Countdown: Top 10 Avengers

by Darryll YTC Carter

Two weeks ago I posted my top 10 mutants showing the people I'm rooting for during the Avengers vs X-Men event. This time its the Avengers' turn. Let's get to it.

Captain America

     Without any contest remotely, Cap is my number one Avenger. I mean…. He’s Cap. He earned my respect from the pages of the Ultimates back in my high school days. I’m pro-American and Cap is as pro-America as it gets (before it becomes unhealthy or just racist). He is pure American everything that we should be. Everything that any self respecting and aspiring hero wants to be.  Then there is the shield. He’s surgical with that thing. Not to mention till this day he’s the only man I’ve seen literally walk up to the Hulk and just slug him one.

 Hulk

     If you would have seen me when I first saw the Incredible Hulk or maybe the time I saw the Hulk jump out of a nuclear explosion, you would know my appreciation for the Hulk is borderline orgasmic. That’s right I swoon folks, swoon when I see the Hulk go on his rampages and exert his power and the devastation it relinquishes upon the battlefield or an unsuspecting alien’s face. “Hulk Smash!” = Me happy.

Spider-Man

     Good ole Parker. My favorite superhero tied for first place with none other than Bruce Wayne himself. He’s got the jokes, he’s got the smarts and he had the girl… redhead that is. She’ll be back again don’t even worry about it Pete. We’ll be okay. We’ll be okay… Maybe you can hook up with Patty Spivot, she looks a lot like your recent ex, especially since she wants nothing to do with Flash.

Scarlet Witch

     

      Mmmm, Wanda. I said why I liked her in the Mutant countdown and interestingly enough she clutches the #4 spot again. I like her enough that she appears on both lists. Here’s an excerpt from the Mutant countdown on Wanda:

Often viewed as the favorite child of Magneto, Scarlet Witch is a top tier mutant not to be trifled with. Scarlet Witch manipulates probability fields and reality via her hexes. While she has been deemed unstable on more than one fair occasion, Wanda once firmly warmed a seat in the Avengers alongside her love, Vision. To put into perspective just how powerful Wanda is, I only need to mention House of M. Don’t know what that is? Google it or go buy it. Man I love women with power.

Valkyrie

      Valkyrie is pretty much what I’d go for if I were a superhero. Like Wanda she is a mesh of power and beauty. Besides riding shotgun and being the resident strongman for the first version of the Secret Avengers she has a very poetic and archaic way with words. And who doesn’t like a girl who can wield a big ass sword. Ring Ring. Hello? Valk, it’s for you. Cloud wants his buster sword back.

Iron Man

      Tony Stark would probably have been number three or four on this list before Civil War went down. While his side did come up on top, we all know he regrets the brunt of his actions. Downey and the Iron Man films saved Tony for me. Saved him from the abyss he was doomed for in my mind. That said, Its hard to hate the guy. It is like really hard. You have to try. Like discover a new element try.

               

Black Widow

     Scarlett Johansson.

She Hulk

      Banner’s cousin Jennifer Walters; experienced and great lawyer by day, big green, sexy, muscle pounding machine by choice. The beauty of She Hulk’s character is that she chooses to be She Hulk. She’s in perfect control of her transformation, thanks to the opposite effect it had on her as opposed to her cousin.

Wasp

     I’m not sure how to explain how or why I like the wasp. Is it that I like the Wasp or is it that I like what happened to the Wasp? Vague? I’ll explain. In the Ultimates, the Wasp was married to Hank Pym, Giant Man, who also happened to be abusive. One day after an argument he decided to spray her with some bug spray and have his mind controlled ant army ravage her. (Not like that…) They roughed her up a bit… a lot. Cap handled that nasty business. I’ve always thought that was an amazing writing choice. To put that in there. A hot head hero, who abuses his mutant wife, who can shrink down to the size of an insect and sprout wings, with bug spray. It was near genius.

Thor

     “By Odin’s beard!” That’s pretty much the extent of my appreciation. LMAO. Who says that? Thor, that’s who. Oh and Mjolnir. It doesn’t take much to please me folks.

WEB OF REFLECTION: BEN REILLY

THE MANY SPIDER-MEN PART II:

WEB OF REFLECTION: BEN REILLY

by Hector Ramirez

Hello Clashers, your friendly neighborhood Clasher here. It’s that time of the month where us Clashers become crawlers swingers and slingers, of the wall and web variety that is. It’s time for another 50 year anniversary celebration of the spectacular, sensational, amazing and just recently fantastic, and avenging SPIDERMAN. Now last month  I took you all into the future for a look at how Miguel O’Hara did things as the wall crawler. Well this week we take a look at Ben Reilly and his reign as the web slinger. So follow me through New Yorkas we take a look how Peter’s clone filled in for him.

            Dr. Miles “The Jackal” Warrenbecame obsessed with Peter Parker and his girlfriend Gwen Stacy and decides to clone them….repeatedly. After finally perfecting a Peter clone he convinced him that Peter was in fact the clone. A huge fight ensues which ends with Peter throwing the clone into a smoke stack, leaving him for dead. The clone, who actually survived, climbs out and instead of trying to interfere with Peter decides to start a life of his own. After spending several years traveling the world under the assumed name Ben Reilly (Ben in memory of his late uncle and Reilly Aunt May’s maiden name) keeping tabs on Peter through Aunt May claiming to be a long lost cousin, decided to return to New York. Dying his hair so that people wouldn’t recognize him as Peter, Ben takes on odd jobs around the city and wall crawling as the Scarlet Spider. Eventually Ben and Peter meet and team up keeping up the charade of Ben being a distant cousin. The two became close, (makes sense they’re basically the same person) so when Peter decides he wants to call it quits, Ben, reluctantly at first, takes on the mantle. (Not like many other people could.)

             To feel like his own man, Ben designed a new costume, which was a revamp (and in my opinion an improvement) on the classic red and blue costume. At this time Ben and Peter have been misled to believe that Ben was the real Peter under the orders of Norman Osborn. Because of the different costume the Daily Bugle ran a story claiming New York Had a new Spiderman but later dropped the story when given evidence to the contrary. Only a select few who knew Peter as Spiderman knew the truth. During that time Ben went through quite a bit, like being bonded with the Carnage symbiote for a short time. 


          Ben found a steady job at a restaurant before it was burned down by the Hobgoblin who framed Ben for the arson had his bank account frozen and robbed him of everything. Peter and Mary Jane returned to New Yorkfrom Portland right before many of New York’s Heroes disappeared during the Onslaught incident. During this time Peter dawned his costume to help keep New Yorksafe under the watchful eye of two Spidermen. Eventually this also came to an end when Norman Osborn finally came out of hiding. Mockingly admitting that it was he who had misled them to break Peter’s spirits and revealing was in fact the clone. A battle between the three ensues ending with Ben being impaled by the goblin glider and disintegratingas ben dies Peter leaves him wit the final words "rest easy ....brother". 


    Ben Reilly brings new characters from his travels into the world of Spiderman, making it that much more interesting. When he wore the webs, there was a fresh twist on Spidey while retaining all that made the title what it was. Well, that's all for now. Until next time friends, keep clashing.