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Post by paulpogue on Jun 27, 2009 16:41:15 GMT -8
Here's the thread to talk about great and potentially future crucial dangling plotlines in comic book history. I'm thinking primarily of Marvel, which has just gajillions of them all over the place, but DC and other imprints are perfectly acceptable as well. Here's my personal definitions, though I welcome alternate viewpoints and debate. Just trying to establish a baseline  . Dangling plotline: Something happens on-panel and is never paid off, or a big question is left unanswered. As far as the shared universe is concerned, the Dangling Thing is still out there and could still be relevant as soon as a writer feels like bringing it back. (Example: The Illuminati each have one of the Infinity Gems and have sworn not to ever use them or reveal their locations. As far as Marvel is concerned, this could disappear forever, with the explanation being "the Illuminati held true to their oaths", or they could have Professor X use the Mind Gem next month to completely undo everyone's memories going back to Avengers Disassembled, or anything in between.) Things that do not, to me, count as dangling plotlines: Things that eventually get an alternate resolution that renders a particular dangler no longer dangling. (Example: The High Evolutionary's scanners once registered that Wolverine was not exactly a mutant. This was very early in Claremont's X-run, when it was planned that Logan was actually an evolved wolverine. Obviously this is no longer the case, and the HE's scans can be dismissed as a glitch.) Things that have been specifically retconned. (Example: Much as I would like to believe that Jean Grey died on the moon in 1980, many comics have been published since that decisively indicate otherwise.) (Secondary example: MUCH as I would like to believe that the Great Big Mutant Energy Cloud that emerged from the Decimation is a dangling plot, it has, unfortunately, been dealt with. Numerous times. In comics that contradict each other.) Things that a writer has said, outside the confines of the actual book, about his actual plans that never happened. (Example: Claremont's long-term post-Inferno plans to kill Wolverine and resurrect him as an agent of The Hand. This never went anywhere and to the best of my knowledge there was no on-panel setup.) Then there's those on the bubble, in which one could argue whether they're a dangling plotline or not: Stories that have been dealt with and finished, but the consequences leave an open ending that a writer could pick up on later on. Actually used example: The Fantastic Four defeat a bunch of Skrulls and hypnotize them into remaining as cows. Whatever happened to those cows? A still-open example: Kid MiraclemanScout, the Sentry's kid sidekick, last we heard of him, was missing his arm, unaware of his powers, and working in a burger joint. Presumably he's always going to work there and disappear into limbo, but anybody who felt like bringing him back into play would have very little difficulty doing so. (One could argue that the Infinity Gems fall into this category as well, but I feel like everything here counts anyway .) So there we have it! Your nominations? |
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Post by paulpogue on Jun 27, 2009 17:13:03 GMT -8
My personal favorite: A dangler so far back it is in itself old enough to drink.
The Inferno Babies: Way back in 1987 and 1988, during the runup to Inferno, demons kidnapped 13 very special mutant babies, each one a crucial ingredient to the demonic plan to overrun Earth. (My memory is vague, but I believe that some of them were connected to all the orphanages operated by Mr. Sinister, in itself something of a dangler.) They formed all the points and cross-connections of the citywide pentagram that formed the nexus of Inferno. The New Mutants and X-Terminators, at considerable cost and effort, managed to rescue all of them with no injuries to the children. Soon after, Freedom Force (Mystique's former Brotherhood of Evil Mutants) claimed the children on behalf of the U.S. Government. They are never heard of again.
So. What happened to the kids? Why didn't some of the X-folks get a little more curious about what became of them? What was so damn special about them in the first place? Clearly they had some significance beyond the Inferno spell -- because otherwise why would Freedom Force be so damned interested in them? Where the frak are they NOW?
And there you have my all-time favorite dangling plotline (with the exception of the Celestial Messiah business from Englehart's Avengers, left unresolved for 25 years, and which in retrospect really should have been left unresolved, since Englehart's final resolution was so bad even his former writing partner Jim Starlin felt the need to retcon the hell out of it ASAP.)
Anyway -- the very definition of a dangling plot! High importance. Completely unresolved. Forgotten by all involved, until someone comes along that's inclined to pick it up again.
As it happens, I also rate this as a plotline very likely to be eventually picked up on. Matt Fraction, the current lead writer of all things X, is pretty heavily focused on mid-to-late-1980s plotlines and villains. Madelyne Pryor's entire cadre comes from that era, and over in Iron Man, he picked up on the Stane family for the first time in 20 years. Meanwhile, elsewhere in Marvel, we've actually seen a published Inferno sequel, and the X-Force gang is strip-mining continuity to such an incredible degree that they just completed a frakking rematch of the frakking X-Cutioner's Song! So certainly the old-school intent is there.
Plus, with Dark Reign, the time would be perfect to pay it off somehow, with all the evil guys in control of the government. I only rate this one at 10 percent likelihood, but hell, I would have once rated an Inferno sequel at .1 percent. So you never know.
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Post by michaelpaciocco on Jun 27, 2009 19:16:30 GMT -8
Similar, and probably not as important, but related:
Who built the X-men's Australian outback hideout? Remember, it was growing and getting bigger and full of kick-ass technology for some damned reason. Even the Reavers didn't know who built it?
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Post by michaelpaciocco on Jun 27, 2009 20:38:29 GMT -8
Also, Fallout from "The Crew"
Where the hell are White Tiger (Kasper Cole) and Josiah X? I mean, that's even a plot point in "Young Avengers" that no one knows where the hell Josiah went.
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Post by jessebaker on Jun 27, 2009 20:41:40 GMT -8
They DID touch upon the Inferno babies, right before Louis Simonson got kicked off of New Mutants and the plotline officially became a dangler: The US government was going to train them to be hired killers (both Skids and Rusty Collins were held prison BECAUSE they baited Blob into revealing the Government was starting up a mutant assassin program, which Rusty would have been forced to participate in as well, upon his arrest for deserting the Navy).
As for the X-Men Australian HQ? Donald Pierce built it, according the later retcon that was Marvel making Pierce the creators of all things Reavers (including Lady Deathstrike, who for a period of time, had her connection to Spiral as the one who turned her, Reese, Malcom, and Cole into cyborgs, purged from her back-story).
That said, I'll toss in this one for the dangler file: the identity and fate of Deathwing, the evil future Nightwing who later turned out to a genetically altered actor per DC erasing the Team Titans (literally) from existence save for Terra II (now revealed to be a subterranean creature who was genetically altered to become a duplicate of Terra, without her people or herself knowing that Terra was a traitorous villain) and Mirage. Moreso, due to the massive dangler that was Deathwing telling Mirage that she REALLY REALLY didn't want to know who Deathwing really was.
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Post by jessebaker on Jun 27, 2009 20:48:02 GMT -8
Also, I would never call "Infernus" a sequel to "Inferno". It was a rushed to print, done totally in desperation to FINALLY resolved the massive dangling plotline that was Magik being alive, because "Young X-Men' bombing with such suck and blow as to making Marvel finally give up this decade's teen mutant characters carrying their own book and forcing them to go with Plan B: An OG New Mutants ongoing, to fill the hole in the schedule the cancellation of Young X-Men left, which meant having Magik redeemed and part of the roster so that people would stop yelling at Marvel for leaving Magik hanging in danglerville.
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Post by jasonlatta on Jun 28, 2009 9:42:20 GMT -8
It's been a looonnngg time since I read some of the things I'm about to mention, so be kind if the memory is flawed.
There was a story in (I think, this was back in the eighties) Marvel Two-in-One that indicated the Serpent Crowns of different realities were all linked to one another. There was even mention that in various alternate realities, the SC had conquered the entire Earth. (In fact there was an issue of What If? where the literal sons of Set were released and are going from dimension to dimension killing everything!)
The heroes destroyed the super Serpent Crown made out of 666 SCs from different realties during the Atlantis Attacks crossover, but that still leaves the rest of the multiverse, if you follow what I'm saying. If they were all in communication with each other, I'd imagine the rest of the Serpent Crowns are pretty pissed off, as is Set, the god who they were made for.
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Post by michaelpaciocco on Jun 29, 2009 19:50:00 GMT -8
Oh, yeah, couple more X-related ones - specifically Summers clan related:
1) Scott's grandparents - I know the grandpa is blind, but are they still around?
2) Adam X-treme - Half-Summers or - ?
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Post by jessebaker on Jun 29, 2009 20:28:21 GMT -8
Oh, yeah, couple more X-related ones - specifically Summers clan related: 1) Scott's grandparents - I know the grandpa is blind, but are they still around? 2) Adam X-treme - Half-Summers or - ? 1. The Grandparents are still alive, just not being used by anyone 2. He's the result of D'Ken raping Scott Summer's mom last I checked. But it doesn't matter since Quesada hates him and basically made one of his first editorial edicts being that Adam X-Treme is persona non grata and that NO ONE can use him. |
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Post by paulpogue on Jun 30, 2009 8:36:48 GMT -8
Was Adam-X's origin as the third Summers brother ever actually revealed on-panel, or was it something Nicienza said he had planned that never came to fruition? I'm a little fuzzy on that one.
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Post by michaelpaciocco on Jun 30, 2009 8:58:23 GMT -8
Was Adam-X's origin as the third Summers brother ever actually revealed on-panel, or was it something Nicienza said he had planned that never came to fruition? I'm a little fuzzy on that one. It was midway during Fabian's "Captain Marvel" run (which I liked, but oh well), where Eric the Red (the Shi'ar agent) revealed that Adam was the offspring of Emperor D'Ken. This combined with the fact that he had VERY non-Shi'ar features - Blue eyes and and blonde hair, which Scott's mother also had - strongly imply that Adam is a half-Summers. |
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Post by michaelpaciocco on Jun 30, 2009 8:59:57 GMT -8
Oh yeah, here's another one I forgot:
Externals, or "Mutant Highlanders" if you will - they still exist or not? And if so, does that mean Guthrie is immortal or not -?
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Post by jessebaker on Jun 30, 2009 11:22:36 GMT -8
Also Fabian N., in an interview he did in the late 90s around the time he started writing Gambit's solo book/Wizard was demanding quite openly for Gambit to be made the Third Summers Brother, that he intended X-Treme to be the third Summers Brother as the solution to that dangling plotline. But that he was never able to confirm outright said plotpoint in print, largely due to Bob Harras's trademark refusal to give straightforward storyline resolution to fans.
They still exist, sort of. Due to the rumored lawsuit Marvel was threatened with by the owners of the Highlander property, they had Jeph Loeb use Selene to kill off the Externals that Fabian and Rob Liefeld introduced while having Selene tell Cable and the members of X-Force that Cable was wrong about Cannonball being an External and that Cable mispronounced Sam being "dead' in X-Force #7-9. So that leaves the Externals down to just Selene and Apocalypse and Marvel largely not using the name anymore to describe such "immortal" mutants.
Of course, with Selene being a notoriously unreliable source of information, someone could undo her pronouncement that Sam isn't immortal if they wanted to.
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Post by michaelpaciocco on Aug 25, 2009 8:51:39 GMT -8
Here's an obscure one
Caleb, the superman of a future where Lex-Clones rule over a despotic intergalactic empire (shades of Star Wars) where they destroy any Krypton-like planet - he was last seen in an Lex Lab after a failed attempt to assassinate Luthor during the late Jurgens-era. Never seen again.
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