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

Super Heroes with vices Part 1 Cigar Smokers

Super Heroes, at least the Marvel and DC types, are a stuffy old lot.  They live by a boy scout code, and they aspire to be paragons of righteous action and clean living.

Or do they...

There are a few superheroes that many can name that enjoy the occasional cigar, or the odd drink.  But is it just a few?  Read on...

Part 1

Cigar Smokers

The Thing, from the Fantastic Four, is a classic example of a big, orange, rocky guy who loves to chomp on a cigar.

And, of course, Wolverine, from the X-Men, is partial to the odd stoogie as well.

The Uncanny X-Men had a few other cigar smokers, such as Storm...

And...Kitty Pride?!?

Colonel (former Sergeant) Nick Fury, of S.H.I.E.L.D. ( The Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorate).  (Formerly the Supreme Headquarters, International Espionage, Law-Enforcement Division) is was rarely seen without a cigar either in his hand or in his mouth.  He fought all of World War II constantly chain-smoking cigars, and his early days of S.H.I.E.L.D. were a thick haze of cigar smoke.  He even jumped from airplanes with cigar in hand!

Smoking cigars seemed to be a S.H.I.E.L.D. thing, as Dum Dum Dugan was also a cigar-chompin' hard guy, and former Howling Commando along with Sgt. Nick in WWII.

Some not-so-human characters seemed to enjoy cigar smoking as well, including Pip the Troll, the Laxidazian (yes, really), from the planet Laxidazia, fourth from the sun in the Dolenz star system in the Milky Way galaxy.

And Howard the Duck

Lobo (from the planet Czarnia) is very fond of cigars

As is Hellboy, who comes from wherever the hell he comes from.  Possibly even Hell.

And while not superheroes as such, both editors of the newspapers from the Marvel and DC Universes (J Jonah Jameson, former editor of the Daily Bugle, currently Mayor of Marvel New York City, and Perry White, editor of the Daily Planet) are cigar smokers.

So here's to the cigar smokers of the super hero world!

Cigars can be seen to represent class, sophistication and power, and are often associated with characters like that, or who think they are like that.  Of course, you would never, ever catch someone like, say Superman, smoking a cigar, now would we...

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

Next, cigarette smokers