When the Sentry visited the Philippines: Dark Reign Agents of Atlas #1

[ficticons]

For blackruzsa, who requested any of a series of moments mentioned in an article entitled "The Balut in a Superhero's Underpants".

It says that "[i]f the Americans have their Easter Eggs, we Filipinos have our Balut Eggs. (Okay, I just made up that term, but it seems appropriate anyway.) Balut Eggs are those moments when Filipinos (or something Pinoy) suddenly pops up in foreign movies, TV shows, novels, and comic books."

It goes on to list several of those moments that appear in American comic books. I was intrigued by one of them - in Marvel Comics’ “Agents of Atlas,” Mt. Pinatubo erupts again and Sentry flies in just in time to rescue a damaged Phivolcs helicopter - so I went to do a little digging and to my surprise, I found I had it.

Three and approximately 3/4ths scans from Dark Reign Agents of Atlas #1. Written by Jeff Parker, pencilled by Carlo Pagulayan (a Filipino artist, as the article notes), coloured by Jana Schirmer.



And here's the page blackruzsa wanted.

It's interesting - I guess I didn't quite understand what I was seeing when I first read the page, because I didn't remember it right away when I saw the sentence about it in the article. I had to look through my Dark Reign trade to see when Bob Reynolds could have gone to the Philippines...and also to have another look at the volcano erupting. I thought 'surely I'd have remembered that if I'd read it!' But no, apparently I hadn't. The author of that article certainly seems to have had an eye for particular detail, though - or else they must have had a keen spotter working for/writing to them.





So there you are, blackruzsa! I hope you enjoyed it. :)

Comments

[thelazyreader]

I'm liking Osborn-the-government-suit more and more.

[proteus_lives]

Motto.

Norman never needed a costume to be scary.

[pyrotwilight]

Yay for comic nudity! Though I'll admit if her power is entrancing people I'll never understand the whole magically looking naked to do so.

It is always fun seeing heroes saving the day outside of the US.

[okkult3000]

I would think that a lot of guys imagine the objects of their lust naked without magical assistance.

[psychopathicus_rex]

Always a classic moment. I love how believably INNOCENT Venus is, without that making her naive. (She's one of the few character I know of who can pull off an expression like 'oh, poo' without any irony whatsoever.)

[psychopathicus_rex]

...'characters'.

[ficticons]

Yeah, and she's not being malicious when she says it either. It's more like 'oh, gee'. I like her.

[psychopathicus_rex]

Me too. She kind of reminds me of classic Mary Marvel - sweet and innocent, but don't try to push her around.

[warpedhand]

I guess I'm the only one completely squicked out to the point where I simply am not reading anything she's in.

[sailorlibra]

This is actually a way more invasive use of her powers than usual. Usually, she just uses them to calm people down, but doesn't control their actions or desires. I could definitely see how the scene could be bothersome, though.

[ficticons]

Yeah, what sailorlibra said. And it's not like we haven't seen the downside of the use of her powers - for example from an encounter with an Atlas offshoot group - or what happens when she starts crying, which is something that an issue of the original Agents of Atlas miniseries showed quite clearly. She doesn't always use them unreservedly, either (the AoA part of Dark Reign: Who do you trust? has a few panels of this).

I would say, though, that if you're not reading anything she's in just because she's in it, you might be missing out on something you could like. For example the Agents of Atlas title (which was, IMO, brilliant) or neat little moments like the story shown in the second and third scans in this post.

[blackruzsa]

I guess it wouldn't be obvious to anyone who isn't intimately acquainted with the Philippines, but there are lots of things that point it out:
ILVOLCS is cut off of PHILVOLCS (Philippine center for Volcanology and Cosmology or something like that) and there are the tricycles, the sari-sari store, the "noypi" and "toda" and the church in the bg.
I could go on but it'd bore you XD

Anyways, this shows me that I should gather every Dark Reign comic and just read the hell out of each, because I feel ashamed as a member of gayreign if I haven't even read half the comics.

btw, Thanksssssssss <3

[nemryn]

Looks like it's 'Volcanology and Seismology'.

[blackruzsa]

Whoops XD See, I don't read.

[ficticons]

Or someone who probably only briefly glanced at the 'The Philippines' printed at the top right-hand corner of the page, and then promptly forgot about it. :P

And you're welcome! I'm always happy to post Agents of Atlas stuff. I ♥ them.

[valtyr]

This is seriously pretty art.

[ficticons]

It really is!

I really like what I've seen of Carlo Pagulayan's work, and Jana Schirmer's colours are, I think, one of the reasons the first two issues that I read of Agents of Atlas appealed to me so much on an artistic level (of course, the other part was Gabriel Hardman). The Agents have been lucky that way - they've had some really good artists on their title(s).

[valtyr]

I have shiny hardcover of Agents of Atlas and I haven't even taken off the shrinkwrap. *shame* I really, really, should; I hear it's fantastic, and I love Venus and Namora.

[lucky_gamble]

I always wanted to see this scene since I though it was impossible for someone to pull a mind whammy on the Sentry. You've made my day =d

[ficticons]

Oh, that's a lovely thing to read! Thank you for saying so :). I'm glad you were finally able to see the scene.