Several of you failed to appreciate the awesomeness of Death’s Head (fools, yes?), stating that he was too d-list for ML. Well, since that shelves my write-up on Squirrel Girl, this week I’ll be spotlighting a slightly less obscure Marvel character – even if he’s only notorious for one extremely unfortunate character aspect:
The poor bastard’s Canadian.
Last week’s poll recap: With 50%, you overwhelmingly chose Death’s Head’s post-transformers Marvel Universe look. Death’s Head 3.0 came in second with a surprising 27% of the vote, with many posting that they’d prefer this one for it’s army-builder potential following it’s (or something similar) appearance in Planet Hulk.
Article: http://www.thefwoosh.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=499&Itemid=1
Poll: http://www.thefwoosh.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=41096
Make My Marvel! – Northstar
Northstar was one of the founding members of Canada’s premiere (read: only) superteam, Alpha Flight. He and his sister, Aurora, filled the team’s obligatory mutant quota for the majority of the book’s run. Northstar’s powers include flight, heightened durability, and super-speed.
In the 90’s, Northstar became Marvel’s poster gay character. When it became obvious that that aspect alone wasn’t enough to carry a solo book (shock, gasp), the character faded into obscurity along with the rest of Alpha Flight – until the master of the dark arts himself, Chuck Austen, intervened.
Say what you will about the guy, one thing that Chuck Austen did do right during his run on Uncanny X-Men was the addition of Northstar to the team – at first anyway. Both the tragic circumstances of his joining the X-men and the way Northstar & Juggernaut (another new recruit) played off each other made for a fun read. Though, everything was shot to hell once the entire book turned into one big, over-dramatic and poorly-written love tetrahedron.
As if the indignity of being written by one the industry’s most reviled writers wasn’t enough, Northstar was then quietly dumped from all of the X-men rosters during Re-loaded without explanation. Things were only to get worse for the poor shmuck.
February of ‘05 was a very, very bad month for Northstar. In the main Marvel continuity Wolverine #25 saw the death of Northstar at the hands of a Hydra-brainwashed Wolverine during Enemy of the State. Over in X-Men: AOA #2, that universe’s Wolverine, Weapon X, also gutted that world’s Northstar. The alternate future depicted in X-Men: The End Book 2 #1 also (wait for it) saw Northstar killed – this time in an explosion, for variety’s sake I guess. That’s 3 deaths in 3 different continuities in the same month. Can you feel the bullpen love?
Later, Northstar was brought back from the dead by Hydra and brainwashed just as Wolverine had been. He was eventually incapacitated by Wolverine and SHIELD, but his deprogramming didn’t go quite as well. He eventually escaped, was reunited with his sister and is currently not evil – I think.
Ideally, Northstar would come in either a Face Offs 2-pack with Aurora, or in an Alpha Flight boxed set w/ his sister, Guardian, Puck, Shaman, & Snowbird. If Hasbro still have their doubts, they can always throw in a Wolverine due to his ties to the team. Not that the set would need it – they’re Canadian for godsakes! It’ll sell like hotcakes based on that alone. The obvious variant/exclusive would be the red-eyed, evil Northstar from Enemy of the State.
Back when ML was still under Toybiz, Jesse said that Northstar’s sexuality would have no bearing on whether or not he’d get the ML treatment. There’s no telling if Hasbro feels the same way in spite of the rumors that they’re actually big Alpha Flight fans. Causing an uproar over the sexuality of a plastic toy is one of the more ridiculous things one can conceive of, but there’s always some dingbat with too much time on his/her hands who might make a federal case out this character’s toy hanging on pegs at Wal-mart.
Which version of Northstar would you like Hasbro to make?
As with Cannonball, this is with the figure on his own as Hasbro has said that there will be no box sets/2-packs at least until ’08. So try to choose based on which individual costume you like best. Though, be sure to post a note if you’d prefer his group look as part of an Alpha Flight set.
A. Classic
B. "Nu" Alpha Flight
C. X-Men
D. Enemy of the State
E. Modern
F. Ultimate
G. Age of Apocalypse
Head over to the MakeMyMarvel thread in the Negative Zone forum to cast your vote, post comments about this article, and make suggestions for upcoming MMMs!