Man and Machine, God and Monster

I used to draw superheroes back when I was a kid up until I was in college, and I think I did okay at my best. If I were to draw again just so I can pay tribute to my favorite characters and add content to my long-neglected DeviantArt account, I'm gonna have to devote a lot of time just for practice. Unfortunately I was in a hurry last week as I wanted to put out material to draw attention to the fact that it was exactly 100 days before the movie hit Philippine cinemas. But thankfully I had other skills and talents to back up on.

So I played up my strengths as a professional copywriter and layout artist for a design / advertising agency to come up with materials that individualizes each member of the Avengers and really highlight their diversity. Well, the big four anyway.

I guess I was just disappointed that the posters for the movie aren't as dramatic or epic as they should be. I'm partly disappointed in myself that I can't find a word that also starts with the letter "M" for Thor. Well, actually, there is, but I have to use it for another set of materials I have coming up.

Anyway, do leave me a comment. Let me know what you think. And feel free to share away!

*All done using Magix Xara Photo and Graphic Designer 7*

Avengers Six: JARVIS!

And here we are at the end of my 6-day countdown. Big thanks to everyone who followed my blogs!
I thought I'd save the best for last, and so we now have the Avengers' venerable butler: Edwin Jarvis!

If there is one character in the Avengers' long history that truly deserves superstar status, it's this guy. After all, he's been there since day one and will probably be there until the very end. If he dies somewhere along the line, his death will be mourned by fans more than Captain America, the Wasp or any other Avenger who ever was.

From United They Stand. Notice the "A" logo on the jacket sleeve.

I take it back: You can take away everything on this list (including the Quinjet) and just leave Jarvis with the most unlikely group of heroes and you'd still have Earth's mightiest!

From Mighty Avengers 21. No mansion, no Quinjet, no big three. Still every bit the Avengers! (Jarvis is the one with the red scarf.)

I mentioned how some of the items on this list humanizes the Avengers, and none more so than Jarvis himself. After all, the Avengers is primarily an organization. Not a family. Not a school. Yet with Jarvis around, the team manages to find its heart.

From Ultimate Avengers

You can have the most powerful sorcerer or cosmic entity on your squad and still need Jarvis around. After all, who can a leader like Captain America turn to for advice about matters like team dynamics than the one person who has seen virtually every incarnation and lineup of the group since the beginning? When the fate of the world rests on your shoulders, who else can you turn to for just a little unburdening?

On of my favorite chapters in the I Am An Avenger anthology is this touching Jarvis / Wolverine story.

That's probably my only complaint with the Marvel movies and the current cartoon: Jarvis is reduced to an AI. I wonder who they would've gotten to play him in the movies if they choose to portray him as a real person. I bet that would've been a hard role to cast!

Even the Transformers know who to ask. From Lilformers.

This is part 6 of 6 in a series of blogs about what I think makes the Avengers.
Part 5: The Charter!
Part 4: The Communicard!
Part 3: The Quinjet!
Part 2: The Mansion!
Part 1: The Battle Cry!

Avengers Six: The Charter

Here is something that's not as tangible as the other items on this list, yet was the most convincing proof that Slott's Mighty Avengers was the superior of all the Avengers-related titles during the Dark Reign era.

From Mighty Avengers 24

Of course, that also means the New Avengers from the post-Civil War era up to the Heroic Age also had no claim to the name, which suits me just fine. I'll take any chance I get to write off Bendis' run as fan fiction or having taken place in another reality.

The first version of the Charter on Avengers Annual 11. Love the signatures! Read the rest of it here.

Several websites have reported that the Avengers are so far the only superhero team with their own Charter, which makes them really unique. Great! One more point for the A-team!

The second UN-sanctioned version of the Charter as it appeared on the Avengers 30th Anniversary Magazine. Already obsolete since the Avengers is no longer under the United Nations. Read the rest of it here.

With multiple squads of Avengers (along with SHIELD) now under the direction of Commander Rogers (himself not an original Avenger), it is unclear whether the Charter is still in effect. Like the Communicard, it hasn't been invoked in recent years (except for the brief mention above), and has neither been reprinted on the latest editions of the Avengers Handbook and Spotlight, nor the Ultimate Guide.

Click for more information about the Charter.

This is part 5 of 6 in a series of blogs about what I think makes the Avengers.
Part 4: The Communicard!
Part 3: The Quinjet!
Part 2: The Mansion!
Part 1: The Battle Cry!

Avengers Six: The Communicard!

Sure, the X-men also have their mansion and their supersonic plane, but one thing the Avengers have that they and not even the Justice League don't is a membership card / ID / ATM card/ communicator!

I know: Who needs it when the X-men has a chockful of telepaths and the League has the Martian Mahunter to rally the troops? Well, I can't argue with that logic but how about when the the psychics aren't around? For everything else, there's the Avengers Communicard!

I guess I like the idea of having members carry this doohickey around as it makes the Avengers look more like a real world organization - something I can relate to since I used to lead orgs back in my college days. There's just something empowering about carrying a card that entitles you to all the privileges, benefits, and responsibilities of being part of something bigger than yourself.

Also known as the Identicard. They were giving these away as part of the promotion for Siege.

And the thing is: Even when they're not on active duty, any Avenger can still carry that card with them and be called upon to return to active service if needed! Yes, it still comes with all the perks like security clearances and 10% off at Starbucks! Sweet, right?

Of course we haven't seen the Communicards in use in the post-Disassembled era, not even during Slott's run on the Mighty Avengers (at least not that I recall). But I'm glad that it hasn't been forgotten - the current animated series features the Communicard and it even makes an appearance right on the opening credits! (It's on 00:14)



Actually, one of the projects I want to do is have Communicards printed for each and every Avenger that ever was. I think that would be cool to use as trading cards!

Stack of Communicards based on the cartoon used as entrance passes to the Marvel booth at the last NYCC.

I doubt they would, but I would be really happy if they have Communicards in the movie!

This is part 4 of 6 in a series of blogs about what I think makes the Avengers.
Part 3: The Quinjet!
Part 2: The Mansion!
Part 1: The Battle Cry!

Avengers Six: The Quinjet!

Of course, the only recent news about the movie that I particularly care about is the concept art for the Quinjet.

 

I can't help but think that this actually part of a larger piece of art that's sure to set the Internet ablaze in the coming weeks, if not in the next few days. Anyway, the Quinjet, for me, is non-negotiable. If anyone's having anything to do with the Avengers, the Quinjet has to be there.

From Earth's Mightiest Heroes

Granted, it's first appearance was much later than the Mansion's (since issue 1), but it's use is actually far more practical. After all, unless you have Dr. Strange on your squad, how are you supposed to transport non-flying Avengers across the globe, let alone across the galaxy, to respond to a major threat?

From Next Avengers

So, yeah, the Quinjet does hold a somewhat iconic status for me similar to how their respective fan bases feel about the Star Destroyer or the Enterprise. So much so that for the longest time I've been looking for a toy or a model to add to my collection! Thankfully, the Superhero Squad line came up with this:

Yes, it's mine!

Which brings me to quite a puzzle: This toy, as well as the animated depictions, have shown the Quinjet capable of firepower. Yet, according to this site, the Quinjet has "no on-board weaponry". I have yet to find another material that confirms this, but from the behavior of the Quinjet in the comics, that looks to be about right.

The only other toy. From United They Stand. Not sure if this was ever released.

Yes, I know the Quinjet is not as iconic as the Batmobile or even the Blackbird - heck, sometimes I feel that slapping an "A" logo on any plane already makes it a Quinjet - but like the Mansion, the Quinjet adds a humanizing element to the mythos of Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Sometimes, it even acts like a character in an Avengers story - just like in Busiek's closing issue for Vol. 3, which also printed my very first fan letter to Marvel!

In a testament to Busiek's genius as a writer, this issue had the Avengers accounting for one Quinjet that was destroyed and one that was illegally parked.

This is part 3 of 6 in a series of blogs about what I think makes the Avengers.

Part 2: The Mansion!
Part 1: The Battle Cry!

Avengers Six: The Mansion!

I've always felt that the Avengers Mansion is more than just Earth's Mightiest Heroes' HQ.

It's their home.

Members have used it as their personal base even when they're not in Avengers-related capacity, most notably Captain America right after he got unfrozen back in issue 4.

Baron Zemo tore through the Mansion and destroyed Cap's WWII memorabilia in the Under Siege storyline.

Sure, it's not as awesome or majestic as the Justice League's Satellite or Watch Tower, but there's something about heroes being based on ground level that makes them a little more human. Exactly the kind of thing Marvel goes for.

Actually, some of my most favorite issues are those that feature the Avengers just hanging around the Mansion, doing non-superhero things like, say, holding a barbecue.

*From I Am An Avenger No. 2

You can just imagine how disappointed I was when they had the Mansion destroyed during Disassembled with no plans of rebuilding. Instead, they housed the New Avengers at Stark Tower, which just didn't really click with me (see "ground level" sentiment above).

For years, I've endured the Avengers without the Mansion and it just didn't feel the same. The Mighty Avengers' dimension-hopping Infinite Avengers Mansion came quite close though.

Then the Heroic Age came and they brought the Mansion back, which was the only thing that got me excited about Bendis' run on Volume 2 of the New Avengers.
Then he had the place wrecked up again during the Annual, but apparently the damage isn't quite permanent as the Mansion now plays home to both the adjective-less and the New Avengers.

I would love for the movie to use the Mansion, but I highly doubt they will. Oh well. At least there's still the animated show.

Click here for more details about the Mansion, including schematics!

This is part 2 of 6 in a series of blogs about what I think makes the Avengers.
Part 1: The Battle Cry!

Avengers Six: Assemble!

And, no - I don't mean these guys:

I mean, the six things that makes the Avengers who they are (at least in the Marvel universe). Until this weekend, I'll be posting one daily beginning with today's "AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!"

It took Stan Lee three issues to finally come up with the Avengers' iconic battle cry.
Interestingly, it also took each one of the big three to arrive at it!

*From Avengers Vol 1, No. 11

*From Avengers Vol 1, No. 12

*From Avengers Vol 1, No. 14

It finally made it into the cover and history by No. 16, which was also the first major shake up in the Avengers roster!

Props to ComicBookResources for the research!

PS: I was supposed to this as a 6-day countdown to the 100 days til the Avengers' local release, and it was supposed to start yesterday, but unfortunately, we didn't have Internet at home.

Yes, this post already appeared on my Tumblr.

Counting Down to the Avengers

As much as I want to avoid hyping myself up, exposing myself to spoilers, then (*gasp*) end up getting disappointed, I can't help but feel that I should do something to really celebrate the release of the Avengers movie in my own way. After all, I have been a fan of the franchise for more than 10 years now, and I know that no matter how the movie eventually turns up, I will love it and support it anyway.

Hence this ambitious project of mine that I just launched today - 107 days from the Avengers movie, which hits local theaters on April 25. From now until then, my blog here, and on multiply and tumblr will cease to be called "Upload and Personal" and will be exclusively devoted to original Avengers-related content.

It will be full blast campaign that will affect all my social networks and will feature mostly tribute materials, news, reviews, opinions, videos, art, etc. not just about the upcoming movie, but anything and everything Avengers - from the comics to the shows, between and beyond. I've been thinking about doing this since middle of last year, and I think it's about time I get it under way.

So what do I have in store for the next four months?

Blogspot
- Personal stories, reviews, opinions, rants and raves, etc. The countdown widget is also there.

YouTube
- Vlog, tribute videos, event coverages

Facebook
- Just launched the Facebook Page for the countdown as well. It will consolidate all the updates from the various sites, and hopefully connect with other fans as well.

Google+ / PicasaWeb
- There's the Google+ Page for the project, which will also contain photo galleries

Tumblr
- Just news and reblogged content. Will also repost art and videos here, but mostly as a means to promote the campaign and blog. I'd like to include this platform as there is a community of fans on Tumblr (even if they're mostly Loki's, if not Steve-Tony shippers).

Flickr
- Original photography - toys, merchandise, costumes, events, etc.

DeviantArt
- ART! (Duh)

My Multiply will continue to be updated with the same content, and updates will also be broadcast on my personal Twitter and Plurk.
That reminds me: I set up the Facebook and Google+ Pages to keep my personal FB and G+ accounts... well, personal.

So there. Still working on the overhaul for most of the sites, as well as the original content I plan on sharing, but everything will be set up and ready by next week - just in time for the 100-day countdown! At least my FB cover photo is already updated!

Thank You, 2011

I seemed to have lost the resolve to write a lengthy reflection of the year past and my expectation of the year ahead.
I find myself a bit overwhelmed because 2011 has been so awesome I can't quite wrap my head around it yet! How do you bid goodbye to the year that finally nailed the coffin on our Friendster accounts while giving us the Facebook timeline?
Well, here's one idea.

JANUARY
- Family reunion!
- Jovan's birthday at Big Sky Mind!
- Yale New Years Party!
- Geek Fight Team Yale Guest Night!
- UST's Quadricentennial!
- TRIP TO ILOCOS!
- PASSPORT RENEWED!

FEBRUARY
- Balloon Fiesta Trooping / Clark Trip!
- Watched Pat in Askals!
- New kitty!
- SDP wins 5/7 seats (including the presidency) in the ABSC elections
- TRIP TO CANADA!

MARCH
- Goodbye, Cowie
- KaCASA lost 5/7 seats (including the presidency) in the CASA elections
- Next to Normal with Gen, Shey, Jovan, Mark, Jay-R and Armi!
- Karaoke at the Hive!
- Racket with Allstar!
- Catch up with college friends at the Collective!

APRIL
- THOR! (Thanks Meann for the tix)
- Sir Joel's birthday at Centerstage Tomas Morato!
- Jon's birthday at Yale!
- Tal's birthday in Ortigas!
- GAME OF THRONES!

MAY
- CAGBALETE with college friends!
- Free Comic Book Day!
- Urim's Stag Party!
- Urim and Elaine's Wedding!
- Karen's birthday at her place!

JUNE
- 30 years of SDP
- X-men First Class! (Thanks Meann for the tix)
- Monopoly Deal tournament!
- Aida with Ingrid!
- The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber with Ingrid!
- Pat's birthday at Bowlers Makati!
- Nono's birthday at Big Sky Mind!
- Green Lantern with Gen and Icheb!
- Committee Geek Fight Anniversary!
- Nik's birthday at Big Sky Mind!
- JOINED GOOGLE+!

JULY
- Happy birthday Paul!
- Fund-raiser for Penny and Dexter!
- Urim and Elaine's Baby Shower!
- Started singing lessons at Manila Philharmonic!
- Karaoke with the Geeks at Chicago KTV
- Captain America with Ingrid!
- TRIP TO SINGAPORE!
- Captain America with Hec!
- The Lion King Musical with Gen, Ninay and Wilson!

AUGUST
- Anya's birthday at her place!
- Visiting and saying goodbye to COLF!
- Karaoke with Giselle!
- Rest in Peace, Lelay Odulio
- Zombadings with the geek friends!
- Happy birthday Joaquin and Clara's Baptism

SEPTEMBER
- In the Heights with Ingrid!
- Bon Voyage, Dek! (Big Sky Mind)!
- Bon Voyage, Zuri! (Ateneo)!
- All-4-One/Color Me Badd with Anya!
- Racket with Leo Burnett!
- Rest in Peace, Tita Baby Rosero
- Macy's birthday at her house!
- Reunion with Center for Arts
- Hanna's birthday at her place!

OCTOBER
- Hanging out with CashCashPinoy peeps!
- Phantom of the Opera 25th Anniversary with Mama!
- Urim's birthday at Big Sky Mind!
- MY 30TH BIRTHDAY WEEKEND!
- TRIP TO HONG KONG!
- Welcome back, Hec and Alec!
- Hec and Carl's birthday at Last Home!

NOVEMBER
- Rej's surprise birthday party at Roseroland!
- Welcome back, Lola!
- Welcome home, Tita Vicky and Tita Bubbles!
- Rest in Peace, Sunny "Juice" Kompleto
- Danes' birthday at Krispy Kreme The Fort!
- Ryan and Jacqui's wedding!
- Lost phone!
- Photoshoot for GISHWHES!

DECEMBER
- HOSPITAL! SURGERY! APPENDECTOMY!
- New phone! New number!
- Raket with RCG!
- Adam's birthday at Papa John's Makati!
- Office X-mas party!
- X-mas party with the Trekkies!
- X-mas party with the Troopers!
- Holiday get-together with college friends at Spazzio!

I also did a lot of growing up in 2011. While 2010 was about making up for lost time, 2011 became more about owning up to my past mistakes - like finally revealing my dark years as an out-of-school youth and my true origins as a kid growing up in the province.
It was also a year of progression. I realized how much I've gone from that awkward boy who thought he'd never find true friends to that man whose friends accept him for who he is. With these revelations and realizations, I've also achieved a great deal of confidence. I allowed myself to win and celebrate my victories. I know now what I'm doing as far as my career is concerned. Heck, I even traveled to a foreign country all by myself!
Speaking of, traveling was never on my list of things to do for 2011, but that's probably what I would remember the most: The year of the new passport and the foreign travels!

All these blessings and invigorated confidence leave me feeling a bit more invulnerable and invincible. I feel like it's prepping me up for when I have to deal with major disappointments somewhere down the road. I now feel more ready to take on whatever life and fate has to throw at me.

I hope 2012 would be more awesome, but just in case, I'll always have 2011. Well 2012 is bound to be epic for me anyway - at least on two VERY IMPORTANT fronts:
The Avengers movie.
And the last Wheel of Time book - A Memory of Light.
(*Both of which are absent from my 2011 list*)

So bring it on, 2012! I'm ready for you!

*PS: Not that I forgot the little things - like the books I've read, the shows I started following, etc. It's just that I have similar subjects I want to blog about and they could easily fall into those topics.

So I woke up in the middle of surgery...

...and other fears realized in a span of one day.



But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Exactly a week ago I was enjoying a non-working but productive holiday that ended when I decided to sleep off what I thought were the onset of hunger pangs at midnight. A couple of hours later I woke up with all hell breaking loose! My entire tummy was on fire!

It took all of my strength to get up out of bed and go to the bathroom for any "unloading" that might help ease the pain in either solid, liquid, or gaseous form. I also did the laying down on my stomach thing. I was rewarded for all my effort by the easing and subsiding pain in my sides. I was hoping I can just sleep the rest of it away and maybe take a halfday from work. Except the remaining pain would not let me sleep. And when I can't sleep, my mind wanders, and so does my hand. I had begun to think that this was more than just a gastric thing. After some careful prodding, I found it. My stomach was hurting all over, but there was one spot where it hurt the most: On the lower right abdomen.

I already knew then what was happening but I just told my mom that I'm going to the hospital because my tummy aches. To my surprise, she decided to accompany me. This scene was actually a rerun of an incident from mid-2007: Same scenario - me writhing in stomach pain and telling her I have to go to the hospital. I took a cab by myself to the UST Hospital emergency room where nurses immediately took lab tests of my liquids while doctors poked and prodded my stomach. Come daylight, the pain was gone (with no medication to boot) and all the doctors could say was that "It may have been appendicitis but the problem was not surgical in nature yet". I was back at the office the same morning.

Since that incident I have prepared myself for the eventuality of a repeat performance. I read up on the appendix, and pretty much understood what all the poking was about! Last week's rerun happened pretty much the same way, except my mom was with me, we went to UERM instead, and when the doctor arrived to do the poking, fears 1 and 2 materialized.

Fear #1: Yes, it's appendicitis. According to my blood tests, my white blood cells are on overdrive - they're fighting an infection and my bloody red and crusting sore right eye, which I also unfortunately contracted the day before, isn't enough to cause it. It was the only indication as none of the tell-tale symptoms materialized - my urine test didn't yield anything nasty, I wasn't feverish, they were bending my legs to check if anything would hurt and pressing my abdomen to check if it would hurt upon release. Nada! Zilch!

Fear #2: My age has become a liability. I believe the doctor's exact words were "Because of YOUR AGE and history (the mid-2007 incident), you're at a higher risk." I was 25 when I had my first run-in and I just turned 30 barely two months ago! How was this happening to me?!

When the threat of an invasive surgery became real, so did fear #3: Being unprepared to handle the expenses. When the doctor laid it down that surgery is the order of the day, my mom asked if I was prepared. Did she mean financially prepared? I just got back from Hong Kong a month ago, I just lost my phone, and was paying debts acquired months before. So, no, I wasn't She actually meant if I was mentally prepared. Oh, that I definitely was. I've thinking about this moment since the 2007 incident and was actually very calm about it.

So we opted to get admitted to the Charity Ward as we couldn't afford my own room and what got me wasn't contagious anyway. I had vomitted twice that morning: Once before they fitted me with an IV bag and once after. The second time was nastier as all I could barf out was bitter yellow bile. They stuck me with a pain killer that did not seem to work - I was still in so much pain. At least until I got to my bed at the Charity Ward to await my operation.

Maybe it was the air conditioning in the Emergency Room, but the pain seemed to have dissipated at the Charity Ward. By that afternoon, cooled only by electric fans, I started having second thoughts about going through with it as I was suprisingly feeling better. But I thought if it doesn't happen now, it's going to come back with a vengeance at some point. Get it over with now before it gets complicated. Thankfully I was able to sleep that afternoon before I had my operation that early evening.

As they were wheeling my stretcher to the operating room, I wondered what my mom thought. This is only the second time she's seen me at the hospital other than the time I was born after all! Was she more nervous than I was? Frankly I was excited! I can notch it up to my list of new experiences this year and it would relieve me of this pain and anxiety! Plus: Being stark naked under the gown was oddly liberating! I knew I was gonna come out of it okay, so I wasn't afraid of never waking up. If anything, I was more afraid of waking up in the middle of surgery!

Which brings us to fear #4.

I don't know when I lost consciousness, but I remember waking up on the operating table. I couldn't open my eyes and I couldn't feel anything but I know my arms were spread out. I don't know if they had sliced me open already and were in the middle of extracting that demanding but useless vestigial organ, but I felt the freezing cold! My chest and arms were shaking. My teeth were chattering. And I can hear! I did hear someone say that it was too cold. One even noticed that I was shivering. I panicked more at the thought of being conscious through the rest of the operation in this frigid madness not being able to do anything than being conscious as they cut through to my innards. Fortunately, that lasted only a matter of minutes and the next thing I knew I was at the recovery room, unable to feel my legs. So this was what paraplegia felt like. It wasn't a fear I had come to life but it was still disconcerting.

They told me that for the anesthesia to wear off completely so I can move my legs, I had to breathe deep and exhale. Unfortunately, since I started taking singing lessons and learned proper breathing technique, "breathing deep" for me involves the expansion of my stomach - exactly where they had just patched me up! So I had to breathe through my chest and lungs again, but I kept dozing off, so it took quite a while before I could move my legs again. When I finally lifted both knees, they sent me back to the Charity Ward where I spent the next two days recovering.

It's been a week since the operation. I'm okay now, resting and recovering at home. The staff of UERM really did a good job looking after me. Of course, my concern now is: Will it leave a scar? Will I get fat after this? That latter part is actually fear #5. Here's hoping it doesn't materialize.