[XMen:Evol] Apocalypse, the ultimate munchkin! (spoilers)

[Umbran]

Could someone fill me in on who/what the externals, deviants and celestials are?

I'll be quoting the original Handbook of the Marvel Universe for this.

The Celestials are a star-faring race of humanoid aliens who possess untold cosmic power. Standing two thousand feet tall, the Celestials are clad in full body armor. No Earth being has ever seen what they look like beneath their armor or knows their origin...

The Celestials came to Earth at four different periods in history.

The first Celestial Host came by about one million years ago, and did genetic experiments on the nascent human race, producing the races known as Eternals and Deviants. Their sole legacy to mainstream humanity was the implantation of a dormant DNA complex which would one day permit benevolent mutations (producing Marvel Universe Mutants)

The Second Host came by 25,000 years ago. They didn't like the direction Deviant technology was going, so they destroyed their stronghold of Lemuria. The tectonic reprecussions of that led to the sinking of Atlantis (poor Namor!)

The Third Host Came by 1,000 years ago. The Eternals and the Incas arranged the landing site. At this time, the Celestials were met by Earth's mythological gods, who challenged the Celestials right to meddle in mankind's affairs. The end result was an agreement in which all the major races of gods swore to forego their active involvement with mankind.

The Fourt Host came recently, to test mankind worthiness. They took a dozen humans with them when they left, and erased all memory and evidence of their visits. Only the Eternals, Deviants, gods, and a few humans know about them. The Celestials pull these shenanigans with other planets, including the Skrull homeworld.

Deviants posess superhuman abilities, though they generally aren't invulnerable to harm or immortal. Beyond bilateral symmetry they change a lot from generation to generation, meaing that a deviant child may look nothing at all like it's parents (and have completely different powers) and they are frequently grotesque by human standards.

Eternals are far more genetically stable. They have extremely long lifespans and great resistance to disease and injury. They usually look pretty much like humans, and can weild limited amounts of cosmic energy, which they learn to manipulate through training and discipline top produce a wide variety of effects.

The Deviants and Eternals haven't played much of a role in the Marvel Universe for a long time. The only Eternal most current readers may have heard of is Thanos, who has tried to destroy the universe a couple of times.

And with him around how long before Archangel shows up?

Considering that they've thrown out much of "standard Marvel continuity" for the animated shows, there's no way to tell. If you haven't seen Angel, then you aren't likely to see Archangel either.

 

[Tonguez]

I love Apocolypes' BIG@ss lips - thy is sexy

Magma has appeared in Evolution (she's one of the students alongside Kitty, Iceman, Sunspot, Cannonball etc)

 

[DanMcS]

Considering that they've thrown out much of "standard Marvel continuity" for the animated shows, there's no way to tell. If you haven't seen Angel, then you aren't likely to see Archangel either.

Angel was in the animated show. Only one episode that I've seen. He was flying around saving people in some big city, and Magneto tried to recruit him, and Rogue and Cyclops went to meet him and make sure he didn't go work for Magneto. So he's at least in the show.

 

[reapersaurus]

Umbran - dude, you scare me.
You quoted that much of the OHOTMU?
Do you have it in an online form, or something, or did you type that much out by hand?
If the latter, than you are one dedicated comics fan committed to getting The Word out there! Props - Stan would be proud.

About Magma - that's great that they remembered her - of course, I might have a problem, if that picture is of her.
The MAgma from the New Mutants was a blonde, naive (hot ) Brazilian girl who was noticeable for her lack of connections to the mutant world, and her lack of comfortability with said mutants.

Let me guess - did they 'contemporize' her, and make her urban? Naivete might as well be the kiss of death to youngsters, it seems...
God forbid you don't know everything about everything.

Canis said
Claremont irks the bejeesus out of me.
...And his villians tend to be ridiculously vague and inexplicably powerful....
...everyone having vague, god-like capabilities, because it left all manner of trapdoors when he couldn't plot his way through a story. Unfortunately, he left that legacy behind him for others to pick up for the most part.

I couldn't agree with you more, Canis. :highfive:
I have a bit more respect for Claremont's originality thru the years, but overall the guy has a SERIOUS habit for lazy writing - he loves to create plots, but he CANNOT finish them. I don't know if that's his inability personally, or just his comics approach.
But if it wasn't for him being in a comics medium, where new characters and teams of villians are needed to push sales, than his incredibly frustrating way of never resolving any conflict he sets up would have had him drummed out of most fields.

Combined with the sloppiness of seldom detailing powers, so that he can make them do whatever he wants without working at it, and I'm suprised he's as revered as he is.
Most of the personality & spirit of the 'new' X-Men, AFAIK, came from John Byrne.

Skade - I can't watch Star Trek anymore - wanna know the reason?
Cause I'm not a fan of drama. I prefer sci fi/fantasy.
And Star Trek is so far away from sci-fi it's a joke.
I actually heard them quote the tempurature in space as -500 C (or something close to that).
It's a bad sign when the writers of a show SET IN SPACE are not aware of the physical truth called "absolute Zero."

you said: Comics do not even bother to pretend they are grounded in reality, or even possibilities that may exist. They are there simply to entertain (at least superhero books).

I disagree.
Comics, when they are worth the paper they're printed on (i.e. they're worth keeping) keep an internally consistent approach to superpowers. Yes, these powers do not exist in reality... HOWEVER if they did, they would work something like this: and then show how they do and sometimes don't work.
The powers the characters weild are kind of part of their personality - they define the limits the character has, and the parameters in which they can work.

A character with no set boundaries to their powers is a problem, character-wise - they have no set parameters, so how can there be any Pathos involved with them?
They might as well be the Hand of God set in motion to do what the writer wants to happen.
That's not storytelling - that's lazy writing, to not utilize the characters that you've set forth to accomplish what you need to get done.
Deus Ex Machina is not a typically smiled-upon mechanism for storywriting - it's usually the purview of hacks.

 

[Umbran]

So he's at least in the show.

Well, if that's the way of it, I hope they don't use Archangel. It'd be so weak. The thing that makes Archangel a compelling character isn't the powers, it's the fact that he was an X-Man.

For those who are new to the comics - back before the X-Men got their hands on a spare SR-71 and stealth technology, before the Beast was blue, before there was a guy with metal bones and anger management issues, before Phoenix, Angel was an X-Man. One of the original X-Men. It's that fall from grace and the struggle back that made Archangel cool. It they're just gona change his costume and wings, I hope they don't bother.

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

I couldn't agree with you more, Canis. :highfive:

I have a bit more respect for Claremont's originality thru the years, but overall the guy has a SERIOUS habit for lazy writing - he loves to create plots, but he CANNOT finish them. I don't know if that's his inability personally, or just his comics approach.

It's not just his comics. I read the novels that he and Lucas put together as a "sequel" to Willow. All things considered, they weren't bad, but he did a *lot* of hand-waving to resolve certain plots. And there was a great deal of fuzziness about what any given character could actually do.

Most of the personality & spirit of the 'new' X-Men, AFAIK, came from John Byrne.

Agreed.

Comics, when they are worth the paper they're printed on (i.e. they're worth keeping) keep an internally consistent approach to superpowers.

AMEN! Preach it brother!

 

[Villano]

Dude, we could not disagree more. Claremont irks the bejeesus out of me. I have no idea how he acheived this "demigod' status in the comics field. He managed to pull off a couple of really neat stories when I was 8, but as I became older and more well-read, his sheer lack of originality severely hamstrung the few neat stories that he managed to put out. Plus, I think his characterization is AWFUL. IMO, he grossly mishandles some of the characters and plays very distinct favorites with them as well. His Cyclops is needlessly pathetic. His Wolverine is needlessly god-like. And his villians tend to be ridiculously vague and inexplicably powerful. He singlehandedly switched the X-Men characters (heroes & villains) from having very specific, flavorful powers to everyone having vague, god-like capabilities, because it left all manner of trapdoors when he couldn't plot his way through a story. Unfortunately, he left that legacy behind him for others to pick up for the most part.

Blech.

Well, obviously, I disagree with most of this, especially the part about Woverine being "needlessly god-like". Back when he was doing the book, it took Wolvie a full month to heal from a sword through his gut. After he was gone, Wolverine was suddenly able to heal 3rd degree burns over most of his body or being impaled inbetween panels.

As to the rest of the arguments, I quit reading the book after he was gone and they killed off all the old villains and ignored all the previous continuity. However, I had a friend who collected up until only a few years ago who quit, complaining that they altered several characters' powers without any explaination.

For me, I'd rather take Claremont's X-writing over the Legacy Virus, eXternals, Stryfe, X-Man (what the hell was he about), Dark Beast, etc., etc..

I mean, they killed Colossus in the stupidest way possible.

 

[Green Knight]

SPOILERS!!!

If you don't want to be spoiled, scroll past this post.

































Still here? Ok. I'm posting the spoilers because of what someone mentioned about Angel. Specifically:

It's that fall from grace and the struggle back that made Archangel cool. It they're just gona change his costume and wings, I hope they don't bother.

As it turns out, he WILL be getting a larger role, and so we'll be able to see his growth as a character week to week, to his fall, and his struggle back.

After this season of X-Men: Evolution, the series will produce at least one spin-off, if not two.

One of them will be X-Factor: Evolution. Angel will form X-Factor to help mutants, with Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch joining the team. I'm not sure if Beast joins, though I've got a vague memory of hearing about him. Not sure about that.

The other will be Excalibur: Evolution, which'll have Nightcrawler, Shadowcat, and Colossus.

Gambit will join the X-Men, while Pyro will join the Brotherhood.

But anyway, we will be seeing Angel as a cast member, albeit on a spin-off, and so will have plenty of opportunities to see his character grow, right before Apocalypse takes everything from him and turns him into Archangel.






















SPOILERS FINIS

 

[Aaron L]

So, what finally was Mr. Sinister's origin? And why did he want the Summers Brothers for so badly? Was it just their ability to hurt him?


I stopped reading comics about the time Claremont left X-Men ( I love Claremont, sue me ) and I just recently started again.

 

[Umbran]

Hey, Green Knight!

Check out This thread about how to deal with spoilers on the new boards