Thursday, November 22, 2012

And FYI, Stay Clear Of The Armpits


Can YOU


Name This Marvel Villain??



You can probably tell by this villain's expression that his disposition isn't exactly warmth and cheer. And you might easily make the assumption that he takes no prisoners. But on the contrary, he's after one very special prisoner--Thundra--and his mission is to find her and bring her back in chains.

Meet Mahkizmo, who's got a nuclear-powered punch that would put Iron Fist to shame. Yes, that's right, a nuclear-powered punch. We never learn how Mahkizmo comes by this power, or exactly how he harnesses it. He generally unleashes it either as a last resort, or to bring a fight to a swift end. Or, basically, when he's pissed off:



Otherwise, he relies on his formidable strength, to say nothing of his nastiness and ill temperament. He has complete disdain for weaklings, and his self-confidence to overcome his foes is simply off the scale. This gives him a ferociousness in battle that justifies his incredible arrogance.

What Mahkizmo doesn't make a point of mentioning is that he and his brethren on Machus--a parallel future world where the men dominate their women in the fullest sense of the word--use technology in the form of a "domina-ray" to sap the will and make it impossible to fight back effectively. Which is how the Fantastic Four wind up being taken into custody when they travel to Machus to rescue Thundra:



It's then that they learn of the domina-ray, which was not only used against them upon their arrival on Machus but also at the Baxter Building where Mahkizmo abducted Thundra:



Finally, after an excruciating three issues of listening to this arrogant blowhard, we get to see the FF take the upper hand after locating and destroying the domina-ray. Remember that "last resort" condition that causes Mahkizmo to unleash his power punch? I'd say the FF ganging up on you and about to clean your clock warrants it. But Mahkizmo decides to go all in on it:



And it proves to be a fatal mistake:



Machus, as a result, ends up not only merging with Thundra's parallel world--but since the women of Thundra's "Femizon" race are aggressive in their own right, the merging forms a compatible union between the two worlds. Unfortunately, Mahkizmo won't be around to see it.

By the way, if some of this artwork seems familiar to you, your eyes aren't playing tricks on you:




It's ground we've covered before. This particular story is filled with such examples, and it really throws off the pacing in places in an effort to accommodate it. You'd think a guy with a nuclear punch would be packing more than enough power to keep the artist busy, eh?


4 comments:

  1. At risk of revealing myself as a bit of a thicko, what does 'The Answer behind the cut' mean? I've clicked here and there, but nothing happens, so what exactly is the 'cut'?

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    1. Chances are you viewed the post in its entirety (i.e., by clicking on its title in the menu). If you had simply scrolled to the post, the majority of the post--the "answer"--would have been hidden ("cut"), and you would have to click a "Read more..." link to see it.

      It would be great if you could customize the wording of that link on the fly (as opposed to a one-time-only customization), so that you could tailor the wording to the post. But I don't suppose Google has cracked that nut yet.

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  2. As simple as that, eh? I shoulda guessed. I better increase my brain pills.

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    Replies
    1. Actually I might just eliminate that styling altogether. It really assumes a majority of readers will be navigating the blog by scrolling pages, which I don't think will necessarily be the case.

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