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Rob “Werewolves of” London @roblondon.bsky.social · 16/10/2026

This will all make sense when the George Harrison movie ends with Jeff Lynne recruiting him into the Traveling Wilburys.

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Reposted by Rob “Werewolves of” London

Arsenalroy2k @arsenalroy2k.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

For those that watched Visionquest; It’s important to know that the West Coast Avengers story that was adapted in WandaVision and led to this was published in 1989, the same year as Belgian techno anthem “Pump Up The Jam”. youtu.be/-Su287HvJRQ?...

youtu.be

Every 'Pump Up The Jam' Segue - Philomena Cunk

YouTube video by Philomena Cunk

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Rob “Werewolves of” London @roblondon.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

It's like how I wonder if Joel Coen has seen Æon Flux and Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

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Rob “Werewolves of” London @roblondon.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Every goofy and ill-advised plot point of the past looks like this to a writer. I can’t blame them.

A broken record player with a sign reading “DOES NOT WORK but could be FUN to FIX!”

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Rob “Werewolves of” London @roblondon.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

How will Malik return from the grave, and what secrets does he still hold? You’ll have to pick up Spectacular Spider-Man #8 when it hits stores in January!

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Rob “Werewolves of” London @roblondon.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Malik’s story also comes up in the superlative History of the Marvel Universe, by @markwaid.bsky.social and @javierrodriguez.bsky.social, and researched by a bevy of boffins, yours truly included!

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Rob “Werewolves of” London @roblondon.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

He’d have another long-term impact on Marvel continuity, too: Gruenwald and Ron Wilson revealed in a later backup story that Malik hired Brock Rumlow to kill the real Skull, only for Runlow to switch sides and become the Skull’s top enforcer, Crossbones!

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Rob “Werewolves of” London @roblondon.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

We would later learn, in Captain America Annual #13 by Roy Thomas and Arvell Jones, that Malik was chosen by short-lived Stalin replacement Georgy Malenkov. (He was the guy played by Jeffrey Tambor in The Death of Stalin.)

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Rob “Werewolves of” London @roblondon.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Spider-Man would only learn that the Skull who’d killed his parents was a fake a couple years later in 1992’s Amazing Spider-Man #366, by David Michelinie and Jerry Bingham, making it a somewhat unsatisfying conclusion for the web-slinger.

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Rob “Werewolves of” London @roblondon.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

However, moments later he was shot with an explosive bullet and dropped out of a helicopter by a rogue Scourge of the Underworld, who was on the payroll of the real Red Skull.

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Rob “Werewolves of” London @roblondon.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Continuity-meister Mark Gruenwald was a guy who loved wrapping up loose ends, so he turned up later in 1988 in Captain America #347, by Gruenwald and Kieron Dwyer. There, a squad of gunmen are sent to liberate the imprisoned Skull, and we learn for the first time that his real name is Albert Malik.

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Rob “Werewolves of” London @roblondon.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

That story also gave us the first look at the Skull’s unmasked visage, by which point he was pretty old.

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Rob “Werewolves of” London @roblondon.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

It would then be confirmed on-panel in 1988’s Solo Avengers #6, by Tom DeFalco and Mark Bright, in which Silver Sable sends Hawkeye, Sandman, and Le Peregrine to apprehend the communist Skull in Algeria.

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Rob “Werewolves of” London @roblondon.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

That connection was finally made in the 1980s Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, which confirmed that the communist Skull was based in Algeria.

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Rob “Werewolves of” London @roblondon.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

That same storyline revealed that the Red Skull of the 1950s was a Soviet agent who’d taken up the mantle of the thought-dead Red Skull to steal his fearsome reputation. However, to the best of my knowledge, nobody made a connection between the fake Skull and the Skull who killed the Parkers.

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Rob “Werewolves of” London @roblondon.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

But Steve Englehart and Sal Buscema didn’t forget; in a 1972 Captain America storyline, they revealed that the Cap and Bucky of the 1950s were initially well-meaning impostors who were eventually driven insane by janky Super-Soldier Serum.

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Rob “Werewolves of” London @roblondon.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

This naturally doesn’t jibe with what we know happened to Cap, Bucky, or the Skull in WWII; none of them should have been running around in the ‘50s. Lee and Kirby either weren’t aware of the ‘50s Cap stories, or chose to ignore them.

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Rob “Werewolves of” London @roblondon.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

They faced off against their old foe the Red Skull, who was now allied with “The Reds.”

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Rob “Werewolves of” London @roblondon.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

That included Captain America and Bucky, who were brought into line with the Red Scare to become “Commie Smashers.”

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Rob “Werewolves of” London @roblondon.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

So how to fix this? Let’s go back in time again to 1954; Timely Comics had cancelled their superhero comics years ago, but tried bringing them back for a short-lived revival.

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Rob “Werewolves of” London @roblondon.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

If only Stan Lee could have talked to the guy who wrote that story, and…whoops.

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Rob “Werewolves of” London @roblondon.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

But two years earlier, in 1966, we learned that the Red Skull had been buried alive in Berlin and put into suspended animation in the dying days of WWII, and was only revived in the modern day, decades later.

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Rob “Werewolves of” London @roblondon.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

We see the Skull personally ordering Richard and Mary Parker’s deaths, which must have happened at this point in the late ‘40s or early ‘50s.

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Rob “Werewolves of” London @roblondon.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Spidey defeated the Skull and learned his parents were actually double agents who infiltrated the Skill’s organization, but there’s a big continuity problem here.

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Rob “Werewolves of” London @roblondon.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Spidey went to Algeria to investigate the mystery, and found that the man behind their deaths was none other than Captain America’s WWII archfoe, the Red Skull!

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Rob “Werewolves of” London @roblondon.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

So in 1968’s Amazing Spider-Man Annual #5, Stan Lee and Larry Lieber revealed that Peter Parker’s parents were spies, and they were killed in a plane crash, having apparently betrayed their country.

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Rob “Werewolves of” London @roblondon.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

You’re probably thinking, hey, isn’t the Red Skull a Nazi, which is like the exact opposite of a communist? Is horseshoe theory real? Read on, True Believers…

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Rob “Werewolves of” London @roblondon.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

So in a new Spectacular Spider-Man storyline, from @danslott.bsky.social and @marcusto.bsky.social, Spider-Man’s going to face off against the man who ordered his parents’ deaths: the communist Red Skull!

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Rob “Werewolves of” London @roblondon.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

The Disney era in general hasn’t gotten enough attention for its excellent variety of Weird Little Guys.

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Rob “Werewolves of” London @roblondon.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

The why is that his on-panel death was kind of unsatisfying; I think Pete didn't even find out he was behind Richard and Mary's deaths until he'd already been killed off.

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Rob “Werewolves of” London @roblondon.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

The long-awaited return of the Communist (yes, you read that right) Red Skull!

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Reposted by Rob “Werewolves of” London

Benjamin Birdie’s Bible Bonkers @benjaminbirdie.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Sex Thwip??? I thought they closed that place down!

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Rob “Werewolves of” London @roblondon.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Day 6: Hellbound: Hellraiser II. I really appreciate the restraint of both this and the original in holding off on the Cenobites and Pinhead until well into the film, letting the more human monsters take center stage.

Pinhead looms over the poster for Hellbound: Hellraiser II.

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Rob “Werewolves of” London @roblondon.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

It’s a great episode and Matt Groening hates it because they made him cross over with The Critic!

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Rob “Werewolves of” London @roblondon.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

I wasn’t there, but Wacker has spoken in the past about the classic Marvel Two-In-One #50, with The Thing vs. The Thing, as the book that got him into comics.

Thing battles Thing on the cover of Marvel Two-In-One #50.

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Rob “Werewolves of” London @roblondon.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Day 5: Frankie Freako, a wild-ass, puppet-filled homage to the “weird little guys” horror comedies of the ‘80s. Not as revelatory as Psycho Goreman, but a lot of fun.

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Rob “Werewolves of” London @roblondon.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Day 4: Attack of the Crab Monsters, an early outing for Roger Corman. Made for pocket change, but it has some creepy fun with the crabs’ whole “I’m gonna eat your brains and gain your knowledge” thing.

A woman in a bathing suit in the claw of a crab creature on the poster for Attack of the Crab Monsters.

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Rob “Werewolves of” London @roblondon.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. Not so much the not-so-scary folktales, but the nightmarish Stephen Gammell illustrations.

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Rob “Werewolves of” London @roblondon.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Wreckin’ the town with the power of a bull Ain’t no monster clown who is as loveable

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Rob “Werewolves of” London @roblondon.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Day 3: Demonwarp, a pretty standard Bigfoot slasher movie that goes completely bonkers in its last act. Warning: George Kennedy may be less badass than he appears on the poster.

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Rob “Werewolves of” London @roblondon.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Tonight, it’s the ur-big bug movie: much imitated, but never quite duplicated, this is a slick, smart procedural that also happens to be about giant radioactive mutant ants.

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Rob “Werewolves of” London @roblondon.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Kicked off the Shocktober Scareathon last night with something goofy to ease into it: not as good as Meet Frankenstein, but still pretty fun.

The poster for Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

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Reposted by Rob “Werewolves of” London

Patrick Monahan @pattymo.com · 02/10/2026

This story is great but man I am laughing at how much this guy looks like Michael McDonald - did any other genes even make it in? If you told me that he’d been the result of asexual reproduction by Michael McDonald I’d believe you

A guy who looks basically 1:1 like Michael McDonald who recently found out Michael McDonald is his biological father

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Reposted by Rob “Werewolves of” London

David🇵🇸 @ididtheiggy.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

The old guy in the ITYSL sketch that suggests a steering that doesn’t come off while driving.

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Reposted by Rob “Werewolves of” London

The Onion @theonion.com · 28/09/2026

What’s Rustling In That Leaf Pile?

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Rob “Werewolves of” London @roblondon.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

The Lost World: Jurassic Park. “Where are the invisible Carnotauruses,” I asked.

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