If you guys gave me hell for Death's Head, you're really going to steam my clams over this week's MMM. Though, I'm not sure that's a bad thing. It's been a while since I've had a good clam-steaming. Hmm. Anyway, let's explore robot reincarnation with Shiva, who does not endorse the cruel steaming of seafood of any kind.
Last week's poll recap: I don't think this one was ever in question. With 73%, Jim Lee Jubilee won your choice for a Marvel Legends figure. The jailbait-ish X-Men Legends version came in second with a mere 12%.
Last week's poll: http://www.thefwoosh.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=42958
Last week's article: http://www.thefwoosh.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=634&Itemid=1
Make My Marvel! – Shiva
I’m not sure how many people know this, but Wolverine was the product of a super-secret government program that gave him his adamantinum skeleton and claws while manufacturing most of his memories. Shocking, I know. Well, what you really may not have known is that this covert government group, Weapon X, created a fail-safe program known as Shiva to track down and eliminate the program’s escaped experiments: Wolverine, Sabertooth, Deadpool, etc.
Debuting in Wolverine #50, the Shiva protocol was first activated when Wolverine was investigating one of Weapon X’s many hidden facilities. The program works by downloading itself into a massive robot body. The robot then pursues it’s prey until it either kills the target or is itself destroyed in the attempt. If the robot does get destroyed, the program automatically manufactures and deploys a brand new Shiva. Shiva is combat-adaptive, so (in theory) you can’t defeat a Shiva robot the same way twice. That’s the program’s double threat: it learns and it keeps coming back. The robots have never killed a target, so the program obviously still need some work. Shiva also has the ability to force Weapon X experiments to instantaneously relive their most painful memories, though that power has rarely been used and to little effect.
Wolverine defeated several Shivas before finally tricking the program into moving on to the next name on it’s hitlist: Sabertooth. After screwing with Sabes for a couple of years, the robots vanished. No in-continuity explanation was ever given for this, though more than likely the new Weapon X deemed the Shiva program a failure and scrapped the idea. One Shiva unit did resurface to scrap with Wolverine during one of his more recent attempts to uncover his real real real past. Really.
So why make a Marvel Legends figure of a character that, despite it’s creative intention, has never proven to be a significant threat and has become relatively obscure? The reasons are threefold: A. Duh, villain: ‘cause we never have enough of those in ML. B. Robot! Robots are the tits. C. Unending arsenal of killer robots = army builder! Thus far, I’ve been unable to find a documented height for Shiva, though it’s usually depicted as being around 7-8 feet tall. That makes it a contender for a modern BAF, though that would kill the army-building potential of the figure.
How would you like Shiva made for Marvel Legends?
A. single-carded
B. Build-a-Figure
C. Ugh, not at all
Head over to the Make My Marvel thread in the Negative Zone to cast your vote in this week's poll. And, if you haven't done so already, don't forget to vote for your top ten ML wants in the official Marvel Top 10 poll: http://www.thefwoosh.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=42311
Thanks for reading!