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Who is Monica Rambeau? From Captain Marvel to Photon, a brief history of Marvel’s heroine

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What do you know about Monica Rambeau? As the character is back on the big screen with the release of The Marvels, we take a new interest in the Marvel superheroine created by Roger Stern and John Romita, Jr. who has been known as Captain Marvel, Pulsar, Photon or Spectrum and a leader of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.

With four decades of history behind her, Monica Rambeau has proved more than once that she was worth reading about!

The Creation of Monica Rambeau

Her story started in the late 1960s, when Marvel gained the trademark “Captain Marvel”, leading to the creation of the first Captain Marvel comic book. But Captain Marvel was not popular, and the decision was made to kill him in one of Marvel’s first-ever graphic novels, The Death of Captain Marvel, in 1982. 

If Marvel wanted to keep ownership of the name “Captain Marvel”, the company needed to use it. Enters the scene: Monica Rambeau. Created by Roger Stern and John Romita, Jr., Monica was conceived to take the mantle of Captain Marvel, though she had no connection with the First Captain, Mar-Vell. Even her powers were different. Monica was still a trailblazing in her own right, as a black female superhero was rare then, but Marvel never intended to give her her own series.

It didn’t mean Monica Rambeau wasn’t destined for great things. On the contrary, since her first appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #16, Monica joined and ultimately became the leader of the Avengers. She has also been a member of Nextwave and the Ultimates. Her superhero identity has evolved throughout the years, leaving the Captain Marvel name behind her to take other aliases: Photon, Pulsar, and recently Spectrum being the most famous of them.

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DC Black Label Comics, The Complete Reading List

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The World of DC always finds a way to expand and craft new and/or stand-alone stories, mostly outside the current DC Continuity, in the specific case of DC Black Label. Presented at first as an imprint for adults featuring alternate versions of familiar DC Comics characters, DC Black Label was founded in 2018, with Batman: Damned, the first title of the imprint. The limited series made more of a splash for a scene with full frontal nudity than for the story.

Before the official end of Vertigo Comics, DC Black Label had clearly been developed to take the place of the famous imprint under which classic titles like Hellblazer, Fables, Preacher, The Sandman, and more have been published. However, Vertigo declined in the 2010s and was officially discontinued in 2020. New and old titles published under the now-defunct imprint were now published as part of DC Black Label. Things became more confusing recently with the revival Vertigo imprint, with the original Black Label title Nice House By The Sea repositioned as a Vertigo title… but still collected under Black Label (?!).

In all cases, you’ll find under the Black Label imprint many Batman stories, as well as several stories with Harley Quinn and the Joker, but also some new takes on Superman, Wonder Woman, Catwoman, and more…

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Who are the Green Lanterns? A guide of the Emerald Warriors of the DC Universe

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In the DC Universe, there are multiple heroes known as The Flash or Robin, but not as many as there are Green Lanterns. The reason is that, even if the name came with one hero in the 1940s, it became a title. Being a Green Lantern is being a peacekeeper in the Galaxy. It’s being a member of the Green Lantern Corps, an intergalactic law enforcement organization created by the Guardians, a race of immortals residing on the planet Oa, in order to combat evil and create an orderly universe. 

In 1959, the original Green Lantern, Alan Scott was replaced by Hal Jordan. Introduced in the pages of Showcase #22 in a story written by John Broome and drawn by Gil Kane, Hal was a fearless jet pilot who received a power ring from an Alien named Abin Sur, a member of the Green Lantern Corps who’d just crashed on Earth. The idea by editor Julius Schwartz was to go from the vigilante type of stories told with Alan Scott to a full sci-fi reinvention with Hal Jordan.

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Pokémon Adventures Manga Order, Read them All!

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Almost 30 years ago, Pikachu was introduced to the world in the Japanese video games Pokémon Red and Pokémon Green. This was the start of what would become the gigantic Pokémon franchise, bigger than Star Wars, Harry Potter, Batman or Spider-Man. Set in a world where people and animals known as Pokémon coexist, human trainers must run around and catch some Pokémon to then train them and engage them in battle where they gain experience and get stronger.

This simple, classic but effective concept spawned many video games, animated series, films, trading card games and, you guessed it, many many manga!

There are several Pokémon manga series out there, the most important one–and generally the one being referenced when someone is talking about the manga–is Pokémon Adventures. Launched in 1997, this is a manga adaptation of the Pokémon game series. As such, each manga arc (or chapter) corresponds to a specific game. Each story is set in a region that is introduced in the video game and focuses on different characters. The series is written by Hidenori Kusaka and was illustrated by Mato for the first nine volumes and has subsequently been illustrated by Satoshi Yamamoto.

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Kathy Kane: The Short History (and Reading Order) of the First Batwoman

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If Robin debuted only one year after Batman, it took more than 15 years for another member of the ‘Bat Family’ to be created. Batwoman first appeared in Detective Comics #233 (July 1956). She was created by writer Edmond Hamilton and artist Sheldon Moldoff to counter Fredric Wertham’s accusations that our dynamic duo was homosexual! Despite this, she was a pioneer, becoming the first female superhero to take on a major male superhero in the pages of DC Comics.

Throughout the next decade, Batwoman fought crime next to Batman and Robin and even puts on a Cat-Woman costume at some point to help obtain some information! And though Batwoman was popular with readers, her career came to a halt when Julius Schwartz took over as editor of the Batman-related comic in 1964, before being killed in the 1970s, then completely removed from the main continuity following Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Nothing is set in stone in the DC Universe, and the characters can have multiple existence as well as being completely reimagined. It is what happened to Kathy Kane when she was reintroduced during Grant Morrison’s run on Batman, with some changes.

There is no doubt that Kathy Kane, as the first Batwoman, is a part of Batman’s rich history, a figure who found her place in the Batman Family and paved the way for future female superheroines to combat crime in Gotham alongside Batman and Robin. So, today, we’ll take a deeper look at Kathy Kane’s background and explore her past and appearances.

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The Origins of Wolverine, Before he joined the X-Men!

Created by Roy Thomas, Len Wein, and John Romita Sr.–but first drawn for publication by Herb Trimpe–in the pages of The Incredible Hulk #180-181 in 1974, Wolverine is not your typical Canadian of small stature, he is a fierce character with retractable claws, a mysterious past, an iconic design, and a popularity that surpassed most of the other Marvel superheroes.

After being introduced as an agent of the Canadian government, Wolverine made a quick comeback. In his second appearance, in the classic Giant-Size X-Men #1, he joined the new team of X-Men but stayed a mystery for a long time. In fact, the mystery past is a big part of the character as it offers a lot of space for the writers to build stories full of twists–and not told in chronological order.

Who was Wolverine before being transformed by the mysterious Weapon X program? How many lives did he have as his healing factor keeps him young and healthy?

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Who Are The New Gods in the DC Comics Universe?

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In 1970, after failing to get Marvel to recognize his true value and the extent of his contribution, Jack Kirby joined DC Comics–certainly one the major event of the time in the industry. After lengthy negotiations, he signed a three-year contract and was ready to create new worlds, and also some magazines. The magazines were quickly canceled after only one issue though.

Everything started with Kirby taking over Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen. With issue #133 (Oct. 1970), he launched the “Fourth World,” a saga that will encompass multiple series (The Forever People, Mister Miracle, and The New Gods), and introduced numerous revolutionary concepts and characters that still influenced the way the DC Universe worked to this day.

Based on ideas he developed during his run on Marvel’s Thor, Jack Kirby introduced us to The New Gods.

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Junji Ito: Your Reading Order to the Japanese horror manga artist

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Welcome to Junji Ito’s World of Horror! Junji Ito, one of the best horror mangakas, has established himself as a renowned manga artist and gained a cult following for his works, which include Tomie, Uzumaki, Gyo, and The Enigma of Amigara Fault.

Reading Junji Ito is entering an unforgiving and irrational world that is dominated by phobias, obsessions, fears, and paranoia, with the every day turning bizarre. Junji Ito, influenced by artists such as Hidesho Hino, Shinichi Koga, and the Father of Cosmic Horror, H.P. Lovecraft, frequently has his characters deal with malevolent supernatural circumstances for no obvious reason or suffer excessive punishment for small offenses. He evokes beauty and terror and a sense of dread with powerful imagery.

Previously published by Dark Horse in America, Junji Ito’s works are now released by Viz Media, under the Viz Signature Imprint. Let’s enter the Ito-Verse!

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Black Lightning Reading Order

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Created by writer Jenny Blake Isabella (who writes under the names Tony Isabella and Jenny Blake) and artist Trevor Von Eeden, Jefferson Pierce made his first appearance in Black Lightning #1 (April 1977). This Afro-American schoolteacher from the crime-ridden Suicide Slum area of Metropolis gained electrical superpowers and started fighting crimes under the name Black Lightning as a response by DC Comics to the success of Marvel’s Luke Cage.

This didn’t work exactly as DC envisioned it, as financial difficulties put a quick end to the title, but Black Lightning survived and started to appear in other series and fight crimes as part of a team.

Originally, Tony Isabella had been tasked to retool a series called The Black Bomber with a strange and disturbingly bad premise that the writer described as DC’s first black superhero being a white bigot. He didn’t want to touch that and convinced DC to change the story. To draw the new title, the company recruited a young prodigy. Trevor Von Eeden was only 16 when he was offered the job–at the time, though, Von Eeden didn’t know if he got the job for his talent or because he was black.

Through the years, Jefferson Pierce’s origin story evolved. His powers first came from a technologically advanced power belt, and the schoolteacher also had an Olympic athlete background. He needed something like that because his powers were not the result of a mutation or a science experiment. This didn’t stay that way as it was later revealed that the character possesses a latent metagene.

At first, Black Lightning fought criminals in his neighborhood, especially the members of the criminal organization called The 100. His stories often addressed social issues head-on, from urban crime and gang violence to racial injustice. Black Lightning is not your typical superhero, he’s also a father–and his two daughters also became superheroes, Thunder and Lightning. Pierce is certainly a team player, and he worked alongside Batman as a founding member of the Outsiders superhero team.

In 2018, Black Lightning was adapted into a live-action television series on The CW, starring Cress Williams as Jefferson Pierce. The show ran for four seasons and also introduced his daughters, Anissa and Jennifer, as Thunder and Lightning, further expanding the Pierce family legacy.

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Spider-Man: Gang War Reading Order: Marvel’s Heroes unites against the gangs of New York

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A few months after the Dark Web storyline, Spider-Man is once again thrust at the center of a crossover event as chaos reigns in the streets of New York City with a Gang War taking place–the old Spidey fan will remember that there’s already a storyline titled Gang War in the series, in Amazing Spider-Man #284-288.

Set up during Zeb Wells’s run of Amazing Spider-Man, the Gang War event revolves around a violent conflict between the gang lords of New York City that is causing chaos throughout the Big Apple. It’s about the bad guys fighting the other bad guys to the point that even a proactive superhero like Spidey can’t keep up. Hobgoblin, Mr. Negative, the Owl, Shotgun, Diamondback, A.I.M., Hydra, and more battle with and against each other to gain total control of the city. To stop this folly, Spider-Man has to lead a group of heroes–including Spider-Man Miles Morales, She-Hulk, Daredevil, Shang-Chi, and Spider-Woman–to take down the super-gangs in under 48 hours.

But what do Mayor Luke Cage and the city’s strong anti-vigilante laws have to say about it? Will Jackpot gamble on getting involved? And is Shang-Chi a friend or foe? They’d better all figure it out before two classic villains make a game-changing return!

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