rec.arts.comics.marvel.xbooks FAQ: 4/8
Kate the Short
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-= REC.ARTS.COMICS.MARVEL.XBOOKS =-
Frequently Asked Questions
Part 4
Version 2003.02, last updated November 2003
URL: http://users.rcn.com/kateshort/faqs/racmxFAQ/faq4.html
------------------------------
Subject: Table of Contents
Part 4:
X-MEN COMIC BOOK QUESTIONS
* Why do so many people hate Scott Summers?
* How many Summerses are there, anyways?
- Simplified family tree
- The third Summers brother
- Timelost children
* What's the relationship between the Phoenix, Jean Grey,
Madelyne Pryor, and Rachel Summers?
- Is Maddie Pryor in Avengers Annual #10?
- Is Jean or Phoenix dead on the moon?
- When did Jean take the codename Phoenix? Is she Phoenix?
- Who's the Madelyne in X-Man?
- The problem with Excalibur #52
* What's the relationship between Cable, Stryfe, Ahab, and
Nate Grey?
- Cable and Stryfe
- Who's Ahab?
- Is Stryfe dead?
- What's the deal with Nate?
------------------------------
Subject: X-MEN COMIC BOOK QUESTIONS
Background information on the creators and the X-titles editorial
offices is based on over a decade's worth of articles, interviews, and
personal questions, and as such is not directly attributed here. Now
that some of Marvel's staff members are on Usenet, they are welcomed to
correct and amend any of the answers listed below.
--- Why do so many people hate Scott Summers?
There tend to be two major schools of thought on this. People hate Scott
Summers, aka Cyclops, because:
* Of what he did to Madelyne Pryor
* Readers find him dull and/or unimaginative
On the first count, harsh people with long memories are not going to
soften their opinion of a character's bad behavior. To them it is
simple: Scott left his wife and child to run off after his first love in
X-Factor #1. For the record, Madelyne did issue him an ultimatium and
they had been having marital problems. The best defense of Scott is that
Claremont had written him out and editorial staff of the time declared
Scott (and Jean) must come back. Madelyne was an inconvenience and hence
Inferno was born.
On the second count, many dislike Scott as a one-dimensional follower of
Xavier. Madelyne notwithstanding, they find his goody-two-shoes attitude
just plain irritating. Next to Wolverine, he's a nerd.
It's okay to like Scott, though. Usenet has lots of room for different
opinions.
--- How many Summerses are there, anyways?
Eternity only knows. But being a FAQ, we'll try to provide a reasonably
accurate starting count.
IN THE BEGINNING, lo, back in (Uncanny) X-Men #1, Scott Summers was
presented to the world, ironically enough, as an orphan. His parents had
died in a plane crash, and he knew of no other family. Also in #1 he
meets Jean Grey. Simple enough so far.
Fast forward to X-Men #54. Scott and the rest of the X-Men attended Alex
Summers' graduation. Alex eventually becomes an auxiliary member (UXM
#65) and becomes romantically involved with Lorna Dane. So far, still
pretty straightforward. (Alex apparently died, but that's another story.)
Fast forward now to issue #104. While in space, the X-Men met the leader
of a pirate band named Corsair. Sometime later (#108) it turned out that
Corsair was none other than Christopher Summers, father of Scott and
Alex. Christopher and their mother Kate had been kidnapped by the Shi'ar
when flying home from Alaska. Kate had died at the hands of the Emperor
D'Ken (Lilandra's mad brother). Scott discovered he had grandparents in
Alaska.
In the meantime Jean Grey had gone through the whole Phoenix thing and
died. In Uncanny X-Men #168, Madelyne was introduced. Scott fell in love
with her almost immediately, and she was not unamenable to his attention.
Scott proposed in #174, and they were married in #175.
Scott and Madelyne disappeared for awhile, but baby Nathan Christopher
Charles Summers was born in #201.
To date, we have:
* grandparents Philip and Deborah Summers
* Christopher and Kate Summers (Kate deceased)
* Scott and Madelyne Summers
* Alex Summers
* Nathan Christopher Charles Summers
Now it starts to get complicated.
In issue #141-142 the X-Men found about about a possible future (Days of
Future Past) where the X-Men had been mostly killed and mutants were
hunted down and killed or enslaved. This future had sent back an
emissary, Kate Pryde, by the power of Rachel Summers. It was quickly
established that time had already diverged because in Kate Pryde's past,
Scott had married Jean and had a daughter Rachel. (Note that Nate wasn't
conceived yet, much less born, at the time of this storyline). Fair
enough, except that in #184 Rachel made her way back to this reality,
and eventually to the X-Men. Scott had been absent at the mansion when
Kate Pryde made her journey, and the X-Men agreed not to tell him until
Rachel was ready. Rachel was already completely shattered by the fact
that her mother was dead, and didn't know how to talk to Scott. (Both
Scott and Jean finally found out the truth in X-Factor Annual #5.)
Shortly before Inferno, Rachel returned in Excalibur: The Sword is Drawn
(aka Excalibur Special Edition #1). She popped in and out of Excalibur
until issue #75, when she was sent to the future. She was last seen in
The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix, starting the Askani and finally
dying. Of course, time-travelers never truly die, so when she popped up
again in issues of Cable, nobody was truly that surprised.
In X-Factor #1, Scott (living in Alaska with Madelyne and Baby Nate)
received a call from New York. Jean Grey was in fact alive, and Warren
wanted to create a new mutant team. Scott left Alaska, Madelyne, and
Nathan Christopher behind. Madelyne was not happy, but shortly afterward
was kidnapped with her son by Sinister and the Marauders. Eventually,
she was rescued by the X-Men, but not before losing the baby to
Sinister's clutches. Fast forward to Inferno. Madelyne became the Goblyn
Queen and died, and Scott and Jean took custody of the child.
All was fine and dandy until Apocalypse got ahold of the child and the
baby got the Techo-Organic virus. Scott was forced to let the Askani
take Nathan into the future. Off in the future, Nathan was cloned
(Stryfe), trained as an Askani (Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix,
Askani'son), and eventually married to Jenskot (aka Aliya). His progeny
(or adoptive son; it's stated both ways) was Tyler, going by the name
Genesis (until he died in Wolverine #100). Cable came to the present in
New Mutants #87. During the X-cutioner's Song crossover, he was revealed
to be the child (more or less) of Scott and Jean, with much angst all
around. (At the time, Cable thought he was the clone.) One of the
advantages of coming from the future is that you can be older than your
parents.
Scott married Jean in X-Men (Vol. 2) #30. For the mother of multiple
kids, she's never had a baby in our time. She is not pregnant so far,
but dinos can't wait to see what happens when/if she is.
To recap:
* grandparents Philip and Deborah Summers
* Christopher and Kate Summers (Kate deceased)
* Scott Summers, aka Cyclops, and Jean Grey-Summers, aka Phoenix
* Alex Summers, aka Havok
* Rachel Summers, aka Phoenix II
* Madeylne Pryor, aka the Goblyn Queen (deceased)
* Nathan Christopher Charles Summers, aka Cable, and Aliya,
aka Jenskot (deceased)
* Stryfe, a clone (deceased)
* Tyler Summers, aka Genesis (deceased)
Scott fought Mr. Sinister several times, as Sinister is for some reason
obsessed by Summers DNA. In X-Men #23, Sinister made a cryptic comment:
"...but I care enough to wish you and your brothers to be
protected from this illness."
"Brothers?"
"Excuse me?"
"You said brothers--plural."
"I'm sorry, did I? I meant your brother, Alex."
Now, Scott has a complex family tree, with all the chronological
displacement and clones, but he had been sure he only had one sibling.
Shortly afterwards, Sinister (under the guise of Milbury), started
stalking a guy named Adam X, including pitting him against Shatterstar
in X-Force #29-30. In Captain Marvel #3, it was revealed that Adam X was
the scion of D'Ken and a human woman. Due to blantant hints in the X-Men
(see X-Men #39), it seemed pretty obvious the human woman was Kate
Summers. In semi-confirmation on racmx in 1998, Fabian Nicieza wrote:
ADAM X was INTENDED to be the illegitimate offspring of D'Ken and
Kate Summers. Taken from D'Ken and raised on a farming planet.
BUT--and it's a big but--since I never had the opportunity to tell
the entire story, what I intended is worth the screen it's printed
on.
So far this has not had any effect on the rest of the Summers clan, if
they know about it at all.
Just when things were mostly sorted out, Marvel sprang the Age of
Apocalypse on Summers devotees. As if the Marvel Universe didn't already
have enough chronologically displaced Summerses, there appeared Nate
Grey, who inconveniently didn't stay in AOA but crossed over. Nate was
the genetic progeny of Scott Summers and Jean Grey (a test-tube baby,
created by Sinister). Nate, called the X-Man, was essentially a younger
Cable without the T/O virus (and was much stronger as a consequence). For
more information on Nate and his death, see the Cable/Stryfe/Ahab/Nate
question below. (Alex apparently died, but that's another story.)
Rachel reappeared in the pages of Fantastic Four #414. Here, we learned
she had a child with Franklin Richards, named Hyperstorm. This had to be
in yet another alternative future, because Rachel wouldn't have had a
chance to give birth in her own.
One last time:
* grandparents Philip and Deborah Summers
* Christopher and Kate Summers (Kate deceased)
* Scott Summers, aka Cyclops, and Jean Grey-Summers, aka Phoenix
* Alex Summers, aka Havok (presumed deceased)
* Adam X, aka Xtreme
* Rachel Summers, aka Phoenix II, and Franklin Richards
* Hyperstorm, aka Jonathan Reed Richards
* Madeylne Pryor, aka the Goblyn Queen (deceased)
* Nathan Christopher Charles Summers, aka Cable, and Aliya, aka
Jenskot (deceased)
* Nate Grey, aka X-Man, from an alternative timeline (deceased)
* Stryfe, a clone (deceased)
* Tyler Summers, aka Genesis (deceased)
The scary thing is this is the simplified version of the Summers family
tree. I've kept it mostly to blood relations, but by widening the field
just a little, it's astounding. "Six Degrees of Scott Summers" as
applied to the entire Marvel Universe is something of a party game on
racmx after the other discussions start to dwindle.
--- What's the relationship between the Phoenix, Jean Grey, Madelyne
Pryor, and Rachel Summers?
Okay, it's Ultimate Confusion time. Once upon a time, there was a X-Man
named Jean Grey. She served well and true with the first team (in the
1960s run of the book), and was around for the new team, in the mid-70s.
She was a telepath, a telekinetic, and the girlfriend of the team's
deputy leader, Scott Summers, also known as Cyclops.
Well, during the first year of their new series, Jean Grey, in a
selfless act of heroism (UXM #100), sacrificed herself, giving her life
so that the rest of the team could survive a rather brutal reentry from
orbit. Then, from the crash site, Jean seemed to burst forth from the
water in a new form, a form that called herself Phoenix. She said she
was still Jean Grey, but had tapped somehow into a universal power
source which called itself Phoenix--hence her new name.
Phoenix proved to be a bit out of the usual X-Men's power range. She not
only saved the entire universe in her first major adventure, but was
also capable of telekinetically rearranging reality around her to her
liking. Unfortunately, she was also capable of being emotionally preyed
upon by Mastermind and the Hellfire Club.
The windup of this whole affair was the Dark Phoenix Saga, one of the
few storylines from Marvel that actually earned the right to call itself
a saga, and widely held not only to be the best single storyline in all
of the X-titles, but also one of the best stories in all of comics. Torn
between her human and cosmic sides, Phoenix eventually chose to commit
suicide on the moon to save Scott Summers, her lover (UXM #137). In the
words of the Watcher, "Though Jean Grey could have lived to be a god, it
was important that she die...as a human."
The death of Phoenix was also unusual in that it apparently affected the
creative staff as much as the characters they were working on. Unlike a
lot of comic book deaths (and all the cliches that go along with that
term), Phoenix's was referred back to by the characters, and actually
had some long-term effect on the path of the comic book. So much so that
it was a shock in #168 when Madelyne Pryor was introduced, since she
looked exactly like Jean Grey. Even more suspicious, she was the only
survivor of a large plane crash which happened at the exact moment that
Jean Grey died on the moon. Hmm.
Now, there had been a prior (heh) appearance of a Madelyne Pryor in a
Marvel comic--Avengers Annual #10 (note: first appearance of Rogue),
also written by Chris Claremont, featured a little girl who said her
name was Maddie Pryor, who was once sick but is much better now. A lot
of energy was wasted trying to link the two Pryors together until
Claremont, who was notorious for being lazy with walk-on character
names, admitted that the Maddie in Avengers Annual #10 was named after a
favorite singer of his, Madeleine Prior, the lead singer for the folk-
rock group Steeleye Span, and that the two comic characters had nothing
in common besides their names. Likewise, David Goldfarb reminds us that
in the first Genosha storyline Madelyne is shown having a flashback in
virtual reality (UXM #238) which shows her as the little girl from
Avengers Annual #10, singing "Gone to America," which is one of Steeleye
Span's biggest hits. It's likely just Claremont having a bit of fun.
In any case, Maddie's familiar looks and shared interests with Scott
(they were both pilots) led to them getting married in UXM #175, and
Scott leaving the X-Men to finally enjoy the peace and quiet of a
married life, notwithstanding the occasional jaunt into Asgard. Al
Patterson commends the FAQ for not even "getting into Madelyne's
transformation in X-Men/Alpha Flight, which demonstrated conclusively
the authors clearly never intended Maddy to be what she became." (The
firefountain did not affect mutants, but Maddy was transformed into
Anodyne, a healer. That should be impossible if she was, for example,
supposed to be a clone of Jean).
Around this time, however, Rachel Summers had successfully projected
herself back in time from the "Days of Future Past" future. The daughter
of Scott Summers and Jean Grey in that time line (Jean was still
Phoenix, but had had a lobotomy performed so that she couldn't access
her powers), Rachel was yet another in the endless line of mutants from
the future coming back in time to try and make things better for their
friends back up the time stream. Actually, she was one of the first--
back when she did it, she was just the second who had pulled it off, so
it hadn't become a cliche yet.
Rachel ended up being adopted by the X-Men, but terrified by all of the
differences she saw around her (Scott marrying Madelyne, for instance),
she didn't tell Scott of her partial relationship to him. The birth of
Nathan, son of Scott and Madelyne, also further distanced her; in her
timeline, she was Scott's eldest child.
This relatively nonconfusing state of affairs lasted for a while, until
X-Factor was given the go by the Marvel editors. The whole "hook" of
X-Factor was that the original X-Men would take secret identities and
save mutant lives while posing as mutant exterminators. Because all of
the original X-Men had to show up for the idea of the comic to work, the
New Defenders title was cancelled to free up Iceman, Angel, and the
Beast, while Scott Summers was shown to be a deserter to both his wife
and son by being called from New York by... Jean Grey.
Yes, to get X-Factor "right", they resurrected Jean Grey. In the pages
of Avengers #263 and Fantastic Four #286, Jean Grey was found stuck in
an energy cocoon by the Phoenix Force, and then freed by the genius of
Reed Richards. The retconned story was now that Jean wasn't possessed by
the Phoenix Force, as before, but merely Xeroxed by it, with her real
body being placed under the sea in the cocoon so it could regenerate
from the radiation damage. Meanwhile, it was the actual deity-like
figure of the Phoenix Force itself who merely pretended to be Jean Grey
during all the adventures it had with the X-Men, all the way up to, and
including, the Dark Phoenix Saga.
Now this last bit annoyed a lot of older X-fans, a population which some
jokers have commented that Marvel apparently doesn't remember exist. The
whole strength of the Dark Phoenix story was that it was Jean Grey, the
human, who was able to overcome Dark Phoenix, the cosmic force, even if
she had to die to do it. Despite the claims from Marvel that the Dark
Phoenix story still had all its emotional strength and punch because the
Phoenix duplicated the emotions and thoughts of Jean Grey and had even
convinced itself that it was Jean Grey, it just doesn't hold up under
even casual scrutiny. It's no longer a human choosing to die from love,
it's a cosmic force pretending it's human who decides to fool a human it
supposedly loves into thinking that it's committed suicide, when really
it hasn't. No longer a sacrifice, it makes it a cosmic shell game, with
Scott's and the readers' emotions as the victims.
Hence you will get the odd comment on racmx about how the "real" Jean
Grey died on the moon. Some simply refuse to accept the retcon.
Eventually, Madelyne Pryor was revealed to be a clone of Jean Grey,
created by X-villain Mr. Sinister, in yet another of his endless
attempts to try and get some genetic material out of Scott Summers (in
this case, apparently, a son). Seduced by the renegade demon S'ym,
Madelyne was transformed into the Goblyn Queen (UXM #234), which brought
about the crossover called Inferno. This transformation was revealed to
be possible from yet another retcon.
Now, when the Phoenix Force pretended to commit suicide on the moon (UXM
#137), it sent a portion of itself back to the still-comatose Jean Grey
beneath the waters of Jamaica Bay, in order to give her the memories the
Phoenix had gained in her place. Jean rejected these memories, however,
and instead the portion of the Phoenix imparted them to the then-dormant
Madelyne Pryor, Jean Grey's clone by perennial villain Mr. Sinister.
This was such a traumatic procedure that Sinister was resorted to giving
her false memories of being the only survivor of a plane crash to ease
her troubled mind. It was that portion of the Phoenix Force that allowed
Madelyne to wield the powers that she did as the Goblyn Queen. All this
was revealed by Mr. Sinister in UXM #243. Inferno ended when Madelyne
killed herself in X-Factor #38 (who then fled as a psychic presence into
Jean's mind, only to be expelled forever in X-Factor #50, but that's a
minor subplot). The real Madelyne is dead.
Meanwhile Rachel had ended up over in Excalibur, after becoming the new
Phoenix in UXM #199. She remained so until the Adventures of Cyclops
and Phoenix limited series, when the Phoenix left Rachel for an unnamed
better host. This is a few centuries into the future, however. This
mini, by the way, is when Jean took on the name Phoenix at Rachel's
request. Hard as it is to believe, it's the first time Jean Grey ever
used the name. Rachel showed up in a few issues of Cable, where Nathan
rescued her. In the grand tradition of X-women who survive horrible
events, she decided not to rejoin one of the teams, but instead to go
to college. Of course, one can't be called Phoenix without the Phoenix
force taking notice of it, and in UXM #128, Professor Xavier speaks to
the Phoenix Force as it possesses Jean Grey. Currently, it looks like
the Phoenix is an entity which possesses Jean and ramps up her powers,
which is somewhat consistent with the spirit of previous stories.
Xavier's description of the Phoenix as part of Shi'ar mythology works
well enough--that's basically how the Phoenix Force was presented back
in the Dark Phoenix Saga twenty years ago.
This still leaves us to deal with the Madelyne who appeared in X-Man.
At first, readers thought the Madelyne running around in X-Man was a
construct; Nate Grey apparently created her in X-Man #5 out of her
memories floating around in the ether (X-Man #25). At that time, Nate
tried to un-create her and found he couldn't do it. In the Counter-X
issues of X-Man, Nate eventually found out that the "construct" theory
was a ruse. Evil Queen Madelyne was actually an alternate reality
version of Phoenix (Jean Grey). Writer Steven Grant said that Queen
Madelyne wanted to fool Nate, so in order to make the ruse work she
hypnotized herself into being Madelyne Pryor. Of course, this
information still can't explain the ghostly Madelyne that appeared in
Cable #76. Some readers figure that Queen Madelyne herself tapped into
Madelyne's memories floating around in the ether, which might explain
the psionic connection in the issue of Cable. While it's first said by
Queen Madelyne that she *replaced* Madelyne Pryor "several months ago"
(which some readers though may have occurred during the six month gap),
a later issue suggests that the Madelyne Pryor appearing in X-Man had
been Queen Madelyne all along.
So, as it currently stands, barring any future retcons, the relationship
is as follows:
* Phoenix: A really bored cosmic force who currently lends its powers
to an unknown individual.
* Jean Grey: A telepathic and telekinetic young woman who never had
the Phoenix Force, but now calls herself Phoenix.
* Madelyne Pryor: A clone of Jean Grey who had a portion of the
Phoenix force, became the Goblyn Queen, and was killed by Jean.
* Rachel Summers: An alternate-reality daughter of Phoenix, who has
gone into plot limbo.
* Queen Madelyne: An evil, alternate-reality Jean Grey who tranced
herself (and Nate Grey) into thinking she was Madelyne.
And then Ken Arromdee chirps up, saying "You need to mention Excalibur
#52 here." Paul O'Brien is of substantial help at this juncture. You
see, Excalibur #52 does not help matters. While it was supposed to clear
up Rachel's relationship to the Phoenix, in many ways it complicated it
further. This issue consists of the Phoenix telling its story to Xavier,
Jean Grey and Excalibur as Rachel was lying in a coma. Unfortunately,
the story the Phoenix told did not jibe with what had come before. In
Rachel's timeline, the X-Men never met Phoenix. Jean Grey was killed in
a nuclear explosion in Pittsburgh. Any differing stories would be
"memory implants". That was according to writer Alan Davis. Sadly, that
contradicts all of Claremont's stories that clearly had Phoenix as
Rachel's mother. Phoenix: The Untold Story was published to set up
Rachel's past. In fact, that was the whole point of Rachel's part in UXM
#199: claiming the legacy of her mother. Phoenix:TUS, by the way, is UXM
#137 with the original ending.
Rachel's memories were not messed up until Excalibur; she didn't have
that problem during her stint with the X-Men. Mojo was more likely a
cause, as Longshot went through similar difficulties. Another sticky
point was the nuclear bomb. Odds are good Kate Pryde would have
mentioned that....
But why would a celestial avatar lie?
Apparently it did, as Phoenix admitted to manipulating Rachel in later
issues. But why? This issue only gets messier. At this point, since we
now have all of the possible reference contradicting themselves, this
neutral researcher says "to hell with it" and closes the subject.
--- What's the relationship between Cable, Stryfe, Ahab, and Nate
Grey?
It's important to remember two basic things about Cable: he was created
much later than his vastly rewritten history would make him seem, and
the person who created him (Rob Liefeld) didn't set out to make him
anything in particular other than a cyborg with a big gun (history has
shown how such a character is appealing to Liefeld).
When Liefeld landed the job as new penciller for the New Mutants, he
immediately sat down and started sketching out new characters. He sent
them off to his editor, Bob Harras. Easily visible among the detritus
are most of the Mutant Liberation Front, and the two characters who
would become Cable and Stryfe. (Marvel Age #81 and #82 show some of
these early sketches.)
Walter Simonson, husband of then-NM-writer Louise Simonson, recalled the
design process in a message on racmx:
The design for Cable [was] originally one of several designs Rob
did for a villain (designs done for Stryfe IIRC). Bob Harras liked
the design as did Weezie and asked if they couldn't make a good guy
out of him. Weezie was already working on creating a new leader for
the New Mutants (something Bob was also interested in) and the
military background/attitude was always intended to be a part of
the character. Weezie was tired of the Prof. X attitude of whiny
leadership that was always agonizing over sending the New Mutants
into harm's way and thought that an interesting story direction
would be to create a leader who knew the score, understood the
dangers, and would in fact view the NMutants essentially as
soldiers, being sent into battle.
Interestingly enough, in an interview in Wizard #10, Liefeld states that
he gives co-creation status of Cable to Bob Harras:
I've told Bob Harras that if anyone should share creator credit on
Cable with me, it's him. Bob told Louise, "I want this character in
there." I can understand that she didn't want the character, but
the book was dying. [Snip to further down the paragraph.] I realize
the writer wasn't pleased with what happened, but there was a
reason for all of it; it wasn't just, "Let's make life hell for the
writer."
I wish I had this on the record: Bob said to me, "I want to bring
in a new central figure; make him a new teacher for the Mutants.
Give him, maybe, a bionic eye." I took that and sent him four
sketches--incorporating a bionic arm, the eye, everything. Bob
said, "Let's call him Quentin." I said, "Yucch!" I had already put
Cable down as his name on the sketches. Then in Louise's plot,
after being told his name was Cable, he was called Commander X
throughout. I said, "If this guy is called Commander X, I want
nothing to do with it." That seemed ridiculous to me.
In any case, the beginning designs weren't of Cable's background and
previous life; they were kewl designs based around a bionic eye.
According to Liefeld, the original sketch of Cable did include some
characterization, attached on a character profile:
The profile clearly identified him as a traveler from thousands of
years in the future who journeyed back in time to combat specific
menaces in the past that threatened the future of the Marvel
Universe. The menaces he had targeted were intended to expand the
title outside the mutant spectrum, and Dr. Doom and Kang the
Conqueror were chief among the threats I had suggested. I felt it
was necessary for Cable to face non-mutant nemeses in order to
increase his importance in the grand scheme of things. I was
determined to create a character with as much mystique and interest
as Wolverine and was deliberately mapping out a lineage that would
capture the attention of readers everywhere. He was a man of
mystery, a man with a mission that would slowly reveal itself over
the course of several years.
Cable was introduced in Liefeld's first issue of the New Mutants (#87),
as the not-yet-then tired idea of a mysterious mutant mastermind who has
been behind the scenes for years, but who we, the readers, have somehow
just never managed to see yet. He took over the leadership of the New
Mutants straight off, and we learned that he had an archenemy, called
Stryfe, whose face was always concealed by a pointy helmet. When the
word came down that New Mutants was going to be turned into X-Force,
with Rob Liefeld as its plotter/penciller, it was decided that a neat
way to end the New Mutants would be to unmask Stryfe for that dramatic
final panel. The only trouble was, nobody knew who he was really
supposed to be, so they didn't know what his shocking secret identity
should be.
Liefeld provides some additional insight into the process:
I also created an adversary for Cable named Stryfe who would test
him to the absolute limits of his abilities and help define him and
his struggles by being a formidable foe, the likes of which the New
Mutants had never really seen. I offered several considerations for
Stryfe's origin, one of them being that underneath all that armor
was a woman. Ultimately, the idea that Stryfe was actually Cable
seemed to offer more in the way of interesting story opportunities,
and Bob encouraged me to follow that path. It was the right move
and it helped catapult Cable's popularity to new heights.
So, there they were. Stryfe and Cable were now twins.
Around about this time Claremont was briefly writing X-Factor (#65-68)
(although under Whilce Portacio's plots). The son of Cyclops and
Madelyne Pryor, Nathan Summers, had by this time become a small plot
embarrassment (after all, it was tough to have Cyclops mooning over Jean
Grey again when he had a baby boy by his previous marriage to worry
about). Chris Claremont had never really liked the tot, and apparently
most of the readers shared his sentiments, so in a plot involving
Apocalypse and the Moon, Nathan came down with a techno-organic virus,
and was only barely saved when a visitor from the future, Askani, zapped
him up the timestream to save him with her futuristic medicine (X-Factor
#68). The reason? Nathan would become important to saving a bunch of
mutants in the future, so she couldn't let him die in the present.
Ken Arromdee reminded us to include here the folk legend of the Marvel
edict against having main characters of their superhero titles with
young children. Supposedly because their target audience will not
identify with such people, creators are strongly discouraged from having
any major characters with young children. A quick rundown of the major
births in Marvel, with perhaps the sole exception of Crystal and
Pietro's Luna, shows how strong this apparent edict is. It's highly
possible that the Nathan/Askani storyline came about from this pressure
as well.
Around about here Cable was revealed to be from the future. Since Nathan
was now in the future, it wasn't too far to suggest that Cable was
really Nathan. Of course, since Stryfe was obviously connected to Cable
somehow, now the question became "Which of the two was really Nathan?"
According to Liefeld, he'd been thinking that Stryfe was baby Nathan:
So imagine my surprise when I received a call from Bob Harras,
informing me that he, Jim Lee and Whilce Portacio had crafted a
story that would reveal that Cable was the son of Scott Summers and
Madelyne Pryor. I politely protested and asked Bob repeatedly to
reconsider what I felt was a decision that would be damaging to the
character in the long run. It became very clear that my protests
would go unheeded and I reminded myself that Cable was not my
character; he belonged to Marvel and I needed to accept that and
make the best of a frustrating situation. I chose to never address
the issue in the titles I was invested in and continued to work
hard to create an element of intrigue around Cable, even though it
seemed futile after the mystery surrounding Cable's true identity
had evaporated without my consultation.
Now a neutral observer would probably point out at this time that this
whole mess could have been avoided if these lads had been created with
the usual backgrounds most writers give their characters: you know, like
who they are. But that wasn't the hand that the X-writers had dealt
themselves, and X-readers had no end of fun watching a bunch of
plotlines swirl and weave about whether Cable was Stryfe's clone, or
vice versa, or how maybe they were both clones, or maybe they had
nothing to do with Nathan at all.
Fabian Nicieza provides another insight into the process:
To this day, I don't know how that all came about. I don't know if
it was a Jim/Whilce idea that they ran by Bob and he okayed and
cajoled Rob into agreeing to, etc. Or what. I just know by the time
I got involved in it, we all had pretty much accepted that would be
the working plan.
My original thinking was that Cable would be the clone and Stryfe
the real one, leading to more pathos for Cable and more tragedy for
Cyclops, but Bob and Scott both felt making them THINK that was the
case and then switching it around later would work better and I
quickly came to agree they were right.
So, finally, in issues of Cable written by Nicieza, most of the answers
were provided. As revealed by Sinister, Cable was indeed Nathan
Christopher Charles Summers (Cable #6), and the cyborg parts were
actually those parts of his body infected by the technovirus, which he
held in check with his telekinetic powers. Stryfe was his clone.
We'll side-track for a moment to mention Ahab. Ahab was the Master of
the Hounds from the "Days of Future Past" future--the one that Rachel
Summers was from. Hounds are mutants with powers useful for tracking
other mutants, who are controlled substances in that timeline. Back
when Cable still didn't have a past, Ahab was introduced in the Days
of Future Present crossover (Fantastic Four Annual #23, X-Factor Annual
#5, New Mutants Annual #6, X-Men Annual #14). During one fight scene
Cable and Ahab got close to one another, and Cable was shocked to see
some similarity to himself in Ahab. This was compounded by having Ahab
say: "What's the matter? See someone you know?" (X-Men Annual #14).
Since Cable was later revealed to be Nathan instead of Ahab, a new past
for Ahab was needed. A new character introduced in Excalibur #72, Rory
Campbell, was obviously intended to end up becoming Ahab, thus freeing
Cable from that unneeded bit of history. To that end, Rory lost his leg
(Excalibur #90) and became Mutant Liason for the British authorities
(Excalibur #101).
Back to Stryfe. By himself, Stryfe presented quite a few problems,
because he Just Wouldn't Stay Dead. Stryfe was first killed at the end
of X-Cutioner's Song. He then reappeared as a consciousness in Cable's
mind during the Sons and Fathers crossover between X-Men and Cable
right after the X-Cutioner's Song (circa Cable #6-8). Where he died
again, sort of. Stryfe then was seen in Hell years later in X-Force
#74, and his later appearances, alongside dead Dark Riders, were
assumed to have been a past version of Stryfe. Until, you know, he
popped up more regularly. Again. Like in the Blood Brothers crossover
between Cable and X-Man. Anyway, Stryfe is now apparently truly dead,
since he was killed in Gambit and Bishop: Sons of the Atom #6 by Dark
Beast, having his entire body crumble into bones and ash. Again.
Back to the last part of the question: Nate. Go grab some refreshment
or something now, you've been sitting long enough reading this answer.
In the 1995 Age of Apocalypse crossover, for reasons too bizarre to get
into now, Cable ceased to exist. In the AOA timeline, his counterpart
was Nate Grey, called the "X-Man". Nate, who shares a name that fans of
the X-titles should recognize as being a warning bell, was a genetic
construct of the Mr. Sinister of that timeline. Once again, for various
reasons that you had to be there to deal with, Nate was one of the few
survivors of the Age of Apocalypse that made it into the normal
timeline. On top of this, Cable reappeared with the resurgence of the
original timeline, so for a while we had, in one way or an other, two
(and a half, counting the psyche of Stryfe) versions of Scott and
Madelyne's son roaming around the Marvel Universe, none of which was
actually native to that universe. I don't think Hallmark prints enough
cards for there to be enough for Scott Summers to send one to each of
his relatives on Christmas.
Nate Grey, at least, was easily distinguishable by his name, and the
fact that he was at least 20 years younger than the others. He was also,
just to be nitpicky, the son of Scott and Jean (albeit by test tube),
not Madelyne.
Nate eventually came to realize the "Madelyne Pryor" whom he had known
since coming to this dimension was actually planning to use him as a
weapon. During the time he tried to free himself, he met another
dimension's Nate Grey, who helped to free his mind. Nate became a mutant
shaman, and spent his time traveling all over the world helping mutants
in need. X-Man came to an end with issue 75, in which Nate sacrificed
himself to save the world. Basically, he dissipated himself and another
being into every cell of every being on Earth, in order to stop alien
seeders from controlling it.
*** Continued in Part 5 ***
Compilation Copyright 2000-2003 by Katharine E. Hahn
SEND ADDITIONS / CHANGES / DEAD LINKS / MOVED LINKS / UPDATES TO:
Kate the Short, ra...@yahoo.com (mailto:ra...@yahoo.com)
--
Kate the Short * http://users.rcn.com/kateshort/
Kate the Short
-= REC.ARTS.COMICS.MARVEL.XBOOKS =-
Frequently Asked Questions
Part 5
Version 2003.02, last updated November 2003
URL: http://users.rcn.com/kateshort/faqs/racmxFAQ/faq5.html
------------------------------
Subject: Table of Contents
Part 5:
X-MEN COMIC BOOK QUESTIONS
* How old is Kitty Pryde? Jubilee? The rest of the X-Men?
* What are the names and ages of the Guthrie siblings? How
many of them are mutants?
* What happened to the New Mutants and X-Force kids? (+)
* What happened to Excalibur? (+)
* What happened to X-Factor? (+)
* What happened to Generation X? (+)
* What about everyone else? (+)
------------------------------
Subject: X-MEN COMIC BOOK QUESTIONS
Please note: Background information on the creators and the X-titles
editorial offices is based on over a decade's worth of interviews,
articles, and personal questions, and as such is not directly
attributed here. Now that some of Marvel's staff members are on Usenet,
they are welcomed to correct and amend any of the answers listed below.
--- How old is Kitty Pryde? Jubilee? The rest of the X-Men?
It's hard to believe, but this is one of the questions that keeps X-fans
arguing over drinks at all hours of the night. This is because Kitty,
who joined the X-Men in the (our-time) 1970s when she was 13 1/2, was
still a teenager in the 1990s. She was extremely popular with the young
crowd just getting into the Claremont/Byrne run of the X-Men, since she
was roughly their age and was a witty, smart woman that you could either
agree with, or like to date, as the tastes may be. Claremont used to
keep track of her birthdays rather closely, but those eventually fell by
the wayside. She had a birthday in space (14th) during the 160s of UXM,
and she had a birthday in England (15th) in issue #26 of Excalibur.
Kitty made a reference to being old enough to drink in Excalibur #91,
which most people read to say that she was 16 to 18, based on Scottish
law. Warren Ellis, former writer for Excalibur, was quoted as saying he
thought she was 18, which was a proper age for a young woman having lots
of snogging with an older man.
In UXM #379, however, Kitty remarked to Colossus that she was "barely
sixteen." Many fans were upset because it seemed that the writers were
trying to retcon Kitty's likely sexual relationship with Pete Wisdom by
making her underage. The issue was credited to Alan Davis, but the style
of dialogue strongly suggested that Claremont (who was returning to the
titles) had ghostwritten it.
At the 2000 Chicago Wizard World convention, someone asked Claremont to
clarify Kitty's age, and he said: "She is what she is. She is below the
legal age of drinking and always has been." That said, she could be
18 but not 21, especially if Claremont was just referring to the
American drinking age and not the British one (which is eighteen in
Scotland). This is supported by X-Men Unlimited #36, which was written
by Claremont. In that issue, Kitty states that she left Deerfield five
years ago, she is enrolled at the University of Chicago, and she is
working at a bar in Hyde Park. Illinois law requires servers of liquor
to be at least eighteen years old (though one still can't drink until
age 21); additionally, Kitty was 13 1/2 when she left Deerfield. She's
got to be at least 18 or 19 years old by that reckoning.
Then there's Jubilee, the other young teenager. Jubilee was originally
about 15 when she leaped from the mall to Australia via Gateway's portal
(UXM #244), but Scott Lobdell saw it otherwise. In the Generation X
collector's preview, he decreed that Jubilee was 13 1/2, and as her
writer, his word was law on the subject. Near the end of the run of
Generation X, in issues #65-69, she says she's 16, so she's grown older.
As for the rest? There are no easy answers to that question. Neither the
writers nor Marvel Time are fairly consistent. There are some fixed
dates: Nightcrawler turned 21 in UXM Annual #4, Rogue was 17 when she
joined, Hank angsted about turning 30 in X-Men #20, and in X-Men #51
Scott said he was "twenty-fi--". More such dates exist. However, even
these examples demonstrate a problem: Hank is not five years older than
Scott. The original X-Men were under 20 when they started, and Bobby was
the youngest at 16.
Some of the former New Mutants also had ages stated on-panel. In Graphic
Novel #4, Juliana Sandoval mentions that she and Roberto are 14. In New
Mutants #2, the ages of four New Mutants show up on their computers:
Rahne 14, Bobby 13, Sam 16, and Xi'an 19. (For context, in NM #3 Banshee
remarks that "t'day's Kitty Pryde's [14th] birthday.") A letters page
soon afterwards corrected the ages, showing 'Berto as 14 and Rahne as
13, the youngest New Mutant. This helps, but only somewhat, as who knows
how many Marvel-time years have passed since then?
There is also the problem of real-world events; Forge fought in Vietnam,
and Xavier fought in Korea. Unless, as Paul O'Brien suggests, the wars
were fought more recently in the Marvel Universe, the numbers simply
don't add up.
--- What are the names and ages of the Guthrie siblings? How many of
them are mutants?
We turn to age sage Aardy R. DeVarque for help on this question. Thomas
Zebulun Guthrie (deceased) and Lucinda Guthrie are the parents of the
following children:
1. Samuel [+0] (oldest)
2. Joelle [+2/3] (oldest girl) [possibly Jo... Elisabeth]
3. Joshua [+3/4] (2nd boy)
4. Paige [+5/6] (2nd girl) [may be younger than Jedediah]
5. Jedediah [+6/7] (3rd boy) [also called Jeb]
6. (girl) [+9/10] (3rd girl) [often not depicted]
7. Lewis [+12/13] (4th boy) [twin]
8. (girl) [+12/13] (4th girl) [twin]
Some explanations are in order:
* [+number] is the approximate number of years between each child and
Sam. For example, the twins are approximately 12-13 years younger
than Sam; when he was 20 years old they were around 7 years old.
* The oldest girl has been identified as Elisabeth in some stories,
(i.e. Factor X #1, X-Men #36) and Joelle in others (i.e. UXM '95,
What If #92). The most likely explanation (without suddenly adding
a ninth sibling) is that her full name is something like "Josephine
Elisabeth Guthrie", and "Joelle" is simply a shortened form of her
first names, something not unheard of in the area the Guthries are
from. (For example, someone whose name is James Robert Smith might
be referred to as "Jim-Bob" or even "Jimbo".)
* Sam's brother "Zak" is mentioned as writing a letter regarding
their mother in X-Force #83, but in X-Men #79 the letter is signed
"Josh". This is obviously an error, but a possible in-continuity
answer is that Zak (more likely Zachary or Zachariah) could be
Josh's middle name--though it would seem that name is already
taken, as Zachariah is Sam's middle name.
* As of Generation X #1, Paige suddenly aged from only recently
having reached puberty in her previous appearance to being in her
mid-teens, without more than a week or two of "Marvel Time"
passing. This burp in continuity almost certainly places her ahead
of Jedediah in the birth order (where before it was uncertain which
of those two was older), but still definitely behind Josh.
* Uncanny X-Men '95 states that Paige is older than Josh, which
flatly contradicts Paige's first unnamed appearance in New Mutants
#42 and first named appearance in X-Force #32, as well as the
general impression given in all other issues in which Josh and/or
Paige have appeared. UXM '95 seems rife with examples of the writer
making up details rather than checking what previous writers had
done with the characters, so it is not a very reliable source of
Guthrie history.
* Bibliography of the relevant issues: Marvel Graphic Novel #4 ("New
Mutants"), Rom Annual #3, New Mutants #42, X-Force #32, X-Men #36,
Factor X #1, UXM '95 Annual, What If #92 (non-canon, but features
the Guthrie clan), X-Force #83, X-Men #79.
At any rate, it's obvious that the writers haven't been making up family
members as they went along, which is reassuring; but it's also clear
that no one ever bothered to write down names and ages officially, and
that occasionally writers and editors make up details rather than
research the answers, especially for something as "trivial" as a
character's birth order. Such is life in the Marvel Bullpen.
As for the question of mutancy in the family: Sam and Paige are the only
confirmed mutants, but Joelle is also depicted with size-changing powers
in Factor X #1, in the Age of Apocalypse timeline. She may simply have
latent powers in our timeline, or--since she was less than twenty years
old at the time, the number of years in the past that AOA diverged--she
may have been born with a different set of genes. As Paige was the same
age and had the same powers in AOA as in the normal Marvel Universe,
this second explanation seems unlikely. It is also possible that the AOA
version of her may have been a mutate of sorts, like Spider-man or the
Fantastic Four, rather than a mutant. In any case, in the normal Marvel
Universe, she was not detected as a mutant when a Phalanx broke into the
Guthrie house, and at one point she successfully joined an anti-mutant
cult that was well-equipped with mutant detection devices.
An ongoing question is whether or not Josh, the second-oldest, has a
"mutant singing voice", as could be inferred from New Mutants #42. Since
he's never called a mutant anywhere else, though--including X-Men #36
when a Phalanx broke into the Guthrie house and detected only Paige as a
mutant--he's probably just a very talented singer and Claremont used
his trademarked purple prose in New Mutants #42.
--- What happened to the New Mutants and X-Force kids? (+)
The first of the NM to leave was Xi'an Coy Manh, aka Karma. She left the
NM in issue #54, and went to find her siblings, Leong and Nga. This
involved hanging out with Wolverine. Karma popped up in X-Force #75,
saying that she was living in New York. With pink hair. She reappeared in
2002 in the Mechanix miniseries, living in Chicago, and has since joined
the cast of the 2003 New Mutants series. On a related note, Karma lost
all that weight in Asgard. The Fates put her in the desert, with a small
child to defend. After a few months, she was back to her original figure.
That all happened in New Mutants Special Edition #1. (Also available in
the Asgardian Wars TPB).
Amara Aquilla was the next to go. Magma decided the Hellions was more her
style, and left Xavier's in NM #56. In NM #62 she got a letter from her
father requesting she come home. Empath went with her (at the White
Queen's request). Amara did not have a happy ending; while she did avoid
the massacre of the Hellions, her whole life was ripped out from under
her in New Warriors #31. Nova Roma wasn't established by the Romans after
all. It was established by Selene for no apparent reason with a number
of brainwashed Britons. Amara was in fact Allison Crestmere, daughter of
the English ambassador to Brazil. After Child's Play she went to find
her life. Magma reappeared in X-Force #87, as one of the New Hellions.
She claimed she only wanted money and power, but she eventually helped
X-Force win the battle. After the New Hellions' schemes were stopped,
Magma left. She most recently showed up in Uncanny X-Men #423, in a
group of mutants crucified on Xaver's lawn, and has been recovering in
the 2003 New Mutants series.
Doug Ramsey didn't do a whole lot better. Cypher died in NM #60, during
Fall of the Mutants. He took a bullet that the Ani-Mator intended for
Rahne. (Yes, the same Ani-Mator responsible for Bird-Boy). While we're on
the subject, we should squash the rumors about Doug's demise, with help
from creator Louise Simonson (who wrote to racmx in 1999):
As for killing poor Cypher...I did that for several reasons. (There
was a rumor at the time that he was killed because the artist hated
drawing him. Another that I hated him because I had to keep
twisting stories to find some instance where there was language
that had to be translated.)
The real reason was...I know you'll find this hard to believe...
there was a write-in campaign from LOTS of readers who hated him
and thought he was boring and wanted us to get rid of him.
Preferably...they wanted him dead. We got LOTS and LOTS of these
letters.
So I decided to call these readers' bluffs and do exactly what they
were asking for. (On the other hand, I never kill a character
without knowing exactly how I'm going to bring them back...if I so
choose. It is comic books, after all! With Doug/Cypher, the way was
obvious.) Sooo...
I decided to have him die a noble death of loving sacrifice, saving
his dear friend Rahne. And (surprise, surprise) we started getting
LOTS of letters asking, "How could you? Doug was my favorite
character?!!!" (My favorite letter... and I think one of the most
honest... said, "I used to hate Doug and thought he was boring and
wanted him to die, but now that he's dead, I've realized he was
ALWAYS MY FAVORITE CHARACTER!") Lots of folks missed Doug ... after
he was gone.
Sadly, that was not the end of his story....
But first Warlock. Warlock never quite recovered from the death of Doug,
but he didn't have long to worry about it. He died himself in NM #95,
during the X-tinction Agenda. After repeated drains on his energy (some
voluntary, some not) Cameron Hodge sucked out the rest. What little
remained of Warlock was spread over Doug's grave.
Doug and Warlock were not left to rest in peace. Instead, "they" were
resurrected by Zero as Douglock (in Excalibur #77) for the Phalanx
Covenant. Paul O'Brien explains the plot: "This was addressed well in
early issues of Warlock's solo title. Basically, the Phalanx are
anything that's been infected by the Technarch's technovirus but haven't
been consumed. The Technarch regard the Phalanx as abominations, and so
the technovirus is programmed to make the Phalanx want to summon the
Technarch to their aid (so that the Technarch can easily locate them and
wipe the bastards off the face of the earth). Thus explaining the
Phalanx's plan in the Phalanx Covenant storyline." The resurrection was
rather difficult for Rahne, because Douglock retained many of the
memories of Doug. Now, of course, Warlock knows he's just a resurrected
Warlock. He last resided on Muir Isle with Rahne and Moira, the Warlock
title notwithstanding. Doug, as Kitty Pryde can personally attest, is
still in his coffin and grave.
Bird-Boy and Gossamyr were never seen again.
Illyana Rasputin had her final battle in Inferno. After the good in
Magik finally overcame the evil in her once and for all, she was reverted
to the child she was before she encountered Limbo (NM #73). She went to
live with her parents in Russia until the Soul Skinner killed them (X-Men
#18). Her final storyline included dying of the Legacy virus (UXM #303).
She later appeared as a ghost in an issue of Uncanny X-Men. A version of
Magik apparently showed up circa #30 of Exiles.
After Inferno, Dani Moonstar started suffering a fever, which turned out
to be the doing of Hela in Asgard. After sorting everything out, Mirage
decided to stay in Asgard (NM #87). Later she appeared as Moonstar, a
member of the MLF (X-Force #27). In X-Force Annual #3, it was revealed
she was working undercover for Cable, and was briefly reunited with the
team during LegionQuest (X-Force #43). She vanished again, and
reappeared working for SHIELD. After rejoining X-Force, she gained
quantum powers, and finally lost *those*. She split X-Force after Pete
Wisdom showed up. After leaving the team, she appeared as an assistant
to Wolverine and Forge in the core titles, circa X-Men #102. Most
recently, she has been Xavier's assistant in locating students in the
2003 New Mutants series.
Rahne Sinclair didn't make it out of Genosha intact (X-tinction Agenda);
she was turned into a Mutate. While most of the damage was undone, it
left Wolfsbane in permanent Wolfgirl mode as she joined X-Factor (#71).
Being in X-Factor was rather awkward for her though, because she was
still bonded to Alex. Much to the relief of all involved, she was cured
by Haven in #99. After Age of Apocalypse and the heart attack of Guido,
she decided to live on Muir Isle while her guardian Moira dealt the
Legacy Virus. She was a member of Excalibur for a short time, and was
seen in the pages of Warlock. She later had her powers removed by
Mystique when he tried to save Moira's life. One of her most recent
appearances has been Unlimited #43, the New Mutants reunion issue. By
the way, Rahne is pronounced like "Rain," as in the liquid from the sky.
This is given in a number of canonical sources. In X-Factor #87, her
dreams are Rahne's World, Rain Man and Rahne and Stimpy. The puns don't
work otherwise.
Julio Richter was in Mexico trying to get his family out of the
gun-running biz. Rictor brought Shatterstar along with him. The two
appeared in X-Force Annual '99. Rictor (by himself) appeared as a
member of the X-Corporation in NXM #128.
Rusty Collins joined the MLF and later joined Magneto's Acolytes. He
was killed by Holocaust in X-Men #42.
Sally Blevins joined the MLF and Acolytes with Rusty. Skids survived
the experience, and was last seen as a college student in X-Force #78-80
(though it was revealed to her classmates at Colorado State that she's a
mutant, so who knows whether she's still there).
Caliban was made into the horseman Death by Apocalypse. He came and went
in X-Force, last appearing in the Twelve Saga, disappearing, and popping
up again in Search For Cyclops #3.
Theresa Cassidy had her throat ripped out by Feral. Siryn survived, but
lost her voice (and with it, her powers). She left the team. Since then,
Deadpool had a hand in healing her, and she showed up in Wolverine. She's
not with any team right now. She was featured in Deadpool #56, where
Copycat beat her up. Siryn also appeared as a member of the X-Corporation
in NXM #128.
Bobby DaCosta quit the NM to go work for Gideon in NM #99. Sunspot later
became Reignfire in the future (first seen in X-Force #26) and created
the MLF. He recruited Dani after her fall from Asgard. He was Reignfire
until AOA (X-Force #43), then suddenly he wasn't anymore. It's been said
that Cable did it with some Askani mind techniques. Roberto later became
a full member of X-Force. Unfortunately, he was lured into the Hellfire
Club by Selene, who promised to bring Roberto's dead love, Juliana
Sandoval, to life in another dead girl's body. Since then, Roberto showed
up in Unlimited #43 for the New Mutants reunion, and has apparently been
a member of X-Corp given his appearances starting in X-Treme #31.
Gloria Munoz (Risque) was announced as dead in the New X-Men 2001 Annual.
Sam Guthrie became the field leader of X-Force and died in X-Force #7,
only to be reborn in X-Force #9. Since then, Cannonball's External (think
Highlander) status has been put in doubt by Selene, who hinted that
Cable may have set the whole thing up. He was promoted to the X-Men
team, but later returned to lead X-Force. He showed up in X-Force #117,
during the "new" X-Force's press conference, so the team apparently was
not killed at the end of their run. Cannonball appeared as a member of
the X-Corporation in NXM #128. He was part of a storyline beginning in
X-Treme #24, and recently left again with Lila Cheney.
Tabitha Smith joined the New Mutants after Inferno. Meltdown stayed with
the team through Pete Wisdom's portion of X-Force. She showed up in
X-Force #117. She's been popping up occasionally in Weapon X.
James Proudstar joined the New Mutants just before they turned into
X-Force. After blaming the Hellfire Club for his tribe's massacre,
Warpath came to terms with his family's death, and eventually found the
killer (it was Stryfe's doing, but there was an evil doctor involved).
He died, but came back after the team went to hell to get him back. He
was a part of Pete Wisdom's X-Force, and gained the power of flight. He
showed up in X-Force #117, and again as a member of X-Corporation Mumbai
(along with Feral and her sister Thornn) in NXM #133.
Jesse Aaronson was the last person to join the team. Jesse "Bedlam"
stayed through Wisdom's version of X-Force. He showed up in X-Force
#117. He was also among the crucified mutants in Uncanny #423, though
it isn't clear whether he lived or died.
Domino came and went throughout the years, as did Cable. She was last
seen in X-Force #115, after the rest of the team was "killed." Domino
showed up in an X-Corporation meeting in New X-Men Annual 2001. Both
of them have been seen in Weapon X as part of the opposition. (As a
side note, former Domino impersonator Copycat (Vanessa) was hanging
out in Deadpool's book for a while, and died in Deadpool #59.)
New-style X-Force members seem to die at the drop of a hat... X-Force
#116 saw the flashback death of Sluk and the deaths of Battering Ram,
Gin Genie, La Nuit, Plazm, and leader Zeitgeist. X-Force #118 killed off
Bloke. Saint Anna bit it in #119. Their evil mentor, Coach, was killed in
#120. After a short respite from the carnage, Spike (The Spike) and Edie
Sawyer (U-Go Girl) died in issues #127-128.
--- What happened to Excalibur? (+)
Alan Davis, creator of Cerise, Kylun (based on the boy from Excalibur
#1, created by Claremont/Davis), Micromax, and Feron, quit to do other
things. After his departure, Marvel decided they wanted Excalibur to be
more of a mutants-only title, and started systematically getting rid of
the interlopers.
Excalibur #58 was the last of the Davis issues, although #56-57 were
actually scripted by Scott Lobdell. The issues after were written by
Scott Lobdell and/or Richard Ashford, and are stories that make
Excalibur fans howl in agony, even before the undignified retirement of
characters fans had come to like.
Cerise left in #70. Cerise had been in the Shi'ar military before her
time in Excalibur, on a recruiting ship. Not approving of the atrocities
the crew committed in the name of the Shi'ar Empire (looting, pillaging,
genocide, etc.), she sent the ship into a sun. She did teleport herself
out first--that's how she landed in Excalibur. Now, Lilandra could not
let this pass. While she did not want her military committing such
crimes and sullying the name of the Empire, neither did she want unhappy
soldiers destroying valuable starships. Her solution was to sentence
Cerise to work for her as an aide, rooting out similar abuses. While a
cushy civil service job is better than a prison planet, this did
preclude Cerise staying on Earth (Excalibur #68-70). She attended Brian
and Meggan's wedding in Excalibur 125, and helped the X-Men during the
Maximum Security Crossover, where she was featured in X-Men #107 and
Maximum Security #3.
At least Cerise got a send-off; the others didn't do quite so well. But
Ben Raab, the last writer on the title (which was cancelled after issue
#125), was kind enough to answer the pleas of fans to get the dangling
plotlines regarding these characters resolved once and for all.
Feron was last seen under a waterfall, pining with Meggan (#71). Meggan
eventually got out, but Feron was forgotten about by the rest of the
team until he resurfaced in #124.
Micromax went to America to pursue a job offer (#71). As of #125, he
was still unemployed.
Kylun went to look for his family (#71), and is still living with them
(#125).
Rachel was also part of the purge; she replaced Captain Britain in the
timestream in #75. She popped back out of the timestream far in the
future in The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix LS #1, and by #4 had
died of natural causes. Of course, an earlier version of her also
appeared in Cable, where her brother rescued her. She decided to go
to college and try to be normal.
Pete Wisdom broke up with Kitty in the early 100s of the title. He left
Excalibur shortly before the team disbanded in Excalibur #125. He acted
as a mission overseer and team trainer during X-Force #102-105. Pete
died in X-Force #105, and his funeral was in issue #106. Of course, he
was faking. He reappeared in X-Force #115.
Brian Braddock and Meggan finally had their wedding in Excalibur #125.
They last appeared in the Excalibur: Sword of Power mini-series. They
also showed up for Betsy's funeral in X-Treme X-Men #3.
Lockheed just disappeared. He wasn't seen again until X-Treme X-Men
Annual 2001, though he also showed up for the Mechanix limited series.
Moira MacTaggert remained on Muir, working with daughter Rahne to find a
cure for the Legacy Virus. She died a few months later, when Mystique
set off a series of explosions on Muir Isle (X-Men #108). In death,
Moira transferred information about the Legacy Virus to Xavier's mind
(she may have suggested to Charles that Mystique's manipulation of the
virus was the key). Beast created a cure with Moira's knowledge.
Piotr, whose guilt over his sister's death from Legacy led him to join
Magneto's Acolytes, joined Excalibur after Avalon was destroyed in X-Men
#43. He beat up Pete Wisdom, but eventually became a full member of the
team. He left Excalibur to rejoin the X-Men. After Moira's death and
Beast's creation of the cure, Piotr took a vial full of the virus and
injected himself with it. Legacy was cured, but Colossus died in the
process (Uncanny #390). His feeling at the time was that it made up for
his failure to save his sister.
Kitty, who had joined Excalibur after recovering from her Mutant
Massacre / Marauders injuries, made her way back to the United States
with Kurt and Piotr, just in time to lose her powers along with the rest
of the X-Men, regain her powers, and fight Apocalypse. Shadowcat then
disappeared during the Neo storyline (and never revealed where she'd
been). She left the team after hearing of Piotr's death. She was last
seen enrolled in college (X-Men #111), and has also appeared in the
X-Treme X-Men Annual 2001 backup story and X-Men Unlimited #36, where
it's clear that she's enrolled in the University of Chicago. She was
in the Mechanix limited series, appeared as a major part of the God
Loves, Man Kills II storyline in X-Treme #24-30, and has since gone
back to school.
--- What happened to X-Factor? (+)
The original X-Factor members rejoined various incarnations of X-Men,
while the X-Factor kids generally became members of the New Mutants,
X-Force, or Generation X.
Alex Summers (Havok) was a member of X-Factor after the original X-Men
left. Havok presided over that team and was going to reorganize it after
their ties with the government were broken. Summers enlisted Shard,
Polaris, Multiple Man, Fixx and Greystone into his new X-Factor, only to
have the team go nowhere because Marvel used X-Factor #149 to ignite a
new series, MUTANT X. In the fateful issue, Greystone (who, like Fixx
and Shard, was a member of the XUE from Bishop's timeline) attempted
to return to his own timeline. The plan backfired, and the plane
carrying him and Havok exploded. Havok was sent to the Mutant X world,
inhabiting the body of that alternate universe's Alex Summers when he
"died." He appeared in the Mutant X title until it was cancelled. He was
seen apparently floating in Limbo after he "died" in Mutant X #32, but
he reappeared in a mental institution in UXM #411 and has since returned
to the mansion.
Lorna Dane (Polaris), who was also a leader of X-Factor, was on her own
for a while after Havok "died." Polaris later joined up with Magneto as
he ruled Genosha. During the Magneto: Dark Seduction mini-series, it was
revealed that Magneto was borrowing a portion of Lorna's powers in
exchange for lessons on how to use them. She turned against Magneto when
he attacked innocents to restore his powers with an enhancement machine.
She was seen helping the resistance in X-Men #112. After that, she came
back to join Havok, and seems to be quite a bit crazy after the events
of Uncanny X-Men (the 420s and 430s).
Jamie Madrox (Multiple Man) popped up on Muir Island with Wolfsbane,
Beast and Strong Guy. He was seen helping Forge in Genosha, though he
left as of X-Men #112. He reappeared as part of the X-Corps circa
UXM #401-404, and reappeared as a member of the X-Corporation in NXM
#128.
Guido Carosella (Strong Guy) had a heart attack. He later joined Lila
Cheney on yet another intergalactic tour.
Marshall Evans (Random) was last seen in Genosha, working with Blob
(X-Men #112). He was apparently killed in Weapon X #5.
Kyle Gibney (Wild Child) left X-Factor and was seen wandering about as he
mutated once more, ending up as a member of the new Weapon X title.
Pietro Maximoff (Quicksilver) starred in his own title for a while. He
helped Magneto rule Genosha for a short while. He left Magneto's side
during the Magneto: Dark Seduction mini-series. He appeared to be a member
of the Genoshan resistance movement until Avengers #38 showed that he had
rejoined his former teammates.
Shard, Bishop's sister, was kidnapped by Trevor Fitzroy, as revealed in
Bishop: The Last X-Men #2-3. Fitzroy was turning Shard human again. She
sacrificed herself in Bishop:TLXM #13 or 14 to give Bishop the energy he
needed to stop Fitzroy once and for all.
Forge showed up in X-Men Annual 2000, as well as in X-Men #102. He's
since joined Mystique in her new title.
Mystique became a terrorist and killed Moira MacTaggert on Muir Isle.
She was seen in the hospital in UXM #389, and reappeared in UXM #405.
In 2003, a Mystique title was launched, and she's been seen there and
in the Draco storyline circa UXM #432.
--- What happened to Generation X? (+)
Blink was killed by the Phalanx prior to the Age of Apocalypse story,
circa X-Men #37. An alternate, AoA version of her appeared in Exiles.
Gaia left to go explore the world. Nobody's seen her since.
Artie, Leech and Penance were sent to the St. Croix's home in Monaco to
protect them from the rising anti-mutant sentiment after Emma reopened
the Massachusetts Academy (Generation X #66-67). Leech was last seen in
Weapon X #5, strapped to a satellite dish.
Everett (Synch) was killed in an explosion at the Massachusetts Academy
when some racist and anti-mutant students decided to set a bomb
(Generation X #69-70).
The team disbanded as of Generation X #75. Angelo (Skin) and Jubilee
went to Los Angeles, Monet (M) returned home to Monaco, Paige (Husk)
went to save the trees, and Banshee apparently went home. Of these,
Banshee reappeared as leader of the X-Corps in UXM 401, and was joined
by Jubilee, M, and Husk in UXM #403-404. Monet reappeared as a member
of the X-Corporation in NXM #128, while Husk joined the Uncanny X-Men
team circa UXM #416. Paige and Jubilee both have been seen in UXM in
the 420s and 430s, while Angelo died in UXM #423 and was later buried.
Jono (Chamber) was accepted into the Uncanny X-Men team, and left in
UXM #415.
Emma Frost went to Genosha to teach a telepathy class (just before
Genosha was eradicated in New X-Men #115). She later joined the New
X-Men team.
--- What about everyone else? (+)
Calvin Rankin (Mimic) was seen in X-Force and Excalibur. Most recently,
he was part of the new Broterhood of Mutants in the High Evolutionary
storyline (circa X-Men #99 and UXM #379).
John Proudstar (Thunderbird I) was killed in the line of duty in UXM
#95.
Alison Blaire (Dazzler) left with Longshot. After staying with the X-
Babies in Mojoworld, she returned to Earth and then returned to the
Mojoverse (X-Men #113). Her life story was told in X-Men Unlimited #32.
She showed up again in Deadpool #67.
Longshot left the X-Men to find himself, reappeared, left to deal with
Mojoworld, and was last seen with a group of former mental patients
roaming the midwestern United States on their way to New York City. This
took place in the Longshot one-shot. He showed up again in Exiles #18-19.
Sarah (Marrow) left the X-Men powerless, and served as a camp counselor.
The Spider-Man/Marrow one-shot revealed that she'd been captured by
SHIELD and reprogrammed as a sleeper agent who would return to her
mutant form to hunt a target. Unsurprisingly, this created a serious
mental imbalance. She was thought dead, though the issue revealed that
she actually survived. She later appeared as a member of the Weapon X
team.
Maggott left the X-Men in search of better training. He showed up in one
issue of Generation X and left to pursue an artifacts hunter. He was
apparently killed in Weapon X #5.
Cecelia Reyes left the team to focus on her career as a doctor. In X-Men
#80, Reyes was still associated with the X-Men despite having set up
practice in Salem Center. She reappeared when a wounded Nightcrawler
showed up in her inner-city clinic. During a fight with the Neo, Reyes
became hooked on a power-boosting drug. The X-Men helped her get clean,
and she has since left the team, probably to return to her practice.
Betsy Braddock (Psylocke) died in X-Treme X-Men #2. Her death was
confirmed in XXM #3.
Sharon Friedlander died during the Fatal Attractions storyline.
Tom Corsi was last seen as a Generation X gym teacher circa #69.
Stevie Hunter last appeared in X-Men #30.
Spiral was last seen in the X-Babies Reborn one-shot.
Destiny died at Legion's hands during UXM #255, in the Muir Island saga.
Destiny was last seen as a ghost in Limbo (with Legion and Margali
Szardos) in Fantastic Four vol.2 #16.
Stonewall died in UXM #255, during the Muir Island X-men stories.
SuperSabre was decapitated New Mutants Annual #7, in one of the Kings
of Pain Annual back up stories.
Crimson Commando was badly injured in NM Ann #7, but he came back as a
partially nuts semi-cyborg. He later showed up in X-Men Annual #2 and
X-Factor #102.
Post died in Cable #87 when Pyro prevented him from killing Senator
Kelly.
Pyro died in Cable #87 after stopping the Brotherhood of Mutants from
killing Senator Kelly.
Senator Robert Kelly was assassinated by a human who was mad that the
Senator had changed his platform away from mutant-hating towards
compassion (X-Men #108).
Bastion was last seen in the M-Tech Warlock issues.
Fitzroy was teleported into bits in Bishop:TLXM #15. Bantam apparently
was left behind.
The Neo were recruited by Magneto in X-Men #110, after he killed two
of them. We haven't seen them since then.
The Reavers and the Shadow King last appeared in X-Treme X-Men Annual
2001. Pierce and some Reavers reappeared in New Mutants II #5.
Avalanche, Blob, and Radius all appeared as members of Banshee's
X-Corps in UXM #401. Prior to that, Avalanche was last seen in Cable
#87, Blob was last in X-Men #112, and Radius was last seen in Alpha
Flight volume 2.
Lady Mastermind (one of two feuding half-sisters) appeared in UXM #405.
Lady Mastermind (the other one) appeared in X-Treme X-Men #9, working
with Sebastian Shaw. Shaw popped up again in NXM #142.
Empath last reappeared in X-Treme X-Men #31.
Assorted Weapon X types, Alpha Flight members, and X-Men villians have
shown up in the Weapon X series, including Marrow, Kane, Sauron, Mesmero,
Maddison Jeffries (Box), Sabretooth, Wildchild, Agent 0, Wildside, Reaper
and newby Washout. Those guys formed the Weapon X team, with Soldier X
(Cable), Domino, Meltdown, Maverick and Blaquesmith appearing as the
opposition militia. Among random faces have been Locus of the MLF, whose
death by by Sabretooth was revealed in #2, and Omega Red, who showed up
in #3. Diamond Lil and Reaper were both killed in #5.
Other Alpha Flight members have shown up in issues of UXM, including
UXM #422 and again in #432.
Sabretooth, always busy, appeared in Deadpool #59, where he killed
Copycat, and also appeared in NXM #142.
(Mr.) Sinister showed up in an issue of Unlimited, where he offered to
resurrect Colossus, and was featured in Weapon X #13.
*** Continued in Part 6 ***
Kate the Short
-= REC.ARTS.COMICS.MARVEL.XBOOKS =-
Frequently Asked Questions
Part 6
Version 2003.02, last updated November 2003
URL: http://users.rcn.com/kateshort/faqs/racmxFAQ/faq5.html
------------------------------
Subject: Table of Contents
Part 6:
X-MEN COMIC BOOK QUESTIONS
* Is Magneto Jewish or Gypsy? Was Joseph Magneto? (+)
* What is the Hellfire Club? Who are its members? (+)
* What is the relationship between Wolverine and Sabretooth
supposed to be?
* Does Wolverine have any real memories anyway? How about
real bones?
* Who was Wolverine before he was Wolverine? Does he even
have a real name? (+)
* Wolverine can regularly regenerate himself from a drop of
blood, right?
------------------------------
Subject: X-MEN COMIC BOOK QUESTIONS
Please note: Background information on the creators and the X-titles
editorial offices is based on over a decade's worth of interviews,
articles, and personal questions, and as such is not directly
attributed here. Now that some of Marvel's staff members are on Usenet,
they are welcomed to correct and amend any of the answers listed below.
--- Is Magneto Jewish or Gypsy? Was Joseph Magneto? (+)
It appears that Magneto is Jewish, although his wife Magda likely is a
gypsy. However, Marvel being Marvel, it's good to set forth the
evidence. This is a summary of Rivka Jacob's excellent research on the
topic:
In UXM #150, after Magneto thinks he has killed Kitty, he says: "I
remember my own childhood ... the gas chambers at Auschwitz, the guards
joking as they herded my family to their death. As our lives were
nothing to them, so human lives became nothing to me." Storm is about to
blast him for "killing" Kitty, and she says, "If you have a deity,
butcher, pray to it!" Magneto answers, "As a boy, I believed. As a boy,
I turned my back on god forever." Magneto can't be a political prisoner
or atheist--he can only be Gypsy or Jewish if his entire family is at
Auschwitz.
In UXM #161, we see for the first and last time Magnus' tattoo from
Auschwitz. His number is #214782. Xavier says, "That tattoo, Magnus,
were you ...?" Magnus answers, "Auschwitz. I grew up there." Magnus'
number is high for someone who was there from the beginning of the camp,
but it is a standard number, without the A of the 1944 arrivals, or the
Z of the Gypsies, or the other special classification symbols. Of
course, the penciller probably didn't know these details...
In Vision and the Scarlet Witch, Vol. 1, #4, Magneto tells Vision about
his youth. Pictured is the Auschwitz camp, with guards tormenting
emaciated prisoners, one of whom displays a prominent and exaggerated
Star of David on his clothing. In the next panel, however, Magneto sort-
of goes into a fantasy. He says, "But unlike the other victims, I
possessed the power to fight back." He imagines he's hurling Nazi tanks
away with magnetic energy. Only Jewish prisoners wore the Star of David.
In UXM #199, Magneto (with Lee Forrester and Kitty Pryde) arrives at the
National Holocaust Memorial in Washington, DC. (It's not really Lee, but
Mystique, trying to capture Magneto). "Lee" says: "Man's inhumanity to
man... how easily the race kills." Magneto answers: "Then, Lee, it was
the Jews. My nightmare has ever been that tomorrow it will be Mutants."
Why would he say that, if he weren't Jewish? Next, Magneto tells Kitty
EXACTLY how to address the gathering in order to get information about
dead or missing family members. Isn't it obvious that he's done this
before? Why would he address a Jewish Holocaust gathering looking for
information about his family if his family weren't Jewish?
In UXM #211, Magneto reacts to the Morlock Massacre out of pure emotion,
saying, "NO! The horrors of my childhood, born again...only this time,
Mutants are the victims, instead of Jews." If he weren't Jewish, he
wouldn't have said Jews, or he would have at least added the name of
another people targeted by the Nazis.
In New Mutants #49, Magneto dreams of the massacre of his family. Here
we see for the first time, his family--father, mother, sister--as
they were gunned down in front of open graves. The family members are
dressed in middle class urban clothes. No peasant dress, no Gypsy
clothing. It's Magnus and his family who are out of place. They are
well-dressed, an urban family in a rural setting. This matches accounts
of what happened to Czech and German Jewish families who were moved east
and sometimes removed to woods and rural settings where they were shot.
In the X-Men Classics #12 back-up story, we see the actual scenes of
Magneto's and Magda's escape from Auschwitz. The war is almost over, and
it is the winter of 1944-1945. The Gypsy camp was murdered in the gas
chambers in August 1944. This scene, by Claremont and Bolton, takes
place on Jan. 20, 1945, two days after the camp was evacuated and the
death marches began. Some 70 of the Sonderkommando, Jewish prisoners who
were forced by the Nazis to lead the victims to the gas chamber, haul
the bodies to the ovens, and burn or bury the dead, were kept to help
destroy the evidence of the death factory, before they were to be
killed. Some 200 women from the woman's camp, Jews, were chosen to fill
in the huge pits where bodies were burned. The SS soldiers sent back on
Jan. 20th were sent to kill the women. Magneto was saving Magda because
at that point, he wasn't the target, yet.
In New Mutants #61, Magneto thinks to himself, "An ill wind is coming...
they are registering mutants... like they once registered my people in
Poland...! Who knows what horrors await us." Only the Jews were forced
to wear armbands with the Star of David on them, and registered before
being forced into ghettos in Poland (beginning at the end of 1939).
Young Magnus, who was already at Auschwitz by 1942, would only have
experienced the Jewish people in Poland (including German Jews who had
already been deported there in the first months of the War) being
registered.
In X-Factor Annual #4, Doom challenges Magneto to a duel of wills, with
a helmet that pulls out unpleasant memories and torments the wearer.
Magneto takes his turn--Doom describes what he sees, "...after the
ignoble defeat of the Nazis in Germany, you and the woman Magda you
rescued, fled the prison camp Auschwitz, in Poland." Doom confirms that
Magnus and Magda "fled" or escaped Auschwitz before liberation and after
the Gypsy camp was murdered.
In Uncanny #274, Magneto recalls his life in Auschwitz: "Zaladane has no
such compunction. And I hear the echo of Der Fuhrer's voice in the radio
of memory, smell the awful stench of the sick and dying as the cattle
cars brought the comdemned to Auschwitz. I wear red, the color of blood,
in tribute to their lost lives. And the harder I try to cast it aside,
to find a gentler path... the more irresistibly I'm drawn back. I should
have died myself with those I loved. Instead, I carted the bodies by the
hundreds, by the thousands... from the death house to the crematorium...
and the ashes to the burial ground. Asking now what I could not then...
why was I spared?!" This is what the Sonderkommando did. This is
fundamental to the history of the Holocaust, to the history of Nazi
Germany--making the *Jews* the ones who had to do all the dirty work in
the death camps.
In X-Factor #92, an Acolyte says, "You've seen this place Havok! You've
seen the sentinels! You tell me... where's the sense in letting the
flatscans do to the mutants what Hitler did to the Jews?..." The
Acolytes have done research on Magneto; they worship him. This one says
"the Jews" as a parallel metaphor. Why say that, if Magneto isn't
Jewish?
Now comes the infamous X-Men Unlimited #2. In that issue, Gabrielle
Haller stated definitively that Magneto was a Gypsy of Sinte descent.
However, nearly everything that Gabrielle Haller says about Magneto's
history, including the claim he is a "Sinte Gypsy," is false. For
example, Danzig was not annexed. It was a Free City, under League of
Nations protection, that voted itself a Nazi government and welcomed the
Nazi troops in like liberators. Gauleiter Forster, the extremely anti-
Semitic Nazi leader of Danzig ordered all the remaining Jews of Danzig
to be kicked out of the city in 1939, not the Gypsies. Auschwitz wasn't
opened as a Polish political prisoner camp until the summer of 1940, not
1939. The Gypsies were sent to German municipal camps, in Germany and
the Greater Reich, as early as 1933. But they were not sent to Auschwitz
from Germany until 1943. The only people who were in a work camp in
Auschwitz before it opened were 300 Jews from the town of Auschwitz who
were forced to transform a collection of horse stables and army barracks
into the Polish prisoner camp. (Fabian Nicieza wrote Magneto as a Gypsy
at the request of editors Kelly Corvese and Bob Harras, so don't blame
Fabian!)
In X-Men #40, which takes place in Israel, Legion pulls out Magneto's
memories. One can see a picture of young Magnus with older male
prisoners, standing behind and below a high, barred window. This is an
accurate portrayal of the quarters of the Sonderkommando at Auschwitz I.
At Auschwitz I, only the Sonderkommando (other than prisoners awaiting
execution) were kept in isolated basement cells, the windows of which
were high, barred, and as seen from the outside, half-below ground
level. And why is Magneto in Israel anyway? Why would a Gypsy go to
Israel when at least 30,000 Gypsies lived in Germany in the late 1960s
and early 1970s? And many more Romany formed a thriving community in
Paris. Why go to Israel to "find himself" or find his "soul"? Any Jew
can emigrate to Israel, under the Law of Return. All Magneto had to do
was show them the tattoo on his arm, and he was home. Furthermore,
Magnus at this time had forged papers, that identified him as "Erik
Magnus Lehnsherr." He could have immigrated to any country in the world,
including the United States! If he were a Gypsy, and didn't want to
self-identify as such, why not go to America? The Romany today deeply
resent the focus on Israel, and the support Israel enjoys among nations
of the Western world, while the Gypsies continue to be persecuted and
ignored.
In Astonishing X-Men #3, Magneto says, "Long before Xavier died...
before this point of divergence... I stood by helplessly as millions of
my people were led to slaughter in the name of 'genetic purity.'" The
AOA is a divergent timeline, starting from the same events as in our
own timeline. 250,000 to 500,000 Gypsies were murdered (possibly as many
as 750,000). Millions of Russians, Ukrainians, and Poles during the
course of the invasions, and in political violence, and in acts of pure
murder, were exterminated. But only the European Jews were "led to the
slaughter" in the millions because of one man's racial beliefs.
In X-Men #72, we learn that the name *Erik Lehnsherr* (revealed by
Gabrielle Haller in X-Men Unlimited #2 to be Magneto's real name) is
fake, and so Haller's assertion that Magneto is a *Sinte* Gypsy was
based on false and forged identity papers. Basically, Magneto needed the
fake Sinte identity to have a better chance of success on his search for
Magda (who *was* a Gypsy) after she had run away from him. Magneto,
speaking with Georg Odekirk, the man who forged the papers, says, "Do
you remember what you promised me the night I came to you, torn and
filthy, nearly a quarter century ago? I was searching for my beloved
MAGDA, determined not to lose her as I had lost so many others in the
fire that engulfed all of Europe during my childhood. The authorities
were in pursuit of me for the "crime" of avenging my daughter's murder.
I was willing to deny who I was... everything that my family died for...
so that I could find one woman... so that I would not be caged AGAIN.
The Erik Lehnsherr fabrication was a convenient means of ensuring that.
You swore that the forged papers were FLAWLESS, that your skills were
unsurpassed... but now, you have proven to be a liability. Your work has
been called into queston by my enemies, and they will trace Erik
Lehnsherr the Sinte BACK to you." Odekirk protests, "That is impossible!
That forgery was impeccable! My work is..." Magneto answers: "It was not
ENOUGH! You gave birth to Erik Lehnsherr, Odekirk. And tonight, you have
killed him. My secrets shall die with him. All that remains now... is
MAGNUS." Only the Jews and Gypsies were targeted as entire peoples, and
killed for no reason other than they were Jews and Gypsies. Magnus was
either one, or the other. Since in X-Men #72 it is revealed that he is
NOT a Gypsy, we must conclude he was born a Jew.
More recent issues have supported the retcon of the Magneto-as-Gypsy
retcon that appeared in X-Men Unlimited #2. In X-Men #111, Trish Tilby
calls Magneto the "rumored son of Israel." Furthermore, in X-Men #112,
Scott Summers describes Magneto as a Jew: "It's ironic, really. Magneto
lost his family in a Nazi death camp, persecuted just because they were
Jewish for the crime of being 'different.' Fifty-odd years later ... and
this time he's the monster. It's his army prepared to cleanse the Earth
of a race they've decided isn't worthy to continue. he's become what
he's always hated." It would be unlikely that the writers and editors of
the comics would include references to Magneto as Jewish unless they
were envisioning him as such. Outside canon, Magneto is described as
Jewish in the 1996-97 "Mutant Empire" trilogy of novels by Christopher
Golden.
If you want more details, including scans of relevant passages and
images, visit the "Magneto FAQs and Background Info" section of Alara's
Magneto Page at http://www.alara.net/xbooks/mag/faq.html.
As for the Joseph/Magneto cloning issue, Terrafamilia helps us out: To
be a stickler for detail-- Joseph was emphatically stated to *not* be a
clone. A copy, yes, but not a clone. Astra, a previously unknown
character retconned to having been an original member of the Brotherhood
of Evil Mutants, replicated Magneto using various and sundry bits of
highly advanced alien tech she had snatched over the years during her
travels through the galaxy (she's a high power intradimensional portal
style teleporter). Basically, she sent Magneto through a molecular
transporter type system and made a copy, which she altered to be younger
and more pliable. Unfortunately Magneto escaped during his and Joseph's
first encounter, so Joseph had time to develop a mind of his own while
he was supposed to be tracking down his quarry. Joseph's dead now,
having sacrificed himself for some reason or another.
As for Magneto's existence... Magneto was stabbed by Wolverine in X-MEN
#113. In NEW X-MEN #115, he appeared in a wheelchair, sitting in a
building in Hammer Bay as it was crushed by a Sentinel. He was presumed
dead as of that issue, until being revealed as Xorn in New X-Men #146.
--- What is the Hellfire Club? Who are its members? (+)
The Hellfire Club is a direct homage / tribute to the 1960s UK Avengers
show with Patrick MacNee and Diana Rigg. In an episode called "A Touch
of Brimstone", Steed and Mrs. Peel face a top secret political group
which named itself after the legendary 18th-century secret society. The
members of the "Inner Circle" all wear period costumes, and at one
point Mrs. Peel assumes the role of "the Queen of Sin", wearing a black
leather costume that's the image of the White Queen. (That's also why
the White Queen has the first name Emma--it's an homage to "Emma Peel".)
John Byrne has admitted using it as an inspiration, since it was one of
his favorite action/advenute shows growing up. Hellfire Clubs did exist
in the real world, but they were usually "gentlemen's" clubs of the 18th
century dealing as upper-class brothels. The best-known characters were
based on popular actors: In the X-Men Companion II (Fantagraphics Books,
1982), Byrne says that Sebastian Shaw was based on Robert Shaw, Harry
Leland was Orson Wells, Donald Pierce was Donald Sutherland, and Jason
Wyngarde is Peter Wyngarde.
Anyway, in Marvel Comics, there have been many different incarnations of
the American Hellfire Club / Inner Circle, as well as numerous
international clubs. The HC members tend to be mutants who want to rule
the world through a combination of raw power and subtle political and
financial maneuvers. Membership is passed down to one's offspring, so
people like Warren Worthington III (Angel) and Brian Braddock (Captain
Britain) are members of the club. The club first appeared at the start
of the Dark Phoenix Saga in Uncanny X-Men.
According to Ultimate X-Men (the coffee-table book, not the text-story
collection or the comic series of the same name), the American branch
of the Hellfire Club was founded in the 1770s by "wealthy trading
company owner Sir Patrick Clemens and his mistress, Diana Knight" who
emigrated from Britain to New York City. The Hellfire Club mini-series
reveals that the American club members were loyalists who battled the
Captain America of the American Revolution. The mini-series also gives
some background on Sebastian Shaw, showing how he transformed the Inner
Circle of wealth and privelege to an Inner Circle of mutants.
The backup story of Classic X-Men #7 introduces the reader to the
previous leaders of the club, namely White King Edward Buckman and his
White Queen, Paris Seville. According to OHOTMUDE, Shaw had up until
then risen to Black Bishop. On the same New Year's Eve when Jean Grey
became the Phoenix, Buckman was telling Sebastian Shaw what a fine Black
King he'd make. However, this was just a ruse to put Shaw in a false
sense of security, since Buckman and Paris actually intended to kill all
mutants, including Shaw and his four associates: Emma Frost, Harry
Leland, Tessa and Lourdes Chantel. In the fight that ensued, Lourdes
Chantel (Shaw's lover, a teleporter) was killed. Retribution was quick
to follow; under Emma Frost's telepathic control Buckman shot all of the
members of the Council of the Chosen before Shaw snapped his neck. Shaw
then took control of the Club, and renamed the Council the "Inner
Circle."
The club was formally introduced to X-Men readers during the Dark
Phoenix Saga. The Inner Circle was lead by Sebastian Shaw (the Black
King) and telepath Emma Frost (the White Queen). Shaw's assistant was
Tessa, an extremely intelligent human who later joined the X-Men as
Sage (where she displayed newly-found telepathic powers). The Black
Bishop was Harry Leland, who could manipulate mass. The White Bishop was
Donald Pierce, a cyborg who wanted to become White King. Mastermind, who
disguised himself in order to lure Phoenix into the club as its Black
Queen, was an applicant for Inner Circle membership.
The Hellfire Club appeared again in Marvel Graphic Novel #4, which
introduced the New Mutants. Pierce worked against Xavier in recruiting
Cannonball, but Tessa realized that Pierce was a threat to the Inner
Circle, and promised to deal with him. (Pierce was later seen in full
cyborg mode leading the Reavers in the Australian Outback era of
Uncanny. Donald Pierce returned in the Domino mini-series and later
turned up during the Ladronn issues of Cable.)
Years later, around the time of Uncanny #180-190, Selene became the new
Black Queen, after she was introduced by her agent/worshipper Frederick
von Roehm, (the Black Rook). Selene was a type of vampire, and she'd
appeared in New Mutants. Around the same time, Emanuel Da Costa (father
of New Mutant Roberto DaCosta) was recruited to become the White Rook.
Issues of Uncanny also revealed that Emma Frost was training her own set
of younger mutants, the Hellions, who went up against the X-Men before
becoming a longtime rival of the New Mutants.
After the defeat of Nimrod in Central Park, the Hellfire Club
disappeared from Uncanny, but continued to appear in The New Mutants,
where Frost, Shaw, and Selene pitted The Hellions against Xavier's
students. The two teams interacted on a number of occassions.
During this time, Magneto served as headmaster of Xavier's school.
In one memorable story (after the Beyonder killed and resurrected them)
the New Mutants became Hellions (and therefore wards of the Hellfire
Club). Magneto was named to the position of White King. He and Storm
shared the title for a while, and Magneto called himself the Grey King
after Shaw was booted out of the club (circa New Mutants #75).
The Hellfire Club underwent a number of dramatic changes in the 1990s.
In Uncanny #281, the Hellions were killed and Emma Frost was put into a
coma (she woke in Uncanny #314). Soon after, Sebatian Shaw was
overthrown by Shinobi Shaw, who was supposed to be Sebastian's son, but
had mass / intangibility powers more like those of Harry Leland.
Shinobi replaced the entire Inner Circle (some with members of The
Upstarts) and this new Circle is what stands in X-Men Annual #3. The
"upstart" Inner Circle was composed of Shinobi Shaw (Black King),
Benazir Kaur, Reeva Payge, and Benedict Kine (White King). It's only
assumed that the aforementioned ladies held the rank of queen. Circa
Uncanny #319, Shinobi attempted to bring Storm, Psylocke, and Angel in
as members of the Inner Circle, but they refused.
The Club next appeared in Generation X's first annual. Emma Frost's loss
of the Hellions caused her to align with Xavier and train his new team.
This resulted in her abandoning her position in the Club, though she was
still known as the White Queen. Her younger sister, Cordelia, tried to
insinuate herself into Shinobi's Hellfire Club, but she was refused
entry.
After Onslaught, Sebastian Shaw was finally able to overthrow his son.
Selene returned to the Club as well, bringing with her Trevor Fitzroy
and X-Man's Madelyne Pryor. Madelyne eventually double-crossed Selene
and sought to supplant her as the Black Queen. Issues of X-Man indicated
that Madelyne assumed the title for a short time, and Sebastian Shaw
called her "my queen." This version of the Inner Circle did not last
very long, though. Madelyne soon left to follow Nate Grey (and was again
replaced by Selene) while Fitzroy sent himself to the future as the
Chronomancer (see Bishop: The Last X-Man #1). Tessa also announced that
she was no longer in the employ of Shaw, and later aligned herself with
the X-Men. At one point, Emma's sister Adrienne Frost announced that she
was the new White Queen (circa Generation X #62) but she was never seen
in that role.
Club membership was readjusted once more beginning with Fantastic Four
Annual '99, which established that Black Queen Selene was running the
club with the demon Blackheart (Mephisto's son) as her Black King.
Selene later showed up in X-Force, where she converted Roberto DaCosta
into an HC member. Berto should have inherited his father's White Rook
position, but he's apparently the Black Rook. No current White Hellfire
Club members are confirmed as such.
As if that wasn't enough, there have been quite a few stories mentioning
the (presumably original) London branch of the Hellfire Club. Beginning
in Excalibur #92, Warren Ellis mentioned the London branch. It was
connected to the American Club by name and occassional association,
but the London Club had distanced itself enough that Shinobi Shaw
convinced Brian Braddock (Captain Britain) to enter the London Club and
act as informant for whatever plan was brewing. The London Club used the
colors Red and White for its Inner Circle, as opposed to the Black and
White of the New York Club. During the Excalibur run leading up to issue
#100, Brian planned to enter as the Red Bishop (since his father had
apparently held that position), but he ended up becoming its Black Rook.
The Red King was an Indian man we'd never seen before, and the Black
King was likewise a new character. The Red Queen was sorceress Margali
Szardos, better known as Amanda Sefton's mom and Nightcrawler's adoptive
mother. The Black Queen, named Emma Steed, was a psionic skinner who
looked very much like the Damask character that appeared in the Age of
Apocalypse storyline. (She was also the spitting image of Diana Rigg,
who played Emma Peel in the classic Avengers episode mentioned above.)
The Red Rook, Scribe, was a recorder of sorts, whose body was being used
by Mountjoy, a refugee from Bishop's timeline. She had powers of
intangibility, superior strength, and agility, which may have come from
Mountjoy instead of from her own ability. (It should be noted that
Mountjoy was a refugee from Bishop's future who was revealled to have
snuck through Fitzroy's gateway while riding another criminal. Bishop
became aware of his prescence in the mainstream timeline present and
pursued him in theBishop Limited series by Ostrander and Pacheco).
Excalibur #100 revealed that the London Hellfire Club and black ops
organization Black Air had bribed their way into the pockets of many
important politicians. The Club attempted to utilise the powers of a
demon trapped under London to cause enough chaos that they and their
agents in Black Air could seize power. They kidnapped Excalibur member
Douglock to use as a sort of power conduit, but unfortunately they'd
underestimated the power of the demon and pretty much drove themselves
mad. The Black King and Red King ended up dead, while Red Queen Margali
was snatched into Hell / Limbo by Belasco (see the Soulsword question),
and the Black Queen escaped to parts unknown. The Red Rook, Scribe,
eventually showed up in X-Man #23, where she later battled Madelyne.
The London Club also made an appearance, via flashback, in a story
involving Cable (circa Cable #49). "The Hellfire Hunt" had Cable chase
Donald Pierce and Sebastian Shaw across the Atlantic to prevent them
from stealing Apocalypse's technology. On the flight there, he and Irene
Merryweather read the diary of a previous Union Jack who had battled the
Club in his day. The story also involved the Harbinger, a creation of
Apocalypse (see CABLE #50). These events referenced the events of The
Further Adventures of Cyclops & Phoenix. That story--the origin of
Sinister--revealed an alliance between Apocalypse and the London Club of
1889. The Hellfire Club planned to increase strife around the world,
making the world ready for Apocalypse's eventual return.
Obviously, the Hellfire Club and its Inner Circle have deep roots in
the Marvel Universe. In addition to the London and New York branches,
there are apparently chapters of the Hellfire Club in Moscow, Rio de
Janeiro, Tokyo, Venice, and Hong Kong. Jamie Braddock, Brian Braddock,
and Betsy Braddock all had membership through their father, who was a
member of the London Inner Circle. Warren Worthington III had membership
through his father, and his girlfriend Candy Southern was also a member.
Howard Stark, Iron Man's father, was a member, as was Senator Robert
Kelly (see Uncanny #247). The Hellfire Club mini-series indicates that
the Greys (Jean's parents) probably are members as well.
--- What is the relationship between Wolverine and Sabretooth supposed
to be?
Once upon a time, this was one of the big Unanswered Questions in the
X-titles. Of course, once upon a time Bernard the poet was a recurring
character in X-Men as well. Dig those groovy rhymes!
Wolverine and Sabretooth were originally designed, most likely by John
Byrne once he got his hands on them, to be son and father, respectively.
Nothing was ever made of this, besides the usual murky hints behind the
scenes. As time went by the relative popularity of Wolverine versus the
great obscurity of Sabretooth (up until recently, he was still a second-
string villain found working for no-name crime bosses in Spider-Man
titles) made such a revelation rather silly in the eyes of Marvel, so
they just shifted the whole thing over to them both just having some
sort of relationship in the past, but of an unspecified sort.
Recently, Wolverine and Sabretooth have been revealed simply to be
former secret agents who worked on the same team with other mysterious
mutants such as Maverick. A blood test performed by some considerate
S.H.I.E.L.D. medical technicians in Wolverine #42 finally gave us a
definite answer: they aren't related by blood at all. Sabretooth once
believed himself to be Logan's father, but that was merely a vestige of
the Weapon X's memory implant procedures.
--- Does Wolverine have any real memories, anyway? How about real bones?
Apparently, almost all of Wolverine's memories are constructs, thanks to
the ever-dependable Weapon X program and the demands of Marvel writers.
What he had as his original skeleton has become even more of a muddled
pile of murk thanks to the Fatal Attractions storyline. A brief synopsis
of what was once known to be true will be attempted here, but as
discussions on racmx have shown, this question is a retcon in action,
and even Wolverine fans are still confused over the whole affair. Those
of us who are just neutral bystanders will have to be content with what
follows, and leave the heavy arguments to the knowledgable Wolvie sages
on racmx.
IN THE BEGINNING, like, pre-X-Men (Hulk #181), even, Wolverine was just
designed to be a spunky teenager working for the Canadian government,
who had claws stuck in his gloves. One gets the opinion that perhaps
there were some slight budgetary problems in the Canadian Secret Service
at the time. There was a suggested subplot which would reveal him to be
a "super-evolved" real wolverine, made into human form by the High
Evolutionary, but that was never followed up on.
Now, when Wolverine was put into the X-Men, Chris Claremont decided that
since he was in the X-Men, he needed to have a mutant power.
Furthermore, he didn't like the idea of having the adamantium claws just
part of the gloves, as then "anyone who could get the gloves could be
Wolverine." So, he revealed that the claws are actually housed in
Wolvie's arms.
Eventually, we find out that all of Wolverine's skeleton is bonded with
adamantium. Adamantium is the hardest known non-magical substance in the
Marvel Universe, capable of ignoring point-blank nuclear strikes. Chris
Claremont also revealed that Wolverine was much older than he'd
originally been planned to be. Wolverine's vaunted healing factor wasn't
mentioned in the stories until UXM #142, although it was first shown in
the UXM issue in the mid 110's when Wolverine got his arm chomped on by
a dinosaur.
Time passes. We learn that Wolverine may have gotten his adamantium from
the Canadian special weapons project, Project X. There is a good clue
out that the adamantium bonding process was stolen for Project X from
Lord Darkwind, a Japanese nobleman who performed the same sort of
operation on Bullseye, a nonpowered assassin and foe of Daredevil's.
Lord Darkwind's daughter, Lady Deathstrike, has been hunting Wolverine
for years to kill him, since him having that skeleton is an insult to
the heritage of her father. The process was either stolen by or for
James Hudson, head of the Alpha Flight project, which was responsible
for the superpowered protection of the Canadian provinces and interests.
Then comes the Weapon X storyline (MCP #72-84). Wolverine, who up to
this point is thought to just be a fast-healing mutant of indeterminate
age, is now revealed to apparently have had some form of natural "bone
claws" where his metal ones ended up, because when they were filling him
full of adamantium, that's where a bunch of it pooled up (sounds more
like a scientist was skipping on quality control, but, hey, it's
comics).
The idea of the Weapon X project was that it would create all these
super-soldiers, and then release them back into the general public with
no memory of who they were as "sleepers." So they wouldn't remember
their experiences at the Weapon X facilities, they were all programmed
with false memories. To help keep watch over this odd idea, a computer
program named Shiva was written, who could take over one in an almost
endless series of robots to hunt down and destroy any Weapon X soldier
who, somehow, showed signs of remembering who he really was. Currently,
Wolvie has fooled Shiva into thinking it killed him.
So, with that added to the muddle, we then get the unusual Fatal
Attractions crossover, where Magneto pulled the adamantium off of
Wolvie's bones through his skin pores (X-Men #25). So, Wolvie (aside
from hurting real, real bad) was growing new bone claws because he
originally had bone claws (and they got covered in adamantium), and
Magneto removed the original ones.
The lastest addition to this saga is that the adamantium was preventing
his mutation from expanding any further. In this case, that meant his
turning into pure animal, with the unbearably heightened senses and
uncontrollable instincts (Wolverine #92).
The memories problem was repaired by Epsilon Red (by the same people who
brought you Omega Red).
As of Wolverine #100, we have a new incarnation of Wolverine. To Larry
Hama's credit, Wolverine did get his adamantium back. For a few panels.
Then Wolverine rejected it and lost what was left of his mind. The
current version is now a mutant who can withstand almost any amount of
physical abuse. Elektra took it upon herself (Wolverine #101) to help
Logan return to humanity, and it mostly worked.
To make matters worse, Sabretooth had been the recipient of Wolverine's
old adamantium. The stuff was then ripped out of Sabretooth and given
back to Wolverine by Apocalypse, who made Wolverine his horseman Death
for a short time. Wolverine #145 displayed the moment in a flashback,
but the first appearance with the metal back was as Death in Astonishing
X-Men Vol. 2 #1.
--- Who was Wolverine before he was Wolverine? Does he even have a
real name? (+)
In 2001, a new miniseries was created by Joe Quesada, Bill Jemas, and
Paul Jenkins, penciled by Andy Kubert and digitally painted by Richard
Isanove. Creatively named "Origin," the book was set in Alberta and
British Columbia, Canada, and was supposed to tie up a lot of loose ends
about Wolverine's origins. We'll summarize the important parts for you,
so you don't have to spend dozens of dollars trying to buy the darned
thing.
Issue #1 used misdirection, and convinced many readers that Dog, the
beaten and abused son of lowlife groundskeeper Thomas Logan, was
Wolverine. Origin #2, however, revealed that Wolverine was James Howlett,
the weak child of an aristocrat, James Howlett, who was a gentle and soft
man, and his wife Elizabeth, who has been sequestered in the mansion ever
since the death of her first son, John. It's likely that Elizabeth
Howlett had an affair with Thomas Logan, and that James is actually their
son, since Thomas sneaks into the mansion in issue #2 to take Elizabeth
away with him, and she doesn't protest too much. Either way, Thomas Logan
ends up dead when James pops his claws. Something odd happened with his
dead older brother, though--John Logan died at age twelve, apparently
after an illness, and Mrs. Howlett says something to the effect of "ohh
... Not *again*. Not *you*, James" in Origin #3. Apparently she's seen
*somebody* pop claws before. It's too much for her, so she kills herself
with a rifle. When the news is brought to Grandpa Howlett, he asks Dog
what happened... and Dog lies and says that Rose had a gun.
After Grandpa Howlett forces Rose and James to leave the Howlett home,
Rose takes James by train to British Columbia to work in a quarry. Since
James is in a daze from the appearance of his claws, and they need to
hide their identities due to James' killing of Thomas Logan, Rose gives
the foreman the name of "Logan" for James. (The foreman, Smitty, is
where Logan picks up his characteristic use of "bub.") After working
lower-class jobs for a long while, Logan becomes stronger, following an
internal "urge" to learn how to track animals. As of issue #4, he
prefers the name "Logan" instead of James. He doesn't know what happened
in Alberta (apparently his mind is blocking the memories), and though
Rose wants to talk with him about it, he won't listen. She writes an
account of it in her narrative diary, hoping that he'll learn the truth
from the diary someday. Logan still seems to remember his claws, though,
and after two years at the camp, he pops them out again.
In Origin #5, Rose becomes interested in Smitty. Smitty ends up giving
Logan a book about Japanese Samurai fighters, presumably leading to his
interest in that culture. At the end of the issue, Grandpa Howlett talks
of letting "the fear of what happened to his brother" cloud his
judgement, and sends a messenger to find James and Rose--except that the
messenger is Dog, Thomas Logan's son from issue #1. In issue #6, there's
a cage match in which Logan is called "the Wolverine." He throws a fight
against Smitty, who was in the cage matches to earn money so that he and
fiancee Rose could leave the quarry. When Dog appears and fights Logan,
Logan remembers that Dog is actually the one who killed his father, not
him. Rose tries to stop them; popping his claws, Logan accidentally
kills Rose. He then runs off into the Canadian wilderness, leaving Dog
and Smitty behind.
Apparently it's all true, because Xavier's freaky sister Cassandra Nova
called Wolverine both "Mr. Logan" and "James" in NXM #126.
At the WizardWorld 2002 Comicon Quesada spoke for a while about Origin.
The story didn't tell much about Wolverine's origin, they said, because
the people at Marvel have planned a sequel. "Bill [Jemas] wants to do it
tomorrow," said Quesada, "but I want to let 'Origin' sit a while." So
who knows when we'll find out the details of how Wolverine went from
teenage quarry worker to Weapon X agent.
And, just to clear things up: Dog is not Sabretooth. Really.
--- Wolverine can regularly regenerate himself from a drop of blood,
right?
Only if you only reread one annual.
In Uncanny X-Men Annual #11, the X-Men get involved in this very
symbolic quest to determine the worthiness of the entire human race, and
all that other light afternoon sort of entertainment. In the end, only
Wolverine is left to strive for the goal, this immensely powerful alien
god-gem gadget thingee. Unfortunately for Wolverine, the alien Horde is
right behind him, and slaughters the poor mutant--but not before a
single drop of Wolvie's blood lands on the immensely powerful alien god-
gem which super-cosmically charges the superpowers of that blood to
regrow an entire Wolverine, adamantium bones and all. In short, don't
try this at home, kids, at least not without an immensely powerful alien
god-gem of your own.
The simplest evidence against Wolverine having this amount of
regenerative ability, however, is that in the numerous issues with no
alien god-gems in sight that Wolverine gets pounded in, none of the
blood he's leaked so copiously over everything has ever grown into
another Wolverine.
*** Continued in Part 7 ***