Author: Charles Murphy

REVIEW: X of Swords #1-5 is Hickman at his Most Hickman-est

I’m an unabashed fan of Jonathan Hickman’s work in comics. His work, both at Marvel Comics and as an indie creator, has always left me entertained, confused and made me walk away thinking deeply and often coming back to reread issues on multiple occasions. I was thrilled to find out that not only would Hickman be writing X-Men books but also that he was going to be “Head of X”, meaning that he’d be overseeing the entire X-line and that we were about to go on a long journey with one of the best longform narrators in comics.

One of the things Hickman has proven very adept at doing during his tenure with Marvel Comics is subtly reworking and expanding the mythology around some of the publisher’s most popular and well-established characters and he certainly didn’t hold back in doing that when he launched this X-line with dual titles House of X and Powers of X, establishing an incredible series of events and placing Moira McTaggert right in the middle of the very convoluted history (and future) of the X-Men. HoX and PoX launched the first two waves of X-books, all of which have landed more punches than they’ve missed for me, which have been building up to the Hickman’s first big X-event: X of Swords. The line-wide event has just kicked off and I’ve caught up on the first 5 issues of the 22-issue event. Is X of Swords off to a strong start? I have some thoughts!

The first title, X of Swords: Creation, came out swinging and set up perhaps Hickman’s most ambitious and far-reaching work at Marvel to this point. Hickman has spent a good deal of time in Dawn of X rewriting the history of Krakoa, reestablishing the importance of Otherworld and continuing to add to the already impressive personal history of one of Marvel’s most fascinating characters, Apocalypse. Hickman has always been a master world builder and his efforts during Dawn of X might well top any of his work at Marvel to this point. As usual for me, I’ve had to work through multiple rereads of multiple issues to try to get a handle on the disparate threads that are now weaving together in X of Swords but after finishing the first 5 issues of the event, I feel it is safe to say it was time well spent and that we might be in the opening act not only of one of Hickman’s best but also one of Marvel Comics best event-style arcs ever.

Obviously this isn’t just Hickman at work here, though the narrative is certainly his concoction, and the group of writers who have been working to set up the chess board for this event have done a great job of telling their own stories while staying aligned with Hickman’s vision. Specific to this review, the works of Gerry Duggan (Cable and Maruauders), Benjamin Percy (X-Force and Wolverine), Leah Williams (X-Factor) and though her book wasn’t one of the first five issues of the event, Tini Howard (Excalibur). Of the group, Howard’s exquisite Excalibur book has laid much of the foundation for the first 5 parts of the event, bringing Otherworld to the forefront of not just the line of X-books but potentially the entire Marvel Universe. The amount of planning that had to have gone into this is staggering and, I imagine, on par with the 2007-08 Messiah Complex event under the direction of Christopher Yost, yet the team has made it work incredibly well.

What Worked Well:

Pretty much everything. The biggest payoff comes in the form of the latest chapter of the history of Apocalypse. We’ve seen bits and pieces of his past brought to light over the past several months, but the opening salvo of X of Swords clarifies what has to be one of the most shocking retcons in recent memory and something that has been a looming mystery since we were teased with this Sinister Secret all the way back in Powers of X #2:

“For years, this fittest-of-all mutant has routinely surrounded himself with a particular-numbered entourage. These hangers-on stick around for a while until they are eventually replaced with newer, more exciting members. What most people don’t know is that if the original members returned, these pretenders would be dropped so fast their heads would spin.”

As we learned from Krakoa itself (via Cypher), Krokoa is half of a whole with its other half, Arrako, having been separated in an ancient war when the Twilight Sword opened a rift in reality allowing an army of demons to pour through. Here Apocalypse and his original horsemen made a stand against the horde, saving Earth but at the cost of Arrako and the Horsemen being lost in another dimension that Apocalypse was unable to access until now. All of Apocalype’s machinations to this point have been about him finding a way to access Otherworld and then finding his way back to Arrako and now we know why: the original Four Horsemen are the children of Apocalypse, his true heirs and his actions cost him the life of their mother and doomed them to an eternal battle. Once reunited, it isn’t long before Apocalypse is betrayed by his children and the Summoner of Arrako forcing the X-Men to rush to his side and setting in motion the ambitious “contest of champions” that will pit 10 X-Men against 10 Swordbearers of Arrako with the fate of not just mutantkind but mankind at stake! For the first time in a long time, Apocalypse isn’t the one in charge of the game board, finding himself and his nation bending to the will of Saturnyne, the ruler of Otherworld. It’s here where it hit me that this event seems to truly be written for hardcore fans of the X-Men who have poured not only through the Dawn of X books but also the 6 decades worth of stories that came before. Seeing a character like Saturnyne become a major power player by establishing a tournament, the repercussions of which will almost certainly be felt throughout the larger Marvel universe, seems incredibly satisfying as someone who has been a fan of X-books since the early 80s.

I loved the verses recited by Polaris that hint at who the X-Men’s Swordbearers will be and much of what we saw in the first 5 issues (and will see for the next several more, I assume) is the individual journeys of those Swordbearers as they work to acquire their blades and find their way to the circle of Santo (I made that up). While some of the X-Men Swordbearers were predictable before the start (Magik and Wolverine were in the “oh yeah for sure” category for me) and another became obvious in his solo book (Cable), others were more of a surprise and, of course, we get to meet some new and memorable characters on the other side of the contest, such as Solem who has already become an incredibly intriguing character. Through the first five issues, Marauders #13 and the connected narrative of Wolverine #6 and X-Force #13 detail the events of two characters, Storm and Wolverine, in pursuit of the blades they’ll need to join the contest. Both characters are forced to confront their pasts (Strom must infiltrate Wakanda and Wolverine must go back to Hell) in order to acquire their blades. Storm’s tale was especially enjoyable as it allowed readers to revisit her past both as Queen of Wakanda and as a master thief while finding a way to add to the already well-developed history of Wakanda by introducing the Skybreaker blade. If these two stories are the template for what we can expect over the next several weeks as the other key figures gather their swords, we’re in for a treat. These stories are a great reminder of a constant theme in this review: it’s not JUST the mutant nation of Krakoa at risk here.

And finally it’s the emergence of a true threat to the mutants that gives this event the promise of true stakes which then makes it worth reading. Since Hickman established the mutant resurrection protocols with the HoX/PoX relaunch, death has simply become an obstacle to mutantkind and one that is easily overcome. The death of Santo in Otherworld, however, changed the rules of the game as it was revealed that dying in Otherworld, the Nexus of all Realities, means that resurrection is a crap shoot as the “new” Santo was an amalgamation of all Santos (that’s some serious Hickman-ness). So while these brave heroes prepare this tournament, their lives are now truly on the line as they fight for everything they just established.

The first 5 issues are truly Hickman at his most Hickman-est: weaving together multiple threads of complex world building, revealing secret histories of characters and places we thought we knew and quickly establishing that pretty much everything we thought we knew was wrong. It also goes ties back to one of his constant Marvel mantra: everything dies.

What Didn’t Work Well:

It’s hard to give something a fair review when you don’t have anything negative to say. To me this is the type of event story telling I love. It’s complex, layered, requires a lot of prior knowledge and sets up many potential new arcs even as it deals with ones that have been ongoing for some time. By nature then it includes a lot of moving parts and a ton of characters and could, for those reasons, be really off-putting to someone who hasn’t been keeping up. So it probably isn’t the ideal jumping on point if you’re looking to dig into X-books but more of a gift to the hardcore X-fans.

Takeaway:

A well-crafted start to an event that promises big things, X of Swords #1-5 are worth the money and effort you’ve invested so far but might not be for everyone, especially if you’re not up to date on Dawn of X.

October 12, 2020
‘THE NEW MUTANTS’ Headed to Homes Next Month

Fox’s final X-film, The New Mutants, has had about as weird of a journey as any film this side of Wonder Woman 1984, but it’s finally coming home to rest on November 17th. Digital and physical copies will be available the same day allowing fans to finally feast their eyes on the film.

As big of a fan of the property and characters as I am (especially ‘Yana), I made no effort to trek out to the theaters in the midst of the pandemic to see it and, according to the box office receipts, not too many of you all did either. Given director Josh Boone’s controversial takes on quite a few subjects, the lackluster reviews and some of the typical nonsensical Fox hack jobs done to the characters, I’m not sure I’ll be rushing out to snag a copy, but should we all get locked down again for the Winter, it might provide me with a good, cleansing cry.

October 7, 2020
Marvel Studios ‘ETERNALS’: Who is Sprite?

With the Infinity Saga coming to a close, Marvel Studios is preparing to launch into an all-new, all-different era beginning with Phase 4. While several properties are going to serve as deeper dives into already established characters and worlds, Eternals is going to introduce new characters and change what we think we know about the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Eternals were born in the mind of Jack Kiby as Marvel Comics “ancient aliens”: beings of immense power who had protected Earth since the beginning of time. Over the course of history, the Eternals and their enemies, the Deviants, worked their way into the religions and mythologies of many cultures gods and monsters, angels and devils and heroes and villains. Marvel Studios will certainly put their own spin on the characters, but we can still take an opportunity to get to know them here…in 400 words or less!

Despite his child-like appearance, Sprite is thousands of years old and the inworld inspiration behind William Shakespeare’s mischievous A Midsummer Night’s Dream prankster, Puck. The ageless Eternal has spent much of his time on Earth developing his illusion casting skills to the point where they rival those of fellow Eternal Sersi. While he typically uses them to play pranks on humans, Sprite’s biggest “prank” was forcing the Eternals to forget who they were and strip them of their powers as his revenge for them treating him like a child. That prank turned out to be his last as he was killed by Zuras as punishment for the near world-ending catastrophe his subsequent actions caused.

Concept art of Lia McHugh as Sprite, 5th from right

Marvel Studios has cast newcomer Lia McHugh as the Eternals Peter Pan analogue and to this point we have heard very little about what role Sprite will play in the film. Given the relative lack of source material for the character, there are only a few possible options, one being described above while another option would tie into the original Kirby series as see Sprite free Gilgamesh from his captivity in a move that helped save the day. Whatever the case, be prepared for all kinds of mischief when Eternals hits theaters in November of 2021.

October 6, 2020
Murphy’s Law Podcast: Episode 66

Two major news pieces this week as Jamie Foxx is set to return as Electro in Spidey 3 and Marvel Studios has finally found their Kamala Khan! Check out what the Charleses have to say about that and more in the embed below!

October 6, 2020
‘HAWKEYE’ Searching for Young Echo, Crazy Horse Lincoln and More

Marvel Studios streaming series Hawkeye has made quite a bit of news lately and now it looks like they are ready to start filling some supporting roles ahead of what looks to now be a November start of production.

Most notable among them, the series is searching for an actress, 8 years old, to portray a young version of Maya Lopez, whose addition to the MCU we first reported here and was confirmed just last week. The studio is seeking a deaf, Indigenous girl described as “independent, athletic and bright” which, coincidentally are the same descriptors used for Echo in the original call. Additionally, they are also searching for an Indigenous American to portray “a loving father and fierce protector”, a description that fits the bill for Echo’s father, Crazy Horse Lincoln. In the comics, Lincoln worked for and was killed by Wilson Fisk. As he died, he places his bloody hand on his daughter’s face, creating the look for which Echo is famous.

The series is also casting several recurring roles including an Eastern European henchman, an NYC police detective, an “oddball” that sounds suspiciously like Grills (Clint’s neighbor from the Fraction run), a “smart and scrappy” young, Midwestern woman, a pair of young kids (anyone remember Clint babysitting?) and a “professional and ambitious career woman.”

It’ll be interesting to see how this adaptation of the Fraction run works Maya Lopez’s origin story into it. Could Madame Masque fill the role of Kingpin and be the mob boss that sets her on the path to becoming Echo? While it might not be popular with fans, it’s a fairly easy change to have Madame Masque raise Echo and make her believe Barton was responsible for the death of her father, perhaps during his time as Ronin. We’ll have a bit of a wait to find out as it doesn’t seem like we’ll be seeing Hawkeye until late 2021.

October 5, 2020
Marvel’s 10 Most Terrifying Horror Characters

It’s October and that means it’s time for monsters, ghosts and all time of spooky stuff to get their just due. For me, that means taking some time to celebrate some of Marvel’s most terrifying characters and, as an additional bit of fun, compare their Magnitude of Terror to some of my favorite horror films.

Avi Arad

Much of modern horror cinema relies on the main character making a series of terrible decisions that everyone else in the audience can see coming. Nobody related to Marvel has done a better job of tapping into this mojo than Avi. He’s fortunate enough to have his name attached to films like Iron Man and Into the Spider-Verse and some of Marvel’s best animated series, but his real legacy will always be his inability to strike gold with Marvel’s most popular character (Spider-Man) in the midst of the great comic book movie renaissance of the 2010s. His struggles led to everyone’s gain, however, when Sony struck a deal with Marvel Studios to help produce Spidey flicks but it also emboldened him to go off and make whole new series of horrifying decisions like trying to make an Aunt May spy thriller.

Murphy’s Magnitude of Terror Meter: The Shining. Much like the Overlook Hotel, too much time around Avi will drive you completely insane making you capable of unimaginable atrocities.

Blade

Marvel Comics didn’t invent the vampire but Marv Wolfman certainly came up with something spectacular when he thought up Blade. I don’t know enough about the entire history of vampire literature to know if Wolfman invented the idea of the Daywalker or if he was just smart enough to borrow it and incorporate it into Eric Brooks’ story but I do know it made for one of hell of a character. A daywalking vamp that lives to kill vamps and starred in what stands up as one of my favorite Marvel films to this day, Blade has shared the page with big timers like Spidey, Doctor Strange and the Avengers without ever really seeing an incredibly popular solo series. With a Mahershala Ali led reboot/retcon on deck, the character is about to get another chance to bite into the mainstream market.

Murphy’s Magnitude of Terror Meter: The Lost Boys. Frenetic and fully immersed in the terrifying world of vampires but somehow appealing enough to lure you in, Blade absolutely deserves his place on this list.

Dracula

Of all the classic horror characters adapted by Marvel Comics over the years, Dracula has been used to the greatest effect since Gerry Conway brought him into the universe in 1972’s Tomb of Dracula. In addition to having a handful of other great Marvel characters introduced in his comic (Blade among them) Drac has had some legendary run ins with the X-Men and the Avengers. The transition from the blood thirsty monster of folklore to the calculating, scheming power player he’s become in universe has only added to the character’s legacy and h

e’s back again in Ben Percy’s current Wolverine run proving that much like the legend says, he never dies.

Murphy’s Magnitude of Terror Meter: The Silence of the Lambs. Equal parts intellectual, insidious and iniquitous, Marvel’s Drac can get into your head or your throat with ease. As we all sit around and wonder who the MCU’s next “big bad” is, it’s hard to imagine there won’t be more than one and that Dracula could fill the role of one of them in the future.

Elsa Bloodstone

The most underrated character on this list, Elsa Bloodstone is Marvel Comics’ version of Buffy the Vampire on steroids. The daughter of the immortal monster hunter Ulysses Bloodstone, Elsa burst out of the mind of Dan Abnett and onto the pages of the comics in 2001 and has, sadly, been an all too infrequent flyer since; however, she’s always made a big impact on me when she’s been on page and seems incredibly well-suited to find her way into the MCU. Say what you will, but Buffy the Vampire Slayer was a tremendous success in the late 90s and a Bloodstone series would be straight fire on Disney Plus in the 2020s.

Murphy’s Magnitude of Terror Meter: 28 Days Later/Zombieland. Rude, irreverent and deconstructionist, Elsa IS the next generation of Marvel horror even if you don’t know it yet. Like 28 Days Later, Elsa’s story changes the pace of the genre (monster hunter, not zombie, in this case) and produces an underappreciated gem.

Hulk

When the Hulk first hit the pages of Marvel Comics in 1962, he did so as Stan Lee’s amalgamation of two great horror icons (okay, maybe three): Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde and Frankenstein’s monster. Lee thought the idea of a giant monster who was actually a hero was a winner and the first couple of decades worth of stories explored the duality of Banner and his jade-jawed alter (that duality has since expanded significantly into something harder to desribe) who took over once the sun went down. For quite some time those aspects of the Hulk took a backseat as other creators took over and took the character down other different but often interesting paths (the Maestro says hello), but now Al Ewing has brilliantly brought the character back to his roots while finding ways to expand his mythology along the way.

Murphy’s Magnitude of Terror Meter: The Fly (1986). Jeff Goldblum’s Seth Brundle has at least some commonality with Bruce Banner and the Brudlefly and Hulk certainly both have a problem with controlling their primal urges. Of course there’s not a perfect parallel between the two, but the idea of a science experiment going wrong and creating an unimaginable beast who loses control line up and and put them among one of mankind’s most commonly explored themes: the duality of man and the “beast” within us all.

Johnny Blaze

Cursed from birth, Johnny Blaze’s early life story was horrific enough before he made a deal with the devil (Mephisto) to save the soul of his foster father. Through his deal, Blaze became bonded with the demon, Zarathos, the Spirit of Vengeance, transforming him into the Ghost Rider each night. It’s hard for me to think of a Marvel Comics series that deals more directly with the horror concepts of Hell, the devil and the evil of men than Ghost Rider. Of course there have been several other Riders throughout the years, but Blaze stands out not only as the original but as the archetypal innocent whose life was forfeit through no fault of his own. Now the King of Hell, Blaze has changed a lot through the years but he’s arguably one of Marvel’s most iconic characters and has dealt with all manner of demons, witches, magic and the like.

Murphy’s Magnitude of Terror Meter: Bram Stoker’s Dracula

Johnny’s soul was a bit more pure than Vlad’s when he struck his deal with the devil but they both remain men cursed to be monsters by night because they made deals to save the souls of people they loved. While Dracula himself feeds off the blood of others, Johnny’s bonded to a demon who feeds on the souls of sinners and stands as one of the most powerful beings in the Marvel Universe.

Magik

At first glance you might not think that Ilyana Rasputin belongs on this list but a deeper look into her character reveals someone who has gone through Hell. The mutant sister of one the X-Man Colossus, Ilyana’s mutation gifted her the ability to teleport but that’s about the most boring thing about her. As a child, she was taken to the dimension of Limbo by the demon Belasco gained power while he corrupted her soul. Though she initially escaped, Belasco found a way to bring her back which eventually led to her transformation into the demonic Darkchilde and her ascending to the throne as the Demon Queen of Limbo. Also a powerful sorceress, Magik has teamed up with Doctor Strange and other mystics over the years to take on some formidable threats.

Murphy’s Magnitude of Terror Meter: The Babadook

Magik’s childhood trauma would rip the soul from any of us but ‘Yana, with some help from her friends and family, found a way to pull through and become stronger even learning to use her own life force to create her formidable magic blade, the Soulsword. Magik, for the most part, has learned to control the monsters that sought to use her and has become one of the X-Men’s most fierce warriors.

Man-Thing

“Whoever knows fear burns at the touch of the Man-Thing!” A terrifying creature created from the minds of Marvel legends like Stan Lee, Steve Gerber, Roy Thomas, Gerry Conway and Gray Morrow, the Man-Thing is another victim of a science experiment gone wrong. The man that was Ted Sallis became the Man-Thing after working on, among other things, a new version of the Super Solider serum that turned Steve Rogers into Captain America. Though he survived an attack by A.I.M. on his lab, Sallis crashed into a swamp where the combination of the serum he injected into himself and the mystical properties of the swamp (it was later revealed to be the Nexus of All-Realities) collaborated to turn him into the monstrous Man-Thing. The original Man-Things stories saw the creature take on the role of hero by accident as criminals often found themselves up to no good in his swamp. Drawn to the violence through relatively confusing means, Man-Thing’s body would manifest a physical (maybe mystical) reaction to those who fear him and causing them to burn if he touched them. If you’ve never read through these early 70’s gems, do yourself a favor and check out a few on a cold, rainy night this October.

Murphy’s Magnitude of Terror Meter: Halloween (1978)

Emotionless but inexorably drawn to violence and impossible to stop, the Man-Thing has much in common with Michael Myers. His body count, while comprised almost entirely of bad people doing bad things, is probably higher than Michael’s but he remains silent, inhuman killer nonetheless.

Nightmare

One of Marvel’s most conceptually chilling villains, Nightmare has been mostly known as a thorn in the side of Sorcerer Supreme Doctor Strange but has caused plenty of problems for the rest of the Marvel Universe as well. A demon and one of the ancient Fear Lords whose power comes from the fears of other beings, Nightmare carved out his own chunk of the Dream Dimension to lord over and from there he used his power to capture and torment the astral forms of beings while they slept. Given that he draws his power from dreams, he’s essentially indestructible as he’ll continue to exist as long as people dream. His ability to torment sleeping souls doesn’t always end when they wake up either and he’s been proven to be powerful enough that those he torments take their terrors into their waking hours forcing them to question whether they’re asleep or awake.

Murphy’s Magnitude of Terror Meter: A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

The only horror film that ever truly traumatized me was Wes Craven’s OG Nightmare film. The idea of someone like Freddy Krueger who could haunt your dreams, kill you in your sleep and drive you the the brink of insanity while you were awake honestly kept me up at night for months after I first watched the film. Like Krueger, Nightmare loses much of his power outside of his own dimension, but can still provide a formidable threat. Done well, Nightmare could almost be TOO scary for the MCU.

Simon Kinberg

Some recent horror films such as Scream and Cabin in the Woods have successfully gone meta by having the characters aware of horror movie tropes only to have some of those characters ignore the established source material and drive head first into disaster. That pretty much sums up Kinberg’s tenure with the X-Men films which culminated in him somehow making a worse Phoenix film than the original dumpster fire that was X-Men: The Last Stand. Despite having the ability to work with some of Marvel Comics deepest and richest source material, Kinberg seemed to continue to shoot from the hip and never really hit the mark. In addition to whiffing on Phoenix twice, he also managed to screw up Apocalypse, hire Miles Teller to play Reed and turn Doctor Doom into a computer hacker…it’s hard to imagine anything more horrifying than his tenure with these characters.

Murphy’s Magnitude of Terror Meter: Night of the Living Dead. Despite moving at what seemed to be a snail’s pace, Kinberg found a way to make his mark on almost everything you held near to your heart and morph it into something completely unrecognizable and devoid of life through his relentless and unyielding assault on these IPs.

As tough as it was to limit it to 10, I think I nailed it. What characters are in your top 10? Let us know in the comments.

October 5, 2020
FIRST LOOK: Meister Watches Doctor Strange Ambassador X

A couple of months ago, I had to opportunity to get my hands on the MSTR Spider-Man Ambassador X watch and give you guys a first look at it. Meister has now added to there already incredibly impressive line of Marvel watches with another great looking piece: the Doctor Strange Ambassador X.

The face of Meister’s new entry to their Marvel line is among their best looking yet. Including both the iconic Sanctum Sanctorum window and the MCU’s visual representation of the energy channeled by the Masters of the Mystic Arts, the golden circled watch face absolutely catches your eye. I love that Meister went with the green color scheme allowing MCU fans to have their own version of the Eye of Agomotto’s Time Stone spell on their wrists!

The watch has the same scratch resistant lens and comfortable rubber band and buckle as the Spider-Man X and I’m a big fan of them choosing black as it allows me to wear this timepiece almost every day. As with the Spidey piece, this one comes in a box fit for collectors with the inner case showing off the Sanctum logo.

As with many of MSTR’s products, there’s a limited number available (150 in this case), so if this Sorcerer Supreme inspired piece has caught your EYE, don’t wait because unlike Strange, you won’t be able to turn back time to get your hands on one. Take a look at the official specs below and visit the site HERE to check this and all MSTR’s great watches out.

There’s nothing strange about our latest Marvel Ambassador X, only mystical. Constructed in an ultra-lightweight, incredibly strong polycarbonate case in black, the Doctor Strange timepiece features matching gold stainless steel accents. The green design of the dial, second hand, and subdials channel the power of the Time Stone, and reveals a fully functional chronograph. Equipped with a Japanese Miyota JS20 movement, the wizard’s watch is water resistant up to 50 meters. The Doctor Strange Ambassador X is limited to only 150 pieces with each individually numbered on the back case.

October 4, 2020
Marvel Legends First Look: Marvel Studios ‘ETERNALS’ Villain Revealed

Marvel Studios Eternals was originally due out just about one month from now before COVID-19 eventually pushed it all the way to November 2021. Of course the Marvel hype machine for these films starts well before fans ever see any footage and one branch of that machine that requires a large head start is the production of merchandise including collectible action figures. Thanks to one of Marvel’s most popular brands, the 6-inch Marvel Legends, we now have our first look at one of the villains of Eternals, the Deviant warlord Kro! An earlier leak of Funko Pop collectibles based on the film gave away the presence of the character in the film, but now we have our first look at the Deviant leader.

The Deviants and Eternals were opposite ends of the spectrum that was Celestial experimentation on Earth during the earliest age of mankind. Kro is one of the first of the line of Deviants and, in Marvel Comics mythology, is responsible for archetypal Devil of many religions due to his appearance. As you can see from comparing the picture below to the one of the figure above, it seems that Marvel Studios has significantly redesigned the look of the character for the film.

As explained here, Kro carried on an eons long secret relationship with Thena, the daughter of the Prime Eternal, Zuras, as conceived twin hybrid children of incredible power. We’ve heard some rumblings about the Deviants being redesigned for the film and this gives us an idea of just how different they may look from their comic counterparts; however, it’s still unknown what role they will play in the film and if the potential KroThena ship might come into play.

Eternals is now set for a November 5, 2021 release.

October 2, 2020
New Report Seemingly Confirms Echo for ‘HAWKEYE’

A few months back, we discovered that Marvel Studios was searching for a deaf female, Native American, First Nations, Indigenous or Latinx, 18 or older, to play the role of “Malia” in an unspecified Marvel Studios project set to go into production this Fall. At the time we felt strongly that the role was that of Maya Lopez, aka Echo, and that she was most likely to appear in Hawkeye. Today, a new report from the Illuminerdi seems to confirm just that as it indicates that a casting call for Hawkeye featured that same description.

The news, which comes on the heels of learning that the series will also feature Madame Masque, starts to bring the possible premise of the series into focus. We’ve heard that show will deal with the repercussions of Clint’s time as Ronin and now that we know Lopez, who was the original Ronin in the comics, is definitely part of the show, things are starting to crystalize. I’ve long felt and often discussed that Rhodey’s chat with Natasha about the messes Clint had made were more than just filler for Avengers: Endgame. We’ve heard that we’ll see more of Clint in the costume and now it seems that the backstory of Maya Lopez may well be tied to Clint’s time under the mask. Could Lopez be someone that comes back to haunt Clint? Could she have been a protege of his before he met Kate? More questions than answers at this point as we know so little about the series, but with filming starting soon, we should learn more by the day.

Hawkeye seems on track to hit Disney Plus in the Fall of 2021.

September 29, 2020
Marvel Studios ‘HAWKEYE’: Who is Madame Masque?

Marvel Studios Disney Plus streaming series Hawkeye is set to begin production soon and, as we draw nearer to cameras starting to roll, we’re learning more and more about the project. The recent report that one of Marvel Comics classic female villains, Madame Masque, is going to feature in the project has a lot of folks asking the same question: who is Madame Masque. Murphy’s Multiverse is here to help…in 400 words or less!

The woman who would become Madame Masque was born Giuletta Kristina Nefaria, the daughter of Avengers foe and made Maggia man Count Luchino Nefario. The Count sent her away and she spent her early years living with a foster family where she was known as Whitney Frost; however, when she discovered her true heritage, she came back to work for her father and eventually took control of the Maggia. A nasty little accident left her face permanently scarred so she had a fancy golden mask constructed for her, popped it on and became known as Madame Masque. For much of her early years in the comics, she found herself at odds with Tony Stark and while there are some great stories there, they’re not really significant in this context.

Madame Masque made a major resurgence in the 2000s, finding her way into several of the line-wide events such as Civil War, Secret Invasion, Dark Reign and Siege and then, beginning in November of 2012, she became a recurring figure in Matt Fraction’s Hawkeye run. MM caused quite a problem for Barton when she acquired and subsequently auctioned off a recording of Hawkeye assassinating a world leader (don’t worry, he didn’t actually do it). Both Barton and his protege Kate Bishop went to great lengths to prevent the video from going public and eventually stumbled their way into foiling MM’s plan, stoking her rage and making Kate the focal point of her vengeful plot. Madame Masque then became a constant thorn in Kate’s side even following her to Los Angeles and putting her through the ringer on more than one occasion.

Given that Hawkeye is rumored to deal with the fallout of Clint’s time as Ronin, it’s not out of the realm of possibilities that Madame Masque finds her way into the series much in the same way she did in the comics: by having the dirt on the Avenging Archer! We’ll all find out together in 2021!

September 28, 2020