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All Hallows Steve/ComicDeepDive reading X-Men @stevesensible.bsky.social · 9m

Question for DC fans: if we accept that Superman, Batman & Wonder Woman are "the trinity" in the DCU, who is 4th, 5th and 6th in the DC hierarchy?

3 paintings by Alex Ross of Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman, looking moody and magnificent.

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All Hallows Steve/ComicDeepDive reading X-Men @stevesensible.bsky.social · 15h

NGL, I kinda like Bill's inks on #1. It is kind of scrappy in places, but that works well, particularly when Strange is in his astral form. I almost prefer it to Bill's usual, slicker style.

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All Hallows Steve/ComicDeepDive reading X-Men @stevesensible.bsky.social · 15h

Another one for spooky season... Man-Thing and Giant Size Man-Thing #1:

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All Hallows Steve/ComicDeepDive reading X-Men @stevesensible.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I'm in the middle of writing a whole thing about it. Here's the relevant part...

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All Hallows Steve/ComicDeepDive reading X-Men @stevesensible.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Yeah, I remember buying those off the shelf back in the day. Do you have any of The Daredevils, the UK mag that had the original Alan Moore Captain Britain run? The CB Omnibus has this page showing the mask and the free spinner from Captain Britain #2.

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All Hallows Steve/ComicDeepDive reading X-Men @stevesensible.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Happy 50th birthday to Captain Britain! I wrote a brief history (okay, not that brief...) of the character below ⬇️

Captain Britain #1, released on 6th October 1976.
#marvelcomics #comics #comicsky

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All Hallows Steve/ComicDeepDive reading X-Men @stevesensible.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

This 3-parter is incredible... the way it builds towards the moment when an already compromised X-Men, battling The Hellfire Club in Central Park, are then attacked by Nimrod, is just great work by Chris Claremont & JRJR. Then the entirety of #209 is just an awesome extended battle.

X-Men #207, 208 & 209 by Chris Claremont and John Romita Jr.
#xmen #marvelcomics #comics #comicsky

Nimrod yells, "MUTANTS!" at the assembled teams in The Ramble, Central Park.

Nimrod, a futuristic android, floats in the air above the stunned onlookers, energy crackling around him.

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All Hallows Steve/ComicDeepDive reading X-Men @stevesensible.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

If you're interested in Marston, I cannot recommend this highly enough. It's an incredibly well researched book about Marston, Wonder Woman and that era of American history.

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All Hallows Steve/ComicDeepDive reading X-Men @stevesensible.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Heh... that's putting it a little more politely than Byrne did:

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All Hallows Steve/ComicDeepDive reading X-Men @stevesensible.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Throwback to this day 4 years ago, when I was in Times Square and the new film "Lack Dam" was coming out.

A photo of a LED billboard advertising the Black Adam movie, except the words are scrolling off the side leaving only Lack Dam visible.

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All Hallows Steve/ComicDeepDive reading X-Men @stevesensible.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Since it's spooky season, I'll go with this one... Tomb of Dracula #1.

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All Hallows Steve/ComicDeepDive reading X-Men @stevesensible.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I always loved that Marvel's Moondragon was originally called Madame MacEvil.

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All Hallows Steve/ComicDeepDive reading X-Men @stevesensible.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I'm watching the sex purge movie. It is INSANE! 😵‍💫

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All Hallows Steve/ComicDeepDive reading X-Men @stevesensible.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

John Byrne did this in almost every issue of Iron Fist. The staircase one is my favourite.

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All Hallows Steve/ComicDeepDive reading X-Men @stevesensible.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I thought even the trailer for Digger looked catastrophically bad.

A snippet from a review of Digger from Johnny Oleksinski of the New York Post. "You can tell that Tom Cruise and Alejandro González Iñárritu think their new film is urgent. And in a way, it is. Audiences will urgently want to leave after the first five minutes."

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All Hallows Steve/ComicDeepDive reading X-Men @stevesensible.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Philip Seymour Hoffman in Mission: Impossible 3. Very little histrionics, just saying the most fucked up shit about how killing Ethan's protegé was fun for him, in the most calm, emotionless way. Best portrayal of a psychopath I've seen.

Philip Seymour Hoffman as Owen Davian in M:I3.

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All Hallows Steve/ComicDeepDive reading X-Men @stevesensible.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

"No quarter asked, none given." You'd better believe Captain Britain is a Claremont joint! (from Captain Britain #2, by Claremont and Herb Trimpe.)

A closeup of the Captain, his face half in shadow, looking grimly determined. A caption reads, "That had been a half-hour ago, and since then the fight has been hard-fought and brutal, no quarter asked, none given... until..."
The Captain speaks, "Your men are beaten, Reaver... your dreams of conquest are finished."

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All Hallows Steve/ComicDeepDive reading X-Men @stevesensible.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

A Spider-Man question for my fellow nerds; when The Beyonder turns a building and its contents into gold, Spider-Man takes a notepad from a waste bin. He's later told by Puma that it's worth $37,620 (probably a lot of money in those days...) Does anyone remember what happened with the notepad?

"If the Kingpin's entitled to solid gold typewriters, then I'm at least entitled to take some garbage... stuff that would've been in an incinerator in a couple of hours. This is it, world... I'M GETTING MINE!"
#spiderman #secretwars #marvelcomics #comics #comicsky

Thomas "Puma" Fireheart has broken into Peter Parker's apartment. He tosses the gold notebook to a shocked Pete and says, "By the way, I discovered this on top of your TV. By my reckoning, it's worth about $37,620. It belongs in a safety deposit box."
"Who ARE you?!"

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All Hallows Steve/ComicDeepDive reading X-Men @stevesensible.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Highlights? Probably Byrne's Fantastic Four, to be honest. The issue where Reed tells The Beyonder he can't kill Doctor Doom because it'll cause a rupture in time is not only a clever solution, but also explains Doom's presence in the first Secret Wars when he was supposed to be dead at the time.

Fantastic Four #288. Doctor Doom versus The Beyonder.

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All Hallows Steve/ComicDeepDive reading X-Men @stevesensible.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

... him how to use a toilet, or him getting high on heroin "adding value." Then, still unfulfilled, he throws a tantrum and decides he's going to wipe out the universe. Bizarrely, Rachel/Phoenix's response to this is, "not if I destroy it first!" (See what I mean about Claremont's X-Men..?)

Phoenix is explaining her motivation for wanting to destroy the universe to Ororo. "He means to destroy us anyway. At least this way, our deaths will have meaning and purpose."
Sure, Jan!

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All Hallows Steve/ComicDeepDive reading X-Men @stevesensible.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

... to him being connected, so I guess that's what inspired that part of the story, but once again, it doesn't go anywhere or add anything to the plot. After that, he just wanders from one corner of the Marvel Universe to another, not adding much of value - unless you consider Spider-Man showing...

Spider-Man teaches The Beyonder how to use a toilet. "The experience is consummated!"

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All Hallows Steve/ComicDeepDive reading X-Men @stevesensible.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

It was during the era when Tom DeFalco was desperately trying to make his (and Ron Frenz's) creation, Puma, a thing. There's a whole nonsensical plot about Puma being the "chosen one" to kill the Beyonder, which ultimately goes nowhere and proves to be a boring read. But there are...

Spectacular Spider-Man #111, The Puma vs. The Beyonder, with Spider-Man caught in between.

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All Hallows Steve/ComicDeepDive reading X-Men @stevesensible.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Fantastic Four #285 he's insightful and philosophical, helping Johnny Storm overcome the tragedy of a dead child who had worshipped him, but the next minute, Shooter is writing him like some kind of cosmic idiot. It's jarring, to say the least. If nothing else, though, this did give me an...

The Beyonder tells Johnny Storm, "Look at this lad, Johnny. Look at the joy in his eyes as he consumes each detail of your exploits. The death of this boy is not a burden for you to bear. He did not die because of you. It was through you that he lived!"

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All Hallows Steve/ComicDeepDive reading X-Men @stevesensible.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

... story would be at once their books crossed over, but either wires got crossed or Shooter changed his mind, because the continuity is sketchy at best. The Beyonder himself is written completely differently from book to book. Most of the writers treat him seriously, for instance in...

Secret Wars II and all its crossover issues.

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All Hallows Steve/ComicDeepDive reading X-Men @stevesensible.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Secret Wars II - done! This was an odd series; sporadically entertaining in the crossovers, and utterly disastrous in the central mini-series. The mini-series is almost redundant, so little of consequence happens in it. Shooter presumably gave the writers of the crossovers some idea of where the...

Secret Wars II #1 to #9.
#secretwars #marvelcomics #comics #comicsky

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All Hallows Steve/ComicDeepDive reading X-Men @stevesensible.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Damn, I forgot that Secret Wars II ends with a baby dying. What a downer! 😵‍💫 The Beyonder's energy returns to Beyond, but did baby Beyonder ever crop up again? You can bet Reed Richards put it on ice at Four Freedoms Plaza somewhere. Y'know... for science. 🔬

The Silver Surfer holds a baby that The Beyonder was hoping to inhabit so he could become mortal, until Molecule Man destroyed the machine in which it was gestating.
#secretwars #marvelcomics #comics #comicsky

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All Hallows Steve/ComicDeepDive reading X-Men @stevesensible.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

It's time for... Dark Beyonder! (from Fantastic Four #288, story and art by John Byrne and Joe Sinnott.)

Doctor Doom has summoned the greatest power in the universe, which at this point in time happens to be The Beyonder. He's already pretty grumpy at this point in Secret Wars II, and he's not happy about being summoned this way. "Who has dared bring me here?" he mutters, his shoulder pads looking more voluminous than ever.
#secretwars #marvelcomics #comics #comicsky

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All Hallows Steve/ComicDeepDive reading X-Men @stevesensible.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Some bright spark on Facebook discovered the book from which John Byrne referenced the fight choreography for Iron Fist's fight against the Steel Serpent in Marvel Team-Up #63. I've arranged the photos he used over the panels from the comic:

A page from Marvel Team-Up #63 showing Iron Fist squaring up against another martial arts expert from K'un Lun, The Steel Serpent.
#marvelcomics #comics #comicsky

The same page with photos overlaid, showing the poses which Byrne referenced.

... and the same page with more photos overlaid, including the cover of the book, "Martial Arts of the Orient."

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All Hallows Steve/ComicDeepDive reading X-Men @stevesensible.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

That's a terrible reproduction; there's a kind of pale blue/grey wash to the background. Still a great Wallace Wood cover though.

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All Hallows Steve/ComicDeepDive reading X-Men @stevesensible.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I'm still working my way slowly through The Crisis Companion, and whilst it's not what I was expecting, it's still entertaining and informative. And oh boy, does it go deep! At one point, Miller spends an entire page dissecting the first caption on this page from Crisis On Infinite Earths #2.

The Crisis Companion, by Kevin Miller. "From Flash Of Two Worlds To Infinite Earths And Beyond."

A page from Crisis #2, showing Kamandi, the last boy on earth, climbing one of the Monitor's towers. The opening caption reads, "It is sometime in some future, in a time line that at times stand between modern Earth and a 30th century which knows nothing of its existence..."
Words by Marv Wolfman, art by George Pérez & Dick Giordano.

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All Hallows Steve/ComicDeepDive reading X-Men @stevesensible.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I always thought it was cool that Ben was wearing the suit when he transformed back into the Thing in FF #175.

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All Hallows Steve/ComicDeepDive reading X-Men @stevesensible.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Cool splash-page from X-Men #202; Rachel goes nuclear Phoenix on the Beyonder's ass.

A giant mushroom cloud topped by the Phoenix effect (a giant phoenix formed of fiery energy) explode over Alcatraz Island, as viewed from miles up the coast of San Francisco. Art by John Romita Jr. and Al Williamson.
#xmen #secretwars #Marvel #Comics #comicsky

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All Hallows Steve/ComicDeepDive reading X-Men @stevesensible.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Another trailcam video from last night. One of our friendly neighbourhood barn owls.

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All Hallows Steve/ComicDeepDive reading X-Men @stevesensible.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

And in Cloak & Dagger #4 (by Bill Mantlo and Rick Leonardi), the Beyonder is injected with heroin. For some reason, whilst he's experiencing its effects, the lettering is coloured red and it's pretty much indecipherable. I had to download a digital version and even then it's not much clearer!

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All Hallows Steve/ComicDeepDive reading X-Men @stevesensible.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I'm finally back to reading Secret Wars II, and month 6 has a couple of great tie-ins... with some real WTF moments. First up is Power Man & Iron Fist #121 (by Jim Owsley/Priest and Mark Bright), in which this happens:

The Beyonder and Luke Cage are sitting at a table in a diner, where a group of Black men have just laughed at the Beyonder's food order. He asks Luke if men are judged by the colour of their skin, to which Luke responds that yes they are. Their is a flash of light and then...

... the Beyonder changes into a Black man with a big afro.

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All Hallows Steve/ComicDeepDive reading X-Men @stevesensible.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

The fact that they cut up that Hulk cover to make an advert is forever galling to me. And they did it so badly! 🤦‍♂️

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All Hallows Steve/ComicDeepDive reading X-Men @stevesensible.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

A kestrel caught on our trailcam. There are a couple of them who hang out around the house.

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All Hallows Steve/ComicDeepDive reading X-Men @stevesensible.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Update: I found an old SD card that had a lot of the same data on it, up until June last year at least, and I'm currently trying to recover the remaining data from the corrupted card, which is not looking promising so far. Only 5 hours to go... 😏

A screenshot of Disk Drill, showing that it's 20% of the way through its scan and has so far discovered only 13 files.

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All Hallows Steve/ComicDeepDive reading X-Men @stevesensible.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Anywhere in the UK really. Here's that well-known mountain range near Stonehenge, from Marvel Two-in-One #30.

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