How did I forget about her?

... But wouldn't that be a little obvious? A living villian continuing to be a living villian in a mask wit ha new name? Wouldn't a "deceased" hero coming back secretly as a masked villian be something totally new?*

But seriously, the moment I saw her I related her to Emma, because of the whole "queen of the Hellfire *whatever*", because it would sound like she was trying to win back Scott like Emma won Scott from Jean... Lots of tight, tight, tight leather.


*Don't laugh.

I thought madeline pryor was the top choice for mutant zero from the initiative .... or jean grey was ..... or the scarlet witch....and so on

Yeah, I was thinking Red Queen was Maddie Pryor too.

Also, X-Factor would have been worlds, galaxies, or even universes better with a different artist. The writing was fine, but the art was absolutely terrible.

In other comics -

Iron Man #32 - Rated 7
"How many have died because of your choices, Antony?"
"Too many."

Iron Man defeats the Overkill Mind by removing the human element, SHIELD's other Nick. The other Nick feels bad about what happens and wants to help stop Tony's old ally Rahimov. Tony confronts Rahimov, and when it becomes clear that talking won't help, he authorizes the other Nick to use the Overkill Mind to set off Rahimov's micro-nukes. Tony gets caught in the blast a little but comes out okay. While he recovers, Tony thinks about all the people close to him who have died because of his actions.

Moon Knight #21 - Rated 9
"I always get hungry before I destroy someone."

I think if the artwork was better I would have given this a 10. And if they didn't have the stupid variant ape cover. That cost it some points too. I may not have bought the ape cover, but I know it's there. Anyways, SHIELD is on Marc's trail, trying to find where he was staying in the sewers, only to find him gone. They also interview Marc's old friends and allies. None of them know where he is. The interview with Marlene is awesome. "You saw each other on a regular basis?" "Fairly regular." "So you were dating?" "I wouldn't call it dating." "Then how would you characterize your relationship?" "We were ####ing." While all of this is going on Marc beats the #### out of some drug makers. He's not wearing the costume, and he likes it better. Back to the basics. Before it was a religion for him. He blows up the whole building they were working out of. And the Commission on Superhuman Activities tells Stark that they're taking the case away from him, which ticks him off. He says they're plan is overkill. They say it's necessary. In Colorado, Director Osborn tells his secretary to get him a snack and get the team to the meeting room. The Thunderbolts have a new target.

Amazing Spider-Man #568 - Rated 8
"I mean, c'mon. I've already fought four Green Goblins. Two Hobgoblins, three Fembot Goblins, Gray Goblin, Demogoblin, Future Goblin, Fried Goblin, Shrimp Goblin, Goblin on Toast..."

Part 1 of New Ways to Die, the story that will hopefully redeem Brand New Day. Starts with an origin recap and recent history. Then we see Pete and his friends as they help him search the classifieds. Lily, Harry's girl, suggests Harry hire Pete to work at the Coffee Bean, but Harry knows better than to hire Pete for a 9-to-5 job. Pete knows he's right. Then we cut to Menace, destroying advertisements for the Hollister mayoral campaign. Spider-Man shows up and they fight. Menace gets away and the fight damages some buildings so much they might fall down. Peter notices lots of illegal aliens (or at least that's what they look like) pouring out of the building before it collapses. He snaps some photos, finding it weird. Having been blacklisted from major newspapers, he sells the photos to Robbie Robertson and Ben Urich at Front Line. The pictures show that the building was being used as a sweatshop, and Sally Floyd finds out it was owned by mayoral candidate Crowne. Crowne isn't happy with this being found out, so he goes to his old friend Norman Osborn for help. Norman calls in the Thunderbolts. They can catch the serial killer, Spider-Man, and Crowne can take credit for it. At the DB Dexter Bennett asks Betty Brant to dig up dirt on a billionaire named Martin Li, who's responsible for a lot of charitable organizations, homeless shelters, and apparently some miraculous healings as well. Aunt May works with Li and is disappointed in Betty for trying to dig up dirt. Li agrees to talk to her anyways. While at the FEAST shelter she runs into Eddie Brock, who no longer has cancer. She tries to get an explanation on how a thing is possible. They can't explain it. Li found Brock praying for forgiveness, offered him a role helping people, got Matt Murdock to exonerate him in court, and Eddie's all the happier for it. But we also see Li's hand glowing white and pumping some weird energy into Eddie. The energy gets attacked by black tendrils inside Eddie's body. Elsewhere, Pete gets home and gets attacked by some SWAT looking guys outside his own door. He lets them beat him up and they drag him into his own apartment, where Norman and the Thunderbolts are waiting for him.
In a backup story, Eddie Brock wallows in self pity. Osborn Industries refuse to accept him into an experimental treatment program. At the shelter he works at, he hates one of the homeless guys who comes in and turns down all the charity and throws it back in their faces and says it's not good enough. So one day this gets to be too much so Eddie beats the guy half to death. He blames it on how Venom is still inside him. Even without the symbiote, he can feel Venom in his head, hear its voice, and see it whenever he looks in the mirror. But then he finds out his cancer has been cured, and he sees himself again. But as he walks away, we see Venom isn't far behind.
All in all, it was pretty enjoyable. A lot happened, but it has meaning and a clear path. Slott does good work. The only real question is what will happen after this, and will it be any good. Marvel has a bad habit of destroying momentum by following a good story up with a really bad one.

There was definitely no lack of sound effects in this issue for sure.

Isn't that what Snowbird said after a night with Herc ??? (And those very same sound effects appeared then, too).

I don't think that was the last issue of the Sacred Invasion story with the bits at the end. New ways to die was pretty sweet but Slot's dialog is not great.

Well, there are two conflicting messages on the last page:

1. "The Finale of Sacred Invasion"
Since the immediate threat of the Skrull gods was apparently ended, I think this is the official conclusion of the story.

2. "To Be Continued"
The little twists at the end of the story definitely suggest some impending problems that will no doubt be dealt with in future stories, but not necessarily right away and not likely to be officially considered Secret Invasion crossovers.

The modern tradition of putting the story's title at a comic's end helped make this even more confusing. It says "Infinite Names: The Finale to Sacred Invasion" right below the "To Be Continued" message, making it look like that is the title of next issue's story instead of this issue's. It was a sloppy mistake that could have easily been corrected by skipping the "to be continued" message altogether and/or by putting the title at the front, like they used to do it.

Just so some of you know Jean is dead. The Red Queen is an alternate evil Jean that the REAL Jean and Marvel Boy had to fight. She was defeated, but not killed apparently so we'll have to see what happens I guess.


So is Brock getting his symbiote back or will he be this new Anti-Venom I hear of....perhaps that Martin Li guy is the anti-venom. Any word on Jackpot being Mary Jane Orin?

From what I've read here on the threads, this Martin Li will probably turn out to be either Mephisto or Uncle Ben.

What's new?

The Thunderbolts are in town, complete with Mac Gargan and the symbiote, so it's possible Brock could get it back, but I think it's more likely that he'll be the new Anti-Venom. Martin Li is most likely Mr. Negative, a villain introduced at the beginning of Brand New Day, who seems to be another Kingpin wannabe. A recent special (I forget what it was called) showed his organization remaking Hammerhead to be better.

Also, when Li touches Brock, his arm glows a bluish-white and he puts some kind of energy of similar colour into Brock's body, which then gets attacked by what look like remnants of the symbiote. I imagine that the story will say Brock wasn't completely free of the symbiote and the combination of that with Mr. Negative's energies will create Anti-Venom. But this is all speculation.

Mary Jane, most likely, isn't Jackpot. When Spidey met Jackpot she told him her secret identity was Sara Ehret. When he tracked her down, he found she was a short-haired brunette who didn't know what he was talking about. But when Mary Jane was definitely in town visiting some loser actor she may or may not have been dating, she was approached for an autograph by one Sara Ehret, who mentions she's a big fan of MJ's character on Secret Hospital, and especially loves the "you just hit the jackpot" line that the character uses, and would model herself after MJ if she could.

And I thought for sure it was gonna be flash thompson


Can somebody tell me how you can answer and ask question from different people on the realms. I can't quite figure it out.

No way is Red Queen Jean Grey.... they just wouldn't bring her back that way after all that has happened. I sort of assumed it was Madelyne Pryor, since the last I remember she was still alive and with the Hellfire Club?