#incredible hulk v2

[charnauk]

Sometimes the most entertaining Reed stretches are also the simplest. This is peak character design, idc what anyone says. <3

[heckcareoxytwit]

Colleen Wing is given a task to be a bodyguard of Worldmind the new Mind Stone bearer because he knows that Thanos is coming for him. Colleen is reluctant about it as she knows that she is no match for the cosmic foe like Thanos and she is just a ninja without superpowers. Nevertheless, Colleen reluctantly agrees to help Worldmind. Just then, Colleen Wing and Worldmind are approached by Thanos the mad Titan who demands for the Mind Stone. Colleen tries to warn Thanos not to come closer but she gets swatted away and was sent flying to the distant part of the forest. Worldmind tries to use his psychic powers on Thanos but he is easily killed by the mad Titan. Then, the Hulk comes in, ready to fight Thanos. It turns out that Hulk got a telepathic call from the Mind Stone bearer in moments before his untimely demise since Hulk is one of the few superheroes who could defeat Thanos to a stand-still. The fight between Hulk and Thanos goes long and hard as they are equally-matched in strength. To cut this long fight short, Hulk manages to get his upperhand on Thanos as the gamma being hated to be called 'Puny' by the mad Titan. Moments later, Colleen Wing comes out of the forest in her new costume. It turns out that the Mind Stone was dropped in the middle of the fight and since the two behemoths were busy fighting, the Mind Stone went to Colleen Wing who seemingly gained psychic powers. Colleen Wing and Hulk manage to defeat Thanos by the former (Colleen) stabbing him while the latter (Hulk) smashes him to the ground.

Incredible Hulk Annual v2 #1, 2024

So, the potential team of new Infinity Watch might consist of the Infinity Stone bearers such as Colleen Wing with the Mind Stone, Hector Bautista with the Time Stone, Ripley Ryan with the Reality Stone, Prince Otherone with the Power Stone, Quantum with the Space Stone, and Multitude with the Soul Stone.

[lesser-mook]

Incredible Hulk v2 092-105 (Recommended Reads) *Planet HULK Arc*

Peak Hulk. One of his best stories.

[kittyball23]

Prologue v2 - Floyd's Capture (a Trolls fanfic)

Summary: An unsuspecting Troll is swiped in the night by two nefarious baddies

A/N: Thanks for the compliments on the first oneshot! Here's another :D

__________________________________________

The forest at night was an incredible place.

Not only was it beautifully illuminated by the dying light of the setting sun, making everything shine in an alluring orange hue, but it was also a time when a certain magenta Troll could be out there, alone, enjoying the nature for what it was worth and letting any stressful thoughts disintegrate from his mind.

He walked along, hands in his pockets, jerking his head slightly to the side every once in a while so that his pink bangs didn’t completely cover his left eye and leave him blind to what was around him. Then, as the fireflies began to poke out of the underbrush and light up the sky with their greenish-yellow glow, he began to sing a soft serenade…

“I need a lover to keep me sane,

Pull me from heck, bring me back again,

Play me the classics,

Something romantic,

Give him my all when I don't even have it,

I always dreamed of a solemn face,

Someone who feels like a holiday,

But now I'm in pieces,

Barely believing,

Starting to think that I've lost all feeling,

You came out the blue on a rainy night,

No lie,

I'll tell you how I almost died,

While you're bringing me back to life,

I just wanna live in this moment forever,

'Cause I'm afraid that living couldn't get any better,

Started giving up on the word ‘forever,’

Until you gave up heaven, so we could be together,

You're my angel

Angel baby, angel

You're my angel, baby

Baby, you're my angel

Angel baby…”

… all while being completely unaware of the two pairs of eyes that were carefully watching him.

A voice that belonged to the first pair of eyes whispered eagerly to the other. “I’ve got the salt and pepper, and even the hot sauce… let’s go get it!”

“ Wait a second, will you?” the second voice hissed, holding back the hulking figure of the first.

The first voice was confused. “What are we waiting for?”

His only answer was a harsh “Shhh!” from the second voice. Grumbling in annoyance, he sat back and allowed his sister to continue her silent vigil of the small creature. That small delicious…

… talented creature.

The more that the first voice listened in and began to pay attention, he could see why his sister had told him to pause. The little one had a good voice – no, a great voice! It was smooth and angelic, hitting high and going low, flexing with emotion and so expressive...

Then, suddenly, he got an idea. He glanced over at his sister, who wore a smirk on her face.

“I just got the best idea,” she whispered, barely able to contain her excitement. She then placed a finger to her lips and motioned at him. “Follow me.”

Meanwhile, unaware of the watchers, the blissful song continued.

“All the sick and twisted nights that I've been waiting for ya,

They were worth it all along, yeah,

I just wanna live in this moment forever,

'Cause I'm afraid that living couldn't get any better,

Started giving up on the word ‘forever,’

Until you gave up heaven, so we could be together,

You're my angel

Angel baby, angel

You're my angel, baby

Baby, you're my angel

Angel b – “

CRACK!

The singing stopped at the sound of a snapping branch. The Troll’s ears perked, and he heard some rustling in the bushes followed by what sounded like hushed arguing. What was going on in there? Did someone need help? He hardly saw folks around here often.

Curious, he slowly paced up to the bush, eyes squinting in the darkness and trying to make out anyone that was inside. It was when he jerked his head back to allow his bangs to fall back from his eye that he could see…

… a hand?

Before he could belt out another lyric, or scream, or gasp, or do anything at all, the giant hand suddenly scooped him up! The Troll struggled, confused and terrified and realizing the uselessness behind his actions. He had been captured by some horrendous beast who had who knows what up its sleeve.

He swallowed.

This was not going to be good.

__________________________________________

A/N: This alternate prologue was actually an idea of my little bro's! He thought maybe the movie would start with Velvet and Veneer taking Floyd. From what I could find on them, they are apparently Bergen divas who capture Floyd for his talents.

Song is "Angel Baby," Troye Sivan's most popular hit 😇

[redbettyross]

Hulk recognizing Betty in Incredible Hulk #62

[doctorofmagic]

Doctor Strange + Bridal Carry for absolutely no reason.

Marvel Knights 4 #27 (2006) Defenders v1 #60 (1978) Defenders v2 #6 (2001) The Incredible Hulk v1 #370 (1990) Doctor Strange v2 #14 (1976) New Avengers v3 #21 (2014) Defenders #106 (1982) Marvel Action - Avengers #6 (2019)

[athena14044]

She-Hulk Readthrough part 2

I'm starting a new post bc the previous one was getting really long

All-New Savage She-Hulk, Fall of the Hulks, and some other random stuff

All-New Savage She-Hulk

ewwww what the fuck

Lyra I'm going to get you out of there girl

that was a cool story except for the part where she was sent back in time to FUCK NORMAN OSBORN

Fall of the Hulks

Besties I was really trying. I was reading things that Jen didn't appear in just to try to understand this event. This is the most convoluted shit imaginable. I can't keep track of who knows what. I can't keep track of who is working with who. I can't keep track of anyone's goals here. I hate this and yet I am also deeply fascinated by it.

FotH Alpha: This has the Red Ghost and the Super-Apes so I am legally required to like it

FotH Red Hulk 2: I'm so confused.

FotH Gamma: I'm unsure if anyone knows that General Ross is Red Hulk at this point so I feel like I didn't get as much out of this as I could have

Hulk v2 20: Red Hulk kills a Super-Ape :(

Hulk v2 13-24: I am really trying to understand what's going on. The way 24 explored the difference between Bruce and Ross and how they mirror each other was really cool though

Incredible Hulk v1 606-610: I'm so confused

FotH Savage She-Hulks: I really like how Jen is acting as a mother figure for Lyra since Thundra can't

Incredible Hulk v1 611: IM CRYING A LITTLE BIT THAT WAS REALLY POWERFUL

Worth Reading

Marvel Divas: this is kind of a bizarre friend group and Jen was barely in it but I liked the art and it was really sweet 🥺

Wolverine v3 73-74: Jen was in 1 panel in 73 and 74 wasn't even on my reading list but for some reason, despite the fact that I don't like Wolverine, 73 intrigued me enough to read the next issue

She-Hulk: Cosmic Collision: I guess this goes here? As a Jen-centric story? But it was weird and I had a hard time following it.

Incredible Hulk v1 600: THIS FUCKED

Incredible Hulk v1 601-605: I'm enjoying the Lyra back-up story

Not Worth Reading

Mighty Avengers 22-23: SLOTT!! Also this was stupid idk

Planet Skaar Prologue: ...it vaguely reminded me of the 2001 Hulk annual...

Fantastic Four v1 569: I'm completely lost and Jen was only in 1 panel

Strange Tales v5 1-3: It is fascinating what they could publish in 2009...

Avengers vs. Atlas 3: ok this one is giving the 2001 Hulk annual and also brought up Juggernaut

[bedlamsbard]

okay, I can’t decide (and I’m just tired)

does the placement of the STARK INDUSTRIES logo here suggest that SI made the Cryosync container or its contents or both

(this is from The Incredible Hulk, btw, the serum given to Blonsky)

ETA: the visible text is

CRYOSYNC STARK INDUSTRIES

PROGRAM: WEAPONS PLUS DEVELOPER: DR. REINSTEIN SERUM IDs: 7922-B209 7922-B209 7922-B209 7922-B209 BATCH No. D06-V2 VAR. No. RB-227.6

UNDER (?) CONTRACT US DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

VITA-RAY

[comic-bucky]

Golden Age

Captain America Comics (1941) #1-78

All-Winners Comics (1941) #1-21

Young Allies Comics (1941) #1-20

USA Comics (1941) #6-17

Kid Komics (1943) #2-10

All-Select (1943) #1-10

Complete Comics (1944) #2

Mystic Comics (1944) #4

Young Men (1950) #24

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Silver Age

The Avengers (1963) #4, #56, #106-107, #277, #387, Annual #16

Sgt. Fury (1963) #13

Tales of Suspense (1964) #63-71, #75, #82, #95

Captain America v1 (1968) #105, #107, #109, #112, #121, #128, #131-132, #139, #162, #176, #215, #219-220, #227, #253, #255-157, #261, #264, #281, #294, #297-299, #326, #349-350, #372, #383-384, #423, #437, #441, #445, #447-448

Captain America Annual (1970) #1, #6, #9, #13

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Bronze Age

The Invaders (1975) #1-31, #38-39, Annual #1

Captain America's Bicentennial Battles (1976)

Marvel Premiere (1972) #29-30

What If..? (1977) #1, #4, #5

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Modern Age

What If..? v2 (1989) #28, #105, #200

Adventures of Captain America (1991) #1-4

Captain America: Medusa Effect (1994)

War Machine (1994) #15-17

Batman/Captain America (1996)

Deadpool v1 (1997) #0, #61

Captain America/Citizen V (1998)

Captain America: Sentinel Of Liberty (1998) #7, #12

Fantastic Four (1998) #569, #584, #588

Domination Factor: Avengers (1999) #2.4, #3.6

Earth X (1999) #0-1, #4, #10

Universe X (2000) #9, #X

Universe X Special: Cap (2001) #1

Paradise X (2002) #0-1

Captain America v3 (1998) #1, #12, #25, #32, #39, #48, #50, Annual 2001

Captain America/Nick Fury: The Otherworld War (2001)

The Ultimates v1 (2002) #1, #3, #7

The Ultimates v2 (2005) #1, #8

Ultimate Avengers (2009) #2, #6

The New Invaders (2004) #2

Captain America v4 (2002) #10, #17, #19-20, #26

Captain America: 65th Anniversary Special (2006) #1

Captain America Comics 70th Anniversary Special (2009) #1

Captain America Comics 70th Anniversary Special (2011) #1

Cable & Deadpool (2004) #45

Captain America v5 (2005) #1-50

Winter Soldier: Winter Kills (2007)

Young Avengers Presents (2008) #1

Punisher War Journal (2007) #11

Fallen Son: Wolverine (2007)

Wolverine: Origins (2006) #15-20, #23, #25, #30

Civil War: Battle Damage Report (2007) #1

Iron Man/Captain America: Casualties of War (2007) #1

Secret Invasion (2008) #4, #6-8

What If? Secret Invasion (2010) #1

Avengers/Invaders (2008) #1-12

House of M: Civil War (2008) #3-4

What If? House Of M (2009) #1

Mythos: Captain America (2008) #1

Invincible Iron Man v1 (2008) #17, #20-22, #501

Incredible Hulk v2 (2009) #601, #607, #609

Nomad: Girl Without a World (2009) #1, #4

Ms. Marvel v2 (2006) #41-42

Ms. Marvel: War of the Marvels (2009) #1

Agents of Atlas (2009) #3-5

New Avengers (2009) #48-64, Finale

The Amazing Spider-Man v1 (2009) #600-601, #637, #648, #661

Wolverine (2003) #38-40, #72-74

Young Allies: 70th Anniversary Special (2009)

The Marvels Project (2009) #7-8

Avengers: The Initiative (2007) #19, #34-35

Dark Reign: The List - Avengers (2009) #1

Captain America v1 (2009) #600-619

Captain America: Reborn (2009) #1-6

Captain America: Who Will Wield The Shield? (2010)

Siege (2010) #2-4

Siege: Captain America (2010) #1

Steve Rogers: Super Soldier (2010) #1

Dark Wolverine (2009) #84

Avengers v4 (2010) #1-7, #10, #12.1, #16

Avengers vs. Pet Avengers (2010) #1-4

I am An Avenger (2010) #2, #4-5

Free Comic Book Day: Avengers (2009) #1

AAFES 7th Edition (2009) #7

AAFES 9th Edition (2010) #9

Wolverine: Weapon X (2010) #12-15

Avengers vs. Atlas (2010) #1, #4

Dark Avengers Annual (2010) #1

Hawkeye & Mockingbird (2010) #1

Age of Heroes (2010) #1

Invaders Now! (2010) #1-5

World War Hulks (2010) #1

World War Hulks: Captain America vs Wolverine (2010) #1-2

Captain America The 1940s Newspaper Strip (2010) #1-3

Captain America: Forever Allies (2010) #1-4

Black Panther/Captain America: Flags of Our Fathers (2010) #4

Black Widow: Deadly Origin (2010) #1-4

Black Widow v4 (2010) #1-6

Chaos War (2010) #1, #5

Chaos War: Dead Avengers (2011) #1, #3

Heroes for Hire v3 (2011) #9-10

Fear Itself (2011) #3-4

Fear Itself: Captain America (2011) #7.1

Fear Itself: The Worthy (2011) #1

All-Winners Squad: Band of Heroes (2011) #1-5

Captain America and Falcon (2011) #1

Captain America: A Little Help (2011) #1

Captain America Corps (2011) #1-5

Captain America and Bucky (2011) #620-624

Captain America: Hail Hydra (2011) #1-2, #5

Captain America v6 (2011) #1-2, #19

The Winter Soldier (2012) #1-19

Marvel Zombies Destroy (2012) #1-5

Secret Avengers v1 (2010) #15

Secret Avengers v2 (2013) #9, #16

Captain America v7 (2013) #6, #13, #20

Winter Soldier: The Bitter March (2014) #1-5

Marvel 75th Anniversary Celebration (2014) #1

All-New Marvel Now! Point One (2014) #1

All-New Invaders (2014) #1-15

Original Sin (2014) #1-8

Bucky Barnes: The Winter Soldier (2014) #1-11

Black Widow v5 (2014) #8, #12, #15, #17-18

Planet Hulk (2015) #1-5

Runaways v4 (2015) #1-4

1602 Witch Hunter Angela (2015) #1

1872 (2015) #1-2

Red Skull (2015) #1-2

Civil War (2015) #1-4

Captain America: White (2008) #0-5

Captain America: Sam Wilson (2015) #7-8

Loki: Agent of Asgard (2014) #12

A-Force v1 (2015) #5

POP Secret Avengers: A Tussle in Time (2016)

Thunderbolts (2016) #1-12

Captain America: Steve Rogers (2016) #1-2, #4, #11-13, #16, #18

All-New, All-Different Avengers (2015) #8-9

Avengers Standoff: Welcome to Pleasant Hill (2016) #1

Avengers Standoff: Assault On Pleasant Hill Alpha (2016) #1

Avengers Standoff: Assault On Pleasant Hill Omega (2016) #1

Black Widow v6 (2016) #9-10

Captain Marvel v6 (2016) #8

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2016) #8

A Year of Marvels: July Infinite Comic (2016) #1

Generations: Sam Wilson: Captain America & Steve Rogers: Captain America (2017) #1

Secret Empire (2017) #0, #2, #4-5, #8-10

Secret Empire: Brave New World (2017) #1-2, #4-5

Secret Empire Omega (2017) #1

Tales of Suspense v2 (2017) #100-104

Captain America v8 (2017) #25, #695, #701

Captain America v9 (2018) #1, #5-7, #12, #19-21

The Punisher v8 (2016) #227-228

The Punisher v9 (2018) #5

Old Man Hawkeye (2018) #6, #8

The Unstoppable Wasp (2018) #7-10

Rise of the Black Panther (2018) #3

Captain America Annual (2018) #1

Winter Soldier (2018) #1-5

Invaders (2019) #1-12

War of the Realms (2019) #3-5

War of the Realms - Strikeforce: The War Avengers (2019) #1

Strikeforce (2019) #1-9

Web of Black Widow (2019) #2, #5

Deadpool v5 (2018) #13

Gwenpool Strikes Back (2019) #3

Captain Marvel v8 (2019) #6

Uncanny X-Men (2019) #11

Marvel Comics (2019) #1000-1001

Marvel Comics Presents (2019) #7

History of the Marvel Universe (2019) #2, #5

Avengers: Save Like A Hero (2019) #1

Captain America & The Invaders: Bahamas Triangle (2019) #1

Spider-Woman v6 (2020) #1

Amazing Spider-Man (2020) #38

Ruins of Ravencroft: Dracula (2020) #1

Hawkeye: Freefall (2020) #1, #4

Falcon & Winter Soldier (2020) #1-5

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Other Bucky reading guides *work in progress*

BuckyCap | Kid!Bucky | Steve/Bucky | Bucky/Nat | Falcon/Bucky | Bucky/Daredevil | Bucky/Hawkeye

------------------------------------------------

updated 12/08/20

[digsyiscomics]

Incredible Hulk v2 #377, January 1991, written by Peter David, penciled by Dale Keown

[comicreadingorder]

X-Factor by Louise Simonson Reading Order

When this series started the main X-Men team was full of all new people while Angel, Iceman and Beast had left to bump around between college and groups like the Champions, Defenders and Avengers. Jean was dead, and Cyclops ceded leadership of the team to Storm before retiring to Alaska with his wife and newborn son. ...But fans missed the originals so Marvel jumped through some silly hoops and retconned everyone back to their original versions.

The basis of the team is that X-Factor advertises themselves as humans who hunt down mutants, taking advantage of prejudice to get people to call on anyone they suspect of being a mutant. Once alerted the team would confront the person and, if they actually were a mutant, try to help them by inviting them back to base to stay and learn their powers.

While I wrote lists for other X-Men runs, each is supposed to function by itself rather than part of some master list. I’m sure you could piece them together easily enough if you wanted, but this is made with the mindset of someone only reading X-Factor. Bold=important or official part of the story Italics=optional with a note to let you decide for yourself

Avengers 263, Fantastic Four 286 -- These issues set up the return of the main team and lead into X-Factor 1.

X-Factor (V1) 1-4

XF Annual 1

XF 5-8 -- Louise Simonson takes over with 6 and lasts through 62.

Mutant Massacre

This was the first of the big 3 crossovers uniting the X titles. Despite being the newest, it really thrived during these crossovers, telling such big stories that they almost felt like the main title.

Uncanny X-Men 210, XF 9, UXM 211, XF 10, NM 46, Thor 373, Power Pack (V1) 27, UXM 212, Thor 374, XF 11, UXM 213

XF 12-16

Thor 377, 378 -- A big change to Iceman that lasts through the entire run.

XF 17

XF Annual 2

XF 18-20

Incredible Hulk 336, 337 -- XF 20 leads into these 2 issues. It doesn’t lead back into their title or get mentioned again but they ARE a significant part of the story.

Fall of The Mutants

The second “crossover” of X-titles, except they all pretty much tell their own story in different, unrelated parts of the world so I didn’t include everything. Hulk is just a transition issue for UXM, PP shows an extended XF fight, Cap closes up a loose end, FF is an epilogue. The UXM issues are there because they’re mentioned in Inferno, where the two titles come together.

XF 21-23, UXM 220-224, Incredible Hulk 340, XF 24, 25, PP 35, UXM 225-227, Captain America 339, XF 26, FF 312

XF 27-29

XF Annual 3 -- Part of the Evolutionary War Annuals crossover but each annual’s story is pretty self-contained to their title.

XF 30-34

Inferno

Here the titles cross-pollinate heavily, ending up with some characters jumping over to other books. New Mutants also tells a significant part of Inferno that mostly precedes the XF/UXM issues, but I felt like the X-Terminators miniseries explained enough of that story. Plus there’s already so much convolution in this event that I wanted to narrow the view. UXM 239, X-Terminators 1, XF 35, XT 2-3, XF 36, UXM 240-241, XF 37, XT 4, UXM 242, XF 38, UXM 243, XF 39

XF 40

NM 76

XF 41, 42

XF Annual 4 -- Part of Atlantis Attacks, works as one-shot, follows up on the previous NM issue.

XF 43-58*

Days of Future’s Present: FF Annual 23, NM Annual 6, XF Annual 5, UXM Annual 14

XF 59

XF: Prisoner of Love -- Self contained one-shot about Beast. Mostly just adding to let you know it exists; as far as I know it’s never mentioned again.

X-Tinction Agenda: UXM 270, NM 95, XF 60, UXM 271, NM 96, XF 61, UXM 272, NM 97, XF 62 -- The last big X-over of the three titles during the Claremont era, also the last issues written by Simonson.

XF 63-64**

UXM 273 -- X-Tinction Agenda epilogue by Claremont, also the last issue of his original run where he did both the plot and script.

Kings of Pain: NM Annual 7, New Warriors Annual 1, UXM Annual 15, X-Factor Annual 6 -- Story across annuals about NW and X-Force with backups about Freedom Force. Totally skippable if you’re not reading those. Put here for breathing room between it and the Muir Isle saga.

XF 65-68

Muir Isle Saga: UXM 278-279, XF 69, UXM 280, XF 70

X-Men (V2) 1-3 -- This serves to show all the characters together before they split into teams.

At this point Peter David takes over writing and creates an entirely new team, starting a run that’s popular in its own right.

To follow Cyclops and Beast continue with the Blue team in X-Men (V2) 4.

For Jean Grey, Iceman and Archangel jump to the Gold team starting with Uncanny X-Men 281. See Also:

*X-Men Legends 3, 4 -- X-Men Legends is a 2021 anthology title that had original creators return to tell stories set during their era. The Simsonsons wrote this to take place immediately “before 43″ but like every prequel type thing it spoils later stuff.

**X-Factor Forever 1-5 -- Out of continuity mini from 2010 by Simonson set after her departure in XF 64, it allowed her to show what her future plans for the team were before leaving. Best read after you've finished everything, like a deleted scene or bonus content.

[hellzyeahwebwielingessays]

The Not-So-Amazing Mary Jane Part 19: MJ is NOT a super hero

Previous Part

Next Part

Master Post

Mary Jane is an incredibly gifted woman who you don’t want to mess with. But do those gifts really make her a hero, one who could take on Mysterio?

I was initially planning on looking at Mary Jane’s combat record in this post. However, before doing that there needs to be a dash more context to really put things into perspective.

I could simply cite Sen v2 #32 to prove my point. In this issue the Parker family are on the run since Peter unmasked and opposed the Super Human Registration Act. At her wits end MJ contacted Sue Richards for guidance.

During their conversation MJ opens up about how stressed she is. She even refers to Sue and other heroes as ‘you people’, clearly demarking a difference between them and herself.

Sue basically tells MJ to toughen up, referencing herself, Jessica Jones and Storm, the (then) wives of Reed Richards, Luke Cage and Black Panther respectively.

However, at the end of the conversation MJ points out the difference between herself those women was that she didn’t have powers to fall back on.

There you are. MJ herself acknowledging she has no powers and is not a super hero.

End of discussion.

Well no, because we can dive much deeper.

Let me start with this irrefutable statement: Mary Jane is a bad ass.

She truly is.

Mentally, emotionally, physically, she’s pulled off some truly impressive things.

But the thing is those things she’s pulled off…they wouldn’t be that impressive (if at all) if say, Wonder Woman did them. Or She Hulk. Or Mockingbird. Or Batgirl/Barbra Gordon. Or you know…Spider-Man himself.

So why do fans gravitate towards these things, these feats of heroism, self-defence and protection of others?

Because they are impressive considering Mary Jane is NOT a super hero.

You see it’s all a matter of scale.

The Chameleon is a trained and experienced mercenary but doesn’t possess any super human powers beyond the ability to change how he looks. In what has become one of her most iconic moments, Mary Jane defeated him with a mere baseball bat. This occurred when she knew what to expect, when Chameleon was underestimating her and when he was unarmed. That is  impressive no doubt.

But were the situation the same but Batgirl was substituted for Mary Jane it wouldn’t nearly be as impressive because Batgirl, even with just a baseball bat, is at worst on a similar power level as the Chameleon. But in all seriousness is almost certainly his superior in terms of combat proficiency. She’s thoroughly trained in various forms of hand-to-hand combat, strategy, thinking on the back foot and highly experienced.

And experienced against people who’re actually much more physically dangerous than the Chameleon, such as Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy or the Joker. When you remove Chameleon’s stealth and weapons you are left with someone who is highly violent and could kill the average civilian if given the chance…but ultimately not someone as dangerous as most of the famous super villains from Marvel or DC.

If anything arming Batgirl with a baseball bat would be needlessly excessive, she could defeat Chameleon with just some punches or kicks.

Now apply that same scenario but substitute in Mockingbird, who can dent steel with her bare hands and has an accelerated healing factor and arguably superior fighting skills to Batgirl. Or how about She-Hulk, someone with vastly more strength, an even better healing factor and immensely more durability. And as Wonder Woman…she is literally a millennia old demi-goddess with divinely empowered durability, strength and speed, fast enough in fact to easily deflect bullets. *

If you were told any of these  women defeated the Chameleon with ‘just a baseball bat’ would you  be impressed? Would you feel that’s a huge accomplishment for any of them?

Of course not.

Because on even an incredibly rudimentary power scale common sense would clearly define for you that Chameleon wouldn’t be a physical threat to any of them.

Because they are actual super heroes wit either physically enhanced physiologies or advanced equipment or highly practiced expert level combat training.

The reason MJ dispatching the Chameleon has been celebrated for over 20 years is because none of that applies to her.

Let’s unpack exactly  what MJ does and doesn’t have in her arsenal.

Mary Jane lacks any bona fide super human abilities or advanced combat training.

She has experienced being targeted directly by criminals or being caught up in criminal encounters. But these are intermittent experiences resulting from either her association with people the criminals have a grudge against (typically Spider-Man) or plain bad luck. She does not regularly  in her day-to-day life deal with such things nor does she even deal with them on a weekly basis in her life. If she does they are likely the result of simply living in Marvel’s version of New York city, which thereby means most of her experiences are the same as the average resident of the city.

Apart from these intermittent experiences (and exempting her seeking help from others) the traits she possesses that might (in one capacity or another) be applicable in a dangerous situation are as follows:

She is a physically fit woman approximately aged between 24 and her mid-30s. But nowhere close to being Olympic athlete levels of fitness. 

Excerpt from ‘The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Spider-Man 2004’

In terms of conventional/stereotypical beauty standards she is generally considered to be stunningly attractive. She is 5’8” and weighs in at 120 lbs. Her outward appearance then could potentially be used to make her would-be assailants underestimate her or even be dazzled by her beauty as a distraction

Mary Jane is not blind to the harsher realities of life and has developed proficient street smarts. But it’s not like she knows where to find stool pigeons and how to go about shaking them down for information, nor the inner workings of the criminal underworld.

She is a skilled actress particular practiced at adopting the façade of a seemingly carefree and simple party girl

She is at worst rather experienced when it comes to flirtation. Arguably we could extrapolate this into her being decent at general seduction but that’s debatable

She has good at improvising

She is exceptionally skilled in social interactions

She has a pretty decent ability to read people’s personalities, but is not a fully trained psychologist or any similar field that’d make her an expert at reading people very quickly and taking advantage of them as a result

She has certain basic self-defence skills gleamed from classes most people can attend

She has had at exactly one basic training session with Captain America, where the focus was more upon mental discipline and focus. The session never implied he taught her any practical self-defence moves and the session was geared more to instructing Peter  not Mary Jane.

She has demonstrated/developed certain basic and unrefined (albeit often proficient) self-defence skill. These primarily consist of using melee weapons (typically objects not actually designed for such a purpose, like baseball bats) and to a lesser extent firearms, and to an even lesser extent hand-to-hand attacks. Mary Jane for instance has never been shown to practice using a handgun, although she does know how. She can slug someone in the jaw, but she’s never been shown to have trained how to do that, you see what I am getting at.

Technically speaking she possesses a pair of bracelets that are modified web-shooters, along with a set of regular web-shooters. 

The former have a limited amount of web-fluid and are designed to stall a target, with the aim being for Mary Jane to surprise her assailant and buy time to escape, not engage in an outright fight. She has been shown to rarely carry either of these on her person though and there is no implication she has them in Amazing Mary Jane #1. Additionally since she is on set it would be unlikely that she’d be allowed to wear them as they wouldn’t be part of her on outfit for the movie.

Along with most of New York she has possessed identical powers to Spider-Man (in addition to organic based web-shooters) for less than 24 hours, during which time she displayed a proficiency in using them (due to bad writing, literally no one struggled to adjust to the use of Spider-Man’s powers). She has never possessed these powers again since, and this includes in AMJ.

On a handful of occasions she has piloted various different advanced armoured suits designed by Tony Stark. These have chiefly included his rudimentary MKII armour and the Iron Spider armour originally designed for Peter’s use. 

In both she demonstrated proficient defence skills. It is not clear how easy the armours are to use so whether MJ’s proficiency was due to a natural skill or due to the armour’s design is debatable. Regardless there is no indication she regularly has access to this technology and certainly not in AMJ.

MJ possesses incredibly strong willpower and understands the need for self-sacrifice, demonstrating in her time a willingness to give something of her self for the good of others. This could be important in regards to protecting other people.

As you can see MJ’s skillset is impressive for a civilian.

But some instances (like the Stark armours she’s donned) make the depths of her skills unclear. The most advanced equipment she has access to are her web-shooters but she is shown to only use or even carry them on occasion. In both cases she is not shown to have access to either in AMJ. Her other skills are things anyone in real life could hypothetically possess and in fact several other civilians in the Marvel universe either do possess or could possess.

What I'm saying is Mary Jane is, by any metric, a civilian.

A civilian who knows how to use a gun, has had cause to defend her self dozens of times and is very good at thinking on her feet. But a civilian nevertheless.

She has the spirit to cut it as a superhero but not without powers, training or access to advanced equipment like Iron Man’s armour. None of which she currently possesses or has access to in AMJ.

When you get right down to it the reason we fans celebrate whenever Mary Jane triumphs or survives or even just pulls off some good moves against a criminal or super villain is because we understand she is ultimately the underdog.

We grasp that it’s innately more impressive for someone in the featherweight division to even hold their own for a little while against someone in the heavyweight division because normally they wouldn’t stand a chance and we are naturally inclined to be sympathetic towards them.**

This isn’t exclusive to Mary Jane by any means, underdog stories date back to the Bible itself with the classic tale of David and Goliath.

To use an example closer to home though, in ASM #229-230 Spider-Man had to stop the Juggernaut, a villain whose strength and durability had given him a reputation as unstoppable. He regularly tangled with the Hulk and was over all far beyond Spider-Man’s weight class. The story is widely regarded as one of the all time best in Spider-Man history, primarily because  it is such a shining example of an underdog story.

Such stories are fairly common in super hero comic books, but so too is the popularity of civilian supporting characters that contend with outright super villains and criminals.

Alfred Pennyworth is utterly beloved within the Batman fandom with his attempts and successes at dealing with Batman’s infamous rogues celebrated. The same goes for Edwin Jarvis, sometimes celebrated as the bravest of all the Avengers. Jarvis’ popularity is such he was in fact the main character of the milestone 400th issue of the Avengers. And to use a closer equivalent to MJ, Lois Lane’s moments of skill, toughness and bravery in the face of danger are celebrated within Superman circles.

NONE of these characters are super heroes. Even Alfred, who (in most modern incarnations) has some military history, is still a more elderly gentleman thereby accentuating his vulnerability and making his victories all the larger.

With that out of the way, we now have the appropriate context to start examining some instances of MJ defending herself.

* And what about Spider-Man himself? Has he not tangled with Chameleon often? Is it not usually impressive whenever he defeats him? Indeed it is…but rarely whenever Spider-Man physically  over powers him. 

Because we readers are very aware that Spider-Man is physically stronger and faster than the Chameleon and his other powers give him yet more physical advantage over him. 

In fact a poignant Chameleon storyline entailed Chameleon (in disguise) tricking Spider-Man into removing  his powers and thereby rendering him vulnerable.

Even then, the Chameleon opted to hire muscle (mainly muscle with super powers) to take on Spider-Man rather than fight him personally.

Chameleon’s awareness of Spidey’s superior might is arguably the reason he recruited physically powerful Kraven the Hunter in ASM v1 #15 (Kraven’s debut and Chammy’s second outing). 

Spidey’s victories over Chameleon are impressive or cathartic not because Peter overpowers him physically, but does so mentally. This is in fact showcased in the very same storyline that Mary Jane famously took a bat to Chammy’s cranium; specifically Spec #243.

In this story, Chameleon (in the guise of Doctor Kafka) uses drugs and makeup to trick Spider-Man into believing he is someone else. However, drawing upon his will power and affection for his loved ones Peter breaks free of Chameleon’s trap.

**And I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge that a part of that for at least some fans is the fact that Mary Jane is a woman doing such things, and a female love interest to boot.

Stereotypically women aren’t superheroes or action heroes, and stereotypically love interests are the ones in need of saving, not the ones saving themselves or others.

For some fans this appreciation of stereotypes being subverted can come from a bad place. “Mary Jane just beat a super villain even though she’s a chick!”

For others the appreciation can be viewed as empowering. To perhaps reveal a stereotypical view of my own, I imagine female readers would constitute the majority of this category, although in theory anyone who feels like an underdog or perhaps vulnerable could resonant with MJ’s victories.

Finally there are definitely some readers who appreciate these examples because they are just plain refreshing.

And of course some people might just like Mary Jane in general so seeing her shine in some capacity could do it for them.

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[marvelman901]

Rick Jones, sidekick of the Hulk and Captain America. . 1st - 4th slide is from the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe v3 19 (1992) by Keith Pollard and Josef Rubinstein. 5th slide is from Fantastic Four 12 (1963) by Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers. 6th slide is from Incredible Hulk 410 (1993) by Gary Frank and Cam Smith. 7th slide is from Incredible Hulk 411 (1993) by Gary Frank and Cam Smith. 8th slide is from What If? v2 53 (1993) by Dane McCart. . Richard M Jones . #marvel #superhero #comics #hulk #rickjones #90s #60s #fantasticfour #keithpollard #captainamerica #josefrubinstein #whatif #garyfrank #camsmith #danemccart #arizona #avengers https://www.instagram.com/p/CFYkMeNB9gG/?igshid=1gcclbkaah4xh

[lesser-mook]

Betty Who??? (Caiera x HULK / Banner) Best couple

Physical equal

She takes no bullshit 

Her backstory is cool

Her power is like a not-so quai-avatar state

And she made Earth her bitch in less than 24 hours to avenge Hulk in an alternate universe. SHE made EARTH & everyone in it a shrine to her husband. What’s stopping you from doing that? 

Jk but no seriously, that’s the kind of woman we’re dealing with here, and yet Marvel haven’t done ANYTHING with her or Rider NOVA

Make it make sense to me.

Source: Incredible Hulk v2 103

[zalimaaa]

☕️ Rank the marvel movies

there’s like 30 of them i can’t rank them all 😭 i’ll do it by phases

phase 1: avengers assemble, iron man 1, first avenger, iron man 2, thor, incredible hulk

phase 2: winter soldier, guardians of the galaxy, iron man three, age of ultron, ant man, thor the dark world

phase 3: infinity war, endgame, thor ragnarok, guardians of the galaxy v2, black panther, homecoming, civil war, far from home, captain marvel, doctor strange, ant man and the wasp

[redbettyross]

Bruce & Betty reunited in Incredible Hulk #68