366 Days with J. Jonah Jameson, Day 44: That's the night that the lights went out on Jonah

Panels from Longshot (1985 limited series) #3 (November 1985), script by Ann Nocenti, pencils by Art Adams, inks by Whilce Portacio, assistant inks by Scott Williams, colors by Christie Scheele, letters by Joe Rosen

Today in Comics History, February 12, 1980: Exploding driver's license seriously injuresMister Miracle

from Justice League (2011 series) #41 (DC, August 2015), script by Geoff Johns, pencils and inks by Jason Fabok, colors by Brad Anderson, letters by Rob Leigh

366 Days with J. Jonah Jameson, Day 43: You don't pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger and you don't mess around with Jessica Jones

Panels from The Pulse #13 (March 2006), script by Brian Michael Bendis, pencils and inks by Michael Gaydos, colors by Matt Hollingsworth, letters by Cory Petit

366 Days with J. Jonah Jameson, Day 42: Jurisprudence socks it to the Fourth Estate

Panels from Daredevil (1964 series) #177 (December 1981), script and breakdowns by Frank Miller, finishes by Klaus Janson, colors by Glynis Wein, letters by Joe Rosen

366 Days with J. Jonah Jameson, Day 41 and Today in Comics History, February 10, 1975: See, we told you earlier that February 10 was an exciting day

from "Who Is the White Tiger?" in Deadly Hands of Kung Fu (1974 magazine series) #22 (Marvel, March 1976), script by Bill Mantlo, breakdowns by Keith Giffen, finishes by Rico Rival, letters by Karen Mantlo

Today in Comics History, February 10, 1975: Newspaper promises exciting day, fair weather, mysterious front-page-sized ghost of White Tiger

from "Who Is the White Tiger?" in Deadly Hands of Kung Fu (1974 magazine series) #22 (Marvel, March 1976), script by Bill Mantlo, breakdowns by Keith Giffen, finishes by Rico Rival, letters by Karen Mantlo
Say, are you wondering what that text below the "Rooftop Battle with Prowler" headline is all about? I couldn't locate a record of the (likely New York City) newspaper it's taken from, but you may note it mentions John O'Donohue (albeit misspelled as "O'DonAhue"), a cop moonlighting as a boxer. Sound familiar? Yep: that's the same guy who played Sgt. Eddie Gibson on NYPD Blue, so hopefully that helps you complete your "Six Degrees of Spider-Man" link to Jimmy Smits. Want to read more? (Sure, we all do!) Here's a couple articles (1, 2) on John O'Donohue. Who says this isn't the Pugalistic Period of Bully Probing...um, Research?

Hope Stings Eternal

Say, we all like Hope Pym, don't we? Fresh from her scene-stealing roles in last summer's "big" blockbuster Ant-Man and soon to be co-spotlighting in the sequel Ant-Man and the Wasp, America fell in love with the spunky, sarcastic daughter of grizzled Hank Pym who eventually wound up kissin' Scott Lang for no apparent reason at all, but what the heck, made for a happy Hollywood ending, yay! As aptly played by the talented and photogenic Evangeline Lilly, Hope Pym's been a character everybody can't wait to see more of, not only on the movie screen, but on the comics page! Who doesn't want to see Hope Pym in the comic books? You can't wait for that, right? Well, didja know she's already appeared in Marvel Comics? And didja know she's kind of a rhymes with witch? In fact, let's take a look at just how much you don't want Hope Pym to appear in Marvel comic books! You can pretty much tell from panel one, specifically using the words "idiots" "mockery" and "prime operatives." You know she's up to no good! (Nice shoes, though.)


Panels from A-Next #10 (July 1999), script by Tom DeFalco, plot and pencils by Ron Frenz, inks by Al Milgrom, colors by Bob Sharen, letters by Jim Novak
And by the time we see her (A-)next, she's already got a vicious but stylish costume and a gang of supervillains with a snappy name ready to destroy the all-new, all-different Kidvengers! And also...some guy in a plaid shirt...I don't know how he got in there.

Two-page splash from A=Next #12 (September 1999); script by Tom DeFalco, plot and pencils by Ron Frenz, inks by Al Milgrom, colors by Bob Sharen, letters by Jim Novak
(Click picture to Pym-size)
Well, maybe she's just a misguided, misunderstood young soul who's understandably if misdirectedly upset about the death of her Ant-Dad, and she really doesn't mean anybody any harm at all...


Still, deep inside that tiny, tiny Pym-shrunken heart, Hope (a.k.a. the Red Queen) surely has some love for her twin brother Hank Pym Jr., saddled with the totally amazingly bizarre superhero name "Big Man." What, was "Strong Guy" already taken? oh wait. Yes, it was.


Perhaps she'll be able to bond with Cassie Lang, the daughter of another Ant-Man, and they could go to a spa and have a laugh together and


OH FOR CRYING OUT LOUD HOPE


Well, that knocked some sense into her, as well as the dislocated vertebrae and the three broken ribs. I'm sure she'll be perfectly sane and reasonable, ready to be on the side of the angels by the time she next appears in another one of Tom DeFalco's Marvel: The Next Generation productions:


Panels from American Dream #1 (July 2008), script by Tom DeFalco, pencils by Todd Nauck, inks by Scott Koblish, colors by Rob Ro, letters by Dave Sharpe
Say, Hope: you got any anger management issues?




Panels from American Dream #2 (top and middle) and #5 (bottom) (July and September 1998), script by Tom DeFalco, pencils by Todd Nauck, inks by Scott Koblish, colors by Rob Ro, letters by Dave Sharpe
Perhaps that's why it's so satisfying to see her beaten down to the floor like a chump:


I must not tell lies: that's actually the Hope Pym of Earth-982, the MC2 universe populated by Spider-Girl, J2 (son of the Juggernaut), Wild Thing (daughter of Wolverine and Elektra), um...Fuzzy Face, the junior clone of the Beast, Kid Hulk, Travel Iron Man, and...I dunno, the Thing's adopted kid Rocky, as far as I know. So she's not the "canonical" Hope of Earth-616, Earth-616.8, or even the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Earth-199999, better known as the year that massive nuclear explosion...cause: human error! made the Moon tear out of Earth orbit and hurl into outer space...doomed to travel forever through hostile environments. Whoops, no, I've made another one of my silly mistakes...that's Space 1999.

So, since a kind and gentle if acerbic and witty Hope Pym debuted in 2015 up on the movie screen in a bajillion-dollar moneymaking flick, you'd assume you'd pretty much seen the end of the oh-so-subtle portrayal as Hope, BEE-villain the Red Queen. Right, 2015?


Panels from Spider-Island (2015 Secret War limited series) #4 (November 2015); plot and script by Tom DeFalco, plot and pencils by Ron Frenz, inks by Sal Buscema, colors by Andrew Crossley, letters by Clayton Cowles
FOR PETE'S SAKE HOPE

So: Hope Pym. A nasty piece of work, portrayed with all the three dimensions of an unfolded piece of origami and the subtlety of the Hulk getting into Walmart on Black Friday. You can love her or hate her, but let's be honest, you really don't wanna read any more comic books about her.


Panel from American Dream #4 (August 2008), script by Tom DeFalco, pencils by Todd Nauck, inks by Scott Koblish, colors by Rob Ro, letters by Dave Sharpe

Today in Comics History, Mardi Gras: New Orleans? Not really a party town. Though if I remember correctly, they occasionally hold a function called Marty's...something.

Happy Mardi Gras, everybody! In the words of everybody's favorite* New Orleans guy, Gambit, laissez les bon temps roulez!



from "The Reprehensible Riddle of...the Sorcerer!" in Marvel Super-Heroes #14 (Marvel, May 1968), script by Stan Lee, pencils by Ross Andru, inks by Bill Everett, colors by Stan Goldberg, letters by Sam Rosen
* Hey, it's his one and only cultural holiday. Let's let him have a "favorite" just this once.

366 Days with J. Jonah Jameson, Day 40: So much smoking going on in this comic it gave me emphysema

Panels from Marvel Two-in-One #40 (June 1978), plot by Roger Slifer, script by Tom DeFalco, breakdowns by Ron Wilson, finishes by Pablo Marcos, colors by Phil Rachelson, letters by Annette Kawecki

Today in Comics History, February 8, 2013: Confusing panel layout makes it look like they're having police work outside today

from Black Market #4 (Boom!, October 2014), script by Frank L. Barbiere, pencils and inks by Victor Santos, colors by Adam Metcalfe, letters by Ed DukeshireX

366 Days with J. Jonah Jameson, Day 39: Yet another reason we need to get J.K. Simmons into the MCU

One of my favorite J. Jonah Jameson issues is Alias #10, in which Jonah hires private investigator Marvel's Jessica Jones ("As seen on Netflix") to discover the secret identity of Spider-Man.

She, of course, wastes Jonah's time. And money.

Two-page spread from Alias #10 (August 2002); script by Brian Michael Bendis,
pencils and inks by Michael Gaydos, colors by Matt Hollingsworth
(Click picture to series-binge-size)

366 Days with J. Jonah Jameson, Day 38: I honestly can't see a way for him to blame this on Spider-Man

Panels from Mighty Avengers (2007 series) #4 (August 2007), script by Brian Michael Bendis and Frank Cho, pencils and inks by Frank Cho, colors by Jason Keith, letters by Dave Lanphear