Just A Little Thing: Loki's Suit

In Young Avengers #11 (October 2013), Wiccan performs a spell on Loki that shows several alternate reality versions of the trickster god.

Several of his past outfits from comics appear, as well as the female version that was showing up in comics around the same time, and some versions where he looks like a frost giant. But then there's this one:

That one, in case you don't realize it, is the Marvel Cinematic Universe version of Loki, as seen below.

This issue came out a month before Thor: The Dark World (November 2013), so I assume it was some planned synergy on Marvel's part. Or maybe it was just a fun thing the writer or author threw in. Either way, pretty cool!

Character Spotlight: Dreadmon (IDW)

The current run of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics by IDW is trying to more or less be the definitive TMNT story by synthesizing all the Ninja Turtles media that came before it. As such, that means it has had a ton of canon immigrants and will continue to have many more.

This week: Dreadmon!

I've spotlighted Dreadmon before, but it only sort of counted because he was seen in what was clearly meant to be an alternate reality representing the animated universe. This time it's a true blue canon immigrant.

Dreadmon, in case you didn't click through earlier, Dreadmon first appeared in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures #15 (September 1990). Despite going on to become a Mutanimal, he's not actually a mutant. He was turned into a wolf creature by a magical talisman.

Dreadmon later debuted in IDW's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Universe #11 (June 2017). This Dreadmon is a jackal-mutant who grew up as a child soldier in the Congo. The Gang of Four is sent to collect him, but offers him the option of joining their team (and being made a cyborg in the process) instead of whatever other fate awaits him. He declines. Later the Mutanimals offer him a spot on their team, but he declines them too because he's tired of being a soldier.

Team Spotlight: Legion of Doo—er...Fun??

This is one I've been waiting on for a long time, and although it's not quite what I had in mind, it's still really cool.

The current Superman storyline involves Bizarro and Bizarro Earth, and as such, introduces several new Bizarro characters we've never seen before, incluidng Boyzarro (a Bizarro Superboy). The Bizarro Justice League has gone missing, and in Superman #43 (March 2018), we learn that they've been kidnapped by the Legion of Fun.

The Legion of Fun is, of course, a bizarro version of the Legion of Doom, a collection of supervillains that first appeared in the premiere episode of Challenge of the Superfriends (September 1978) and were the main antagonists for that season.

Interestingly, although the Legion of Doom appears here under a (slightly) different name, the name has appeared before with a different roster!

It first appeared in Extreme Justice #17 and #18 (June/July 1996). A separate team using the name appeared in Teen Titans #98 and #99 (July and August 2011), and a third team was the focus of Flashpoint: Legion of Doom #1-3 (June-August 2011), but all three teams simply used the name; their line-ups did not reflect the Super Friends roster at all. This is the first time the group as it appeared in the show - minus one or two characters - has appeared in comics.

Well...that's not completely true. In the interest of completion, I should note that the Legion of Doom appeared - with a greatly expanded team - in Alex Ross's Justice miniseries (2005). However, that story was outside continuity.

Team Spotlight: Gang of Four

The current run of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics by IDW is trying to more or less be the definitive TMNT story by synthesizing all the Ninja Turtles media that came before it. As such, that means it has had a ton of canon immigrants and will continue to have many more.

This week: the Gang of Four!

This is an exciting one because they're actually a DOUBLE canon immigrant. The Gang of Four as they originally appeared are a group of cyborgs named Waster, Fist, Lynch, and Dead Eye that work for Null. Specifically, they're reanimated corpses augmented with mechanical parts. They first appeared in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures #48 (September 1993), but three of them were created for a Mutanimals animated series that never happened, although they had different names. Waster was called Executor:

Lynch was called Gunskull:

And Deadeye was called Guzzler:

They're pretty silly characters, but they are notable for one thing: killing the Mutanimals.

Which makes it pretty ominous that they - or a version of them - appeared in a Mutanimals-focused story in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Universe #11 (June 2017).

As you can see, they're quite different. Although they have the same names (although Deadeye has been renamed Dead Aim) - and in fact that's the only way we know they're the same characters since they don't call themselves the Gang of Four - they are now cyborg werewolves. But they still work for Null.