u/AcisConsepavole

It's startling what Hollywood elites will do to rob a rightful monarch of their voice

I recently replayed Reignited after news dropped of Realms Beyond. I played Reignited for the first time in 2022 and loved it. It was my first time actually beating 2/3 of them, and my first time playing Ripto's Rage at all. I played the everliving daylights out of Year of the Dragon. That was my comfort game as a kid. I would speedrun that game before I knew what speedrunning was. So, naturally, YotD is the one that's burned most into my memory.

Generally, people love Reignited and so do I. Some of the complaints tend to center around changes though. Nothing changes without changing wrong, even a little bit. It's part of the transitional process and time passing. I love Reignited for what it is, and I'm glad the same devs are doing the next proper installment.

That much said, to connect to the actual post image: Hunter used to have a charmingly sleazy Christian Slater tone to his voice. He wasn't just the basic surfer bro he was portrayed as in Reignited. The purple villagers of Enchanted Towers all sounded like magician/comedian Penn Jillette of Penn and Teller fame. I'm not sure if Hunter was supposed to have a Slater vibe, but I am 100% certain that the Penn impression was entirely intentional. Turning them into pretentious coffee shop yuppies actually does psychic damage to one of my favorite levels from the original Year of the Dragon. I don't hate every change, but I hate this one.

The trouble for these original vibes is that they're pretty dated back to the 90s when the games debuted. I get not wanting to copy everything note for note. But expressing discomfort with these change has been bugging me for around four years and I never really had a space to say it before now. I will collect my free internet validation now and I welcome all discussion about the specifics of the changes (not just these two) from different perspectives -- just don't let it get too wild and out-of-hand Reignited slander, please.

Issue 23, Post-Secret Wars, written by G. Willow Wilson, Northeast Corridor (Part One), with penciling by Diego Olortegui and coloring by Ian Herring. It's the start of that two-parter with Red Dagger and the runaway train.

Kamala stops in a YaYa (Wawa? What's that?) for snacks and there's two guys who I've always thought are meant to allude to two other Jerseyites -- Jay and Silent Bob, with a color palette swap. "Norse Kevin Smith isn't real and can't hurt you." (Norse Kevin Smith kindly hands you your favorite flavor of chips). Diego Olortegui would maybe be able to answer, but I feel like Not-Jay mentioning Red Bank is pretty much a confirmation -- that's Kevin Smith's hometown. That means GWW probably initiated the reference.

What has me bringing this up is that, in the recently released Jay & Silent Bob: Jays of Future Past, there's something in it for Ms. Marvel fans. Spoilers for the comic: >!Honestly, some heartwarming (and, given the on-brand lewd and crude humor of the issue, surprising) recognition for Kamala sharing Jersey. Canonically, Kamala Khan is the only significant Marvel character who knows that these two fools gave up their best stash to save the universe. That's a thing now. It's actually kind of the best writing she's had since Iman and Sabir's Annual. I'm not kidding. Go see for yourself. Although, be warned, a lot of the humor is very self-referential of writer Kevin Smith's film work. If that's not your bag and you just want the Kamala inclusion, just skip to the end when Jay and Silent Bob go back to Jersey. It's genuinely very sweet. I enjoyed it, along with the rest of the issue. I wish there was a Kamala variant cover to go along with her significance to confirming Jay isn't **100%** full of $#!T.!<

Something annoys me about how the more recent of Kamala's best stories (written by Iman Vellani and/or Sabir Pirzada) have been collected in trade paperbacks. The two minis are collected separately, and the annual that's connected to them isn't in either of them (image 5 is collected in the TPB in image 6 and that's it, since it was part of the Infinity Watch mini event). One of the Kamala TPBs gets yet another reprint of Garden State of Mind, which was Kamala's first developed appearance (not counting a conceptual cameo towards the end of a Captain Marvel run).

My feeling is that there should be a digest TPB that contains the following:

New Mutant #1-4 (2023)

Mutant Menace #1-4 (2024)

Then Dark Web #1-2 (2022)

(even though DW would functionally be a flashback that goes back to before Kamala died in Amazing Spider-Man #26, but it leads directly to a conflict in the annual, and the minis should be at the front of the book, not DW. Pirzada wrote these two, so they belong)

Ms. Marvel Annual #1 (2024)

Honorary mention: the one-shot written for the 85th Anniversary issue for Marvel Comics should be in the TPB to. Herald of Tomorrow, where Kamala is a a herald for Galactus. Vellani wrote that too. (Images 8-9)

People generally like all these stories, even if they don't like the mutant/Inhuman hybrid.

You could even still include Garden State of Mind story by GWW if you wanted. It's short.

Dishonorary mention: technically, it would also make (chronological) sense to include issues of ASM where Kamala appears (including the one where she dies, followed up by Hellfire Gala (2023) where she gets resurrected on Krakoa). They would go between Dark Web and the annual after. But people actually like the Vellani/Pirzada material, and you wouldn't try to ruin it.

Thoughts?