Ditto… which reminds me, I wonder how long before they will consider Chapter 2 of the Sentinels of Freedom video game no longer spoilers, because I definitely wrote in some questions after those casual reveals.
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Helfyre’s worst nightmare.
“Why do you all have d12s in Creativity and Magic Lore? Why? This is worse than that guitar duel with Rambler!”
He can’t get the rest of his team to come to his own birthday party. Anyone who’s willing to put up with him is in like Flynn. If Nega-Guise put on a hat and Groucho Marx glasses that purple goofball would welcome him with open arms even during an ongoing murder attempt. The only “member” likely to backball you is the cat, and I’m pretty sure changing its litter box would solve that problem right fast.
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This episode unlocks something about a completely other character. Regardless of the fact that Unity is magic while Chokepoint is an omega, the idea that more metal with more power equals more will absolutely suggests that metal actually DOES have a voice that Choke actually can hear.
“Unity to lead Sentinels of Freedom!” Twilight Zone theme
To paraphrase Captain Janeway, “We’re Sentinels of the Multiverse; weird is part of the job.”
Is there a quintessential sidekick for Marvel Comics? Bucky Barnes is about the best I can think of.
Unity Junior? Jiunity? Don’t change the spelling on that!
Rick Jones is who I’d say. He’s sidekicked to Hulk, Captain America, Captain Marvel, and probably others, though he’s not super prominent anymore AFAIK.
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Oh yeah, him, I forgot, but he definitely beats Bucky. Though the latter is interesting as one of the few sidekicks that’s older than the actual hero by certain metrics. The only other example I can think of is Stripey and the Star-Spangled Kid.
sometimes Wong is called Dr. Strange’s sidekick and he might be older than Steve. Clea and the green minotaur might also be sidekicks and might be older.
Who and the green who? I know Wong of course, but only because of the second Benedict. Though calling him a “sidekick” is as questionable as calling Doc Strange a “superhero”.
Stan Lee famously disliked teen sidekicks to adult heroes - Bucky only existed because he was created in a non-Lee comic in the Timely days, and Lee killed him off so that he wouldn’t have to deal with him in the 60s. Rick Jones was created mostly by Jack Kirby, and I’m honestly not sure how he managed to survive Kirby leaving Marvel, but he sort of gradually faded out.
Marvel tended to go the other route - lots of solo teen heroes, a few teams of entirely teens, and also various teams that an older teen would attach themselves to and gradually grow up. You could argue that Shadowcat started as a teen sidekick to the X-Men, for example. Or Jubilee. Or even the Human Torch to the Fantastic Four.
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Lee’s still credited as a co-creator (and I think he did have more to do with it than you’re giving him credit for) and was therefore more attached to him than Bucky. Even back then he appreciated the potential future monetary value of creator credits. Besides, he was narratively useful for tying together old and new heroes, and just became more so over time.
Rick’s also a rather non-traditional sidekick. With the Hulk he acted more as a handler keeping him in check than the usual cheerleader/junior partner role like the archetypical 'kick Robin. When bonded with Mar-Vell he filled a Billy Batson role, which I suspect Lee got a good chuckle out of. The brief run as Bucky 2.0 was closer to a DC-style 'kick, but it was over quick and even there he was closer to a team mascot like Snapper Carr than the character who’s uniform he was wearing. Even Cap didn’t like the arrangement much, nixing Stark’s suggestion that Rick be “promoted” to honorary Avenger status so that he wouldn’t be further endangered.
Rick’s also been personally super-powered a bewildering number of times, but most of that came long after Stan had any say in what was being done with him. At this point half the Marvel heroes know him from one thing or another. When you’ve worked with Rom, Spaceknight, you know your contacts list is a comprehensive one.
Early Torch was 100% supposed to be the “teen hero” part of the FF, and Lee pushed hard to make him a solo success as well as a natural duet partner with fellow teen hero Spider-Man. That lasted for years, and never quite took off as far as I can tell. He sure did have some wacky powers back then to increase his versatility as a lead character. His flames acted almost like a Lantern power ring (ie flame constructs showed up regularly) in those days, something they largely ignored in the pages of the FF itself.
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Clea is a white-haired sorceress, former apprentice and former lover of Strange, she shows up for a second at the end of Multiverse of Magic.
Rintrah is another forgotten Dr. Strange supporting character- exactly as I described a minotaur with green fur/skin also is in Multiverse of Madness
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Huh, I remembered Clea being in MoM, but I have no memory of any green minotaurs in that movie. Always fun to learn about heroes’ forgotten supporting cast, though!
he was at karma taj. I had to google his name and then google if i remembered him from MoM or What If?
Yeah, I’m pretty sure I remembered seeing him in the big scene where witchy attacks the temple.
Also what, his third-oldest supporting character, right after the Ancient One and Wong? People really ought to read the old Ditko run instead of just watching MCU flicks. The art’s trippy and Steve was clearly enjoying himself.
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I feel like “sidekick” is a narrower and much more specific subcategory of “supporting cast”. Maybe she qualifies, I’d have to read more to be sure. If I found any Dr. Stranges in my aunt’s collection, I haven’t bothered to read them because they went directly into the “yes keep this” pile without any evaluation needed.
I think I’d agree with that distinction. From what little I know of Clea, which I believe is mostly second hand—I don’t think I’ve read more than maybe one or two stories with her—she’s more supporting cast than sidekick.
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Strange (at least in the periods when I read him extensively, so from the start and ending in the 1990s) really never had a sidekick as such, or even much of a supporting cast. Clea, the Ancient One, and Wong would occasionally help out in a crisis, or more often be targeted by enemies in some scheme or another, but they didn’t really train or patrol with him day-to-day the way Robin or Bucky did. The Ancient One’s a mentor archetype and very rarely, a deus ex machina. Wong is a butler, and not even the cool “I have an extensive history and mad skills” butler that Alfred is. Clea was an apprentice in theory (you see very little training) and (unsatisfying) romantic interest whose most common role was damsel in distress. Her most interesting feature was that she’s effectively a refugee from Dormamu’s Dark Dimension, so a fish out of water in the ordinary world - not that they did much with that. Beyond them, that was about it for an ongoing support cast.
I’ll be the first to admit that “classic” Doctor Strange was not especially well written, had little character development, and generally focused on weird mystical stuff rather than the actual cast. That might explain why he’s struggled to maintain a long-running solo title, but it also made him very easy to drop in to other books’ storylines when needed. Bit like Nightmist, but more so.
To put it mildly, the MCU has transformed the characters to the point where even Stephen is barely recognizable (the original was nowhere near as much of a snarky ass). Since the movies make all the money now, that’s led to the printed comics distorting to fit, something I have very mixed feelings about.
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Something C&A clearly aped when they did the Argent Adept episode for the podcast.