COMIC BOOK COVER OF THE WEEK

COMIC BOOK COVER OF THE WEEK



Welcome once again, kiddies!  Once more, we dive into the comics bin to uncover yet another cover, and and issue to talk about.  This week, we go to 1985, and uncover yet another mini-series--this time, a six issue story that introduces a new character to the Marvel Universe:  Longshot.  This character was created by Ann Nocenti and Arthur Adams, and has become one of the more popular characters in the Marvel Universe, mostly due to his good nature, his cool powers, exceptional look, and his affiliation with the X-Men...especially Dazzler.  He comes from another world, and was genetically created by a group called the Spineless Ones.  He rebels against his masters, and escapes into our world, and thus his adventure begins.  During this six issue stint, he not only runs into various new characters such as Riochet Rita--a movie stuntwoman--but has a brief battle with both Spider-Man AND the She-Hulk.  He proved to be a popular character enough that he ended up in the X-titles towards the end of the decade and into the early 90's.




LONGSHOT #1


COVER: Arthur Adams
WRITER:  Ann Nocenti
ARTIST:  Arthur Adams
INKS:  Bill Anderson, Whilce Portacio, Scott Williams (assistant inks)
COLORS:  Christie Scheele
LETTERS:  Joe Rosen
EDITOR:  Carl Potts
COVER DATE:  September 1985
PUBLISHER:  Marvel Comics

STORY TITLE:  "A Man Without A Past"


Longshot #1 was the introduction to a new character in the Marvel Universe, courtesy of writer Ann Nocenti, and artist Arthur Adams.  It was a project no one really wanted at first, but came to fruition based on Nocenti's story, which portrays Longshot as more of a "conceptual" hero, and not so much a superhero.  Adams, who had been an aspiring new artist who had done various comics, including The Uncanny X-Men, and a unique style that seem to fit what Nocenti and editor Carl Potts was looking for.  The fact that was an alien of sorts, and escapes his slave owners to Earth, meets new characters which end up helping him in his rebellion against the sinister Mojo, was a new twist.  He also has to deal with his amnesia once he arrives on Earth, due to the trip causing him to lose his memory.  He's also imbued with unique powers:  the ability to effect the probability field, giving him the appearance of "good luck".  He also had one of the most unique looks of any character in the Marvel Universe thus far, and did kind of fit in perfectly with the 80's.  





STORY:  On the run, trying to escape his slave captors, Longshot escapes through a portal, and winds up on Earth.  However, he has no memory of who and what he is.  Trying to adjust to this new world, he meets up with a strange dog looking character named Magog, a survivalist named Eliot.  The trio soon find out about a woman, who's baby has been kidnapped.  They go to rescue the child, only to run into the aliens that had been chasing Longshot on his homeworld.  They are looking to sacrifice the child in order to open a portal back home Longshot manages to use his good luck powers to save the child from the evil sorceress Spiral.  

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This was a great start to the series, by getting to the action quick, and getting Longshot to Earth, where he has to retrace his steps on who he is, while adjusting to life on Earth.  He comes across a couple of strange characters, and will encounter more as the series progresses.  We get the first appearance of Spiral, who is Mojo's magical henchwoman.  Spiral also proved to be popular enough, that she joined up with the X-Men's enemies, Freedom Force, which was the renamed Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.  She became an invaluable member of Mystique's team later on.  This series also gave us the early works of Whilce Portacio, who would go on to be the artist on The Uncanny X-Men for a time after Marc Silvestri's run on the book, and..with Silvestri, X-Force artist Rob Liefeld, Spider-Man artist Todd McFarlane, and X-Men artist Jim Lee---would go on to create Image Comics, and turn the comics world on its ear back in the early 90's.  It also brought us some of the inki stylings of Scott Williams---who would go on to work with Jim Lee on various projects from not only Marvel, but to Lee's production company Wildstorm Studios for Lee's line of comics for Image, as well as working with Lee currently with DC Comics.  I enoyed this character from the start, and just REALLY dug his look.  I still do.  Longshot was one of those fascinating characters that still isn't a major player much, and you hardly see him  But he just overall looked cool, had cool powers, and he was NEW.  It's a series I recommend picking up, and giving a read.