Red Widow

And here's probably the last After Avenger I get to before I see Endgame tomorrow! This is Red Widow, Adoma Orlova. And her origin is a little more complicated than the others because I wanted her's to be more rooted in the existing MCU. Adoma is the daughter of Ava Orlova, the first Red Widow (she's, uh... it's complicated... she's from the book Black Widow: Forever Red and the comic Red Widow if you want to look her up). As I see it, Ava feels very abandoned by the world, which is what draws her to help other people she sees as abandoned. Hypothetically, she found lots of people over the years who felt this way too, including a traditionalist Wakandan sorcerer who felt like he didn't have a place in the new future-centric Wakanda. Eventually together they decided that they were not defined by the mistakes of the people they were trying to be better than. And the result of that decision was Adoma. But the worlds of spies and magic don't mix. She, like Black Widow before her, is something of a wanderer. Natasha Romanov always had control of her situation but struggled to overcome her origins. Adoma, I figured, kind of turns that on it's head. She has to decide for herself who she is.
Kind of like Star Brand I guess. I realize looking back most of the After Avengers have some theme of searching for purpose. That's partly because the present day generation of heroes is so defined by their origins. I think it's usually peoples choices, not their tragic backstories, that shape them. And I guess that reflects in my work.
Her design is basically pulled straight from Jonathan Hickman's "50 Into the Future" comic (like Star Brand), though we don't learn anything else about her. The genre she's based on is modern fantasy movies. So many have leaned into darker or more realistic settings lately. Some frame the government as a danger to the fantasy world (like Shape of Water for example). A lot deal with the idea of "normal" people so weird they fit better in the fantasy world. As such, Red Widow is an agent who's part of a fantasy world.

Today I'm home! I'm back from college. We were all surprised it worked out this way, but I'm so glad I get to be back one night early. Thank you God!

Update 5/4/2019: Saw Endgame today. Wow. Well, now I'm extra glad I named her Red Widow instead of Black Widow. Even what I have written here almost feels irreverent now. 

Major Victory

Thank God for this drawing. I wasted so much time this morning I thought I wouldn't get to do something like this today. The semester's winding down, so today I don't have any scheduled activities at all. Usually I can reasonably manage my time, but for some reason this morning I was trapped at my computer after devotions and breakfast. Anyway, this is Major Victory. He's the second character I knew I wanted to be an After Avenger. He's pulled directly from Marvel comics too, though I changed his design somewhat. In the comics he was one of the original 1969 Guardians of the Galaxy (very different from the Guardians we know today). He was experimented on so he could survive a trip to another solar system in suspended animation, but found society had passed him during his trip and already formed on the planet before he got there. Eventually he traveled back to his past, the present Marvel universe at the time.
I felt like adding more details, but I remembered what happened to Other Guide and I stopped myself. My drawing here would still need to be added too (obviously) if there was ever a live-action movie of this. I drew a lot from astronaut suits and some from, unsurprisingly, Captain America's costume in Winter Soldier. I'm actually very satisfied with how I got his head armor to look. The shield was by far the hardest thing to do, and it still doesn't look right. Trust me it was much worse. In my version, he represents the many, many post-apocalypse science fiction movies that have come out recently. Since Captain America came to the present from the past, I thought it would be interesting if this version of Major Victory came from a post-apocalyptic future to our time. He could even meet himself, like in the comics. That would be cool to see in a Marvel-like movie, and he'd certainly have a unique perspective on the challenges the After Avengers would face.
I already have another After Avenger sort-of queued up. But I want to make some finishing touches to that one, and I wanted to post Major Victory first since he's been waiting since before I first drew Baymax 6. I should probably mention I'm not going to see Endgame till the end of this week.

The unshaded version, again.

God help me to use the rest of my time today to do what you want me to and also to not worry. I'm so happy to have you in my life.