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Saturday, July 31, 2010

If Only I Could Have Seen...

Doug: Today's question is one for the "thinking cap", or in the immortal words of that lovable/hatable reptile Barney -- "Use your i-ma-gi-na-tionnnnnn!" If you could have been present or party to any event in the Bronze Age, what would it have been, or where would you like to have gone?

Doug: I think you're about to get the sense that the BAB is having a love-fest with one Dr. Henry Pym in the month of August.
I've said before that I'm a big Pym fan and think he's gotten quite a raw deal throughout his four-color history. You will see a whole lot of him beginning Monday, when we'll start out with a look at his threads through the years, and then launch into the four issues that were the "Bride of Ultron" story. To kick it all off, I'll share my moment of imaginary involvement and it deals with the good doctor. It comes from the pages of Avengers #140. After a particularly stressful chain of events and a taxing battle against Whirlwind (when Hank broke his personal pledge to never grow again), Hank passed out on the steps of a hospital. He had been on his way to visit his wife, the Wasp (who was recovering from her own injuries), and after falling began to grow at an uncontrollable rate. George Tuska had some great panels in that book, although at times the scale of Hank's body was very inconsistent. Of particular note is the panel to the right of Hank's body literally filling a street, as seen from a quinjet piloted by the Vision. It would have been something to have seen.

Doug: What comes to your mind? Let us know by sharing a fun memory -- most of this will be "as seen through the eyes of a child", so there's nothing too silly or weird to comment on. Have fun with this! And have a great weekend.

4 comments:

  1. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you..!! I'm a big Pym fan as well, always LOVED Yellowjacket, and thanks for doing some columns on him. I really hated the whole spouse abuse thread, like most fans did. YJ was the best...!

    Loved his short stint early on with the Defenders and that wonderful Sal Buscema art. That would have been a nice alternative for him.

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  2. Hi David,

    yes, I wonder what might have happened with Hank if he'd stuck with the Defenders. Maybe he'd have had a happier life?!

    It's a real shame how he's become such a whipping boy. I thought that Steve Englehart did some nice work 'rehabilitating' him in West Coast Avengers, but most of that was negated by recent writers.

    Karen

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  3. Getting back to the topic of this forum, I can't really think of a specific event that I would liked to have seen in real life. However, there's not much I can say I would liked to have seen or witnessed that CGI in the super-hero movies of roughly the past decade hasn't accomplished (i.e. seeing Human Torch or Iron Man flying around, Spider-man slinging between skyscrapers, etc.) Hell, even that atrocious Howard the Duck movie back in the 80s did a half-way decent job of portraying a "realistic" looking Howard.
    So I'll just address second part of Doug's question, "...where would you like to have gone?"
    Answer: blue area of the moon.

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  4. Stuff I’d like to have seen:

    When the Watcher filled the sky with boulders to mask the Earth from the Surfer (I know, SA).

    When Jean kicked the crap out of Magneto.

    I imagine the High Evolutionary creating Counter Earth would have been reasonably spectacular.

    Places to go: I always hankered after a vacation in the Negative Zone, but I imagine it’s one of those places that you’d regret going to the minute you arrived. Like Atlantic City.

    Richard

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