Panel Biter Podcasts

Thursday, November 24, 2016

High Five, Anyone?

When guns are too quick and swords are too heavy, you can always depend on good old fisticuffs-damn! That is a huge right swing, you got there! How do you even go to bed with that thing? Bathrooms must be a nightmare! Oh right, you clearly don't sleep. You see a nightmare...never mind. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Marvel's Gauntlet. Menace to pickle jars everywhere.
 Created by Dan Slott, Stefano Caselli, and Eric Powell in 2006's "She-Hulk #100", Joseph Green was a member of the United States Army who was part of a search team to recover an object that fell from space. What he and his team found was the right arm piece of alien armor. Agents of HYDRA appeared on the crash site and tried to wrestle the arm away from Joseph, so the soldier slipped the arm on to defend himself. What he found was that this arm enhanced his strength and projected a light-construct of his own hand. Whatever motion his hand made inside the arm, the light-construct would mimic. Joseph would take on the codename Gauntlet and act as a drill sergeant for young heroes on The Initiative.
The Initiative was a project started by Iron Man and Henry Peter Gyrich after the events of "Civil War". With The Superhuman Registration Act classifying all registered superheroes as government agents and all unregistered heroes as criminals, there was a need for a training program for younger superhumans who had no experience in the field. As such, Iron Man and Gyrich set up a boot camp at Camp Hammond and appointed Joseph as the sergeant. Being a soldier, a superhero, and the father of a two-year old daughter meant Joseph had the physical and psychological requirements to train this new generation of heroes. Often teasing them with "My Two-Year-Old could beat HYDRA".
Joseph's arm belonged to an alien who was in a heated battle with another alien above Earth. Along with this arm, another arm and a set of leg armor fell to Earth after the battle. The leg armor would fall into the hands of a hero named Grasshopper, the other arm would go to a She-Hulk villain known as Southpaw. In a possible future, Southpaw becomes a hero and Gauntlet's daughter becomes her sidekick Kid Glove. The weapon of the opposing alien would attach to a teenaged girl who would become an Initiative member known as Armory. The abilities of her alien weapon were to become whichever tool was needed in any situation.
For a time Joseph was put into a coma, during that time the gauntlet itself would take control of Joseph's body until he eventually woke up. During that time, the reformed mercenary Taskmaster took over his duties as drill sergeant. After "Secret Invasion" when Norman Osborn becomes the head of SHIELD, Joseph is one of the few to stay at Camp Hammond. Norman threatens to take Joseph's arm away (by the way, the arm is fused to him so that means Norman would've had it cut off) unless Joseph joins Norman's Avengers Resistance. Joseph's wife had to pretend to be ashamed of her husband just to avoid media harassment. After Norman was deemed insane (again) and was kicked out of SHIELD, Gauntlet would continue fighting for his country in Afghanistan.
I really didn't recognize this guy the first time I read "The Initiative", but upon reading about him I think that he's a character who's too interesting for his own good. Sure, you have a superhero who is a father, husband, soldier, and trainer of younger heroes, but his dedication to the cause is really the most astounding thing about him. Staying at the Camp when Norman was in charge took guts, guts this guy clearly has. And for a low-tier character he has quite the collection of family members. Not just his wife and daughter, but the other characters who received armor parts too. I'm really happy this character wasn't killed off because I think there's more to be said with him. There aren't enough "getting too old for this-" superheroes and just the overall position this guy holds in Marvel could be very interesting in the future. Hell, with so many young heroes popping out of the woodwork this guy may have to be a super tutor! Am I right?
Thanks for reading!

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