Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!dreaderd!not-for-mail

Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!dreaderd!not-for-mail
Message-ID: <comics/xbooks/main-faq/[email protected]>
Supersedes: <comics/xbooks/main-faq/[email protected]>
Expires: 27 Feb 2003 09:36:17 GMT
References: <comics/xbooks/main-faq/[email protected]>
X-Last-Updated: 2002/11/30
From: [email protected] (Kate the Short)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.marvel.xbooks,rec.arts.comics.info,rec.answers,news.answers
Subject: rec.arts.comics.marvel.xbooks FAQ: 5/7
Organization: Keepers of Frequently Asked Questions, racmx division
Approved: [email protected]
Followup-To: poster
Summary: FAQ for rec.arts.comics.marvel.xbooks--X-Men comic books
Originator: [email protected]
Date: 14 Jan 2003 09:38:41 GMT
Lines: 862
NNTP-Posting-Host: penguin-lust.mit.edu
X-Trace: 1042537121 senator-bedfellow.mit.edu 3929 18.181.0.29
Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu rec.arts.comics.marvel.xbooks:281094 rec.arts.comics.info:9977 rec.answers:78095 news.answers:244615

Archive-name: comics/xbooks/main-faq/part5
Posting-frequency: monthly
URL: http://www.enteract.com/~katew/faqs/

-= REC.ARTS.COMICS.MARVEL.XBOOKS =-
Frequently Asked Questions
Part 5

Version 2002.04, last updated December 2002
URL: http://www.enteract.com/~katew/faqs/racmxFAQ/faq5.html

------------------------------
Subject: Table of Contents

Part 5:

X-MEN COMIC BOOK QUESTIONS
* What is the relationship between Wolverine and Sabretooth
supposed to be?
* Does Wolverine have any real memories anyway? How about
real bones?
* Who was Wolverine before he was Wolverine? Does he even
have a real name?
* Wolverine can regularly regenerate himself from a drop of
blood, right?
* When did the Beast turn blue and furry? Wasn't he unfurry
again for a while? When did he become a lion?
* Why did the X-Men lose their invisibility to electronic
scanners?
* What is the Siege Perilous?
* Psylocke, Revanche, Kwannon, Betsy Braddock ... help?
* When did Psylocke and Phoenix switch powers? Wasn't Psylocke
telepathically holding the Shadow King captive?
* 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?
* What is the Legacy Virus? Who's had it? Hasn't there been a
cure for a while?
* What is the Soulsword? Who has Magik's Soulsword now?
* 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?
* What happens when the Blob meets the Juggernaut?

------------------------------

Subject: X-MEN COMIC BOOK QUESTIONS

Please note: Background information on the creators and the X-titles
editorial offices is based on over a decade's worth of interviews,
articles, 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.

--- What is the relationship between Wolverine and Sabretooth supposed
to be?

Once upon a time, this was one of the big Unanswered Questions in the
X-titles. Of course, once upon a time Bernard the poet was a recurring
character in X-Men as well. Dig those groovy rhymes!

Wolverine and Sabretooth were originally designed, most likely by John
Byrne once he got his hands on them, to be son and father, respectively.
Nothing was ever made of this, besides the usual murky hints behind the
scenes. As time went by the relative popularity of Wolverine versus the
great obscurity of Sabretooth (up until recently, he was still a second-
string villain found working for no-name crime bosses in Spider-Man
titles) made such a revelation rather silly in the eyes of Marvel, so
they just shifted the whole thing over to them both just having some
sort of relationship in the past, but of an unspecified sort.

Recently, Wolverine and Sabretooth have been revealed simply to be
former secret agents who worked on the same team with other mysterious
mutants such as Maverick. A blood test performed by some considerate
S.H.I.E.L.D. medical technicians in Wolverine #42 finally gave us a
definite answer: they aren't related by blood at all. Sabretooth once
believed himself to be Logan's father, but that was merely a vestige of
the Weapon X's memory implant procedures.

--- Does Wolverine have any real memories, anyway? How about real bones?

Apparently, almost all of Wolverine's memories are constructs, thanks to
the ever-dependable Weapon X program and the demands of Marvel writers.
What he had as his original skeleton has become even more of a muddled
pile of murk thanks to the Fatal Attractions storyline. A brief synopsis
of what was once known to be true will be attempted here, but as
discussions on racmx have shown, this question is a retcon in action,
and even Wolverine fans are still confused over the whole affair. Those
of us who are just neutral bystanders will have to be content with what
follows, and leave the heavy arguments to the knowledgable Wolvie sages
on racmx.

IN THE BEGINNING, like, pre-X-Men (Hulk #181), even, Wolverine was just
designed to be a spunky teenager working for the Canadian government,
who had claws stuck in his gloves. One gets the opinion that perhaps
there were some slight budgetary problems in the Canadian Secret Service
at the time. There was a suggested subplot which would reveal him to be
a "super-evolved" real wolverine, made into human form by the High
Evolutionary, but that was never followed up on.

Now, when Wolverine was put into the X-Men, Chris Claremont decided that
since he was in the X-Men, he needed to have a mutant power.
Furthermore, he didn't like the idea of having the adamantium claws just
part of the gloves, as then "anyone who could get the gloves could be
Wolverine." So, he revealed that the claws are actually housed in
Wolvie's arms.

Eventually, we find out that all of Wolverine's skeleton is bonded with
adamantium. Adamantium is the hardest known non-magical substance in the
Marvel Universe, capable of ignoring point-blank nuclear strikes. Chris
Claremont also revealed that Wolverine was much older than he'd
originally been planned to be. Wolverine's vaunted healing factor wasn't
mentioned in the stories until UXM #142, although it was first shown in
the UXM issue in the mid 110's when Wolverine got his arm chomped on by
a dinosaur.

Time passes. We learn that Wolverine may have gotten his adamantium from
the Canadian special weapons project, Project X. There is a good clue
out that the adamantium bonding process was stolen for Project X from
Lord Darkwind, a Japanese nobleman who performed the same sort of
operation on Bullseye, a nonpowered assassin and foe of Daredevil's.
Lord Darkwind's daughter, Lady Deathstrike, has been hunting Wolverine
for years to kill him, since him having that skeleton is an insult to
the heritage of her father. The process was either stolen by or for
James Hudson, head of the Alpha Flight project, which was responsible
for the superpowered protection of the Canadian provinces and interests.

Then comes the Weapon X storyline (MCP #72-84). Wolverine, who up to
this point is thought to just be a fast-healing mutant of indeterminate
age, is now revealed to apparently have had some form of natural "bone
claws" where his metal ones ended up, because when they were filling him
full of adamantium, that's where a bunch of it pooled up (sounds more
like a scientist was skipping on quality control, but, hey, it's
comics).

The idea of the Weapon X project was that it would create all these
super-soldiers, and then release them back into the general public with
no memory of who they were as "sleepers." So they wouldn't remember
their experiences at the Weapon X facilities, they were all programmed
with false memories. To help keep watch over this odd idea, a computer
program named Shiva was written, who could take over one in an almost
endless series of robots to hunt down and destroy any Weapon X soldier
who, somehow, showed signs of remembering who he really was. Currently,
Wolvie has fooled Shiva into thinking it killed him.

So, with that added to the muddle, we then get the unusual Fatal
Attractions crossover, where Magneto pulled the adamantium off of
Wolvie's bones through his skin pores (X-Men #25). So, Wolvie (aside
from hurting real, real bad) was growing new bone claws because he
originally had bone claws (and they got covered in adamantium), and
Magneto removed the original ones.

The lastest addition to this saga is that the adamantium was preventing
his mutation from expanding any further. In this case, that meant his
turning into pure animal, with the unbearably heightened senses and
uncontrollable instincts (Wolverine #92).

The memories problem was repaired by Epsilon Red (by the same people who
brought you Omega Red).

As of Wolverine #100, we have a new incarnation of Wolverine. To Larry
Hama's credit, Wolverine did get his adamantium back. For a few panels.
Then Wolverine rejected it and lost what was left of his mind. The
current version is now a mutant who can withstand almost any amount of
physical abuse. Elektra took it upon herself (Wolverine #101) to help
Logan return to humanity, and it mostly worked.

To make matters worse, Sabretooth had been the recipient of Wolverine's
old adamantium. The stuff was then ripped out of Sabretooth and given
back to Wolverine by Apocalypse, who made Wolverine his horseman Death
for a short time. Wolverine #145 displayed the moment in a flashback,
but the first appearance with the metal back was as Death in Astonishing
X-Men Vol. 2 #1.

--- Who was Wolverine before he was Wolverine? Does he even have a
real name?

In 2001, a new miniseries was created by Joe Quesada, Bill Jemas, and
Paul Jenkins, penciled by Andy Kubert and digitally painted by Richard
Isanove. Creatively named "Origin," the book was set in Alberta and
British Columbia, Canada, and was supposed to tie up a lot of loose ends
about Wolverine's origins. We'll summarize the important parts for you,
so you don't have to spend dozens of dollars trying to buy the darned
thing.

Issue #1 used misdirection, and convinced many readers that Dog, the
beaten and abused son of lowlife groundskeeper Thomas Logan, was
Wolverine. Origin #2, however, revealed that Wolverine was James Howlett,
the weak child of an aristocrat, James Howlett, who was a gentle and soft
man, and his wife Elizabeth, who has been sequestered in the mansion ever
since the death of her first son, John. It's likely that Elizabeth
Howlett had an affair with Thomas Logan, and that James is actually their
son, since Thomas sneaks into the mansion in issue #2 to take Elizabeth
away with him, and she doesn't protest too much. Either way, Thomas Logan
ends up dead when James pops his claws. Something odd happened with his
dead older brother, though--John Logan died at age twelve, apparently
after an illness, and Mrs. Howlett says something to the effect of "ohh
.. Not *again*. Not *you*, James" in Origin #3. Apparently she's seen
*somebody* pop claws before. It's too much for her, so she kills herself
with a rifle. When the news is brought to Grandpa Howlett, he asks Dog
what happened... and Dog lies and says that Rose had a gun.

After Grandpa Howlett forces Rose and James to leave the Howlett home,
Rose takes James by train to British Columbia to work in a quarry. Since
James is in a daze from the appearance of his claws, and they need to
hide their identities due to James' killing of Thomas Logan, Rose gives
the foreman the name of "Logan" for James. (The foreman, Smitty, is
where Logan picks up his characteristic use of "bub.") After working
lower-class jobs for a long while, Logan becomes stronger, following an
internal "urge" to learn how to track animals. As of issue #4, he
prefers the name "Logan" instead of James. He doesn't know what happened
in Alberta (apparently his mind is blocking the memories), and though
Rose wants to talk with him about it, he won't listen. She writes an
account of it in her narrative diary, hoping that he'll learn the truth
from the diary someday. Logan still seems to remember his claws, though,
and after two years at the camp, he pops them out again.

In Origin #5, Rose becomes interested in Smitty. Smitty ends up giving
Logan a book about Japanese Samurai fighters, presumably leading to his
interest in that culture. At the end of the issue, Grandpa Howlett talks
of letting "the fear of what happened to his brother" cloud his
judgement, and sends a messenger to find James and Rose--except that the
messenger is Dog, Thomas Logan's son from issue #1. In issue #6, there's
a cage match in which Logan is called "the Wolverine." He throws a fight
against Smitty, who was in the cage matches to earn money so that he and
fiancee Rose could leave the quarry. When Dog appears and fights Logan,
Logan remembers that Dog is actually the one who killed his father, not
him. Rose tries to stop them; popping his claws, Logan accidentally
kills Rose. He then runs off into the Canadian wilderness, leaving Dog
and Smitty behind.

Apparently it's all true, because Xavier's freaky sister Cassandra Nova
called Wolverine both "Mr. Logan" and "James" in NXM #126.

At the WizardWorld 2002 Comicon Quesada spoke for a while about Origin.
The story didn't tell much about Wolverine's origin, they said, because
the people at Marvel have planned a sequel. "Bill [Jemas] wants to do it
tomorrow," said Quesada, "but I want to let 'Origin' sit a while." So
who knows when we'll find out the details of how Wolverine went from
teenage quarry worker to Weapon X agent.

--- Wolverine can regularly regenerate himself from a drop of blood,
right?

Only if you only reread one annual.

In Uncanny X-Men Annual #11, the X-Men get involved in this very
symbolic quest to determine the worthiness of the entire human race, and
all that other light afternoon sort of entertainment. In the end, only
Wolverine is left to strive for the goal, this immensely powerful alien
god-gem gadget thingee. Unfortunately for Wolverine, the alien Horde is
right behind him, and slaughters the poor mutant--but not before a
single drop of Wolvie's blood lands on the immensely powerful alien god-
gem which super-cosmically charges the superpowers of that blood to
regrow an entire Wolverine, adamantium bones and all. In short, don't
try this at home, kids, at least not without an immensely powerful alien
god-gem of your own.

The simplest evidence against Wolverine having this amount of
regenerative ability, however, is that in the numerous issues with no
alien god-gems in sight that Wolverine gets pounded in, none of the
blood he's leaked so copiously over everything has ever grown into
another Wolverine.

--- When did the Beast turn blue and furry? Wasn't he unfurry again for
a while? When did he become a lion?

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).

Beast eventually lost most of that superstrength, and was back in his
"normal," highly agile, slightly-superstrong blue fuzzball form until
his lion-like form debuted in New X-Men #114. This was confusing, since
he was appearing in his normal form in the first issues of X-Treme X-Men
at the same time. However, in XXM #3, Sage first saw Beast's potential
mutated form. Just pretend that the events of New X-Men occur after all
of Beast's growing pains.

Remember, mutation in the Marvel Universe often occurs during extreme
physical or psychological stress. Almost dying in an issue of Wolverine
and again in XXM #2-3 would definitely count as physical stress. Beast,
who hasn't been particularly form-stable anyway, would have eventually
mutated into this lionlike form. In any case, combining the removal of
everyone's powers by High Evolutionary with increased sunspot activity
(radiation) has created a bumper crop of odd power increases and mutant
births all over the world. The environmental weirdness just accelerated
the change.

--- 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 racmx 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 Nicholas,
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 Asian woman (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.

--- When did Psylocke and Phoenix switch powers? Wasn't Psylocke
telepathically holding the Shadow King captive?

Psylocke and Phoenix switched powers in the "six month gap" between
Chris Claremont's return to the two X-Men core titles. When Claremont
debuted, Jean Grey had a Phoenix shadow eye tattoo on the astral plane,
while Betsy had all of Jean's telekinesis but none of her telepathy.
The actual switch was never shown and never explained, which caused a
lot of confusion to new readers of the titles.

While the power switch was interesting, it came at a bad time for
Marvel. The X-Men movie had just debuted, and in it, Jean was very
definitely a telekinetic. Jean was also a telekinetic in the former
X-Men cartoon and was set to be a telekinetic in the X-Men: Evolution
cartoon. Thus, editorial wasn't too pleased about it. When the titles
were handed back to Scott Lobdell in preparation for yet another team
of writers, Jean seemed to be regaining her telepathy (which also was
not explained).

On a CoolBoard interview with Sean Thack, Claremont revealed his ideas
behind the power switch, and whether it'll be explained:

I thought it would be fun. I thought she was in a rut, that
readers had come to take her personality and powers for granted.
I wanted to give her a challenge to overcome, to cycle her back
to a place in her life where she needed to become a student once
more, to emphasize the "School" aspect of Xavier's institution.
I wanted to establish a strict differentiation between her and
Jean. Instead of them being echoes of one another, they could now
function independently both as individuals and team members. There
was always an explanation and had I managed to find the time last
year, the story would have been presented in the X-Men Annual. But
that window of opportunity passed and given the current status quo
within the X-Canon, the fact that Jean has been restored to her
default status quo as a telepath/telekinetic, I doubt the story
will ever be told. Why explain a continuity twist that no longer
exists? It's done, we move on, end of that story. This is who she
is, this is what she does, now our focus is on what happens next.

As you can see, it's likely a dangler that will be remembered only by
the fans.

As for Psylocke's telepathy holding the Shadow King in place, that's a
whole other story. It seems most likely that he escaped when Psylocke
died in X-Treme X-Men. In X-Treme X-Men Annual 2001, the Shadow King
returned, and tried to take over Rogue's mind. Since Rogue had once
absorbed Psylocke's powers, and therefore possesses some of Psylocke's
powers and psyche, Gambit figured that Rogue could contain the Shadow
King in a corner of her own mind, just like Psylocke had. The solution
apparently worked, since Rogue survived the battle, but it's likely
that he'll pop up again if Rogue ever purges Psylocke's powers.

--- 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 finally occupied 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
[email protected].)

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.

--- What is the Legacy Virus? Who's had it? Hasn't there been a cure
for a while?

The Legacy Virus was a once-interesting plot device that served as a
parallel to the AIDS/HIV virus. Basically, it was spread from mutant to
mutant, and it caused mutants to die by accelerating or increasing their
powers to the point that they burned themselves out. Obviously, such a
nasty virus caused even more fear of mutants in the Marvel Universe.

As with all plot devices, it started out interesting and became a
cliche. The virus was supposed to be Stryfe's legacy--his post-death
gift to the world, if you will. Thus the name. However, one couldn't do
justice to the plot device by quickly creating a cure, since that would
not only cut the story short, but also trivialize the actual search for
an AIDS/HIV cure. So the story plugged away, year after year.

During its time, the Legacy Virus affected many mutants, including
Abyss, Bolt, Feral, Magik, Mastermind, Maverick, Moira MacTaggert,
Nicodemus, Omega Red, Pestilence, Psynapse, Pyro, Revanche, and of
course, Sinister's Assistant who let the darned thing out in the first
place. A team of mutants led by Exodus and Random and a set of
"Morlocks" created by the Dark Beast round out the medical list.

Most notable in the list above are Magik and Moira. Magik received the
virus after she'd been deaged post-Inferno, though a retcon during the
New Mutants mini-series revealed that teenage Illyana was infected when
Mikhail et al journeyed into the NM's past. Her death served as a huge
catalyst, since Colossus' grief led him to join the Acolytes. More on
that in a moment.

Back to Moira. Moira was a genetic researcher, of course, and so was
often exposed to nifty little things like viruses. The odd thing was
that she caught the virus AS A HUMAN. This was meant to parallel the
spread of the AIDS/HIV virus into the general population, but her
search for the virus cure waxed and waned as the plotline's prominence
varied due to shifts in writers and storylines.

Brian Fried reminds us that Zero give Douglock the key or cure to the
Legacy Virus a few years back. In "The Douglock Chronicles," which
introduced Douglock to Excalibur, Zero gave Douglock information to
cure the virus, and then was promptly destroyed for accessing that
information. (Side note: the issue was written by Scott Lobdell, who
also wrote the Excalibur issues in which Moira contracted the virus and
X-Men Prime, where the idea that the cure is connected to Cable's DNA
appeared.)

Every nasty Marvel Virus needs to have its cure, and one certainly was
around; the characters just didn't collectively realize it. Again, if
the virus cure was put off, lots more neat stories could be told that
used it as a plot device (or, as the case may be, neater stories could
be told that *didn't* use it as a plot device). The solution got placed
in a drawer until the writers and marketing staff had nothing better to
use.

A second factor was Warren Ellis' apparent dislike for the storyline and
the switch from Moira's story to the Black Air / Pete Wisdom / Alien
conspiracy stuff that culminated in "The Black Air Trilogy" and
Excalibur #100. It wasn't until Ben Raab came on that the plot was
handled again. In a few issues, it seemed that Douglock would clue in to
the fact that he had the cure, and all would finally be resolved.

Marvel being Marvel, however, it was decided that the only reason people
were reading EXCALIBUR was for Kitty, Kurt, and Piotr; their moving back
to the core books would leave no purpose for Excalibur. Raab had to
close down his loose storylines to accomplish this. Of course, he also
couldn't reveal the cure for the Legacy Virus in Excalibur because those
types of events happened in the core books, like all other important
storylines (see the second WIZARD X-MEN SPECIAL for more info on this).
Raab left Douglock with a serious case of amnesia, in the hope that some
other writer could eventually use the material. Even the Dark Beast's
solution (in X-Men Unlimited #10) was completely forgotten so that Moira
and Mystique would have the honours of being involved.

In any case, Mystique and her terrorist brotherhood decided that the
best way to deal with anti-mutant humans was to mutate the Legacy Virus
so that it would infect the human population instead. She broke into
Muir Isle to get the information, and ended up blowing up Moira in the
process of destroying Moira's research lab. Moira, never one to give up,
fed the information from her research and Mystique's statements into
Xavier's brain, who finally passed it on to Legacy Virus researcher and
noted X-Man Beast.

Beast was quickly able to develop a cure; the problem was, he then
realized that since the original virus was spread once the first
infected mutant used his powers, the new cure would likewise only spread
once an infected mutant used his powers--thus sacrificing someone to
the greater scientific cause.

The FAQ will pause at this time to point out that it was pretty dumb of
Beast to leave the cure unlocked in a room with Piotr, who not only had
lost his sister to the disease, but also had lost his parents to murder,
his brother to we-can't-remember-where, and his former girlfriend and
teammate Kitty to they-never-told-us-but-she-came-back-afterward.

Piotr injected the cure, transformed into his organic steel form, and
passed away. This apparently released the cure into the air, so within
just a few days of Marvel Time the Legacy Virus was cured, Hallelujah!
This all happened in Uncanny #390. If nothing else good came of the
issue, at least Colossus can no longer be poorly written (as long as
Sinister remains far from his DNA, that is), and the plot device has
been resolved and buried.

--- What is the Soulsword? Who has Magik's Soulsword now?

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 other-dimensional 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, it was revealed that Margali had placed her
mind in Amanda's body, and placed Amanda in her body. She then took
Nightcrawler to Limbo, where she proceeded to defeat Belasco and knock
the sword away from him. Margali and Amanda were restored to their
proper bodies, and Amanda decided that she would became the mistress of
Limbo. At the end of that issue, the Soulsword, wielded by a silver-
armored hand, pushed through the dire. Readers never saw who that was,
so much energy was expended discussing whether Illyana was back.

Margali later turned up in a Claremont Fantastic Four annual that
dealt with the Hellfire Club. It's also in that FF annual that Amanda
likely made her first, uncredited appearance as Magik. In any case, in
the Black Sun and Magik mini-series, Amanda appeared in Illyana's
traditional silver armor, apparently holding the title and role of
Magik. The case seems closed.

--- 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.

--- 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. Juggernaut's
unstoppability, on the other hand, derives from the Crimson Gem of
Cyttorak. As magic, it can't be defeated by mutant powers.

*** Continued in Part 6 ***

Compilation Copyright 2000-2002 by Katharine E. Hahn
SEND ADDITIONS / CHANGES / DEAD LINKS / MOVED LINKS / UPDATES TO:
Kate the Short, [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])

--
Kate the Short * http://www.enteract.com/~katew/