Been in a cave...

...or a dark doghouse for that matter. I was just surfing around for some Iron Man pics and then noticed this different visual design created by Pat Lee of Dark Minds fame as well as those recent Transformer comics before Dream Wave Productions folded.

I was amazed to note that the signatory red and gold armor of shell head got a heavy retouch in the vein of Japanese mecha designs. I was hooked on them pics available on the net. The reason I found out for that was it was in a storyline labelled "House of M: Iron Man". House of M was the talked about storyline in the X-titles which heralds some changes for the shakers and movers of the mutant population in Marvel. This was brought about by Scarlet Witch's probability manipulating powers which can now extend into reality shaping. The reasons for the reshaping I have no idea of but those in the comic book know would fill in the blanks.

After a YM chat with my brother, I was also informed that the fallout from the House of M storyline have resulted in a major mutant population reduction od drastic proportions which would somehow alleviate Marvel Human's paranoia of the mutant menace. Of course, I quizzed my bro if Alchemy was among those erased. I jokingly referred him to be the "Harry Potter" of mutantdom in that case. A brief background, Alchemy was a character created and submitted in Marvel's create a mutant contest about 2 decades or so as I recall. This young bespectacled male mutant has the ability to transmute organic and inorganic material into different elements among the periodic table. Some enterprising trolls wanted to use his abilities to make him their goldmaking slave. X-Factor comes to his rescue and Alchemy has decided to take up a course in chemistry to better understand his mutant powers. That was many years and he has resurfaced in the footnote comic to House of M "The 198". I also sense a Highlander vibe in this one since the most powerful of mutants would be under the single digit exclusivity of the Seven as analyzed and foreseen by the Master Mold Sentinel ways back. I just hope no retcon mishandling would happen in the later stories set in the X-Titles.

The other slightly surprising twist I was told by my bro that the US govt in the Marvel Universe have adopted plans to use Sentinels to protect the US though with a twist, they'll be foregoing the standard AI systems to operate them and introduce the human element back by having them piloted. It seems that the US govt has been all too aware how Sentinels have run amuck when they still use onboard AI systems which seems to me they have learned their lessons from the Terminator movies for sure. I wonder if the Red Ronin armor would make an appearance to be pitted against these manned Sentinels. If the series lasted long enough, some evolution of the manned Sentinel program would result to some scaled down units that would be on the level of Mandroid armor or better like Iron Man or Guardsmen armor, if appropriate tech was procured to do so for them.

Done with my brief rant and info dump displaying my comic geekiness. I am a comic book tech geek to better underline that.

Being out of the comic book loop would be attributed to lack of economic unit flow to sustain a comic book habit and some other personal reasons which restrict my movements of late.

I'll mosey on while I have to deal with my writing block which held me down bigtime. I need something to get me out of my rut for a while now.