Defenders: Beyond #3: "Tiphareth: The White Hot Room"

[alliterator]

"DEFENDERS is always a personal journey for me - using the "instruments" left behind by previous voyagers to craft a new song - and just maybe find a way to new "cosmic truths" worthy of the Marvel mavens of old! Let's open the door together, pilgrim - javiercaster has the key!"
-- Al Ewing







And yes, this is a sly reference to Jean Grey:



Meanwhile, the construction worker/Death is a reference to Classic X-Men #43, where Jean Grey found herself in the same place with the same aspect:






Very interesting to contrast the Phoenix Force with the Tiger God. Especially since both use avatars/hosts, but both do it in very different ways:

From Avengers Academy #36:



And from Ultimates 2 #9:

Comments

[cainofdreaming]

Didn't the Tiger God die after it had merged with its alternate universe version? Not that death matters much for these kinds of entities.

[scorntx]

Ava just broke the amulets, and she did point out at the time it'd be back sooner or later.
Things like that always come back.

[thehood]

That scene with T"Challa was after Ava broke the amulet too. And recently in Voices the Tiger God visited Ava again.

[onsokumaru]

NIce job catching those references! I was wondering where the construction worker was from. Didn't remember those panels from classic X-Men.

Is there a cosmic turtle in Marvel?
If so, they can cook something with the Tiger, the Phenix and... Shou-Lao, maybe?

[icon_uk]

If not Shou-Lao, then I'm sure Fin-Fang-Foom would be happy to step up.

[alliterator]

Yeah, I was also thinking of Shou-Lao, since it gives its power to those who conquer it, much like the Tiger God, but in a very different way.

Unfortunately, there is no Turtle God or Turtle Force in Marvel. Maybe someone will introduce one?

[blues32]

I think the Turtle Force is more a Stephen King thing. Well, until it choked to death on a galaxy.

[shakalooloo]

And Marvel published a Dark Tower comic, so we have a distant link..!

[cainofdreaming]

Mr. Dibbles, being infused with Wanda's chaos magic, could be a good contender for the position.

[icon_uk]

This is some pretty heavy deep diving, even for Al Ewing, but damn if he doesn't pull it off.

And kudos for the sourcing of the original references.

[justsotired]

I am guessing it's a tryptch - Tiger, Phoenix, and Dragon.

[blues32]

Tigra is giving her namesake a little too much credit here. Tigers do not dance through flame. They don't eat birds. They do see pretty well in the dark though, so she's got one out of three.

Tigers fear fire, as most things do. No bird has enough meat to be a meal to a tiger. A lot of hollow bones too, so there's less delicious bone marrow. Smaller cats like birds. Tigers certainly wouldn't hunt a big flaming bird.

[timefire]

instead of scissors paper rock, in the Marvel cosmic planes they play tiger firebird superhero-with-questionable-understanding-of-animal-behaviours ;)

[thehood]

The Tiger God isn't a regular Tiger. She is giving the right amount of credit to an old god.

[blues32]

It's not her god. It isn't the source of her powers or anything.

[thehood]

It is in that moment. That's how she was able to match the Phoenix.

[scorntx]

Heh. The One Above All appearing as a construction worker.
He did say he builds with many hands...
(though I'd say "two" is stretching the terms of "many" quite a bit.)

[bruinsfan]

In that Classic X-Men story I thought it was Death speaking to the Phoenix rather than God. Though of course, back then it was generally assumed the Phoenix was a subordinate force to Death (and Eternity). This story is placing it on a higher plane than the ones on which those entities operate.

[scorntx]

Well, given the whole spiel TOAA has about how "they are themselves, but they are also me"... it could be both?

But then, this is Phoenix. Confusing and contradictory retcons are what the Space Chicken's all about.

(Or, alternatively, just as there's Eternity for universes which are but parts of the bigger multiversal Eternity, there's something similar going on here with Phoenix and Death.)

[jgraygaming]

I'm not the only one who sees the construction worker as a buff Stan Lee, am I?

[scorntx]

I was thinking the mustache was very Lee-ish...
(but usually if anyone looks like Stan Lee, it's the One Below All...)

[agharta75]

As God is Jack Kirby, I suppose that's appropriate.

[jgraygaming]

Given the change from the construction worker in the original story (who has no mustache), this seems pretty deliberate.

[giraffesforever]

Fantastic work including the context from all those other comics

[thanekos]

The opposite of the Phoenix, " life " - the Tiger.

The opposite of " life ", a.. " Tiger Force ", if you will..

[lordultimus]

I would have thought the opposite of the Phoenix would say "I am ice and death incarnate" at least once...