Well…I never thought I’d be doing another “Young Ancient One” update. After the bum’s rush the book got from Marvel I figured they’d shredded all copies, burned all emails and dumped all remaining traces of my little comic book into the unmarked grave of forgotten Epic stories.
Imagine my surprise then, when I found out today my YAO mythology (or at least what was revealed in the single issue that was published) is now part of Marvel Universe canon.
Yep. It’s right there in “Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Book of the Dead” in comic stores today. The very first section in the Handbook covers our dear, departed Ancient One.
My contributions to the Ancient One’s story show up in the thumbnail data as such:
Known Aliases: bTsan Saa and the Spirit Leopard — the superhero names (Tibetan and English versions) that I gave the hero of our story.
Occupation: formerly apprentice doctor and village protector
Known Relatives: Leung (wife, deceased)
And then the detailed history segment opens with: “Born in the 1430’s the man later known as the Ancient One was, as a young man, active as the Spirit Leopard, costumed protector of his Tibetan village, Lang Kah, where he lived with his wife Leung and worked as an apprentice doctor.“
As disappointing as the whole Epic fiasco was, it’s fun to see that the Spirit Leopard lives on. I’m proud of the work that Andy, Bill, Dave and I did and still wish we could have spent more time doing it. Anyhow, it’s cool to see that I’m still considered to have made some contribution to the Marvel mythos.
I expect I have the good, Epic-friendly crowd at ComiX-Fan to thank, in particular Eric Moreels, who’s listed as a writer on the book.
UPDATE: I found out that it was Ronald Byrd who wrote the Ancient One bio and included our YAO bits. A big thanks to Ronald!
Of course, it doesn’t take John Byrne to point out that we never really defined what the link between the Spirit Leopard and the Ancient One actually was. Could it be that the Hero of my first issue was really Kaluu?
We’ll never know…
I will add this info to my Ancient One bio too. And use the events as part of normal continuity as if now.
At least it is easier to rhyme in the the world and history of magic then the new Strange series. Who is not bad but too different to be part of the comic continuity. Much better as a movie.
Yeah…that “Strange” series has been a bit of a disappointment. When Straczynski said he would make Doc like Neo from “The Matrix”, I didn’t think he would do it so literally…