Mark's Epic Blog of Randomness

 By Mark Rodriguez The Acts of Vengeance storyline in the late 80's dealt with Loki rounding up the Marvel super villains and having them try their luck against other heroes they don't usually face. The idea is to take advantage of the heroes not being familiar with the bad guys they've never encountered before and thus give the bad guys the upper hand. While the story starts in Avengers Spotlight, it continues in several Marvel comics tie-ins. As I gathered comics from cons and Free Comic Book Day specials and whatnot, I did manage to snag a few issues of the other heroes like Thor and Iron Man that tied into this story arc. Now for the order of things, I'm going by the months they were issued out. Act of Vengeance started out with Avengers Spotlight # 26 which was released in Dec. 1989 and of the issues I have, I have the Dec. 1989 issue of Thor. So now, let's check out how The Mighty Thor handles the Unstoppable Juggernaut.   "The Gentleman's Name is Jug...

 By Mark Rodriguez When the Wizard was captured and sent to the Vault, a mysterious stranger let him escape and he set loose a lot of captured super villains. Hawkeye and Iron Man arrived on the scene but spent as much time fighting each other as they did the bad guys. Hawkeye used an EMP arrow to lock down the prison but it also affected Iron Man, making his armor useless. What happens now? "Hawkeye- Hurting Inside" opens with Boomerang breaking into Stark Industries. Another villain named The Ghost broke in there earlier and Boomerang wants the security video, as requested by his boss Justin Hammer. One of the cops try to pull an alarm but the villain tosses a boomerang through it. The cops tell him that this will send a signal out anyway and Iron Man is soon to come. Boomerang is eager to to take him down. Boomerang is just itching to fight someone when a stranger in white appears, phasing through a wall. He says Iron Man has defeated Boomerang before even when his friend...

By Mark Rodriguez Back when I started getting into collecting comics, I eventually started checking out the Marvel comics like the Avengers and Spider-Man. I might have bought a Wolverine comic or so, but I remember I didn't get into the X-Men until the 90's cartoon. Anyway, the Acts of Vengeance story started with the Avengers but spread to almost every Marvel comic at the time. Loki has gathered all the villains together and suggested they switch things up and go after other heroes they normally don't fight against. The point would be the superheroes would be be caught off guard and also unfamiliar with these new foes and be easier to defeat. Let's check out where this all started courtesy of the long boxes at Sci Fi Valley Con. "Tales from the Vault" Part One begins by introducing the Vault, a prison for super villains, and the guards are bringing in their latest prisoner, The Wizard. He's the leader of the Frightful Four and they already have the othe...

By Mark Rodriguez The Scarlet Witch learned that her children were never really real and were manifestations created by Mephisto. The Avengers dealt with Mephisto and Pandemonium, and Agatha wiped Wanda's memories of these children that never really existed, but other villains are plotting. The story continues during the Acts of Vengeance crossover. It was basically about the Marvel villains switching places with each other, forcing the heroes to fight against villains they're not used to. Let's see how it goes. The issue opens with Magneto and another person seeing how the Acts of Vengeance has begun. Magneto says he is using this plan to help his plans for mutantkind and has bigger goals than just defeating superheroes. As Magneto leaves, this man says the plan has just begun and he leaves to look in on what inspired his plan, the Avengers. The Avengers are concerned about Wanda who has become unresponsive since she collapsed in California. The heroes discuss a...