Check It Out

Last week was a very special week for me because I was privileged to be able to contribute to Andrew Weiss' excellent Ultimate Powers Jam feature. Even better, my entry was illustrated by the redoubtable Jon Morris, who was also responsible for probably my favorite UPJ entry so far (including my own!), the awesome Birdy Zero.

As I told Andrew, I was never much of a gamer as a kid - I had this thing which I only ever played a couple times because, well, I didn't really have any friends who liked superheroes. I played D&D a couple times, too, but it never stuck as something I really needed to devote a lot of time to. But The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe? Man, I had that old thing committed to memory. So when I first inquired about doing an UPJ, I thought of the kind of old-school Bronze Age character you'd see in Marvel Two-In-One or the pre-Byrne Fantastic Four - a massively (if ambiguously) powered cosmic hero who would have a few more appearances before shuffling off to the oblivion that was frequent cameos in Mark Gruenwald comics, and possibly a bit role in Civil War (because everybody had a bit role in Civil War). I pictured my creation drawn by someone like Sal Buscema or Ron Wilson at the height of their 70s glory, and sure enough that is exactly the vibe Morris delivered.

It looks fantastic. It was great to be able to contribute to the feature and I hope to do it again sometime. My thanks again to Andrew, my brother in blogging, who I even forgive for being a native of Massachusetts.