Fact vs. Fiction

With Dracula himself being a product of fiction, it's interesting to see how issue #49 of Tomb of Dracula plays on that concept to produce a story that confronts the lord of vampires with the prospect that he's tethered in some way to the 1897 novel authored by Bram Stoker--an assertion made all the more provocative as Dracula finds himself facing what appear to be living, breathing characters from various other novels, summoned into their presence by a woman who believes Dracula to be as much a part of her library as they are.

Angie Turner's "friends" are real to her, and real enough to the story--which makes them real enough to Dracula, who will find himself in their company against his will. But is this some dalliance of this reader of fictional works? Has she brought Dracula into her presence to complete this circle of characters that she's gathered--or does Dracula fill some deeper void within her? From D'artagnan's words, it seems that Angie has had Dracula in her thoughts for some time--but unlike the others who attend her, always out of reach. Presumably the reason lies in Dracula having a true existence in the world, a true history, whose presence is not limited to the printed page of Stoker's novel--none of which occurs to Angie (nor to many others in the world, no doubt). It's that novel on her shelf which once again brings him to mind--a preoccupation fanned by her companions gathered around her, whose devotion to and love for her move them to suggest that she pursue her heart's desire.

The Abominable Attack of the Yeti!

Good heavens! We barely make it out of the Canadian woods alive after encountering the flesh-eating Wendigo--and now look what's waiting for us in the mountains!

We don't exactly know in which mountainous region the Black Panther has stumbled onto a Yeti, a legendary ape-like being reputed to inhabit the Himalayas and often referred to as the "abominable snowman." The only reason the Panther is in such an area is because he's been forced to aid the notorious collector, Princess Zanda, by locating a hidden Samurai city and obtaining water believed to grant immortality to those who drink it. The Panther is accompanied by Abner Little, a fellow collector who has involved the Panther in other such quests and usually blunders into more than he bargained for.

In this case, their quest to find the city is abruptly halted when their craft is fired on by a sniper and they're forced to abandon ship and take their chances on foot in the cold region. But their attacker has other ideas on their fate.

Little, a collector who has a great deal of research to fall back on, has heard the horn and realized that those he and the Panther are searching for may be in the area. Of course, you never think of something monstrous blowing a horn, so they're unprepared for what soon looms over them.

The Panther is probably wishing right about now that he had a set of Wolverine's claws, rather than the practically useless claws on his fingertips; instead, he'll have to make do with speed and strength, which may not be enough against this raging foe.

(On a side-note, how does the Panther close his hand into a fist if he has claw points on his fingers?)

Fortunately, Little is a resourceful fellow--and in his circle of ruthless collectors, he's also found it necessary to be a cautious one. Pulling a weapon, he opens fire; but as often as gunfire proves useless against large, monstrous beings in fictional encounters, the Yeti turns out to be not only resilient, but easily angered.

Finally, the Panther forms a plan of attack that will hopefully save their lives. It's one that probably wouldn't have worked on the Wendigo, since that creature could withstand hits from the Hulk--but the Yeti's origin presumably isn't tied to the supernatural, so more conventional means of attack may prevail. Luckily for the Panther, his strategem, like his makeshift aim, is on target.

Yetis have made a few occasional appearances in Marvel comics--even the Silver Surfer found himself overrun by a pack of them.

I don't know how much I buy that part about the Yetis being "...so hounded... so ruthlessly hunted for time without measure" if they're mostly legend and word of them has trickled down through hearsay. How can you hound an unsubstantiated rumor?

The Yeti goes on to be featured again when one is encountered by the Human Torch, on his way to the Great Refuge to see his girlfriend, Crystal, whom he thinks has been taken by her family without cause. Stopping in a cave to wait out a storm while in transit, he's awakened by a Yeti who actually speaks, but turns out to be a species he's already familiar with.

It would make sense for the story of the Yeti to be attributed to the Inhumans, as their refuge was similarly located in the Himalayas. But writer Stan Lee, who wrote this story as well as the Surfer's encounter two years earlier, makes no link between the two appearances, nor did the Surfer's Yetis seem like the conversational type.

If you wanted to stretch the concept, you could also lump in one of the operatives of Weapon P.R.I.M.E. as well as Ternak's frost men as honorary Yetis (Ternak certainly seems convinced that the term applies). It's odd that neither Zanda nor Little decided to add a Yeti to their collections, given the prestige that such an acquisition would bring them. We can at least be reasonably sure that Little won't go hunting for one anytime soon.

The Rage of the Wendigo!

In a story titled "Rage!", you can't help but hit the mark with these two.

Yet this story may surprise you in that respect, since it does more than feature Wolverine taking on the savage Wendigo with his fierce, berserker instincts; we see a very different focus on Wolverine in this tale, a man who takes the lead in mapping out the hunt for the snow beast yet has clearly learned the value of teamwork at the side of the X-Men. And there are more sources of rage in "Rage!" than Wolverine's, or even the Wendigo's--rage that Wolverine will meet head-on, though not in the way you might think.

The wrap-up of a two-part story, this issue has Wolverine (accompanied by Nightcrawler) travelling to Canada in an attempt to mend fences with Alpha Flight--specifically, with its leader, James Hudson, who in the past has not only attempted to take custody of Wolverine on his own but also with the rest of Alpha Flight backing him up, under orders from the Canadian government branch known as Department H.

As for how things stand so far in their efforts to find the Wendigo, let's let Nightcrawler bring us up to speed with a recap, since he appears to be having his own problems with this deadly beast--a creature that kills those unfortunate enough to cross its path by consuming their flesh.

"Perhaps I'll have better luck in the treetops. He looks too bulky to climb after me." This after seeing the Wendigo effortlessly split a tree in half pursuing him. Not to mention our observant demon having the nerve to be astonished when the Wendigo brings down the tree he's climbed with a single punch. If Nightcrawler is getting his tailed butt handed to him here, he has only his writer to blame for having him disregard the fact that trees offer no sanctuary whatsoever if your foe can topple them.

If cannibalism isn't your cup of tea in a comic book, there are a few other interesting sequences to divert our attention before things heat up--bits of characterization that are always welcome in these early stages of Uncanny X-Men, as the team members continue to get to know one another and continue to acclimate to their new lives under Xavier's guidance. For instance, Wolverine, given his inclination to deal ruthlessly and fatally with his foes, is an inevitable topic of discussion between Xavier and the Angel, one of the Professor's former students who has recently rejoined the team and found the methods of this claw-wielding X-Man to be a cause for concern.

We'll have to assume that Xavier has had his conversations with Wolverine off-panel about holding his behavior in the field to a higher standard, since I don't recall such words ever being exchanged between them. That doesn't exactly come as a surprise, since the book can't afford to water down a character such as Wolverine who's become a rising star in the book and whose attributes--so very different from the other X-Men--distinguish him and make him popular with readers. Instead, writer Chris Claremont has often left it to the other X-Men members to call Wolverine on his impulsive behavior. If word has ever gotten back to Xavier, it's curious that we haven't seen the effects, since even Angel must be wondering why Xavier hasn't addressed the matter with Wolverine more directly.

We also check in with Storm, who has become leader of the X-Men with the departure of Cyclops and who we see here in a rare moment of interaction with the locals. And while it may not be an encounter to her liking, it gives us a rare glimpse into her sense of humor.

In this encounter, Storm obviously isn't inclined to take her own advice to Kitty Pryde, whom she picks up after her dance lesson and chastises when the teenager phases into their car rather than opening the door. "What do you think you're doing, flaunting your power like that?! Suppose someone sees you?!" I'm sure that little thunderstorm that was whipped up in full view of passers-by on a public sidewalk fell into the same category.  Who chastises the chastiser?

And then there's Wolverine himself, whose civilian name we've finally learned in the prior issue and whose history we've been picking up in bits and pieces. During his reunion with Hudson, we're given a glimpse into his background--not much to work with, but a good beginning that can only fan further interest in the character.

With the preliminaries of the story concluded, our focus is turned to the situation with the Wendigo--his grisly activities in the Canadian woods of Hudson Bay having resulted in an investigation by a contingent of Alpha Flight, a group that Wolverine and Nightcrawler have offered their assistance to on their arrival. Given his prior experience with the Wendigo, it's Wolverine who's been able to identify the creature responsible for the tragedy of the missing Parnalls--a family of four who were attacked by the Wendigo, with the husband slaughtered and Mrs. Parnall and her infant daughter abducted. It will soon become evident to Wolverine and his party that the steps they're taking to find the creature won't be necessary--because the sound of one of their own, landing on their doorstep with a thud, makes it clear that the Wendigo has come to them.

Wolverine did pretty well against the Wendigo in their first meeting--and this time, he's backed up by members of Alpha Flight. On the other hand--does the Wendigo look worried?

Terror Times Three!

Good grief! Do you think we have enough Ts tormenting us here?

But then what we're really excited about is the triple-plus threat from:

I'll be the first to admit that it was a little difficult to get excited about another threat from the Thinker, whose mimicry of Rodin's "The Thinker" sculpture was what made him catch on with readers, if only briefly. "What's his deal?" we wondered. "What's going on in that brooding mind of his?" Not a whole lot, as it turned out. It was the Thinker's computers that actually did his thinking for him, calculating down to the second any number of plans designed to trap his target(s)--and then the Thinker would take credit for their brilliance, when his actions only boiled down to turning on his computers and following their timetable to the letter. He also took credit for his "awesome android," or, rather, stealing Reed Richards' notes for an awesome android and building one to use to attack his enemies--going a few rounds with the FF as well as the X-Men, before the Thinker escaped to think another day.

But, hoo boy, the Triumverate of Terror--now we've got something to get excited about. Because it looks like the Thinker has pivoted from wanting to pilfer Reed Richards' scientific secrets and moved on to those of Tony Stark, which are waiting in Avengers Mansion for the right thief to come along. To that end, he's outfitted three henchmen in specialized suits to deal with the Avengers, and voilà--our Triumverate of Terror. I haven't been so giddy about a group of villains since the Emissaries of Evil set the world on fire, even though the Triumverate preceded that group by five months and should have stolen the Emissaries' thunder.

So why haven't we heard more from the Triumverate of Terror?^* Well, they're spearheaded by a loser like the Thinker, so that's one answer; but let's take a look at their premiere battle issue and figure out how the Thinker could have possibly miscalculated in predicting their victory.

(Though obviously we can't accuse the Thinker of not putting enough thought into it.)

To Life Comes... The Valkyrie!

Following the Valkyrie's introduction in the fourth issue of The Defenders, it's time well spent for both the character and the book to have the following issue focus on cementing her status as both a person and as this informal group's newest "member." As we'll discover, both tasks will prove to be equally difficult. Ordinarily, we wouldn't need to worry about someone's status as a person, since that would be a given; but in the case of the Valkyrie, who simply springs into existence as a conjuring of the Enchantress and does her bidding, there is no "person" yet to speak of. In each instance that she's been summoned, the Valkyrie has been merged with an already existing woman, taking her body as her own while suppressing the mind and personality of the human host. In this case, the Valkyrie was merged with a woman named Barbara, who had previously become involved with the other-dimensional Undying Ones and eventually became trapped in their realm before being rescued by Dr. Strange and the other Defenders. With the Valkyrie's ascendance, Barbara, for all intents and purposes, is simply gone; and with the Enchantress having departed while neglecting to withdraw the Valkyrie's essence, her creation must now come to grips with the fact that she exists as a bona fide person from this point forward.

And now, as she strides New York's streets, she does so as a virtual blank slate. And with the influence of the Enchantress no longer directing either her movements or her actions, she can't help but ask herself one question after another about her existence, and her future.

Nevertheless, she remains the Valkyrie, self-assured in her strength and skill, a warrior who has an embedded feeling of superiority over the male sex and an open contempt for any man who attempts to prove himself to be her better in battle, as we see when a few of Strange's enemies attempt to kill her in an alley and come to regret it. At her side is the mystic ebony sword of the Black Knight, which she's appropriated (along with the Knight's winged steed, Aragorn) following a treacherous act by the Enchantress that changed him into a statue of stone. The curse of the sword--an evil influence that slowly and eventually affects its wielder--appears to be ineffectual on the Valkyrie; we're left to assume that her own mystic origins are likely neutralizing that aspect of its nature, though it's more likely that the writers of the book have simply chosen to shelve the sword's curse for the duration.

As for the Defenders (such as they are at this point--its individuals by definition tending to affairs of their own, with neither the inclination nor the obligation to keep the others informed of their status in the least), only Strange has offered to house the Valkyrie temporarily while she gets her bearings; and after lending his assistance in dispatching her attackers, he gives her a bit of advice on how she might proceed to establish her self, something just as important as choosing a direction for her life.

Yet even in the midst of the Valkyrie's uncertainty--about so many things, but in particular her being and true nature--writer Steve Englehart pulls out of left field an aspect to her character that would normally be a long ways off for one who has literally just come into existence only recently and has no past experience or feelings to draw on.

If there's one thing that we can say about the Valkyrie so far, it's that the last thing that she would be able to understand at this point is "what makes her tick." Putting aside for the moment the fact that she hasn't been in existence long enough or had enough exposure to what she'll eventually be told is "popular culture" to even be aware of such a catch phrase, there's simply no basis for her to shift gears and admit that she harbors a crush toward the Knight, particularly when the two never exchanged a single word or glance with each other in the short time they were in the same company. She has "a complete understanding of [her] psyche"? Really? She spends her days walking around with no inkling as to how to proceed, where to go, who to confide in. She's also just explained that her personality gives her a basic distrust of men--how does she reconcile that with love for one?

Englehart is likely planting a seed here for further development, one lacking in the subtlety it would need to seem less out of place this early in the Valkyrie's story; in any event, nothing ever does come of it, except for the Valkyrie to muse that the reason for her feelings might be the result of herself and the current state of the Knight having the same mystic origin (the Enchantress). The sub-plot fizzles for good when the Defenders discover the Knight's essence in the 12th century and the Valkyrie, now faced with the Knight in person (and Englehart now with his back to the wall in this situation), finds that "I keep waiting for the love I thought I held for him--but nothing comes! Nothing!" Defenders readers could no doubt declare the same bewilderment; but regardless, the matter is unceremoniously dropped.

As to her current predicament, Strange advises her to seek out the Hulk and Namor and make a beginning with them as far as acceptance and a way forward for herself. How curious that Strange, himself the product of a rebirth of character under the tutelage and guidance of the Ancient One, hasn't taken more of an interest in the Valkyrie's plight and given her a foundation for forming an awareness of self and an understanding of the world she seeks to become a part of. The Hulk seems a poor choice for providing her with direction or substantive counsel, and his constant desire to "be left alone" speaks for itself; and as for Namor, he makes his feelings clear on the matter.

Before the conversation can proceed further, the Sub-Mariner mysteriously vanishes into thin air, as, unknown to anyone, the reactivated Omegatron once again moves closer to the point where it will detonate nuclear stockpiles and bring an end to the world. The device was countered by the Defenders in their premiere adventure; and it seems the mind behind the device, the evil Yandroth, wishes their involvement once again in order to provide the power it needs to accomplish its deadly task. As for the Valkyrie, she puts her personal problems on hold and immediately resolves to locating him--but the other Defender she seeks is wandering the same area as the path she takes, and he's unfortunately even less enamored of the Defenders than Namor.

Aragorn is there to save the Valkyrie from her fall--and thanks to the mystic means which Strange gave her to locate both the Hulk and Namor, she tracks the two to the hidden complex on the coast of Maine where the Omegatron continues its countdown. Inside, she and Namor's cousin, Namorita (yes, Namorita--a name I can't seem to say or write without wincing), discover that Strange's spell to suspend time around the device is still active but now weakened, though enough time remains to destroy the device. Yet it's time that the Valkyrie won't be afforded, since the Omegatron now appears to be able to create enough facsimiles of the Sub-Mariner and the Hulk to keep her occupied until the fatal moment when it speaks its creator's name and thus dooms the world.

Thanks to a tactic she employs through the use of Aragorn, the Valkyrie is able to discern the real Namor and Hulk from the Omegatron's illusions, but her problem remains the same: dealing with two powerhouses that block her way to the Omegatron. (It's unclear how the Omegatron has mesmerized both Namor and the Hulk; previously, he had to use illusion to force them to battle.)

It's an impressive display of what the Valkyrie brings to the table as part of the Defenders--for now, at least. In this, her introductory story, the character is given enough distinctive personality and attitude to distinguish her; unfortunately, while the Hulk and Namor continue their involvement with the team, the Valkyrie would inevitably begin to blend into the background, since, flying horse and a swinging sword notwithstanding, her abilities so closely mimic those of the other two that she would appear to be no true asset for the Defenders.

There's also the fact that her strength falls well short of either Namor or the Hulk, which becomes evident when her assault against them fails. In fact, the battle's vibrations have given the Omegatron exactly what it needed the most--the power to carry out its task at last.

(Come now, were you expecting anyone else to save the day here?)

In the Defenders stories to follow, it would have benefitted the book--and the character--to have the Valkyrie retain her sense of assertiveness and initiative and move more to the forefront in battles involving her teammates comrades-in-arms; in fact, it would have been in her nature to lead the charge now and then, as well as school foes like the Wrecking Crew and the Squadron Sinister when she'd had enough of their arrogance. I seem to recall her clarifying her stance at one point: "I do not hate men... I merely know I'm as good as they are." It wasn't long before the Valkyrie stopped wearing her pride on her sleeve like that--and the men she sought to stand among were virtually echoing the words of Dr. Strange at the time she first proposed to join them:  "What could we possibly need you for?"

The Defenders #5 Script: Steve Englehart Pencils: Sal Buscema Inks: Frank McLaughlin Letterer: Charlotte Jetter

Legacy Of Greed

Can YOU

Name This Marvel Villain??

It's Open Season on Tony Stark!

The issue leading up to Invincible Iron Man #100 has so much happening in it and so many players that you may feel a little taxed in trying to put all of its pieces together. It's no wonder Tony Stark has a heart condition, with all that he's asked to keep track of while also suiting up as Iron Man and putting out all the fires he has to manage. But let's see if we can break it down in order to bring you up to date:

• The Mandarin has returned from the dead--and after we were so certain that the Yellow Claw had finally punched his ticket;
  
• Senator Hawk from Washington is pressuring Stark to be interviewed, following up on information that accuses Stark of bribing Japanese officials for the purpose of selling intelligence systems abroad;
  
• Det. Michael O'Brien, who holds Stark responsible for the death of his brother, Kevin, has attacked Iron Man in the Guardsman armor, the same armor that led to Kevin's death;
  
• Due to the return of his heart condition, Stark is forced to cast a new suit of Iron Man armor, redesigned to include circuitry that keeps his heart from failing while in battle;
  
• The ultra-nationalistic mutant, Sunfire, attacks Stark's factory complex, believing the criminal charges against Stark--and with his new armor not yet ready, Stark engages Sunfire as the Guardsman;
  
• O'Brien becomes convinced of Stark's innocence, grabs the new Iron Man suit, and races to help Stark against Sunfire;
  
• Stark, his chest in agony due to the Guardsman armor not having any support for his injured heart, takes the opportunity to get back to his lab to don the new suit, only to find it missing--and in desperation, seeks out his older armor with its life-support chestplate, guided to it by... Madame Masque!?
  
• Both Sunfire and O'Brien are astonished when a teleportation beam whisks O'Brien (still in the new Iron Man suit) away;
  
• Sunfire resumes his attack on the factory, only to be engaged by the "original" red- and gold-suited Iron Man; and finally...
  
• Jeez! Does anybody need some Dramamine before dizziness sets in??
  

There's also the surprise cover to this issue by artist John Buscema, who's drawn Iron Man enough in the pages of The Avengers but to my knowledge has never stepped in as artist on the character's own title. (What other characters' series has Buscema declined? Dr. Strange... Incredible Hulk... Captain America... X-Men and its numerous spin-offs... The Defenders... Marvel Team-Up... quite a few, it seems.) Here, he rewrites the laws of engineering and features the mask of Iron Man actually grimacing.

But we'll have to wait awhile to find out how Iron Man became trapped by the Mandarin, because he still has the hot-headed Sunfire to deal with. And as we can see, the issue's splash page only has room to tell a fraction of what's been happening to Stark and Iron Man--and there's a lot more story development waiting in the wings!

The Plan Of A Millennium

During the saga of the Celestials which played out in the pages of The Mighty Thor, we watched in shock as Odin, the ruler of Asgard, joined with his Greco-Roman counterpart, Zeus of Olympus, to invade the home of the Eternals and prevent them from challenging the Celestials--space gods who had arrived with their "Fourth Host" to conduct a fifty-year judgment which would decide the fate of the planet Earth. Thor had only recently discovered that both Zeus and Odin had previously entered into a pact of nonaggression with the Celestials; only in this instance, they had taken the extraordinary step of carrying out an attack on Olympia, the city of the Eternals, on behalf of the space gods. Such an act would not only set them against the Eternals, but also against Thor, who had recently allied himself with these Earth-dwelling demi-gods. In the end, Odin ended his participation in the conflict, followed by Zeus soon after. But the question for Thor remains: Why has his father become an ally of the Celestials and pledged to stand aside in a judgment which might result in the destruction of the world that Thor holds so dear? What hold do the Celestials have over a god who is professed to be supreme?

For the answers Thor seeks, he would have to wait until an encounter with Odin's lost but sentient right eye, once sacrificed and thrown into a mystic well as payment for knowledge from the well's occupant, Mimir, but which now responds to Thor's demands for the background of Odin's relationship to the Celestials. And the Eye presents to Thor a vision of the distant past, where Odin first became aware of the arrival of the Celestials and their intended mission and convened a summit of all the Earth gods in order to decide on a course of action.

Then, it seemed, Odin had every intention of putting a stop to the Celestials' incursion on Earth, though not yet realizing that it was the Celestials' genetic experiments on man which determined the race's future course of evolution. It's also important to note that Odin is primarily offended at the Celestials' presumption to judge a race that the Asgardians, the Olympians, and other Earth pantheons have close ties with, the word "judge" implying hostile intent should said judgment not be in its favor. One of the gods at the summit makes a fair point: With all of the other extra-terrestrial threats that have come to Earth at one time or another, why are the gods being convened to deal with this one? The Incan god's answer--that the Celestials' judgment might result in the destruction of mankind--is enough to spur the events of this particular story, but it falls short. If we were to apply the reasoning given here with a broader brush, why didn't the gods step in to deal with the threat of Galactus? Or the Stranger? Or the Grandmaster? Or Thanos? Or any of a number of other foes whose actions would wipe out the human race?

Regardless, their course is set, and Odin's delegation arrives at the Celestials' Incan base of operations during the landing and subsequent activities of its Third Host, approximately 1,000 years prior to the arrival of the Fourth Host when everything would hit the fan. Once again, Arishem stands silent and unmoving, even as Odin demands an audience.

If the Earth gods' destinies are indeed intertwined with that of humanity to the extent that Odin believes, then you could make the argument that the gods are beholden to the Celestials, after a fashion--though perhaps Ajak goes too far in his conclusion regarding the extent to which the Celestials "shaped mankind's destiny," since the results of eons of evolution would still depend on how wide a range of subjects the Celestials' experiments were conducted. If the Celestials judge the human race to be a failure, it's the parameters of the experiments that are at fault; there also might well be a large portion of humanity, unaffected by those experiments, who would suffer that judgment.

Yet there's also Odin's curious initiative to consider here. We know, for instance, that Thor will come to discover the true nature of the Celestials' judgment on a world; and at one time, Odin spent a good deal of time investigating the origin and background of Galactus to determine if intervention were required to deal with the world-devourer. It seems very out of character for Odin to assume such an aggressive posture here, given how little he knows of the Celestials and how often in the past he's made efforts to learn the nature of a potential threat to Asgard or the universe. Ajak's words contain pertinent information that should have given these gods pause--though frankly, that point should already have been reached by Odin. He has a 1,000-year window to investigate the Celestials--time enough to find the answers he seeks, either to their true purpose or, in the event of things going south, a more certain way of dealing with them than simply provoking them so recklessly.

Nevertheless, the die is cast, and the gods strike--only to find that the Celestials' might is invincible, and well beyond their ability to challenge.

(The fact that the other Celestials have continued to just go about their business in the background while this confrontation has taken place speaks volumes about how they regard this meeting, if indeed they regarded it at all. "Threat" is probably not even a word that occurred to them.)

Thanks to the Eye, Thor now has the answer that he seeks to the main question that's been troubling him. But there is more--an answer to another mystery which hasn't been pursued in nearly 300 issues of Mighty Thor, but which now stands revealed.

Perhaps the bigger mystery is how the Destroyer was ever given a hard time by Thor in the past, if the armor is invested with the power of all the god-lords. Also certainly meriting explanation is how Odin could ever sign off on such a valuable creation being conscripted into the service of Galactus and likely being unavailable when the time came for it to be deployed.

Jeez--if Galactus is calling the Destroyer a "toy," you can imagine what the Celestials are going to think of it.