Huntdown Launch Trailer, My Thoughts

The name Coffee Stain Studios may not ring a lot of bells. However, you may have heard of a certain game they made called Goat Simulator. Yup, Goat Simulator came from this Swedish company. In recent years, the company has also gone into game publishing. One game they're doing is a game developed by fellow Swedes called Huntdown. Let's take a look at the launch trailer!

I like the graphics. They kind of remind me of the style of 16-bit/32-bit sprite style games.

And of course, we have the cyberpunk setting. I get why it's a very popular setting. There's something inherently cool about the aesthetic of it. I wonder what city it's set in? New York? Los Angeles? You know, let's assume Peoria. Why not? That's never been done.

Yeah, it's your typical cyberpunk dystopian future, crime rules the streets, we gotta blow up stuff, blah blah blah. But hey, we might get some laughs out of this.

Man, how bad do things have to get for the cops to call in these bounty hunters? Is there no cyber-S.W.A.T. in Peoria? That's a fun name. Peoria, Peoria, Peoria...

Okay, okay!

Anna Conda. Get it? You know, I think Miss Conda would be a great addition to the Mortal Kombat roster. She's certainly got the bloodthirstiness. I can imagine people give Miss Conda a very wide berth. If they're smart.

John Sawyer, cyborg. Descendant of Tom Sawyer. Rush fan. I can imagine it being very awkward for him in grade school, being a man and all.

John bleeds bullets and spits gunpowder. That's why he can't legally donate blood.

Mow Man. That's...that's just beautiful. I love that he also has this classy British voice while bringing the pain and carnage.

This is what The Warriors would be if it was set in the cyberpunk 80s. The Misconducts are my favorite of these gimmicked gangs. 

I loved this trailer. It was funny. I had a good laugh from how the voiceover descried the characters, and the game itself looks like a ton of fun. I hope there's a demo, because I want to try this game out.

Thanks for reading this blog entry! If you liked it, please show it to your friends! Take care of yourself, and each other. Stay safe, stay healthy, and stay home. See you next time!

Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition Announcement, My Thoughts

In 2012, Nintendo released the Monolith Soft-developed game Xenoblade Chronicles in the United States for the Nintendo Wii. It had been previously released in Japan in 2010, and then came to the PAL regions (Europe, Oceania, and Asia) in 2011. The game was part of the Xeno series of video games.

The game would get much critical praise upon release, regarded as one of the very best then-recent  RPGs made. The game would get ported to the New Nintendo 3DS in 2015. A spiritual successor for the game, Xenoblade Chronicles X, would be made for the Wii U, and 2017 would see a sequel for the Nintendo Switch: Xenoblade Chronicles 2.

And speaking of the Nintendo Switch, it has been announced that a remake of the original Xenoblade Chronicles is also coming to the Nintendo Switch. Let's take a look at the announcement trailer!

In Xenoblade Chronicles, you play as Shulk, whom you may know from the Smash Bros. games. Shulk is a scientist who lives on Bionis, a landmass formed from the corpse of a massive armored warrior. When Bionis is invaded by robotic monsters from another giant corpse-turned-landmass called Mechonis, Shulk discovers that he can wield a mystical sword known as the Monado. The Monado grants him the ability to see the future, and Shulk must join with a motley crew of other characters to save Bionis.

I first remember learning of this game when the port of it for the New Nintendo 3DS was announced. It looked like a lot of fun, but I didn't have a New Nintendo 3DS, so I could not play it. So I am thrilled this is coming to Switch.

I wonder if these two Titans will join the Monsterverse. I want to see them fight Godzilla and King Kong.

Did they ever get any lunch breaks during their endless conflict?

Man, I bet Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi would actually get nervous seeing these droids.

Shulk can't die! He's gotta be in Smash Bros.!

If I were Shulk, I would've bought some lottery tickets with that future-predicting power. Sweet sweet jackpot money!

I have to admit, the environments look incredible!

And we have an anime scream!

Future Connected is a special new epilogue that comes with this game. It will focus on one of the characters of the game and include an area that was cut from the original game. Neat, huh? It's nice when a remake includes new content.

I had wanted to play this game in the past, and I am very happy that I finally have the chance to do so now. I am very excited for that. I loved playing as Shulk in Smash Bros., so I am thrilled to be potentially playing his native game for the first time.

Thanks for reading this blog entry! If you liked it, show it to others! Take care of yourself! Stay safe, stay healthy, stay home, and wash your hands often! See you next time!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day, everyone!

Celebrated on the second Sunday in May, Mother's Day is the day we celebrate mothers and all they do for us.

The holiday has its roots in 1868. One Ann Jarvis attempted to create "Mother's Friendship Day" as a way to help families get back together after the American Civil War. Jarvis wanted to expand this into an actual memorial for mothers done yearly, but her death in 1905 prevented that. However, her daughter Anna would continue her mother's efforts.

Anna Jarvis would go on to establish the current Mother's Day as we know it in 1905. She campaigned to make it a national holiday. In 1910, West Virginia would be the first U.S. state to declare the holiday officially, the other states at the time quickly following suit. On May 8, 1914, Congress passed a law declaring the second sunday in May be Mother's Day, which led then-President Woodrow Wilson to declare Mother's Day a national holiday the next day.

Since then, the holiday has been seen as a time to show a little extra love for the mothers of the world, mainly celebrated through the giving of flowers and gifts. So, I hope you got your mother a nice bouquet of flowers and a nice little gift today. And showed her a little extra love today.

Force Works #1 (July 1994)

Back in my review of West Coast Avengers #1 (September 1984), I had mentioned that the original version of the team managed to last quite a few years. In 1994, the original West Coast Avengers' comic book was ended with issue #102 (January 1994), and it seemed that Earth's Mightiest Heroes were not immune to well...comics going all 90s. With the West Coast Avengers now no more, a new team would rise from the ashes, a team dedicated to being more "proactive", to stopping disasters before they happen. A new team...for the 90s. And this new team would be born in Force Works #1!

Ugh...this cover. It's a wraparound piece drawn by Tom Tenney (and inked by Rey Garcia), and...I'll outright say it, this is very likely the ugliest cover I have ever looked at here in the history of this blog. The cover itself is very basic, just showing the members of the team itself, but it just looks...terrible. Also, Spider-Woman? You're not doing a model shoot. I do have a theory on why the art turned out like this. More on that later.

"Day-Break"
Writers: Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning
Penciler: Tom Tenney
Inker: Rey Garcia
Colorist: Joe Rosas
Letterer: Jack Morelli
Editor: Nel Yomtov
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

The story begins with an alien spaceship assuming geosynchronous orbit over Palos Verdes, California.

The inhabitants of the vessel, members of the Kree, are a patient sort. They're waiting to capture two people, and they're willing to wait for the right moment. On Earth, Simon "Wonder Man" Williams and Tony "Iron Man" Stark arrive at the remains of the old West Coast Avengers compound, lamenting the ruin that it has become. The West Coast Avengers had disbanded in Avengers West Coast #102 (January 1994).

The two are joined by one Wanda Maximoff and Julia Carpenter, aka the Scarlet Witch and the second Spider-Woman. The four are next also joined by John Walker, aka USAgent. Tony Stark had gathered the five former West Coast Avengers here because he has plans for the future. You see, Stark wants to create a brand new team.

Stark pitches that this new team be more...proactive. That they take a more aggressive stance when it comes to Earth's defense and security. The 90s, everyone! Wanda, John, and Julia need some time to think this over, but Simon is on board. Confident that the unsure members will join up, Tony shows off a new facility he intends this new team to use as their HQ: The Works, located in Ventura, California.

The Works was a facility that Tony used this as an R&D facility for Stark Enterprises. Tony describes it as essentially a "smart building". It has self-repair systems, options for self-sufficiency, the perfect HQ for a team of superheroes. The building is also mostly completely automated, run by PLATO. PLATO stands for Piezo-Electrical Logistic Analytic Tactical Operator. It's an artificial intelligence that is "related" to an AI Stark himself was using at the time in Stark Industries' computers: HOMER.

No, not that Homer! If you ever watched the 1990s Iron Man animated series, you may be familiar with HOMER. Anyway, John is rather suspicious. Stark wants to form a new team and is giving them  Stark Industries facility to use as their headquarters? It seems to him like the genius billionaire playboy philanthropist wants to form his own personal Avengers team. However, Tony insists that this is not about ego. In fact, he's not going to lead this new team. Wanda's got that job...if she wants it. She's flattered, but she needs to think it over.

Tony lets the Julia, Wanda, and John stay over in the Works's quarters while they make up their minds. He takes Julia to hers.

Julia is won over by Tony's thinking of everything. Tony goes to visit Wanda. He tells her that he needs her on board because...well, she has skills when it comes to working with people he doesn't. Wanda's like "Okay, okay, I'll do it!" Let's check in on John "USAgent" Walker, shall we?

Yup, Tony's made him a brand-new suit. I think it's kind of...meh. I get that it's trying to make USAgent look more unique and less like a Captain America palette swap/alternate costume and all that, but I feel it could have been done a bit better.

There's a reason why artists returned him to his old black costume with slight tweaks here and there. It's rather slick. Back to the comic! John is...reluctant to join up. He's had enough of the superhero business. He feels like a joke, like he's only seen as an imitation Captain America. Wanda points out that he helped train her during their time in the West Coast Avengers together. The team needs him...and that convinces him. USAgent, welcome to Force Works. And with that the team is seemingly assembled. But there still is some old business left over from the dissolution of the West Coast Avengers.

The group heads to the old WCA compound in Palos Verdes, where they discover it has some guests.

Yup, it's Vision and Black Widow of the east coast-based Avengers team. They're there to do a bit of cleanup, mainly collecting the information from the old base's computers. Simon gets really mad about this for some reason, comparing their actions to looters stealing from dead bodies. Simon, the headquarters is a wreck and it's not being used anymore. There may be sensitive data on those computers, so it makes sense Vision and Widow would want to make sure that it's secured.

However, the argument is interrupted by a rain of laser fire from above.

The Avengers have no idea why the Kree are here, but they want to fight, so the Avengers grant their request.

Wonder Man is especially aggressive, punching one Kree soldier so hard that the soldier ends up bringing down the transport that brought the soldiers to Earth. The leader orders the firing of the Ion Cannon, a weapon that seemingly has no effect on Widow or Wanda, but is hurting Simon and Vision. The synthezoid Vision is falling into convulsions, and Simon appears to be leaking ionic energy from his eyes and mouth.

Simon discovers that among the Kree is a Recorder. Recorders are Rigellian robots that basically...record. Literally, that's what they do. They're used to observe, record, and report what they see back to their masters. This particular one was on the Kree's planet Hala when it was destroyed, and it was damaged as a result.

That's when it all clicks together. You see, during the events of Operation: Galactic Storm (a very underrated Avengers story in my opinion), a weapon known as a Nega-Bomb was sent into the heart of Kree territory. In Wonder Man #9 (May 1992), the bomb was detonated despite the attempts of Wonder Man and Vision to defuse it. The bomb destroyed the planet Hala, killing billions instantly.

The Recorder is able to explain that he was tampered with by an unknown party. The purpose? To deliver a communique to the Kree that are attacking. Said message basically said "Wonder Man and Vision blew up your homeworld". Yeah. And since the Kree have likely held grudges against the Avengers for their past encounters...it was not hard to convince them to go pick a fight with Earth.

The weapon the Kree invaders are using here is specially designed to cause Vision's systems to melt down...and Simon's body to overload with ionic energy. And if Simon's body overloads...

Big time. In fact, big enough to kiss Earth goodbye. It's at this point that USAgent and Spider-Woman join the fray. They had to get into costume first. Simon heads up into orbit, the Recorder right behind him. After all, he has a recording job to do. The ionic powerhouse is easily able to smash his way into the orbiting Kree vessel and toss around the Kree warriors inside like they were horseshoes.

Wanda hits the Kree men on Earth with a massive hex, causing their power packs to explode. However, her hex also appears to have had a side effect.

Hey, look! The Avengers made a new friend! And he looks like he's screaming about being really constipated. This art, man... Funny enough, USAgent described him as a "jolly purple giant", even though he's actually gray. Maybe John is colorblind?

The Kree attack our mysterious new arrival, and he kicks their butts. Wanda asks for his name. He introduces himself as "Century", and otherwise that...he has no idea who he is. Despite the memory issues, he and a returning Iron Man return to help turn the tide of the battle. Back out in space, Wonder Man was able to defuse the ion cannon. However, a new problem shows up.

The strange pods seem to be on a collision course with the ship. A couple of the pods slam into the spacecraft, causing the ion cannon's power cells to rupture. Wonder Man grabs the cannon and flies it out into space, hoping he gets it far away enough from Earth to keep it from being harmed by the explosion. And then...it goes up!

The explosion is so big that the rest of the heroes can see it from Earth. And it's not likely Simon survived it. Our heroes have no time to mourn, as the pods land nearby them. Century realizes they contain something called the Scatter, and the heroes should destroy the pods now. Evidently their presence triggered a memory in the mysterious being.

The alien monsters grab USAgent, Spider-Woman, and Scarlet Witch. And then they vanish. A furious Iron Man demands that Century tell him where these "Scatter" have gone with his allies. The alien warrior admits that he does not know, but he does feel he somehow should. The Recorder lands and reports that Simon did not survive the Kree ship's explosion. The story ends with Iron Man lamenting how things have gotten so wrong so quickly.

This comic...yeah. Thing is, it's not quite as bad I would have expected. Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning are actually pretty good writers. What I liked about the story was that we get characters dealing with the fallout of the end of the West Coast Avengers. I also liked seeing some fallout from Operation: Galactic Storm. I did feel that Wonder Man's death was a bit cheap, played only for shock value. At least he went out saving the world. The story is decent, it sets up what we need to set up for a new team, the roster, a bit of character stuff, and a mystery.

The art is the thing that really hurts this comic. With all the weird lines and cracks on the male characters' faces, they all looked desiccated. I felt like I was reading an issue of Marvel Zombies or something. Also, the way the women are drawn feels a bit...off to me. It was the 90s. I did say I had a theory with how the art turned out looking like...this. You see, I got most of the scans for this review from the 2016 trade paperback Avengers/Iron Man: Force Works. It collected the first 15 issues of the Force Works comic, as well as the Force Works Ashcan Edition. Here's a sample of some of the Ashcan Edition's art.

Tom Tenney drew this. He also drew this piece of promotional art.

What I noticed was that the Ashcan and the promotional art were inked by Michael Oeming (credited as "Avon"), whereas the comic was inked by Rey Garcia. Look how much cleaner the art looks with Oeming's inks. My theory is that Rey Garcia may have gotten a little crazy with the inks. I would like to see some of Tenney's original art for a comparison.

The original Force Works title would last 22 issues, being cancelled in 1996. The team would also appear in the 1990s Iron Man animated series, with Hawkeye taking the place of USAgent on the show. During the Fifty State Initiative, a new Force Works team would be revealed to be the state super-team of Iowa. And more recently, as part of the Iron Man 2020 event, a third Force Works team debuted, with veteran member USAgent joining forces with new members War Machine, Quake, and Mockingbird.

Thanks for reading this blog entry! If you liked it, spread it around! Take care of yourself, and each other! Stay safe, stay healthy, stay home, and wash your hands often! Join me next time as we rejoin Wonder Woman as she undergoes her latest labor...

Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath Reveal Trailer, My Thoughts

Last year, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment released the NetherRealm Studios-developed fighting game Mortal Kombat 11 for PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. The game would get praised for the game's graphics, story, and gameplay. However, it was criticized for its reliance on grinding and usage of microtransactions.

In Mortal Kombat 11, the fighters must stop the keeper of the Mortal Kombat multiverse, Kronika, from resetting all of the multiverse. The game had multiple endings, and one of these endings is the basis for the upcoming Mortal Kombat expansion known as Aftermath. As such, there may be spoilers for this game, so keep that in mind before reading further. And with that, let's look at the trailer!

Oh, goody! We get to build a whole new timeline! Now, we have to be very careful when we do such a thing. We can't DC Comics this thing. We have to examine things very carefully and make sure that the timeline is concise and consistent.

Is this a spoiler? I think this is a spoiler. Sorry about that. And yeah, that would hurt.

I still am amazed that they got Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa to voice Shang Tsung. Not to mention let them base the design directly on him. That's really cool. If you don't get the reference, it's because he portrayed Shang Tsung in the 1995 live-action Mortal Kombat film. It's on Netflix, I have to watch it sometime. It's really good.

Looks like we got some characters making a comeback!

Fujin, like the more famous Raiden, is a god. Whereas Raiden is the god of thunder, Fujin's thing is that he's the god of wind. This is also his first appearance as a playable character in 14 years, having been last playable in 2006's Mortal Kombat: Armageddon.

As befitting a god of wind, he basically beats you up with air. His attacks look so cool. I like the one where he uses a tornado to spin his opponent around. And the flying sword is so awesome.

Sheeva is I think a more famous character than Fujin is. She's a Shokan, a member of a race of basically half-human half-dragons. And she likes to rip people apart. Quite literally.

As you can see, Sheeva's attempt at starting a massage parlor...did not end quite well. She never quite mastered holding back on the stomps. And the rest is just her if you stand her up for a date.

"I find your lack of faith...amusing." Heh, Shang Tsung tends to not be bothered by people lacking faith in him. And he's not a Star Wars fan.

Hook in the face and dipped in acid. That will hurt.

And of course, another guest character comes to the game. And it's RoboCop. Considering the Terminator is also in this game, I can imagine they're itching for a rematch. Heck, I think that's why they wanted him in this game. And I think that's Peter Weller himself voicing him! That's awesome!

Well, this is really neat! I hope they have expansions that explore the effects of the other endings of the game. And RoboCop was a very nice surprise addition. I hope there's some fun intro dialogue between him and the Terminator. I am excited for this!

Thanks for reading this blog entry! If you liked it, spread it around! See you next time! Take care of yourself and each other! Stay safe, stay healthy, and wash your hands often!

May the Fourth!

As the title says! May the Fourth be with you!

Hope your May Fourth was a wonderful one. Take care of yourselves, and each other. Stay safe, stay healthy, and wash your hands often! May this and every day after be a good one for you.

Avengers #32 (September 2000)

Last week, we joined Earth's Mightiest Heroes as they helped do some major damage to the Maggia and found themselves involved in a strange mystery involving the longtime Iron Man villain known as Madame Masque. This left the Armored Avenger wanting some answers, and I'm sure you wanted some too, right? Well, let's get some answers! And the only way to do that is to look at Avengers #32!

The cover is pretty awesome! A George Perez and Tom Smith piece, it depicts the hand of the Black Widow holding a small golden coin, depicting the visage of our villainess, Madame Masque. Light is shining off the coin, and the little rays cut out little segments of the cover, which depicts a member of the Avengers team at this point. The only exception is Wasp, who is shown flying over Widow's hand. It's certainly one of the more unique covers I've seen here on this blog.

"Behind the Masque!"
Writer: Kurt Busiek
Penciler: George Perez (layouts), Paul Ryan (finishes)
Inker: Al Vey
Colorist: Tom Smith
Letterer: Richard Starkings of Comicraft, Albert Deschesne
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Editor-in-Chief: Bob Harras

The story begins with She-Hulk leaving Avengers Mansion.

She had stepped up to help provide the team with another powerhouse with the Vision gone. After the events of the last issue, he's back on board. And she has a law practice to get back to, anyway. But if they do need her help, like with the events of the upcoming Hulk Annual, she'll come do some smashing.

It's at this moment that the Black Widow, aka Natasha Romanoff, makes her return. Iron Man has asked her to come by. Where is the Armored Avenger? Well, he's busy coordinating with SHIELD. He tells them that if anything comes up about Madame Masque, the Avengers want first crack at her. SHIELD's then-director, Sharon Carter, is reluctant to do so, as Nick Fury wouldn't make that kind of deal. Not to mention that Jasper Sitwell pointed out that Madame Masque supposedly died in Chicago. Tony reminds Sharon that she runs SHIELD now, not Nick Fury. Run it her way, not his.

Black Widow enters the room and Tony asks if she got "the coin". Well, I'm sure Nat's got some cash lying around...oh, not that kind of coin. Okay, she has a very special coin. The two go to confer, and Janet asks if there's been any news regarding Simon. Wanda did hear a news report about the events of Thunderbolts #42 (September 2000), in which Simon had brawled with the Thunderbolt member Erik Josten, going by Atlas at the time.

Triathlon gets a call from Jonathan Tremont, the head of the Triune Understanding. The Triunes are holding a rally in Boston on Friday, and he's hoping Triathlon will be a part of it. After all, I can imagine for Tremont, having an Avenger there would be a boon for increasing membership. Triathlon basically says "If I'm free, I'll be there. If the Avengers need me, I'll have to help them out."

Tremont basically reminds him, "Hey, we turned your life around. It would be nice of you to come to the rally." But Triathlon has to prioritize the Avengers. Saving the world is more important than a rally. This conversation is overheard by Carol "Warbird" Danvers.

As she considers Triathlon's membership and trustworthiness, she enters the meeting room. The blonde bombshell is going a bit stir-crazy. She wants to go out, have some fun, cause some trouble. Vision offers to take her out to dinner. She reluctantly agrees. After all, Vision wants to build a personal life, and he and Wanda aren't together anymore, so...yeah. A bit awkward, yeah.

Let's switch scenes, shall we? Let's go out to a bar! This bar is normally a quiet, peaceful place near Columbia University. After all, it's frequented by scientists. Barfights are not a thing that happens often here, but one has decided to erupt. It started when someone suggested that Frits Zernicke (the comic misspells his name as "Fritz") didn't deserve the Nobel Prize for Physics that he won in 1953. He won it for inventing the phase-contrast microscope, which allowed the study of the internal structures of cells without harming the cells.

The response was words, but it escalated into shoving matches. And then punches and thrown drinks and chairs. We got a Royal Rumble in the house! And who started this madness?

"But wait a minute!" You may be saying. "How can Hank Pym be causing a barfight here, but also be at Avengers Mansion?!" Well, that's a mystery for another day. The Avengers are concentrating on another mystery: What was up with that fake Madame Masque from last issue? Tony Stark is especially keen on getting answers, due to him and Madame Masque both having history. She was an enemy and love interest of his in the past, basically the Catwoman to Tony's Batman.

During the events of Iron Man #245 (August 1989), and in Iron Man #11 (December 1998) and #20 (September 1999), a dead woman was found in bodies of water. And in all three occasions, Stark was able to identify all three of the women as Whitney Frost, the woman behind Madame Masque's golden...well, mask. Also, back in Iron Man #320 (September 1995), a mysterious woman known only as "Masque" first appeared.

Little was known about this Masque, although it was known she was not Madame Masque, despite their similarities. She also wasn't related to the X-Men's bodyshaping antagonist of the same name. She would become an honorary Avenger, after assisting Earth's Mightiest in some cases. Black Widow explains that this Masque was last seen during the events of Avengers #398-399 (May-June 1996) when she was kidnapped by a robot that was powerful enough to even take down Vision and Thor.

Widow admitted she didn't try to stop the robot because she didn't trust Masque. The robot left her the coin she has now, as a form of exchange. The coin contained information on the various families in the Maggia...except for the Las Vegas-based group that Madame Masque presumably led. Iron Man believes that this is all linked. And that Madame Masque is pretty for from dead.

Iron Man is more right than he could imagine. You see, there is a butte located several miles south of Las Vegas in the Nevada Desert. Butte. That's a funny word. Butte butte butte butte-

Okay, okay! It's not a real butte. The butte contains a massive control center, used to monitor and coordinate much of the criminal activity in the Southwestern United States. Deep within this butte resides the real Madame Masque, alive...but not very well. Paranoid and untrusting of anyone, she sees enemies in the shadows.

Her only company are robots that are all named after various figures from history known for betrayal: Brutus, Fawkes, Quisling, Benedict, and Monmouth. She orders the robots to work, to create another bio-duplicate of herself. She uses these bio-duplicates as a way of interacting with the outside world. She fears going out, seeing enemies everywhere. The one that blew itself up in the last issue needs to replaced quickly.

It's here that we get a flashback, retelling the history of the woman under the golden mask. Once, she was Whitney Frost, the daughter of prominent financier Byron Frost. However, when he died, she learned her birth name was Giuletta Nefaria, and she was actually the daughter of Avengers and X-Men villain Count Luchino Nefaria. Not just that, but Byron Frost was actually a mob lawyer. Her fiancé at the time broke up with her, fearing that her relation to mobsters would hurt his political ambitions.

She would go on to become her father's second-in-command in the Maggia, and when he got arrested, she took his place at the big chair, as it were. She became known as "The Big M". She attempted to seduce SHIELD Agent Jasper Sitwell, only to genuinely all in love with him.

Her men turned on her, and she crashed her skycraft in an attempt to flee the authorities. The crash left her face badly scarred. She was rescued by the supervillain Mordecai Midas. Think Scrooge McDuck if he was Greek, human, and a supervillain. It was him who gave Giuletta her golden mask. Then he tried to kill her. Yeah, you see a theme here?

The betrayals seemed to never end. Sitwell and Nefaria drifted apart. When Luchino Nefaria fell ill, she turned to Tony for help. The resulting fracas seemingly ended with the death of Count Nefaria. However, he was not exactly dead. That's a story for another time. All of this was from previous Marvel stories: Iron Man #8 (December 1968), Tales of Suspense #97 (January 1968) (which was also her first appearance) , Iron Man #17-19 (September-November 1969), #106 (January 1978), #109 (April 1978), and #116 (November 1978). Yeah. That's a lot.

This, however, is all key to the portrayal of Madame Masque here. It's something I love Kurt Busiek's run for. It was at that point, scarred and broken from all of this, that Giuletta Nefaria retreated from the world, hiding in her butte. She created and sent out bio-duplicates, constructs that were practically indistinguishable from the real thing. However, they would evolve and grow wills of their own. They believed they WERE the real thing, forcing their...termination.

Giuletta believes the same thing happened with Masque. Masque had managed to break free before her conditioning could be completed, and Giuletta saw it as yet another betrayal, Masque sending the Avengers. Masque tries to explain that wasn't the case. She came to Iron Man for help because of her imprinting. Once, Giuletta loved Tony, and he loved her. Why wouldn't she go to him for help?

Giuletta insists that she does not love Tony Stark. She had heard that Count Nefaria had seemingly returned during the events of Iron Man 1999 (The 1999 Annual of Shellhead's book), but believed it was a trick by Stark. But even if it's not...she's got defenses in this butte against him. Masque points out that Giuletta is living in madness. She sees enemies in every shadow. Masque was created to pose as Giuletta, and she learned one thing: Tony Stark never meant to harm her. He cared about her. Deep down, Giuletta Nefaria wants to trust people again, but she's had so many knives stuck in her back.

A craft arrives, carrying a battalion of armored men.

Meet the Steelskulls. They're a group of Taskmaster-trained mercenaries led by the Grim Reaper. I like their look. I'm surprised they haven't been seen more often. He learned about the butte from some Vegas gangsters the Reaper...interrogated. They're met by the Avengers, and naturally, a brawl breaks out. The Avengers manage to get through the Steelskulls rather easily. Vision nearly captures the Grim Reaper himself, but gets ambushed by Madame Masque's Robot Brigade. Iron Man tries to tell her that they weren't here for her, but she's not listening. But then another guest arrives. This one is interested in a nice little family reunion.

Yup, Count Luchino Nefaria is in town. He's got Wonder Man and Atlas with him. Keep in mind, all three of these characters are real powerhouses. Our heroes are in trouble...

This comic is awesome. Some may complain about the history lesson we get about Madame Masque's past, but there is a point to it. This is something that I personally admire Kurt Busiek as a writer for. He takes a character's history and uses it to establish a characterization for them that makes sense. Giuletta Nefaria has been through a lot of betrayal in her life, both real and perceived. It makes a lot of sense that it have an effect on her mind. It also makes sense that she would be paranoid, that she would see enemies everywhere. He also manages to take up an abandoned plotline from an old Avengers book and incorporate it into his story. I love it!

The art here is rather unique. You see, George Perez did the layout work, but Paul Ryan was the actual penciler. You may be familiar with Ryan thanks to my review of Fantastic Four #403 (August 1995) from last October. I thought it was a pleasant surprise to see him draw Earth's Mightiest. He did great work, and thanks to the Perez layouts, you see his influence with the panel placement and the like. It's very well-done, two great artists making something beautiful.

If you want to read this for yourself, like I said with the previous review, I recommend checking out the 2012 trade paperback Avengers Assemble Vol. 3. Thanks for reading this blog entry! If you liked it, spread it around! Take care of yourself, and each other. Stay safe, stay healthy, stay at home, and wash your hands often! Join me next time, when we see a new team rising from the ashes of the West Coast Avengers...