — 

The Alaska Range dreams lurid as Rome,                                        the worst way below being fire, summer snow at night      off the highest peaks by noon              as distant from our cabin as the size of a hand if I                         held up the one with                         an eye in the middle

to know how this works. Some have the power to raise from the dead a before, before scary and beautiful           back to mystery cults, in caves, rubble far under a Roman street, the altar to Mithras still slaying his bull, crumbling the stonework.

            All things being equal. But they’re not.                    Agony, it’s older.                      Ask the moose at Denali,                         the snowshoe hare, the lynx,

such a wily courtly lot.                                           Ask Ovid      banished to his hovel on the Black Sea, aching                for Rome’s exalted rude cacophony, each      exiled month a big thick X down

                                  Februarius,                                 Aprilis to home-shattered sick enough

for an undersong. Look it up! Undersong: a strain; a droning; the burden of a song —                                              Maybe that lowest common denominator is contagious. Rome or Denali, a mash-up of lunge and cry out, predator and prey throwing coins to a fountain, footholds made first by a hoof, pickpockets at buses and trains, nuns queuing up their no-nonsense, thorny brambles, raggedy spruce groves,                                           a look, a nod to sell loveless love on the street, a chain of mountains in choral repeat, saints stained to glass, how ice gouged rivers from rock-bound,                                 the one-lung rapturous common-sense Pope all outstretched arms, his little popemobile circling the thrilled at St. Peter’s up on our rickety chairs to see in six, seven languages how radiant —                             Cross my heart, he was. And Keats, Keats is coughing.

•

You find the fossil record everywhere. In woods, tundra, under streets, in cadaver labs.                                 Not those bright transparencies, wistful orderly page after page in biology, a lie, a kind of flip-book romance. It’s the one big mess of us in us, the generous extraordinary dead prove that, signing a paper, giving themselves away                                            to be cut, disembodied for the knowing it, sunk to their chemical depth in some afterlife, opened on a table by kids really,                                             belabored doctors-to-be, our shabby shared wilderness to untangle, bones   joints   arteries   valves,                                                         The Dissector in hand, weirdest how-to book on the planet. For Keats too, 1819, his scribbled roses and sunflowers in margins,                                                                  his training,                                                           his anatomy theatre, looking down and later: still London, then Rome (he who gets it,  body fails, second floor, beside the Spanish Steps).                                           Heart, not my heart anymore.                                     Forgive me. I’m worse than the hopelessly confused misnamed English sparrow, descendant of the great weaver birds of Africa, a finch that lost the gene

      for nest, how to beneath, to across so intricate, precise, bringing bringing sticks and hair and bits of shiny paper. Undersong: the burden of a song.                                                       Poor bird. Poor sweet muddled middle of it. I watched morning after morning, his offering...                                                                           It’s Keats who made claims about beauty and time. His bed at the last                        too low for the window, his must-have                                 tell me, what’s out there — 

I admit: a ridiculous layering, Rome in Denali. Just because? Because I went to both in short order? Two continents, an ocean apart. My mother loved hand-me-down expressions — never the twain shall meet. They do meet.                           To repeat: that’s civilization for you. Happenstance and right now drag along future and past                             and why the hell not the Denali, the Rome in any of us, no two states of being more unalike, worn-out compulsion to collect and harbor, piece together,                                                                    stupid into some remember machine.

  Such fabulous unthinkable inventions we’ve made to merge or unmake: the trash compactor,   the poem, all tragedy and story, pencils sharpened to

a point that keeps breaking, wilderness gone inward as

                  an ocean-going ship’s container,                         a Gatling gun,                                 the AR-15 of the seething deranged,                                         the H-bomb,                                             Roman legions to Canterbury to blood-up fields into legend then dig the first plumbing but

                                            how can you                                             be in two places at once                                             when you’re not anywhere at all!

       (Thank you, Firesign Theatre, brilliant wackos,              old vinyl on a turntable still in the game... )

                     Fine. Fuck it. Start over.

•

See the sheep on high ledges, the arctic squirrels below.

See the way Dante saw, sweeping his arm across Vasari’s great painting as Boccaccio looks off, the plague sealing city after city. Dante

in hell, steady-luminous     those fact-finding trips to service           his worldly Inferno.

Winter sleeps through. August at Denali, bears shovel it down       a razor-edged maw —                                                 twigs! berries! more stems! —  Fate hoards to prepare, sub-zeros, fattens into...   

See the park’s camper bus, 92 miles how most of us jolt and slow, crossing hours more daylight than night all summer, rattling tin can with its exhaust and hissing gravel, the fear landslide                  an undersong just-possible, how we zigzag a mountain. Look!

                 Nearing a bear, the young caribou abruptly                             hesitant, shy as a leaf — 

No! Don’t! Do not! That grizzly huge, bent to his ploy just                                                 these berries around here, his ignore ignore, sure, quiet-tense as a trigger, and we of                      fogged scratched windows so hard to open — 

stop! The bus stopped. Jesus. The thing curious, closer...                          They’re not

that smart anyhow, a stage-whispering drunk from the back      of our imperial realm, mile 62, the Park Road.

What did Venus decree in her temple up whichever narrow street in Rome, the Ancients’                             stink of slops, standing water,           a bear chained to a slave (out of slav, by the way,                             backdrop is horde, human spoils)

both shackled to a grindstone for                                                             a later mob and roar.

Here’s what we saw: the little caribou  in reverse wanders sideways and safe.                                             Our bus one big sigh or like a wheezing asthmatic the brakes unbrake.

Bad dream, bad dream, the undersong start to all fable if                        for real we’d seen that kill back to lions off their continent cornered, bloodied in the great amphitheaters, rearing up, a nail to hammer’s                                   bite and blow. The wilderness in us

is endless. Near the cabin, near evening, a warbler                               in the fireweed                                                    hawk saw or heard,                          his switchblade clicked to —                                                                         I was and I was                      whirling feathers, either bird —    Every hunger                            is first century. Forever-thus   feral cats at the Forum about to leap too.                                                        The Forum, last homage   I shoveled holes and rocks to   remake, mile 82, while the haymouse riddled the meadow   down deep, her catacombs.

•

Time + beauty = ruins. Perfect shapes in the mind       meet my friends Pointless and Threat and Years of       Failure to Meld or Put to Rest. Ruthless                                                                                 is human.

I ask a composer: How to live with this undersong thing                             over and over, how to

                                                                   get rid of it,                                                                        the world of it — 

 He looks at me. What undersong thing? And shrugs       I’ll put it on the test! Let students define it.

     So I dreamt such a test: Go there. To Rome.                    Half-doze against a wall                      two thousand years of

    flesh    sweat    insect wing ago, stone laid by hand, by a boy when a whip, a whip, a welling up, his will not speak.

   Have at it. Please explain. Please fill in this blank.

Grief punctures like ice, moves like a glacier   to flat and slog and myth, low blue and white flowers       we hiked trail-less. The rangers insist. They insist — 

      never follow or lead, never lay down a path.

                          ��                                            From above the look of us spread out, our seven or eight a band, little stray exhausted figures                                           as over the land bridge from Asia,

circa: prehistory keeps coming, older than Rome, both   both underfoot, understory, underway

        miles below numb, it’s burning.

•

To see at all, you time                                         and this time and time again.

The spirit leans intrigued, the other part bored, then there’s want,                                                                    then there’s wait.

Once a city began with a wolf whose two human pups would      build, would watch it fall, nursing                                              at her milk for centuries               in marble               in bronze.

         She stands there and cries of                                                               that pleasure, by turns a blood-chill. The tundra. At night.

A snake eats its own tail, forever at it on a fresco. A real snake                       leaves his skin near the gravel bar. Some words sting, some are sung. Another life isn’t smaller.

[sunmoonandeddie]

great! i love your writing and your blog <3 so i would adore a imagine where the reader is a werewolf that S.H.I.E.L.D protects cause her clan is the most powerful and then fury sends her to the stark tower to help defeat thanos. and then maybe steve falls in love with her even though they are very different (she is very badass and does everything to protects her clan) well that's it sorry if it was confused and because of my bad english :(

pairing: steve rogers x reader

word count: 2,656

summary: Steve can’t get a certain wolf out of his mind after the defeat of Thanos.

warnings: swearing

a/n: I’m so sorry this took so long!  I hope you enjoy, and let me know what you think!

Stevefrowned as he stared at the woman standing in front of him.  She seemed normal enough, from what he couldsee.

But thenagain, so did Bruce until he turned into the Hulk.

“I’msorry, what?��� Natasha said, her hands on her hips.  “Fury sent you here?”

Younodded, leaning against the frame of the doorway you were standing in.  “Before he got dusted.  Sent out an alarm.”

Carol wasstaring at her with a sort of appreciation that the others had yet tohave.  The blonde walked towards her,holding out her hand for her to shake. “You’re a lycanthrope.”

“Alycanthrope?  You mean a werewolf?” Tonyscoffed, rolling his eyes in disbelief.

But Thorjust ignored him, his eyes lighting up. “I thought your kind was extinct.”

“We werehunted for centuries, and we were almost wiped out.  But my kind is resilient.  We went underground until we learned how tohide in plain sight.”  A sad smile tuggedat your lips.  “My pack is the only oneleft.”

“How haveyou survived this long?” He asked.

“S.H.I.E.L.D.has been protecting us,” you said, feeling a burst of sadness at the loss ofyour dear friend, Nick Fury.  “Peggyfirst found out about our existence in 1968, when my grandfather was packleader.  The only person she ever toldabout us was Nick.”

“Whatfamily are you from?” Carol asked, her eyes wide and bright.  It wasn’t often that she was amazed, with howmany years she spent scouring the universe for people who needed help.  She didn’t even care that the others werewatching them like they had two heads.

You movedfurther into the room, sensing that even if the others didn’t quite accept you,Carol and Thor would make them see that they needed your help.  You were an expert in survival and inhunting.  If anyone could find Thanos, itwould be you.  “The Arctic family.”

Yourfamily had survived because you were descended from one of the most resilientsub species of wolf.  You could survive freezingcold temperatures and a long time without food. You were tough and mysterious and so many things that Steve Rogers wascurrently trying to understand.

Said maincrossed his arms over his chest, his baby blue eyes narrowed at you.  “How did you survive the Snap?”

You turnedyour gaze to him, becoming steely.  “Likeanyone else.  Luck.  We realized quickly that if we were in ourwolf form, we wouldn’t be affected.  TheStones regarded us as animals.”  Yougritted your teeth, your jaw tensing. “But we still lost many for how small our pack is.”

You hadlost your father, the leader of the pack, and your older brother, and had beenforced to become the alpha in their absence. Your brother was supposed to take over the title once your fatherpassed, not you.  While you had some ideaof what went into leading, you were mostly learning on the job, and it wasturning out to be much harder than you had expected.

“Sorryabout Rogers and the others,” Carol said, shooting a glare at the othercaptain.  “You’d think they’d be used topeople who are different by now.”

“Can wesee your wolf form?” Bruce asked curiously.

Ah, BruceBanner.  Fury had told you abouthim.  A man of intellect with a monsterwithin.  You could relate, though you’dbeen raised believing that the wolf within you was just as much a part of youas the human side.  You were one being,one soul.  You were taught that you coulddestroy but also create.

You cockedyour head to the side, regarding him for a moment.  “Only if I can see yours.”

Natasha,from where she was standing behind him, bristled, though he soothed her byplacing his hand on top of hers.  “It wasunfair of me to ask such a thing of you,” he relented.  “I’m just curious.”

“I’m sureyou are,” you said with a faint smile. “I don’t fault you for that.”

“If youdon’t mind me asking,” Steve said, coughing to clear his throat, “Why the hellwould Fury think you could help us?”

“Ifyou want to find Thanos, I’m your best bet.”

Steve bithis lip as he got off of his motorcycle, hitting the kickstand as he did.  It had been four months since the defeat ofThanos and the world was getting back to normal.

At least,as normal as it could be.

But therewas something that he couldn’t let go of. Or, rather, someone.  He had triedhis best, but he couldn’t get his mind off of you.  The way you spoke, the wisdom in your eyes.Everything about you drew him in like a moth to light.

As hestared up at the gates, he took in a deep breath.  He had managed to get your location from NickFury, even though the man had been hesitant. That is, until he had explained his reasoning, and then the man had justchuckled and shook his head, like he knew a secret that Steve didn’t.

It was alaugh he had heard from you many times, evidence of how the S.H.I.E.L.D. agenthad had at least a small hand in your upbringing.  Even if he’d just visited a few times a year,it had left an impact.

He pushedopen the gates, knowing that he was going to have to leave his bike there.  From what he’d learned from your time on theteam was that lycanthropes were extremely territorial.  It had only gotten worse when almost your entirekind had been wiped out.

He tookhis time to appreciate the walk up the long gravel driveway, reveling in thelate summer air.  There was a coolbreeze, a promise of the autumn to come.

Itreminded him of the first time he’d seen your wolf form.

“Have youseen Y/N?” Steve asked as he poked his head into the lab of the compound.  The building was so quiet with half the teamgone, and everyone could immediately feel it when one of them wasn’t home.

Tonydidn’t even glance up from where he was tinkering on a suit.  Something made of spandex that looked similarto Natasha’s suit but also not quite.  “Ithink she said something about going on a walk earlier.  Didn’t pay too much attention.”

“Thanks,Tony,” he said as he quickly left, already heading for the exit.  You’d been with the team for about twomonths, and summer was coming to a close. You’d fit in easy with the team. Almost too easy.  You’d also beena great help, even if they weren’t much farther than they had already been.

But anyprogress was good progress in Steve’s mind.

He walkedacross the huge field in front of the compound, finding tracks almost thesecond he got to the edge of the woods. So you’d changed once you reached the trees, out of view from thewindows of the compound.

Smart.

Stevecontinued on, following the tracks until he came to a river with a clearing onthe other side.  It was remarkablypeaceful, the water bubbling as it drifted by.

In momentslike this, it was easy to imagine that the Snap hadn’t happened.

The onlypossible plus side to the Snap was that the destruction of the Earth hadconsiderably slowed and almost stopped completely.

His eyesdrifted over the quiet scene, until he spotted it.  Or, more accurately, he spotted you.  A gorgeous white wolf was sprawled out on thebank, bathing in the warm sunlight drifting down through the trees.  The light almost seemed to make your whitefur shimmer.

Youlooked… ethereal.

His heartpounded in his chest, though he couldn’t tell you why.  But then again, he also wouldn’t be able totell you why he’d been searching for you if anyone happened to ask.  He couldn’t describe the feeling he gotaround you.  It was like…  It was warmth.  Understanding.  He didn’t feel as though the weight of theworld was on his shoulders when he was with you, because you understood.

Both ofyou had been handed a title that held too much weight and too young an age.

He hadlistened to your stories of your pack, your family, and though you hadn’t saidit explicitly, he had read between the lines. You hadn’t ever wanted to be the alpha. You were just supposed to live your life, maybe find a mate and havepups eventually.

He hadrealized rather quickly that you’d lost both your father and your brother inthe Snap, and had been the one to see it occur.  Steve also knew that you were most likely theone that had suggested turning into your wolf forms to see if it would preventyou from being affected, and it had worked. The rest of your pack was safe at home in the north.

He frozeas your head poked up, and those gorgeous eyes fixed on him.  Even in your wolf form, your eyes were thesame.  They were warm and inviting and god, Steve really needed to stop becausehe was sure you could hear his heartbeat from across the small river.

You got toyour feet, shaking out your coat, before swimming across the river andapproaching him.  He stood completelystill.  The only sign that he was alivewas the shallow rise and fall of his chest. When he didn’t do anything, you nudged your muzzle against his hand,prompting him to run his fingers gently down your neck and through your thickfur.  It was somehow soft as velvet andthick as a warm winter blanket.  Hereally had no idea how you weren’t dying in the late summer heat.

Thereseemed to be mirth in your eyes as you raised up on your hindquarters andrested your paws on his chest.  You wereeye level with him now as he rested his hands on your flank to keep you steady.

“Doyou…  Do you want me to sit?”  He asked slowly, raising his eyebrows.  The blond let out a laugh as you licked hischeek, getting slobber all over him. “Alright, alright.”

Afteryou got down, he sat on the grass and spread out his legs.  He felt his heart warm as you rested yourhead on his thigh, closing your eyes. His finger scratched gingerly behind your ears as he leaned back so hewas lying down, closing his eyes and drinking in the warmth of the sun.

As thelarge cabin came into view, Steve began to slow down.  He knew that by now, your pack could mostlikely smell him and would be swarming him at any second.  They’d come out with hackles raised andpossibly in their wolf form.

He came toa stop about a hundred yards out as arctic wolves began to appear.  They came through the trees, out the openfront door of the cabin, everywhere.  Heestimated there was about thirty in total as they began to circle around him.  They were all of different sizes, differentages and different ranks.

He searchedfor your familiar eyes, knowing that he’d be able to recognize you anywhere, butfroze as he heard a growl from the largest wolf.  He could easily discern him as your brother, theeventual alpha of the pack.  A much olderwolf was beside him, and he assumed that it was your father, the current alpha.  After the Snap had been reversed, you hadgladly given up your title back to the former leaders, preferring to go back tonormal.

Steve heldup his hands in surrender as your brother stalked towards him, e/c eyesnarrowed and haunches raised.

But a flashof white up along the tree line caught his attention.  He’d recognize your form anywhere, and hefelt relief course through him as your lithe form bounded towards the group.

However,your brother whirled around and bared his teeth at you.  It had never occurred to the blond how much smalleryou would be than him, but you seemed tiny as he towered over you.  But you simply stood your ground, a low whineemanating from the back of your throat.

Yourbrother hesitated, but he stepped back, allowing you past him.  The others followed his lead and didn’t comeany closer to him.

But allSteve cared about was the fact that you were here and you were standing infront of him.  The gorgeous eyes that staredup at him were the same ones he had fallen in love with.  He sensed it before he saw it, the shift.  He sensed the ripple underneath your fur andwithin seconds, your human form was standing in front of him.

“Steve?” Yousaid, taking a step towards him.  Your hairwas a tousled mess, leaves caught in the h/c tresses.

Herealized with a sense of pride that you were wearing the clothing Tony haddesigned for the pack.  It worked kind oflike his suit, in that it could grow around him when he needed it to.  It all came from a tiny circle that was stuckon your sternum that could be taken off and put back on at will.  He knew that he’d created enough for thepack, so that they wouldn’t have to worry about destroying their clothes anytimethey shifted and end up naked when they shifted back.

“What are youdoing here?” You asked, drawing your bottom lip in between your teeth.  There was a glimmer of hope in your eyes asyou stared up at him.  Your heart waspounding against your chest.  You hadfallen for him, hard, back when you were a part of the team.  It had taken time and it had scared the hellout of you.  After all, what man wouldchoose to be with you?  You hadn’t evenbeen able to tell a man what you were until the Avengers came along.  You had expected him to be weird about your…furry side, but Steve had just taken it in stride.  He never treated you any differently, and hadeven wanted to spend time with you when you were in wolf form and not justhuman form.

The supersoldier walked towards you, his hand reaching out to grasp yours.  “I can’t get you out of my head, Y/N,” hesaid, his voice barely audible as he stared at you with an intensity that madeyou shiver.  “You’re the first thing Ithink of when I wake up and the last thing when I fall asleep.  You… You are driving me crazy.”

“What doyou mean?” You asked, your heart catching in your throat.

“I’m inlove with you,” he said, his hand reaching up to gently push your hairback.  “I’m in love with every part ofyou, Y/N.”

“Steve—”

“And I willdo anything for you,” he said, thinking you were about to reject him.  “If you want to stay here with your pack, I’llstay with you.  If you want to move intothe compound with me, that’s fine, too. I just…”  He pressed a soft kissto the hand he was holding.  “I need youin my life.”

Without asecond thought, you stood up on your tiptoes and pulled him down for a kiss,your lips catching with his.  It was softand tender and perfect.  Your arms wrapped around his neck as hismoved around your waist, pulling you as close to him as possible.  “I’m in love with you, too, Steve Rogers,”you whispered.

A breathylaugh fell from his lips as he pressed his forehead to yours.  “Mind introducing me to your pack so they canstop looking at me like I’m a piece of meat?”

[oupacademic]

April 22nd is Earth Day.

The health-related impacts of climate change have been considered a “creeping catastrophe”; “a threat to our biological health and survival.” Indigenous populations—including those from as wide ranging areas as Arctic Canada, the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest of Uganda, and the Amazonian regions of Peru—are being disproportionately affected given their low contribution rates to the global problem.

Climate change poses a significant risk to indigenous peoples’ food systems, but it also has a profound impact on their mental health and wellness. Landscapes altered or degraded by climate change have measureable consequences for indigenous populations—depression, distress, anger, anxiety, fear, and loss of solace and sense of belonging.

Image credits (left-to-right):

Photos of Arctic Canada and Sub-Arctic Communities, food and people: David Barbour, Sherilee Harper, My Word Digital Media and Storytelling Lab

Photos of Bwindi Impenetrable forest, agricultural fields alongside the forest, food, and Batwa People in Uganda: James Ford, Will Vanderbilt, Will Vanderbilt, Sherilee Harper, and Sherrilee Harper

Photos of the Amazonian landscape, river, food, and Shawi in Peru—Mya Sherman, Irene Hofmeijer, and Mya ShermanSikes@smartbrief.com 

[the-british-pineapple]

I wrote a thing and it be ok kinda.

In one of my units for my course we were given a mock year 9 exam and instead of having the hour to write we just had 20 minutes. i kinda liked what I created, seeing as I made it in a short space of time and it turned out ok. So anyway we had a picture prompt which was this and had to write a creative writing piece using this image as the prompt.

I did do some light editing of what I wrote in class but it’s pretty much the exact same. It’s 862 words so it isnt a hefty piece obvs but yeah. Here ya go

Also if someone felt like drawing any of this I would not object

Time travelling penguins from the future? More likely than you’d think. In the future penguins have surpassed the humans as the superior race, they have advanced in technologies never before seen by man. This particular story stars a young penguin named Clive. Clive has one mission in mind, he needs to save the world from the nuclear apocalypse.

The year is 2101, Clive is in his Antarctic science lab along with his trusty and not-so-intelligent assistant Otis. Clive is rapidly smacking away at a keyboard with his flippers.

“I’ve done it!” Honks Clive. He turns to Otis who is busying himself with a Rubix cube.

“And so have I!” Otis yells triumphantly, holding up a very incomplete Rubix cube. Clive sighs.

“No you fool, I have finally mastered the space-time continuum. We can now prevent the apocalypse that ravaged this world.”

“Ok that’s cool and all but I also solved this Rubix cube.” Otis says matter-of-factly gesturing wildly with a flipper at a still incomplete Rubix cube.

“Otis… It’s incomplete.” Clive says with a defeated tone.

“Oh…yeah I forgot. I’m colour blind.” Otis shrugs. He tosses the Rubix cube into the bin.

“Look, forget that Otis. Grab my suitcase, it’s time to go and save the world.”

 After 20 exhausting minutes of Otis trying to find the suitcase the two penguins step into the time machine. Clive flips several switches and Otis stares blankly at a wall, this is then immediately followed by 3 minutes of ear-splitting screeching and gut churning shaking. The time machine eventually powers down.

“We made it!” Honks Clive in excitement. He steps out of the time machine onto the frozen tundra.

“Why does it look like home?” Otis questions.

“Well my simple friend, this is the Arctic.”

“And that’s not where we live?”

“No, we live in the Antarctic.”

“But isn’t that what you just said?”

“Otis I need you to listen to me otherwise I will actually kill you. We live in the Antarctic and we have teleported and gone back in time and arrived at the Arctic. Do you understand me?” Clive says waving his flipper in front of Otis’ vacant face. Otis snaps out of his trance.

“Oh no sorry. I was too focused on the giant polar bear sleeping over there.” He says gesturing vaguely with his imprecise flipper.

“Fantastic. This is exactly what we need. Let me tell you why we are here Otis. After extensive researching and some questionable financial decisions, I have managed to track the cause of the apocalypse to a man located less than one mile from where we stand. He works in a Russian military base and one night he got too drunk and ‘accidentally’ fired nukes straight at America, who of course retaliated and fired right back and sub sequentially plunged the world into an apocalypse. Did you get all that?”

“Nah, I got distracted. the bear moved and it looks so cute right now.” Otis replies in a child-like state.

“Never mind then. But the bear is the exact reason why we are here. If we can startle this bear I have predicted to a 99% probability that the bear will run toward the nearest town and eat the man responsible for firing the nukes.”

“Not to be a party pooper but can’t we just kill him with a gun or something instead of creating this convoluted plan that will definitely back fire in the worst possible way?” Says Otis without breaking face.

“Look at these flippers. I can’t hold a gun.” Says Clive waving around his very non-dexterous flippers.

“Fair point.”

“Okay Otis, fetch me the comically large cymbals from my suitcase.” Clive orders. Otis follows his orders and reaches into the suitcase and produces two comically large cymbals. Clive grabs them from Otis and waddles as stealthily as a penguin with two comically large cymbals can towards the slumbering polar bear. Clive brought his flippers as wide as he possibly could and then brought together with a deafening clash. The mighty bear leaps from its sleep, enraged after just being awoken suddenly. The bear’s head whips around to see a tiny penguin holding two comically large cymbals and with zero hesitation eats the penguin with a single chomp. The two comically large cymbals fall the ground sounding an eerie crash. Otis watches as the bear licks his lips wiping away the remains of his friend, he turns to run but his small penguin feet are no match for the bear’s monstrous legs. The bear leaps onto Otis like lightning and gobbles him up just as quick. The penguins are no more. The bear now satisfied with his meal returns to his slumber.

Unfortunately, this tragic tale does not end there. Clive in his desperate attempts to end a war that had not yet begun instead started it. His comically large cymbals were intended for the audience of one very sleepy bear, however sound travels very well across the Tundra and one Russian man hundreds metres away heard the noise and, in his panic, accidentally sent some nukes hurtling towards America. Clive started the war he had worked his entire life to prevent. Whoops.

[franklins-leg]

Could Hickey be a shrike? Or some other small and vicious bird

YES! Unfortunately shrikes don’t tend to go as far north as KWI, but as they are indeed smol birds that IMPALE THEIR PREY ON THORNS, I think we can declare Hickey a shrike. 

One fun fact from AllAboutBirds.com (the Cornell Lab of Ornithology site): 

“The Northern Shrike, like other shrikes, kills more prey, if it can, than it can immediately eat or feed to nestlings. Such behavior was characterized by early observers as “wanton killing,” but the Northern Shrike stores excess prey to eat later. Storing food is an adaptation for surviving periods of food scarcity”

Here is a Northern Shrike from sub-Arctic Canada:

[sigmadecay]

I'm asking about the sl-1 reactor explosion...

Hi, sorry this took me forever!! Thank you!!!

[DEEP BREATH]

In the mid 1950’s, the US military began to explore potential options for relatively self-contained nuclear reactors in order to power jets & submarines and shit. They set up a small nuclear reactor in a lab in Idaho Falls, Idaho called SL-1. While this reactor was part of a larger reactor building, I can’t stress enough how it was not a normal reactor building like you’re probably thinking of.

The nuclear reactor itself was embedded into the ground and, I believe, maybe ~5 feet across and 10ish feet deep? If you’re going “whoa, Jesus, that’s small” you’re fucking right! It’s tiny! It’s also terribly designed!!!

The US Navy had already successfully built a working nuclear sub, and the Air Force and Army were trying to catch up. SL-1 was on an army base, because they wanted to design small, low-power reactors for use in remote arctic army bases. This would offer a better vantage point to stave off the Soviets, should that problem ever arise, and it would allow the base to run for up to a few years without needing to shuttle fuel in.

The type of reactor the Navy built was a pressurized water reactor (PWR). These are generally safer—water is used as a coolant, but it never actually touches the fuel channels. This achieves two things: the steam that the reactor produces never actually becomes radioactive, which would be very dangerous in the event of a steam pipe bursting, and it keeps the reactor coated with water at all times for use as a coolant. These are good reactors, but they require a lot of space, setup, and money, and for those reasons, the army opted not to do that.

Instead, SL-1 was a boiling water reactor. This is not inherently a death sentence or anything, and I’m not trying to make it sound that way. They’re still perfectly functional reactors, and the one-two combo of using water as a moderator AND coolant is very efficient. PWRs just have some advantages and most of the world’s current nuclear reactors are PWRs. (Thanks, Admiral Rickover!)

I would say the biggest issue here was the control rods. Control rods are pretty much what they sound like—rods, inserted into the reactor, that control the speed of the reaction. When radioactive material decays via fission, the large, unstable atoms break off into smaller atoms until they become more stable, essentially. Usually, this produces neutrons in the process. When neutrons shoot off a decaying atom, they are going too fast to meaningfully connect with another atom. (Think of shooting a gun and trying to lure the bullet in with a magnet.) Nuclear reactors rely on this reaction to happen, so you need a moderator. The moderator in BWRs is water. It keeps the reaction cool at the same time as it boils into steam, but water also slows the fast neutrons down. This way, when they come out of the water, they’re moving slowly enough that they can hit other atoms, which also shoot off neutrons, and so on.

Control rods are another moderator in a reactor, and perhaps the most important one. They’re made of a material that absorbs neutrons, so that if the rods are all the way in the reaction is stopped, and if they are all the way out you have a runaway reaction. If unchecked, this reaction would accelerate until you have a meltdown. SL-1 had only 5 control rods, arranged in a + formation, and the one in the middle had the highest neutron-absorbing power.

On January 3rd, 1961, the three plant operators came back. The plant had been shut down for about eleven days over Christmas-New Years holiday, and had to be manually restarted. The way to restart the SL-1 reactor is simple and easy! All you have to do is have one of the engineers grab the middle control rod and manually pull it up until it can be attached to an automatic hookup.

Yes, you read that correctly. The most powerful control rod in the reactor, the one essentially single-handedly keeping the reaction from running away, had to be manually lifted and hooked up. As I’m sure you can imagine, there was only a margin of error of a few inches.

There were a couple complications to this: the limit never to be exceeded was said to be four inches, but it was likely much lower. The reactor had been “padded” with “poison”—boron strips stuck on with tack. These were supposed to slow reactivity, to keep the margin of error reasonable. But it wasn’t long until this boron started flaking off and settling in the bottom of the reactor. Which caused two very big problems.

1. The boron settling into the bottom of the reactor, and by extension away from the fuel channels, caused the reactivity of the reactor to increase. It was not being kept in check to the degree they thought it was.

2. The flaking boron clogged up the control rod channels and caused the control rods to stick.

The five control rods stuck a total of 63 times before this accident. The middle one, control rod 5, which essentially controlled the reaction single-handedly, stuck 7 times. There were multiple instances in which “scramming” the reactor (engaging the scram allows all five control rods to fall into the reactor fully, stopping the reaction) did not work, and the rods had to be pushed in with a drive motor. By all accounts, this was an accident waiting to happen.

Well. The margin was exceeded. The reactor went supercritical instantly and vaporized all the surrounding water being used as a coolant, which triggered a steam explosion. This explosion actually shot the reactor out of the ground by about nine feet and killed two of the three engineers instantly. One of them was harpooned to the ceiling after having been impaled by the large control rod shield plug (Richard Legg), and the other was killed by the explosion (Jack Byrnes). The third, who was slightly further away, did not die immediately, but did succumb to his injuries after a few hours (Richard McKinley).

When you look up things about this explosion, you will almost certainly hear of two nuclear engineers, Byrnes and Legg, who did not get along with one another, who had turbulent home lives, and specifically that Byrnes had just received a call that his wife wanted a divorce. You will come out of it with the distinct impression that this was at the very least the careless action of a troubled man, and at most an intentional murder-suicide.

Do not be mistaken. The United States Army has favored that telling for decades. It is much easier to shift the blame off your own shoulders if you can point to the isolated actions of a madman.

But the facts are these: the men working in that plant had no idea what would happen if they exceeded that arbitrary 4-inch limit on the control rod. They had been told that the reactor they were working on was inherently safe. The reactor was poorly designed from the beginning and even more dismally maintained. To be completely clear: this was a disaster waiting to happen. It was only a matter of time.

[aion-rsa]

We Are Venom: The Many Characters Who Wore the Symbiote

https://ift.tt/2Q0XXtP

From Spider-Man and Eddie Brock to Groot and Sub-Mariner 2099, the Venom costume certainly gets around.

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Feature Gavin Jasper

venom

Sep 24, 2018

Spider-Man

Marvel

It’s fitting that the Venom costume is a liquid entity because the creature and the Venom identity have been used for all sorts of different roles. Spider-Man’s edgy new costume, Evil Spider-Man, violent antihero, corrupt government soldier, rogue government agent, space knight, and so on.

With the big Venom movie coming up, let’s look at all the different heroes and villains that have worn the spidery blob. I’ve split it into three different types. We have the main hosts, such as Spider-Man and anyone who was treated as actual Venom in the mainstream books. Then there are the others, who wore the costume in continuity, but are considered more like footnotes. Lastly, it’s the ones that happened in alternate realities.

SPIDER-MAN (PETER PARKER)

Back in the '80s, Marvel had their big Secret Wars event, created to sell toys and ultimately shaping how Big Two comics would be designed for decades to come. In an attempt to give the story extra importance, they used it as an excuse to change up Spider-Man’s costume into a black and white ensemble with some cool extras like unlimited webbing that came out of the back of his hands instead of the wrists.

Fighting it out on Battleworld, Spider-Man’s red and blue costume got shredded up and he found what he thought to be a machine that stitches new outfits. What he unknowingly got was an alien parasite kept in a prison. It jumped onto him and took to him, wanting to live in a symbiotic relationship.

While later versions of the story – especially in different media – would focus on how it made Spider-Man more aggressive, the big deal was more that it was controlling his body in his sleep and the very idea of it being alive freaked Peter out something fierce. Spider-Man rid himself of the creature, only to be antagonized by it for years.

further reading: The Many Spider-Men of the Spider-Verse

In main continuity, he became the host for Venom during the time when Peter’s body had the mind of Doc Ock. That led to a cool take where he had goo-based octopus tentacles coming out of him. He also had Eddie Brock loan him the symbiote at the end of Dan Slott's Amazing Spider-Man run in order to combat the Carnage-clad Green Goblin. Out of continuity, he became the host in one of the early Spider-Girl issues and in a disturbing What If storyline where it took over Peter’s cocooned body from The Other and transformed him into "Poison."

EDDIE BROCK

When people think of Venom, they mainly think of Eddie and the movie will solidify that more than ever. A journalist, Eddie Brock’s life took a bad turn when he misreported on a masked murderer named the Sin-Eater and got the identity wrong. Acting like the antithesis of Peter Parker, he shifted the responsibility and blamed this tragic mistake on Spider-Man rather than himself or the unfairness of the world. When praying for forgiveness for considering suicide while at a church, Spider-Man’s discarded symbiote jumped onto him.

From there, the two brought out the worst in each other and fueled their mutual hate-on for Spider-Man. Venom became Spider-Man’s cool, new, popular villain for several years, constantly stalking him in his personal life. Then for a time he got over his flawed axe-to-grind and moved to San Francisco to become a murderous vigilante.

Venom’s time as Lethal Protector lasted five years and had a big collection of miniseries that was secretly a sixty-issue ongoing (restarting at #1 whenever a new arc started). As an antihero, Venom was essentially a less-competent Punisher. A monster using his vigilante status to justify his bloodlust, all while seeing himself as Adam West Batman.

Further reading: A Beginner's Guide to Venom Comics Reading Order

Brock went back to being a thorn in Spider-Man’s side, but not for long, as he simply stopped showing up in comics for years. When he did come back, it was for the sake of passing the torch to the next host.

Since then, Eddie’s been given a new lease on life as Anti-Venom and later Toxin. Neither identity lasted too long and he eventually rubber-banded back to being Venom.

PATRICIA ROBERTSON

Ugh. This catastrophe.

In the early 2000s, Marvel was doing their Tsunami imprint and one of the books to come out of it was an eighteen-issue Venom ongoing by Daniel Way. It had incredibly little to do with Eddie Brock and instead was a rather mean-spirited mess of a series that didn’t get referenced again for about fifteen years.

Here’s the gist of the plot and I swear I’m not making any of this up: the biblical story of Noah’s Ark was inspired by a bunch of nanites from space coming down and plotting to wipe out all of humanity. The nanites decided at the last second not to and left, but a handful of them stuck around and didn’t get the memo. So they spent centuries laying low in the form of a man with a bushy mustache, biding their time. Their master plan was to wait for an alien symbiote to be loose on Earth and then use it to cause the apocalypse. Somehow.

In a fight with the Fantastic Four, Venom lost his tongue. A random dude found it and tried to sell it on eBay, but it was immediately stolen away by shadowy government people led by the bushy mustache nanites man. The tongue was used to clone the Venom costume and it was let loose in an arctic lab in a blatant ripoff of John Carpenter’s The Thing. Army lieutenant Patricia Robertson survived the massacre thanks to the help of The Suit, an Agent Smith knockoff with a weaponized smartphone.

He is also made of nanites.

Patricia ultimately became the host for the Venom clone and got jerked around and shit on far more than your average superhero character with absolute zero catharsis. This all led to an abrupt ending where Eddie Brock’s Venom symbiote merged with Patricia’s and the evil nanite man was all, “Heh heh. All according to plan.”

Further reading: 15 Craziest Venom Moments in Marvel History

He was never mentioned again, nor was Patricia. We didn’t see if she died, escaped, or what.

ANGELO FORTUNATO

Angelo did not last long at all, but he came with enough fanfare that he was sort of a big deal, mainly because of the Mark Millar/Frank Cho creative team behind him. Eddie Brock was slowly dying of cancer and decided he just wanted to end it all. Knowing that the symbiote would just find another host, he decided to use that as a final act of goodness by auctioning it off to the criminal underworld and giving that money to charity.

Angelo Fortunato was the lacking son of a high-ranking mobster. The idea was that the symbiote would make a man out of him and he liked the idea because it meant girls would write fanfiction about him.

...Mark Millar wrote this, remember.

As the new Venom, Angelo went after Spider-Man and did pretty well for himself, but the moment Spider-Man was able to get an advantage, Angelo folded and tried to escape. The symbiote – disgusted with his cowardice – removed itself from his body and sought out a new host.

Further reading: Venom, Riot, and the Life Foundation Symbiotes Explained

Angelo was in mid-swing during that decision. He...ummm...he did not survive.

MAC GARGAN

Gargan spent many years as the Scorpion and during the Marvel Knights Spider-Man storyline that introduced Angelo Fortunato, Gargan reappeared as finally free of his green armor. Acting as a henchman for Norman Osborn, he had a non-violent confrontation with Spider-Man and was apparently going to be refitted with a new, better Scorpion suit.

Instead, the Venom symbiote found him. Gargan gladly became the new host, much to Osborn’s initial chagrin. As time would show, Venom would be Osborn’s go-to goon and would serve him as both a Thunderbolt and a Dark Avenger.

In a time when Carnage was believed to be dead and Eddie Brock had his own thing going on, it made sense to have Gargan as a brutal, purely evil Venom with no shades of gray. While a bit of an afterthought in Dark Avengers, he did have his own miniseries called Sinister Spider-Man that was absolutely brilliant and featured having a tiny dog thrown into his eye via Bullseye.

With the end of Dark Reign and Osborn’s time in power, the government decided to just remove the alien costume and figure it out from there. Mac Gargan went back to being the Scorpion and nobody’s cared about him since.

EUGENE “FLASH” THOMPSON

Formerly Peter Parker’s high school bully and later his rehabilitated friend, Flash Thompson was reintroduced with a story that showed him as a soldier losing his legs in Iraq. The government decided to make him the new host for Venom, though with enough precautions. He could only wear the symbiote for 24 hours before being separated. As Agent Venom, he did the government’s dirty work while keeping it a secret from loved ones.

As this new Venom starred in his first of two ongoings, they played up his own addiction to Venom’s powers (namely the power to walk) and how it related to his preexisting alcoholism. This is something only vaguely touched in the Brock days, since most times he was separated from the creature and was forced to rebond, he treated it like a recovering addict having alcohol poured down his throat against his will.

Flash’s initial status quo didn’t last too long and he became a fugitive from the law for a bit. By working alongside Captain America and earning Cap’s trust, he ended up getting a spot on the Secret Avengers. Shortly after, he joined the Thunderbolts until Cap asked him to join up with the Guardians of the Galaxy.

When on Earth, Flash kept the symbiote in check via drugs and appealing to its nature, but in space, the costume became more erratic. Turns out it just needed to go back to its home planet and Bendis wrote a big pile of retcon about how the symbiotes are called Klyntar and they’re actually quite peaceful, but sometimes they need to be recalibrated. The symbiote got cleansed, lost all memories of most of its hosts, became docile, and started looking like something out of Ben 10. Afterwards, Flash started having solo space adventures as the Agent of the Cosmos.

His second ongoing just ended with him back on Earth, where the two ended up splitting up. Flash has moved on and found a new identity as Agent Anti-Venom.

LEE PRICE

When the symbiote was separated from Flash Thompson, it was hungry, weak, and desperate for a new host. It wanted to do heroic things for the good of humanity, so of course it ended up getting stuck with a man who wanted none of that. Lee Price was a former army ranger with intent to not only be part of the criminal underworld, but to one day run it. Bending the symbiote to his will, he made plans to climb up the ladder and gradually take over New York City.

This Venom seemed short-lived at first as his brand new series was more of a means to reunite Eddie Brock and the symbiote. Lee was put in prison for a stretch until being let off on a technicality. He and his gang captured the Venom sidekick Mania and stole her costume. Lee Price became Maniac and made another go at ruling the world of crime. Even though this led to him having a "final form" of being a giant version of Venom, he was still taken down by the team of Spider-Man, Agent Anti-Venom, Venom, and Black Cat.

SHE-VENOM (ANN WEYING)

Ann was Eddie Brock’s ex-wife. We never got to know too much about their married life, but Ann always held a candle for Eddie and hoped he’d get well. As a lawyer, she became the target of a new Sin-Eater, who put her in critical condition. Venom rescued his ex and took her to his sewer hideout, but her internal damage was too much and she was moments from death.

Eddie coaxed the symbiote into bonding with Ann and healing her. While that was happening, a couple of scavengers broke in and beat down Eddie. Ann, in the form of the voluptuous She-Venom, horrifically tore the two interlopers to pieces. It’s suggested that she was a more violent host than even Eddie. When she split from the alien, she was disgusted by her actions and blamed her ex-husband for putting her in that position.

Ann donned the costume once more and her experiences as the host drove her to madness. She became a total shut-in and Eddie’s intent to patch things up (along with seeing Spider-Man swing by the window in his black threads) caused her to go over the edge and she killed herself.

SCARLET SPIDER (BEN REILLY)

Spider-Man was briefly able to talk some sense into Eddie and convinced him that maybe the symbiote was clouding his judgment. Eddie figured the least he could do was spend some time separated from the costume and told it to get lost. The symbiote let out a sonic howl of loneliness, which accidentally alerted the rest of its race that it was on Earth.

This was many years before Bendis’ take on the whole Klyntar race being good, so instead we got a big symbiote invasion in New York. Coincidentally, Bendis would also write a symbiote invasion in New York storyline that ignored this.

Spider-Man, Scarlet Spider, and Eddie Brock worked together and Scarlet Spider appeared to have a seventh sense about what was going on. They later discovered that although it hadn’t fully bonded to him, the symbiote was posing as his sweatshirt and was feeding him info. Eddie reluctantly recombined with the symbiote and the three went and fought off the invasion.

WOLVERINE (JAMES HOWLETT)

Yeah, so back to that Daniel Way story about the nanites and the Venom clone. After the Thing storyline, the Venom clone was loose in Canada and Wolverine happened to be hanging out there because, you know, Wolverine is everywhere. The whole storyline was peak Wolverine bullshit, since Wolverine had a nuke dropped on him and all it did was knock his shirt off. Then The Suit zapped him and put his super-powered cell phone into Wolverine’s chest cavity.

On the hunt for Venom, Wolverine was ambushed by the costume and was overwhelmed. It took him over with no problem and found itself the perfect host, considering Wolverine’s healing factor and never-ending adrenaline. WolVenom attacked Patricia Robertson, but then The Suit’s cell blasted it from inside Wolverine’s body, causing the costume to evacuate and ultimately attach to Robertson.

Wolverine grumbled, “Can you hear me now?” because we all have to suffer sometimes.

MS. MARVEL (CAROL DANVERS)

Brian Reed really, really wanted to make Peter Parker + Carol Danvers a thing. Just him. When Siege was going on, there was a collection of one-shots about stuff going on during the penultimate battle before the Void became the final endboss. One of these stories, written by Reed, had Spider-Man and Ms. Marvel take on Mac Gargan Venom.

Ms. Marvel beat him fairly easily and simply tore Gargan from the symbiote like she was pulling someone’s towel off. The symbiote then simply attached itself to Carol and took over her mind. What we got was a flying Venom with fiery Kirby dots exploding out her head. Spider-Man fought his possessed friend and freed Carol via kicking her into some power lines.

The symbiote then went back to Gargan and the big battle continued.

RED HULK (THADDEUS ROSS)

Remember the New Fantastic Four? That thing where Spider-Man, Wolverine, Hulk, and Ghost Rider briefly replaced the actual Fantastic Four as some kind of preemptively meta look at how Marvel teams would work in the future? During Rick Remender’s Venom run, they did a storyline called Circle of Four that gave us what was essentially the Dark New Fantastic Four. We had Flash Thompson Venom, X-23, Red Hulk, and that crappy female Ghost Rider that nobody cares about.

They ended up teaming together to fight Blackheart, who at one point fought them with the Bizarro Dark New Fantastic Four. Comics rule.

After our heroes were taken out by Blackheart’s forces, they were brought back by Mephisto. In order to hit Blackheart with everything they had, they went with the most ridiculously awesome idea ever by having Red Hulk possessed by both the Spirit of Vengeance and the Venom symbiote. Too bad there was no easy way to give him Wolverine claws, but such is life.

The pure brute force alone didn’t stop Blackheart, but they ultimately beat him and saved the world. Red Hulk’s upgrades were returned back to their proper hosts and they all went their separate ways. The problem, noticed only by Daimon Hellstrom, was that all four heroes were marked by Mephisto’s demonic magic.

Which brings us to...

MANIA (ANDI BENTON)

Before his space adventures, Flash moved out of New York City and went to Philadelphia, where he became a high school gym coach. Andrea Benton was both a neighbor and a student with a chip on her shoulder. She was also quickly aware that Flash was secretly Venom.

Venom’s arch-nemesis Jack O’Lantern appeared at Flash’s apartment complex to cause trouble and murdered Andi’s father. Venom attempted to protect her from noxious gas, but the symbiote did more than that. It split itself and bonded with her. As Mania, she became Venom’s angry, teenage sidekick.

Flash later discovered that there was a reason why the symbiote split itself. In order to appease Flash, the symbiote figured it would spit the clone symbiote (from the Patricia Robertson series) back out and onto Andi. The clone symbiote was carrying the mark of Mephisto, meaning it was no longer Venom’s problem. Flash didn’t see it like that.

Venom and Mania remained a team and they even discovered that one of the silver linings was Mania had control over demons. When Venom went to space, Mania gradually lost control. Venom was able to bring her back to her senses and promised he’d find a way to cure her. Eventually, Lee Price stole the symbiote from her and became Maniac. Regardless, Andi retained her demon powers and currently uses them to help keep the peace in Philly.

US AGENT (JOHN WALKER)

Ooooookay. This one is a little weird.

In the beginning of Jeff Parker Thunderbolts run (which eventually became Dark Avengers), US Agent took some serious body damage. He lost both an arm and a leg during the Siege tie-in. Afterwards, he became this badass prison warden who could mess up a room full of prisoners regardless of how much biology he was missing.

During the final arc, US Agent and the Dark Avengers crew were stuck in a rewritten Earth where New York City was split apart by a dystopian superhero gang war. In this world, Hank Pym had been experimenting on the Venom symbiote and effectively lobotomized it. Dark Avengers member and Scarlet Witch stand-in Toxie Doxie used Venom to attach itself to US Agent and grow back his missing limbs, returning him to the status quo.

DEADPOOL (WADE WILSON)

The Deadpool/Venom connection has been done a few times. The first was a comedic series of backup stories in What If comics that showed a reality where Deadpool became the host for Venom. It gave him an evil jheri curl and became a commentary for event comics and...man, it was out there.

In a somewhat more canon appearance, Deadpool’s Secret Secret Wars revealed that Wade was actually there for the initial '80s event and everyone forgot about it due to a reality-altering wish from an emotional and heartbroken Wasp. One moment showed that prior to Spider-Man stumbling upon the alien costume, Deadpool tried it on first. It was a brief melding as the Klyntar couldn’t handle Deadpool’s mind. The suggestion was that he probably warped the symbiote’s personality before anyone else.

Cullen Bunn has revisted the idea of Venompool a few more times. Back in Black showed that in-between Peter Parker and Eddie Brock, the symbiote did join Wade again for a short while to help him fight with and against 80s staple characters. They split up due to their disagreements with whether or not to kill Spider-Man and it was revealed that Deadpool convinced Eddie Brock to visit the fateful church in the first place.

Otherwise, the connection was brought up in Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe Again, which was secretly part of Old Man Logan continuity. In it, Deadpool killed Eddie Brock, reunited with the symbiote, devoured Spider-Man, and then told the creature to go away. There was also a Venompool in the Venomverse storyline. Although he was infected by a Poison creature (more on that later), he retained his mind and sacrificed himself to stop the bad guys.

GROOT

As mentioned earlier, there was a Guardians of the Galaxy story based on Venom going back to the costume’s planet of origin. It didn’t make the trip without conflict. Joined with Flash, Venom became more unpredictable until a fight with the other Guardians finally nullified the threat. They kept the goo in a containment jar, which easily escaped when carried by Groot.

Constantly shouting, “I AM VENOM!” the new hybrid alien took on the other Guardians of the Galaxy until being knocked out by Drax.

ROCKET RACCOON

The symbiote left Groot and the others figured he’d just go back and find Flash’s unconscious body. Instead, it leaked onto Rocket from the vents above and took him over, looking like some kind of Venomized Sonic the Hedgehog.

I checked Google Image Search for fanart of that very idea. There’s a lot of it and I’m really not far off.

The possessed Rocket, speaking a bit more clearly than the previous host, insisted that everyone get off the ship ASAP. He admitted that he didn’t want to kill anyone, but he needed to commandeer the ship immediately.

Then it got really interesting...

DRAX THE DESTROYER

Although Quill warned him not to, Drax decided that grabbing Rocket from behind was a good idea. Nope. The costume slinked off Rocket and jumped onto Drax. The issue ended with the cliffhanger image of Symbiote Drax looking metal as fuck.

By the beginning of the next issue, Flash woke up to find everyone unconscious except for the victorious Drax. Smiling madly, Drax basked as they arrived in the Klyntar homeworld. Through Drax, the symbiote said some cryptic stuff about their journey to Flash before leaving Drax’s body.

Drax didn’t take this well and nearly murdered Flash until Quill talked him down.

MERCURIO THE 4D MAN

During Flash’s short-lived adventures as an Agent of the Cosmos, he quickly came into conflict with the obscure Thor villain Mercurio. An interstellar conqueror, Mercurio’s plans were thwarted by Venom a couple times, so he sent a murderous space panda named Pik Rollo to take care of this new thorn in his side. Rollo – blackmailed due to her son being captive on Mercurio’s ship – ended up striking up a deal with Venom, which included a fake back-stabbing. As part of the plan, Venom was captured.

Mercurio stripped the costume from Flash and wore Venom himself. Unbeknownst to Mercurio until it was too late, this was all a trick for Venom to uncover information via bonding. Venom split from Mercurio and viciously beat him down until Flash pleaded with him to stop. Although they successfully tricked Mercurio, being part of such an evil being returned some old habits to the Venom symbiote, as its addiction to rage and violence started to bubble back to the surface.

OLD MAN LOGAN

I’m splitting hairs, but I’m not even sure which sub-list to toss this one. It’s a character from an alternate future thrown into another alternate future, only it’s as a member of a mainstream X-Men team.

Anyway, during The Apocalypse Wars, the X-Men got stranded a thousand years into the future. As always, Earth was a dystopian mess, this time run by Apocalypse’s Four Horsemen: Colossus, Deadpool, a female Moon Knight, and the Venom symbiote.

Using the Fastball Special, Colossus threw the blobby creature onto Old Man Logan. After a couple of issues, Jean Grey realized the secret wasn’t to try and mentally coax Logan, but to mentally attack the alien itself. With Venom purged from Old Man Logan’s body, Iceman froze it in place.

DEVIL DINOSAUR

In the brilliantly titled "Land Before Crime," the Eddie Brock version of Venom found out that Stegron had an army of dinosaur people living underneath New York. He teamed up with Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur to stop them, but Stegron had the ability to mentally control Devil Dinosaur. At first, Venom wanted to call it quits, but he saw a kindred spirit in the relationship between Moon Girl and her dinosaur friend and came up with a plan. Venom allowed Devil Dinosaur to eat him as a rope-a-dope. The symbiote attached itself to Devil Dinosaur, undoing Stegron's psychic hold. Venom Dinosaur went on a rampage long enough for Moon Girl to foil Stegron's plans to turn everyone in NYC into dinosaurs.

THE INKLINGS

When Lee Price became Maniac, he gained a new power. By coughing or spitting on someone with his symbiote, he would mask them with an extension of said symbiote and it would put them under his control. He used his mind control to take over various super-criminals. His victims included Black Cat, Scorpion, Hammerhead, Looter, 8-Ball, Killer Shrike, The Brothers Grimm, and the Melter. He also took over Spider-Man for a time. The drawback of his power was that once someone was free of his hold, he could not control them all over again.

When faced with the team of Spider-Man, Agent Anti-Venom, Venom, and Black Cat, Maniac absorbed all of his inkling masks into himself and became a giant.

SPIDER-WOMAN (JESSICA DREW)

After defeating Maniac, the Venom symbiote was finally cured of its mental instability. Venom went back to fighting crime, though chose not to kill the lesser criminals. Spider-Woman didn't see this as a reason to let him off the hook and tried to capture Venom a couple times. At the time, the symbiote was carrying a secret from Eddie: it was pregnant and scared that its child would turn out evil and vicious like its other children. Only with Eddie as a host did it feel optimistic that its offspring could be brought up well. The symbiote briefly joined onto Spider-Woman to show her the truth. Spider-Woman had recently given birth herself and understood to an extent. For the time being, she would allow Venom to roam free.

TEL-KAR

The Kree and the Skrulls have been warring with each other for so many years and while the Kree pride themselves as being the ultimate military species, the Skrulls have the advantage of shape-shifting. An idea came to acquire that ability for the Kree empire. A warrior named Tel-Kar went to the symbiote homeworld and discovered an outcast. Considering it a perfect choice, Tel-Kar became the first host to wear what would one day be known as the Venom costume. He went undercover as a Skrull, but turned on them the moment he was tasked with killing Kree refugees. Going into a suicide run, Tel-Kar made the symbiote leave him so they could not be captured together. Tel-Kar fought the Skrulls head-on, but survived in the end.

Years later, he'd come to Earth to reclaim his old partner. Forcing the symbiote to rejoin him against its will, it was revealed that Tel-Kar plans on using it to commit genocide against the entire Skrull race.

HULK (BRUCE BANNER)

What If the Alien Costume Possessed Spider-Man told the tale of Peter Parker waiting too long before having the Fantastic Four investigate his animated black tights. By that time they got him under the microscope, it was too late and the creature had already bonded to him. It took over his body completely and escaped, staying under the radar so Reed Richards couldn’t track it down.

After several days, the controlled Spider-Man found the Hulk going on a monstrous rampage. Knowing a good meal when it saw one, the symbiote left Spider-Man behind as it jumped onto Hulk, who could do nothing to save himself. Symbiote Hulk laughed and jumped off into the distance. Peter’s body was so used up by this point that the situation rendered him into an old man who died within a day.

While Hulk may seem like a perfect host, the symbiote was only using him as a stepping stone...

THOR (ODINSON)

It didn’t take long for Thor to come across Symbiote Hulk. While the symbiote insisted that what happened to Spider-Man was an accident and that it was actually helping Banner with his Hulk issues, Thor wasn’t fully trusting and they got in a big fight. Thor won, but the symbiote simply attached itself to him, which was the plan all along.

The two entities battled mentally while hiding out inside Mount Rushmore. Reed Richards sent Black Bolt after them, who was able to overpower Symbiote Thor with one word. The symbiote was then destroyed by Black Cat, armed with a sonic gun.

PUNISHER (FRANK CASTLE)

One of the best What If issues, What If Venom Had Possessed the Punisher, showed a reality where Frank Castle stopped at that one church moments before Eddie Brock. He had Spider-Man on the mind at the time and the symbiote latched onto him. Initially, Frank didn’t think much about the symbiote’s origins. He figured it was some slick SHIELD technology and went with it. He even did away with the webbing ability and had the costume shoot bullets made of symbiote goo.

This comic came out years before Garth Ennis got his mitts on Frank, so while he was depicted as a pragmatic mass murderer, he wasn’t the grindhouse sadist that he is now. In other words, it was treated as a big deal that he was far more gruesome with his kills, such as biting off half of Tombstone’s skull and spitting it out.

The symbiote gradually took over his life. He started lashing out against Microchip and found himself trying to kill Spider-Man against his will. After being hit with a sonic blast, Frank was able to go into a dreamlike state and confront the symbiote mentally. In the end, Frank made it an ultimatum: the symbiote would do what he wanted and get a piece of the violent action Frank’s known for, but if it didn’t listen to his orders, he’d kill them both. The symbiote agreed to the terms and the Punisher escaped capture from the heroes by using the symbiote to glide into the night.

Another version of Symbiote Punisher would show up in Edge of Venomverse. This take was that the symbiote agreed to help Frank win his war on crime as long as Frank would agree to help him commit one murder. That turned out to be Spider-Man. Frank resisted the situation, but never got a chance to fight Spider-Man due to the events of Venomverse kicking in.

VENOM 2099 (KRON STONE)

"Kron Stone! Meet the Kron Stone! Just your average man of vill-ai-ny! From the... '90s future...he’s a man from altered hi-sto-ry!!!!"

Kron was the evil half-brother of Miguel O’Hara and made his debut by killing the family of Punisher 2099 and getting away with it. I mean, getting away with it as much as you can before Frank to the Future stabs you and leaves you dying in a sewer.

Luckily for Kron, the Venom symbiote had been nesting in that sewer for decades, trying to evolve itself. It bonded with Kron and gave him the usual Venom perks, along with acidic touch and a fully liquid body. So, like, a T-1000 made of xenomorph spit.

Hearing that his father Tyler Stone was hospitalized from an assassination attempt, Venom 2099 went to go finish the job, which caused him to cross paths with Miguel, otherwise known as Spider-Man 2099. The two fought it out for several issues, notably causing the death of Miguel’s love interest Dana (which simplified Miguel’s love triangle predicament).

Once Spider-Man 2099 figured out the symbiote’s weakness to sound, the authorities just pinpointed Venom 2099’s location and focused all the speakers in the area on him. Miguel then beat him down and prepared to kill the creature until discovering Kron underneath.

Due to the future’s lack of prisons, Miguel just kept Kron in a tube in his lab and had him separated from the costume.

SUB-MARINER 2099

Late into the Spider-Man 2099 ongoing, our hero fought the future’s Namor counterpart, an Atlantean terrorist. He was also brought in and made a captive in Miguel’s lab.

In the final issue, Sub-Mariner 2099 escaped and the chaos from all the armed guards trying to stop him caused the Venom symbiote to be released. It jumped onto Sub-Mariner 2099, gave him teeth at the end of his tongue, and they escaped into the ocean.

Being that it was the end of the comic, they never followed up on that.

SPIDER-GIRL (MAYDAY PARKER)

In the alternate future of Earth-X and its less-interesting sequels, Peter and Mary Jane’s daughter became the host for Venom and at some point tamed the beast while taking its name. Just one of the many reasons why she and her father didn’t get along.

The symbiote itself factored in very, very rarely in the stories outside of a one-shot called Universe-X: Spidey, which involved the psychic villain Spiders-Man (not a typo!) putting Peter into a comatose state where he lived out his fantasies. Using her symbiote, Mayday attached herself to her father and dove into his reality. She intended to save him, but seeing that his guilt-based fantasy was to have a son with Gwen instead of a daughter with MJ kind of broke Mayday for a moment and she almost beat Spiders-Man to death until Peter woke up and stopped her.

Afterwards, father and daughter bonded via bad jokes at dire situations.

NORMIE OSBORN

Speaking of Spider-Girl, the Venom symbiote had a bit of a Joker in Dark Knight Returns thing going on in the MC2 Universe. It was dormant for years until it found out there was a new spider-person swinging around and it woke back up. It ended up possessing the middle-aged Peter the first time around, creating a Spider-Man/Venom hybrid.

Normie Osborn was the son of Harry and started out as a villain, obsessed with avenging his bloodline and killing the Parkers. Mayday helped him get over these feelings, although he still had a body full of hate-filled tattoos. Normie became a big brother figure to Spider-Girl, but was eventually bonded to the Venom symbiote against his will.

Normie overcame its influence and insisted not to have it destroyed. He became a hero for a while, albeit one with no codename because he wasn’t comfortable being called “Venom.” It was a moot point, since by the time they hit Spider-Girl #100, they ended up killing off the costume. It sacrificed itself to help Spider-Girl defeat the Hobgoblin, playing up that Normie as a host helped reform the creature.

Coincidentally, before leaving Normie, the symbiote’s parting gift was removing all of his tattoos.

HUMAN TORCH (JOHNNY STORM)

In the Marvel Adventures universe, they did their own lighthearted version of the Spider-Man black costume story. In this take, after the Fantastic Four removed the symbiote from Spider-Man’s body, Human Torch decided he’d try it on for size. Upon turning on his powers, the creature freaked out from the fire and escaped.

KULAN GATH

This one’s probably not considered canon, but right now I don’t care enough to argue either way.

Ancient wizard Kulan Gath transformed Manhattan into something more fitting to the Hyborian Age. Everyone started talking like Thor outside of Spider-Man and for whatever reason, Venom (Eddie version) decided that Kulan was totally worth working with as part of his murder vigilante ways. Then Mary Jane became the host for Red Sonja's soul/existence, which included ripping off her dress to reveal her chainmail loin cloth underneath.

Kulan became intrigued by the dark, powerful properties that came with the Venom symbiote and stole it from Eddie in a fight. As Kulan Venom, he...um...I don’t really know. Having a symbiote doesn’t really help out much when you’re a sorcerer. It’s like if Magneto became Venom. What’s he going to do, throw metal around angrier?

If anything, the so-called upgrade was Kulan’s undoing. When Eddie begged the symbiote to return to him, it threw Kulan off and allowed Spider-Man and Red Sonja to defeat him and send things back to normal.

MARY JANE PARKER

In the '00s, Marc Sumerak and Gurihiru did an all-ages miniseries of Spider-Man/Power Pack, a cute story about Spider-Man teaming up with the youthful Power siblings. In the third issue, it showed Spider-Man defeating Venom with a sonic blast gun early on. Although Eddie Brock was taken into custody, the symbiote wasn’t apprehended. Instead, it was taken in by a freshly-fired fashion artist. He had the creature altered in a way that he could monetize it.

Six months later, Mary Jane was one of four models working for said fashion dude. Peter brought Power Pack with him for the fashion show. The models’ outfits were able to morph and all was going well until Mary Jane’s dress sensed Peter nearby. All the models became full-on lady Venoms and mindlessly fought against the heroes.

Lightspeed flew circles around them fast enough to create a sonic boom. That freed the models. Mass Master took over the DJ booth and maxed out the volume to destroy what was left of the symbiote outfits.

Being that it was an all-ages comic, Mary Jane and the others were wearing slips under the skintight symbiotes. That had to chafe.

ENERGIZER (KATIE POWER)

After that fashion show incident, Spider-Man and the Power Pack left. Unbeknownst to everyone, a surviving piece of Venom hitchhiked onto Katie Power.

Soon after, Katie started having nightmares about being Venom and capturing Spider-Man alongside the Sinister Six. Others tried to rationalize the dream, but the truth was that the costume was taking over her body when she slept. They really did have Spider-Man in captivity.

Despite being down a member, Power Pack and Spider-Man had little issue stopping the Sinister Six and a Half. Spider-Man tricked Rhino into running into Electro, who accidentally zapped all his allies. This fried the symbiote and freed Energizer.

Afterwards, she felt guilt over what happened, but Spider-Man reassured her that it was all the costume’s doing and none of hers.

NEST OF PETER PARKER CLONES

Rick Remender’s What If: Age of Apocalypse was an exercise in Remender coming up with ridiculous shit and loosely tying it into a narrative. It took place in a reality where Legion accidentally killed both Xavier and Magneto during his time-travel assassination attempt. In the vastly different present, a team of heroes led by Wolverine and Captain America (armed with Mjolnir) would go through a ton of off-the-wall threats like the most badass Four Horsemen of all time: Namor, Storm, Hulk, and Juggernaut.

At one point the heroes found themselves in a black web where the Venom symbiote had bonded to a nest of Peter Parkers who didn’t seem to have any will of their own. Knowing that they weren’t the real deal, Cap demanded they be destroyed before they moved on to the next bad guy.

T-REX

The Venom symbiote has latched onto various different animals over the course of its history. A husky, a bunch of cockroaches, and even a zoo gorilla. But in the dystopian reality of Old Man Logan, Venom went high up the food chain by taking over a tyrannosaurus.

The story dealt with Wolverine and Hawkeye going on a road trip in a destroyed world where evil won. In one foreboding moment, the Venom symbiote was shown to be watching over them from on top a mountain. Later in the adventure, Venom Rex showed up and gave chase.

Luckily, the heroes were able to outrun him long enough with the Spider-Mobile until they found Black Bolt, who downed the creature with one word. Basically, Black Bolt is the rock to Venom's scissors.

CAPTAIN AMERICA (STEVE ROGERS)

This one can only be assumed, but judging from the weirdness going on around it...

In the alternate reality where Age of Apocalypse happened, Wolverine became infected with Apocalypse’s powers and megalomaniacal sickness. Calling himself Weapon Omega, this darker Logan had his own super team to carry out his orders. The Black Legion featured a lot of odd mashup and altered characters like Iron Ghost (Iron Man + Ghost Rider), Zombie Sentry (Simon Garth + Sentry), Grimm Chamber (Thing + Chamber), and so on.

When the mainstream X-Force team visited this reality, one panel showed that one of those Black Legion members was Captain America wearing the Venom symbiote. No information on him outside of that.

Black Legion was kind of forgotten about in general shortly after that.

Looking less monstrous, a version of Venom America would lead the resistance in Venomverse.

CONRAD MARCUS

With the new, black Ultimate Spider-Man who wasn’t based on a preexisting character, we got a new, black Ultimate Venom who also wasn’t based on a preexisting character.

At some point, Norman Osborn hired Dr. Conrad Marcus to recreate the accident that created Spider-Man. As far as Marcus knew, his attempts were constant failures. Months later, he found out differently when Betty Brant confronted him for a story and helped him piece together that a missing spider created the new Spider-Man. At the time, Marcus was working at Roxxon and his obsession with knowing more led to him releasing the Venom symbiote and becoming one with it.

His first acts were murdering Betty and then blowing up an abandoned Osborn Industries lab. Going by Betty’s false information, Venom went after Jefferson Morales, thinking him to be the new Spider-Man. Instead, the actual Spider-Man – Miles Morales, Jefferson’s son – appeared to fight him. Venom escaped into the sewers, though he succeeded in gravely wounding Jefferson.

He reappeared at the hospital, demanding Jefferson be offered to him. Spider-Man fought him and was briefly consumed by the hulking beast. Miles’ mother Rio, a nurse at the hospital, bought him time to escape and blow up the symbiote from within with a venom blast (fittingly enough). The authorities arrived and riddled Marcus to death with bullets.

Unfortunately, Rio was shot during the fracas and died in her son’s arms.

KINGPIN (WILSON FISK)

Man, the Marvel 100th Anniversary month. I totally forgot you even happened. Everyone did.

In 2014, Marvel did this thing where various creative teams would put together "100th anniversary" issues of various comics. In other words, a series of one-shots that were supposed to predict what certain comics will be like in the 2060s. Honestly, the only one worth reading is James Stokoe’s trippy Avengers story.

Sean Ryan and In-Hyuk Lee teamed up for the Spider-Man issue, which was supposed to be the final chapter of a story arc called “Great Power.” According to the recap, Venom had been biologically upgraded into being the Techno-Symbiote. Eddie Brock tried to become host to it once again, but he and Spider-Man came to realize that it needed to be destroyed. Then Wilson Fisk appeared and shot Eddie.

The actual issue started from there with Kingpin becoming the host to the futuristic symbiote, all while admitting that he had it created. As the new Venom, Fisk not only had the usual bells and whistles, but he could tap into all sorts of technology. He did that to stalk the underwear-clad Parker through New York City for the remainder of the issue.

Finally, the two had their final battle in the woods, where Parker shoved a torch into Venom’s face, tore Fisk out, and sat quietly as the Techno-Symbiote was burned to death.

HAWKEYE (CLINT BARTON)

As part of the 2015 Secret Wars event, one of the various alternate-universe-turned-kingdoms was one where Civil War never concluded. It instead led to two civilizations led by Steve Rogers and Tony Stark, constantly unable to reconcile due to an unseen puppet master.

Mac Gargan was dead in this reality and we’d see a mute Venom working on Captain America’s side. Venom was given just enough panel-time to be treated as a mystery as he joined Peter Parker’s covert mission into Stark’s kingdom. As they faced King Ock (Kingpin’s corpse controlled by Dr. Octopus’ tentacles), Venom quietly appeared behind the threat, created a goo-based bow, and fired Daredevil’s billy club through King Ock’s skull.

He was finally identified as “Clint” and stopped factoring into the story. I guess that would explain why his symbol looked like an arrowhead.

SPIDER-QUEEN

Spider-Island, another Secret Wars tie-in, showed a Manhattan where the Spider-Queen’s plot to turn people into spider creatures under her command wasn’t initially foiled. Flash Thompson as Venom became the leader of the resistance and helped save the minds of other heroes by turning them into different kinds of monsters, thereby giving them back their willpower. Captain America became a werewolf, Hulk became a lizard, Captain Marvel a vampire, Iron Man got pumped up with Goblin serum, etc.

In the final battle, Venom was able to fight through the Spider-Queen’s sonic scream enough to get onto her back. Pleading with the symbiote, Flash convinced it to leave his body and latch onto the queen. Flash got smashed into a wall and took massive internal damage while the Spider-Queen desperately struggled with the symbiote.

Venom sacrificed itself to weaken the Spider-Queen enough to allow an army of dinosaurs led by Stegron to feed on her. As it died, it swore that Flash was more than just a host to it, but a friend.

NORMAN OSBORN

In one of the many alternate realities looked over in Spider-Verse, there was one where Norman Osborn became President of the United States. To help clean out America’s imperfections, he created the Variable Engagement Neurosensitive Organic Mesh for himself and his enforcers.

That world’s Captain America led a protest against the fascist hybrids. President Osborn’s undoing came from Spider-Man, who weakened the symbiotes with punk rock and brained Osborn with his guitar.

SENTRY/VOID (ROBERT REYNOLDS)

This comes from the gnarly multiversal series Contest of Champions. Various heroes and villains from different realities were forced to fight it out as part of a big plot by the Maestro. Amongst the contestants, there was an alternate universe version of Eddie Brock Venom who was driven even more insane after killing Spider-Man. It caused him to start speaking to Peter as if he was there while wearing scraps of the Spider-Man costume around his neck.

Another hero was the Sentry, who had a tendency to slip into his Void persona. While infamously near-impossible to kill, he and Stick were seemingly wiped out by Punisher 2099’s giant future gun. Afterwards, Punisher 2099 separated the symbiote from Eddie and executed them with the same gun.

Unchecked, a remainder of the symbiote bonded with a remainder of the Void. An army of savage creatures called Symbioids appeared in its wake, looking much like Venom while having the raw power of the Void. The army did battle with the mainstream universe’s Ultimates, but Maestro eventually gained power over them in a psychic battle.

During the final battle, Stick revealed that he survived Punisher 2099’s earlier ambush. With the Symbioids nearby, he merged them all together and helped the Sentry break free from within via energy manipulation powers. The experience freed the Sentry of both the Void and the symbiote.

Afterwards, Sentry was instrumental in bringing down Maestro.

SPIDER-WOMAN/SPIDER-GWEN (GWEN STACY)

So, the Spider-Gwen universe. Not really the easiest thing to explain other than Gwen Stacy was bitten by a radioactive spider and everyone else is different from how we know them in main continuity. In one story, Harry Osborn was being turned into a monster via Lizard serum. The Lizard serum was mixed with some of Gwen's essence to create this reality's version of the Venom symbiote. Gwen was quick to tame it, or so she thought. With her father in a coma, she started becoming erratic and went after those responsible. She became wanted by the authorities and although she calmed the creature, the damage was done and she ultimately had to turn herself in.

X-23 (LAURA KINNEY)

Now we get to Edge of Venomverse, which showed a bunch of alternate universe Venoms via one-shots or short stories. This one showed that the complex that experimented on Laura Kinney also experimented on the Venom symbiote. During an escape attempt, she unleashed the creature and bonded to it, making escape that much easier and more violent. She then befriended a handful of homeless youths and helped protect them by giving them pieces of the symbiote. When the government agents went after them, the symbiote pieces pulled back into X-23 and she was unceremoniously teleported out of that dimension.

She was one of the few survivors of Venomverse and returned to her home world.

GWENPOOL (GWEN POOLE)

The self-aware heroine became Venom's host in one world, though it wasn't really explained. Instead, we got an amazing team-up story about Gwenpool fighting ninjas, dealing with her evil boss, and trying to hit on Daredevil...all while her symbiote tries to both help her out and give her advice in the form of, "Kill them." Really fun issue, but Gwen's Venomverse fate wasn't a happy one.

GHOST RIDER (ROBBIE REYES)

Exacting vengeance in a badass muscle car, Robbie Reyes always had to deal with the voice of his evil Uncle Eli in his head, trying to take control. While Robbie tends to have that under control, this version was joined with the Venom symbiote. The three-way war for dominance ended when the symbiote and Eli decided to work together and turned Robbie into nothing more than a "motor." Calling himself "Host Rider," this monstrous entity spent the tie-in hunting down Calvin Zabo and making him suffer with the Penance Kiss.

Host Rider was pulled away to help with the Venomverse situation, but was forgotten about pretty quickly during the main miniseries.

NGOZI

Ngozi was a Nigerian girl who had a promising career as a track star ruined by a bus accident. Resigned to a wheelchair, she was trying to catch a grasshopper one day while ignorant to the Black Panther vs. Rhino fight going on behind her. Whatever it was about, it involved a capsule with the Venom symbiote in it. Said capsule got loose and rolled up to Ngozi's wheelchair. As Rhino killed Black Panther, the symbiote oozed onto Ngozi and told her to run. She instead used her newfound gift to turn herself into a half-woman/half-grasshopper and took down Rhino.

Soon after, she was put through trials and was accepted as the new Black Panther, replacing T'challa as the ruler and protector of Wakanda.

DOCTOR DOOM

Victor Von Doom told the Avengers that he was turning over a new leaf and that he prepared a massive peace accord. Whether he was telling the truth or not was only background as Doom was in the middle of a massive war of willpower with the Venom symbiote. Venom wanted to help him crush his enemies. Doom insisted that, "There is no we." Once the dust settled, the demonic Doom showed himself and revealed that the symbiote was bent to his will. Doom vanished as part of the Venomverse plot, but he'd soon be assimilated by the Poison race.

EVERYONE ELSE FROM VENOMVERSE

The plot of Venomverse was that there was a multiversal threat known as Poisons spreading through the worlds. This race was mostly harmless unless it touched a bonded symbiote. Suddenly, it would completely take over, make them stronger, remove their weaknesses, and absorb the host like they were food. The Poisons attempted to conquer the multiverse, led by Poison Thanos and Poison Dr. Doom. Venom hosts from various worlds would be brought in to help fight them, but many would lose and fall into their ranks.

At the beginning of the miniseries, the resistance included the likes of Spider-Man, Mary Jane, Flash Thompson, Andi Benton, Captain America, Dr. Strange, Old Man Logan, X-23, Ghost Rider, Black Panther, Ant-Man, and Rocket Raccoon. Only a handful of them survived.

As for listing the Poison hosts...yeah, I'm going to pass.

VISION AND REED GRIMM

In an alternate future created by one of Spider-Man and Deadpool's adventures, the Fantastic Four is made up of Valeria Richards, The Last Devil (who carries an Iron Fist's hand on a chain), the rock giant Reed Grimm, and Venom Vision. Venom Vision only seemed to speak in ones and zeroes with only Valeria able to understand it. The team helped the elderly Spider-Man and Deadpool fight a legion of Deadpool LMDs. They were under the control of the LMD messiah Master Matrix.

The Venom symbiote went for a desperation move by leaving Vision for Reed, but it was no use. The Deadpools tore Vision to pieces. Master Matrix singlehandedly destroyed Reed and Last Devil. Then he created synthetic symbiotes to enhance his LMD army. Before being overtaken, Valeria sent Spider-Man and Deadpool back in time to prevent this future from ever happening.

PART IV: HONORABLE MENTION

GALACTUS

Howard Mackie is a writer who likes to come up with sweet, high-concept ideas and then slink away rather than follow up on it because payoff is hard. When Spider-Man was enjoying his 30th anniversary in the '90s, Mackie penned a storyline about Mysterio messing with Spider-Man's head. The whole thing seemed like an excuse to have a splash page where Galactus appeared to him, clad in the Venom symbiote. So it doesn't really fit in with anywhere else on the list, since it's just Peter Parker tripping balls, but it is such a silly and awesome image that I can't help but include it.

Gavin Jasper writes for Den of Geek and wonders what kind of horrors would occur if Rogue became Venom. Would she just absorb it and turn into some kind of flesh-colored ooze? Read Gavin's other articles here and follow him on Twitter @Gavin4L

from Books https://ift.tt/2O39kEs

[marjaystuff]

Guest Book Review: A Blizzard of Polar Bears

A Blizzard of Polar Bears

Alex Carter Book 2

Alice Henderson

William Morrow Pub

November 9th, 2021

A Blizzard of Polar Bears by Alice Henderson delves into conservation efforts and animals on the brink of extinction.  This plot combines nature, environmental problems, a riveting mystery, and strong characters.  

“My first book highlighted Wolverines. I have heard from readers they did not know Wolverines were real animals. They are members of the weasel family.  Now in the US there are only 300 left. They have been trapped and hunted into extinction.  They are hardy creatures that can power straight up a mountain.  In the winter they help other animals find food because of their powerful jaws.  They eat anything including teeth. I call them “cleaners of the forest.””

The story opens with a sub-plot. Rex Tildesen, a marine archaeologist, is trying to prove that the Vikings had made it to the Hudson Bay. Spotting a shipwreck, Rex dives down, despite his partner not being on board the boat. It'll be the last his partner, Sasha, hears from him since he was brutally murdered.  

In this book, the main plot has wildlife biologist Alex Carter finishing her study of Wolverines in Montana.  Then she has agreed to travel to the Canadian Arctic to study the threatened population of Polar Bears. But things go awry.  Her helicopter pilot quits unexpectedly, equipment goes missing, and a late-night intruder breaks into her lab, stealing the samples she’s collected. After hiring a new pilot their helicopter catches fire in midflight, and after they landed armed assailants try to shoot them. Between the theft, poaching, and murder Alex realizes someone is trying to deter her from completing the study.

Alex is a strong character who is independent, knowledgeable, determined, and an animal lover. “I wrote Alex as passionate, resourceful, driven, a fighter, and a handy person. She can think herself out of situations.  She is a loner.  Because she helps wildlife, she goes to very remote places where she has little human contact because of her adventurous spirit.”

This thriller is fast-paced and the added information about the Polar Bears makes for an interesting story.  Anyone who wants more information on wildlife animals should read these books. 

[strangedreamings]

Steve/Darcy - It's the middle of summer, so Person A jumps into the nearest pool fully clothed, cue Person B sighing as they lend Person A a second set of their clothes.

All Wet

Darcy Lewis rolled her eyes as she read the flyer that hadbeen shoved under her front door. OFCOURSE Captain America’s birthday is July 4th. What else would itbe? Still, she was embarrassed that she’d never thought to ask the man whohad fast become her best friend when his birthday was.

When Jane was invitedto move her lab to Avengers Tower, she insisted that Darcy come with her.Everyone made Darcy feel welcome, but Steve went out of his way to make herfeel at home. He helped her move her stuff into her apartment in the tower theneven helped her decorate. When she asked about local businesses, he showed herhis favorite coffee shop, restaurants, and dry cleaner’s.

What touched her mostwas when she was hit by a sudden wave of homesickness. Not for her parents’house in Denver, that had never felt like home, but for the cluttered trailershe’d left behind in New Mexico. Helping Jane and Erik in any way she could,and trying not to duck each time a scientific term flew over her head, was themost fun she’d ever had, though she’d complained the whole time.

When Steve found hermoping, he insisted on taking her to Prospect Park Zoo and they spent the dayhaving the time of their lives. The animals’ antics had them cracking up but itwas seeing Steve with the children swarming to have their pictures taken withCaptain America that had her heart soaring. He laughed with the kids, he talkedto them on their level, and he made each of them feel special.

It was then that Darcyrealized she was falling hard and fast for this man.

She left the flyer announcing the birthday pool party on herkitchen counter, rolling her eyes again. I’msure Tony just wants to see all the women here in bikinis. Well, he’s gonnahave to live with disappointment in my case. The real question is, what thehell do I get Steve for his birthday?

After racking her brain for a week, she settled on a gift cardto his favorite art supply store and a dozen of her Triple Chocolate Cookies,which Steve had declared to be his number one favorite the first time he triedthem.

The day of the party turned out to be the hottest day of theyear so far. Thankfully, the roof of the tower had plenty of shade due to averitable forest of patio umbrellas and a good breeze kept the humidity frombeing overpowering. The rooftop was full of the Avengers and their loved ones, rockmusic was blaring … and Darcy was struck by a sudden urge to turn around and goback down to her apartment. She was never comfortable at big parties andpreferred to hang out with just a handful of friends.

Buck up, she toldherself. It’s Steve’s big day, you owe itto him to enjoy yourself and make him feel special. Squaring her shoulders,Darcy put her present and card on the table with the others then went lookingfor the birthday boy. She found him at the grill, enjoying a beer and laughingwith Sam while he cooked the burgers.

“Hi, guys,” Darcy said, smiling.

Sam grinned. “Hey, Darcy. Are your ears ringing? This guy,”he inclined his head towards Steve as he grilled, “has been talking about younonstop.”

“Is that so?” she asked Steve, grinning.

“Ignore him,” Steve muttered. His face was faintly pink butDarcy assumed that was from too much sun. He bent to kiss her cheek. “Thanksfor coming, Darce.”

Her heart did a flip when his lips touched her skin but shekept her cool. “Like I’d miss your big day. So, how old are you now? 200? 300?”

Steve, used to Darcy’s gentle ribbing, rolled his eyes.“Very funny.”

Darcy grinned cheekily. “I thought so.”

Sam’s snickering made it clear he thought so too.

Gently taking her elbow, Steve steered Darcy away from Sam,who continued to grin at them, and over to the refreshment table. “Can I getyou a drink?” he asked.

“A Coke would be great,” Darcy said as she grabbed a paperplate and started filling it. She felt Steve’s eyes on her and couldn’t help ashiver. Is he checking me out? No, no,he’s probably wondering why I’m in jeans and a tank top at a pool party insteadof a swimsuit.

“Did you bring your suit?” he asked as he handed her thebottle.

“Don’t have one.” She waved a hand to indicate her figure.“It’s impossible to find a one-piece that covers me enough or a bikini topthat’s supportive enough.”

Steve’s face turned bright red. “Um, right. So, no pool foryou?”

“You got it, Big Guy.”

He led the way to an open table then they both sat down.Darcy kept glancing at Steve as she ate, mentally kicking herself. He’s not sunburnt, he’s blushing. Poor guyjust wanted a simple “yes” or “no” and I offended his 1940s sensibilities talkingabout my endless hunt for a decent swimsuit. Ugh…

Every time Steve tried to talk to Darcy, one of the otherswould come over and wish him a happy birthday. Darcy didn’t think much of it (it’s not like we don’t talk every day)until she realized that Bucky and/or Sam kept coming over repeatedly to talk toSteve about some stupid thing or other.

Steve must have noticed it too. “Excuse me, Darcy,” he saidas he got up. “I need to set the record straight.”

“Um, sure.”

He shot her a grateful grin, which made her thankful she wassitting down since it made her knees week, then he went off in the direction ofhis buddies. As soon as he was gone, Nat came over and sat down in his chair,taking a sip of her bottled water.

Darcy eyed her warily. Natasha didn’t do small talk. If shehad something to say, she got right to the point.

“Um, hi, Nat.”

“So, you and Steve,” the assassin said, smiling a bit. “Ialways knew he’d lose his heart again, I just didn’t think it would be to-”

“Jane’s lab monkey?” she cut in.

Nat raised an eyebrow, amused. “I was going to say acivilian.”

“Oh. Well, your intel’s faulty anyway – Steve and I are justfriends.”

“Uh huh. Steve doesn’t look at his ‘friends’ the way helooks at you when you don’t notice.”

Could Nat be right?Darcy shook her head. “No, you’re … you’re ‘misinterpreting the data.’” Shementally high-fived herself for using one of Jane’s phrases.

“Is that so? Whenever Steve’s not around and one of us wantsto find him, we don’t bother asking Friday where he is anymore since the answeris always ‘in Ms. Lewis’ apartment.’”

Darcy suddenly felt her face get very warm. Did somebody turn up the sun? “Um, we’renot doing the nasty or anything. I just like to bake and Steve’s got thebiggest sweet tooth. Plus we have movie nights so he can catch up everythinghe’s missed.”

“Is there something wrong with dating Steve?”

“God, no. I just…” Iknow I’m not his type. She looked over and saw Steve coming back to them,scowling in annoyance. Darcy felt even warmer then quickly stood up. “I’m goingto take a dip in the pool.”

“Fully clothed?” Nat asked, smiling.

“Tony always says he allows anything in the pool exceptbirthday suits.” She kicked off her sandals and took out the plastic clip thatwas holding up her long hair. Just as Steve reached their table, she ran overto the pool and jumped into the deep end.

Not the brightestthing I ever did, Darcy thought later as she shivered in her chair. Thewater felt great while she was in the pool, but it didn’t take long for theformerly pleasant breeze to feel like an arctic chill against her skin once shegot out. Without a change of clothes or even a towel, she’d had no choice butto wait for her clothes and hair to dry.

Adding to her misery, Steve had disappeared just after she’dgotten out of the pool. It was getting dark, she still was still soaked, andshe was seriously considering just going home when a pile of clothes was placedin front of her. Darcy looked up to see Steve giving her one of hisheart-melting smiles.

“Can’t have you miserable at my party,” he explained. “Gochange in the penthouse, the fireworks are about to start.”

“Thanks!” She stood and picked up the t-shirt and shorts,belatedly realizing they weren’t hers. “Um, Steve?”

He smiled sheepishly. “My place was closer. They’ll fit.”His eyes drifted to her chest then he quickly dragged them back up to her face,blushing again. “Probably.”

“Um, right.” After a quick change in the penthouse bathroom,Darcy went back to the roof and saw Steve having an intense discussion withNat. Not wanting to interrupt, she wandered over to where Jane was patientlyexplaining Independence Day to Thor, Sif, and the Warriors Three.

“Greetings, Darcy,” Thor said, beaming. “Jane was justtelling us of how your country celebrates its liberty with colorfulexplosions.”

“Something like that, yeah,” Darcy said with a smile,feeling her mood lighten as it always did when she was around Jane’s fiancé.

“I quite like the grilled canines,” Volstagg said happilyaround a mouthful of hot dog.

Fandral groaned quietly. “Please excuse his utter lack oftable manners, Lady Darcy.”

Darcy giggled. “It’s okay, I’ve seen worse. And they’re notmade with real dogs, ‘hot dog’ is just what they’re called.”

The rock music abruptly stopped then Tony loudly asked foreveryone’s attention. “Pepper and I would like to thank everyone for coming outto celebrate Capsicle’s 100th. I don’t want to rush things but youknow old people, they go to bed early, so without further ado…” He signaled tothe professionals he’d hired to provide the fireworks and the first fireworkshot into the sky.

Darcy jumped as strong arms wrapped around her from behindjust as the firework burst into a shower of gold sparks.

“Easy,” Steve murmured in her ear.

She turned her head to look at him incredulously. “Steve,what-”

“My friends pointed out that while I’m great at battlefieldstrategizing, I’m terrible at something as simple as telling the woman I’m inlove with how I feel.”

Darcy turned around to face him, feeling like her jaw was inthe sub-basement. “You … you love me?”

“Completely, utterly, stupidly … I could go on,” he said,grinning. “And, unless those same friends are wrong, you feel the same way.”

Darcy’s cheeks hurt, she was grinning so widely. “They’renot wrong.”

Then he kissed her and Darcy knew the fireworks in the skywouldn’t be the only ones she’d experience that night.

AO3