Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!dreaderd!not-for-mail Message-ID: Supersedes: Expires: 7 Jun 2001 22:56:38 GMT References: X-Last-Updated: 2001/01/15 From: racmx@yahoo.com (Kate the Short) Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.marvel.xbooks,rec.arts.comics.info,rec.answers,news.answers Subject: rec.arts.comics.marvel.xbooks FAQ: 4/5 Organization: Keepers of Frequently Asked Questions, racmx division Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.EDU Followup-To: poster Summary: FAQ for rec.arts.comics.marvel.xbooks--X-Men comic books Originator: faqserv@penguin-lust.MIT.EDU Date: 24 Apr 2001 23:00:25 GMT Lines: 756 NNTP-Posting-Host: penguin-lust.mit.edu X-Trace: 988153225 senator-bedfellow.mit.edu 1911 18.181.0.29 Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu rec.arts.comics.marvel.xbooks:244446 rec.arts.comics.info:9311 rec.answers:65967 news.answers:206355 Archive-name: comics/xbooks/main-faq/part4 Posting-frequency: monthly URL: http://www.enteract.com/~katew/faqs/ URL: http://www.enteract.com/~katew/faqs/racmxFAQ/faq4.html -= REC.ARTS.COMICS.MARVEL.XBOOKS =- Frequently Asked Questions Part 4 Version 2001.01, last updated January 2001 Compilation Copyright 2001 by Katharine E. Hahn SEND ADDITIONS / CHANGES / DEAD LINKS / MOVED LINKS / UPDATES TO: Kate the Short, racmx@yahoo.com (mailto:racmx@yahoo.com) ------------------------------ Subject: Table of Contents If your newsreader has a search/go-to command, you can quickly page through this FAQ by searching for any of the Contents as spelled. A plus sign in parentheses (+) indicates a change to the contents listed since the last FAQ update. Part 4: X-MEN COMIC BOOK QUESTIONS * Is Magneto Jewish or Gypsy? Was Joseph Magneto? (+) * When did the Beast turn blue and furry? Wasn't he unfurry again for a while? * Why did the X-Men lose their invisibility to electronic scanners? (+) * What is the Siege Perilous? * Psylocke, Revanche, Kwannon, Betsy Braddock ... help? * Which X-Men haven't been mutants? * Is Longshot Shatterstar's father? * There's an External at my door. What does that mean? Should I be concerned? Is it contagious? * Who are the Twelve? Why are they important? * How do you pronounce Rahne Sinclair's first name? * What is the Soulsword? Who has Magik's Soulsword now? * What happened to the New Mutants? (+) * What happened to Excalibur? * Is the Malice who worked with the Marauders the same one that appears in Fantastic Four now and then? * Do you lose your mutant powers in the Savage Land? Where is the Savage Land, anyway? * Where is Morph? * What happens when the Blob meets the Juggernaut? ------------------------------ Subject: THE ACTUAL FAQS THEMSELVES 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. --- Is Magneto Jewish or Gypsy? Was Joseph Magneto? (+) In X-Men Unlimited #2, Gabrielle Haller states definitively that Magneto is a Gypsy of Sinte descent. This should have closed the issue, except that in X-Men #72, we were told that the Gypsy "Erik Lensherr" was nothing more than a forged identity created by the now-late Georg Okekirk to help Magneto hide from the authorities, who wanted him in connection with his wife Magda's death. So the entire question has now been thrown wide open again, with Joe Kelly apparently putting himself on the non-Gypsy side of the issue. Until any further in-continuity evidence is made available by the current writers, then, this FAQ-keeper is going to forward interested parties to Alara's Magneto page at http://www.alara.net/magneto.html for all the information you could want on this subject. 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 Mags through a molecular transporter type system and made a copy which she altered to be younger and more pliable. Unfortunately Mags 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, and Magneto is his old self, happily ruling Genosha. --- When did the Beast turn blue and furry? Wasn't he unfurry again for a while? The Beast's normal form isn't fuzzy. Up until the cancellation of the original X-Men series, he looked like a human with an ape-like body: no fur, but big, elongated arms, hands, and feet. He had the same powers as he does now: strength and agility. Then, in Amazing Adventures #11 (1972), the Beast got a job at the Brand Corporation, a subsidiary of Marvel's evil megacorporation, Roxxon. He was researching the "genetic source" of mutations (the X-factor), and isolated a hormone that would activate the X-factor. In typical comic book timing, as soon as the Beast discovered this wonderful hormone, the sinister Secret Empire tried to steal it from him. So Hank McCoy did what any award-winning researcher would do with his potentially Nobel-prize winning experiment: he drank it. The resultant enchancement of his mutant nature turned him into his now famous fuzzy form, but with grey fur, and with a healing factor that would shame Wolverine--bullet holes healed as fast as they were made. Various misadventures ensued, until the computer Quasimodo drained the Beast's excess life energy in Amazing Adventures #14, which left him not only without his nifty healing factor, but also turned his fur blue. He stayed that way all the way through his service in the Avengers and Defenders until X-Factor was inaugurated. In their second issue, a story was started which brought the Beast back to Brand, where much the same sort of process left him back the way he was in the first X-Men series. During the Fall of the Mutants he was infected by Pestilence (X-Factor #19), resulting in a biochemical imbalance that increased his strength each time he used it with a corresponding decrease in his intelligence. A kiss from Infectia (#31) turned him back blue and fuzzy again, this time with near-Hulk level strength (X-Factor #33). Since then, the Beast has apparently lost most of that superstrength, and is back in his "normal," highly agile, slightly-superstrong blue fuzzball form. One wishes him a most relaxing genetic future to come. --- Why did the X-Men lose their invisibility to electronic scanners? (+) After the X-Men died in Dallas during Fall of the Mutants (UXM #227), they were resurrected by Roma via the Siege Perilous. One of the gifts Roma gave the X-Men was that they were invisible to electronic scanners, television cameras, and so forth, to better help cement their reputation as "legends". This power served the X-Men well enough during their Australian days (although, for no explained reason, the computers at the Reavers base were capable of detecting them, and the X-Men themselves wondered why), but soon after they went tumbling through the Siege Perilous for a second time it became apparent that the X-Men had lost their "invisibility." There being no other explanation for this power loss in the first place, it's generally assumed by the xbooks crowd that Roma's spell wore off. Of course, there's a more logical explanation of why and when the X-Men lost their invisibility to scanners, as explained by Chris Claremont at the 2000 Wizard World Chicago convention: They lost the power somewhere between pages 10 and 11 of UXM #279, or around page 1 of X-Men #4. This was a reference to Claremont's last work on the titles, so apparently *he* had planned to still have it going when he left the books. --- What is the Siege Perilous? The Siege Perilous is a large, brooch-like magical gemstone that Roma, a powerful mystical entity, gave the X-Men after the Fall of the Mutants storyline (UXM #229). The whole idea of the Siege was that one could send people through it, who would be "judged" by some unknown, higher power (possibly Roma herself), and then be given a second chance at life if found worthy, so they could try and correct their evil deeds, so to speak. This interesting way for heroes to rehabilitate their villains lasted for about one storyline, the original encounter with the Reavers (UXM #229) in Australia, until the press of crossovers and editorial interference kept Claremont from using it much more than he did. Claremont was, believe it or not, reportedly planning on spending well over a hundred issues of the X-Men based in Australia, and thus his leaving during the X-Odus could be viewed as somewhat of a relief, depending on what you thought of the Oz-Men. Indeed, pretty soon the Siege became an escape route for the X-Men from their enemies, as a series of vicious, horrible encounters ended up with the X-Men believing themselves better off reincarnated through the Siege than captured by their enemies. Having Psylocke control their minds so they thought it was a good idea (it was mainly hers) helped also. She had a vision in UXM #250 of the remaining X-Men being turned into cyborgs and left for dead. So most of the X-Men popped through, and ended up, mostly with amnesia, all over the world, mostly living lives they felt mostly "better" in than superheroing--for the most part. The Siege was then captured by Donald Pierce, who destroyed it (UXM # 251). The X-Men who went through the Siege were: * Rogue--Pushed through it by Dazzler (UXM #247). Reappeared in the Outback in #269, then went to the Savage Land with Magneto who freed her of Carol Danvers. * Dazzler--Convinced by Betsy in #251, reappeared in Malibu and found by Guido in UXM #260. * Colossus--Convinced in #251, reappeared in Soho as Peter Rasputin, artist, in UXM #259. * Havok--Had doubts, but Betsy coerced him psychically in #251. Reappeared as a Genoshan prelate in UXM #270. * Psylocke--Went through #251. Reappeared in #256, only to become a nimbo. Storm did not go through, as she was captured by Nanny in #248 (although they thought Havok killed her). She was de-aged, paired with Gambit in UXM #266, and then re-aged to adulthood in #272. Wolverine was left to bleed to death in the Australian wilderness in UXM #251, where he was found by Jubilee. Longshot had left voluntarily in #248 to find himself. The original Siege Perilous, by the way, where Claremont got the name, was the seat at the Round Table of King Arthur which had letters on it that prophecied that only the "purest and greatest" of all knights would sit there, who turned out to be Galahad. See the appropriate Malorian (and other) sources for more on King Arthur, Galahad, and the Grail Quest. Siege Perilous literally means "the dangerous seat." --- Psylocke, Revanche, Kwannon, Betsy Braddock ... help? The two Psylockes are an unusual matter. After the fun with the Siege Perilous, Betsy Braddock was caught by the Hand, a bunch of techno- demonic ninjas, and apparently turned into an Oriental (UXM #256), for reasons too vague to go into here. While odd, and apparently mainly an excuse to draw Betsy in a bunch of tight-fitting quasi-Asian outfits, it was still accepted that Psylocke was Psylocke. She just looked... different. Then Revanche entered the scene (X-Men #20). She looked just like Betsy's old body, but had an Asian name (Kwannon). Confused yet? In another retcon, the unconscious Betsy apparently was discovered by the original Kwannon after tumbling out of the Siege. Kwannon, who looked just like the new Betsy's Asian form, touched her and got psychically zapped by Betsy, somehow passing both Betsy's powers and personalities to Kwannon, while passing Kwannon's personality to Betsy. Enter the Hand. The head of the Hand, Matsuo Tsurayaba, was in love with Kwannon despite her belonging to a rival ninja clan. Now, apparently the original Betsy was not turned into an Asian, but the Asian body of Kwannon was brainwashed by the Hand into believing that she was Betsy. In this they had help from the demonic dancer of Mojo, Spiral. Meanwhile the original Betsy's body was programmed by Spiral, behind the scenes, to still think it was Betsy but remember that it was Kwannon once, just to bug Matsuo. All of this was sorted out in X-Men #31-32. --- Which X-Men haven't been mutants? Mimic, the original Phoenix, Longshot, and (possibly) the two Psylockes. Mimic is Calvin Rankin, the son of a scientist, who got caught in an explosion in his father's lab, and gained the ability to copy superpowers of every superhuman near him, and keep all the powers until the people he stole them from were over a mile away or so. He's been killed a number of times in a variety of filler stories, and brought back just as often to just die again. Scott Lobdell tried to retcon this in a backup story somewhere by saying that Rankin was a latent mutant who just got his powers started up by his father's explosion. While there have been other latent mutants who have gained access to their powers in such dramatic ways in Marvel history, Scott Lobdell is also responsible for such continuity goofs as Storm declaring she resents and hates her thieving heritage, and all of X-Men Unlimited #4, while the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe still has Rankin as a non-mutant. This FAQ will go with the OHOTMU. The original Phoenix (the one in UXM #101-137) was once Jean Grey, who was a mutant, of course, but has since been retconned into being the cosmic Phoenix Force itself, just pretending to be Jean Grey. As a cosmic entity, Phoenix automatically is disqualified from being a mutant; they have enough troubles as it is. See the entry on the Jean Grey/Phoenix relationship question in this FAQ for more information. Longshot was a genetically-designed being from the dimension of the Spineless Ones. As an artificial life form, he cannot, by definition, be a mutant; his "free will" could be described as a design malfunction, but actually, it was programmed into him by Arize (Longshot #1-6). Even if he showed up on a mutant detector, something for which there is no textual support, he's still not a mutant, because nothing in his genetic makeup happened by mutation. He was built from the ground up. The original Psylocke, Betsy Braddock, is the sister of Brian Braddock, aka Captain Britain. Both she and her brother gain their powers from their not-entirely human heritage (their father was from Otherworld). This was stated directly in her pre-X-Men appearances, as recounted now in the "Captain Britain" trade paperback. However, there are statements made in the X-titles clearly identifying her as a mutant--including a caption where Betsy described herself as a mutant in UXM #213, and an identification by the Master Mold in UXM #247. One reader points out that telepathic powers are unusual even for the Otherworlders--Brian's powers are more typical. While this doesn't prove that she is both a hybrid and a mutant, it adds a little credibility to the notion. Kwannon may have been a mutant, or it may have been simply genetic engineering--it was revealed that she was a low-level empath, with her source of powers undetermined. (However, this generally means "mutant powers", especially where the X-titles are concerned.) The practical upshot of all this is that since Psylocke is now occupying Kwannon's body, the question of her mutancy no longer concerns her Otherworld origins. --- Is Longshot Shatterstar's father? Maybe, maybe not. This idea generally comes from X-Men #11, where Dazzler says to Longshot: "'Shatterstar'? You've got to be kidding!" (They had just found out she was pregnant.) This and the fact that both are from Mojoworld are what most people base the relationship on. Fabian Nicieza, who was writing X-Force at the time, was rather upset about this. He intended no such thing, and soon made a point of giving Shatterstar a different origin. According to X-Force #39, his real name is Gaveedra 7 and he was born in a test tube. Also, in Dazzler's last appearance (X-Men #47), it was strongly hinted she had miscarried. So, as things stand now, there is probably no relation. However, one writer's original intentions don't always conicide with the conclusions of later writers. The following bits of in-continuity trivia complicate this question considerably: * According to Beast, Shatterstar has the exact same DNA as Longshot. This is an interesting dangler, especially in light of the fact that Longshot and Shatterstar don't even have the same number of fingers. * According to Spiral, Shatterstar is the son of an "Arize-spawn" and a human. Longshot and Dazzler are the obvious suspects here, but the story was deliberately vague on this point. (FAQ-keeper's note: I don't have any issue numbers handy for these events. If anyone out there does, please forward 'em to me at racmx@yahoo.com.) I'd love to say that X-Force #60-61 (The Origin of Shatterstar!) resolved this. Heck, I'd love to say these issues resolved anything at all. They don't. All it did was move Shatterstar into the body of Benjamin Russell and make Spiral somehow involved. That doesn't really get at any of the answers this FAQ-keeper was looking for, and doesn't say anything about Longshot particularly. However, there is a light at the end of this tunnel. The whole Benjamin Russell/Shatterstar question was brought up in X-Force #56, when the Gamesmaster told him that "Shatterstar" was nothing more than a sick fantasy of Gamesmaster's creation. X-Force #76, however, has Mojo telling Arcade that Shatterstar is still his own property, "no matter what the omnipathic Gamesmaster wishes to believe." While this doesn't yet answer the question of Shatterstar's parentage, it does place Shatterstar's origin squarely back in Mojoworld. --- There's an External at my door. What does that mean? Should I be concerned? Is it contagious? First off, don't be alarmed. Many Externals are simply poor excuses for a supervillain, too innately lame to make a living any other way, and they are probably only looking for a handout. Treat them with kindness, patience, and respect, and they'll probably leave you alone, although they may mutter a bit about impossible designs and grand world-spanning plans before they leave. The Externals first showed up in the storylines of Rob Liefeld in X-Force #10. The idea was that they are a type of mutant whose "full potential" is not realized until they're killed. And then they're reborn, and they become, well, immortal, except they could only be killed by cutting off their heads, or something like that. In any case, any similarities between Externals and the immortals from the movie Highlander are obvious and often commented on. Currently the term is mainly used to refer to any mutant that enjoys immortality by virtue of his mutant powers. X-Force #37 is possibly the closest thing the Externals will ever have to an origin issue. It explains how En Sabah Nur (aka Apocalypse) found the Celestial ship, how old each of the Externals actually were, and why they acted the way they did. Apocalypse's origin is explained in more detail in his limited series, "The Dawn of Apocalypse". Anyway, so much for immortality. Selene killed most of them off in X-Force (#52-53). The only ones left are Selene, Candra (who may or may not have died in X-Men #61), and Apocalypse. Apparently Cannonball wasn't one of them after all, according to Selene in X-Force #53. --- Who are the Twelve? Why are they important? The Twelve, in no particular order, are Magneto, Xavier, Cyclops, Cable, Jean Grey/Phoenix, Mikhail Rasputin, Iceman, Storm, Sunfire, Polaris, Bishop, and the Living Monolith/Living Pharaoh. They were gathered by Apocalpyse in his quest to become a godlike being with more power than the Phoenix force or the Celestials. According to Uncanny X-Men #377 (specifically Apocalpyse): The Monolith is at the core of it all, as the primal earth which is the foundation for all that is to be mine. Magneto and Polaris are opposing magnetic poles, serving to control the flow of energies at play here... energies under constant pressure from the forces of nature itself. The elemental extremes of Iceman, Storm, and Sunfire... stimulated by the unrestrained energies of man and the heavens, free of any grounding or gravity. Father, mother, and son-- Cyclops, Phoenix, and Cable-- far, far stronger as a whole than the sum of their parts... linked to the powers of time and space wielded by Bishop and Rasputin, respectively. The power of pure thought that is Xavier. Nate Grey was the 13th member of this merry band, and was slated to become Apocalypse's new host body. Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned. Instead, Cyclops sacrificed himself and became a merged half- Apocalypse being. The team members consider him dead. This FAQ should also note that Wolverine served as Death, the fourth horseman of Apocalypse, during much of the shindig. The being they thought was Wolverine was actually a Super-Skrull so brainwashed into his disguise that even *he* didn't know he was anything other than Wolverine. Of course, the final version of the Twelve contradicted much known about the Twelve up to that point. First, the original Twelve were a vision by a deranged Sentinel of the dozen most important mutants. The problem is, these twelve had shown up in other issues (Power Pack #36, X-Factor #14, X-Factor #68) as well, and even they hadn't been consistent. The members who had shown up in every version of the Twelve were Xavier, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Storm, and Franklin Richards. What of the other seven? In one version, all the original X-Men were implied. Cable, in both baby and adult forms, was shown in another. Cannonball was clearly shown in one version. So, we add Iceman, Beast, Archangel, Cable, and Cannonball to the list. Other possibilities included Dani Moonstar, Mystique, Psylocke, Wolverine, and Dark Beast. Uncanny X-Men #-1 cleared up the origin of The Twelve, albeit somewhat ambiguously. Sometime after Rachel Summers switched places with Captain Britain in the timestream (Excalibur #75) she rescued and befrended another time-lost refugee from the 20th century named Tanya Trask, the daugter of the original creator of the Sentinels, Bolivar Trask. Upon learning of her father's genocidal legacy, Tanya determined to alter the timeline by reaching back to the past and convince her father of his doomed path. Rachel followed her back and erased the memory of her contact with her father, seemingly setting the timeline right again. However, it turned out that Tanya's true plan was to store within the memory banks of Trask's first Master Mold--so deeply even Trask himself (and later his son and successor Larry) were unaware of it--the identity of the infamous "XII", The Twelve, whose failure Tanya determined as the true cause of her dark future and without whom, somehow, mutant genocide and Sentinel conquest will be averted. Their identity, however, was never divulged. --- How do you pronounce Rahne Sinclair's first name? 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. --- What is the Soulsword? Who has Magik's Soulsword now? Possibly Magik does, possibly Margali does. At any rate, it's back in Limbo, and out of the X-Men's side of the universe. The Soulsword was created from a piece of Illyana's own soul in issue #4 of the Magik Limited Series, and ever since then has been the symbol and source of its owner's mastery of the otherdimensional realm of Limbo. After the teenage Illyana reverted to her younger self in the wake of the Inferno crossover, the Soulsword appeared in a rock outside Excalibur's lighthouse for Kitty Pryde to claim. She, however, was quite willing to leave it there, based on her previous experiences with it. (She became the owner of the sword previously during the Secret Wars II crossover, in New Mutants #35-37, when Illyana was temporarily killed by the Beyonder.) In Excalibur #37, Dr. Doom showed up at Excalibur's door with a proposal to go to Limbo with Kitty and the Soulsword in order to mine the place for an energy-producing metal called promethium. Doom eventually tricked Kitty into letting him have the sword, which he stuck into the heart of Limbo to convert the entire planet/dimension/place into promethium. Doom got out before the place went critical, leaving the sword behind. It was claimed in issue #39 by the pseudo-demon Darkoth, who remained alone in Limbo with the sword. And the matter was thought to be done with. That is, until Scott Lobdell handed Warren Ellis a plot for the Soulsword Trilogy (Excalibur #83-85). Lobdell was apparently completely unaware of the aforementioned Promethium Exchange storyline, but we can reconcile this by simply noting that something bad must have happened to Darkoth between issues #39 and #83. In any event, the Soulsword started to manifest itself in Kitty's possession again, and two other new characters named Gravemoss and Shrill tried to take it from her. Eventually the sword was passed off to Nightcrawler's sorceress girlfriend Amanda Sefton, who made the mistake of giving it to her mother, Margali Szardos. Sometime after that, Belasco abducted Margali and stole the Soulsword. In X-Men Unlimited #19 a fight to get it back took place, and it was last shown plunging to the ground in Limbo. A silver-armored hand reached up to grab it, but we never saw who that was. Presumably the hand is Magik's, but how she got to be there in the first place is deliberately left to some future writer to try and explain. The recent appearance of Illyana as a ghost (as well as rumblings that Magik will be returning to the titles) means that the question may finally be answered. --- What happened to the New Mutants? It turned into X-Force. Oh, you mean the characters! The first of the NM to leave was Xi'an Coy Manh, aka Karma. She left the NM to find her siblings, Leong and Nga. This involved hanging out with Wolverine. Karma most recently popped up in X-Force #75, noting that she was living in New York. With pink hair. 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. This all happened in Special Edition: New Mutants #1. (Also available in the Asgardian Wars TPB). Magma was the next to go. She 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. Most recently, Magma appeared as a member of the New Hellions in a few issues of X-Force. Doug didn't do a whole lot better. He 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. Illyana had her final battle in Inferno. After the good in her 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 did appear as a ghost in an issue of Uncanny X-Men. After Inferno, Dani Moonstar started suffering a fever, which turned out to be the doing of Hela in Asgard. After sorting everything out, Dani 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*. After leaving the team, she has appeared as an assistant to Wolverine in the core titles. Rahne 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 her 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 last seen in the pages of Excalibur and Warlock. Bobby quit the NM to go work for Gideon in NM #99. He 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. Sam became the field leader of X-Force and died in X-Force #7, only to be reborn in X-Force #9. Since then, his 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. --- 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). 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's 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. Pete Wisdom broke up with Kitty in the early 100s of the title. He'd resurfaced as a mentor/leader of X-Force until his apparent death. Brian Braddock and Meggan finally had their wedding in Excalibur #125. Kitty, Kurt, and Piotr, who had joined Excalibur after recovering from their Mutant Massacre/Marauders injuries, made their collective way back to the United States, just in time to lose all of their powers along with the rest of the X-Men, regain their powers, and fight Apocalypse. --- Is the Malice who worked with the Marauders the same one that appears in the Fantastic Four now and then? No. The Malice who worked in the Marauders was some sort of pure psionic entity who could possess people and make them into "dark versions" of themselves. She eventually got stuck in the body of Lorna Dane by the machinations of Mr. Sinister (UXM #239), which led to the Malice persona eventually being zapped out of Lorna by Zaladane, the purported Queen of the Savage Land (in UXM #250). Mr. Sinister finally destroyed this Malice in X-Factor #105 because she had outlived her usefulness. The Fantastic Four's Malice, who occasionally possesses Susan Richards (the Invisible Woman), has nothing to do with Sinister's Malice. This Malice was a mental creation by the fourth Hate-Monger and the Psycho-Man, and it is merely the alternate personality of Sue Richards as an "evil" person. Same idea, different approach. However, the Vertigo that worked with the Marauders is the same Vertigo that started out with the Savage Land Mutates. Just while we're on the subject of Savage Land and Marauders. --- Do you lose your mutant powers in the Savage Land? Where is the Savage Land, anyway? The Savage Land is one of the fixations of Stan Lee, co-creator of much of the Marvel Universe, that has survived longer than other favored plot ideas of his (how many Marvel comics are taking place around a circus currently, for instance?). The Savage Land is a direct tribute/descendant/ripoff of those classic "Lands that Time Forgot" sf/fantasy stories. It's in that "peninsula" sticking out of Antarctica, and the horribly complicated history of it can be found in various editions of the OHOTMU. Basically, it was set up as a type of alien wildlife preserve, and it's been run by a variety of administrations since (currently, no one is in charge of the elemental machineries that keep the Savage Land warm and tropical in the midst of the vast ice field). The X-Men have had numerous adventures in the Savage Land, and are good friends with Ka-Zar, the main hero of the Savage Land, as well as with the tribe of the Fall People. In none of those cases have the X-Men ever lost their powers just from being in the Savage Land, although various villains they've fought there have dampened their powers while in there. This question largely comes from X-Men: the Animated Series fans, since the Savage Land in X:TAS apparently drains the mutant powers from those mutants who visit it. (It may be that the X:TAS Sinister had something to do with that as well.) This is most certainly not the case for the comic-book X-Men and Savage Land, though. --- Where is Morph? While we are on XTAS questions, let's get Morph settled. He only appears in the cartoon and in Age of Apocalypse. Morph is based on an X-Men associate named the Changeling who appeared in very early issues of the comic; he is now deceased. --- What happens when the Blob meets the Juggernaut? What happens when the unmovable object meets the irresistible force? In this case, it's easy. Magic, in the case of Juggernaut, wins. The Blob is merely very, very difficult to move, not impossible. The unstoppability, on the other hand, derives from the Crimson Gem of Cytorrak. As magic, it can't be defeated by mutant powers. *** Continued in Part 5 *** -- Kate the Short * http://www.enteract.com/~katew/