Sunday Splash Page #320

 

"Vicissitudes," in Longshot Saves the Marvel Universe #1, by Christopher Hastings (writer), Jacopo Camagni (artist), Matt Milla (colorist), Joe Caramagna (letterer)

Released across two months in December 2013 and January 2014, Longshot Saves the Marvel Universe is probably one of the few stories since the original Nocenti/Adams mini-series that actually explores the ramifications of Longshot's powers, and the tightrope he would have to walk to use them.

In this case, Longshot finds himself targeted by the In-Betweener - who Camagni draws in a nifty suit and a face like a harlequin mask, black on one side, white on the other - because his incredible luck is a threat to the universe. But, Longshot happens to be mixed up in trying to stop a robbery of a super-scientist (which went awry the moment Longshot wished he had some money to buy tacos, because that constitutes a selfish desire to use his powers) at that moment, and Reed Richards and Tony Stark are cruising past with a Cosmic Cube, and well, things go wonky.

Now SHIELD's run by a mysterious guy with a white theater mask, who is hunting all magic users as a threat to Order. Also a child's teddy bear, which has a peculiar reflection. Longshot ends up briefly teamed up with Dr. Strange, Scarlet Witch, Ghost Rider, and Deadpool. Sure, Deadpool's not technically magic, but he's certainly a threat to Order. Plus, the 4th wall breaking probably registers as weird. Dazzler, working for SHIELD(?) gets involved, because of course Longshot doesn't remember they dated. Superior Spider-Man shows up, too. Well, they can't all be winners.

Things get weirder and weirder as Chaos manifests and Longshot's powers are stretched further and further to pull his butt from the fire. He's under attack by vampire Wolverine and Cyborg Dracula! A taxi crashes and Blade somehow flies out of the trunk. That sort of thing. It gives Camagni the chance to draw a lot of goofy stuff. Iron Hulk. Giant Doombots. But that much improbability is kind of a bad thing.

Hastings writes Longshot initially as sort of breezily confident. He takes good things in stride, he takes weird things in stride. The cable guys turned out to be criminals, and the scientist has a hot daughter? Yeah, that'll happen to Longshot. He does recognize the risk of his powers, but sometimes all it takes is a momentary slip. He hadn't even fully committed to wanting some money so he could buy tacos and suddenly a wall is exploding and money is falling from the sky.

The longer the series goes, and the more Chaos and Order openly war against each other - with Order being very precise in their speaking, while Chaos is a total shit, saying things like, "On behalf of my butt, I order you to smooch my butt," -  the further the ramifications of Longshot's powers stretch.

Sure, it's wonderful that after those nice hairdressers gave Longshot a new look for free (because they thought he was hot, Hastings really plays up the idea that Longshot's hotness is an actual superpower) some big movie star just suddenly appeared outside their store and loved the look they gave him. What a lucky turn of events!

But it completely fucks the haircut place across the street, a couple who struggled for years to find some measure of success and now are going to have to sell their shop because all their business switched to the trendy place the movie star touted. Causality stretches a long way, and it's hard to avoid harming one person while helping another, unless you're really thoughtful about it. Which doesn't really seem like a strong point of Longshot's, thoughtfulness. What with all the memory wipes and whatnot. But maybe that's the only way it can work for him, he can't think about it, he just has to act. Thinking about what he's doing brings motives into it.

Sunday Splash Page #319

 

"Rabbit's Footrace," in Longshot #1, by Ann Nocenti (writer), Arthur Adams (penciler), Whilce Portacio and Brent Anderson (inkers), Christie Scheele (colorist), Joe Rosen (letterer)

In 1985, Ann Nocenti and Art Adams brought Longshot into the Marvel Universe. A young man with a power that makes things work in his favor, hunted by strange monster-men. Longshot doesn't know anything about Earth. Doesn't know where he came from, how he got these powers, why he's being hunted.

Longshot lacking any idea who he is or what he's supposed to be doing allows Nocenti to have him drift into a variety of situations. He falls into a job as a stuntman for a reckless director, alongside a stuntwoman called Ricochet Rita. When that nearly kills him, Longshot tries to help a man frustrated with his life by stealing a lot of diamonds. Except actually having the wealth doesn't make the man happy, so he goes back to his family.

He runs afoul of both She-Hulk and Spider-Man, meets the kids that Nocenti used in her Daredevil run, has a mysterious "friend" he met early on, a talking, furry creature that keeps growing larger and more monstrous, turn against him. He meets someone with a power the opposite of his, creating bad luck for its wielder rather than good.

Then Mojo and Spiral show up.

Two things Nocenti introduces, that it feels like most writers subsequently ignored or forgot, is that one, his power only works when his motives are "pure". Trying to jiggle the odds to make himself some bank, or just to show off a little, won't work. The other is, if Longshot's getting unnaturally, unfeasibly lucky, isn't someone else getting equally unlucky? This, more than lack of knowledge of his past, or really even Mojo, is Longshot's challenge. How can he be sure that when he acts, it's for the "right" reasons? Is he fighting Fang to protect others, or because he's mad his friend turned on him? And if his luck being good, so that he's someplace else when Mojo arrives, ends with Rita being tortured and driven nearly comatose, then does he can have business using his power at all?

Mojo's later appearances typically present him as some parody of a TV or movie producer. Chasing whatever cheap concepts will provide quick ratings, as that conveys power in his world. Hence things like "X-babies." Nocenti's original version of Mojo is just as egotistical, and suffers from just as much if not more of an attention span deficit, but he's more delusional, and always cruel, whether unwittingly or not.

Mojo may order everyone to wear masks of his face, then panic two pages later that everyone is stealing his face. He claims the sun, then assumes Longshot is trying to steal it when he arrives on a hang-glider. His very presence brings death, draining the life away from anything around him, making him poison from the moment he arrives on Earth. Adams draws a lot of panels that are close-ups of Mojo's face and head, letting him dominate the field of view, while also showing the wild swings in emotion.

In contrast, Spiral, who hates Longshot and regards Mojo with equal parts contempt and dependence, is usually kept at a distance. Even when she's in the foreground on panels, her face and expressions are usually obscured. The focus is on her actions, the "dance" that allows them to bridge dimensions, or the flashing of her swords as she tries to kill Longshot for reasons he doesn't understand. On a rare occasion we do get a close-up of her face, Scheele colors the entire eye yellow, with just shading to define the retina and pupil, the same as Mojo and Quark, the modified ram with bad luck ability. Longshot's the exception, marking his origin as something separate and outside Mojo's control.

The mini-series ends with Longshot determined to fight Mojo in their home dimension and free all the slaves there. A battle he's seemingly repeated through endless cycles of success, failure, mind-wiping repeat for the last 40 years. Except Claremont almost immediately hauled Spiral and Longshot both into the main X-Books, with Longshot seemingly still none the wiser for what Spiral's beef was with him. Also, any progress he'd made in his naivete over the course of this mini-series seemed undone. Those mind wipes come fast I guess.

Fabian Nicieza's the one who decided Spiral was actually Rita from some point the future, captured and modified by Mojo, then sent back in time to serve his earlier self. Meaning her hatred towards Longshot is that he didn't save her. Doesn't really jibe with Longshot having no sense of his connection to Spiral here, even once he regains his memories, not to mention that seems like too much of a long-term plan for Mojo to undertake. He'd be too jealous of his past self benefiting from all his hard work.

What I Bought 11/9/2022 - Part 1

The elections here in Missouri went about as poorly as I expected. Pretty sure everyone I voted for lost. Badly. But since he won the Senate seat, now our dipshit of an Attorney General is the rest of the country's problem, too. But weed is apparently legal now, which is good for the people who like that. Assuming the state Congress doesn't ignore the results, which they've done on other election results in the last few years. Like when the public voted to establish an independent board to set up election districts in an attempt to block gerrymandering and Congress ignored it. 

It's a lovely state except for all the people who live here. Anyway, comics.

Moon Knight #17, by Jed MacKay (writer) Alessandro Cappuccio (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist), Cory Petit (letterer) -  Moon Knight does not fight an actual lion in this issue. Sorry, fans of stuff like the Punisher punching a bear or Captain America fighting sharks.

Moon Knight drags, literally in Nemean's case, the two assassins into the Midnight Mission and lets it take the two of them apart. Grand Mal gets buried under a bunch of corpses, and Nemean thinks a bunch of stuff trapped him to be swarmed over by bugs over something. I'm not sure Cappuccio's art really works for this. Doesn't quite carry a traumatizing horror vibe to it. 

That said, I do like the shift is shading or coloring on Moon Knight in the Midnight Mission. The shadows go from a very stark on/off look, to something more graded and almost patchwork. Combined with making the eyes glow, it adds an otherworldly feel to Moon Knight when they're in this nightmare sort of place.

And while Hunter's Moon did die, apparently Khonshu's Fists don't can't die, so he's back. I feel as though it would need to be pointed out that if they don't die, why does Khonshu need more of them? Shouldn't he just have the same two for thousands of years. Why does God need a spaceship, I mean, new fists? I suppose they can still die of old age.

That done, MacKay shifts to the big vampire conference. The Tutor makes his pitch, full of lovely buzz words like, 'Aggressive recruitment models', and 'Postmodern vampiric organization.'  Apparently, being many centuries old doesn't keep vampires from being rubes ripe to be duped by hucksters. Fortunately, Moon Knight spares us from any further chatter by Vampire Marc Zuckerberg, by dumping Nemean and Grand Mal through the skylight, then walking through the door with Tigra. Tigra sporting something from the mid-2000s Jennifer Lopez collection, no less.

X-Men Legends #4, by Ann Nocenti (writer), Javier Pina (artist), Jim Campbell (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - Wait, is that the same Jim Campbell who did the lettering on Giant Days? He's a colorist, too?

So Mojo's film plays out, but Wolverine and Shadowcat don't realize it's a film, so they're trying to kill each other, while other soldiers try to kill Mojo. Logan gradually notices that people are filming this and the fact his soldiers keep talking about acting and motivation finally sinks in. During this, Longshot lands on a mine that'll explode if he moves. So Kitty and Logan help him out.

During all this, Spiral is trying to undermine Mojo's film and make it into her own. I'm not clear on which parts are her doing, and which aren't. I assume when everyone stops trying to kill each other and they work together to survive. The blue snake idly watching in the foreground while a rabbit scampers in the background. Ooh, symbolism. That's definitely not Mojo, since his idea of symbolism would be a big red "STOP" sign. Also, Kitty opining that giving a bomb a female name (Bouncing Betty) is sexist. OK, Spiral's script writing needs some work.

Either way, Campbell lightens the hues a bit once that happens, as the first several pages were like someone was shooting through a dirty filter. Pina's art is realistic enough to give the characters convincing emotional reactions, which are just a little melodramatic in how they're framed. A narrow panel of Logan looking up (at what?) as he announces the danger Longshot's in. He looks appropriately grim about it, but in the weary way of someone who has seen this many times before.

There's a bit about the difference in how Mojo and Spiral see life, and how that informs what kind of stories they tell. Mojo puts people in situations, but sits back and watches as they destroy themselves. He doesn't know how it'll happen, but it'll happen. To him, that's life, unpredictable and ending violently. Spiral says that hers is about the story taking a different direction from what you expect, but it always loops back. No end, no escape. I've definitely watched some movies I thought would never end. But zigging instead of zagging is just being unpredictable, isn't it? Or maybe it's just being contrary.

Anyway, the mine, once tossed clear by Logan, opens a doorway that whisks the heroes off, Spiral intending to use them to start her own film franchise. That, does not work as she gets a little dragon fire in the face. The X-Men get sent home with no memory of what happened. Longshot, I'm not sure what happens to him, other than Spiral promises he'll end up in another of her films again. She wins a bunch of awards, Mojo fumes, but is intrigued by the idea of mutants.

Well, I like Nocenti's work because it's always got something going on in it. That doesn't mean I can figure out what that something is. Mojo doing no work, but claiming the credit for what Spiral does, letting the audience decide what happens based on their whims, rather than actually having an idea and committing to seeing it through. Spiral has one, and even if it doesn't all work, at least she took a chance. But even when she succeeds, Mojo's using it to springboard to something bigger for himself. The entirely derivative X-Babies. That's showbiz!

What I Bought 10/26/2022 - Part 2

I didn't really plan to save the horror book for Halloween, it worked out that way because Friday's books were loosely, "concluding stories", and these two books are still in their first half.

Sgt. Rock vs. the Army of the Dead #2, by Bruce Campbell (writer), Eduardo Risso (artist), Kristian Rossi (colorist), Rob Leigh (letterer) - Rock is not happy with the festive burning zombie decoration.

Good news, everyone! Campbell and Risso did mostly get exposition out of the way in the first issue! By the time we see Easy Co. in this issue, they're already sneaking around the "industrial district" of Berlin, looking for the zombie-generating lab. They find a heavily-guarded place where bodies are being delivered, but their attempts to commandeer a truck fall prey to the rear of the truck being full of undead Nazis.

Dealing with that requires a lot of shooting and some grenades, which somehow doesn't attract immediate attention. So they're able to spy on the factory long enough to see Hitler's personal physician leaving (after receiving some drugs, which I'm sure implies something unpleasant with regards to the genocidal failed painter). But more undead soldiers show up, and fire doesn't kill them, or at least not quickly, so it's out the window, into a truck and chase that doctor.

The opening scene is definitely the creepiest part of the issue (not that the book is terribly creepy or scary). A bunch of the undead soldiers in a tavern, drinking. Then they start shooting each other, but it's all in fun as they laugh at how it doesn't kill or even really harm them. One of them gets shot through the back, laughs, drinks, and watches the beer pour out the bullet holes like he's Daffy Duck. Then they all laugh with these wrinkled, decayed faces, and Rossi colors the whole thing in a sickly grey-green that almost matches the undead's skin.

I don't know if it's more unsettling or less to think these guys still have some capacity for thought and understanding of their situation. The fact they understand and seem to revel in it is disturbing. When Bulldozer's stuck fighting one in close quarters later, he empties a revolver in the guy's gut, and said guy just keeps grinning (and drooling, these undead guys have all got permanent drool coating their chins) and saying he'll live forever. Reminds me a bit of the Letzses Battalion from Hellsing, although these guys are a bit goofier than that lot, who gleefully mangled and shredded human bodies at will.

X-Men Legends #3, by Ann Nocenti (writer), Javier Pina (artist), Jim Campbell (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - I want Spiral to be throwing up some devil horns with her fingers to show she's enjoying this descent into a weird portal thing.

This is set immediately after the original Nocenti/Art Adams Longshot mini-series from the '80s. Longshot's captured by Mojo and dragged back to the Mojoverse, where Mojo plans - I use the term loosely - his next big cinematic piece with his incredibly lucky star. Dr. Strange may have stitched the portal shut, but Spiral reopens it and grabs Wolverine, Shadowcat and Lockheed, who came to investigate. Little reprogramming and recostuming later, and they're ready for starring roles in a big war picture. On opposing sides, naturally.

The heroes are almost props in this issue, as Nocenti seems most focused on Mojo, Spiral, and Major Domo. The resent the latter two hold for their boss, only thinly veiled (if that.) The contempt he holds for them, if even that. Mojo typically gets written as a comedy villain, maybe ever since the X-Babies thing. Just a big yellow blob that sees everything in terms of the entertainment value he can squeeze from it. Nocenti's the only one who seems to actually show that he's dangerous. Not just whatever it is about him that kills natural things by his mere presence. More the complete disregard for anyone or anything else.

He's a bit like a child, but an especially cruel one. Pain that happens to others, doesn't exist. Everyone is to be used by him, and you're only hope in getting him to listen is by appealing to his ego. He has no grasp of depth. As he puts it, characters change by being alive at the beginning of the story, and dead by the end. Major Domo argues in favor of creating real characters and giving them conflicts, but it only works because he points out that Mojo's ratings will plummet if they're bored for even a second. In panels where Mojo's the only character, he fills them, or close to it. A lot of those panels are close-up on his face. If he shares the panels with someone else, he still dominates it. 

Even in a full-page splash where Longshot briefly escapes and makes a speech while attacking Mojo, Mojo is in the foreground, taking up more of the panel than Longshot and Spiral (relegated to a small corner) combined. Even when Spiral and Domo plot betrayal, they're presented as greyed outlines, while Mojo's is this yellow shadow that looms in the background. He's got to be the star, the genius, the one everybody loves. Or else.

Tonight They Race In Outer Space. Or Fight. Whichever.

I normally don't bother with Marvel or DC when it comes to these hypothetical teams because there's a chance whatever five characters I pick from either universe, they're probably going to have worked together at some point. But what the hell, the post office has bounced my comics shipment all over the damn state for the last three days.

So for this one, I tried to pick characters I like or at least find interesting, but aren't what I'd necessarily classify as favorites. I may pick the character from a particular point in their history, but that's probably just a sign of what status quo I'm most familiar with.

The Leader: Monica Rambeau (Photon) - I'm not sure what codename Monica's rolling with these days, but "Photon" isn't bad, and I always thought it was nuts she gave back the "Captain Marvel" name to Mar-Vell's stupid, whiny son, then the kid changes his codename to Photon after she'd already taken that.

Anyway, bare minimum this is Monica from some point post-NextWave. Monica's done good work as a leader prior to that, but it felt like she was reluctant to take command. This group, in its own way, could be as difficult to handle as Machine Man, Boom-Boom, and The Captain were. It would help to have a Monica that has already managed to deal with that trio's nonsense. She needs to be able to project confidence, both in herself and their mission, despite any challenges.

Although hopefully we're far enough past NextWave she's eased back off the throttle a bit, because she was pretty angry and bloodthirsty at times in that book. I'm not sure that's going to play well with some members of this team.

Monica is actually also the real powerhouse of the team in a broad sense. The others have specialties where they might exceed her, but overall, she's the one most likely to be able to fight an entire alien army. If, you know, that's a thing that they need to do at some point.

The Rogue: Hank Pym - If we're picking a specific era, I'm going with West Coast Avengers cargo suit Hank Pym. The "scientist adventurer." I've always felt that's really the identity that suits him best, because it focuses more on him using his intelligence and aptitude for making thing. As opposed to growing 40 feet tall and punching people. Honestly, the growing thing always feels like him trying to compensate in the most obvious way possible. And there's never been any indication Hank's a particularly gifted hand-to-hand fighter, so he probably ought to shy away from a powerset that encourages it.

Still, it's Hank Pym, he's always walking a knife edge. He was moments away from killing himself before Firebird stopped him and helped devise the "scientist adventurer" approach. I'm not going to pretend all that doubt, guilt, and insecurity just vanished because he decided to take a different approach to being a hero. Even if this is the type of hero I think suits him best, he's still going to want to prove himself. I think he'll be a team player, but there aren't any other scientists on this crew. Is he going to put a lot of pressure on himself to figure out the solutions to all their problems? Even if it's an area outside his expertise?

Something goes wrong, he makes a miscalculation, there comes a point where it looks like maybe they could have used a giant guy, is he going to fall apart? Is the rest of the team going to wake up the next morning and here's Yellowjacket, talking shit and challenging Monica's decisions? Which might be the most important reason for Monica to be more mellow than she was in NextWave. NextWave Monica will probably just cook Yellowjacket if he doesn't shut his trap.

The Muscle: Mantis - Mantis circa Abnett/Lanning's Guardians of the Galaxy might not be her at her most powerful. In Engelhart's Silver Surfer run she could literally travel across interstellar distances, as long as there was plant life on the next world for her to use to basically regrow a body. Still, DnA Mantis had telepathy, limited precognition, pyrokinesis, and still had some ability to stimulate plant growth. Plus, you know, kickass martial arts skills. Maybe she can teach Hank Pym how to throw a punch. Or maybe not. Don't want to encourage him to start thinking with his fists again.

Mantis is, most of the time, a fairly placid character. Probably because she has at least a vague sense of how things are going to turn out (or because she's spent time seeing things from a more cosmic level). She rarely shares that information with her teammates, and may not even tell them she has that ability. From their perspective she can look like a bit of a "space case." Looking at things they can't see. Monica's going to have to find some way to get Mantis to communicate important information without having to be pressed for it.

At the same time, she can be very empathetic and caring. She was able to put up with the Silver Surfer and his whinging, even managed to tease him out of it at times. She could put up with Star-Lord's self-pity, Drax and Gamora's less-than-pleasant personalities, Bug's constant inappropriate comments. With the latter three, she tended to let any of it directed towards her just wash over her with no outward reaction. A blade of grass swaying in the wind. With Quill, she gave him a kick in the pants from time to time as needed.  Still, her capacity to just listen and let people get stuff out could come in very handy.

If that's all she does, because she also gave members of the Guardians a slight mental nudge to get them to join, at Quill's request, which is a little troubling. If she tries to "nudge" Pym, there's no telling what that'll do to either of them, and there's at least one character on this team that will probably kill her if she tries it on them. OK, one character beside Monica.

The Lady of Mystery: Longshot - With Longshot the mystery may be how recently his mind has been wiped. If it has been, who wiped it (it can't always be Mojo and Spiral)? And was anything really important lost in the process? Depending on how Mantis has been acting, and how oddly she behaves around the others, this could be a source of tension if suspicion falls on her. If Pym has doubts about her, or hears someone else on the team voice doubts, then makes a screw-up, does he try to pin the blame on her? That's she undermining him for some purpose?

That said, Longshot is (usually) a cheery ray of sunshine, even when his memories are missing. So excited and curious about every new thing he's getting to experience. His innocence is going to provide a distinct counterpoint to the next team member, but it could also be an issue. His luck power requires pure motives to work properly, and I wonder if that's going to limit him if he doesn't entirely grasp what's going on around him, due to memory loss. If he has to take the others' word for it on what they're doing and why, or if he acts out of trust in them, but that turns out to be a mistake. Their motives aren't considered "pure" even if his desire to help them is. Longshot's definition of what's OK might be (almost certainly is) very different from the rest of the team. Does that cause a backfire?

I don't think Longshot ever got to go on any of the X-Men's outer space adventures (and this would have to be in outer space, at least part of the time). It's time for adorable mullet baby's first outer space trip! Given his luck and agility, he ought to be a natural at zero-gravity fighting, which will come in handy at some point. Also, he kind of has a reputation for being very attractive, and I have absolutely no idea which member of this team would fall for him. Honestly, I can't see it being any of them, but maybe someone would surprise me.

The Guy with a Boat: Ghost Rider - The image is of Johnny Blaze, but it can be Robbie Reyes or Dan Ketch, or that one lady who was Ghost Rider for 5 seconds 10 years ago. Johnny and Robbie probably have the most experience on teams at this point, depending on whether you want them to be used to working with others, or not.

Look, it's most likely that Pym is going to provide a spacecraft (unless they steal or commandeer one from somebody), but you can't pass up the opportunity to put Johnny/Robbie at the controls so the ship bursts into flames and takes on a demonic visage. I figured that was 90% of the point behind Cosmic Ghost Rider, but he just rides some spacebike with one of those spheres you touch that makes your hair stand on end for a front tire.

The Rider gives them at least some mystical aspect, even if they're not much in terms of spellcasting. Some potential defense or offense of a supernatural nature is better than none, right? They might even meet some other planet's Spirit of Vengeance. Depending on circumstances, could be friend, could be foe. Say they're dealing with the Kree, and it's Kree-Lar's Ghost Rider trying to avenge its people (even though the Kree probably started it). The Rider's actually the physically strongest member of the team, assuming Pym doesn't do the Giant-Man thing at some point. That should come in handy.

The question is how well he's going to work with the rest of the team. Not just in the sense Johnny or Robbie might go tearing off after some soul they sense needs to be punished, even if it involves tearing through the side of their spaceship. But will the Rider be able to control himself from taking vengeance on his teammates if he's stuck in close proximity to them for a long period of time? Pym's got a lot of dirty laundry in his closet (how much responsibility does he bear for Ultron's actions?) If Mantis does start acting in a questionable manner, well, plants have a tendency to burn, and I'm not sure how susceptible the Rider is to mental attacks.

Which makes Ghost Rider sound like he should have been the Rogue, and I did consider it, but I feel like you know what you're dealing with when it comes to him. You just have to be on your toes, and careful about what you do. Whereas with Hank Pym, he may make it through A-OK. He does go long stretches where he functions perfectly well. But when/if he does fall apart, you don't know which direction he's going to go. If he's going to go the Giant-Man route, or become a real abrasive force on the team in Yellowjacket, or just fall apart entirely. The potential outcomes are more varied.

Are Female Characters Unusually Likely To Get Luck Powers?

I almost titled it "Are Female Character Unusually Lucky?" Kind of a joke thing, talking about luck powers and all. Then I remembered, "oh yeah, women in fridges",  and figured it might be better to take a different route, avoid misunderstandings.

This occurred to me typing yesterday's post: Are a large number of characters with luck-themed powers women? Longshot is a guy, obviously, but past him, the ones that leap to mind are the Scarlet Witch, Black Cat, Domino, Roulette (from Emma Frost's Hellions). At DC, there was a daughter of the Gambler, who followed in his footsteps and had luck powers (I saw her in one of those Who's Who entries MGK did).

Beyond that, I'm not sure who else there is. Amos Fortune is interested in luck, and some of his schemes involve it, but a lot of times he branches out into other, vaguely scientific-sounding stuff as the plot demands. And they aren't really powers, at any rate. There was that '90s Titan Risk, the one who kept getting his arms ripped off, because someone at DC - Geoff Johns -  thought that was hilarious. But for some reason I'm not sure he actually had luck powers. No idea why. And Wikipedia says I was right, that he had enhanced physical abilities that increased with his adrenaline, which was ramped up by risk. Oh, now I get it. Well, never mind him, then.

I can't decide if Shamrock should count. I suppose not. She has ghosts that help her if she'll help them. Even so, that's 5-2 in favor the ladies. Hardly definitive, but maybe it's indicative of a larger trend. What, I'm not sure. Could just be a coincidence. We're talking multiple different creators, with several years between most of them. And who isn't going to give a character called "the Black Cat" freaking bad luck powers?

But it seems like female characters tend to get passive powers more often. Admittedly, I'm thinking largely or early Marvel, your Jean Greys, Wandas, Sue Storms, the Wasp. Stuff where they can (or have to) stand back and sort of wave their hands. Don't get to be actively hitting people, maybe get to zap them. Luck powers don't have to be like that, Longshot's frequently jumping around doing things while his powers are taking effect. Same for Felicia and Domino. At the same time, it's still more passive, depending on how much control the character is given over it. Scarlet Witch is on the active end, casting deliberate spells with her powers, the others more passive since they're usually trusting something will happen to make things go their way, without any concrete idea of what that might be. So maybe luck is classified as a feminine power? Which, considering that characters in comics are almost all attractive, could have an ugly undercurrent of "things always go their way because they're pretty". Hope I'm going too deep with that.

Does that make Longshot in some ways a more stereotypically feminine character? He's sort of small, very light (hollow bones), agile but not particularly strong, presented as naive about everything, and especially nowadays, he's an object of desire for almost everyone he meets. And things just seem to work out for him. Is he a romance novel protagonist? That's probably also going too far. A lot of male characters are depicted as being highly attractive to other characters (women usually, though that's shifting some these days).

But I feel like there's a difference between how Batman or Spider-Man are depicted in those situations, and Longshot. Maybe because they're usually having reciprocal feelings, or at least voice their lack of interest, whereas Longshot seems frequently indifferent. He's had relationships, at least one serious one with Dazzler, but a lot of times, people just fall for him instantly, and he doesn't really care about it one way or the other. A lot of times, his feelings on the matter don't even enter into it. It's played as a joke about how everyone thinks he's hot, or how he'll roll with it, but it doesn't mean anything to him. It's just something that happens he has to deal with, these people pursuing him.

Wasn't where I planned on that post going, but I figured it was worth throwing it out there for consideration. Get some other perspectives, see if I can flesh it out, or trash it if it's a mess.

The Dice Keeping Rolling Long After The Initial Throw

One thing I enjoyed with the recent Longshot Saves the Marvel Universe series was the idea of just how far the effects of Longshot's luck powers reach, for good or ill. Usually, when comics show people with probability powers, we see them work for a specific moment in time, and that's it. The Scarlet Witch waves her hand, something weird happens, the moment passes, there are no ripples. What Hastings did was go with the idea that the effect wouldn't just stop there. That if the altered probability involves other people, then their lives will continue to be impacted by it long after the initial, highly unlikely event took place.

At one point, Longshot recalls a moment where he crashed through the roof of a house with a jetpack. He was all right, good fortune for him, but it created problems for the family, which ultimately fell apart. The husband didn't deal with it well. The mother and daughter ended up coming to visit their friend, who happens to be the daughter of Dr. Dipson. And the daughter's stuffed bear wound up as the safe haven of the Cosmic Cube, keeping it from either half of the In-Betweener, helping Longshot set things right.

Longshot's powers are only supposed to work if his motives are pure, but the trick is that even with pure motives, that doesn't guarantee happy results for everyone. His powers cause of some rich mogul to randomly appear in front of that salon where he gets his hair done. Great for them, bad for the salon across the street that goes out of business, and can't even find a buyer for the space. And because of his psychometric powers, Longshot can see the results of his actions.

Think of the weight that could place on him. All heroes have to deal with the idea that every decision has consequences. Turn right and stop a mugging, miss the car accident that they would have stopped if they went the other way. But Longshot can affect lives, bring them joy or ruination without actively doing anything.

Maybe that's why he keeps getting his memories wiped. He has to approach the world with a clean slate, because otherwise, he'd never be able to use his powers. The risk of unintended consequences, of altered probabilities running to their ultimate end could cripple someone with doubts, or make it impossible to act with pure motives. Imagine Tony Stark with probability altering powers. He'd unleash some 217-step process that made him God King of the Universe that began with causing Captain America to spontaneously develop a peanut allergy while enjoy PB&J. Peter Parker would probably never do anything, because he'd be paralyzed by the chance it would hurt innocent people. Longshot is sort of aware of the possibilities, but just naive enough to roll with it. Those long-term ripples are just a little too much for him to keep track of, so he uses his powers (mostly) to try and help, but doesn't get hung up entirely by the idea that one person's fortune is another's misfortune.

What I Bought 1/27/2014 - Part 1

Yes, comics! Finally. Can't believe forwarding takes so long.

The Rocketeer & the Spirit: Pulp Friction #4, by Mark Waid (writer), J Bone (art), Rom Fajardo (colors), Tom B. Long (letters) - Is that a Mauser the Octopus is using on the cover? Interesting choice. I've fired one of those before. Not really my thing.

I had thought Betty was faking being mind-wiped last issue. You know, using her acting skills to gain an advantage, help out the Spirit. Nope, never mind, she really was made highly suggestible, and the Spirit has to snap her out of it, by mentioning her acting career, and how killing him on camera will negatively impact that. Feels like a missed opportunity.

Betty frees the Spirit, but there's still the matter of all the goons, but that's when the cops and the Rocketeer show up. Then the Spirit kind of trash talks Cliff, stating that Cliff's made it abundantly clear you can't fight crime and have a personal life. Oh swell, we're dealing with the new 52 version of the Spirit here. He does seem to recognize that's a silly attitude to take, or maybe just that he was too harsh on Cliff. Not that he's wrong about Cliff making things more difficult for himself, but trouble finds him most of the time.

Eventually the guys figure out Trask and Octopus were going to show off their invention by using it to teleport a bullet into FDR during some televised speech Trask arranged (big campaign contributor). So they use the set-up they found to bring FDR to safety. And then the Nazis storm in, so Cliff hooks up Roosevelt with the rocket pack, so he can escape, since running isn't in the picture. Nazis defeated, FDR plays party-pooper and tries to confiscate the rocket, so Cliff has to threaten to blow FDR's little polio secret. I'd say that's fighting dirty, but the President started it.

This is one of those issues that almost seems too stuffed, that there's so much going on, none of it has a chance to make an impact. The actual Nazi soldiers showing up seemed out of place. I had Germany pegged as a potential buyer, just like any number of other interested parties. That Trask and the Octopus were the movers, shakers, and financial bedrock of the teleportation stuff. So there being actual German soldiers involved, that they had booby-trapped some of the equipment (which they used to dispose of Trask), it was out of left field. Plus, German soldiers running around on U.S. soil trying to kill the President seems a bit overtly hostile. It's February of 1941, little early for that, not that I imagine FDR would complain, if he could leverage it into getting Congress to declare war on Germany that much sooner.

Fajardo's colors blunt Bone's lines some. Things don't look as crisp as they usually do, and the fight scenes are kind of weak. I imagine J Bone was a little rushed on things, since this wasn't supposed to be his project anyway, but the action bits definitely aren't his strongest work.

Longshot Saves the Marvel Universe #4, by Christopher Hastings (writer), Jacopo Camagni (penciler/inker), Victor Calderon-Zurita (penciler), Terry Pallot (inker), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - Man, that cover is the weirdest version of Atlas Shrugged I've ever seen. *pause* Look, it was the best I could do without making a "weight of the world on your shoulders" crack.

Reality is falling apart! Dr. Dipson has realized the possessed teddy bear is actually the Cosmic Cube, ruptured by the splitting of the In-Betweener. He and SpideyOck work to build something that will restore the Cube to its normal state, but Order has sent his pawn Deadpool to retrieve the bear and kill everyone. So Longshot needs to deal with that. Which he does, with tacos. I can buy that. Longshot's arrival helps the Cube to reform, and Longshot uses it to undo the damage he's done, at which point he meets the In-Betweener in his typical, robe-wearing form, and we learn that the Cube was shielded itself from his perceptions, and that it was the combination of the Cube and Longshot that was the threat, not Longshot by himself, and now that the two are separated again, the In-Betweener doesn't need to kill Longshot. Um, great? And so everything is restored to as it was, more or less, and Longshot ends the series helping the police use their jet packs to catch thieves on hover boards.

It took me the second read through to understand the reason the Cube wants to reform when it's around Longshot, and the reason Miss Dapples - the teddy bear - kept helping him is because a Cosmic Cube is a sentient being, and so like every other sentient being in the Marvel Universe, it wants to bone Longshot. Once I pieced that together, things made a little more sense. Note I said "a little".

The one thing I really liked Hastings did with this mini-series was explore those unintended results of Longshot's powers. I want to go more in-depth later (though with the backlog of posts, it may be after President's Day before I get to it), but this idea that even when Longshot does something to help a person, it can hurt someone else, or that seemingly innocuous actions can have great consequences.

Camagni and Calderon-Zurita do a pretty good job on the art chores. One thing is how stiffly they draw Deadpool's movements while he's under Order's control and fighting Longshot. Everything's sort of mechnical, restrained, he only uses a weapon when he has to. And it makes perfect sense, because Order has either wiped out or constrained all the madness that makes Deadpool who he is. Take that away from him, and he'd behave completely differently.