The New Avengers #18 - Half a page of preview and a fanart response

[icon_uk]

From the preview up at CBR



We open with a funeral... But for whom?

As it turns out, it's for Sunspot, with Songbird giving a eulogy.... and quite the set of mourners in attendance.



Now as you might imagine, if you know me at all, it's that last panel which has my attention...

I'm not sure if Doug is being deeply sarcastic (because this is NOT the first New Mutant funeral of course) or being quite sincere because this IS his first New Mutants funeral, since he wasn't really around for the one he was in attendance at as the body.

Warlock's reaction is also a little... charged, since it's a direct reference to the events of New Mutants 64 where that's an accurate description of what Warlock did with Doug's corpse, in a genuine attempt to "jumpstart" him back to life... if didn't work.



Yeah, I've never posted from that issue apart from the first couple of pages, it makes me too sad, though someday I might, but let's just say that Jay and Miles consider it THE saddest comic book ever and devoted pretty much an entire episode to it and they summarise it better than I could.

Still, Cypher and Warlock fans are a creative bunch and within a couple of hours of the preview being posted, the delightful Leigh Wortley over on tumblr had come up with this, based on the not unreasonable assumption that no one ever got around to telling Doug about NM#64 after his return (It would be a fairly harrowing story to tell, no matter how well meaning Warlock might have been).







The outraged "In front of my MOTHER?!" is the perfect punchline... (There might be a bit of a giveaway about developments revealed in the rest of the preview, but... such is life)

Comments

[jetpack_monkey]

That whole preview is gold. I love Al Ewing.

[daningram.insanejournal.com]

Did Rahne do something to get her New Mutant card revoked? Because it really seems like they never include her in reunions.

[icon_uk]

I'd say that her time in PAD'S X-Factor somehow ruled her out, but here we see Warlock and Cypher who were in the most recent iteration of X-Factor so it's not that.

And yet, just recently I've seen a promo image of her back in costume though, for some reason, she is working with Magneto on a team consisting of Warpath, Landslide, Colossus, Wolfsbane and Mags himself...

[daningram.insanejournal.com]

Yeah, she was in Death of X (and honestly, I was half convinced she was gonna be cannon fodder). Hell, she still hasn't had a reunion with freakin' Cypher!

[icon_uk]

Doug still hasn't been seen talking to Rahne, or Betsy, or his parents, or Magneto (imagine how THAT one might have gone down since Doug's death was one of the reasons Magneto went bad again) but until I get commissioned by Marvel to write that whole miniseries it ain't going to happen.

[zylly]

They seriously dropped the ball when they brought Doug back (add Kitty to your list too, I believe). So many important people he needed to be seen interacting with.

Though if I remember right, PAD had actually said he had no plans to have Rahne find out about Doug, as it would distract from her baby-drama/Rictor stuff.

[icon_uk]

Kitty and Doug met up in savage Wolverine #12 and #13

[zylly]

Good to know, thanks! I haven't followed a Wolverine comic since... ah... since the time he was a Horseman of Apocalypse? Bar a couple issues of All-New Wolverine.

[icon_uk]

Yeah, those two are, I think, the only two Wolverine issues I've ever owned.

[onsokumaru]

Even for a fake funeral, I'm a bit disappointed by the lack of fan service from Ewing. I would have liked to see some Fallen Angels and the rest of the New Mutants instead of the Squirrel Gang.

Although I guess Rhane would have issues with Berto using a church as a trap.

[icon_uk]

The other half of the team probably don't believe he's dead... And Dani, with her Valkyrie death perception probably has her doubts.

[adnor]

Champagne robot is sad :(

[lonewolf23k]

So, nobody remembers Douglock?

[icon_uk]

Oh come on now, who DO you think you're talking to here??? ;)

Douglock 1 was merged Doug and Lock, both alive.

Douglock 2 was a Phalanx-repurposed amnesiac Warlock with Doug's genetic code hardwired in.

Not sure either of those count

[zylly]

Perhaps Doug believes that if the deceased comes back to life, it no longer counts? That would absolve him, Illyana, and Warlock (though I think Rusty is still dead?).

[icon_uk]

Doug never knew Rusty, but othewise fair point, do you think the New Mutants have something like one of those "In/Out" boards you see in large offices to keep track of staff, except it's "Alive/Dead"?

[zylly]

I imagine that's pretty much a necessity in any super-hero HQ.

[scorntx]

But isn't Illyana actually a magically produced duplicate / replica of Illyana Belasco made after House of M?
(Or has that been gently nudged aside yet?)

[zylly]

I'm going to file that one under "close enough."

[survivor19]

Well, she had retrieved her soulstones, which enables her to claim same identity of the original.
Not like she really wants to. She deliberately pushed Colossus away because he thought of her as his "little snowflake" still

[icon_uk]

Not being able to accept change is a recurring theme in Colossus, Consider his multiple instances of pretty much stalking Kitty.

[shadowpsykie]

I also took that to say that even if she was Illyana (and I think she is) she's no longer his "little Snowflake" for the sole reason that "Snowflake" to him makes her an innocent little girl and she is no longer, and for a very long time, innocent. She is not a child. she is an adult, and colossus could never see that.

[bruinsfan]

I thought it was a very good bit of writing where Peter exclaimed that she was insane and her reaction was a relieved "at last you understand!"

Illyana's backstory is just not at all condusive to a sane and well-balanced adult. She's high functioning unlike most of Marvel's crazy folk, but her foundation for normalcy got swept out from under her when she was gradeschool age.

[sindra]

Not indoors, Larry........

[adnor]

Goddamnit Larry, stop messing everything.

[matrix_dragon]

Larry, you're in a church. Stop being a jerk.

[reveen]

Well, he can't be really dead if they're doing comic relief during the funeral scene right?