Wow, there are 35 characters to cover, and the town is being hit by a snowstorm with thunder and lightning. Seems a bit unfair that. Like getting ganged up on. So I'm going to start with Rookies, then Villains tomorrow, finish with Heroes on Thursday. I'll try listing them as Prominent, Bit Player, Back of the Photo, or Gone (though not necessarily dead, or forgotten). I'm going off whatever I can find on Wikipedia, and any pages Wiki links to.
Rookies: There were nine total, one of which was more than five years old - Strong Guy, who will be twenty-five years old next year. Wow. I guess he was listed as a rookie because he had only recently joined PAD's X-Factor. Eight other rookies to consider, though.
Talon - Member of the Guardians of the Galaxy. Jim Valentino says Talon was meant to be reminiscent of the Beast during Engelhart's run on Avengers, a real party guy. Suffered spinal injury, underwent personality change after technology of the 31st century helped him. Tried to become leader, gradually ostracized by rest of team, to the extent that they didn't bring him along when they went to the past to stop the original Martian Invasion (since their universe is apparently the same as the one Killraven is from. I did not know that.) Not heard from since. Gone.
Kylun - Walked through dimensional doorway created by Widget as child of seven. Rapidly aged and mutant powers kicked in, fought to free Earth-148 from Necrom. Followed Necrom to Earth-616, joined Excalibur for about 35 issues, before deciding to ease out of crimefighting and reconnect with his parents. Next appeared at wedding of Captain Britain and Meggan, over 50 issues later (1998). No indication he's been used since then. Since he was a mutant, probably depowered. Wonder if that de-aged him as well? Gone.
Silhouette - Fought crime alongside Dwayne Taylor, pre-Night Thrasher days. Shot in spine, lost use of legs. Can walk through shadows. Joined New Warriors for about fifty issues. Went to Chicago with Night Thrasher's brother, appeared in Gambit's series later (my condolences), fought alongside Captain America in Civil War, though I only recall seeing her in a tie-in issue of Iron Man, has apparently registered since then. Has appeared in current New Warriors series. Bit Player, potentially could be prominent, depending on if she plays a recurring role in New Warriors, or perhaps the Initiative series.
Bishop - Traveled to the past. Tries to find the X-Traitor. Tries to protect Xavier, fails semi-regularly, has been lost in alternate futures, has been a cop in Mutant Town, has worked for the Pro-Regs, and is currently occupied with trying to kill a baby, to the point he accidentally shot Xavier in the head. Whoops. So he's certainly had some staying power. Bishop is solidly mid-card status, right? Pretty consistent presence in the X-verse. Prominent.
Darkhold Redeemers - Group of people join together to find the pages of the Book of Darkhold to prevent bad stuff from happening. As far as a Storytelling Engine goes, it's OK, since you can argue there are lots of pages, so it could take a really long time to get them, but the group appears to have faded after the whole Midnight Suns stuff ran its course back in the '90s. The Marvel Appendix doesn't have any appearances listed for the group after '94. Modred the Mystic showed up as recently as '98 (in the pages of Alpha Flight, Volume 3), and his former apprentice Jinx got mentioned in Civil War: Battle Damage Report, but otherwise, has nothing listed after January, 1994. Gone.
Cerise - Shi'ar who deserted after her refusal to fire on civilians got her crew killed. Wound up on Earth, joined Excalibur, had relationship with Nightcrawler (I tells ya, that Kurt Wagner is a real player). Eventually taken back to Shi'ar Empire, imprisoned pardoned, appeared in Annihilation: Ronan as one of Gamora's Graces. So, since Gamora was likely still fighting Annihilation Wave forces after the end of Annihilation (the guerrilla fighting she was planning when she and Nova parted ways), Cerise probably got infected by the Phalanx too. Unless someone saw her in that Emperor Vulcan mess. There's no mention, but any of you see her? Back of the Photo.
Slapstick - Gained weird powers by walking through funhouse mirror. Had limited series, teamed up with New Warriors once, beat the snot out of Gauntlet for trashing the New Warriors name constantly. And may I say, thank you for that, Slapstick. As Gauntlet is a fictional character, I was unable to do so myself. I would say Slapstick's Q rating has never been higher, at least not since his limited series back in '92. Still, he's just one of a cast of dozens in that book, so Bit Player.
Pantheon - Group of super-powered folks trying to help the world. Worked with Professor Hulk, were eventually lead by him, until he decided he didn't want the gig anymore, then they went to work for the government. Haven't been seen since a Hulk Annual in 1997 where some space alien assumed a form that made them believe he was Banner's kid, which they decided to protect. Until Gladiator stomped the crap out of them (the alien committed crimes against the Shi'ar in a past life). Gone.
So there's the the rookies. There's really only one that's been around consistently, and perhaps unsurprisingly, it's the one that appeared on a cartoon show. Slapstick, Silhouette, and maybe Cerise might be reaching that point where people who liked them as kids are getting a chance to write, and that's why they've reemerged, to the limited extent each one has. Might take another five to ten years before one of them gets to play Jessica Drew to some hip, young writer's Bendis.
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2 comments:
I believe Kylun is listed in the 198 as one of the mutants whose powers remained (yay he has powers so lame that he was embarassed to share them with his team). His real power was actually a set of mystic swords so he'd be fine even without his mutant abilities.
Also his age was based on ending up on a world with a faster time flow than 616.
Cerise actually made a couple reappearences. She was involved in Maximum Security, and helped the X-men during that.
And yes. I was a major Excalibur fan. :) Otherwise my response to those two would've been: "who?"
seangreyson: They left Kylun his powers? Weird. Especially considering he has the mystic daggers, as you noted, so the mutant powers hardly seem necessary.
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