Change Of Plans

You remember how on Monday I was complaining about snow, plus lightning and thunder? Well, the lightning and thunder was the harbinger of freezing rain, or rain that froze after it hit the ground. So the town has been pretty much an Ice Kingdom for the last two days, and UPS is a day behind on deliveries. Thus, comics tomorrow, and I'll just wrap up the 1990s trading card retrospective today, looking at the 11 new heroes, though I would use that term loosely for at least a couple of them.

Feral: Well, she died, so that Jeph Loeb might have more death in his Wolverine story, which suggests Gone for the foreseeable future. But she'd had a few appearances this decade, including during Morrison's X-Men run, so she was probably a Bit Player up until her death.

Night Thrasher: I'm not counting Dwayne's brother, who's currently assumed the identity, so that would make Night Thrasher gone, since Dwayne certainly seems to be. Before that, there was that reality TV show New Warriors mini-series, but as I recall that wasn't greeted with much fan love or good sales, so Dwayne Thrasher was probably Back of the Photo. I know, he was in Civil War #1, but being blown up and getting slandered as being sloppy, irresponsible heroes isn't good for ones profile, so I don't think it helps much.

Cable: Well, love him or hate him, Cable's certainly been Prominent. He had a mini-series in the '90s, followed by a decade-long ongoing, then a retitled ongoing (Soldier X) that ended after 12 issues, a three year run in Cable/Deadpool, and he's getting a new ongoing. Plus he's been part of X-Force, and the X-Men titles a couple of different times. I don't think he counts as an A-lister, but he is still pretty noticeable.

Thor: Sorry, they mean Eric Masterson with the power of Thor as a new character. I guess Masterson was a new character. He had about a two-year run as Thor, then he was Thunderstrike for about five more, which isn't too bad. But, he's dead now, has been for a decade, so I would say Gone.

Deathlok: Again, not the concept of Deathlok, which has been around since the mid-1970s, but the Michael Collins version. It appears that other than Beyond! (which was good), and showing up in Dwayne McDuffie's Fantastic Four run, Collins hasn't been around much since his series ended in 1994. In fact, there was apparently another Deathlok in the late 1990s, and there's all sorts of more robotic versions (lacking human intelligence) around the Marvel U. these days, if New Avengers was any indication. I'd say that thanks to McDuffie he's currently a Bit Player, but unless someone else gets the itch to use him, he'll probably start fading to the background again.

Shatterstar: Back of the Photo. He popped up a bit in notoriety there for awhile, with that X-Force mini from a few years back, and his appearance in Civil War: X-Men as one of the mutants helping the 198 leave the Xavier Institute (still not sure why he, and especially Domino, did that). He hasn't shown up anywhere since then.

Darkhawk: He was defacto team leader of that legion of losers in Kirkman's Marvel Team-Up series, only a couple of years ago. And he's a regular member of that superhero self-help group (as seen in The Loners), with the folks trying to avoid using their powers, and live normal lives instead. Neither one of those was very high-profile, though, so Back of the Photo.

Ghost Rider: Again, not the overall concept, just the Dan Ketch version. Well, his series ended in 1998, although they finally published the real final issue last year. But since '98, Johnny Blaze has been Ghost Rider, even though Ketch apparently isn't dead, and in theory is still working with that spirit that transformed him into Ghost Rider (Nobel Kale). He appears to have been lost in the shuffle, or is just being ignored. Gone.

Domino: Well, there was the Civil War: X-Men series, and her semi-regular appearances in Cable/Deadpool, much more regular when Cable was still around, so I'd at least say Bit Player.

Gambit: For better or worse, Gambit has hung around. He's been part of the X-Men off and on, may or not be a bad guy right now, but he got to take part in Messiah Complex, and I had heard that one of the X-Books would revolve around Xavier, Magneto, Rogue, and Gambit, so I'd say that qualifies as Prominent.

Sleepwalker: He was in that Legion of Losers story too, and he's got himself a supporting cast role in Ms. Marvel these days, so Bit Player sounds about right.

So, can we learn anything about characters from all this? It feels like villains have a tendency to stick, moreso than heroes. Granted, most of the heroes and rookies are still around (Masterson being an exception), but most of them are in a vastly reduced capacity, compared to what they used to be, when they were part of hot team books, or maybe even had their own ongoing series (such as Sleepwalker and Darkhawk). It could be because heroes need villains to fight, so there's always some writer willing to pull a bad guy out of the pile and throw him at the good guys, so there are more opportunities for the villains to get exposure. But heroes are usually the focus of the stories, how are they reacting to the villain, what's the relationship between the two, what does the battle tell us about the hero, etc. So there's only so much hero focus to go around, and that makes it easier for heroes to be forgotten or tossed aside until someone with a fondness for the character, and some idea what to do with them, comes along to restore their former glory. or at least get them out there where the fans can see them.

OK, reviews tomorrow, I hope.