Wednesday Wiki: Dragonrider (comic villain)

An interesting random Wikipedia page showed up today. I pulled up the page for Marvel Comics's Atlantean villain, Dragonrider.

This villain was introduced in 1984's Sub-Mariner 4-issue limited series and appeared in issues #1, 2, and 4. This female (yes, I thought by the name that it would be male for some reason) character was created by J.M. DeMatteis and Bob Budiansky. According to the wiki stub, Dragonrider didn't appear again until New Thunderbolts #1-5 in 2005.

Dragonrider was a soldier in the Atlantean army who became a political dissident after seeing the poor remaining poor while the were rich becoming richer. She and a group of rebels sought out magic artifacts to buff themselves up. Dragonrider found a mystic conch shell that gave her control over sea creatures and mutated a sea eel into a dragon. When the resident superhero, Namor, was out of town, Dragonrider led her dragon in an assault against Atlantis. Namor returned in time to capture Dragonrider and arrested her for her crimes, turning a blind eye to her claims of disparate economics in the process. When she was freed, she sought out Namor and fought him again.

Later, she joined At'La'Tique or "Fury of the Sea", a religious organization, and became a member of the aquatic terrorist group Fathom Five. She worked with At'La'Tique and her Fathom Five cohorts in an effort to kill all surface dwelling life forms. The plans were thwarted by the New Thunderbolts when they attacked New York City. Dragonrider and rest of the Fathom Five were arrested and imprisoned following this attack.

Love is love, no matter the back story. <3 DS

9/11 Never Forget

Today is a pivotal milestone in US History. Today we are marking the 10^th Anniversary of the September 11^th terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and an attempted attack of the White House or Capital Building.

For those too young to remember 9/11, here is a summary. On September 11, 2001, 4 planes were hijacked by al-Qaeda suicide bombers. Two of those planes crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York. One plane hit the Pentagon building. A fourth plane was headed either for the White House or the Capital Building in D.C. but the attack was thwarted when passengers attempted to retake control of the airliner. Instead of hitting whatever target, that plane went down in a field in Pennsylvania. There were no survivors on any of the four planes. The Twin Towers collapsed hours after they were hit, killing more people in the process that had been trapped in the buildings. Nearly 3,000 people died in the attacks, including over 400 fire fighters, police officers, paramedics, and EMTs that were the part of the first responders to the Towers. Over 70 countries lost at least one citizen in the attack and a huge majority of deaths were civilians.

3 years after the attack, al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden claimed responsibility for these heinous acts. They cited a bunch of bullshit motivations for it... basically they said the US was messing in their affairs and they didn't like it. Stupid. The results of the attack were the War on Terror, invasion of Afghanistan, and the enacting of the USA Patriot Act. It was just a few months ago that bin Laden was located and killed in a firefight with US soldiers in Pakistan. 10 years. It took 10 freaking years to find him. His body was unceremoniously dumped at sea by US forces to avoid a terrorist shrine, even though such a burial is pretty much a big eff you to his traditions.

In the aftermath of 9/11, we got the Homeland Security Act (which created the Department of Homeland Security) and the USA Patriot Act. Hate crimes against Muslims, Middle Eastern descendants, southeast Asians, and Sikhs spiked exponentially in the US. The US invaded Iraq in 2003 and executed Iraqi president Saddam Hussein in 2006 in a failed bid to locate weapons of mass destruction.

10 years after 9/11, we are still trying to rebuild and recover from the attacks. The Pentagon was repaired within a year but the degrading economy has forced development of the Twin Towers area to delay rebuilding by as late as 2036. Memorials have been built at the Twin Tower site and the Pentagon. Memorial building at the Twin Towers site continues today. A temporary memorial for the victims that died in Pennsylvania is slated to be removed and replaced by a permanent memorial today on the 10^th anniversary.

This is going to be a hard day for many people. Try to keep that in mind as you go about your day. Remember the victims and honor their memories. Participate in memorial events if you are so inclined. They are happening everywhere today. Today is a day to reach out to your fellow man in solidarity and remembrance. Make it so.

Love is love, no matter the back story. <3 DS

Norway, You are in my Thoughts!

Keep the victims of today's horrible tragedy in Oslo, Norway in your thoughts. Whatever the reason for all this destruction, nothing could have merited the lives of 80 or more people, many of which were children. Read an article here if you haven't heard about this yet. Norwegians, stay strong. You are in my thoughts.