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New Mutants annual #7 |
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I always find it amusing when Muslim super-women are drawn with a veil... and a standard, sexy skin-tight outfit.
Still, it's not as ridiculous here as when Dust was being drawn with a form-fitting burqa...
Posted by: Berend | October 22, 2015 4:47 PM
I enjoyed this story when reading it in real time. It actually felt tense and I thought Avalanche came across as a soldier who was trying to follow his orders (by evacuating the critically wounded Crimson Commando). I think it's the only story I've ever read with him in it where he came across with any kind of personality.
I think it was an interesting break-up of Freedom Force; very not paint by the numbers, which it could have been, being a back-up feature in a few annuals.
The one thing I think that is a real strike against the story is that three artists drew all three parts. The stories were short (page count wise)...one artist wasn't able to draw the full story??
Posted by: Bill | October 22, 2015 5:46 PM
The reason why Nicieza split up the team this way was because Nicieza and Larsen had a proposal for X-Factor that involved Pyro and a cyborg Commando as members:
http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2009/06/11/comic-book-legends-revealed-211/3/
Commando's injuries were a setup for him becoming a cyborg.
Note that Arabian's Knights wives and children are supposedly being held hostage despite that they seemingly died in Marvel Comics Presents 47.
Aminedi is later reported to have died of the Legacy Virus in X-Men Annual 2- I don't know if you want to count that as a second appearance and list him as a character appearing or not.
Posted by: Michael | October 22, 2015 10:48 PM
Freedom Force became much more interesting after Claremont's characterization work with them during Fall of the Mutants and the Muir island mission in Uncanny #255. Even little bits like Pyro being an author or Super Sabre being a WWII vet having trouble relating to his son's experiences in Vietnam go a surprisingly long way to making the characters more endearing.
There's also some added interest in that their members were more expendable than the X-men. I imagine you talk to a lot fewer editors when you want to kill off Super Sabre than when you want to kill off, say, Rogue.
Presumably Pyro and Blob got released back to American custody after the end of Desert Storm because I believe the next time they show up is as part of Toad's Brotherhood in X-Force. Interestingly, they kind of acknowledged Avalanche's rift with them from this story as he wasn't part of that group.
Commando, rebuilt as a cyborg, and Avalanche continued as government agents with a couple of appearances in X-Factor before going into character limbo. Avalanche would eventually be folded back into being a mutant super-villain, but I don't think Commando has appeared since X-Factor.
As a final bit of interesting trivia: Hardee's (Carl Jr's for all of you on the Left Coast) gave out X-men toys at one point in the 90s and the villains included Blob and Avalanche as well as the much more obscure Commando (cyborg version) and Phantasia.
Here's what they looked like.
Posted by: Red Comet | October 23, 2015 12:19 AM
Red Comet, it was explained that Toad bartered with an Iraqi general for Blob's and Toad's freedom in X-Men Annual 2. That same story addressed the rift between Avalanche and Blob and Toad.
Posted by: Michael | October 23, 2015 7:41 AM
Regarding listing Aminedi, if he's just mentioned as having died in a future issue i wouldn't tag him in that issue, so it wouldn't be worth tagging him here either. But thanks for noting what eventually happens to him.
Posted by: fnord12 | October 23, 2015 7:52 AM
"The maiming of Crimson Dynamo that causes him to come back as a cyborg."
Just like Crimson Commando in this story! :D
Posted by: Max_Spider | October 23, 2015 7:35 PM
Thanks Max_Spider.
Posted by: fnord12 | October 24, 2015 11:46 AM
Crimson Commando has appeared after that, Red Comet. He was one of the people hit by the decimation wave back in the 2000's and he reappeared in Uncanny #539 back when they were still trying to make Jean Grey prototype #356..,i mean Hope Summers a "thing" (this was during her "Messiah Creator's pet" phase when it was thought she could restore mutant powers. The Commando began to grow into his natural age, and with the cyberneyic implants it was NOT a pretty picture. He wanted Hope to restore him...by force if need be. Anyway Wolverine and Hope kill him, the end.)
Avalanche actually stopped being a villain during the "Utopia" era of the X-books. Unfortunely he was (relatively) killed of recently in Uncanny Avengers after a brief mind-controlled return to villany.
Michael, if Pyro and Crimson Commando were suppose to be on the same team, how does it make sense splitting them up like this at the end of this story?
And Fnord12, no reference to New Mutants 89?
Posted by: Jon Dubya | October 28, 2015 11:27 AM
Give me a hint, Jon. What's the reference to NM #89?
Posted by: fnord12 | October 28, 2015 1:06 PM
I think Jon means Silver Sabre was almost beheaded in New Mutants 89 and he really was beheaded in this story.
Posted by: Michael | October 31, 2015 12:01 PM
Ah, thanks. Well, he was almost beheaded in his first appearance, too, so i don't think it was a reference to NM #89 specifically. I guess if he had said "not again!" or if someone said "it finally happened!" or something, i would have counted it.
Posted by: fnord12 | October 31, 2015 12:20 PM
It's Sabre's own fault really. If you've already been nearly beheaded at least twice, surely you start putting some Kevlar round your neck or something. Was he there going "well I'm sure the exact same thing won't happen a third time."
Posted by: Jonathan | November 2, 2015 8:16 AM
Glad to know these stories existed. I remember reading in Muir Island Saga that Freedom Force was defunct and Mystique was there on the island. But when I saw Blob and Pyro in the X-Force with no explanation it was a little strange.
Posted by: Erik Beck | December 4, 2015 11:41 AM
The first chapter is penciled by Kirk Jarvinen...couldn't place the style, at first.
I wish Guang Yap was that good.
Posted by: Vin the Comics Guy | February 21, 2016 12:17 AM
Thanks Vin. I got the credits for that part mixed up with the main story. Fixed it.
Posted by: fnord12 | February 21, 2016 10:47 AM