Latest / Vigilante Vibes Podcast / Ep. 117. Wiccan: Comics Vs. MCU

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Ep. 117. Wiccan: Comics Vs. MCU · Vigilante Vibes Podcast

0:18
Hi guys, it's Meg of a vigilante vibes and today I'm here with
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another character breakdown, one that I'm very excited about.
0:24
It is officially Pride month. So what better way to kick off
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Pride month than with LGBTQ plus character for a character
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breakdown. So I will be covering the LGBTQ
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characters of the Marvel Universe for most of June.
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There will be a few that are tossed in there that are not
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just I do have a schedule, so I'm going to start this month's
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character breakdowns with Wiccan Billy Kaplan.
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I will start with the MCU version and then I'll give you
0:56
the comic book version. So in the MCU, what?
0:59
That's where we're going to start.
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Billy Maximoff is the son of Wanda Maximoff and Vision and
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the younger twin brother of Tommy.
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He was created by Wanda using her chaos magic during the
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Westview Anomaly. The twins grew up super super
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fast and Billy ended up with powers like mind reading and
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magic just like his mom. At one point, a witch named
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Agatha Harkness who we all know and love kidnapped them, but
1:26
Wanda rescued them and the twins helped fight off the SWORD
1:29
agents with the big showdown in Westview.
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After the battle, Wanda ended the anomaly which caused the
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twins to disappear, but before that happened, Billy managed to
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save both him and Tommy's souls using magic.
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He then put a soul into the body of a recently deceased boy named
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William Kaplan. With no memory of who he really
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is. He lived as William Kaplan for
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three years. In 2026, after studying
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witchcraft, Billy remembered who he truly was and set out to find
1:59
Tommy. He reconnected with Harkness
2:03
and, without meaning to, use his chaos magic to create something
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called the Witch's Road. He went through a bunch of
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magical trials with Harkins's new coven, got some of his
2:14
memories back, and eventually found Tommy's soul.
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He transferred it into another dying boy's body.
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Finishing the road boosted his powers, and he started going by
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the name Wiccan. Later, he showed up just in time
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to save Harkness from death. The actual person Death, Not
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just the thing. Death.
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I'm not sure how to describe it, but you were all there.
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Though she ended up dying anyways.
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She came back as a ghost though, and now helps guide him as a
2:45
spirit. Together they set off to find
2:47
Tommy again, and I am so excited to see where that leads us now
2:55
for the comic version. It's a has a lot more depth to
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it. There's a lot more going on, so
3:02
bear with me. Keep up.
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He is a great character and I'm excited for you guys to learn
3:07
about him. Or if you don't, if you already
3:08
know about him, then I'm excited for you to just, I guess, vibe
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with stuff you already know. Wicken's first appearance as a
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hero in Young Avengers #1 April 2005.
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He has been in comics before, but that was just as Wanda's
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son, Wanda's baby. This is as a hero as Wiccan.
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The issue was scripted by Allen Heinberg and drawn by Jimmy
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Chung, one of the original four members of the Young Avengers.
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The team was founded after The Avengers disbanded.
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In the storyline Avengers Disassembled, he initially went
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by the code name as Guardian due to his powers over lightning and
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his initial costume looking a lot like Thor.
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So let's get into who Billy Kaplan is as a character.
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Avengers members Vision and Scarlet Witch somehow end up
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with twin kids thanks to Wanda's magic, which is pretty wild
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considering Visions A synthezoid and Wanda's a Chaos witch.
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What no one realizes at first is that the twins are actually made
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from pieces of the demon Mephisto's lost soul.
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An evil sorcerer named Martin Preston, also known as Master
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Pandemonium, gets tricked by Mephisto into kidnapping the
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twins, thinking they're fragments of his own soul.
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Eventually the kids get absorbed back into Mephisto, but Wanda's
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magic had changed them so much that they actually managed to
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destroy Mephisto, at least for a bit, and their souls are freed.
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People think those souls are gone forever, but in reality
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they're reincarnated as a real human being.
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People think those souls are gone forever, but in reality
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they are reincarnated as real human beings.
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One of those reincarnated souls becomes Billy Kaplan, AKA
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Wiccan. The reason we're all here today.
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As a kid, Billy figures out he's gay and gets bullied for it.
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One day, after a random and uplifting run in with the
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Scarlet Witch, he decides he's had enough and plans to stand up
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to his bully, Jon Kessler. Which sounds like a bully name
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if we're all being honest. No offense to anyone.
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That same Jon Kessler out there. Maybe you've turned your life
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around, I don't know. Unfortunately, that's the exact
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moment his powers kick in and his Electro kinetic abilities
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nearly kill Kessler by accident. I mean, you got to break a few
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eggs to make an omelette, you know?
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Billy starts seriously working on his magic and really wants to
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find Wanda again. He always felt a strong
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connection to her, but just his luck, The Avengers fall apart
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right around that time so reaching her becomes pretty much
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impossible. Thankfully, Vision has a backup
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plan. A fail safe program kicks in and
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brings together Billy, who's called calling himself as
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Guardian as of now, Teddy Altman who is Hulkling Wicken's Boo, a
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time travelling teen version of Nathaniel Richards AKA Iron Lad
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and Elijah Bradley AKA Patriot. Together they form a new team,
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the Young Avengers. Wiccan's powers are wild,
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powerful, unpredictable, and clearly magical.
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Some say they might be mutant base too.
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Some say most of the time his powers show up as glowing
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Electro kinetic energy from his hands, which he can use for
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offense or defense. He can also teleport, fly,
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create stuff out of thin air, levitate things, shoot blasts of
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energy, fire, ice, or force. He can make force fields and
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other solid energy constructs, and even heal people, including
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himself. The real kicker?
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His powers seem to only be limited by his imagination and
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focus. But here's the catch.
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His spells don't seem to work unless he can hear himself say
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them out loud. Wiccan's still pretty young, so
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he's figuring out his powers as he goes, but with time and
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practice, there's a good chance that he could become one of the
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most powerful sorcerers out there.
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Even now, he's already a key member of the Young Avengers and
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brings a ton of value to the team. 1 of Wiccan's main rivals
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is actually someone on his own team, a teenage version of Loki.
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They're both magic users, but while Wiccan tries to use his
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powers to help people and support the team, Loki's all
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about manipulation and chaos. To Wiccan, Loki is kind of a
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warning sign, a look at what he could become if he ever lost
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control or used his magic the wrong way.
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Another major enemy Wiccan has to deal with is Mother, a creepy
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parasitic creature from another dimension.
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She first shows up pretending to be Hulkling's parents and then
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actually brings the real ones back under her control.
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Her end game To get her hands on Wiccan and take control of his
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massive magical powers. So he's got, he's got mommy
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issues of all mommy issues. Not that mother is his mother,
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but I just thought it was kind of funny to say.
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Wiccan's closest allies are the Young Avengers, especially Teddy
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AKA Hulkling, who he was in an on and off relationship with
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until they got married, which was so cute.
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I will. At the end of this video I will
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tell you which comic to go check out so you can see their
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wedding. He's also teamed up with other
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heroes like America Chavez Novar who is Marvel boy, and David
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Allen who's prodigy building solid friendships while fighting
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alongside them. Wicked and Hulkling made for an
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unexpected but lovable couple. Billy's the impulsive magic guy.
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Teddy's the calm, super strong scroll who keeps him grounded.
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Their relationship has had its share of ups and downs,
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including Loki once suggesting that Billy should magically
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force the relationship to work, which of course is like a
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terrible idea. Billy and Teddy started dating
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not long after the Young Avengers formed, and their
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relationships been just a bit of a roller coaster ever since.
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When Kate Bishop, AKA Hawkeye, and Cassie Lange, who is
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Stature, joined the team, they convinced Billy to switch his
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code name from Asgardian to Wiccan, pointing out that yeah,
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he's not exactly from Asgard. So it's like, what's why?
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At one point, Billy tried to come out to his parents as a
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superhero, but it didn't go as planned.
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They ended up finding out he was gay instead, so while they
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learned about his sexuality, they stayed completely in the
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dark about his magical powers. If you're confused, when I say
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his parents, I do not mean Scarlet Witch in the Vision.
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I mean Bill, the parents of Billy Kaplan, the mother that
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birthed that child before he died, before Wiccan Billy
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Maximoff took over his body. So keep that in mind.
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Not long after that, the Super Scroll showed up trying to
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kidnap Hulkling, who as it turns out is actually part scroll
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himself. The whole thing.
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And tragically, with the death of Teddy's mom and to make
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things worse, he was later taken by the Cree.
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To rescue him, the Young Avengers brought in a new
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recruit, Bobby Shepard, AKA Speed.
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Funnily enough, Tommy and Billy looked almost exactly alike,
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aside from their hair their hair color.
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Eventually they figured out why, because they were actually
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reincarnated twins, sons of Scarlet Witch and Vision.
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So they did not know they were twins, I guess.
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Twin souls, I guess. But yeah, they look just alike,
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just with different hair. And in my head I'm picturing Joe
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Locky. Is it Joe Locky or Joe Locke?
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I don't. I call it both and I know I'm
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wrong. So the one who played Wiccan in
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Agfa all along, I'm picturing him playing speed while playing
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Wiccan. But him with just bright white
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hair, I I think he could pull that off really well.
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I think it'd look really cool, but moving on, when the first
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superhero civil war broke out, the Young Avengers sided with
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the Resistance, standing against the Superhuman Registration Act
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and one of the biggest fights. Wicken was hit with a
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tranquilizer to stop him from teleporting and the rest of the
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team had to bail without him. He ended up locked up but Steve
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Rogers, you know Captain America LED a jailbreak using whole
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cling shape shifting to sneak in and help free even more of their
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side. After that they joined up with
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Caps Secret Avengers. Later on the team ran into
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another group calling themselves the Young Avengers.
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Things got super tense but they eventually teamed up to fight
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threats like the Century. Still, the new recruits weren't
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really a good fit, so they split off to form their own team
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called the Young Masters, which just that name does not hit as
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hard as Young Avengers, but I digress.
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From there, Billy and the original Young Avengers jumped
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into some pretty big battles, fighting during the Scroll's
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Secret Invasion and later during Norman Osborne's siege on
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Asgard. Around that time, Doctor Strange
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approached Billy, seeing him as a possible successor to become
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the next Sorcerer Supreme, but things got messy.
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Billy's powers overloaded, and he was detained by The Avengers.
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Naturally, his team broke him out and they went looking for
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the Scarlet Witch. When they finally found her, she
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had lost her memory and was somehow engaged to Doctor Doom.
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That led to a huge fight with an army of Doombots, and just when
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things were about to fall apart, Iron Lads showed up and saved
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them. They even took a quick trip back
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in time, which ended up restoring Wanda's powers and
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memories. Back in the present, the team
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went up against Doctor Doom, who had managed to steal Wanda's
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powers. Things got out of control and
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during the fight, Doom killed Cassie with a blast.
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Iron Lad offered to go back in time to save her, but Vision
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refused. In response, Iron Lad lost it.
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He destroyed Vision and disappeared.
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Before leaving, Wiccan told him that by doing this, he basically
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locked himself into becoming his future self, Kang the Conqueror.
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After all of that, the Young Avengers broke up and Billy fell
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into a deep depression. Hulkling proposed to him, which
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helped him start to recover along with a ceremony where
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Captain America officially welcomed all the Young Avengers
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as full-fledged Avengers. Eventually, the team came back
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together after Billy accidentally brought a powerful
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parasite called Mother into their world.
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She disguised herself as Teddy's dead mom.
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That event also pulled a younger version of Loki, who joined the
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team while secretly messing with both Billy and Mother.
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Loki's real plan To unlock Billy's full magical potential
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and turn him into a being called the Demerge, basically a magical
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God. As part of that, Loki actually
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brought back Teddy and Billy's parents from the dead, but under
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Mother's control. He then tricked Billy into
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giving him full access to his powers for just 10 minutes, so
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he says to save the day, only to use Billy's teleportation magic
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to run away. Eventually, Loki felt bad and
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came back to help the team escape Mother's brainwashed
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army. The downside?
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Billy and Teddy could never safely be around their
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resurrected parents again. After that, the Young Avengers
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decided to take off and explore the universe, planning to return
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stronger and ready to take Mother down for good.
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During this time, the mutant prodigy joined the team with a
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warning. Billy's twin, Speed had been
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kidnapped by someone who looked like Patriot.
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The team chased the imposter across the dimensions and ended
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up back in Mother's realm way earlier than planned.
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Things went very sideways. Hulkling and the fake Patriot
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were left behind, and Billy cast a huge spell that summoned evil
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versions of the Young Avengers. The distraction helped the rest
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of the team escape, but Mother absorbed the clones into her
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army. After all that chaos, Billy quit
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the team. Loki had planted the idea that
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maybe Billy had subconsciously used his magic to make Holkling
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love him, and it messed with his head enough that he walked away.
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But Mother wasn't done. She made her way back to Earth
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and became a serious threat. In the end, Billy had no choice
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but to fully unlock his powers and become the Demiurge to stop
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her once and for all. After that, Hulkling and Wiccan
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joined the New Avengers A-Team funded by Robert Acosta, who is
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Sunspot, who is running a reformed, more heroic version of
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AIM. While working with them, Billy
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and Teddy found out that Hulkling was basically a chosen
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one among Cree and Scroll hybrids tied to a secret space
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group called the Knights of the Infinite.
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The two were taken to the Knights Castle where they ran
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into an evil wizard named Meriden.
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With help from their New Avenger teammates, they managed to drive
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him off, but the danger wasn't over.
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Meriden secretly snuck into Billy subconscious.
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The new Avengers eventually found out that in the future,
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Meriden would fully take over Wiccan and use him destroy all
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of reality. A group of future Avengers even
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traveled back to the present to stop it confronting Sunspot's
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team. By that time, Billy had already
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started going by demurrage and was slowly falling under
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Meriden's influence. Thanks to Hulkling stepping in
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at just the right moment, Billy was able to fight off Meridian's
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influence and kick him out of his mind for good.
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That also sent the future Avengers back to their own
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timeline and put an end to the whole reality Ending threat.
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Not long after, the New Avengers team broke up and Sunspot gifted
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Billy and Teddy a fancy apartment in Central Park as a
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Good Bride present. The two of them decided to take
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a break from superhero life just for a while and focus on
17:35
themselves. Not long after, Teddy was asked
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to become the emperor of the new Crease Skull Alliance and he
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shared the big news with Billy. He agreed to take the role, but
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just before his coronation, someone from the Empire warned
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him that being with Billy would be seen as a weakness.
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Teddy kept it together in front of everyone but privately told
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Billy how he really felt. Billy understood the pressure
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Teddy was under and chose to leave so Teddy could step into
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his new role, but not before telling him that he'd be waiting
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back on Earth. They stayed in touch and
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eventually got married in secret, with the Young Avengers
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reuniting for a low key ceremony in Vegas.
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Since Teddy's now basically King of space, their honeymoon had to
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be put on pause and the two started navigating a long
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distance marriage. Not long after, Billy got a
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visit from Johnny Storm, who's the Human Torch, and Carol
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Danvers, who is Captain Marvel, who told him something pretty
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wild. They'd had run into Emperor
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Hulkling, who's apparently planning to use a weapon called
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the Pyre to blow up Earth's sun and wipe out the plant like
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alien race known as the Katati. Billy used his magic to watch
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the encounter himself, and it didn't take long for him to
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realize that wasn't the real Teddy.
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Quite literally was not the real Teddy.
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Using a spell, Billy tracked down the real Hulkling and found
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him locked up in a cell wearing a Scroll inhibitor mask.
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Turns out the fake Emperor was actually Teddy's grandmother,
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the former Skull Empress Raquel. She'd already activated the pier
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and attacked Billy, Teddy, Johnny, and Carol.
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During the fight, the carrier wave was unleashed that
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disrupted Scroll minds, giving the team an opening while Teddy
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stayed behind to help the his people fight off the impostor's
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forces. Billy, Johnny, and Carol
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teleported to the sun to stop the explosion, and luckily Tony
19:37
Stark, who's Iron Man, showed up just in time to shut it all
19:40
down. After the war with the Katati
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ended, Billy and Teddy finally had a proper royal wedding
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aboard the Alliance's flagship. Billy took Teddy's last name and
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was officially named Prince Consort and Court Wizard.
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They finally got their honeymoon too, heading to a beach resort
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on the Shayar world of Little Chandelier with L'Oreal, an
20:04
Accuser tagging along as their bodyguard.
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But the relaxation did not last long.
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A swarm of symbiote Dragons attacked, and the newlyweds
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jumped right back into action to protect the planet.
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Teddy checked in with their home base and got confirmation that
20:20
things were getting worse. Null, the God of the symbiotes,
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and his army of Dragons were tearing through the Galaxy.
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Billy and Teddy jumped into action, organizing an evacuation
20:31
of Little Chandelier, but before they could finish, more Dragons
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showed up. Turns out they were actually
20:37
Talos's crew, who had been infected by symbiotes.
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Billy used his magic to free them and the evacuation
20:44
continued. Not long after, the Super
20:47
spouses had to split up to help stop major cosmic threats.
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Dormanu had taken control of Ego, the living planet and was
20:55
targeting 5 worlds. Billy and Teddy teamed up with
20:58
the Guardians of the Galaxy and SWORD to fight back.
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Even though they were apart, they knew they were still
21:04
fighting for each other and together they helped save the
21:07
Galaxy again. So that is who Wiccan is, who
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Billy Kaplan is as a character. His, he has so much rich history
21:19
as a character and that's what I've always appreciated about
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him. Plus him and Hulkling are so
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cute. So I do have some comics for you
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to check out to get to know Billy a little better, to get a
21:30
little better. Look at Hulkling and Billy's
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relationship for the romance lovers and Wicked and Hulkling
21:36
lovers. They get engaged in the final
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issue of Children's Crusade. They marry in empire #5 and they
21:45
remarry an empire aftermath #1 You can also check out Young
21:52
Avengers volume one, Young Avengers volume two, Young
21:59
Avengers volume 3, Avengers the Children Crusade.
22:04
It is a fantastic run. You will love it, I promise.
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West Coast Avengers #51 to 52 to get the full story of how the
22:14
Maximoff twins Billy and Tommy came to be.
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New Avengers 8 through 12, Marvel Empire, King in Black,
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Wiccan and Hulkling. That is where you can see their
22:29
honeymoon that did not happen and the last Annihilation.
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So that is all I have for you today on Wiccan.
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So let me know what you thought about in the comments and let me
22:42
know who are some of your favorite LGBTQ plus characters
22:45
from Marvel because I'm looking to try to talk about all of
22:49
them. So let me know in the comments.
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With that being said, have a marvelous day.