OK, since this thread has already morphed into Ask the Comic guys:
I’ve been following The Exiles since the beginning (or before that, if you count the Blink miniseries). As a fan of the late, sometimes great (and sometimes awful) Generation X from the beginning (i.e. Phalanx covenant), I know all about Blink. But as relative newbie on the rest of the marvel universe, I’m picking up bits and pieces about the other members as I go.
Can anyone give me a brief rundown on the origins of Nocturne, T-Bird, Sunfire, Sasquatch, Magnus, Mimic, and Morph?
I know sasquatch comes from Alpha Flight, and the Hulk issues shed a bit of light on T-bird, but which is the “real” one in the main marvel-verse: T-bird or Shaman, or niether?
I remember Morph from the Xmen cartoon. But wasn’t he human-looking? and perhaps evil? (memory fuzzy on that one.)
Does Mimic’s power differ from Sync’s in any way other than that’s it’s permanent? Is it different from Rogue’s aside from having to touch people, and not hurting the drainee?
Most certainly, photopat. I pissed my brother off big time when I correctly guessed who it was in one of the preview episodes (even though neither of us was terribly familiar at that time with Kirby’s Fourth World work - that changed soon after).
Well gonzoron, I think I can answer your questions. Keep in mind, most of this is off the top of my head, so caveat emptor.
The thing to keep in mind here is that in the mainstream Marvel Universe, Shaman, Sasquatch and Thunderbird are all completely different characters.
Shaman is/was Michael Twoyoungman who, in the great Dr. Strange tradition, started out as a conventional medical doctor. After his wife’s death and various conversations with his grandfather’s mystic talking skull, he became the Alpha Flight member known as Shaman.
Sasquatch was physicist Walter Langkoswki who was bombarded by radiation as a result of one of his own experiments and became the Alpha Flight member. His origin was very Hulk-like. Only Not.
Thunderbird was a native american mutant named John Proudstar who joined the X-Men at the same time as Nightcrawler, Storm, etc. and died on one of the early missions. Much later he was replaced by his brother, James Proudstar.
The T-Bird in Exiles was mostly James Proudstar, while the Shaman from the Hulk storyline was kinda Thunderbird and Shaman smushed together.
Well, I never saw the Animated Series episodes you mention, but I’m pretty sure that’s where Morph came from. He originated on the TV series. He may have been inspired by Changeling, a sorta member from waaay back who was human looking in his natural state. Anyway, Morph started out on TV and finally made it into the books during the Age of Apokolypse. When that story was over, he was gone again until Exiles. I’m pretty sure that there was never a Morph in the Mainstream Marvel Universe.
I didn’t remember much of Mimic so I checked with my handy dandy Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe. I can now tell you that the Exiles alterna-reality Mimic has powers that are different from the mainstream Marvel U’s Mimic. The regular continuity guy couldn’t copy powers permanently whereas the Exiles guy seems able to. (Mainstream guy only had to be near a mutant to copy the abilities and he had no control - he just copied powers automatically whenever near someone.) Therefore, whatever you see in Exiles is what you get.
Didn’t Sasquatch’s ultimate origin prove to be an evil elder god doppelganging him by taking advantage of the dimensional tear caused by his experiment, and not the mutagenic effects of the radiation as originally believed.
Right you are astro. Sasquatch was one of the Great Beasts. That’s what I was refering to with the “Only Not”. I was trying to explain the characters without giving away everything.
Besides, I was afraid that if I explained about Sasquatch’s true origin, I’d have to get into how Walt became a woman and why Puck wasn’t really a dwarf and eventually I’d have to go lie down.
Walt’s body eventually became fully possessed by Sasquatch. Walt’s spirit ended up in the body of SnowBird. Walt is now a woman. Walt can still change into a sasquatch. But now the fur is platinum blonde instead of red.
IIRC Puck is an adventurer and thief several centuries old. He attempted to steal a mystic sword. The sword had been used to trap a demon. The demon had corrupted and weakened the sword during its imprisonment. Puck’s touching the sword was enough to release it. Puck used the sword to trap the demon within himself. This made him immortal and a dwarf (as in the medical condition. not the Gimli, Thorink Oaknenshield variety of Dwarf)
I’m sure he’s much too modest to say so himself, but Chaim is generally ackowledged in the fan community as the authority on the Legion due to his authorship of the Legion Help File:
And after the big hoopla of Northstar coming out of the closet admitting he was gay and having AIDS, didn’t they then retcon it into “No. I said I was a fairy. A FAIRY!!! Like as in “elf”? 'Cause I am, you know.” :rolleyes:
Alpha Flight. A mediorcre book turned to utter sh*t.
And I agree Chaim is Keeper of the Supreme Knowledge of all things Legion.
I was talking to my used-to-be comic store owner back in Maryland a few months back and I asked him what he thought of the “explosion” of TP collections and whether he thought it was a good or bad thing.
He thought it was good in that it was exposing comics to a wider audience, as many bookstores B&N, Borders, etc., have sections devoted to graphic novels, buit the flipside was that it was killing the back issue market, which was hurting him and the wider availability was also costing him customers. Though not so many that he didn’t open his 3rd store.
He did say this, which I found interesting and I wonder what you think of it:
He thought that single issues of comics were a “dying breed,” kinda like 45’s and that soon everything would be in TP’s.
Which is kind of intersting until I try and figure how you go from single issue to TP’s. Do you kinda see what I’m trying to get at?
Oh yeah, this isn’t just for Fenris, but as he seems to be the resident Doper Comic Book Guy I thought I’d give him a shot at it.
Oh yeah, what did you think of Watchmen? Good or bad for the industry, what with it’s whole "deconstructionist angle?
I kinda agree with him. Sales on comics keep slowly slipping (I don’t have hard numbers or cites, but I know that Chris Priest (Black Panther), Kurt Busiek and Tom Breevort(ed for tons of Marvels) have been talking about how sales keep slipping even for good selling books.) Comics simply don’t seem to be attracting a new generation of kids. So SOMETHING has to be done. Frankly, comics are getting too expensive for too little return. A new comic costs…what? $2.50 or so? (No discounts, we’re talking new readers, not ones with subscriptions or hold boxes). That’s about half a kid’s admission to a movie. The comic lasts…15 minutes? 20 minutes tops? The movie’s 1:45-2:00.
I don’t know how the transition is gonna happen but I agree, I think it will. And as for killing the back issue market, I disagree. I think the “collectible boom” of the '80s killed it. When I was a kid in the mid '70s, I managed to pick up a JLA #1 by mowing lawns for a few months. Cost me $55.00. Today that book in similar shape would cost about $3200.00. Even allowing for inflation, that’s insane. It’s out of the reach of most people and it’s certainly out of the reach of kids. Back issues got me reading and collecting. I loved that the books I was reading had such a rich history. Trade Paperbacks, archive edition reprints, etc reopen that door for new collectors. A new JLA fan can pick up JLA archives #1 and get Brave and Bold $28-30 and JLA 1-8 for about the same amount it cost me to get that JLA #1. I can’t see it as anything but good, regarldess of it’s effect on the grossly overinflated back-issue market.
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Loved Watchmen when it was coming out, though I thought the ending was a little weak. (Ozy’s master plan, not the epilogue with the journal).
I hated the fact that less competent imitators for about 4 years after tried to deconstruct every hero (I’m exaggerating) and made 'em “grim’n’gritty”, but that’s not Moore’s fault.
I thought it was creepy that lots of fanboys at the time looked at Rorschach and said “He’s so kewl!” when Moore was going out of his way to portray a mentally ill character. (And Moore’s versions of the Quality charcters (The Question, Blue Beetle, Captain Atom) are all truer to the original versions than their DC conterparts books were.)
And frankly, I’ve gotta say that in some ways, Moore’s MIRACLE MANs did a better job of deconstruction. That brutal fight between Kid Miracleman and Miracle Man in #15, as we (for the first time ever) saw what collateral damage would’ve been like in a world with super-types and I think we got a clearer picture about how removed super-types would be from everyday concerns via Micky Moran than we did with, say Captain Atom.
Re- Trade Paperbacks
I don’t see it happening. Instead of the standard 1 issue per month, would they publish 1 tp every 5 months? What would the publishing schedule be and how would it effect revenue for the publisher?
As mentioned Borders, etc carry tp’s. They also allow you to read them and not buy them. If the comics industry shifted exclusively to tp’s, I think almost nothing would be ordered in advance. Wait for the tp to come out. Read it at Barnes&Outrageouslypricedcoffeelikebeverages. If it’s good enough that you want a copy of your own, you could buy one of their copies, or have a comic store back order one.
Re-Watchmen
Actually, I’d say StarBrand was far more deconstructionist. The protagonist gets powers in issue 1. He doesn’t put on a costume and fight crime until IIRC 6.
Watchmen was good for the industry. It was one of the great proofs that comics could be art. I can’t imagine DC creating Vertigo, if there had been no Watchmen.
Actually, the whole elf business came before Northstar “officially” came out of the closet.
When Byrne left he had been dropping hints the size of anvils about Jean-Paul being gay. When the new guy took over, he continued with those hints and started dropping hints of his own regarding Northstar’s health.
Then Marvel, as usual, got antsy. Because nothing had really been established, it was all changed to the “I’m a fairy and I’m dying 'cause I’m away from my mystic homeland” crap.
Then that was all retconned away - the fairy/disease business was one of Loki’s lies and eventually Northstar came out of the closet for real. And the collective readership said “Tell us something we don’t know.”
True. But at least we got to see somebody screwing up Byrne’s stuff instead of the other way 'round.
I think an important question is this: are comics mainly being marketed/written “for kids” or are they aimed at a higher age bracket?
When I say kids, I classify it as being between the ages of 6-12 years old.
At my old comic shop, Big Planet Comics in Bethesda, MD I very rarely saw any “kids” in the store, it was mainly teenagers, 14 & up and adults, over 21. The fact that the store had a large section of adult comics and graphic novels open and available may have had something to do with the age group, but I don’t think so.
Marvel recently decided to say “fuck the Comics Code Authority,”, so now you can see Nick Fury say “fuck” and see the Balck Cat jigglefest in the new Kevin Smith scripted Spiderman mini-series.
The problem as I see it is if you try and write “down” to try and reach the younger readers, then you lose the older readers who make up the majority of comics readers/buyers these days.
Yeah, the whole “collectibles” thing hurt a lot but I also think the whole “6 varient Hologram 3-D covers” gimmick hurt as well.
Oh wait, those are kind of the same things.
As for Watchmen, if I remember correctly Moore was more then a bit rushed in writing the last issue or 2, as he had overshot 2-3 deadlines already.
It was the same way at my local comic shop. The only time I’d ever see a kid in there was to buy pogs or Beanie Babies or something. That store also closed sometime this year, meaning I have to now drive 20 minutes just to find a comic. Ick.
Word to comics being too expensive. When you buy a bunch, it really, really starts to add up fast. They need to do something about that if they want people to buy (and then there’s ridiculously overpriced nonsense like DK2).