TRASCRIZIONE 🔗
WEBVTT
1
00:00:03.319 --> 00:00:09.400
Unspoken issuers. Now we're going to get into our sixth
2
00:00:10.240 --> 00:00:16.760
story here. It is titled Yule Memory. This is an
3
00:00:16.800 --> 00:00:22.239
eight page story features Thanos. But listen to this creative team.
4
00:00:22.920 --> 00:00:28.199
Jim Starlin writing Ron Limb on pencils inked by Terry
5
00:00:28.199 --> 00:00:33.439
Austen and lettered by Brad Joyce and colored by Tom Vincent.
6
00:00:34.280 --> 00:00:37.920
We got to talk real quick about the dynamic team
7
00:00:38.479 --> 00:00:44.359
of Jim Starlin and Ron Limb. So these two are
8
00:00:44.520 --> 00:00:51.640
pretty synonymous with Marvel Cosmic. I took a look at
9
00:00:51.840 --> 00:00:58.840
their works on Mike's Amazing World of Comics and cross
10
00:00:58.880 --> 00:01:02.960
reference to what books they worked on together. It looks
11
00:01:03.000 --> 00:01:05.640
like the first book that they worked on was Silver
12
00:01:05.719 --> 00:01:13.599
Surfer number thirty four, which released December nineteenth, nineteen eighty nine,
13
00:01:13.799 --> 00:01:18.640
and from that point forward they were pretty regular on
14
00:01:19.120 --> 00:01:24.319
Silver Surfer all the way up to issue fifty around
15
00:01:24.959 --> 00:01:30.719
July of nineteen ninety These two work on Thanos Quest
16
00:01:31.319 --> 00:01:36.159
issues one and two, and then of course Starland works
17
00:01:36.200 --> 00:01:43.200
on Infinity Gauntlet and Ron Limb jumps in on issue four,
18
00:01:43.319 --> 00:01:48.000
five and six with him. So that's in nineteen ninety one,
19
00:01:48.079 --> 00:01:51.840
and then nineteen ninety two rolls around and we have
20
00:01:52.120 --> 00:01:57.000
Infinity War issues one through six, and that is kind
21
00:01:57.040 --> 00:02:00.640
of where this story lands because it's right in between
22
00:02:02.040 --> 00:02:05.959
Infinity War number six, which dropped September of ninety two.
23
00:02:07.159 --> 00:02:11.800
This story in Marvel Holiday Special was on shelves November
24
00:02:11.840 --> 00:02:16.759
of nineteen ninety two, and then in about five months
25
00:02:18.000 --> 00:02:23.120
in April of ninety three on the shelves Infinity Crusade.
26
00:02:23.319 --> 00:02:28.599
And they will work together up until Infinity Crusade number six,
27
00:02:29.120 --> 00:02:33.319
and then they come together for one more work for
28
00:02:33.560 --> 00:02:40.199
Marvel after this Thanos Annual number one. The story is
29
00:02:40.240 --> 00:02:45.840
titled Thanos Damnation and Redemption, and that was in twenty fourteen.
30
00:02:46.360 --> 00:02:49.400
Now these guys also head over to DC. They are
31
00:02:50.479 --> 00:02:53.879
in the mid two thousands, about two thousand and seven.
32
00:02:54.400 --> 00:02:58.319
They both work on Mystery and Space, write a couple
33
00:02:58.400 --> 00:03:03.759
Captain Comments stories, and then the ran Thanegar Holy War
34
00:03:04.080 --> 00:03:08.319
one through eight in two thousand and eight. This team's
35
00:03:08.360 --> 00:03:14.360
been together. They know Thanos and Marvel Cosmic. I'm a
36
00:03:14.360 --> 00:03:19.080
big fan of Ron Limbs pencils. I love how he
37
00:03:19.199 --> 00:03:24.240
renders some of the figures. The figure work is amazing.
38
00:03:24.759 --> 00:03:27.479
Let's get into the story. Your memory follows Thanos as
39
00:03:27.479 --> 00:03:29.960
he supervises the cleanup of one of his old hideouts
40
00:03:29.960 --> 00:03:33.599
and orders his servants to dispose of forgotten relics from
41
00:03:33.639 --> 00:03:36.960
his past. When he notices a small doll among the
42
00:03:37.000 --> 00:03:40.159
discarded items that triggers a memory of raising Gomorrah as
43
00:03:40.199 --> 00:03:43.879
a child, Thanos recalls how he tried to give her
44
00:03:43.919 --> 00:03:48.919
fragments of a normal childhood, birthdays, holidays, and even Yule
45
00:03:49.000 --> 00:03:54.000
celebration modeled partly on Earth's Christmas, while simultaneously training her
46
00:03:54.039 --> 00:03:57.919
to become a deadly warrior. During one such holiday, Gamora
47
00:03:58.039 --> 00:04:01.960
receives a doll as a gift, a rare moment of
48
00:04:02.000 --> 00:04:08.080
warmth and innocence between her and Thanos. But Thanos also
49
00:04:08.120 --> 00:04:12.759
recalls when an assassin infiltrated the base and nearly killed Thanos,
50
00:04:12.800 --> 00:04:16.319
only to be stopped when young Gamra intervenes and saves
51
00:04:16.360 --> 00:04:21.560
his life. The resulting blast destroys her doll, and Thanos,
52
00:04:22.240 --> 00:04:25.399
shaken promises to take her to the lagoon to watch dolphins,
53
00:04:26.439 --> 00:04:30.560
an unexpected gesture of kindness. Back in the present, Thanos
54
00:04:30.560 --> 00:04:33.480
reflects on how Gamora ultimately turned against him and dismisses
55
00:04:33.519 --> 00:04:38.079
the dolls meaningless, ordering it destroyed alone. He insists that
56
00:04:38.120 --> 00:04:41.600
he feels nothing and that caring is weakness, even as
57
00:04:41.600 --> 00:04:45.519
his hesitation and anger suggests otherwise, leaving the story on
58
00:04:45.560 --> 00:04:50.399
an unresolved note of denial and buried regret. So for
59
00:04:50.560 --> 00:04:54.279
my thoughts on this one, I'm not used to Thanos
60
00:04:54.879 --> 00:04:57.360
as much of a father figure. I'm kind of used
61
00:04:57.360 --> 00:05:01.279
to him in the MCU in the comics, though I
62
00:05:01.279 --> 00:05:05.199
didn't read enough stories to gather him as a father figure.
63
00:05:05.240 --> 00:05:06.959
So if I would have picked this up and read this,
64
00:05:06.959 --> 00:05:09.160
this would have been probably new to me for sure.
65
00:05:10.199 --> 00:05:13.680
But the MCU Thanos is cold, calculating, but he's still
66
00:05:13.800 --> 00:05:18.600
affectionate to Mora in the movies, so seeing him as
67
00:05:18.600 --> 00:05:22.279
a father
Load full transcript
figure here doesn't feel too out of character.
68
00:05:23.360 --> 00:05:26.639
And for nineteen ninety two, this was probably a fresh
69
00:05:26.720 --> 00:05:32.319
take on Thanos actually caring. The emotional tone of this story,
70
00:05:32.360 --> 00:05:36.560
it's reflective. It's a subdued tone landed for me, it
71
00:05:36.600 --> 00:05:40.240
felt like a rare look into Thanos's inner life. There
72
00:05:40.279 --> 00:05:42.959
wasn't a whole lot of surprise here matched his brooding
73
00:05:43.040 --> 00:05:47.839
and introspective nature. As for young Ga Moore, I mean,
74
00:05:47.879 --> 00:05:52.079
she's shown as a child here, even though Thanos is
75
00:05:52.079 --> 00:05:54.759
training her to be this deadly weapon. She has this
76
00:05:54.879 --> 00:05:59.639
innocence about her. Every killer starts somewhere. Thanos shaped her
77
00:05:59.639 --> 00:06:03.120
into what she's going to become, but seeing her as
78
00:06:03.160 --> 00:06:06.600
a kid adds this emotional weight. And what I think
79
00:06:06.600 --> 00:06:12.079
this story really is about it It's about regret, emotional repression, denial.
80
00:06:13.240 --> 00:06:20.319
The last scene in this story is Dano's walking over
81
00:06:20.480 --> 00:06:24.000
to a panel after he has ordered the doll to
82
00:06:24.079 --> 00:06:28.199
be destroyed. He has his hand on an electronic panel
83
00:06:28.920 --> 00:06:32.920
and you can see that he is gripping it so tight.
84
00:06:33.000 --> 00:06:39.600
All of a sudden, it just crumbles underneath him. So
85
00:06:39.639 --> 00:06:42.160
you can see that he's wrestling with these feelings. He
86
00:06:42.199 --> 00:06:46.439
thinks caring's a weakness. But who's he angry at? Is
87
00:06:46.480 --> 00:06:49.120
he angry about the fact that or does he regret
88
00:06:49.639 --> 00:06:52.360
the bond that he once had with Gomora or does
89
00:06:52.399 --> 00:06:55.720
he regret that he ever allowed himself to care for her?
90
00:06:56.680 --> 00:07:00.639
And yes, Thanos says he feels nothing here to me.
91
00:07:00.759 --> 00:07:03.000
It kind of reads like he's just trying to deceive
92
00:07:03.079 --> 00:07:06.879
himself or convince himself. He pushes down these feelings because
93
00:07:06.959 --> 00:07:13.439
he sees emotions as weakness. But I feel that deep
94
00:07:13.480 --> 00:07:18.040
inside him he knows he's wrong. Does this humanize Thanos
95
00:07:18.040 --> 00:07:21.240
a little? Bit. Yes, I think it definitely does. I mean,
96
00:07:21.279 --> 00:07:24.079
he tried to give Gamore things he knew weren't normal
97
00:07:24.120 --> 00:07:27.680
for her situation, birthdays, holidays. He didn't have to do that,
98
00:07:27.800 --> 00:07:32.240
but that right there shows that there's some type of
99
00:07:32.279 --> 00:07:35.439
compassion that he's feeling. I did think it was great
100
00:07:35.480 --> 00:07:37.959
that Jim Starlin and Ron Limb came together to tell
101
00:07:38.000 --> 00:07:42.079
this tiny little story. And if anybody understands Thanos's psychology,
102
00:07:42.120 --> 00:07:48.319
it's Jim Starlin. Ron Limb again, big fan of his art.
103
00:07:48.600 --> 00:07:51.839
There's an assassination sequence in here where that assassin tries
104
00:07:51.879 --> 00:07:56.600
to kill Thanos. There's no dialogue, it's just pure visual storytelling.
105
00:07:57.079 --> 00:08:03.680
It's great is Ron Limb giving you a little bit
106
00:08:03.680 --> 00:08:07.800
of a Christmas present? And as for the pacing of
107
00:08:07.839 --> 00:08:11.199
the story, eight pages, again we're fitting a lot of
108
00:08:12.360 --> 00:08:15.680
stuff in here in a short story range. The story
109
00:08:15.720 --> 00:08:19.720
didn't feel too gimmicky. I almost compare it to the
110
00:08:19.759 --> 00:08:24.439
Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special. It's a great short film.
111
00:08:25.920 --> 00:08:29.519
Cosmic holiday stories can work, and that's a perfect example.
112
00:08:29.600 --> 00:08:34.840
I think this did a fine job of using Christmas
113
00:08:34.879 --> 00:08:38.080
as a vehicle to tell the story in a cosmic setting.
114
00:08:39.919 --> 00:08:42.639
I know that many people including myself. When the holidays
115
00:08:42.720 --> 00:08:46.919
roll around, you start to look at some of the
116
00:08:46.919 --> 00:08:50.759
things you've done in the past, some of the regrets
117
00:08:50.799 --> 00:08:56.919
you might have. Thanos is dealing with the loss of
118
00:08:57.200 --> 00:08:59.320
his daughter, whether he likes to try and say that
119
00:08:59.360 --> 00:09:05.159
he cares or not, most likely he does. And there
120
00:09:05.159 --> 00:09:07.159
are plenty of people out there that won't pick up
121
00:09:07.159 --> 00:09:11.120
a phone to call somebody that they haven't talked to
122
00:09:12.399 --> 00:09:17.960
in years because they've convinced themselves that they don't care.
123
00:09:18.960 --> 00:09:23.840
Thanos is a great representation of that. You can talk
124
00:09:23.879 --> 00:09:30.840
yourself into believing you feel no emotion, you have no
125
00:09:30.879 --> 00:09:35.159
emotional attachment to somebody, yet you have all those great memories,
126
00:09:36.120 --> 00:09:40.960
but something happened and now you don't talk. When I
127
00:09:41.000 --> 00:09:45.120
revisit this at the holidays, probably not a seasonal reread
128
00:09:45.200 --> 00:09:47.879
for me. I mean, it's more interesting as a character
129
00:09:47.919 --> 00:09:51.159
study of Thanos in my opinion. As the story goes, though,
130
00:09:51.200 --> 00:09:54.519
the most memorable moment has got to Bemora saving Thanos
131
00:09:54.519 --> 00:09:59.679
by throwing her doll at this assassin. Thanos realizes he
132
00:09:59.720 --> 00:10:03.240
owes his life to her. It's very hard to read
133
00:10:03.399 --> 00:10:06.200
Thanos's face to find out or any emotion. He's just
134
00:10:06.240 --> 00:10:08.960
a brick wall, but these past actions show that he
135
00:10:09.039 --> 00:10:14.600
did care. The tragedy is him and Gomora are so
136
00:10:14.799 --> 00:10:19.320
far apart from who they were then and who they
137
00:10:19.320 --> 00:10:24.679
are now, and I sympathize, but I mean, really, Thanos
138
00:10:24.679 --> 00:10:28.120
has written to be cold, he's written to be cruel.
139
00:10:28.360 --> 00:10:32.759
Maybe he's a bit misguided and convinced emotions or weakness,
140
00:10:33.720 --> 00:10:39.879
and that belief shaped everything he became. So where does
141
00:10:39.919 --> 00:10:43.039
this story land when it comes to the rest of
142
00:10:43.080 --> 00:10:45.279
the ones in this book? I want to say it's
143
00:10:45.320 --> 00:10:48.679
going to be top four just because of Ron Limb
144
00:10:48.759 --> 00:10:52.120
and Jim Starlin writing a Thanos story. And this is
145
00:10:52.279 --> 00:10:57.679
peak nineties Infinity era folks, This is what are revered.
146
00:10:58.559 --> 00:11:12.120
Marvel Cinematic Universe in its heyday was basal h mm hmm.