Old Man Hawkeye #7

[history79]

Comments

[gnarll]

Magneto killing his own children for promises made by the Red Skull, an actual Nazi and confidant of Hitlers?

Thats... I don't really have words for how off that is. baron Zemo was a top Nazi scientist as well, even if this is his son, I don't see Magneto extending much trust.

[broblawsky]

It wouldn't be the first time Magneto worked with the Skull - see Acts of Vengeance. And yes, he tried to kill the Skull immediately afterwards, but Magneto has prior form on working with Nazis temporarily.

[michaelsaint]

The whole premise of this story is an idea that is superficial at best: all villains would unite to kill all superheroes.

Flatly this is impossible because like you have already pointed out most villains would never trust each other and others literally hate others. Villains like The Absorbing Man or Songbird or Sandman or any number of the villains pictured in this book may be "bad guys" but they would never help the Red Skull or Baron Zemo effectively take over the world.

This story is about as contrived as a comic book gets.

[broblawsky]

The Absorbing Man worked for Baron Zemo (in one iteration of the Masters of Evil) and Hydra. Songbird had no problem working with Baron Zemo until she got a taste for being a hero in Thunderbolts, and even for a while after. Maybe Sandman wouldn't work with actual Nazis, but he's had no problem with taking orders from Doctor Octopus in the past, and Otto is a real "hold a city hostage with a nuke" villain, not some kind of friendly neighborhood bank robber.

[michaelsaint]

It is not just working together - it is the stakes involved. Holding a city hostage is much different than taking control of the world. The Hydra/Nazi stuff just makes all of that harder to realize.

[daningram.insanejournal.com]

Songbird only worked for Zemo until she got some self respect and self confidence. Being a hero helped, but wasn't the beginning or end of it.

[daningram.insanejournal.com]

"The whole premise of this story is an idea that is superficial at best: all villains would unite to kill all superheroes."

Yeah, pretty much. Like Wanted, it requires utter sociopaths to be able to trust one another and work together seamlessly.

More than that, scratch any deeper and you see the deep flaw in it.

Yes, in terms of number and power, villains might outnumber heroes.

But the police law enforcement and every other element of society outnumbers them, and they're in the side of the heroes. Any war of attrition, especially in the MU, favors the heroes.

[goattoucher]

What I don't get is how this doesn't end with Magneto killing all of those m***erf*****s.

Let's assume his plans required the death of all those heroes. Awesome. Of the assembled nogoodniks and Nazis assembled in this scan, Creel is the only one he could not kill pretty much instantly (really, he could just destabilize Atlas so he explodes, killing the rest), and Creel is a halfwit who, powerful as he is, is not one for coming up with plans.

The Skull would be similarly dead meat, as would the Kingpin. That leaves Hulk (who just wants to be left alone) and Doom (best left alone, and who hates Nazis as much as Magneto), allowing Magneto to set up his mutant paradise.

What -really- chaffes me about situations like this is that the writers can never be bothered to think things through. Seriously, put six of us in a room for a few hours with a pizza and we could come up with a more solid and consistent continuity that these professional writers can come up with.

How do you solve Magneto? Go in the other direction: Doom takes Wanda as prisoner/concubine with his magic, and Magneto leaves him alone or even serves him. Doom then leaves the Skull to rule America (given that is has been left a blasted shithole) and is content to rule Doomropa, Doomsia, Doomfrica, and Doomstralia with an iron but benevolent hand, only bothering to kill the Skull when he inevitably snapped and decided that a gypsy should not have more power and respect than him.

With Magneto and Doom out of the picture, the Skull can rule much more easily, as he can more realistically control all the other bad guys.

There: five minutes and I solved the Old Man Universe. :dusts off hands:

Actually this made me realize something

[roguefankc]

The future shown in Old Man Logan/Old Man Hawkeye was that only a few of the villains had absolute power and dominion over the United States (i.e. Doom, Magneto, Red Skull, etc.)

That tells me that the lesser villains either left the U.S. or got disposed of when they were no longer useful. With such a large group of villains, I'm surprised none of them thought that they could be betrayed and back-stabbed by their fellow conspirators.

So what happened to Zemo and the Thunderbolts after the massacre of the heroes? Did they manage to live unscathed or were they "rewarded as a traitor deserves"? And I'm curious as to what happened to Songbird (I have problems believing she would just betray the Avengers like that.

Re: Actually this made me realize something

[goattoucher]

I guarantee that will happen for shock value. Magneto wan't one of the bosses in OML, so they will surely kill him in a contrived fashion that is so far beneath him that Elon Musk will send a capsule to free it from it's underground prison.

Re: Actually this made me realize something

[scorntx]

Old Man Logan mentioned that Mags was one of the bosses in OML's future, but then he (somehow) got killed by some gang-banger punk who didn't appear to have any actual super-powers.

So... yeah. Contrived fashion.

Re: Actually this made me realize something

[thehood]

Zemo is working for the Red Skull.

[lordultimus]

Natasha looks so bored when she gets stabbed.

[captainbellman]

"Hang in there, Nat! It's just a traumatic wound to the chest! You can pull through, because I love you!"

"Urgh, why even."

[gnarll]

Its not just that Magneto is working with/for an actual Nazi in a temporary alliance for mutual benefit.

He is _killing his children_ for the promises of a major WW2 Nazi.

Also, Thor went down like a chump.

Magneto getting iron-clad assurances of his family's safety, and during the fight messing with Mjølner until it explodes, leaving only the people inside Magnetos shield alive -that I could see. Then getting so depressed about accidentally blowing up his family that he lets some punk kill him later.

[mastermahan]

Not that it really matters when Magneto is killing his daughter on behalf of a Nazi, but that's not how the Ebony Blade works. It's not Mjolnir - anyone can lift it.