Each offering is a curse. The idea of offering something typically carries a positive connotation. We often associate offerings with acts of goodwill, generosity, and kindness. Whether it’s giving a gift to a loved one on a special occasion or donating money to a charitable cause, offerings are seen as gestures of benevolence. However, it can be argued that every offering possesses an inherent curse. When we offer something to someone, it creates expectations and obligations.
Soon after the Young Avengers formed, Billy began dating Teddy, aka Hulkling. Their relationship would be tumultuous for its entire existence. Kate Bishop AKA Hawkeye, and Cassie Lang AKA Stature, joined the Young Avengers soon after, and convinced Billy to change his codename to Wiccan, noting he wasn’t an actual Asgardian.
During the first Super Hero Civil War, the Young Avengers placed themselves firmly on the side of the resistance, fighting against the Superhuman Registration Act. Their relationship survives many ups and downs, not the least of which is the suggestion from the manipulative Loki that Wiccan use his magic to keep him and Hulkling together.
When we offer something to someone, it creates expectations and obligations. The receiver may feel compelled to reciprocate the gesture, leading to an unspoken contract between the giver and receiver. This contract can create a sense of indebtedness and burden, as both parties feel obligated to maintain the balance of giving and receiving.
William “Billy” Kaplan Wiccan
William “Billy” Kaplan, a young magician, not only faces confusion in his personal teenage life, but also in his attempts to become an official Super Hero.
Biography
Biography
Scarlet Witch and Vision’s twins. Wiccan has wide-ranging, powerful magical abilities and may be capable of much more than his mother’s chaos magic, as he learns and expands his powers.
A Kind of Magic
The Avengers Vision and Scarlet Witch once had twin children. This was an extraordinary occurrence, considering Vision is a synthetic being and Scarlet Witch is a chaos magician. Unfortunately for the couple, the children were undone and exposed as manipulation by Master Pandemonium. Despite this, the children were reincarnated as actual people.
Wiccan, born Billy Kaplan, was one of those reincarnated people.
When he was young, Billy Kaplan realized he was gay, and so took a lot of abuse from classmates. After an encouraging word from a random encounter with the Scarlet Witch, Billy decided to stand up to his bully, John Kessler, when the next opportunity presented itself. Unluckily for him, the electrokinetic aspect of his powers manifested at that exact moment, and Kessler was nearly killed.
Billy began to practice his magic powers in earnest, and wished to find Wanda again, to whom he felt a special connection. Unfortunately for Billy once again, his desire to do so came right as the Avengers disbanded in disgrace, so he was unable to get in touch with her. Thanks to Vision, a failsafe program was put in place that gathered Billy (originally calling himself the Asgardian), Hulkling, Iron Lad, and Patriot together. This new team was dubbed the Young Avengers.
Magic Man
Wiccan’s powers are extensive, unpredictable, powerful, possibly mutant, and most definitely magical. Typically, his abilities manifest as electrokinetic energy from his hands, which Wiccan can manipulate in numerous ways—both offensively and defensively. Wiccan can also teleport himself and his teammates over long distances, fly, create objects from thin air, levitate objects, project force, energy, ice, heat, and fire, and create force fields and other solid energy objects.
Wiccan is still a young man and so is learning more and more about his powers as he practices; it is possible he will become one of the world’s most powerful sorcerers given enough time. Regardless, he is an invaluable member of the Young Avengers.
You Put a Spell On Me
One of Wiccan’s primary adversaries happens to be a fellow Young Avenger—a teenage Loki. Both are magic users, but Wiccan tries to use his powers for the good of the team and humanity, while Loki’s magic is manipulative, self-serving, and ultimately destructive. To Wiccan, Loki represents where his own powers could lead him if he doesn’t remain vigilant and careful.
The evil Mother, a parasitic being from another dimension, is also a great enemy of Wiccan. She first poses as Hulkling’s parents, and then actually brings them back under her control, with her ultimate goal of seeking to gain mastery over Wiccan and his vast powers.
Do You Believe in Magic?
Wiccan’s chief allies are the other Young Avengers, especially Theodore “Teddy” Altman, also known as Hulkling, whom Wiccan has dated off and on. He also befriends and fights alongside such heroes as America Chavez, Noh-Varr, Speed, and Prodigy.
Wiccan’s relationship with his best friend and sometimes boyfriend Hulkling makes them an unlikely couple: an impulsive magician paired with a super-strong, yet level-headed Skrull. Their relationship survives many ups and downs, not the least of which is the suggestion from the manipulative Loki that Wiccan use his magic to keep him and Hulkling together.
Universe, Other Aliases, Education, Place of Origin, Identity, Known Relatives, Powers, Group Affiliation
- Universe
- Marvel Universe
- Other Aliases
- Asgardian, Magic Lad, Thor Junior, Warlock Boy
- Education
- High school student
- Place of Origin
- Allegedly Leonia, New Jersey
- Identity
- Secret
- Known Relatives
- Wanda Maximoff (Scarlet Witch, apparent mother), Vision (Victor Shade, apparent father), Thomas Shepherd (Speed, brother), Jeff and Rebecca Kaplan (adoptive parents), two younger adoptive brothers
- Powers
- Magic
- Energy Blasts
- Teleportation
- Group Affiliation
- Strikeforce
Voodoo Child
Soon after the Young Avengers formed, Billy began dating Teddy, aka Hulkling. Their relationship would be tumultuous for its entire existence. Kate Bishop AKA Hawkeye, and Cassie Lang AKA Stature, joined the Young Avengers soon after, and convinced Billy to change his codename to Wiccan, noting he wasn’t an actual Asgardian.
While attempting to tell his parents he was a Super Hero, Wiccan inadvertently came out as gay instead; so, though they learned about his sexuality, they never discovered his magic powers.
Soon after, the Super Skrull attempted to kidnap Hulkling, also a Skrull in disguise, leading to the death of Teddy’s mother. In the wake of this, Hulkling was captured by the Kree.
In order to rescue Hulkling, the Young Avengers recruited another member, Tommy Shepherd, who began going by Speed. Wiccan and Speed looked almost identical except for hair color, and they eventually learned they were the reincarnated twin children of the Scarlet Witch and Vision. During the first Super Hero Civil War, the Young Avengers placed themselves firmly on the side of the resistance, fighting against the Superhuman Registration Act. During one of the biggest battles of the conflict, Wiccan was tranquilized to halt his teleportation powers, and his allies had to flee without him. After Wiccan was locked up, Captain America led a group that broke Billy and his fellow anti-Registration prisoners out, utilizing Hulkling’s shapeshifting ability to free even more resistance fighters.
In the time after the Civil War, Billy and his teammates would become involved in the fight against the Skrull’s Secret Invasion and Norman Osborn’s Siege on Asgard. Doctor Strange also approached Billy during this period as a potential candidate to succeed him as Sorcerer Supreme. After his powers overloaded, Billy was held by the Avengers. The Young Avengers broke him out, and the team began to search for the Scarlet Witch. The team eventually located her, now amnesiac and engaged to Doctor Doom. A vicious battle with a horde of Doombots ensued, and it was only the timely arrival of Iron Lad that saved them all. After a quick trip to the past, Wanda’s memories and powers were restored.
Back in the present, the team battled Doctor Doom, who had succeeded in his goal of stealing Wanda’s powers. In the ensuing melee, Doom blasted Cassie Lang and killed her. Iron Lad offered to jump to the past again and save Cassie, but Vision refused his offer. Iron Lad then annihilated Vision and disappeared, but not before Wiccan informed him that Iron Lad’s path to becoming his older self, Kang the Conqueror, was secured.
The Young Avengers disbanded and Wiccan fell into a state of deep depression. Hulkling proposed to him, which seemed to help, as did a ceremony where Captain America initiated all the Young Avengers as full-fledged Avengers.
The team re-formed after Wiccan accidentally brought a parasite called Mother into their dimension, posing as Teddy’s dead mother returned to life. This brought a young incarnation of Loki to the team, who was secretly manipulating both Mother and Wiccan, wanting to release Wiccan’s ultimate form, a terrifying beast called Demiurge.
To that end, Loki truly returned Teddy and Billy’s parents to life, but under the influence of Mother, then convinced Wiccan to lend his vast magic powers to Loki for ten minutes to save the day. Wiccan agreed, only for Loki to use Wiccan’s teleportation powers to flee.
Feeling guilty, Loki came back and helped the team escape Mother’s mind-controlled army, though as a consequence, Billy and Teddy couldn’t go anywhere near their resurrected parents ever again. The Young Avengers then decided to explore the universe instead, with the ultimate goal of returning and defeating Mother when they were ready.
The young mutant Prodigy joined the team during this period with a warning: Wiccan’s twin brother Speed had been kidnapped by someone who looked like Patriot. Their interdimensional chase led them to Mother’s dimension before the Young Avengers were ready, and in the ensuing chaos, Hulkling and Patriot were left behind. A massive spell cast by Billy brought in evil clones of the Young Avengers that distracted Mother and allowed their remaining teammates and the rest of the team to escape again, but Mother added the clones to her army.Wiccan quit the Young Avengers after that, convinced, through a manipulative suggestion of Loki’s, that Wiccan and Hulkling were only together because Wiccan’s magic made it so through inadvertent reality manipulation.
Mother managed to return to the Young Avengers’ dimension and threaten the world, prompting Wiccan to temporarily become his full-potential self, the Demiurge, to stop her once and for all.
It was this decision, along with reconciliation with Hulkling, that gave Wiccan the strength to destroy Mother and the army of evil clones for good.
Wiccan and Hulkling then joined the New Avengers, financed by Sunspot, who was heading a new, altruistic spinoff of Advanced Idea Mechanics (A.I.M.). Wiccan and Hulkling learned that Hulkling was a kind of chosen one among Kree/Skrull hybrids to a secret space society called the Knights of the Infinite. Taken to the Knights of the Infinite’s castle, Wiccan and Hulkling discovered an evil wizard named Moridun and, with the help of their fellow New Avengers, drove the wizard away.
Secretly, the wizard possessed Wiccan’s subconscious, and the New Avengers learned that in the future Moridun would take over Wiccan completely and use him to destroy reality. The Avengers of the future escaped to the present day, and opposed Sunspot’s team, including Billy, who was now calling himself Demiurge and already under Moridun’s control.
It was only due to the timely influence of Hulkling that Billy was able to drive away Moridun’s consciousness, sending the future Avengers back to their own time and ending the threat.
The New Avengers team splintered and then disbanded soon after, with Sunspot giving Billy and Teddy a luxury Central Park apartment as a parting gift. The couple decided to focus on themselves and forego heroics for the time being.
While attempting to tell his parents he was a Super Hero, Wiccan inadvertently came out as gay instead; so, though they learned about his sexuality, they never discovered his magic powers.
Furthermore, offerings can create a power dynamic between the giver and receiver. When one person consistently offers gifts or favors, it can establish a hierarchy where the giver holds more power and control. The receiver may feel beholden to the giver, forced to comply with their requests or expectations in order to maintain the relationship. In addition, offerings can sometimes be perceived as manipulative or insincere. In certain situations, people may offer something in order to achieve a hidden agenda or manipulate others to act in a certain way. This manipulative aspect of offerings can taint the act itself, turning a seemingly kind gesture into a curse. Moreover, offerings can lead to a sense of entitlement. When someone consistently receives offerings, they may come to expect and rely on them. This expectation can create a sense of entitlement where the receiver feels that they are deserving of constant gifts and favors. This entitlement can sour relationships and create resentment between the giver and receiver. Overall, while offerings are often seen as acts of kindness, it is important to recognize that they can carry a curse. Each offering creates expectations, power dynamics, and potential manipulations. It is crucial to approach offerings with mindfulness and genuine intentions to avoid the negative consequences that can arise from them..
Reviews for "The Curse of the Discount Mentality: Each Offering and the Devaluation of Quality"
1. Sara - 1 star
I found "Each offering is a curse" to be quite disappointing. The story seemed to promise a thrilling and suspenseful experience, but it fell flat for me. The plot was confusing and disjointed, making it difficult to follow along. The characters were poorly developed and lacked depth, making it hard to connect or care about them. Additionally, the writing style was dull and lacked creativity. Overall, I felt like I wasted my time reading this book.
2. John - 2 stars
While I appreciate the effort put into "Each offering is a curse," I couldn't get into the story at all. The pacing was incredibly slow, making it a struggle to stay engaged. The dialogue felt forced and unnatural, and the descriptions were overly detailed to the point of becoming tedious. The plot twists were predictable, and the ending felt rushed and unsatisfying. I wanted to enjoy this book, but it simply didn't live up to my expectations.
3. Rachel - 1 star
I regret picking up "Each offering is a curse." The story lacked originality and felt like a rehashed version of other supernatural novels I've read. The characters were flat and lacked depth, making it hard to care about their fates. The pacing was all over the place, with dull moments dragging on and the supposedly intense scenes lacking any real impact. I found myself losing interest quickly and ultimately had to force myself to finish the book. It just wasn't for me.
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