*sigh* Oh, Shatterstar, Shatterstar. Why have they forsaken you? Here's a case of when good(ish) characters go wrong - Shatterstar. He started off with a gay white costume but was cool, then he got a badass costume and became gay. I mean gay as in lame, but also perhaps literally because we're still not sure about his orientation. He allegedly had had a fling with Rictor in the mountains. If he would have said, "I can't quit you, Rictor" that would have been awesome, but alas, the whole thing has never been confirmed. OR denied!So, Shatterstar was introduced at the end of the New Mutants run, and became a founding member of X-Force. He was created by Rob Liefeld so of course he has useless pouches and headgear for no reason, and a name created by mashing two words together - two of Liefeld's specialties. He was from another dimension and had a scar around his eye. Plus he had two badass double-bladed swords making for Four Blades of Fury!!! Okay, so they never used that terminology in the comics but they totally should have.
He learned Spanish from watching TV and during any early issue of X-Force, he stabbed himself through the stomach in order to kill someone behind him. I think it was a member of the Mutant Liberation Front but Google searches are proving fruitless. There was nothing he couldn't do!
Except have an easy backstory. It was hinted early on that he was the child of Longshot and Dazzler which would have been awesome. But then they introduced a guy in a coma by the name of Benjamin Russell who looked exactly like Shatterstar. Shatterstar was wounded, so their souls were merged or some shit and now he's both Shatterstar and Benjamin Russell. I don't know, it's something ridiculous like that. I think Marvel gave up after plodding through that origin story they haven't bothered to explain anything further. At some point, though, he got a much better costume even though now he's got pill pouches on his biceps. Because even superheroes have to remember to take their vitamins.
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2 comments:
Ok.
A. At some point I was thinking of doing a post about Liefeld and his influence on comics (mainly lots of guns and pouches).
B. I bought a run of X-Force comics off of eBay and I'm reading them right now. So you probably should have put a spoiler warning on this post. I knew about the unconfirmed brokeback situation with Rictor though.
My problem is, I think the run I bought only goes to #75, so I've gotta find an auction with the back half of the series or find a complete run and then sell my half run. Since no one sells a back end run, it's only 1-70 or full runs, I think I'm going to have to buy a complete set and then try and sell my other set. It's kind of a sucky situation.
Lastly, what the hell are Shatterstar's powers? They never really covered that when he was introduced. I guess he just has heightened physically abilities and then that lame power to channel energy through his swords. But that drains him too much, so he doesn't do it all that often. I always thought of him as Liefeld's one non-gun-toting character because he did have a lot of pouches and his character and powers were mysterious (see Cable, Domino, Deadpool, etc. for other examples).
I had to look at the Wikipedia page for a lot of reference, but apparently he's got enhanced everything - fighting skills, learning ability, sinking three pointers in the clutch.
There were some good early issues of X-Force from what I remember, after Liefeld left. I'll have to go track those down in my archive.
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