Character/Team Spotlight: Yondu and the Ravagers

Although it's happened before, it's not often you see characters who already exist become canon immigrants as well thanks to some creative adaptations, but that's exactly what has happened here.

Yondu Udonta first appeared as a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy in Marvel Super-Heroes #18 (November 1968). As a Centaurian, he's a walking Native American stereotype, with loincloth, mohawk - headfin, excuse me, bow and arrow, and an empathic link to nature.

When Yondu appeared in the Guardians of the Galaxy movie (2014), he was...not that. He wasn't even a Guardian of the Galaxy, but instead the leader of a gang of space pirates called the Ravagers.

As you can see, he still has the mohawk, but it seems more like an implant than a natural part of him, and with the rest of his changes, it plays more to a biker persona than a Native American one. He also uses an arrow as a weapon, but divorced from the bow, it seems less stereotypical as well.

As the comics version of the Guardians of the Galaxy - at least the version hat Yondu is a member of - lives in an alternate future, this version was brought into comics as Yondu's ancestor (also named Yondu), the leader of a gang of space pirates called the Ravagers.

Yondu first appeared in Star-Lord #1 (November 2015), while the Ravagers first appeared in Star-Lord #2 (December 2015). As in the movie, Star-Lord joins their team for a while.

Character Spotlight: General Philip Blankenship (And Bonus Wonder Woman Setting!)

I thought by now that surely any new entries I added would be recent appearances, because anything old would be something I already knew about. That is not the case, as you'll see. This post takes us all the way back to the 1970s!

In 1975, as part of a comic book adaptation boom that likely started with Batman (1966) and included such things as Shazam! (1974), Superman: The Movie (1978), and The Incredible Hulk (1978), DC Comics and Warner Bros. decided to make a Wonder Woman tv movie...with a twist. Unlike the comics of the time, the show would be set during World War II! This would later lead to a tv series premiering in April 1976.

As part of the series setting, the show introduced General Phillip Blankenship, the superior of Steve Trevor and Diana Prince (Wonder Woman's secret identity).

The comics soon followed suit, beginning with Wonder Woman #228 (December 1976), which featured a team-up with Earth-2 Wonder Woman against Nazi villain Red Panzer. This could be its own entry, but since it's tied so closely to this character, I'll leave it how it is. During Wonder Woman's adventures on Earth-2, she meets General Blankenship, who is likewise Steve Trevor's superior. Although at one point his door reads "J. Blankenship", this was later retconned so that his name is J. Philip Blankenship.

Although Earth-2 was destroyed during Crisis on Infinite Earths (1985), we later see a Post-Crisis version of General Blankenship in Wonder Woman #185 (September 2002) during a storyline about Diana's mother Hippolyta taking on the role of Wonder Woman during World War II.

Item Spotlight: ISO-8

Iso-8 began as a collectible power-up resource in Marvel: Avengers Alliance (2012) and then spread as a connecting factor in other Marvel video games, including Thor: The Dark World - The Official Game (2013) and Spider-Man Unlimited (2014).

Those examples are interesting because they show that Iso-8 isn't just a feature of some "Marvel Video Game Universe". Thor: The Dark World is technically part of the MCU and Spider-Man Unlimited is a multiversal game that ties into Spider-Verse, showing that Iso-8 exists across realities. This makes it easy, then, to have it show up in the OG Earth-616 Marvel Universe...which it did.

Blue Marvel was seen studying Iso-8 in The Ultimates #1 (November 2015), where he put forth an interesting theory: Iso-8 is a "cosmic counter", meaning that it's in its eighth iteration because the Marvel multiverse is in ITS eighth iteration.

I will say that it's POSSIBLE Iso-8's first in-continuity appearance was in Contest of Champions, a video game tie-in series that is itself in continuity. That would make sense but I can't confirm it. I can confirm, however, that Iso-8 will appear for sure in Contest of Champions #5 (February 2016).

If someone can confirm an appearance of Iso-8 in Contest of Champions before showing up in The Ultimates, please let me know.

Character Spotlight: White Fox

I'm so glad to finally be posting this entry. I first made it over a year ago but I've been holding onto it because I don't like posting before the character has actually debuted, even when I know when and where they'll debut. And then I missed the debut by several months, so this should have been posted back in October.

A couple years ago, Disney Korea began publishing a manhwa-style webtoon called Avengers: Electric Rain, which is set in Korea and features a familiar (read: movie) lineup of Avengers, with one new addition: White Fox.

White Fox appeared in the first entry (September 2014) and is a Korean superhero based on - or may actually be - the kumiho, or Korean nine-tailed fox spirit (similar to Japan's kitsune).

White Fox was first seen in American comics on the cover of the video-game-tie-in-yet-still-in-continuity Contest of Champions #1 (October 2015).

She has since appeared in every issue of the series, save one (but she appeared on the cover of that one). She has also made an appearance in Deadpool #1 (November 2015).

Character Spotlight: Raina

One of the many issues people have with Marvel's Agents of SHIELD is that it almost insists on using original characters despite the depth and breadth of characters available to it from the Marvel Universe. This was especially true in the first few episodes, which is where we were introduced to Raina:

Raina, played by Ruth Negga, first appeared as the "Girl in the Flower Dress" in the episode of the same name (2013). She was a mysterious woman obsessed with "evolving", and right away she showed that original characters weren't always to the show's detriment. In fact, she was such a good character that the episode title was changed to focus on her, from its original title "Scorch".

She appeared several more times over the course of the season as a lackey to various bad guys, though she always seemed to have her own agenda. The first hints we got she was part of something bigger came in the final shot of season 1, when we learned she knew Skye's father, and then in season 2 we finally got to see her "evolve" as we learned she was an Inhuman.

She was quite a popular character and that was shown when she made an appearance in Inhuman Annual #1 (2015), complete with flower dress. In this issue, she is one of several people who get told telepathically that she's an Inhuman. To date this has been her only appearance, but who knows; there may be more in store for her down the line.

Character Spotlight: Jason Stryker('s Name?)

"Comics Should Be Good!" has a recent article about how Marvel recently introduced Jason Stryker into X-Men comics and the continuity problems it introduced. I'll provide a link so you can read the article yourself, but the short version is that in Marvel Graphic Novel #5: God Loves, Man Kills (1982), Rev. William Stryker mentions his son dying. In the movie X2: X-Men United (2003), Colonel Stryker's son, Jason, is alive and a mutant with illusion powers (they combined him with Jason Wyngarde aka Mastermind). In All-New X-Men #19 (November 2013), we find out Stryker's son - now named Jason, while he previously went unnamed - is actually alive. He hasn't been shown to have illusion powers as far as I know but it still counts.

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2015/10/04/the-abandoned-an-forsaked-god-loves-man-kills-and-comic-book-writers-retcon-stuff/2/

Gadget Spotlight: Lola

This is a short entry because there's not much to say.

The Agents of SHIELD pilot (2013) introduced Lola, Agent Coulson's flying car.

Lola later made an appearance in Deadpool #22 (January 2014) of all places, flown by Agent Coulson. Side note: it'd be great if this season of SHIELD had Scott Adsit playing Agent Scott Adsit.

Lola has since appeared in several issues of SHIELD volume 3.