Annoyed with MLB, I read The Avengers and study Morgana

Annoyances of the Modern World

The MLB draft is currently going on. I know because I have received hundreds of text messages and notifications about it. On my iPhone, on my iPad, in email – tons of messages telling me that so-and-so high schooler or college athlete was drafted by such-and-such team. I suppose it's interesting for the family and friends of the kids and for the minor league teams that will see these guys for the next few years after they graduate, but how many of these draftees will make the majors? Will I remember that on June 8, 2015 the Rockies drafted Brendan Rodgers as the third pick when he makes it to the bigs? I don't think so, and I am becoming annoyed with all the messages MLB thinks I need to receive when I ask their app to send me news. I suppose I should just turn off the news notifications, but I like to hear when someone is pitching a no hitter (Chris Heston) – that IS news to me. I guess I'll just file this under first world problems, but how much longer is this going to go on – we're on the 3rd day, round 11 – with 30 teams I guess that's a bit over 300 picks made so far – even my fantasy draft didn't take 3 days and we drafted over 500 players – and except for a handful, they all play in the major league. Oh well, I'll get over it. (BTW – I just looked at the web site and saw they draft 40 rounds and over 1200 players)

Avengers (1968) Issue 55

Mayhem over Manhattan!

Editor – Stan Lee
Writer – Roy Thomas
Artist – John Buscema
Inker – George Klein
Letterer – Sam Rosen

Published: August 1968 by Marvel

Synopsis – from Comixology – The Avengers are held captive by the Crimson Cowl, disguised as Jarvis! Plus, Ultron and Whirlwind escape during a fight with the Masters of Evil!

The cover of this issue is more like it. The Avengers seem to be in a much better position in this image then the previous issue, and having read the last book, I recognize everyone drawn. Here, they appear to be fighting their captors and hopefully they escape.

Characters:

The Good: Hawkeye, Goliath, Black Panther, The Wasp, Aragorn, Black Knight, Jarvis

The Bad: Crimson Cowl (Ultron), Klaw, Whirlwind, The Radioactive Man, The Melter, Ultron-5

The team starts out thIs issue prisoners of the Masters of Evil and Radioactive Man entertains the idea of wiping them out. But the Crimson Cowl wants to deal with them personally by stuffing them into a hydrogen bomb to be dropped on the Empire State Building. Before he kills the Avengers, though, he pulls off his ultimate reveal showing them how he hypnotized Jarvis into wearing the crimson robes and that in fact it was the robot from last issue that has been running the show, and that robot is…Ultron-5 the living automaton. Everyone, good guy and bad guy is shocked.

As Ultron prepares to deliver his ultimatum to New York, Jarvis manages to escape the Masters of Evil and runs into the Black Knight and tells him what the real story is. With this knowledge, the Black Knight flys Aragon to rescue the Avengers. A huge fight ensues with the Avengers coming out on top, but Whirlwind and Ultron escape to cause trouble another day.

I find the final page interesting given that this was written in 1968. Jarvis betrayed the Avengers because his mother's medical bills were too expensive. How much have we heard that healthcare costs too much and is skyrocketing out of control in the past few years, and here is a story from the late 60s saying the same thing. I get the feeling that no matter how expensive or who is paying for it, this will be a common theme in any time.

The art is pretty much the same as the previous issue, but I did notice that while some of the dialog bubbles and exclamation words (SLAM!, WOM!, etc) may cross outside the panels or even cross over between multiple panels, the action is self contained within each box. I think this offers a clean presentation but also implies movement between the panels since the words don't share the same boundaries. Also, I must have gotten used to the thought bubbles because I did not have any issues with those in this issue.

So finally we see Ultron, but this is just a first sighting, where did he come from and why does he hate the Avengers? I'll continue my dive into Marvel's past to find these answers.

You can purchase this from Comixology (digital), Amazon (subject to availability), read it digitally on Marvel Unlimited like I did or from the Marvel website(they also sell the print issue).

Learning more about Morgana

Morgana is currently one of my favorite champions in League of Legends. She was pretty much my main last season and I tend to play her more games than anyone else. She's a versatile champion able to go midlane and support, and I've even played her top lane when the situation called for it. That being said, I think I'm an okay Morgana player. Seeing as I'm currently treading water in Bronze III that's easy to understand why I don't consider myself better than okay. One thing I really need to learn about Morgana is that she really tends to push the lane. I need to work on restraining myself when playing midline Morgana because I make myself vulnerable to ganks when I push the minion wave.

Today was a prime example…I was having no problems against Akali, having attained a 20 cs lead within the first 7 minutes of the game by pushing her back under turret. With Morgana's Tormented Soil, she easily clears waves, knocking down the caster minions by itself once you get it to level 3. The problem though, is that once I was pushing, the Wukong jungler started putting pressure on me. Ganking from top lane, then bottom, then top again, and I was dead by 10 minutes. I bought wards and laid them out on both sides of the lane, but Wukong kept coming as I used my W to clear waves and push.

In the end, I was the first lane to knock down the outer turret, but I had died twice in the process. I don't mind dying, but I think I could have accomplished the same result without any deaths. The main issue I think, is my reliance on tormented soil to wave clear. I need to work on limiting my spell use so I conserve mana and maintain better control over the minion waves. I read somewhere about freezing a lane or building up a super minion wave and such – I'll have to go find that article again and recognize that minion control is not just for the bot lane but is important whatever lane I'm on.

#Avengers #LeagueOfLegends #Comics #LoL #MLB