Wednesday 25 April 2012

Super Heroes with vices part 4 Gamblers

Super Heroes with vices  part 4  Gamblers


There's nothing like the agony and the ecstacy of a gripping card game, when everything is on the line, and fortunes are won or lost at the turn of a card.  Well, apparently.  I wouldn't know, I don't gamble.  I did visit Vegas once, for the spectacle, and I 'gambled' (read contributed) a grand total of $10 to Sin City, just to say that I did.  I don't even take out lottery tickets, which is state-sanctioned gambling after all.  So I'm going on hearsay and Hollywood movies.  And we all know how reliable they are for accurate representation.

But, it seems, that some of our moral post-human paragons are rather fond of the odd game of chance.  Indeed.  At least when Spider-Man chips are the currency...
  Gambit, from the X-Men, is gambling-themed and a reformed villain to boot.
Jack of Hearts was at least card-themed, but I don't recall seeing him at the casino or even at a card game.  Yes, challenge of the post, go out and prove me wrong.

Of course, Bruce Wayne gets into the action again, this time busted gambling and driniking
Omega the Unknown, that cult classic from the '70's, is a humanoid being of superhuman power bio-engineered by an extraterrestrial mechanoid race named the Protar, from the planet Protaris in the Regreb System.  With me so far?  So, when a Protar bio-engineered superhuman hits Vegas, he does it in style, baby!
Of course, over at Marvel, they have institutionalized gambling sessions, primarily revolving around The Thing, from the Fantastic Four.  So when the Marvel Universe isn't reeling from another universe-spanning crisis (and that's few and far between these days.  The Curse of the Cross-over!), and when his own title gets cancelled AGAIN!, it's time to call in everyone (and I mean everyone, including some villains) for a series-ending gamble-gasm around at the Thing's pad.
 Issue 8 of Volume 2 of The Thing was just that, and everyone was invited.
The Constrictor got cleaned out by Hercules
The Thing and the Hulk had another classic tussle
But it finally came down to Mister Fantastic and The Thing.  How could it end any other way?
Hellboy needs little encouragement
 And, as if Bruce Wayne playing the playboy wasn't enough, he's at it again as Batman!
Of course number 23 wins.

Gambling can add a bit of zest to an evening or a night out.  Just don't let it become a life-long habit

(pictures used without permission, but with lots of love and respect.  Please don't sue me...)

Next: Other Naughtiness

2 comments:

  1. Hey, that wasn't Mr. Fantastic, it was Great Lakes Avenger Flat-Man!

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  2. Ha Ha, so it is. It's been ages since I read that issue. I'm not sure why I remembered it as Reed Richards. I think the 'stretcho' comment threw me. I do remember the last page of the comic (and, as it turned out, the series), which I thought was a well-written 'underplayed' way to finish a series.

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