Shatterstar in X-Factor

[crabby_lioness]

This is for comic book fans and John Barrowman fans.  Last year Marvel revived a superhero who hadn't been seen in a decade with a new look.  (Which was long overdue, as he'd been a teenager the last time anyone saw him.)  It wasn't long before I and other fans began noticing that as part of his new look he had John Barrowman's onstage body

Comments

[qara_isuke]

This is awesome.

And no, not a Soap Opera AT ALL.

[crabby_lioness]

This is awesome.

Thank you.

And no, not a Soap Opera AT ALL.

LOL That got started on a Doctor Who forum. Some guys were saying, "But guys don't like soap operas!" and I was like, "Dude, have you EVER read a Marvel comic book in your entire life? They've made a fortune writing soap operas for boys!"

[eliyes]

Um. Couple things:

First we have Julio Esteban Richter (code name "Rictor" -- spelling is not his strong suit).

He was given that name by Cameron Hodge and did not choose to change it, probably because he didn't want his family to find him. Also, Rictor is a real first name. It was years before they decided to dub him Julio Richter, so really, don't pin that one on him.

Born into a family of Mexican gun-runners, "Ric" saw his mutation as his ticket out of a life of crime in the barrio.Ric initially saw his mutation as a curse that made him a monster and a danger to everyone he loved. The original X-Factor managed to give him a more positive outlook on being a mutant, but meanwhile the circumstances of him parting his family have never been entirely explained. He seems to have run away, and then shortly thereafter been kidnapped away to Virginia by Hodge to be tortured and experimented on. Also, he's not from "the barrio", he's from mexico, where "barrio" just means neighbourhood, as opposed to in the US where it's pretty much a

[crabby_lioness]

Um. Couple things:

Yeah I know, but I learned the hard way that TMI in an intro post is a deal-breaker. You should have seen what I cut out. I was especially proud of the bit about Rahne, Himrahi, and Josh. :(

Other than that, good recap

Thank you.

[eliyes]

Yeah I know, but I learned the hard way that TMI in an intro post is a deal-breaker. You should have seen what I cut out. I was especially proud of the bit about Rahne, Himrahi, and Josh. :(

Years of weird soap opera comics continuity: the bane of fan synopses everywhere! I know that particular agony as well.

[qara_isuke]

Other than that, good recap! (Someday -- someday -- I will figure out what the hell the gladiator joke is. Someday!)

In the movie Airplane!, the pilot asks a little boy visiting the cockpit various slightly homoerotic questions. Including asking him if he's "ever seen a grown man naked" and "Do you like movies about gladiators?"

The joke, apparently, being that back in the 60s and such, Gladiator movies were supposedly VERY popular with the gay crowd.

[michiru42]

Thanks for this! There are a few scenes I hadn't seen--I'll buy more TPBs the moment I have money, but. I don't right now. -_

[michiru42]

And oh! The bit about Star's fashion sense was great, too. There's this hilarious discussion going on over at the uncannyxmen-dot-com boards about how incredibly gay X-Force was in the early 90s. Our resident homophobe on the boards, who has been complaining about Star being gay since PAD brought him out of the closet, grumbled that the poster must be gay to see that, because a REAL MAN like him sees the male body as a tank, and so the idea of X-Force seeming gay was "preposterous".

I told him to take a look at "The 40 worst Rob Liefeld drawings". Hee.

[crabby_lioness]

I think you've got a good analysis there. :)

One of the oldest recipes for disaster is "innocent babe in the woods with a libido". It's also one of the oldest plots for porn novels. We've got an "innocent babe in the woods" here. We'll see which direction PAD goes in.

[swordznsorcery]

Hmm. If they wanted to have a comic book Captain Jack, why not think up a new character? That's better than doing a one eighty on Shatterstar's personality.

It's nice to have some antisocial characters. There's far too few of them.

[crabby_lioness]

I don't think it's so much a 180 as it is a maturing process. Shatterstar's early behavior was pretty consistent with that of an abused child hitting puberty and being anti-social as Hell, but it's something many people grow out of. It was also completely at odds with his pre-conditioned desire to be a media darling. He either had to give up one or the other.

[liliaeth]

Really? I've always felt there are way way too many antisocial characters. But that might be the overuse of Wolverine talking.

[swordznsorcery]

I think that depends on what fandoms you're into. Certainly in film and television it's pretty much de rigeur to have the hero be a permanently smiley people person. There are exceptions of course, but not all that many.

I never really thought of Wolverine as anti-social. Mind you, it's been a long while since I've seen any of The X-Men outside of the old TV cartoon!

[webbgirl]

I'd seen the snippets of 'Star coming back last year, but X-Factor was the one X book that I could *never* get into. (Plus Liefeld scarred my brain for life in the 90's) These are great though.

I attended a panel at SD Comic Con last year with PAD as one of the guests and I love that he said he didn't see what the big deal was about the kiss.

The reunions scenes in San Fran were AWESOME. That was such a Captain Jack scene.

[crabby_lioness]

Liefeld and Lee have much to answer for. They scarred me so badly I was just last year getting back in, and only then for my daughters' sakes. And even then I wouldn't have if I hadn't heard that John Byrne's retconning away of the Scarlet Witch's twins hadn't been de-retconned.