Essential Reading: Angela Pre-Marvel

Two days ago, I ranted about Angela's current incarnation in the Marvel Universe. I was particularly unhappy with Angela's one word dialogue in Guardians of the Galaxy, Volume 3, No. 6, and her rather shallow depiction among other things.I was kindly reminded that GOTG 7 was released on Wednesday, October 16th, and that I should read it. And I promised that not only would I do so, but apologize and retract my earlier comments if I found Angela's ship righted. Okay... so I've read Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3, No. 7, and I'm a little p*ssed and somewhat confused! WTF is going on? Why does Angela keep calling her home, the Elysium Fields and Heaven as "Heven"? And why does Angela act as if she's never visited Earth... referring it to something she's read or heard about in stories? The "Heven" reference is made even more confusing if you read Guardians of the Galaxy, Volume 3, No. 5, where in her own thought balloons, Angela refers to Heaven, spelled "Heaven" and not spelled "Heven". Did someone at Marvel forget to hit the "Spell-Check" button before going to press? And as far as Earth is concerned, Angela's been there plenty of times... perhaps not "Marvel's" version of Earth, but definitely the Image Universe's version, where Angela visited New York City plenty of times. I'm just going to go-out-on-a-limb here and say, "I think Marvel is trying to distance itself from Angela's Image Comics publication history and origins"... duh... obviously... no revelation there! However, I think that approach is very unfair to: Neil Gaiman and Todd McFarlane (Angela's co-creators), to Angela fans (if there are any other than myself), and comic book readers in general. In my opinion, even if legal reasons are barring the way, you cannot simply turn your back on a character's prior published history and expect a readership to simply accept it. And I understand, because of copyright law and courtroom settlements, a publisher taking new ownership of a previously published character, may not be allowed to reference or reprint copyrighted/trademarked names and places previously published by another publisher. In fact, Marvel is no stranger to such legalities, as they successfully lobbied against British Publisher Quality Communications over the publisher's use of the word "Marvel" in the pages of Warrior Magazine and its then flagship character: Marvelman, back in the early 80's. And the irony? Marvel currently has 100% ownership and copyright claims to Marvelman, however, it cannot reprint the adventures of Marvelman/Miracleman (written by both Alan Moore and later Neil Gaiman) published in the pages of Warrior Magazine and Eclipse Comics, respectively. However, Marvel does have ownership to the Mick Anglo, Golden Age Era of Marvelman, once published by L. Miller & Son, and have already reprinted a small selection of the Golden Age material. But I say... Marvel, the current owners of Angela, have a wealth of talent, and in my opinion, can birth creative and clever allusions to Angela's Image back-history without sparking a foul cry from Todd McFarlane or Image in a lawsuit... and as far as I understand, "Heaven" is not copyrighted or trademarked by anyone. Allow me to point out another thing from GOTG 7 that really got under my skin: there's a scene on page 14, panel 6 (bottom panel: wide-shot) in which Gamora points a gun to Angela's face, and Angela just shrugs it off and say's, "I admire you." What the !!! If you ever read Spawn 9, Angela 1 -- 3, Curse of the Spawn 9 -- 11, Spawn's 62, 89, 96 - 100, Angela Glory: Rage of Angels (a six issue crossover event), and Aria Angela 1 and 2, then you'll know that Angela is one tough, mean-spirited, take-no-prisoners, and take-no-bullsh*t, fighting machine! Angela is on a power-level par with The Mighty Thor, and some of the other Marvel "heavy-hitters". Angela can kick serious ! And Angela is a proud warrior who doesn't tolerate sh*t from people and authority... let alone aliens she hardly knows. So Gamora putting that gun below her chin in a threatening manner... the Angela I know would have decked Gamora, much less made the attempt to lob her green head off... much like the way she cut-down Groot into wood chips in issue 6. Now I know Gamora is a bad- in her own right. And I've read Gamora's adventures in the pages of Strange Tales and Warlock, and I know she wasn't given the moniker, "Deadliest Woman in the Whole Galaxy" for just any reason. And I know Gamora is very powerful in her own right (and gorgeous), and is considered on an equal power-level to Adam Warlock from "treatments" received through her step-father, Thanos, who augmented Gamora in order to have her assassinate the Magus (Warlock's evil future self).However, we are talking about Angela: an Angel, a Warrior, and a Bounty Hunter, created by God! To have Gamora pull a gun on Angela and wave it in her face is like having Gamora pull a gun on Thor or DC's Wonder Woman... I'd like to see that happen! Angela is cut from the same cloth as the Odinson and the Amazonian. In my opinion, Angela should have decked Gamora for that slight... lights out!Okay... enough of my cry-baby rants. I'm going to drop it from this point on. For those of you who are new to Angela, I've strung together some quick tidbits and facts about the fury angel I've read from comics previously published by Image: Angela was co-created by Neil Gaiman and Todd McFarlane. (Spawn 9)Prior to moving to Marvel, Angela had been illustrated in the pages of Image Comics by the likes of: Todd McFarlane, Jim Lee, Greg Dwayne Turner, Greg Capullo, Rob Liefeld, Jay Anacleto, J G Jones, Joe Quesada, and Ashley Wood. Angela is the Elysian Fields top Bounty Hunter. The Elysium is a floating city in Heaven (not "Heven") as ruled by the ultimate authority: God (depicted as a kindly old lady). Angela has visited Earth several times, and New York City in particular. (Spawn 9, 68, 89, Curse of the Spawn 10, Angela Aria 1&2 (in Victorian Era London), Angela Glory: Rage of Angels)Angela is over 100,000 years old. To celebrate her 100,000th birthday, Angela visits a remote ice planet and kills a dragon... chopping its head off! Happy Birthday! (Angela 1)Angela has killed over 30 Spawns in the service of Heaven! (Angela 1)Angela is the amalgam of 6 female souls. (Origin in Curse of the Spawn 9)Angela has gone toe-to-toe with Spawn (Al Simmons), losing only once, but that was just a lucky move on the part of her inexperienced foe. (Spawn 9)Angela has a twin sister named Lilith, whom she kills by throwing her into the Argus. (Curse of the Spawn 11)Angela and Spawn later become fast friends and develop a romance of sorts (see Angela 1 -- 3, Spawn 96 -- 100). Angela makes her last appearance in the Image Universe in Spawn 100 (December, 2000). Angela is killed by the ruler of the Eight Circle of Hell, Malebolgia, when he lances Angela through the chest with her own weapon. Angela's body is taken back to the Elysian Fields by Spawn. (Spawn 100)Some memorable lines uttered by Angela:"I've been decorated a dozen times in the battle against the forces of Malebolgia. A score of active combat medals. I've personally destroyed over thirty Hellspawn. No one has ever questioned my integrity before... no one who wanted to keep their vital organs intact and inside them..."(Angela 1)"Shut the hell up, unless you wanna use my lance for a tampon!" (Curse of the Spawn 11)
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