1992′s Where Are They Now?

I started my X-Men fandom back in 1991 when my brother picked up Uncanny X-Men #275 (featuring my all-time favorite cover), and then had me buying them just three issues later.  1991 was a big year for the X-Men franchise, as the three big titles – Uncanny, New Mutants and X-Factor all went through major changes.  With the release of the cartoon shortly after, the X-Men became an even bigger sensation for young fans, even for a line that had for some time been THE book of the comic scene.

A lot of my time in late-91 and most of 1992 hanging out a small local comic shop about three blocks away from my house hanging out with the local solicitor, a guy I only knew as Steve.  Steve had opened a comic and card shop along with a small art gallery in a building next to Louisville’s Clifton Pizza, which is why to this day I associate the smell of a sit-down pizzeria with comics.  Steve was an amazing contributor to my fledgling comic fandom, one of the three people that _ my love of comics (along with my older brother and my friend’s Aunt Jane – who was my comic mentor).

I spent many a dollar in Steve’s shop, and he gave me numerous deals that helped me build my collection of both comics and cards.  For the entire summer of 1992, I spent dollar after dollar on packs of the first-ever X-Men trading card set.  This 100-card set (not counting the bonuses) was drawn completely by Jim Lee, and reflected all of the X-Teams, even Excalibur.  This card set let me learn about all the X-Men characters, in a time when Al Gore had yet to develop the Internet.  Back then, you had to read the issues yourself or find some kind of resource to get your knowledge.  And this one was mine.

At a dollar a pack, I spent most of the summer of ’92 piecing together this set.  Steve was nice enough to buy back my doubles as I slowly but surely worked on the entire set.  In fact, two weeks was spent looking for two cards to finish the set – Shatterstar and Danger Room Gambit – until one fateful day I bought one pack that had BOTH cards in it.  I was one happy camper.

In fact, my biggest regret of the numerous lost pieces of my youthful comic collection is that I managed to lose this set somewhere along the line.  It was probably pitched or given away by my mom, but I can’t really blame her as it likely took place during my down period of comic fandom in the early 00′s.  I could actually buy the whole set now for not that much, but I can’t say I have the money for it right now.  (If any reader would like to…just saying, ha!)

But I occasionally go back and look through the set, via a site of scans at comiccovers.com, and reminisce about the fun I had collecting them.

But today when I did so it dawned on me that there are some characters that were highlighted back in this boom period of X-Men that have been lost into character limbo over the years.  After all, it’s been over 2 decades since this set came out.  So let’s look at some of the featured characters from this period that have been largely forgotten over time.

On a random issue of X-Force

One of the perks of having spent far too much money on accumulating an impressive (I think) collection of X-Family comics is that whenever I’m in the mood to read something random there’s probably an issue I either haven’t read at all or at least haven’t in so long that it once again seems new.  A few days ago I decided to pull a couple random issues of the original X-Force just before the Phalanx Covenant and give them a look.  One of them was issue 37.

Besides my initial comment on how ridiculously thin Cannonball’s flight jacket seems to be (even the padding is paper thin, according to that rip), I realized that this lone issue of X-Force was a good demonstration on some of the details of the mid-90′s X-Men books (or the major comic companies in general, really) that have since been forgotten and swept over.

So that’s what we’ll be talking about today.

“On the New Mutants” or “Professor X Phones It In”

Throughout their tenure as students of Professor Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, the New Mutants were constantly at odds with the senior team of X-Men, wanting to earn their place but constantly being called X-Babies and pushed aside almost everywhere.  Everyone from Storm to Shadowcat to Wolverine disrespected the kids whenever convenient.

But it wasn’t just the X-Men.  The team’s founder Charles Xavier – the legendary Professor X – had seemingly brought the team together in the same spirit that he had brought the original X-Men together so long ago.  Or that’s what he’d make you think, since he is telepathic and all.  But if one looks closer into the individual recruiting of all the various members of the New Mutants, they’d learn that the team came together through a series of random events rather than through great (or any) effort on the part of Xavier.

• Karma: Discovered by Reed Richards and the Fantastic Four, who sent word to Xavier.  After initially refusing the request to bring her to the school, Xavier is taunted into relenting by Moira MacTaggert.
• Wolfsbane: Chased by religious fanatics led by her own father Reverend Craig, she eventually came across Moira MacTaggert who just happened to be her godmother.  Moira dispersed the crowd and brought Rahne to Xavier.
• Mirage: Mutant abilities discovered by her grandfather, Black Eagle who is killed right after sending word to Xavier to come get her.
• Sunspot: After manifesting his abilities on the soccer field, Xavier actually detects this one.  Sunspot is the only member of the New Mutants that Xavier himself actually finds, yet he still sends Moira to go get the boy.
• Cannonball: Discovered working for Donald Pierce when he attacks Xavier directly.  Invited to join the team after the fight.

And thus the original team of New Mutants were not painstakingly gathered by Charles Xavier in the spirit of the original X-Men.  No, rather they were assembled through luck and circumstance, and mainly through the great effort of Moira MacTaggert.  And as it would later turn out, the decision was made not directly by Xavier, but rather by the Brood Queen embryo planted within his body, hoping to gather other future hosts.  That’s right – Charles Xavier assembled the kids (or had them assembled for him) to eventually turn them into Brood.

But even once cured of his infection and deciding to keep the team going, Charles Xavier kept his half-assed methods going rather than actually giving a damn about his students.  This was no more apparent than when Karma vanished during a fight against Viper and the Silver Samurai.  After a day of looking, Xavier sent the New Mutants away, letting them believe their team leader to be dead.  Knowing that to not be the case, Xavier initially was going to have the X-Men look for her but apparently found something more interesting to do and simply gave up.  His shortsightedness would cause the return of the Shadow King, which would affect everyone associated to the X-Men for quite some time.

But before Xavier would become lost in space and leave the kids under the tutelige of Magneto (good move there) he would bring in four more mutants to the team…sort of.  It was more like four more mutants stumbled into the team and he took credit for the matter.

• Magma: The New Mutants, sent away from the Karma matter, stumbled upon the ancient plot point society of Nova Roma and brought Magma home with them after defeating Selene.
• Magik: The young Illyana Rasputin was kidnapped by Arcade and simply never returned home to Russia.  Eventually she was kidnapped by the demon Belasco, spending half her life in Limbo and ultimately becoming master of the realm.  The New Mutants and their dance teacher Stevie Hunter stumbled upon her sorcery/mutant abilities and she was absorbed into the team.
• Warlock: Crash landed nearby seeking shelter from his father Magus.  The New Mutants welcomed him but Professor Xavier, apparently not regarding aliens as highly as mutants, was far more hesitant before doing so.
• Cypher: Xavier actually knew about this one since he lived so close to the school but was not willing on training a mutant with their abilities unless they could be used for a fight.  Doug was invited to Emma Frost’s Massachusetts Academy and Xavier didn’t really seem to care.  Upon Warlock’s arrival, the New Mutants revealed his power to him and recruited him to speak to the alien.  He just stuck around from that point on.

And thus the team was fully built, through little-to-no effort from Xavier.  In fact, the last mutants he actively used Cerebro to detect – formerly the primary mission of the school and its X-Men – were Shadowcat and Dazzler during the Dark Phoenix Saga.  Past that, Xavier kind of gave it up and let everyone else come to him.

Top 100 X-Men: 11-15

Shown here nigh invulnerable, blasting.

#15: Cannonball
X-Men, New Mutants, X-Force
While getting an auspicious start as a goon for Donald Pierce, Cannonball quickly joined the New Mutants and became one of the two leaders of the team.  Unlike his teammates, Cannonball stuck with the group from beginning to end and became a founding member of X-Force.  Under Cable’s guidance, he became a natural fit for team leader, protecting his friends and making excellent battlefield decisions.  On top of all of that, he’s got a heart of gold. 

Cannonball has struggled throughout his career with numerous setbacks.  First it was that he couldn’t control his powers as well as the other New Mutants.  After that was doubts about his leadership due to losses on the team.  Then he had a semi-disastrous term as a proper X-Man, largely in part to bad writing a lack of confidence.  But each time, he went back and fixed his issues and came back better than ever, now once again serving as leader of the original New Mutants.  He also may or may not be immortal, so that’s pretty cool too. 

Rob Liefeld thinks he's awesome.

#14: Cable
X-Men, X-Force
When Cable debuted as the newfound leader of the New Mutants, it was doubtful that creators Louise Simonson or Rob Liefeld had any idea of what he was going to become.  He was originally merely a veteran soldier.  Over the years he became a ridiculously powerful psi who just happens to be the son of Cyclops and Madelyne Pryor returned from the future.  And he uses guns!  Big, big guns! 

But from his shaky beginnings of distrust from nearly everyone who wore the ‘X’, Cable has become a valued member of the X-Men family.  He’s served as an X-Man, created a paradise island of his own, nearly sacrificed himself to preserve it, and finally has spent the last 16 years of his life in an apocalyptic future raising Hope, who may or may not be the only hope Mutantkind has in the present.  Certainly a far cry from the overly muscled, half robot, shoulder pad wearing soldier he originally showed up as, huh? 

You wish you could pull this look off.

#13: Magneto
X-Men, New Mutants (Headmaster)
Oh, come on!  It’s fricking Magneto!  Tell me he’s not awesome!  So sure, he’s spent a large part of nearly 50 years trying to kill the X-Men, but that’s why he doesn’t break the top 10.  Once a raving villain typical of the Silver Age, Magneto developed into the opposite side of Charles Xavier’s dream, also wanting peace for mutants but unconvinced that humans will ever accept them.  Over time, he decided his means would never succeed and he joined up with his former arch-enemy Xavier, becoming headmaster of the school.  But, since the New Mutants were a bunch of jerks, that didn’t last. 

Magneto honestly believes what he has done was the best course for mutantkind, though he did go a little batty now and again in the process.  He’s been both sinner and saint, often both at the same time, but has recently joined back up with the X-Men in the hopes of protecting what is left of mutantkind and hopefully being able to restore that which his daughter Scarlet Witch had taken away from them.  He’s also made the bucket helmet and a purple/red color scheme look cool since 1963. 

Take your time. I can wait.

#12: Emma Frost
X-Men, Generation X, New X-Men (Hellions Advisor)
Who could have anticipated what Emma Frost would end up being – co-headmaster of the Xavier Institute as well as banger of Cyclops.  Quite a long way she’s come since she was trying to kill the X-Men for the Hellfire Club.  Serving as primary protagonist for the New Mutants, we saw the Emma wasn’t so much evil as she was willing to do whatever was needed to get ahead.  As time went on, she became less ‘kill you and rule the world’ and more ‘step on you to achieve my goals’.  Her redemption came when she spent a few years in a coma before popping back up and becoming the co-leader of Generation X. 

She came to the X-Men after the destruction of Genosha complete with a new diamond form second mutation, which mirrored her ice cold demeanor.  She took to Cyclops immediately and even managed to come between him and Jean Grey - a feat only even attempted once before (by Psylocke).  Upon Jean’s death, Emma made her move and got Cyke in the sack and became actually quite proud of her role as a head of the school.  She’s made some questionable decisions, but she really has shined in her role with the team, and not simply because her skin reflects the sunlight. 

How does he move? Simple: "organic steel".

#11: Colossus
X-Men, Excalibur
You really have to feel bad for this guy.  Few people on this list have suffered like he has.  Both of his parents were killed for no particular reason due to bad writing a government plot, his sister succumbed to the Legacy Virus, he joined the Acolytes because of a head trauma, he returned to his beloved Shadowcat only to find her snogging with nasty brit Pete Wisdom, and eventually he just went and killed himself to cure the disease that took his sister.  That pretty much sucks. 

But despite all of those hardships, Colossus is still with the X-Men, still believes in their goals, and still remains one of the more important members of the organization.  Both he and his sister returned from the dead and he finally hooked up with Kitty (causing her to phase through her floor while…you know).  Once the most doubtful of his place on the team, Colossus has become the cornerstone of the X-Men, and not simply because he’s the only one who can hold them all up for an extended amount of time. 

Check here for the entire list thus far! 

Check back Wednesday for #6-10!  Almost there!