They were trying to make Eternals happen even back then. When was that Gillis maxi-series, 1985? The Kirby series was only a few years before the Starfox Avengers run, too.
Is she a member of Dire Straits? I should probably research Dire Straits thoroughly before committing to them having this level of importance in the Marvel Universe.
No, "Willow" a.k.a. Mantis (yeah, I read Englehart's DC reworking/return of the character in JLA) is still better than Monica Bamboo. Mantis was unapologetic about her flaws, and those flaws made her real (when she loved Swordsman she went without food when he was sick and injured so he could eat. And when she decided he "wasn't enough man" for her, that was it. She was on to the Vision). What is there in Rambeau's story or character to match that? And her sleeves look like white garbage bags, the kind most people use in the bathroom, in that plastic bin between the sink and the toilet (thanks for pronouncing my name right, though. How did you do that? Most people say it like "Merk").
What flaw is This One recognising or accepting when she decks the entire squad of Avengers in half a page for no reason? What flaw is This One showcasing when she kisses all the male Avengers and they all consider themselves blessed by her touch? What flaw is This One possessing when she is chosen by the Cosmos to be the divine bringer of the next stage of life? Mantis is handed everything. She is given skills and powers that are only convenient to explain that she is better and greater than everyone else. She can beat Thor in a fight because she is such a trained fighter! Why is she FIGHTING THOR in the first place? In Captain Marvel #33, Thanos traps the Avengers out of sync with time but Mantis is unaffected because of her "unique oneness with the timeline". Everyone is in love with her (Swordsman, Vision, Kang, all the male Avengers when she kisses them, later on Silver Surfer too). Where is the appeal in a character with no actually appealing trait but the insistence that she is amazing? How long ago did you read these? There really isn't any heart or warmth to Mantis. She shows up and starts hogging the page-time. All the time Mantis is a star in Avengers - she is not even a member. She is there as Swordsman's guest. Yet almost every single story finds it way back to being about Mantis, Mantis' relationships with the characters, Mantis' backstory or Mantis being the one that wins or is validated. There is no drama with Mantis, because Mantis is only ever faultlessly perfect. Her "homewrecking" with Vision has no consequence, she is never demonised or taking to task for her attempts to seduce him. Wanda might think bad of her in one panel but ultimately Wanda just admits defeat and that she can't possibly compete with Mantis and it makes sense that Vision would be attracted to this perfect Mantis woman. As for Vision, it is presented as a temptation for The Vision which makes no sense, why does he fall in love with Mantis? In Steve Englehart's brain (and this is before it was legally broken) it is because why wouldn't the android who has miraculously developed feelings for one woman not also be obviously instantly tempted by the mysterious Vietnamese prostitute who everyone keeps saying aloud is the greatest fighter or the greatest heroine or the greatest messiah? The most Monica Rambeau gets handed is leadership in the Avengers (which is taken away from her within 5 issues by changing creative teams). There are long story arcs or stretches which barely feature her (there's almost 10 full issues when she is lost in space). Her characters arcs are interwoven into Avengers stories - she is afraid to fight Maelstrom in #250 and overcomes it over the course of the team fighting Maelstrom. The Avengers, Earth's Mightiest Heroes, don't stop saving the world to help Monica Rambeau find out who her parents are. In fact, in the 60 issue run she has with the Avengers, there is at most 1 issue that could be called a Monica Rambeau issue - #279. Monica Rambeau didn't hijack the series, she became part of the book for better or worse, whereas Mantis absolutely did take over. And she hijacked Silver Surfer, she was going to hijack West Coast Avengers, she was going to hijack Fantastic Four, she was going to hijack the Daredevil run that never happened. Steve Englehart's insane delusions about his Mantis Epic being "the most reprinted comic in existence" aside, he is and always has been completely irrational when it comes to this character and that is reflected in stories that dwell on her at the expense of everyone else. With Avengers, a team book, it's horrendous. The entire team are shown on-panel to be easily defeated by Mantis, they stop having adventures and instead start listening to lore about Mantis. Even when Englehart has the Avengers' arch-enemy show up, he is there because he wants to marry Mantis. Anything meaningful with the other characters is attached to Mantis or Mantis is paperclipped onto it. Vision and Scarlet Witch's wedding is a huge development for Avengers characters - oh, nevermind, it's kinda just sharing focus with Mantis marrying a tree and oh Kang wants to stop the wedding then afterwards they'll cheer for Mantis and give her official membership as she flies off into the Heavens to become the Celestial Madonna. It is genuine trash, awful comics with no charm. I can talk about all of Roger Stern's run and his stories without ever mentioning Monica Rambeau. You can't do the same for Steve Englehart. You could maybe delicately do a quarter of the run being vague and dancing around the impetus for the story or the resolution, but even that way you would hit a brick wall. Did you ever read Avengers: Celestial Quest? The 2001 miniseries written by Steve Englehart, his "return to Marvel" (short-lived), where he continues his Mantis "Epic"? I'm not even considering that in how bad the original stories are, but that one I at least can laugh at. Very funny. You think Monica Rambeau looks like she has bin-bags under her arms? You know, Mantis looks like she fell head-first through a palm tree after one of her elegant flights into the Heavens crashed and burned when an editor told Steve Englehart to stop writing the character again.
The only time Mantis was not annoyingly written was when Giffen reintroduced her into Marvel Cosmic in his Starlord mini. That and the Abnett/Lanning Guardians series did a lot to make her character more likeable. And I say that as a fan of Englehart's 70s Marvel stuff. Son of Nimrod, I know you don't like modern comics but you should read Al Ewing's Empyre event, because it was a perfect takedown of Englehart's idea of Mantis' son to become Plant Space Jesus.
He's exactly why I avoid modern stuff. Specifically, him. Amazingly, I have pinpointed him as the thing that I don't ever want to have to discuss. I have dismissively named him as simply "the gay guy who wants Storm to peg him" in several videos. Only comic of his I've actually reviewed is the one where he revealed Silver Surfer's surfboard actually is a girl and it has a personality and they talk to each other and all along he hasn't been saying "To me, my board"... but that his surfboard's name is Toamie. Then I saw he pulled the same thing with Cable's arm about a year later - Cable's arm now has it's own personality and it's a girl and it's treat like it always has even though it makes no sense because Cable's arm isn't a bionic arm or robotic limb, it's his actual arm that has scabbed over with techno-organic skin). I think he called it Betty or Bettie or Bette this time. Oh, and the personality of these things is always sarcastic woman who loves chipping away at the male hero and putting him down. The reason I don't engage with comics is because I'd be on for 20 hours listing all the things I do not like about Al Ewing. Legitimately, every single thing he has written, I have a laundry list of things I don't like and things I hate. It's easier and nicer to just avoid his dreck than read his and Dan Slott's crossover sequel to a story from the 70s that I hated to begin with.
Al Milgrom will always gets a thumbs up from me
Rom Week is going well!
No one has complained or down-voted one yet.
They were trying to make Eternals happen even back then. When was that Gillis maxi-series, 1985? The Kirby series was only a few years before the Starfox Avengers run, too.
'86. Same time as Squadron Supreme. The two shared an advertisement. Funny how the two are not held up in even the same shade of light.
Do the dire wraiths fight Rollergirl in her solo series?
Is she a member of Dire Straits? I should probably research Dire Straits thoroughly before committing to them having this level of importance in the Marvel Universe.
No, "Willow" a.k.a. Mantis (yeah, I read Englehart's DC reworking/return of the character in JLA) is still better than Monica Bamboo. Mantis was unapologetic about her flaws, and those flaws made her real (when she loved Swordsman she went without food when he was sick and injured so he could eat. And when she decided he "wasn't enough man" for her, that was it. She was on to the Vision). What is there in Rambeau's story or character to match that? And her sleeves look like white garbage bags, the kind most people use in the bathroom, in that plastic bin between the sink and the toilet (thanks for pronouncing my name right, though. How did you do that? Most people say it like "Merk").
What flaw is This One recognising or accepting when she decks the entire squad of Avengers in half a page for no reason? What flaw is This One showcasing when she kisses all the male Avengers and they all consider themselves blessed by her touch? What flaw is This One possessing when she is chosen by the Cosmos to be the divine bringer of the next stage of life?
Mantis is handed everything. She is given skills and powers that are only convenient to explain that she is better and greater than everyone else. She can beat Thor in a fight because she is such a trained fighter! Why is she FIGHTING THOR in the first place? In Captain Marvel #33, Thanos traps the Avengers out of sync with time but Mantis is unaffected because of her "unique oneness with the timeline". Everyone is in love with her (Swordsman, Vision, Kang, all the male Avengers when she kisses them, later on Silver Surfer too). Where is the appeal in a character with no actually appealing trait but the insistence that she is amazing?
How long ago did you read these? There really isn't any heart or warmth to Mantis. She shows up and starts hogging the page-time. All the time Mantis is a star in Avengers - she is not even a member. She is there as Swordsman's guest. Yet almost every single story finds it way back to being about Mantis, Mantis' relationships with the characters, Mantis' backstory or Mantis being the one that wins or is validated. There is no drama with Mantis, because Mantis is only ever faultlessly perfect. Her "homewrecking" with Vision has no consequence, she is never demonised or taking to task for her attempts to seduce him. Wanda might think bad of her in one panel but ultimately Wanda just admits defeat and that she can't possibly compete with Mantis and it makes sense that Vision would be attracted to this perfect Mantis woman. As for Vision, it is presented as a temptation for The Vision which makes no sense, why does he fall in love with Mantis? In Steve Englehart's brain (and this is before it was legally broken) it is because why wouldn't the android who has miraculously developed feelings for one woman not also be obviously instantly tempted by the mysterious Vietnamese prostitute who everyone keeps saying aloud is the greatest fighter or the greatest heroine or the greatest messiah?
The most Monica Rambeau gets handed is leadership in the Avengers (which is taken away from her within 5 issues by changing creative teams). There are long story arcs or stretches which barely feature her (there's almost 10 full issues when she is lost in space). Her characters arcs are interwoven into Avengers stories - she is afraid to fight Maelstrom in #250 and overcomes it over the course of the team fighting Maelstrom. The Avengers, Earth's Mightiest Heroes, don't stop saving the world to help Monica Rambeau find out who her parents are. In fact, in the 60 issue run she has with the Avengers, there is at most 1 issue that could be called a Monica Rambeau issue - #279. Monica Rambeau didn't hijack the series, she became part of the book for better or worse, whereas Mantis absolutely did take over. And she hijacked Silver Surfer, she was going to hijack West Coast Avengers, she was going to hijack Fantastic Four, she was going to hijack the Daredevil run that never happened. Steve Englehart's insane delusions about his Mantis Epic being "the most reprinted comic in existence" aside, he is and always has been completely irrational when it comes to this character and that is reflected in stories that dwell on her at the expense of everyone else. With Avengers, a team book, it's horrendous. The entire team are shown on-panel to be easily defeated by Mantis, they stop having adventures and instead start listening to lore about Mantis. Even when Englehart has the Avengers' arch-enemy show up, he is there because he wants to marry Mantis. Anything meaningful with the other characters is attached to Mantis or Mantis is paperclipped onto it. Vision and Scarlet Witch's wedding is a huge development for Avengers characters - oh, nevermind, it's kinda just sharing focus with Mantis marrying a tree and oh Kang wants to stop the wedding then afterwards they'll cheer for Mantis and give her official membership as she flies off into the Heavens to become the Celestial Madonna.
It is genuine trash, awful comics with no charm. I can talk about all of Roger Stern's run and his stories without ever mentioning Monica Rambeau. You can't do the same for Steve Englehart. You could maybe delicately do a quarter of the run being vague and dancing around the impetus for the story or the resolution, but even that way you would hit a brick wall.
Did you ever read Avengers: Celestial Quest? The 2001 miniseries written by Steve Englehart, his "return to Marvel" (short-lived), where he continues his Mantis "Epic"? I'm not even considering that in how bad the original stories are, but that one I at least can laugh at. Very funny.
You think Monica Rambeau looks like she has bin-bags under her arms? You know, Mantis looks like she fell head-first through a palm tree after one of her elegant flights into the Heavens crashed and burned when an editor told Steve Englehart to stop writing the character again.
The only time Mantis was not annoyingly written was when Giffen reintroduced her into Marvel Cosmic in his Starlord mini. That and the Abnett/Lanning Guardians series did a lot to make her character more likeable. And I say that as a fan of Englehart's 70s Marvel stuff.
Son of Nimrod, I know you don't like modern comics but you should read Al Ewing's Empyre event, because it was a perfect takedown of Englehart's idea of Mantis' son to become Plant Space Jesus.
He's exactly why I avoid modern stuff. Specifically, him. Amazingly, I have pinpointed him as the thing that I don't ever want to have to discuss. I have dismissively named him as simply "the gay guy who wants Storm to peg him" in several videos. Only comic of his I've actually reviewed is the one where he revealed Silver Surfer's surfboard actually is a girl and it has a personality and they talk to each other and all along he hasn't been saying "To me, my board"... but that his surfboard's name is Toamie. Then I saw he pulled the same thing with Cable's arm about a year later - Cable's arm now has it's own personality and it's a girl and it's treat like it always has even though it makes no sense because Cable's arm isn't a bionic arm or robotic limb, it's his actual arm that has scabbed over with techno-organic skin). I think he called it Betty or Bettie or Bette this time. Oh, and the personality of these things is always sarcastic woman who loves chipping away at the male hero and putting him down. The reason I don't engage with comics is because I'd be on for 20 hours listing all the things I do not like about Al Ewing. Legitimately, every single thing he has written, I have a laundry list of things I don't like and things I hate. It's easier and nicer to just avoid his dreck than read his and Dan Slott's crossover sequel to a story from the 70s that I hated to begin with.
Oof. Sorry I mentioned him! No offense.