Another Anniversary

Well, this month Monkey Knife Fight turns 2 and I would like to thank all of you who have come and checked out my little section of the Internets along with the people who have began following me on here and a special thank you to everyone who has left comments for me. You folks make me glad to write this blog as well as proving that even my ramblings have a place on the net. Now that I've thanked everyone, I would like to proclaim that as long as I feel I have something to say I will continue writing Monkey Knife Fight and hopefully I will be better at regularly posting on here. I'm also going to make more of an effort in being less random in my subject matter. I know I have been really lousy in regularly posting in the last year and for that I apologize to all my regular viewers (Hi, mom)and to make up for that I will do my best to post more and be more coherent in my ramblings. When I first started this blog, I figured I'd have enough to say for a few months or that I would maybe be able to think of enough content for maybe a year. Now here we are heading into the toddler stage of Monkey Knife Fight, the blog has learned to walk and now it's all about jamming things into electrical sockets. Hopefully, I've learned something in these last couple of years that will make me a better blogger and Monkey knife fight will continue to grow. Though, before I go I feel I should talk a little about the failed endeavour that was Quarter Bin Reviews. For those of you that don't know, this year I attempted to create another blog. I started it because I wanted to stretch out of my comfort zone of just writing about whatever fool idea comes into my head and actually have a purpose, as well as trying to learn how to write proper reviews. I was only able to do a couple of full reviews before it fizzled out and though I did enjoy writing it. I just ended up not having the free time to read (terrible) old comic books and write up entertaining reviews and they ended up being more retellings of the stories than actual reviews and though, Quarter Bin Reviews ended up crashing and burning. I still have a few other things I may try doing on another blog. but, for now I'm just working on Monkey Knife Fight. I have no clue what the coming year will bring, but I hope I will learn to find the time to post here more often than I have been. Once again a big thank you to everyone who has dropped by and I hope to continue entertaining you for as long as I have an opinion about comics and the worlds they inhabit and of course, to spread the word about the awesomeness that is Jubilation Lee.

Just sharing some more Husk love

Paige and Rahne

So, lately I've been thinking about how awesome it would be if Marvel let me write Marvel Team-Up and who I would team-up (besides the War Machine Gambit team-up I wrote about a few months ago) and one I came up with that I think would be all kinds of awesome is Husk(Paige Guthrie) and Wolfsbane(Rahne Sinclair). Now anyone who has been here before probably already knows how much I love Wolfsbane, as I've written about that love quite a few times here at Monkey Knife Fight. Though, I haven't written as much about how much I dig Husk (mainly because of my made love for her teamate Jubilee) I really dig Sam's sister and have been so happy that she and Jubilee have been getting a bunch of screen time in the X-Men vs. Vampires books(which is an awesome series if you haven't gotten the chance to check it out). Anyways back to the main topic, I think it would be fun to have these two team up. Since, we haven't seen them interact much in the books even though they both are connected to Cannonball in one way or another. I also, like this pairing because any criminal who ran into them would certainly start thinking about a new vocation after tangling with these two, since their powers are pretty freaky. I think that their differing personalities would make for some neat moments throughout the story and they would both get a chance to show off different parts of their personalities we don't often get to see. Plus, it would be neat to have them talk about Cannonball and his goofiness. If you want to know more about what I'd do with this pairing, I guess you'll just have to start petitioning Marvel to let me write Marvel Team-Up.

Spiderman and his cock-blocking friend

I haven't talked about it in awhile on hear, but out in the real world I have been talking about my love of the show Spiderman and his Amazing Friends and as I was talking to one of these folks who was to young to have seen the show. I told them about how the main reason, I still to this day love this show is that the majority of the show is just Peter and Bobby cock-blocking each other (and indirectly themselves) in their competition to date Angelica and how it usually ends with her going out with some other guy (like Dracula). Think about this, I came to the conclusion that the main reason this causes me untold amounts of laughter, is the fact that Spidey and Iceman are too busy fighting over who will date Firestar that they never ask her about her perference. Even as a guy (and occasionally a quite boorish one at that) I've always found this attitude perplexing, the whole dynamic just makes me snicker.

Casting Cloak and Dagger

With news of ABC Family developing a Cloak and Dagger TV show I thought I would chime in (a bit late) on how I think should be cast in the leading and supporting roles. I've always dug these characters and I really hope that this show works out. With an eye towards this being a tv show I figured I would stick with only the leading characters having superpowers and that the rest of the cast would just be regular non-powered people and so, here's my cast:

Cloak/Tyrone Johnson - Maestro Harrell. Much like Taylor Momsen, I haven't seen him in that much. But, from what I have seen him in I think he would do a good job as Tyrone.


Dagger/Tandy Bowen - Taylor Momsen, Although I'm not too familar with her work. I feel sees got the look to play Tandy both before and after her and Tyrome were drugged. Plus I think being on Gossip Girl she could probably handle the dark subjects of the show than one of the girls from one of the Disney or Nickelodeon shows.


Father Delgado - Jeremy Sisto, after his role on Law and Order I feel that Sisto would make a good choice as the priest who takes in Cloak and Dagger and allows them to use his church as their home base while offering support and guidance to them.


Silvermane - Kyle MacLachlan, He has the right mix of menace and congeniality to play the elder mobster whom seeks a formula for immortality. Give him some silver hair dye and he's set.


Simon Marshall - Bryan Callen, with his recurring role as Bilson on HIMYM. I think he has just the right mix of likability and jerkass to pull off the role of the man who found the duo on the streets and injected them with the drugs which turned them into superheroes.


Well there you have it. My casting choices for the (hopefully) upcoming Cloak and Dagger TV series.

The Irredeemable X-Men

So, for a while now I've been toying with the idea of making up an X-Men team made up of the mutants that get no respect for the powers and came up with the idea of the Irredeemable X-Men team which consist of:

Iceman - The leader of the team, who's trying to prove to Scott and the others he can lead and that making ice is not just a parlor trick seeing how he can control one the the most abundant of the elements on Earth.

Jubilee - Besides being one of my favs she's got an awesome personality and can control the fourth state of matter (plasma) with her "fireworks".

Husk - Every team needs a big guy and I think she would be a fun one to go with. though she's not made fun of as much as the two above her. She hasn't gotten a lot of face time in the X-Men books (well, other than in the X-Men vs. Vampires books).

Wolfsbane - Even though she doesn't get teased too much about her actual powers, I do feel she could be used better with in the X-Men books which tend to focus on her religious views in a way that I think is unfair (Like some of the jokes her X-Factor teammates have thrown her way) and that she would make a good team mom for this rag-tag group.

Cypher - Last but not least the guy who can understand all forms of communication. Granted the new New Mutant book has been treating him better (especially when he pwn'd the team in his first re-appearance). He still doesn't get nearly the respect he should based on his powers. Heck, look how crazy awesome Cassandra Cain was using only one of the techniques available to him.

So, there you have it, the Irredeemable X-Men team. Hopefully someone at Marvel will make this happen and then maybe Joey Q will stop getting so much flack (from people like me) about Spider-MAn's satanic divorce.

Wolverine's Powerful Princesses

While handing out candy this year, me and a friend struck upon the funnest idea for a new X-Men team. While we're still working on a name that doesn't sound pervy. The idea for the team thus far is that for whatever reason (maybe he stole Cyclop's motorcycle one too many times). Wolverine is put in charge of leading a team consisting of; Jubilee, Molly Hayes, Pixie and, Kitty Pryde. Most of this series would consist of various X-Men popping in to make fun of Wolverine. With Colossus occasionally dropping in so that Illyana can visit with her friends and Molly Hayes beating up Wolverine when doesn't pickup the right slurpee flavor or drive her too the mall or whatever. But, mainly just a book written as an excuse for young Molly to pummel Logan on a monthly basis.

She's the Boss Pt. 2

It's been a long time since I've posted anything new, mainly because I couldn't really think of anything to post. But, in the last couple of weeks I've been getting back into my love of Jubilee. I felt it would be a good time to finally post some new material. As, I've talked about in other posts I enjoy reading comics which feature Wolverine and Jubilee from the perspective that he is actually her sidekick. Just something about the idea that mean, feral, tough as nails Wolverine is following a bubbly teenage mall rat tickles me deep down in my soul and if I ever got the chance to write an X-Men book I would totally play up this alternative character interpation. With Jubilee calling the shots and Wolverine basically being like whatever, when do I get to punch someone? Looking back I think the main place the seeds of this interpation of their relationship were sewn was in the episode of the 90's cartoon in which Jubilee tells a group of kids visiting the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters a fantasy style tale, in which she is a Robin Hood type with an orc like version of Wolverine as her sidekick. Since, then it just makes their team-ups more enjoyable to me thinking that she is the boss and he is the muscle. Maybe, it's because she's always been a bit more mouthy and brazen then Wolverine's other teen aged sidekicks. Which writing this makes me wonder why no one seems to play up the creepiness of Wolverine taking on teen aged girl sidekicks as much as they do the whole thing with Batman taking up teen aged boys as sidekicks. To me at least Wolvie's relationships seem a bit more unseemly than Batman's. But, then that's just me. But, yeah I view Batman's mentoring a lot more innocently than I do Wolverine's. But, back on topic I feel that Wolverine and Jubilee's relationship works best when she is shown as the one guiding their missions and making the decisions about how to proceed.

Another Pitched Marvel Will Ignore

Thinking today about the book I would love to write if Marvel ever lost there sense and hired me. I came to the realization that the book I would truly love to write for them would be a new volume of Marvel Team-Up and for you my faithful readers I will layout how I would write it starting with my first team-up. I would take highly unlikely character and put them in situations where the would have to grudgingly accept each others help and maybe even become friends by the end of the story and my first team-up would be....Gambit and War Machine. That's right official stick in the mud Jim Rhodes and part time thief Remy LeBeau.



The story would begin with Rhodey investigating a string of thefts within Stark Industries. The clues quickly point him in the direction of one Remy LeBeau (whom has been living it up in Vegas). Rhodey travels to Vegas and playing it cool ends up in a game of Texas hold'em where he and Gambit are the last to players. As the stakes of their game get higher Rhodes asks more and more pointed questions in an attempt to get Remy to confess. Of course, Gambit sees what Rhodes is trying to do from a mile away and evades the questions while putting together a mental list of whom would be trying to set him up for these thefts. The final card is dropped and Gambit wins the pot. Deciding he could use some more info he offers to buy Rhodey a drink at the bar. While sharing a drink Remy comes up with some names of the possible perpetrators and offers to help War Machine catch the thieves (for a slight reward of course). They then go busting down doors making their way down Gambit's list of suspects. Though, non of these rogues are the one's Jim and Remy are looking for, they do provide some helpful information on the reason for the thefts and eventually the catch the theif whose is revealed to be... Tony Stark, who had set up Gambit because of a confidence scam Gambit had pulled on him. Gambit returns the money he had taken from Stark (though not before stealing Tony's wallet)and they all go out for a drink.

Well, there you have it my first issue of Marvel Team-Up staring Gambit and War Machine.

Just Throwing a Little Havok Your Way

What with Alex Summers out in space and all. It got me thinkig about how not many bloggers have much of an opinion on the middle Summers child. Maybe, it's because he was running the X-Men when I started reading comics but, I really like Havok and have ever since those early days and really dug what Peter David did with him in X-Factor. The only major story with him I didn't like was the Mutant X. But, then again I've never been much for alternative timelines other than Age of Apocalypse and Red Son). Silly costumes aside, I feel that Havok would be a nice contrast to Cyclops with everything going on in the X-Men universe right now. But, instead he's trpped in space playing space pirate. Which I feel is a shame since, Alex is such a cool character with a lot of stuff going on and I really like his plasma burst powers and the concentric circles used to portray them on the printed page and would have loved it if they would have atleast had a shout out to him in the movies. On the plus side they did try to work him in to the latest cartoon series. Alas, it seems that only I am a fan of his. Which is a shame since he really is one of the cooler X-characters.

Won't People Fear Mutants More, If We Call Ourselves Mutant Hunters?

Lately, I've been on a X-Men: First Class kick and I've just been reading the 3 TPBs that have been published and while being on this Original X-Men jag. I've been wanting to read just about anything with them in it as a team. So, the other day I was reading some stuff online about the original X-Factor book and it got me thinking of the terrible idea it was to create the team as a group of mutant hunters and yeah, I know they were being manipulated by Cameron Hodge. But, still didn't any of the original 5 think that was a terrible idea? Even Beast? Granted he is a super genius scientist who's greatest accomplishment as accidentally turning himself blue. But, still... Heck, even Cyclops should have had an inkling that this was a terrible, terrible idea. granted because of my age I'm not too experienced with the early issues of X-Factor, since, by the time I started reading comics Angel had already gotten his metal wings and Havok was leading the X-Men. I just find it weird that it doesn't seem like any of the original 5 that this was the terrible idea it was until Cameron Hodge and Apocalypse had manipulated them into creating more fear of mutants in the general populous. Of course, the one thing this premise had in its favor is how in general the normal people of the Marvel Universe seem to not like or trust superheroes far more than in the DC universe.

How Does Iron Man got to when he has tax problems?

Here's a few of the firms I feel should exist in the Marvel universe.

Robert Drake and Associates, Accounting Services

Samson, Blake and, Strange: Health Services

Worthington, Worthington and, Stark; Investments

The Law Offices of Nelson, Murdock and, Walters

Xavier/Frost: Education Enterprises

Wilson and Rhodes: Security

Well, there you go some firms and organizations that they should have in the Marvel U.