"They called the battle the Ant-pocalypse."
There’s only one sound effect that adequately describes the sound made by Captain America, as a werewolf, busting out of a secret laboratory through a metal door, and that sound is:
Just in case you were wondering.
I just happened to be hip-deep in Captain America back issues over the weekend, and that got me to thinking: someone, somewhere, is the World’s Biggest Red Skull Fan. I mean, he’s really into the Red Skull. Has the action figures, had the posters, has all of his comic book appearance, dresses up as the Red Skull for Halloween…this person is just nuts for Cap’s biggest Nazi villain.
Now, I’m not saying this theoretical World’s Biggest Red Skull Fan is, in fact, sympathetic to the Red Skull’s philosophies and policital leanings, by any means, though I suppose that’s possible. I’m just saying that someone out there thinks he’s a swell villain, and is compelled to acquire all materials related to this character.
So what Red Skull items are out there, you may be wondering. Or you may not be wondering, but I’m going to tell you anyway.
There’s the Red Skull bust, of course, as well as the Red Skull statue (complete with Cosmic Cube). There have been a couple Red Skull action figures of late, including a chase figure from Marvel Legends Series 5, and a Captain America Vs. Red Skull diorama set. We also had the little Heroclix fella, and I’m sure there’s a bunch more material out there that I’ve not been able to Google up. I wonder if there was any Red Skull merchandise from the ’40s like, I don’t know, decoder rings and such. Granted, that doesn’t seem terribly likely, but you never know.
In my searches, I did find a customized Red Skull Mini-Mate on this page, some custom carded Secret Wars figures, and a custom Mego figure (complete with big Keane-esque eyes).
I hope my searches for “Red Skull” don’t put me on a list somewhere.
So pal JP flipped through the new issue of Ant from Image Comics, and just couldn’t stop laughing. Now, I’d never looked inside a copy, since I gathered from the covers of both the original Arcana series and the current run that it was a T’n’A fest. Yes, I judged a book by its cover, so sue me. However, prodded by pal JP’s enjoyment of this issue, I decided to peruse it myself…flipping through, the first panel that jumped out at me was this one:
Okay, to be fair, there actually is a context for that panel — the sleazy landlord is staring at the lead character’s posterior and commenting upon it — but it’s still a panel featuring an extreme close-up of a lady’s behind, with a word balloon.
And then there was this panel:
Eek.
The story itself has the lead character looking into her connection to the Ant character, including picking up a copy of the Image comic book, and learning the history of the character from a comic store employee…a history that apparently includes creating world peace single-handedly following 9/11:
“The fight lasted for days. They called the battle the Ant-pocalypse.”
Well, of course they did. What else would you call it?
While I’m on the topic of Ant, it’s interesting to note that while the earlier issues from Arcana are allegedly “hot” and, in some cases, going for premium prices, it’s not translating to sales, at least for us, on the current Image series. Maybe it’s just local market conditions, but it may be another example of a comic desired by consumers primarily as a collectible, rather than as serialized entertainment.
I think I must have watched this video at least twice a day since I originally linked to it. I honestly can’t get enough of it. These two brothers need to make more videos.
