Monthly Archive for June, 2010

thursdays superhero portrait – black cat

submitted by da hulk published on June 24, 2010 in comics Tags: , , , .

with the arrival of a new weekly blog around the corner (now going to be thursday and friday), i figured i need to do a “sweeps week” type of thing, hoping to grab a little attention by exploiting women focusing on female characters to try and grab a higher male audience. well, more like i wanted to feature one of my favorite heroines and felt like i needed an excuse to do so. anyways, here she is, felicia hardy, a.k.a. black cat

felicia grew up in queens, and was the daughter of a world renowned cat burglar. throughout her life, she trained in acrobatics and varying fighting styles, and was raised to never settle for second best. she could have been a normal sweet athletic girl, but after getting raped in college, she turned towards revenge and down the dark path (whats with women in comics getting raped in college?). when her vengeance was stolen from her by a drunk driver, he killed her raper (not rapper…), she had to focus her rage elsewhere, so she took on the family trade.

felicia first started wearing her costume when she had to help break her dad out of prison. with the success of that, she began stealing from very prominent figures, such as the maggia crime family. during one heist, she met up with everyone’s favorite wall crawler, spider-man. she felt an almost instant kinship with him, as if she knew she could trust him, even so far as to fall in love with him on the spot.

me-wow!

unfortunately for this little kitten, she wasn’t very good at getting guys, and would do stupid things to try to win his affection… such as steal something valuable, and other criminal activities. but he knew she was good at heart, so he tried his hardest to have her criminal record expunged.

that’s when she found it, the perfect thing to gain spider-mans affection, stealing a high powered detonator from the kingpin. however, it was being bid on by 2 other villains who desperately wanted it as well, one of which was spider-mans long time nemesis doctor octopus. Felicia successfully stole the detonator, and gave it to spider-man as a gift, at the expense of her being hunted by doc oc. he eventually caught up with her, which didn’t end to well, and she was luckily saved by spider-man. as he was rushing her to the hospital, he realized how much he actually cared for her. her plan… although not really well thought out, worked out in the end.

how she had trouble with men is beyond me

when she got better, good ol spidey was there waiting for her. they soon began dating and spidey actually revealed his identity to her. felicia just couldn’t grasp why you would want to keep a civilian identity, and while peter was somewhat insulted and hurt by this, he let it slide since for once, he was with someone whom he didn’t have to hide his alter ego from. they teamed up as well, fighting crime as a couple and doing a damn great job of it. well, with the exception of her almost always getting hurt and spider-man having to protect her, you know, the perils of being normal.

well felicia had enough with the normal no powers superhero game and went on a quest to get some cool ass powers. unfortunately all the heroes she tried to contact were too busy that day, or just flat out refused to help. running out of options, she decided to go with the same person who helped give powers to other villains, the kingpin. she was given the ability to affect probability, or in layman terms, give herself good luck. there was a hidden downside though, in that whomever she was around, would be affected with bad luck. since her and spidey were an item, he got the brunt of it, which fell into kingpins plans in the first place. all of this bad luck though, pushed spidey to want to break up with felicia, and they went their separate ways, him doing his solo web slinging act, and her turning into a modern day robin hood.

spider-man was fed up with this little curse he mysteriously received, and went to dr. strange to get it taken care of. doing this also removed black cats powers from her, but in the process gave her new powers, heightened strength, increased agility, better balance, night vision, and retractable claws. it was almost like she was bitten by a radioactive cat (in comparison to spider-mans powers, ya know). although this also gave her a much stronger temper and ferocity, making her even strong enough to fight, and beat, sabertooth. but all good things must come to an end, and she was eventually stripped of her powers by another one of spideys villains.

so what is she up to now? she couldn’t stand being so weak again, and went to the tinkerer to have him help her gain some cool tech that would mimic her super powers (which are to complicated to explain). she has even regained her luck powers, and an enhanced sense of smell. though her and spideys on again off again relationship is over, she still helps out when she can,  as the mysterious stranger that shows up to help spidey when hes in a bind.

she can help me out with my bind *wink wink*

personally, i absolutely love black cat. love love love love love her. shes strong, athletic, sexy, fierce, and just plain awesome. her character is pretty well written, although i could do without the constant jealousy over mary jane. but then again, it adds a bit more personality to her. i really wish they would have given felicia her own series, and i’m getting sick of seeing her play second fiddle to a grouping or pairing of heroes. I never really saw the need to strip away her powers only to give them back shortly afterwords.  hope you enjoyed it, if you have a specific hero in mind you heard about and want to be featured, drop me a comment. stay tuned for tomorrows “fridays crime journal”

7:34 PM

submitted by andrew kim published on June 23, 2010 in photos and rambling Tags: , .

the world could very well be coming to an end. i’m sitting in my room and marija texts me that it’s getting brighter outside. now im wondering how the hell i dozed off for so long then i realize its like 7 pm. nearly all week and day its been raining and gloomy out, especially today on my way home just a few hours ago. now your telling me its getting bright as shit outside? although it is nearly as bright as the late afternoon, the sun is not shining at all since my shutter speed is low at the lowest f-stop. to the human eye it is damn bright at this hour but to the camera it is very dark out.

nearly 2 hours later its pitch black outside and with the same shutter speed i can’t see a damn thing. crazy chicago weather -_-

reach teaser

submitted by andrew kim published on June 23, 2010 in art, excess and photos Tags: , .

little something from the personal unreleased collection. snapshot series with overlaying type not only as a title, but a means to balance the flawed photo or offset the visual with contradicting verbage.

thursday superhero portrait – dr. henry pym

submitted by da hulk published on June 17, 2010 in comics Tags: , , , , , , , , .

welcome back to thursdays superhero portrait. forgive me because this one might run a little long, but what would you expect from a founding avenger.

dr. henry pym has been in the marvel universe longer than almost every character, making his breakthrough in 1962, just 1 year after the fantastic four gained their powers. hank didn’t have powers at that point though, he just discovered the method to gain them.

henry was an all around super genius, having a ph.d in biochemistry, robotics, cybernetics, quantum physics, and entomology (personal note: find out where he went to college to gain all those degrees within 10 years). during a few tests, he discovered a new sub-atomic particle which he aptly named, pym particles, because apparently super geniuses aren’t known for their naming conventions. he used the newly discovered particles to help make a size altering formula and decided that the best person to test it would be himself. instantly he was shrunken down to the size of a small bug and was attacked by ants from a nearby anthill. pym eventually freed himself and used his mastery of cybernetics to make a helmet that would allow him to communicate with the ants, just in case he shrinks again. he also used his ph.d in home economics to create a spiffy little costume too. donning the costume, the ant talking helmet, and his shrinking formula, he decided to help save the world as the worlds smartest and smallest superhero… ant-man.

tried to find a nice looking pic to counter the lameness of the name

in his ant man persona, he had taken on scores of villains, including the kgb. yet as hank, he was still trudging forward with his scientific pursuits. while assisting one fellow colleague dr. vernon van dyne, he met his beautiful socialite daughter janet van dyne and began dating her. when vernon was murdered, jan asked hank to help her get revenge, and he did. he revealed his secret identity, grafted wings to her back, and infused her with pym particles, making her the new heroine, the wasp. the two of them were a team for a while, even when they gathered with other super heroes to help form the avengers.

Pym got tired of all the tiny penis jokes and did more modifications to his formula. finding out it can also increase the size of a person, he instead decided to go from tiny to huge, and called himself giant-man (again, naming convention thing).

does it look small from down there?

with the increase in size, also came a proportionate strength, and after a while, decided to pick a new identity which was somewhat fitting, calling himself goliath. also during this time, hank used his mastery of cybernetics, robotics, and ai to create a sentient robot called ultron. ultron however turned on his master with a complete oedipus complex, and became a complete sentient machine. this would be one of hank pyms greatest failures, and was the instrument of many battles with the avengers, and even a few of their deaths.

henry and janet eventually got married and once again, hank wasnt content with his own persona and had to change it yet again. This time donning the hero name yellowjacket, he used his pym formulas to both shrink and grow so he wasn’t stuck with just one trick up his sleeve. he was still distraught over the looming regret of creating ultron, and did everything he could to redeem himself with his fellow team members. so what was the best way to achieve redemption?

spousal abuse! epic win!

obviously, the marriage didn’t last, and pym became known as the douchebag avenger, and losing prestige among his friends, teammates, and colleagues. the following years get a little tricky and very complicated to explain, so lets try and sum it up. (it actually follows almost a soap opera) *takes a deep breath*. after the marvel civil war it was revealed that an alien race known as the skrulls had kidnapped and impersonated many of the superheroes. turns out that hank was one of those that was kidnapped yet nobody knows when he was actually taken and impersonated. also during this time, ultron re-emerged and battled the avengers, killing pyms ex-wife janet. when the invasion of the skrulls was beaten back, the real hank came back to this whole mess. he holed himself up in his lab to sulk, create, and plot, not as ant-man, giant-man, goliath, or yellow jacket, but just regular ol scientist henry pym.

so where is he now? ill tell you of course.

hank pym has been dubbed the scientist supreme by the celestial forces themselves, which is the equivalent of the sorcerer supreme title that dr strange has, only it involves being able to do things with science that mimic magical powers. not to mention he is the 3rd smartest person in the marvel universe, only being topped by mr fantastic and doctor doom. also, he took on yet another superhero persona, calling himself the wasp, in memory and honor of his dead ex-wife. also with the many years of using the ant-man and giant-man formulas, hank pym has been permanently infused with the pym particles, giving his the ability to alter his size with just a thought. he also created an alternate dimension where his lab is located, that alters the physics of reality and allows for travel to anywhere in mere seconds through any door.he has also created a working sentient robot named jocosta, who looks and acts like janet, only robotic, in hopes to resurect the real janet. lastly, hank has gathered together his own avengers, taking members from various teams such as hercules, stature, quicksilver, and even hulk himself.

that’s right, i’m bad

what do i think of pym? well, its kinda tough to describe. when i first got into comics, i hated him. he was the lame guy besides the awesomeness of iron man, thor, captain america, and hulk. he just didnt stack up. mix that with his constant name changing and it was almost like they knew he wasnt popular, so if they changed his name, it was like a brand new hero. it wasnt till more recently that i started to do a little more analyzation and deep thinking into the characters themselves. you see, even if he was lame, many other people took up the mantles of his former hero names. there have been at least 3 different ant-mans (ant-men?), 3 different goliaths, and his pym formulas have been circling around the marvel universe for decades, even his niece uses the giant man powers. he might not be the greatest, but he sure as hell was inspirational. not to mention his recent improvements in trying to redeem himself, he has become a little badass (or big badass depending amirite?). he even took on mr fantastic in a battle of the minds and came out on top, which is no easy feat, the guy fought galactus multiple times. i guess it comes down to, henry pym kinda grows on you. besides, he is one of the 5 heroes who started the avengers. its just tough to sum a character who has an almost 50 years of experiences to sum up into a blog. if i can suggest some homework, read mighty avengers #25, this is where pym finally gets some balls as the wasp. see you all next week.