Thanksgiving is upon us, which implies the holiday remains in full speed. Xmas, Hanukah and also Kwanzaa are appropriate around the bend and also with them the cost of food, presents as well as traveling. If you’re like me as well as are confronted with costs thousands of bucks in the following couple of weeks due to the fact that you waited previously to begin planning for the vacations, I have some ideas for simple and also quick means to make money throughout the holiday without ever before leaving residence!
Offer Your Stuff
I call it cash money. Every person has point existing around that home that can be marketed. These points can bring in great cash; particularly currently as various other individuals are looking for simply these kinds of products throughout the present providing period.
Browse for your publication, CD or various other product, or utilize the ISBN (for publications) or UPC’s (Universal Product Code) to locate the product. Amazon.com will certainly direct you via the procedure of providing the problem of the thing, including remarks regarding the product, inputting your rate, as well as sending it for incorporation in its enormous on the internet shop. Your item reveals up ideal following to the brand-new, complete valued product as a “Buy Used” choice.
Amazon.com bills you absolutely nothing until/unless your thing markets. The cost is.99 cents plus a portion of the marketed rate as well as a variable closing cost. Amazon.com provides you a delivery credit scores to cover the price of mailing your thing to the customer.
I make use of ebay.com for things that can not be marketed with Amazon.com due to the fact that it takes even more time to listing things at ebay.com. I specifically like ebay.com for my uniqueness things such as infomercial items or points that I’m not certain just how to rate.
Like at Amazon.com, there are some products in which you can input the item ID and also obtain a supply photo as well as details. A wonderful attribute used is the capacity to acquire and also publish your shipping with ebay.com’s system as well as PayPal. You can package as well as deliver your marketed product without going to the message workplace.
The insertion charge varies from.20 cents to $4.80 depending on rate of the thing. The only various other needed charge is the last worth fee which is a 5.25%+ of the marketed expense.
Below are some suggestions to rapidly as well as conveniently make some rapid cash money via Amazon.com as well as ebay.com:
1) Go via your house as well as collect all the things that are in good problem and also that you are eager to offer. The finest products I have actually discovered are non-fiction publications, hard back bestsellers, electronic devices as well as digital devices, software application and also name brand name products for Amazon.com.
2) When listing, be straightforward concerning the problem. You do not intend to harm your marketing online reputation by not pointing out marks or various other mistakes with the product.
3) Price products to market. Of training course, at ebay.com, the market will certainly drive the best sale cost, however begin reduced and also do not place a get cost (rate that need to be satisfied for the product to market). There is some indicator that things with a reduced beginning proposal usually obtain greater sales than comparable things with a greater beginning proposal.
4) Finally, when you obtain repayment for the product, ship it ASAP. Stamps.com likewise provides on-line shipping solutions to conserve you a journey to the article workplace. If he paid added for insurance policy or expedited delivery, make certain you utilize those solutions.
Market Your Skill
It made use of to be that you had to go out and also obtain seasonal job or select up a part-time work to make added money. These work vary from consumer solution as well as assistance, accounting, recording, creating, public relationships function, as well as much more.
These work can frequently be carried out around a normal work making use of a net as well as a phone link. While they might not pay the like a typical task, when you consider the conserved time and also expenditures from not needing to commute, the distinction is minimal.
To discover and also obtain home-based job:
1) Inventory your abilities. Do not simply provide those abilities you have from your routine work. Consist of any kind of abilities you have actually created in the quest of a pastime, joining a club, or via volunteer job.
2) Create a specialist return to that you can customize to particular tasks you locate.
3) Search for service work associated internet sites such as Craigslist.org (any type of and also all cities not simply in your area), Monster.com and also Careerbuilder.com. Usage keywords such as “telecommute”, “operate at residence”, and also “freelance”.
4) You can additionally discover job by speaking to firms in your city straight as well as recommending an agreement job choice. If you mention exactly how employing you on an agreement self-employed basis can conserve the business cash over employing an on-site employed individual, you can usually encourage a company to employ you.
5) One last choice is to market your abilities to the basic public utilizing fliers, decrease cards, and also identified advertisements. Can you handle a vacation and also arrange occasion such as a workplace event? When you have your concept, merely allow everybody in your community and also area recognize concerning it.
You do intend to take care concerning looking for online tasks on the internet as there are lots of rip-offs. Some policies to preventing work-at-home task frauds are:
1) You aren’t most likely to just join and also work. Work-at-home work, like normal tasks need you to undergo an application procedure.
2) Legitimate tasks will certainly never ever request cash … ever before! Any type of business requesting for cash to cover its expenses, guarantee you’re major or whatever foolish reason it provides is scamming you.
3) Never collaborate with a business that desires you to utilize your very own savings account to assist procedure settlements. You can shed countless bucks as well as your financial institution advantages by succumbing to this rip-off.
Look for your publication, CD or various other thing, or make use of the ISBN (for publications) or UPC’s (Universal Product Code) to discover the thing. Amazon.com will certainly direct you with the procedure of offering the problem of the thing, including remarks regarding the product, inputting your cost, as well as sending it for addition in its huge on-line shop. I make use of ebay.com for products that can not be offered via Amazon.com since it takes even more time to checklist things at ebay.com. Of training course, at ebay.com, the market will certainly drive the utmost sale cost, however begin reduced as well as do not place a book rate (cost that should be fulfilled for the thing to offer). There is some indicator that things with a reduced beginning proposal usually obtain greater sales than comparable things with a greater beginning proposal.
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Yes, there was a time when the Avengers ruled, I mean, really ruled—ruled with genuine aspirational coolness! Or maybe, this is just a catchy title for a whole series of articles on Avengers milestones beginning in the midst of the full-steam-ahead Bronze Age and arriving one atop the other with the Roger Stern run, before the abyss of the ’90s, until the revitalization of Earth’s Mightiest with Kurt Busiek and George Pérez triumphant. Yet as much as this will be a love letter to some of my fave superhero comics, there will be plenty of criticism in the early going, especially when it comes to some of the more insufferably entitled men dominating this franchise. Still, I don’t want to focus on the negative even as I won’t shy away from addressing badness where it arises. What’s more interesting is that there is so much good material in this era (which, no doubt, is not lost on Disney!), but for me, the post-Hickman era of Avengers comics has been deeply, deeply, deeply disappointing. While 21st-century professional consistency (corporate streamlining) might be glaringly absent from the earlier comics, we’ll highlight those areas where those raw early times pushed in compelling directions that are almost wholly absent today.
So, hopefully, dear reader, you find this project of interest at least for all the neat ideas and characters that have fallen by the wayside in recent years. The fact that in the 1980s Monica Rambeau was Captain Marvel and held tenure as team leader of the Avengers is just one instance of the rich potential here that has been sorely neglected, especially with the dull and constrained narrowness of Aaron’s current work—which bears only the most superficial trappings of epic adventure (an unfortunate downfall from his legendary Thor). Whether or not you agree on this last, though, I think most Earth’s Mightiest fans will discover and rediscover some fascinating bits of forgotten lore, both in-universe and behind the scenes.
In this prelude piece, we’ll do a brief rundown of two early famous epics that didn’t work successfully as coherent stories. Future pieces will delve such titles as The Serpent Crown Saga, The Korvac Saga, Nights of Wundagore, Absolute Vision, Under Siege, Avengers Forever—and quite a few more! If you’re familiar with these sagas, hopefully you’ll still find something interesting, new or insightful to take away. Of course, enthused readers are welcome to leave a comment for friendly correction or disagreement. Learning anew and reconsidering based on well-meaning debate are essential to a healthy brain . For fans unfamiliar with this earlier material, I hope only to pique your curiosity in seeking out this fascinating content.
[John Byrne & Terry Austin; Carlos Pacheco & Jesús Merino; John Buscema & Tom Palmer]
In future pieces, we’ll do a brief summary of key plot points, so even readers who’ve read these stories shouldn’t feel the need to look elsewhere to refresh. Beyond those basics though, each piece will focus on reasons I think whatever specific story or issue is worth revisiting over and again for committed fans and even creators curious about the evolution of the medium through the lens of one long-running title.
Framing the Era through Key Artists and Characters—and Characterizations
Now, it just so happens that the artwork of one of the most beloved comic artists bookends the era of highest quality for the ensemble team still recognizably rooted in the Bronze Age (albeit however bifurcated by the abyss of the mid-’90s). Throughout, we’ll take plenty of opportunity to honor the man, the legend, George Pérez.
If you want to look at the twelve-year period of Avengers stories from 1976 to 1987 as a separate period from the sublime return of Pérez in 1998 with archetypal superheroics writer Kurt Busiek, that’s obviously fine! Either way, most would agree that when that third volume of Avengers was infamously “disassembled” by Brian Michael Bendis, we definitively left behind, for better and worse, the franchise as established and defined by Bronze Age creators following primarily in the wake of the seven-year run by Roy Thomas.
(Someday soon, we’ll be doing a series on the modern Avengers established in the 2000s, and we might find there’s even more worthwhile content there that’s now receding into the dusty, bottom-dwelling long boxes because there was already such an overabundance then—and even more so now, with every passing year. Still, that Avengers era remains famous for the way it overtook the Marvel Universe, and out of necessity given all the post-bankruptcy fights with Fox, owner of the X-Men movie rights for over a quarter century, until 2020.)
Granted, periodization is a subjective consensus, and here it’s worth considering the way that period from 1976 to 1987 is bookended in terms of story and art. Most would have no trouble agreeing that Englehart’s “Serpent Crown Saga” does not compare well at all with Stern’s “Under Siege” or even his next and final “Assault on Olympus,” but consider the artists at work on each end—George Pérez and John Buscema.
[Buscema and Palmer; the answer to the cover question: Monica! Unfortunately, no one but presumably editor Mark Gruenwald knew what it meant to have Dr. Druid nonchalantly looming over her—a year before Gruenwald’s worst editorial decision ever, and the definitive discrediting of the franchise]
Perhaps fittingly, Buscema’s late mature work, the capstone of a career that had begun in the Golden Age—the outcome of decades of serious dedication to classical figurework—marks the end of the first epoch that best defined Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. Oddly enough, this is practically the inverse of the early period that we’ll discuss next time, when a young George Pérez was injecting a new raw energy into the franchise, one that he continued to refine over the next several years before heading off to his breakout success at DC with the NewTeen Titans. While Marvel’s most popular franchise of this era, the X-Men, was mostly overseen by one preeminent figure taking on board the top fresh artistic talent of each successive generation, the story or meta-story of Marvel as a whole (as both a shared universe and an industry) is probably better captured by the (mostly messier) parallel era of the Avengers.
Throughout this series of articles, we’ll look in detail at this evolution, by turns joyous and cantankerous—even as we revisit classic superhero stories (the dull spots we can just skip!).
[Jack Kirby cover]
Anyway, All Beginnings Always Start in the Middle of Things
Even so, if you’re a longtime fan wondering why I don’t start with The Kree/Skrull War, well, the material mentioned above is just what brings me greater enjoyment. That said! This incoherent epic and another great mess, The Celestial Madonna, will be covered more deeply in another essay series you’ll find on CBH running parallel to this one—my attempt to track “The Evolution of Marvel Cosmic.”
But this time, we’ll take a moment to run through the relevant basics of “The Celestial Madonna Saga” because it’s essential to understanding the last year of Steve Englehart’s Avengers run. This will be followed by a too-brief nod to the great Roy Thomas and then a hopefully not too roughshod account of the period between Englehart and Stern, which is after all rather messy, as impressive as it is chaotic, both largely due to Shooter’s overbearing managerial style (which ultimately resulted in homophobia as company policy, which is beyond the matter at hand, though his tacit misogyny toward powerful women is not. Marvel’s increased professionalism and consistency, both creatively and commercially, under his watch as editor-in-chief should nevertheless be acknowledged, as well).
My argument for starting with The Serpent Crown Saga is that among the big classic Avengers storylines, it’s the first almost fully coherent narrative. Narrative coherence was not a strength of the young Englehart (who was not yet 30 by the end of his run here), but this last arc is where his other strengths most shine through. And with this mini epic, we are also at the cusp of a new era in which Shooter, for all his many faults, will push the series to become, at last, one of Marvel’s flagship titles alongside the likes of Amazing Spider-Man and Uncanny X-Men. Of course, he would find himself surprised and only ambiguously delighted by Claremont’s unexpected success. (It’s been widely noted that the two were not on speaking terms throughout most of Shooter’s EiC tenure.)
Granted, his direct efforts on Avengers often don’t result in consistency, especially from the vantage of now, but while I’m not interested in a personal or even professional defense of the man, he did steer Marvel into a new age of both commercial success and (virtually all male) talent acquisition. Except for Claremont, arguably all the best writers of the period wrote Avengers stories—leading into the superb Roger Stern run.
Celestial Madness—in brief
Now, the first few issues of what’s now called and collected as The Serpent Crown Saga are in fact primarily some Kang/Immortus resolution following “The Celestial Madonna Saga” wrap-up several months before, with a time-stranded Hawkeye in the mix—because, yeah, somebody’s got to bring the Two-Gun Kid back from 1873 to go adventuring in 1976. Clint had recently used Doom’s abandoned time-travel machine to go looking for the Black Knight (or his soul, or something, which will later be revealed to be happily at home fighting in the Crusades—yikes), but Kang somehow marooned him in Tombstone—which seems dumb, unless you’re behind the scenes, realizing this stopover made more sense than abandoning the Archer to now-certain Black Knight limbo. Englehart’s desire for some Old West Golden Age action also accounts for Kang’s decision to conquer a nowhere town in the middle of the desert as prelude to world conquest.
So, yeah, it’s a rocky start—but ya gotta dive into the wreck somewhere!
Halfway through his four-year Avengers run, Englehart penned one of the most bizarre Marvel epics ever, “The Celestial Madonna Saga,” comprised of issues #123-135 interspersed with three Giant-Size Avengers, #2-4. It is a wild and woolly mess across time and space, but basically, Kang comes to the present following a starry portent foretelling the millennialist emergence of the Celestial Madonna, who turns out to be Mantis, an Englehart original and Vietnamese orphan raised by the Priests of Pama, a pro-Cotati Kree cult based in Vietnam and believing her to be the One (she even called her “this one”—which seemed like Englehart’s attempt at a philosophical pun though it really comes across as offputtingly orientalist; all this messianic vagary essentially captures the cloudiness of the Celestial Madonna as a notion).
[John Romita and Ron Wilson]
All of this may have been finally cleared up with an inevitable air of anticlimax in the 2020 Marvel event Empyre, masterminded (that is, master-wiki’d) by Dan Slott and Al Ewing (whose stunning talent in service of cosmic custodial duty is not on full display here).
To be fair to Englehart, he was an inspired youth at the time, trying to figure out his spiritual philosophy influenced by the counterculture and antiwar movement, and Mantis began as a vague work in progress, which editorial interfered with, further adding to the confusedness of this early storyline. In fact, he would try to develop the character practically intact but under a different name at DC (briefly) and elsewhere. Sadly, though, Mantis’s fate following her recognition as the Celestial Madonna is totally obscure, until Englehart’s opening run on Silver Surfer vol 3 in 1987, followed by the pseudo-Celestial Madonna sequel, his West Coast Avengers #37-39, where her newly introduced half-Cotati (plant) child is taken from her by the Cotati, to learn the ways of sentient plant life. Unfortunately, none of this material ever feels like anything other than a bizarre and elaborate scheme to thoroughly manipulate a poor Vietnamese orphan from childhood and use her reproductive organs for the manifest destiny of obscure plant people.
(While this is the man who brought us some of the most fascinating and progressive Captain America tales, trippily defined Doctor Strange for the Bronze Age and beyond, and with Jim Starlin as artist, cocreated Shang-Chi—he also introduced one of the most groan-inducing comic characters of all time, Mandrill, and with even less intelligent insight, turned this Shanna, the She-Devil mess, for which he may not have been wholly responsible, into an ill-considered racial allegory that reads as a dumpster fire gone wild. Thereafter, Englehart’s further attempt at such allegorizing also did a good deal of damage to the Falcon’s character, which later writers had to take pains to undo.)
But hey! Guess who the Celestial Madonna Saga was really good for?! (Though maybe not for long??) And married by Immortus no less!
[cover art by Gil Kane and John Romita]
(A decade later, Englehart would write the second, far more significant but rather more dreadful volume of Vision and the Scarlet Witch, which really started the doomed couple down the road to disaster, especially the mess of Wanda’s characterization.)
Relevant here is that Kang was thwarted at every turn from possessing the Celestial Madonna for himself—by the Avengers. The saga also reveals that Rama-Tut, always understood to have been a younger Kang, is also an older Kang gone soft, and Immortus turns out to be just the oldest Kang there is. Or something. This is where Kang’s time-wimey biography starts to get a bit confusing.
We also get revised origins for the Vision and Moondragon, who it turns out was also in the running as Madonna, but the Priests of Pama ultimately deemed her unworthy—which is actually much more interesting for her character than what’s done with Mantis here!
More on that next time—because I love Moondragon! (The Vision stuff, though, probably doesn’t matter until Avengers Forever.)
(Before Englehart) Envoi to the Roy Thomas Days
Before his three-year stint as Marvel’s EiC in the early ’70s, Roy Thomas enjoyed a historic Avengers run, issues #35-104, 1966 to 1972—making him, I believe, the most prolific writer on the title. (And even when we include both his and Englehart’s separate runs on West Coast Avengers/Avengers West Coast, Thomas’s track record still comes out ahead.
Since he produced so much material, though, let’s just focus here on the culmination of his Avengers run: “The Kree/Skrull War” (issues #89-97) a rambling epic mess (though enjoyable enough in small doses), which nevertheless established among many a fan a model for greatness and ambition. Which is strange because despite it’s grandiose name, there’s little in the way of any kind of epic battles, and the whole thing climaxes with eternal fanboy Rick Jones birthing myriad Golden Age heroes out of his head, a parody—wholly unironic and unintentional—of Zeus bringing mighty Athena into the world. Pure bathos. Somehow, Busiek and Pacheco somewhat redeem this silliness nearly 30 years later in Avengers Forever.
The real innovation here is when Neal Adams steps in for issue #93, a milestone of comics art, wherein Hank Pym as Ant-Man enters an inert Vision to find out what’s wrong with him and fix it. With Thomas dropping references to Fritz Lang’s Metropolis and Salvador Dali, you get a partial sense of the wonder within Vision’s body. It’s maybe more akin to a wee gerbil in a chrome and plexiglass playpen, but it all comes down to Adams’ boundary-breaking dynamism as an artist. His innovations were the first major gamechangers after Kirby’s heyday and a clear inspiration to the wunderkinds of the next generation, like John Byrne and Alan Davis.
[Adams & Palmer]
Without Adams on the second half of this shambling mess, “The Kree/Skrull War” would not have developed such a devoted fandom. His spaceship designs easily compete with those found on the covers of 1970s sci-fi novels. But the final issues make no more sense than the opening chapters. Nothing here sticks, except that the Kree and Skrull have been at war for millennia. At a stretch, one could say that the way Thomas uses the unfocused narrative as a vehicle to protest McCarthyism/Red Scares, the Vietnam War and other maladies of the Cold War mentality might have had an influence on the much later 2000s event Secret Invasion. Regardless, while politically Thomas was somewhat progressive for his time, and definitely within the small but fervent world of Silver Age comics, his storytelling skills are often lacking. His strengths were in being a post-Stan/Jack encyclopedic mythologizer for the Marvel Universe, a savant endeavor that along with his serious professional dedication would have him inherit the editor-in-chief title from Stan Lee during the critical transitional years of 1972-1974. But as a storyteller his seriousness and macro ambition were perhaps greater liabilities than they were strengths, certainly so purely from the perspective of storytelling.
However, as Marvel’s most stalwart fanboy turned loyal company-man, Thomas was likely its greatest asset throughout the ’70s, both as an editor and a creator (Shooter even credits Roy’s 1977 comics adaptation of Star Wars with saving Marvel from financial ruin).
After Englehart: Shooter, Byrne, Michelinie, Stern, Busiek
Before Jim Shooter’s long reign as EiC from 1979 through 1987 (currently famous for his homophobia and bouts of misogyny, but primarily known then for being an intense micromanager, leading directly to DC acquiring such luminaries as Englehart and Pérez*), Shooter did indeed help the Avengers title compete somewhat with Claremont’s X-Men in terms of the clear emphasis on deeper characterization and planning multi-issue arcs. It would certainly have been nice if there had been a different writer who stepped up to bat at this time, but in fact, when we hit “The Korvac Saga,” we’ll see that many other writers were involved (Stern, Pérez on scripting, David Michelinie, Bill Mantlo and Mark Gruenwald). So, it’s not like there wasn’t anyone else wanting to emulate the Claremont formula for success in their own way; it’s just that one of these guys was most full of himself. And if you’ve ever read a cosmic Shooter comic, you know it! Everything big he wrote, from Avengers to the dreck that is Secret Wars II, is stuffed with egoic navel-gazing that was initially novel in the ’70s, like a briefly satiating replacement meal after feasting on Starlin’s epics (which already tended to self-indulgence but were always redeemed by good humor and clear earnestness), but within a decade, it all read like an elder statesman rambling on about his big ideas noxiously amplified by his privileged position’s command of other people’s talents and resources.
*And hey, ain’t it a lucky thing Claremont was already secure in his position as the X-Men scribe.
A few entries in, we’ll cover “The Korvac Saga,” Shooter’s second biggest writing accomplishment at Marvel (after 1984’s Secret Wars), though again that distracts from all the assistance he had. Indeed, the strengths of this earlier story eclipse much of the substance of the 1984 event, which aside from Doom’s ascension is rather thin. But it’s not surprising that Shooter excelled most at depicting self-aggrandizing transcendence—much more of a liability once the author starts repeating the same power fantasy! At least there was a gap of six years between his two major works.
One of the most memorable aspects of “The Korvac Saga” is the introduction of the original Guardians of the Galaxy into mainstream Marvel continuity—and much of this material was written by Roger Stern, who had already penned several issues of Marvel Presents volume 1, which had turned into a Guardians book and was likely about to become titled as such, except it was canceled. The Guardians’ adventures continued directly, though, into Stern’s Thor Annual #7 cocreated with Len Wein and Sal Buscema, a direct prelude to the main arc.
[Pérez & Austin]
So, Shooter isn’t responsible for the fascinating if tricky Korvac, but he ushered into the franchise the mode of storytelling with which not just Claremont was already succeeding but that Englehart had tried, messily, with 1974’s “Celestial Madonna Saga”—a multi-issue epic with a basic tentpole plot A that stretched out with a number of B plots along the way. However, Claremont’s success was that, especially early on, he almost always threaded those minor elements into major themes and happenings. Thus, for once, Avengers had Claremontian appeal with the Korvac storyline, which was chockful of moments that built out characters while never detracting from the menacing imminence of the main threat.
This is all quite different from Starlin, whose 1973 “Thanos War” and 1975/1976 Warlock masterwork are surprisingly focused and self-contained considering their spread across multiple titles.
Under intense deadline pressures and personal and health troubles, Pérez bowed out after several issues, and Michelinie and Mantlo were critical in scripting the second half.
Already, John Byrne had stepped in for Pérez with issues #164-166, a fun Nefaria arc, and he would return following Pérez’s definitive departure while he was simultaneously introducing Alpha Flight and Proteus over in X-Men, where he was also co-plotting/designing Jean Grey’s masterfully planned evolution into Dark Phoenix. With the consistent high quality of his work on both titles, this is hugely impressive. Fittingly, Byrne’s first story with new ongoing Avengers writer David Michelinie, “The Nights of Wundagore,” was also focused on an intensely powerful woman, the Scarlet Witch, though she was not then near to on par with the Phoenix-possessed Jean Grey. This story also appears to have cemented his fascination with Wanda, whom he would play havoc with, Dark Phoenix-style (the second time now, as unintentional farce) in his late ’80s Avengers West Coast—to character’s lasting detriment.
However, Michelinie, for his part in Avengers history, would have a much longer run on the main title, almost unbroken from issue #181 to #205, toward the end of which Pérez would return for eight issues, which unfortunately included the justly reviled issue #200. Now, Michelinie’s success was in characterizing and humanizing the entire cast as never before, and he’d later bring this skill to Amazing Spider-Man, but with the Avengers it was so much more needed. The franchise had finally become both relatable and fun during his tenure—paving the way for Roger Stern (with the unfortunate interlude of Shooter’s second run). But that notorious milestone issue (wherein Carol Danvers is “seduced,” i.e., raped, by Kang’s son in order to impregnate her with … himself) was written by five different writers, one of whom was Shooter (who had already begun micromanaging, especially with his ascent as EiC in 1979).
Essentially, given Claremont’s feminist development of Carol in her own preceding Ms. Marvel series, this character-breaking plot turn would have been glaring to many readers at the time. The fact that the men writing the Avengers story didn’t understand what they were doing, regardless of the fact that it was guaranteed to be mess with too many chefs in the kitchen on a tight deadline*. But with chief misogynist Shooter (a homophobe* as well as a hater of powerful women, like then Ms. Marvel—or really any woman written by Claremont), whatever the original intent of the story, it was bound to be a disaster.
[Pérez & Austin; note the toy store ad for this issue containing unacknowledged sexual assault; just another indication of the stupidity in charge at the time]
*While Michelinie and Pérez had recently created Taskmaster, the real taskmaster of deadlines was Shooter himself—of a piece with his corporate professionalization of Marvel, without which, who knows, we’d certainly have a very different comics landscape today; for better or worse is impossible to say. Definitely, his worst legacy is deciding that queer characters would be bad for the bottom line, never mind any mention of the AIDS crisis. He was merely justifying his own bigotry; it’s no surprise that Claremont could not stand to be in the same room with him, much less communicate regularly.
And so, with Michelinie focusing his energy on the last year of his extraordinary Iron Man run, Avengers once more became a shambles with a number of uninspiring fill-in writers, before Shooter gave readers such cheapening titillations as Tigra and the melodramatic blowout of wife-abuser Hank Pym. This era, issues #211-224, are of almost no lasting interest—except perhaps the reintroduction of Molecule Man (#215-216), gearing up for his part in Secret Wars a few years later. (Oh, he also gets She-Hulk on the team, which was great, but little more than cheesecake until Stern stepped in.)
With issue #227 in late 1982, Roger Stern changed everything right off the bat in what is one of my favorite Marvel comics of all time, wherein his newly created powerhouse Monica Rambeau joins the big leagues after debuting a month before in his Amazing Spider-Man Annual #16 with John Romita Jr.
[John Romita Jr. & John Romita Sr.]
Until Stern, no Avengers writer was really any good as a writer of women. So, Stern’s status on the franchise is not just as the greatest architect of its 1980s adventures and conflicts but as, to me at least, the writer closest to Claremont-like success, with his compelling ongoing plots and clear and respectful development of the main cast. However, he never dives into the depths like Claremont, never dared readers with questions of identity and sexuality. He was simply a beloved writer of archetypal superhero comics and, clearly a moderate liberal, thankfully introduced a modicum of diversity along the way. Stern’s Avengers is the model for Busiek’s in the late ’90s.
Beyond that point, maybe you like better your Bendis or Hickman Avengers. I love those comics too, but that is as different as the Krakoa era is compared to the Claremont epoch—if not more so. And currently, with Aaron’s overly long run of a massively and bizarrely oversimplified Avengers franchise, we couldn’t be further removed from the pageantry that was once a much more interesting and, yes, inviting ensemble of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. (After all, Aaron does not know how to write any Avengers-related character except for—once upon a time—Thor, whom he has long since lost a grip on.)
There is a unique character in Turrialba you have to meet, of course, if you are a cheese lover this is the place to go!
I went through a hike from one volcano to another in Costa Rica. It was from the Irazú to the Turrialba, I mean it was not from the crater to crater but from one region to the other. It took us a good 4 hours, not really demanding but recreative.
Please take a look at this marvellous picture of both majestic volcanoes, taken by Leonel León.
Irazú and Turrialba in one shot
In front of the Irazú and behind the active Turrialba volcano. By Leonel León.
The artisanal cheese fabric
After the hike, we were told we would go to a cheese fabric. As Turrialba is known for its young white cheese (called “Turrialba cheese”), I thought we would take something like this, young-white cheese. Very normal for our country. My surprise was to get to taste unique flavors of very nice and lovely mature cheeses!
Taken from Facebook
Taken from Facebook
Who is this man?
The author of this is Rolando Pacheco, better known as the crazy cheesemaker (“el quesero loco”). He is the owner of Hacienda Palmira and a stop here is a must for cheese lovers! Once you get to this artisanal factory you can expect a variety of cheese and wanting to buy them all! I mean cheese after cheese I was so amazed at the texture and flavour I did not really know which of them to take. He told us a bit about his experiments in new types, one of them was a cheddar flavour, which he thought was not 100% ready. If you ask me, for me it tasted like heaven. He is a very unique person, as well as very creative. He learned the technique of making cheese but did not stay there making the same once and again, instead, he added his personal touch. Actually, it was what most impressed me, his will to make something different and not being afraid of always trying new things. It really made my day to know this special artisanal cheesemaker.
Taken from Facebook
Taken from the newspaper La Nación
Where is it located?
Easy, 5Km from la Pastora in Santa Cruz. I’m pretty sure you won’t regret it.
Tip!
If you are hungry, as I was after the hike, bring some bread and something to drink /perhaps some wine…). You could make a delicious sandwich for the way back home and you can even spot a nice place for a picnic nearby.
Taken from Facebook (original, basil, pepper and chili)
My favourite one is the spicy one, and which is yours?
I have a friend who, whenever we are talking about food she hasn’t tried yet, has to taste it. I would say to her, in this case, she is right!
Well if you are already craving mature wonderful cheese and preparing dates for the visit, I am glad, cause I know it won’t be your last time!
Did you know that we are locals with experience in traveling within Costa Rica? This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and we explain to you how to make this experience become a reality for you!
“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.”
March Literary Resources
We’re celebrating Women’s History Month with books written and illustrated by amazing women along with many focused on important women in history. This month we are highlighting:
The Program Manager is a vital member of the program team who is primarily responsible for leading efforts to ensure parents and caregivers are exposed to our dual intervention program.
For details about this role and how to apply, click here.
Save the Date! Dinner With an Author Gala May 12th
Raising A Reader MA’s celebrated event returns on May 12th!
This year, as we commemorate our Sweet 16, our gala theme, ‘Tell Your Story,‘ fits perfectly with a celebration of coming back to connect with one another in person and recognizing the resilience of RAR-MA, its communities, and its families.
The gala will feature a mix and mingle with the chance to meet authors and other attendees, in addition to a live auction. The program will also highlight nationally-known authors whose work epitomizes how RAR-MA constituents can let their imaginations guide their future goals.
Jennifer De Leon’s YA novel Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From was a Junior Library Guild selection, and she received the Juniper Award for her Juniper Prize-winning essay collection White Space: Essays on Culture, Race, & Writing.
Jennifer is a former Boston Public School teacher and remains a local educator, as a professor at Framingham State University.
Her next YA novel, Borderless, will be released in August. Additionally, she has two children’s picture books coming out soon— So Many Gifts, and a soon-to-be-titled biography of Nobel Peace Prize winner, Rigoberta Menchú.
Lisa Braxton
Lisa Braxton is an essayist, short story writer, and novelist. Her award-winning book, The Talking Drum, explores intra-racial, class, and cross-cultural tensions, along with the meaning of community and belonging.
A former print and television journalist, Lisa is a fellow of the Kimbilio Fiction Writers Program and a book reviewer for 2040 Review. Her insightful and inspirational stories have appeared in Vermont Literary Review, Black Lives Have Always Mattered, Chicken Soup for the Soul and The Book of Hope.
Rebecca Pacheco
Rebecca Pacheco has been on the forefront of the mindfulness movement since launching her blog, Om Gal, in 2008. Her award-winning blog grew to her best-selling book, Do Your Om Thing, in 2015. It was named one of “the top ten yoga and meditation books every yogi needs” by Yoga Journal and is used in teacher training programs around the world.
Her second book, Still Life, was released in August of 2021. The book explores the misconceptions regarding meditation and mindfulness and provides readers with real-life tools to grow their personal practice. She is a regular contributor to The Boston Globe as an important voice in the discussion of the continued growth of the mindfulness movement.
Rethinking Preschool
We are living in a pivotal moment for the future of education, especially in how we think about young learners. Articles like this (Boston Globe, 1/17/22) and this (WGBH, 12/17/22) are showing that the early education world is in flux with many voices trying to come up with solutions in a shifting world.
Studies like this one from Tennessee (highlighted by NPR, 2/10/22) by professor and researcher, Dale Farran, dig deeper into the worsening achievement gap, pointing to examples like basic skill drills for kids; tracing worksheets for letters and numbers; teachers navigating the difficulties of interacting with their classes, etc., amidst the assumptions being made about the needs of under-resourced schools and communities.
These reports highlight that, regardless of what is happening to the formal education system, dialogic reading and the skills RAR-MA focuses on are essential in ensuring the children of today have minds that are nurtured, open, and ready to learn.
Thank You!
The work we do toward helping young learners cannot be done without the generosity and thoughtfulness of our partners in our mission.
Our deepest thanks to these partners for their support:
Apr 22, 2023 – Sweet potato black bean tacos are an easy recipe for your next taco night! Roasted sweet potatoes and spicy black bean filling are served in flour tortillas.
I’ve been impressed in my personal journey of discovery with the rational arguments for the existence of God throughout history, by Augustine and Anselm, and more recently, as I mentioned back in episode 11, by the logical argument for Jesus elaborated by Oxford’s C.S. Lewis. They all make provocative reading.
But for me, a devout and believe-it-when-I-see-it modern materialist, it wasn’t until Brazil and the surprising revelations of my latent hidden spirituality that unveiled during the psychoanalysis and study with Claudia Pacheco and Norberto Keppe that I began to understand in an elementary way the essential relevance of theology in my life. Keppe writes about God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit and even demons in a lucid, practical, scientific way that’s very tangible – especially when accompanied by studying his profound work and exploring reactions to it through the interior exploration provided by personal psychoanalysis.
Keppe’s books, Glorification and The Universe of the Spirits were turning points for me – Glorification even being marked for publication in the U.S. before being ultimately turned down by the editorial board of a large and prestigious publishing company. Keppe wrote in Glorification that any discussion about what is obvious is a waste of time. Keppe maintains that we reject the obviousness of a creator because of our extreme envy, which causes us to invert our perception, rejecting, ignoring, or distorting reality and denying the true spiritual and material riches that God has created. Religion, after all, in the true sense of the word, which means to bind, to reconnect, religion is within us. And that inner journey can lead to some surprising revelations, let me tell you that.
Our episode today was another eye-opener for me back when Claudia Bernhard Pacheco and I talked about it in a far-reaching discussion for this series. The importance to humanity of the Holy Mother, in today’s episode.
Another stunning Filipiniana has made its way to the scene, this time by the ever-beautiful Lars Pacheco! Lars has been making a headline in the media outlets in the country since she was crowned as the newest Miss International Queen Philippines 2023. The beauty queen is best known for joining several local pageants and the It’s Showtime’s “Miss Q&A” competition. After winning the MIQP title, she then made a special appearance in her Alma Mater while wearing an intricate Filipiniana dress.
Get to know her iconic look in her homecoming event here.
Lars Pacheco’s Stunning Filipiniana Gown
Lars stunned her hometown in Bocaue, Bulacan, when she wore one of the many Chico Estiva Filipiniana collections during her homecoming. The dress is one of the event’s highlights, exuding a modern, feminine look with a touch of traditional style. And as she walks through the aisle in her beloved Alma Mater school Dr Yanga’s College Inc., people are outstood by her sophisticated and ethereal beauty. Her appeal and overall look undoubtedly make her a beauty queen that shines from the crowd.
That said, we will look into the beauty of her gown, from the puff sleeve to its intricate design.
The Lars Pacheco look during her Homecoming
Chico Estiva is known for creating several Filipino traditional dresses for events and pageantry. He has dressed several celebrities and beauty queens in the past, making him Lars Pacheco’s top pick. The terno dress that Lars wore has a modern twist in all areas. It has intricate beadwork and a flowing silhouette, which adds an elegant touch to the masterpiece. The butterfly sleeves give her solid, built-in hidden support. Also, the warm-toned gown was wrapped with silk clothing on the front, giving a dramatic flair to the outfit.
The traditional gown is undeniably a perfect choice for the event. It best symbolizes our dresses’ rich culture and history while adding a modern touch to fashion. And as Lars will soon reach the international stage as she will be representing our country in Thailand, may she also wear or incorporate traditional Filipino elements so people around the world can see why Filipiniana is a good choice.
Where to Buy Filipino Formal Dress
All in all, Filipiniana and other local gowns are undeniably stunning clothing for a special event. It gives a stylish and classic accent to the wearer’s overall look, giving a different twist to the Philippines’ rich cultural heritage. And with so many suppliers to choose from, you might get overwhelmed by it all. That is why we at give you a wide variety of fine Barong Tagalog for men and Filipiniana dresses for women. We strive to design stylish yet classic collections for any event you attend.
So if you are looking for the right supplier of gowns and dresses, we are the right people to call. Visit our website www.barongsrus.com to know more.
The production task market is proliferating in China and also certain is not decreasing a little bit. Presently the production market is among the biggest work markets in China and also at the price it is expanding it certain is an issue for United States producers.
Financial experts think if a market expands in all components of the globe, after that it is useful for all. Currently we discover that the production market in China is expanding as well as that is not the instance for United States makers.
The boom began before 2001. It was mostly exclusive financiers that started the boom, however today it is federal governments as well as organizations from all over the world that looks for out to gain the benefit of Chinese production.
According to experts, China holds over 100 million employees in the production sector, while the United States holds near 60 million. These 100 million employees omit the countless migrant employees that China uses.
In China manufacturing facilities that are beyond city restrictions are regularly looked after by a various firm or body. The China Ministry of Agriculture supervises country manufacturing facilities and also the Ministry of Labor looks after city manufacturing facilities. Guidelines as well as regulations are more stringent for the Ministry of Labor as well as therefore on several celebrations it will certainly be extra inexpensive as a country manufacturing facility, not being obliged to pay staff members specific advantages as well as the sort.
China has a populace of 1.3 billion. Of this 1.3 billion, approximate 200 million individuals are out of work. Therefore China has a massive get of labor as well as expenses will certainly still remain reduced for some time in the future.
Having actually checked out every one of these factors to consider, China is a nation abundant in human funding to drive the production sector as well as absolutely worth to be taken into consideration.
In China manufacturing facilities that are outside of city limitations are regularly supervised by a various company or body. The China Ministry of Agriculture manages country manufacturing facilities and also the Ministry of Labor supervises metropolitan manufacturing facilities. China has a populace of 1.3 billion. Hence China has a significant book of labor and also expenses will certainly still remain reduced for some time in the future.
If you replace half a serving per day of margarine, butter, egg, yoghurt, cheese or processed meats with the equivalent amount of avocado, a 16-22% lower chance of heart disease was seen.
(Canva)
Technically a fruit, avocados are an incredible source of nutrition. Filled with dietary fibre, healthy monounsaturated fats and key vitamins and minerals such as vitamins C, E, K and magnesium, this study has proved why they should remain a staple food in our diets.
For the research, people were asked about their diets and filled in food frequency questionnaires at the start of the study, then every four years.
During a 30-year follow-up, 9,185 cases of heart attack and 5,290 strokes were recorded.
Dr Lorena Pacheco, lead author from the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health in Boston, US, said: “Our study provides further evidence that the intake of plant-sourced unsaturated fats can improve diet quality and is an important component in cardiovascular disease prevention.”
It also found that substituting half a serving a day of avocado for the equivalent amount of olive oil, nuts and other plant oils did not offer additional benefit.
No links were found between eating avocado and the risk of stroke.
(Canva)
Dr Cheryl Anderson, chair of the American Heart Association’s Council on Epidemiology and Prevention, said: “We desperately need strategies to improve intake of American Heart Association-recommended healthy diets — such as the Mediterranean diet — that are rich in vegetables and fruits.
“Although no one food is the solution to routinely eating a healthy diet, this study is evidence that avocados have possible health benefits.
“This is promising because it is a food item that is popular, accessible, desirable and easy to include in meals eaten … at home and in restaurants.”
. For fans unfamiliar with this earlier material, I hope only to pique your curiosity in seeking out this fascinating content.
![[Jack Kirby cover]](https://www.comicbookherald.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/a-comic-book-cover-description-automatically-gene-4-198x300.png)
![[John Romita and Ron Wilson]](https://www.comicbookherald.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/a-comic-book-cover-description-automatically-gene-5-203x300.png)
” (issues #89-97) a rambling epic mess (though enjoyable enough in small doses), which nevertheless established among many a fan a model for greatness and ambition. Which is strange because despite it’s grandiose name, there’s little in the way of any kind of epic battles, and the whole thing climaxes with eternal fanboy Rick Jones birthing myriad Golden Age heroes out of his head, a parody—wholly unironic and unintentional—of Zeus bringing mighty Athena into the world. Pure bathos. Somehow, Busiek and Pacheco somewhat redeem this silliness nearly 30 years later in Avengers Forever.![A comic book cover [Adams & Palmer]](https://www.comicbookherald.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/a-comic-book-cover-description-automatically-gene-7.png)
![A comic book cover [Pérez & Austin]](https://www.comicbookherald.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/a-comic-book-cover-description-automatically-gene-8-199x300.png)
![A comic book cover [Pérez & Austin; note the toy store ad for this issue containing unacknowledged sexual assault; just another indication of the stupidity in charge at the time]](https://www.comicbookherald.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/a-comic-book-cover-description-automatically-gene-9-201x300.png)
![A picture containing text, book [John Romita Jr. & John Romita Sr.]](https://www.comicbookherald.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/a-picture-containing-text-book-description-autom-5-202x300.png)
