Original Sin and the Wonders of Retconning

SPOILER ALERT: If you haven’t read Original Sin (or any of the crossovers) do not read.

This past summer, the big Marvel comic book crossover was titled Original Sin. Someone killed The Watcher (a cosmic being who lives on Earth’s moon and observes all that transpires on our planet) and a group of heroes are gathered by Nick Fury to investigate who is the killer. But more than just a murder mystery, the storyline reveals untold secrets about characters in the Marvel Universe. The Watcher has witnessed everything that has ever occurred on Earth and thus he knows not only where all the bodies are buried, but also who buried them and why. The thing about this though is that now there are all these stories about buried secrets between characters that have relationships never before mentioned in the comics.

This is where the wonderful art of retconning comes in. Retconning, for those who are not obsessed comic book fans like myself, is short for the act of Retroactive Continuity.  Basically it means taking the previously established history of a character with a current story. Perhaps some of the most famous retconning of all time was establishing that Wolverine had bone claws. For so long fans had simply assumed that he received his claws whenever he received his metal laced skeleton. It was not until the villain Magneto sucked the adamantium out of Wolverine’s pores that we learned that he does in fact have bone claws. Claws he was born with according to the Origin miniseries.

Original Sin decides to retcon essentially the entire Marvel Universe. Or at least the histories of all the characters who live within it. A secret from nearly every single Marvel character’s past is going to be revealed either in their individual titles or in exclusive mini-series and one shots or in the pages of the Original Sin story itself. Already there have been revelations about the true origins of the Hulk. Terrible mistakes made by Mr. Fantastic and The Human Torch. And nearly everything known about Nick Fury seems to have been false.

While I love exploring deeper layers of my favorite characters, sometimes it seems forced. Example, in the pages of Mighty Avengers we learn that Luke Cage’s father worked with Blade to stop a group of pseudo vampire world conquerors. Why? Because in the pages of Mighty Avengers, Luke Cage and Blade (under the alias Ronin, to hide his identity) are both members. Nothing really comes of this connection between Luke’s dad and Blade other than that they knew each other and the world conquerors are back. But Luke Cage’s dad has nothing to do with stopping them so the story could work completely without any mention of Luke Cage’s father’s prior relationship with Blade.

Similarly, the story of Tony Stark tinkering with the Gamma Bomb that turned Bruce Banner into The Hulk seems like more a response to the movies than a naturally evolving story element. In the big screen The Avengers, actors Robert Downy Jr. and Mark Ruffallo have such excellent on screen chemistry, the desire to make their four color counterparts closer seems to be demanded by the fans. And this secret history between the two characters seems just like a reinforcement of that fact.

However, in the pages of Spider-Man the events of Original Sin seem to have a much more significant affect. Peter Parker learned that the spider that bit him crawled off and bit someone else and this seems to be leading to a complete change of the status quo of the life of the wall crawler. And to me that is the only reason a character should be included in such a widespread crossover. If the events of the story actually affect the story.

Thor is another example of a character who legitimately was affected by the events of Original Sin. His exposure to the Watcher’s eyes caused him to lose faith in himself and thus no longer feel worthy enough to wield Mjolnir. This is, as every comic book fan knows, is why there is soon going to be a new female Thor in the pages of Marvel comics. A direct connection is made between the events of one title and the events of another.

The company wide massive crossover will not be ending in comics any time soon. It is a money making tool that companies have found works very well to attract readers to new titles they might normally avoid. All I as a fan can ask is that the crossovers be planned out so that the events of the story actually have some sort of weight on the characters involved. While Original Sin will probably be brushed under the rug for many characters, as I said, a few will feel the continued affects of this story in the future.

Being A Geek in A Non Geek Family

I love my family. They are a great group of people. But one thing that is plainly obvious is that they are not geeks. Which is strange because as anyone who knows me can tell I very much AM a geek. A nerd. A comic book reading dork. And very proud of it. So how does such a family of non geeks produce someone like me? And more so, how does geek like myself get along so well with a group of people who are very much non=geeks?

To be perfectly honest, I think my parents tried hard to push me towards non-geek activities in my early childhood. My dad pushed me towards sports and my mom pushed me towards academic and creative pursuits. Sadly both of their attempts failed and I became a geek. And I often wonder why. I’m the eldest of four children and while none of my siblings are similar in any way, I can’t say any of them are geeks. In fact if I had to call the rest of my family any thing it would be preppies and jocks, the natural enemies of the geek (at least if films and television are to be believed).

So what happened? Why did one out of four kids end up a geek? Is geekiness some sort of random mutation? Am I the X-Man of my family? See, even questioning my role in the family is tough because I use the preceding terminology and I get looks from my family like I just spoke Klingon. Especially when I actually DO speak Klingon (I’m not fluent or anything but I know a few phrases). Certainly I have given my family plenty of exercise with the amount of eye rolling they have done in my direction.

If geekiness is a random mutation, it is certainly more common than any other. While I am a freak in my brood, I have found a large and welcoming community in the world around me. There is a plethora of geeks and nerds in every major metropolis I have called home. And not to mention the great invention that is Internet. The Internet could lead one to believe the population of the earth is nothing but geeks. Like The Planet of the Apes, the non-geeks have become the mute humans living in the wilderness, only to be captured and experimented on by the geeks.

Geeks have dominated the worlds of technology, pop culture, and society in general. Which is why when I interact with my family, they usually try to force these subjects into the conversation. Or perform technical support. Nearly every weekend my parents ask me to rate the current crop of films, despite whether I have seen them or not. I am the Rotten Tomatoes of my family, regurgitating merely what I have heard about a film or television series. I am their lifeline to the world of geekdom.

Perhaps my concept of being an outsider has been slightly manufactured by my own insecurities. Being an artistic kid I was picked on a lot growing up. And I received no end of grief for being a comic book fan in high school. Such attacks have perhaps given me paranoid insecurity when it comes to places I should feel safe. So while my family may show no interest in my hobbies simply because it has not inspired them like they have me, I see it as an attack on my very identity. The line between me and my hobbies is rather thin and I myself can’t tell the difference sometimes. If a man is his thoughts and feelings, and all my thoughts and feelings revolve around comics and sci-fi then I truly am my hobbies.

There will probably always be a rift between geeks and non-geeks. Simply because the geeks will always consist of the outsiders. But I think geeks need to realize just because we are on the outside does not mean we are hated by the non-geeks. Just misunderstood. And to be honest, that’s about all we can ever expect.

Guardians of the Galaxy: The Next Step for Marvel

While Guardians of the Galaxy was not just an amazing film, it also represented an important step towards the future of Marvel’s Cinematic Universe. After The Avengers became an amazing success for Marvel, the announcement that they were making a Guardians of the Galaxy movie confused many fans, myself included. I mean, unless you’re a hardcore comic book fan you probably had no idea such a property as Guardians of the Galaxy existed prior to the movie. So it seems shocking that this would be the movie that would lead into the sequel to The Avengers. But having seen the film and followed the various Marvel developments, I completely understand the thinking behind the higher ups at Marvel.

While there is a plethora of super heroes in the Marvel stable, there is also a vast universe of Marvel characters that go beyond just the Earth. Alien races and Cosmic Beings also populate the Marvelverse. And just in this one film, along with the Guardians, there is mention of many different parts of the Marvel galaxy. We see members of the Kree, an alien race that is important to the origins of several characters. The Celestials, who are a race of godlike giant beings who silently interact with the universe. The Nova Corps, who has had several members living among the earth. Also the Collector, a cosmic being who is fond of collecting (duh) rare and unique items. And finally, though we did get a glimpse of him at the end of Avengers, we got to see Josh Brolin as the Mad Titan Thanos.

That last character is most important to the future of Marvel franchises. Thanos is one of the big villains of the Marvel universe. In his most famous storyline, The Infinity Saga, Thanos got his hands on the Infinity gems (one of which was heavily featured in Guardians) and fashions them to his gauntlet (the Infinity Gauntlet), which he used to kill basically half of all the sentient beings in the galaxy. So with the teases of various Infinity gems (the cube in Captain America, the Ether in Thor: The Dark World, The Staff in Avengers, and the gem in Gaurdians; with two gems still to be revealed) it implies that the possible Avengers 3 will involve the heroes of the Marvel Universe finally facing off against Thanos.

And the Infinity Gems themselves are a hint to what future stories may have in store for the Marvel Universe. As I said before, two gems have not been shown yet. The Soul Gem and the Time Gem have not yet been featured in any film. Recent announcement from Marvel that they were doing a Dr. Strange film suggests that the Soul Gem would be featured in that film. It certainly would fit in with the mysticism of the series and help tie him in with the rest of the Marvel characters. As for the Time Gem, there are certainly a number of different ways such a device could factor into the lives of each of the many heroes in the cinematic universe. Certainly Captain America has a strange relationship with time, being a man from the forties living in modern times.

Also since the alien Kree were heavily featured in Guardians (the villain Ronan is a Kree) rumors have already surfaced that fan favorite Captain Marvel will be showing up in Avengers 2. And not just Captain Marvel, but the fan favorite Carol Danvers version of Captain Marvel, which fans have been clamoring for to appear on the big screen since the entire Marvel cinematic universe first launched. Announcements from Marvel Studios Head Kevin Feige that he is eager to get a female super hero film on the screen would help fuel this assumption as well. While there are certainly many candidates for a female Marvel hero to join the Avengers cinematic universe, Captain Marvel is definitely the front runner.

Since Samuel L. Jackson made his first appearance as Nick Fury at the end of Iron Man, certain Marvel films have marked milestones in the Marvel Universe. Iron Man 2 featured additional Avengers (Black Widow) alongside Tony Stark. Captain America lead right into the events of The Avengers. And of course there is The Avengers uniting all the heroes together for the first time. Now Guardians opens up the Cosmic universe for the future of the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe.