Mark's Epic Blog of Randomness

By Mark Rodriguez The Phoenix is arriving and the X-Men wants to allow it to inhabit Hope to save their race, while the Avengers wants to destroy it before it can destroy everything, including mutants. Where we last left our heroes, the X-Men and Avengers were both on the blue side of the moon, about to fight over Hope… when Thor suddenly dropped into the scene and pointed out that the Phoenix was arriving. We start off Round 5 as Hope monologues about Thomas Ferebee, the man that dropped the A-Bomb in World War 2, and how everyone throughout history blames the bomb for the death and destruction and never the guy that actually pulled the trigger. Hope questions whether or not she is the bomb or the bombardier in this situation… since the Avengers and X-Men start to fight over her. Since we only have the members that arrived on the moon, the teams are more streamlined this time around… we have Captain America, Red Hulk, the Thing, Black Widow, Hawkeye and Wolverine on the Avengers s...

By Mark Rodriguez The Phoenix Force is coming and the X-Men want to use it in their favor as a way to save their race, while the Avengers wants to destroy it to save the world. Where we last left our heroes… Captain America disapproved of Wolverine’s basic plan of gutting Hope upon sight, and, with the help of Giant Man, knocked him off their plane, stranding him in the Antarctic.  The story begins with Wolverine wandering around with a polar bear as a way of keeping warm, similar to Star Wars. He finds a beer can in the snow and thanks the good Lord for it.  Wolverine sees more beer cans and follows the trail, leading him to Hope. Wolverine whips out the blades upon sight. Back in deep space, which I’m glad we returned to seeing that we didn’t see what happened in the last issue, Miss Marvel and the rest are floating in space, I assume after being knocked around by the Phoenix Force. Thor sees it coming and tosses his mighty hammer into it. The force of impact knocks it into ...

By Mark Rodriguez The Phoenix Force is coming for Hope Summers, and Cyclops wants this to happen as a possible chance to save mutantkind. The Avengers want to destroy it because it is too dangerous. A fight broke out between the teams. Wolverine tries to stab Hope, but she unleashes her Phoenix powers and fries Wolverine. She knocks out Spider-Man and escapes. Meanwhile, several Avengers are in space waiting to destroy the Phoenix.  So now we begin with Wolverine regaining consciousness after regrowing all his burnt flesh for the last hour. Spider-Man tells Logan that Hope got away and gave him some clothes. Spidey also tells Wolvie that Cyclops and the X-Men surrendered to the Avengers. Wolverine doesn’t like this one bit and heads off. As the X-Men stand by, Captain America and Iron Man argue over what to do with them, since they just can’t be arrested or locked up someplace. Cap’s better interest is in saving Hope and the world. Meanwhile, Dr. Strange appears holding an unc...

By Mark Rodriguez The Phoenix Force is coming and Cyclops believes he can use it to inhabit Hope and save mutantkind. The Avengers see it as a threat that could destroy everything. Captain America goes to visit Cyclops on Utopia and tell them they came to take Hope. They argue and Cyclops blasts Captain America back. This signals the Avengers to jump into action. ALL OF THEM. The Avengers leap off from a hidden helicarrier in the sky and land on the island, including such members like Spider-Man, The Thing, Red Hulk and Wolverine. Both sides hold, waiting to see who would make the first move. All hesitation and doubts stop as Magneto sends Colossus, flying like a human missile, smashing through the floor of the carrier. Red Hulk challenges Colossus as the others fall to sea. There Namor fights it out with the Thing and Luke Cage.  Cyclops tells Emma to keep Hope safe as he tries to blast the flying Avengers out of the air… until he’s hit with the Captain’s shield. Cap then cat...

By Mark Rodriguez The Phoenix Force will return to Earth and this sparks a war between the Avengers and the X-Men. The X-Men want to use the Phoenix to inhabit Hope Summers and save mutantkind, while the Avengers feel the Phoenix is a force that's too powerful and dangerous and it must be destroyed at all costs. I never got the deal with making variant covers blank, but that's the one they had at Velvet Underground at the time Avengers VS X-Men # 1 starts off as we see the Phoenix fly past, as well as destroy, an alien planet (with Earth-type houses…?) as it heads towards our galaxy. On Earth, the Avengers are chillin as Iron Man and Protector are arguing about the latter touching the former’s stuff. There was a meeting about to begin, and they were waiting for Miss Marvel to show up… when suddenly… a huge fireball hits a plane that was flying overhead. The Avengers fly into action. he comet blasts through a skyscraper that starts falling apart… and the plane also loses a wing....

By Mark Rodriguez This was the big storyline that helped me get back into the modern day Marvel Universe back in 2012. Mutants are barely recovering from extinction due to the Scarlet Witch, and now they have Hope Summers. Cyclops is convinced that she is the literal hope for the future of mutantkind. The Phoenix Force is arriving and Cyclops wants to use it to inhabit Hope and save mutants, while The Avengers want to stop the threat of the Phoenix at all costs. What Avengers VS X-Men becomes is every non-mutant vs any mutant in the Marvel Universe cause as you'll see that both sides have a huge amount of members. This is issue 0, a free comic book to basically help set things up. It's basically divided into two parts. One devoted to Hope Summers and another devoted to the Scarlet Witch, probably the most powerful women of both sides. Scarlet Witch We start the story somewhere in the city as MODOK and a group of similar floating creatures hunt down a scientist from the A.I.M an...

By Mark Rodriguez Robin tricked Morgan into thinking he was siding with him, but once he was at his hideout, he revealed his ruse. Morgan captured Robin and tortured him until Batman smashes in with the Batmobile and beat the hell out of him. In the end, Morgan reminds them that he won't stop until he kills them and Robin kills him with his own technique. Issue 8 wraps this up with ‘Born to Kill… Black Dawn’ as Robin proclaims he killed Morgan for his father. He then passes out and Batman carries him out of the sinking ship. The Batmobile enters flight mode and the Dynamic Duo fly off as the ship sinks along with Morgan’s lifeless body. Back at the Bat Cave, Alfred is ready to patch both Bruce and Damian up, but Bruce demands Damian goes first. Bruce stares at one of the older Robin costumes in the Batcave (I guess a nod to Jason Todd?) and demands that Alfred stop worrying about him and tend to Damian. Alfred claims that due to Damian’s conditioning, he should be alright soon, but...

By Mark Rodriguez An old enemy of Bruce, Morgan, took Robin under his wing to help raise his murderous tendencies. However, once at his hideout, Robin reveals he was tricking him all along. Morgan grabs and tortures Robin, as Batman can only listen from miles away. Issue # 7 starts with ‘Driven’ as Batman speeds towards Nobody’s hideout as he continues to torture Robin by breaking his fingers one by one. Just then the Batmobile smashes into the scene, catching him off guard. Batman sees red saying ‘ You try to murder my son and expect to LIVE?’ Morgan says he’ll kill Robin right in front of him, but Batman will be having none of that that and proceeds to take him down.  Batman and Nobody really throw down this time, each one determined to totally destroy the other one. Violent words are exchanged as Batman punches the crap out of Nobody, and Nobody stabs the hell out of Batman. Morgan claims his father treated him as a Nobody the day Bruce tossed him into his house in defeat. Now h...

By Mark Rodriguez Nobody and Damian team up, as the former tries to bring out the killer instinct of the latter. They bust into the Embassy where an Ambassador was guilty of human trafficking. Now with the Ambassador on his knees, Nobody hands Robin a gun to have him finish the job. This is awesome... but too bad it never happens Robin is faced with having to shoot a guy in the head to prove himself to Nobody, and he pulls the trigger. Lucky for the corrupt ambassador, the gun was empty. Robin is angry for being toyed with, and Nobody said he wanted to see how committed he is. He then tells Robin to use that deadly move that Nobody used on him earlier.. the one where you jab your fingers between the person’s eyes that leaves him incapacitated. Robin is worried since once wrong move can kill the man, but he pulls it off perfectly. Alfred sends Batman information that Robin was spotted at the Embassy. He shows up and finds the guards still alive. Back to his flashback which he is recordi...