Nothing makes a comic fan feel his/her age more than seeing the characters you kept your virginity to getting yet another new costume or dramatic redesign. You know you’ve hit the old fogey mark when your favorite costume of years gone by has been labeled "classic." Now might be a good time for you old farts to go empty that colostomy bag since this week I’ll be focusing on some of those new-fangled costumes the kids go ga-ga for these days.
Last week’s poll recap: With 46%, you chose Cannonbal’s modern costume for the version of the character you want Hasbro to make most. His first X-Men costume came in second with 17%. On a side note, many of you voting for other options commented that you’d actually prefer Sam’s original New Mutants costume, but only if it were as part of a New Mutants box set.
Since starting this column, I’ve been more than a little surprised at how the modern option seems to win in every poll. While the classic crowd is more vocal, the modern mongers appear to be the silent majority. With that in mind, let’s shift gears a little this week….
Make My Marvel! – Modern Times
Whether you like them or not, “redo”s of characters already made in Marvel Legends have been a fixture of the line. With all the love you guys and gals (all two of you, call me!) have been showing for the modern costume options in the MMM! polls, I thought this would be a good time to show Hasbro what characters you’d like re-done in their modern looks.
Nightcrawler
It’s a streamlined look with the classic throwback stylings. We’re already set to get modern Marvel Girl in ML and with the popularity of other modern Uncanny team members such as Warpath, Polaris & Havok making their odds good, it’s past time we got the modern version of one of the X-Men’s more popular A-listers.
Iron Man (Extremis)
Whichever side you fall on in the Iron Man savior/tyrant argument, one thing can be agreed upon by all: the new armor is cool. IM’s been wearing this particular look for the better part of two years now, which makes it surprising that this version of the ML heavy hitter hasn’t shown up yet in the Legends line. Some might say this one’s a given someday, but with the upcoming Iron Man movie and IM’s habit of drastic armor changes every few years, the Extremis look just might get lost in the shuffle.
Nova (Annihilation)
According to the latest HML4 rumor list http://www.thefwoosh.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=40765 via cooltoyreview.com (and remember kids, it is still a rumor) Nova may find his way into ML soon. The same source also claimed that Nova may have already been bumped from the rumored line-up. Either way, there’s still time to let Hasbro know that you want the modern version of this character from his starring role in the unbelievably underrated Annihilation crossover.
Spider-man (black)
This is for everyone else who had high hopes for a decent classic, black-costumed Spidey from the upcoming 6” Spider-man line and who all recently had their hopes crushed. The previous SMC symbiote Spider-man is a gangly beast and it really wouldn’t take much to do this version of the wall-crawler justice. There are several existing ML bodies that could fill the bill with a simple re-paint and an all-new head with sculpted eye details.
Venom
Venom is dead. Long live Venom! Following the death of Eddie Brock, the symbiote bounced around from host to host for a bit before bonding with classic Spidey-villain Scorpion. Mac Gargan’s Venom can currently be seen in the Thunderbolts as one of the Initiative’s work release villains. Of course, I don’t think too many people would complain if we could finally just get a nice, decently-articulated, non-action feature Venom in his classic appearance instead.
Beast (Astonishing)
With ML3’s Cyclops, we’ll have the rest of the Astonishing X-Men team. Despite the almost universal dislike of “Cat Beast”, a modern version of the character in his current costume is still high on a lot of completists’ wishlists.
Baron Zemo (Thunderbolts)
What good is team of villainous Thunderbolts without their leader? While the first one was great for the classic crowd, Helmut’s modern, streamlined costume would please a plethora modern age-ers.
Luke Cage
Apparently now the leader of the New Avengers, Luke Cage has long since hung up his man-tiara and ditched his classic blue & gold duds. Cage prefers casual civilian attire these days, usually opting for jeans with a t-shirt or jacket with optional cap and sunglasses. It’s not very toyetic, but it’s better than his classic disco nightmare.
Vision 2.0
Following a really crappy death in Disassembled, Vision’s programming was merged with Iron Lad’s 30th century armor to create Young Avengers’ Vision 2.0. While a simple repaint of the YA boxset Iron Lad would have done in the past, an all-new sculpt would be necessary to capture the angst-y version of Marvel’s best-known android.
Broken Record time: Head on over to the Make My Marvel! poll thread in the Negative Zone forum and cast your vote for the modern character incarnation you want most. There you can leave feedback and make suggestions for future MMMs!