Sunday was my birthday, and I was fortunate to receive the Captain America Omnibus as one of my gifts. Although I read most of the issues as they were being published, it has been a great experience going through Ed Brubaker’s Cap run one more time, noticing some of the details I had failed to before. For anyone who has not yet read the series it is definitely worth picking up!
As a result, I’m terribly excited about the prospect of seeing one of my favorite VS. teams (Crime Lords) paired with one of my favorite villains (The Red Skull.) Today’s preview is a first glimpse at what promises to be an amazing Legend, one that will have the power to stop Captain America once and for all!
Will all of the Red Skull cards mirror the Cap cards in this way? I wonder what other surprises the criminal masterminds at UDE have in store for us…
So our magical journey through crime comes to an end… for now…
When Lost Hemisphere and I decided to go through with this month neither of us were aware of what a large impact crime had on the Marvel Universe. There is a HUGE variety of Crime Lords characters, many of whom we did not cover this month, who are every bit as interesting as Spider-Man or Wolverine. (Actually, just about everyone is more interesting than Wolverine, but that’s neither here nor there…)
Though a lot of teams seem ‘unplayable’ in any given format, that doesn’t mean they’re any less fun to play. One of my guilty pleasures is playing a rarely used card and having my opponent do a double take. “I forgot that card even existed!” And guess what? It’s even more hillarious when they do that to your entire deck.
So yeah, throw some Crime Lords together and see what happens. If you do it now you won’t seem like such a sheep when everyone is building the team in Marvel Universe.
Special thanks to Bloke, Spud, Stu, and just about everyone who participated, commented and/or did not openly mock us. Cheers!
All month long Lost Hemisphere and this humble site have been celebrating the glory of Crime Lords with our very own Crime Lord’s Month! From Vanessa Fisk to Batroc to The Enforcers, every major criminal in the Marvel Universe has gotten some love in anticipation for… well, Marvel Universe.
It only seems fitting that I wrap things up with an exclusive MUN preview card featuring the greatest Crime Lord of them all, the ruthless mercenary known only as Bullseye!
Wait — what do you mean he’s a member of the Thunderbolts!?
Today’s Crime Lord is arguably the most colorful Crime Lord of them all!
Born in Yugoslavia, Zebediah Killgrave was an infamous international spy until he was terribly injured in a chemical refinery. Although the accident permanently transformed his skin to a shade of purple, Killgrave soon discovered that it had also granted amazing superhuman powers!
(I know it sounds cool but please don’t try this at home, or in your local chemical refinery.)
Now with the ability to control the minds of others, Zebediah Killgrave took to a life of crime. From now on he would be known only as…
Today’s Crime Lords are another recent, and terribly clever addition to the comic book landscape. It all started when writer Brian K Vaughn began to wonder why all of the superheroes in the United States were situated on the East Coast. There had to be some reason why both heroes and villains stayed away from Los Angeles in droves, so Vaughn decided to make one up.
Enter The Pride.
Who are The Pride? Well, they’re the greatest criminal masterminds you, and the superhuman community, have never heard of. A group of twelve diverse and dangerous individuals, they secretly controlled the greater Los Angeles area for over a decade!
As you are probably aware, UDE is expanding the definition of a ‘Crime Lord’ for their upcoming Vs. System expanasion. This will allow Captain America and Iron Man villains such as the Red Skull and HYDRA to make an appearance in the game without having to go through the trouble of creating a new team affiliation.
This is great news for Crime Lords fans, since it promises to create some very interesting team-up possibilities. More importantly, it will allow one of my favorite internaional villains to make his first appearance in the VS. System.
For the most part Crime Lords seem to enjoy being Crime Lords. The Red Skull doesn’t spend a lot of time regretting the life he leads, nor do The Enforcers. That isn’t to say these characters are lacking in depth, but in almost every case they have made a concious decision to be a criminal, so there is little internal conflict.
Today’s Crime Lord is a much different story. Whereas most villains are motivated by greed or some self-imposed sense of righteousness, Vanessa Fisk acts out of love for her husband. In fact, if it weren’t for her marriage to The Kingpin she probably would have ended up living a happy, normal life.
It just occured to me today that we’ll probably see the Cosmic Cube make an appearance in the upcoming Marvel Universe set. This is very exciting news for Red Skull (and Cap) fans, and will be a great way to tie the cards into recent Captain America storylines.
Of course, the Cube has been around for decades. Below is probably the most delicious comic book story ever to feature the device.
Yum! Click on the image above to read the full comic. You don’t regret it!
In most situations new writers take over an established title (like Batman, for example) with the goal of writing about the characters they grew up with. As a result many books tend to stagnate, since both readers and writers are unwilling to take the risk of introducing new characters and shaking up the status quo.
However, there are a brave few whose creations have taken on a life of their own. Today we look at one of the most recent, and greatest additions to the Marvel Universe’s pantheon of crime: Barracuda.
The Brave and the Blog! 