REGINA IN COMICS
Aliens strike Queen City, Australia
Regina makes an appearance in the new Avengers comic from Marvel. Unfortunately it’s in reference to a bomb hitting the city.
REGINA — Without warning, an alien bomb launched from Mars has landed on Regina and destroyed everything in its path — paving the way for the city to be rebuilt from scratch.
Well, not really. But that is the scenario in Marvel Comics’ new edition of The Avengers, released Wednesday.
“We’re trying to spread the love around, even if the love is crazy bombs from space,” said Tom Brevoort, senior vice-president and executive editor at Marvel Publishing, explaining why Regina along with Perth, Australia, were targeted for destruction in the comic.
The story begins with Ex Nihilo, a gold-coloured, horned alien creature, launching two origin bombs from Mars at Earth, striking the two cities.
In response, the Avengers — Captain America, the Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, Hawkeye and Black Widow — fly to Mars to confront Ex Nihilo and “avenge” the attack.
Brevoort agrees that Ex Nihilo, meaning “out of nothing” in Latin, can be perceived as being something other than a villain, possibly with having good intentions such as the improvement of Earth.
This is evident in the nature of the “origin bombs” dropped on the cities, which transform their environment and inhabitants by changing their biospheres and increasing the speed of evolution.
“In his estimation, he’s not looking to destroy the Earth — he is sort of looking to recreate it and make it better in his vision of whatever that betterness would be,” Brevoort said.
Ex Nihilo, similar to other Marvel characters, are “people first” with points of view and motivations, he said.
“I don’t think most of our villains walk around even thinking of themselves as villains. He’s got a reason to do the things that he does, and hopefully it’s a reason that isn’t necessarily laudable but is understandable. You get what he is trying to do and why he is doing it,” Brevoort said.
Chad Boudreau, co-owner of Comic Readers on 11th Avenue, said he thought Regina was an odd choice. “We had no advanced notice of it. It just happened that someone reading the comic saw it in there,” he said.
Boudreau said he expected sales to be strong given the nature of the comic. But with Regina mentioned, he expects people who don’t normally read comics could buy the issue out of curiosity.
In terms of why Regina and Perth were chosen by the authors, Brevoort couldn’t say for sure, but noted that more cities outside of New York could play a role in future editions.
Brevoort adds that this won’t be the last time readers get to see Regina and Perth as the fallout and effect of the origin bombs become better known.
“We’ll be back to Perth and Regina,” he said.
The next issue of The Avengers is scheduled to be released on Dec. 19.