Character Spotlight: Codec

It's no longer June, but Agents of ATLAS Month continues! Greg Pak apparently doesn't mess around when he makes a series about Marvel's Asian superheroes, so there are more canon immigrants than the ones who were advertised. We'll talk about one of them today, and who knows, there might be more next week.

In April 2017, a new series called Marvel Future Avengers debuted in Shogakukan’s Bessatsu Coro Coro Comics Special. An animated series debuted in July 2017. Both follow a kid named Makoto, who was given superpowers in a Hydra experiment, then gets trained by the Avengers with two more kids with superpowers. It's a very Super Friends set-up, but there's nothing wrong with that.

One of the other kids is named Akiyadi, aka Codec. Unfortunately, I can't tell you anything more about him since information is scarce about this whole project online. Even what little I've said so far had to be pieced together from multiple sources. But Future Avengers will be receiving an English dub soon, so hopefully that'll change (ideally before this post goes up, but we'll see about that).

Regardless, Codec appears in War of the Realms: New Agents of ATLAS #3 (June 2019), and he's mentioned as being a part of the Future Avengers, so we know that team exists as well in some capacity.

Flashback Friday: Krypton's Name

Each Friday, I take one of the entries from my old Super Posts and expand it into its own featured article.

This week: Krypton's Name!

Krypton first appeared as a nameless "distant planet" in Action Comics #1 (April 1938)...

...but was given a name in the first Superman daily strip, "The Superman is Born" (part 1 of Episode 1:"Superman Comes to Earth", January 1939).

It later appeared in the retelling of Superman's origin in Superman #1 (April 1939).

And, of course, it's been a part of Superman's origin ever since...with one exception that I know of. Superman: Red Son (spoiler alert) has Superman hail from a far future Earth. Of course, it also makes Kal-L a distant, distant descendant of Lex Luthor, so it's kind of just doing it's own thing. Every other version of his origin, from comics retellings to adaptations, has him come from Krypton.

Character Spotlight: Sword Master

Last month, as a lead-in to a new event called "War of Realms", Marvel released a book called New Agents of Atlas that featured a team of all-Asian superheroes. Several of those superheroes were canon immigrants, and there just so happened to be four of them. So this month is Agents of Atlas month!

This week: Sword Master!

Last year, Marvel teamed up with a Chinese telecommunications company called NetEase to create its first fully Chinese superheroes (meaning Chinese characters made in China; it has other Chinese superheroes, such as the People's Defense Force). The goal was to increase their brand awareness in the East. Sword Master debuted in the first issue of an online manhua called Warriors of Three Sovereigns in May 2010, which can be found at 163.com.

Unlike Cyclone's more modern bent, Warriors of Three Sovereigns has a more antique flair. Sword Master is a college student named Lin Lie who takes up an ancient sword discovered by his archaeologist father to battle Chiyou, a reincarnated villain from the Imperial era. The sword belonged to one of the three emperors that reigned during that time.

Sword Master debuts in War of the Realms: New Agents of ATLAS #2 (May 2019) fighting fire goblins in Shanghai. He joins the New Agents of ATLAS at the end of the issue, despite being against the idea because he has his own stuff going on - a sentiment shared by several of the new members.

Two other superheroes feature in Cyclone. Will we see them in future issues of New Agents of ATLAS? Only time will tell!

Flashback Friday: Sgt. Casey

Each Friday, I take one of the entries from my old Super Posts and expand it into its own featured article.

This week: Sgt. Casey!

Sergeant Casey is a Metropolis police that doesn't trust Superman and is constantly trying to catch him doing something illegal.  He first appeared in the Superman newspaper strip (Episode 14: "The Unknown Strikes", May 1940). Ironically, Lois calls him their "old friend" in his first appearance.

He quickly made the jump to comics in Superman #6 (July 1940) and became a mainstay of Earth-2 Superman stories. Over time he got promoted to lieutenant, and he made his final appearance in Superman Family #219 (April 1982).

A police officer named Casey was mentioned in Action Comics #1 (September 2011), but unfortunately hasn't been seen since.

Character Spotlight: Aero

Last month, as a lead-in to a new event called "War of Realms", Marvel released a book called New Agents of Atlas that featured a team of all-Asian superheroes. Several of those superheroes were canon immigrants, and there just so happened to be four of them. So this month is Agents of Atlas month!

This week: Aero!

Last year, Marvel teamed up with a Chinese telecommunications company called NetEase to create its first fully Chinese superheroes (meaning Chinese characters made in China; it has other Chinese superheroes, such as the People's Defense Force). The goal was to increase their brand awareness in the East. Aero debuted in the first issue of an online manhua called Cyclone in May 2010, which can be found at 163.com.

Unlike Warriors of Three Sovereigns's more old-fashioned flair, Cyclone has a more modern bent. In her original comic, Aero is an architect that has control over the air and protects Shanghai after a resettlement project goes awry.

In New Agents of ATLAS #1 (May 2019), Aero debuts on the first page in a jurisdiction dispute with a new character, Wave. They get attacked and we don't see them for the rest of the issue, but I'm sure we haven't seen the last of them.

Two other superheroes feature in Cyclone. Will we see them in future issues of New Agents of ATLAS? Only time will tell!

Flashback Friday: Arc Reactor

Each Friday, I take one of the entries from my old Super Posts and expand it into its own featured article.

This week: the Arc Reactor!

The arc reactor first appeared in the film Iron Man (May 2008) as a portable power source that powered the magnet that kept a piece of shrapnel from entering Tony Stark's heart, as well as powering the Iron Man suit. It was a miniaturized version of a machine that Howard Stark built to create clean energy, a project that didn't go anywhere until Tony was able to miniaturize it. Side note: much evidence across the Marvel Cinematic Universe shows that the Arc Reactor is Howard Stark's attempt to create a man-made version of the Tesseract.

It later appeared in Invincible Iron Man #3 (July 2008), though instead called a Repulsor Technology Node. Pepper Potts was caught in an explosion that caused shrapnel to lodge into her body. Tony has a node implanted into her chest to keep the shrapnel from entering her heart. He also says he used one when the same thing happened to him in the Middle East, which essentially completely rewrites his origin to match the movie. Although the "Extremis" storyline from 2007 moved his origin to the Middle East, this is the first time it's been noted that he implanted something into his chest to help with his heart condition, rather than crating a whole chestplate to wear.

In Invincible Iron Man #21 (December 2009), Tony has to reboot the Extremis within his body to prevent Norman Osborn from gaining access to it. Doing so causes his body to shut down, so he has to get an RT Node implanted to restart it. Incidentally, this same issue seems to indicate he had both the RT Node and chestplate when he escaped Afghanistan.

The Arc Reactor/RT Node has continued to appear since then, although I'm not sure it's ever been vital to a storyline again. I'm also pretty sure neither Tony nor Pepper still have theirs; they're simply a way to power the suits these days.

Character Spotlight: Crescent and Io

Last month, as a lead-in to a new event called "War of Realms", Marvel released a book called New Agents of Atlas that featured a team of all-Asian superheroes. Several of those superheroes were canon immigrants, and there just so happened to be four of them. So June is going to be Agents of Atlas month!

This week: Crescent (and Io)!

Marvel Future Fight is a mobile fighting game that pits Marvel characters from different dimensions against each other. Occasionally, that means creating original characters from the multiverse we've never seen before. The first example of this was a new version of Captain America (Steve's daughter from a world where he was never frozen), and the second example we saw last week: Luna Snow.

Crescent's story is that she's a kid from Korea whose antique dealer father disappears one night. She finds a red bear mask in his room, and when she puts it on, it summons Io, a moon bear spirit. Together, they track down her father and rescue him from the clutches of Morgan le Fey. Crescent and Io joined Marvel Future Fight in November 2018.

In New Agents of Atlas #1 (May 2019), Crescent and Io debut fighting alongside Luna Snow and White Fox to protect Korea from an invasion by Fire Demons.