wasn’t she killed by the black knight once when she transformed into a big sea/alien/serpent?
and then we had a storyline about the curse of his blade
The last I’ve seen of Marinna was in The Avengers c. 1989-90. As gawen notes, her evil DNA started acting up again as it had a number of times in the past but this time no one could cure her. She escaped into the ocean and then showed up a little later as a huge, mindless sea serpent which the Black Knight was forced to kill.
–Cliffy
Rise from your grave, oh great old one of threads…
I was just wondering, how many of Ras Al Ghul’s Lazarus Pits are there, and how well do they work? And by “how well,” I mean if you pop a dead person in there, will they come back to life? Or, at least, if a paraplegic with a severed spinal cord took a dip in one, would they permanently regain their ability to walk?
How many? As many as the writer needs. 
They are spread through out the world, where Ras has set them up through out his long life.
How well? Exactly what you said. The dead return to life, any injuries are fixed, no apparent time limit.
The downside of course it that the user becomes insane for a while right after using it.
AFAIK and OTTOMH-
It isn’t clear how many Pits there are. In the Elseworlds Brotherhood Of The Bat, it is stated that they can only be made at the intersections of certain ley lines. IIRC there are only a few dozen such sites.
In the mainstream continuity arc Laughter Of The Demon, Batman says that the materials needed to prepare the pit for even a single use take centuries to make.
The limits of the Pits are unclear. In Kingdom Come-The Kingdom they resurrect an individual who was dismembered, and whose body parts were scattered across a continent, years ago. Though, the Pit is somehow modified first.
So, it seems-
There are less than a hundred possible Lazarus Pit sites. These sites require a special mix of rare substances to become functional.
The Pit can heal any injury, restore youth, and ressurect individuals who are dying or very recently dead.
The strain of ressurection drives the victim temporarily insane.
(The following is drawn mostly from the Batman and Superman animated series of the 90’s, as well as Batman Beyond, and the above mentioned Elseworlds. It may not be true in cannon continuity.)
It seems that the Lazarus Pit is slightly less effective each time an individual uses it. The first use may last a century. The next immersion slightly less. Eventually, Ghul would be elderly and ill just weeks or days after a Pit bath.
BTW-
I’ve never understood the spelling. The Jewish holiday Rosh Hashannah has very similar etymology. Rosh/rush is Hebrew for head. Technically, it is written ros/rus as in Hebrew and Aramaic (and I assume in Arabic as well) there are characters whose pronunciation changes depending on the presence or position of a dot.
The letter shin has a dot on top of its right prong. Move the dot to the left prong and it changes from shin to sin, and is pronounced as an s rather than an sh.
But heck, vowels In Hebrew, Aramaic (and again I assume in Arabic) are generally written as marks underneath the letters. Which would give you Rs instead of Ras. The Demon made that concession when translitterating his name. Would it be so much to put on h on the end so folks stopped calling him Rohss?
Ranchoth: I seem to remember reading in the letters column that Captain Marvel (the green & white '60’s version of Mar-Vell) once or twice killed enemies, but I never read many of his books.
The “no killing” stchick was a prominent feature of the first, and IMO the best, super-hero: Doc Savage. After the first three adventures, Doc usually tried to take criminals alive. However, there were some notable exceptions. In “The Munitions Master,” Doc deliberately kills hundreds of men because that is the only way to prevent two evil dictators from taking over the world. There were also a few other adventures, notably “The Spotted Men” and “The Vanisher,” where Doc killed individuals because that was the only way to save innocent lives. Also, in “Violent Night” he showed a willingness to shoot Adolph Hitler.
Doc’s aide Monk, who has to be at least as strong as Capt. America and Batman, was frequently reprimanded by Doc as he sometimes killed or tried to kill crooks. “The Red Skull,” “Poison Island,” “The Majii,” and “The Midas Man” contain examples of Monk’s boodthirstiness. Also, in “The Lost Giant” Monk & Ham kill by bomb and machine gun most members of a spy ring. They weren’t reprimanded as there was a very good reason for their actions.
Richard Benson, The Avenger, also tried to avoid killing, but there were a few times, if I recall the books correctly, when he made exceptions.
I need someone to identify and spoil this issue for me. The details are a little fuzzy so please bear(?) with me.
In the issue, the X-Men all turn on Wolverine. I think they were being controlled by someone. I only remember the fight between Wolverine and Nightcrawler. Wolverine beats Nightcrawler by holding on to him while he was teleporting. The other thing I remember about it was someone was looking at a poster of Nightcrawler from his circus days. I also remember Jean in some man’s apartment. I think she was either wrapped in a towl or half-naked.
Sorry for the indescriptive details. Can anyone out there help me?
Supreme Power
Anyone reading it? Personally I think it’s great. JMS seems to be borrowing from the Mark Millar school of writing, but without near as many heads being blown off. But I don’t see how they can incorporate it with the current Squadron Supreme. Considering Kyle Richmond/Nighthawk is now a completely different race (albeit with a wonderfully tragic origin paralleling Batman’s) Is Supreme Power suposed to be Marvel mainstream continuity?
I have a couple questions. Recently I’ve taken to spending my lunch hours at Borders reading TPBs. I’ve burned through all the Ultimate series (X-Men 1-6, Spidey 1-6, Ultimates 1), and now I have nothing to read. There are both volumes of Universe X, as well as two versions of Crisis on Infinite Earths (a 60s version and a more recent version). Are any of these worth reading? Any other suggestions?
Also, I have no idea what Universe X is, but I have some familiarity with Crisis from reading Fenris’ posts. But why two versions? I thought the whole purpose of Crisis was to reboot various series and combine storylines and somesuch. Doesn’t a second version just confuse that?
I believe the one TPB, Crisis on Multiple Earths is more or less a story that takes place in many of the parllel DC Earths, but isn’t really related to the Crisis on Infinite Earths mini series, other than some of the characters.
If you can find the TPB of Marvel’s Sentry, I really recommend it. The story of a forgotten hero from Marvel’s Silver Age.
I’m also looking to pick up Alias, about a former superhero who decided she hated the biz and became a private investigator instead. Beware, adult content abounds.
Top 10 by Alan Moore about a superpowered police force in a city of superpowered citizens. That one is most fun for picking out easter eggs in the art (the story being awesome is just a bonus)
You can’t go wrong with anything written by Brian Michael Bendis (Ult Spider-Man, Powers, Daredevil…)
Don’t read Universe X before reading Earth X and its offshoots. Then go into Universe X. And coming soon, Paradise X. Basic premise is: in the future of the Marvel U everyone has developed powers, but not everyone is a mutant. It’s pretty dark, but entertaining.
Oh, let me also recommend Inhumans. I was never an Inhumans fan and didn’t know much about them, but the 12 issue TPB was very good.
I’ll recommend more as I think of them.
Crisis- I’d say it’s worth the read. I won’t say who(that would be spoiling.) but a number of characters die. These are mostly minor heroes and villians (IIRC the Bug Eyed Bandit died in Crisis). But two major DC characters die as well. More, there still dead today.
2 Versions-IIRC a few years ago DC released an anniversary edition. This doesn’t alter or expand the story. But, it includes interviews, behind the scenes stuff, and IIRC issues of other titles that included Crisis crossovers.
Universe X- Skip it. Jae Lee’s art is wrong for the book. Established continuity is trampled on. While the mystery behind some of the premise is purposely unexplained (Non spoiler-Something caused all the humans on earth to become mutants. Reed Richards blames an experiment he was conducting. The Iron Maiden blames herself for accidentally disrupting the experiment and causing it to fail. There are other theories. The characters and the readers eventually learn the cause.). But, other parts of the premise make no sense and still aren’t explained by the end of Universe X (Russia now grows the worlds grain. Britain’s navy distributes the grain. WTF? The USA produces much of the world’s grain{Which Ross must know since it is mentioned in the first issue of Kingdom Come}, and has a much larger navy than Britain. If the US has a reason for not using these to help other countries, I never read it. If something destroyed America’s bread basket and fleet, I never read that either.).
BTW- Just in case you were unaware, Universe X is the 2nd part of a trilogy. First is the disappointing Earth X. By the end of Universe X I’d lost any interest. The trilogy concludes with Paradise X.
Crisis on Multiple Earths is a collection of stories from the mid 1960’s in which the JSA (Justice Society of America) first met the JLA (Justice League of America). The whole thing got kicked off with the classic Flash from Two World’s story. I’d say it’s worth reading, but not neccessarily buying.
I have the hardcover anniversary edition and it came with a couple of posters, some pre-production art and a really cool cover by George Perez/Alex Ross. There were around 12 issues in the actual Crisis on Infinite Earths maxi-series, but there were at least 70 “crossover issues” from the other DC titles, and there isn’t a list included with my book.
It’s out in TP now, and worth picking up if for nothing else then George Perez’s art.
I think Muldoon got it in one - I misread “Crisis on Multiple Earths” and thought it to be an additional version.
As for the spoilers, Doc, those were mentioned in the Prologue (which I read today). The author mentions that he left a plot device to bring back Barry Allen, any idea what that is? He said it wouldn’t be apparent, but if you asked him in person, he’d tell you. I’d imagine someone’s done that by now…
Doc, did we read the same Universe X? Jae Lee wasn’t involved–IIRC, Doug Braitwithe (sp?) did the art on the two sequels.
If I’m also recalling, the US suffered a devastating economic collapse in the Earth X-iverse, stemming largely from 1) Reed’s failed energy experiments, and 2) Norman Osborn’s presidency. For some reason, Russia was in a better position to pick up the pieces. I also recall that the world’s meat supply had been eliminated (there was an off-color joke about Howard the Duck getting cannibalized), and Namor wasn’t letting people farm the oceans. Again, enter Russia.
I do agree that Universe X was the weaker part of the story–although I loved Earth X as a stand-alone 14-part story.
Re The Art-My mistake.
Those points were also problems for me. Exactly what caused the collapse of American society? It seems that America is a land of post apocalyptic chaos-except that all the utilities are still up and running-as are the broadcasting companies. If Daredevil’s latest stunt can be shown on pay per view, how is it that the farmers of the Midwest can’t grow crops?
What exactly happened to the US fleet? Unless those ships were sold to another country, why aren’t they distributing grain? In the wake of an economic collapse, why isn’t the US trading shipping services for food?
AFAIK America's crop lands are vital to the world. I don't understand how Russia would be able to grow enough food.
I was never quite sure how the meat industry was destroyed. It's said that the mutations made humans more aggressive. Am I correct in assuming that Ross meant the this caused humans to become more carnivorus, leading to livestock being slaughtered faster than they could reproduce?That, and overpopulation, methinks. Although I don’t think Ross was the full visionary on that point–Ross primarily did the character designs. The majority of the story (particularly the backstory with the Celestials and Galactus) came from Jim Kruger.
I considered that, but rejected it because
When Betty runs away from the childlike Bruce, we learn that humans stopped having kids after the mutation.
Ah, but I figured it was
PRE-Mutation overpopulation. I base this on the fact that the mutations started roughly 10 years before E:X. Shortly after the mutations began is when the big UN Conference happened to discuss the world food shortages. You’ll recall that’s where the FF, Doom and Namor decided to recreate the ending of “Hamlet.”
(I mean that figuratively, of course.)
And a note to the confused (and not to nitpick with the learned Doc): it wasn’t Betty who saw Bruce and the Hulk. E:X relied on modern Marvel continuity and continued to hold that Betty died at the hands of the Abombination. Bruce called out “Betty?” because the female mutant had a harpy-like appearance, reminding him of Betty’s prior mutation.
A trio of questions, if I may…
First, would anyone here happen to know what the wingspan of the X-Jet/Blackbird is, as depicted in the recent “X2” movie?
Deuce…Are there any"Goth" superheroes, especially “mainstream” ones?
And…did any comic character have a haircut worse than Guy Gardner’s?