Jab’s Builds! (Whomp 'Em! Plumbers Don't Wear Ties! ToeJam & Earl!)

[Batgirl III]

I thought Robin Wright was Antiope?

D’oh! You’re right... At least in this continuity. They must have retcon’d it. Superboy Prime punched reality and changed the casting.

I’m never wrong, I’m just sometimes in the wrong time line.

[Jabroniville]

PHALANX (Cord Mather)
Created By: Chuck Dixon & John Buscema
First Appearance: Punisher War Zone Annual #1 (1993)
Role: Blood Knight
PL 8 (89)
STRENGTH 2 STAMINA 3 AGILITY 2
FIGHTING 8 DEXTERITY 4
INTELLIGENCE 4 AWARENESS 1 PRESENCE 2

Skills:
Insight 2 (+3)
Intimidation 3 (+5)
Perception 4 (+5)
Technology 4 (+8)
Vehicles 1 (+5)

Advantages:
Equipment 4 (Guns +6- Multiattack), Ranged Attack 4

Powers:
"Phalanx Armor" (Flaws: Removable) [12]
Protection 4 (4)
"Metal Fists" Strength-Damage +1 (1)
Immunity 10 (Ballistics, Falling Damage) (10)
-- (15 points)

Offense:
Unarmed +8 (+2 Damage, DC 17)
Metal Fists +8 (+3 Damage, DC 18)
Guns +8 (+6 Ranged Damage, DC 21)
Initiative +2

Defenses:
Dodge +8 (DC 18), Parry +8 (DC 18), Toughness +3 (+7 Armor), Fortitude +4, Will +4

Complications:
Reputation (Mobster-Killer)- Phalanx debuted by killing several mobsters- he's now a wanted man.

Total: Abilities: 52 / Skills: 14--7 / Advantages: 8 / Powers: 12 / Defenses: 10 (89)

1993 saw the production of a series of Annuals in the Marvel Universe, each of which featured a brand-new character, and was packaged with a trading card featuring that character. In almost every case, these characters were horrible one-offs and almost none of them ever reappeared. Most are extremely dated to their early-1990s point of creation.

-The Punisher actually had TWO Annuals in 1993, since it was... well, 1993. And yes, this guy shares the name with The Phalanx, a major alien race that made their big X-Men debut THE YEAR AFTER THIS, in a pretty odd bit of coincidence. As you might imagine, that pretty much killed any chance this character could have had in succeeding.

-Cord Mather was an inventor who created his suit for peacekeeping purposes- however, it turned out that his financial backers were mobsters, who were planning to auction off the suit to other criminals. When he objected, the main mobster threatened his family... then let him demonstrate the suit's powers himself. So as you might imagine, Mather SHOT THE GUY, at which point The Punisher joined the festivities, and the two mowed down every crook in the room. Frank demanded the armor for his own purposes, even SHOOTING Mather to knock him down, but Mather pointed out it was custom-fit for his body anyways. Castle agreed to let Mather keep the armor, but pointed out that guns would be trained on him wherever he went. So Mather decided to keep his family distant from him by phoning his wife, and telling her that he was LEAVING HER for another woman!

-The character had one more appearance, in a pair of Punisher issues, teaming up with another guy named Carlos Cruz to take out two mobster families. However, one mobster had hired BULLSEYE to protect them, and Bullseye threw a stiletto blade through Phalanx's visor and into his eye. A grenade was thrown, and Mather sacrificed himself to keep his partner alive, taking the full brunt of the explosion himself.

-The Phalanx armor was given to Bullseye to use against the Punisher, but he was then knocked into the water by a guy named Stone Cold, using a .50 cal magnum. The armor was never seen again, and Stone Cold was immediately blown away but Shotgun, who was hired by Nick Fury to protect Castle. Most of these guys were created by the same man- Chuck Dixon- who would later go on to much more fame on the Nightwing solo book, and other Bat-stuff at DC Comics. Dixon seemed to have his own little self-contained universe going with the Punisher books, with all three of them (yes, THREE Punisher books. It was 1993 through 1995, okay?) featuring these dudes.

-The Phalanx Armor is pretty sweet if you're a Punisher ally and you only fight people with guns, but it's just a "Boosts Toughness" kind of deal, rendering you impervious to bullets and falling damage. A single grenade killed the man inside, so there's limits to its toughness. Mather himself is pretty smart and capable, at least, but nowhere near a fully-experience hero. A PL 10 like Bullseye one-shotted him, for example.

[Jabroniville]

Genis fell victim to Peter David's penchant to write characters he doesn't like, understand, or care about.

I really dug how Busiek used Captain Marvel in Avengers Forever, but when Peter David took over the character in his solo book, it became a Rick and Marlo Jones book (where Marlo inexplicable owns a comic shop, so David could make comic shop jokes) guest-starring Genis. When David finally tried to give Genis a personality, that personality was "insane because of cosmic awareness." Dull before, dull after. David really had no handle on the character or any real interest in creating something worth reading about.

It was one of the books that taught me that Peter David is not a writer I want to give money to.

oh, interesting. I've only read a few of those books, and I can definitely see that David just transferred some Hulk cast members to the fold. I didn't realized he'd done such a weird job with Genis himself.

[Batgirl III]

1993 was the year Superman died and Venom got his own series. Just keep that in mind.

‘Nuff said.

[Jabroniville]

And that's it for the "1993 Annual" guys! A set I only really decided to do because I was finally given a link to the complete list of them! Otherwise I'd just been stumbling into the various ones who actually showed up in The List (Face Thief, Night Terror, Hitmaker). It was a fun set, but easily the most difficult time I've had with any Marvel characters- usually it's only *DC* characters who are this difficult to research!

Next up:
* Wolverine Builds (some of them have gone SEVEN YEARS since I've posted them! It's time to lay them all out!)
* Fighter's History Builds (just a few days, really- it's a pretty simple game)
* Godzilla Builds (because it was requested)

[BriarThrone]

I don’t and never will understand the idea that people cannot enjoy a character who isn’t the same ethnicity or gender as themselves.

Yup. This has been my confusion as well. I think I understand the idea that a genuine minority person wants representation (by "genuine minority," I'm excepting women) and thus would *like* minority characters. But I fail to see how comics can't be enjoyed without them.

But what do I know? I'm a cis-white-hetero-male; my opinion means nothing.

The argument is "You don't know what it's like to not be represented! CHECK YOUR PRIVILEGE!" Once you dig into this a bit, you see that the people making this argument want to see characters who have traits similar to their own traits, and that this is essential to enjoying media.

The conclusion is that comic books, TV, and movies are coded by race, sexuality, gender, etc, and that you should only consume media with characters that match your race, sexuality, gender, etc exactly.

Only problem is, this assumes that once race, sexuality, gender, etc are addressed, the audience will immediately shift. You can exclude the cis-het-white-male demographic, and that's okay, because the black-Hispanic-gay-moosekin demographic will immediately pick up the slack. This has not proven to be the case. The demographic most likely to buy any kind of comic book is cis-het-white-male, both because of the size of that demographic in the traditional distribution area and because comics are more compatible with that group's culture. You can fairly easily gain PR points with other demographics, but that is less likely to translate them into customers, because at the end of the day, they are less likely to want to trade $3-6 for a small picturebook. The audiences that Marvel, IDW, and to an extent also DC are courting are (statistically) not as interested as the audience they're alienating.

[M4C8]

I don’t and never will understand the idea that people cannot enjoy a character who isn’t the same ethnicity or gender as themselves.

I've posted that sentiment before on other boards and been told that I couldn't possibly understand because I'm not a minority so 'see myself' in the media all the time.

So, on the one hand you have long term fans such as myself, I've been an avid fan of Marvel comics since childhood, I have never ever used race or gender as an indicator as to whether I pick up a title or not and I have boxes full of comics featuring 'minority' characters.

Then you have the fabled 'new readers' that have been pandered to and are quite open about picking up titles based on the character's race, gender, sexuality.

And yet I'm somehow I'm still the one who's in the wrong.

I've always believed that 'true fans' don't read comics based on such things as gender or race but I could never really point to anything tangible to prove that opinion, however after watching literally hundreds of reaction videos on YouTube to MCU movie trailers I've come to the conclusion that I was correct all along. The videos feature thousands of fans, some times a single fan other times whole groups, there are a surprisingly high number of reactors who are black, Asian and female and you know what I noticed, not one was complained about 'yet another movie starring a white male character' nobody seemed to have any trouble 'identifying' with the characters, they were all just excited to see the characters they love on the screen.

That's all I really have to say on the matter so I'll shut up before Jab sends me to the naughty step.

[Batgirl III]

I am a woman and I basically broke the Internet (or at least the old Ronin Army forum) because I said that I didn’t mind women in comics wearing sexy costumes.

My list of personal most favorite comic book heroes is basically Batgirl (Barbara Gordon), the Batman (Bruce Wayne), Batgirl (Cassandra Cain), Spider-Man (Peter Parker), Captain Marvel (Billy Batson) and Black Panther (T’Challa)... If any SJWs think I shouldn’t be allowed to like the Batman because he’s a cishet white man, they can take a long walk off a short Gotham pier (and get eaten by Killer Croc).

[HalloweenJack]

I am a woman and I basically broke the Internet (or at least the old Ronin Army forum) because I said that I didn’t mind women in comics wearing sexy costumes.

DEAR GOD! How do you sleep at night?


...wow that came off as way creepier than I intended

[MacynSnow]

I am a woman and I basically broke the Internet (or at least the old Ronin Army forum) because I said that I didn’t mind women in comics wearing sexy costumes.

DEAR GOD! How do you sleep at night?


...wow that came off as way creepier than I intended

*Sigh*smack's jack lightly upside the head......

At least your being honest with everyone BG.Unfortunately, a rather large portion of the SJW crowd don't care if their right or wrong,just that their opinions are the only ones listened and followed.Not ALL of them have this atitude,but enough do that causes them to have an increadibly bad Rep amongst fans of certain genres......

[HalloweenJack]

I am a woman and I basically broke the Internet (or at least the old Ronin Army forum) because I said that I didn’t mind women in comics wearing sexy costumes.

DEAR GOD! How do you sleep at night?


...wow that came off as way creepier than I intended

*Sigh*smack's jack lightly upside the head......

At least your being honest with everyone BG.Unfortunately, a rather large portion of the SJW crowd don't care if their right or wrong,just that their opinions are the only ones listened and followed.Not ALL of them have this atitude,but enough do that causes them to have an increadibly bad Rep amongst fans of certain genres......

ow.

[Batgirl III]

DEAR GOD! How do you sleep at night?

I don’t.

I spend my nights in a never ending crusade against criminals, a cowardly and superstitious lot...

Duh.

[HalloweenJack]

ah. I am the stupid.

[Jabroniville]

WOLVERINE:
Wolverine- The Most Popular X-Man Ever:
-Hard to believe Wolverine started out as the least-popular character of the early Giant-Size-era X-Men. Initially imagined as a smart-assed, egotistical teenager, he debuted in an Incredible Hulk issue, acting as the Canadian government's own personal superhuman, brawling with the Hulk and Wendigo. Despite being drastically outpowered, he did well enough. He was the brainchild of Roy Thomas, who wanted a small, scrappy Canadian in a Hulk issue, and had John Romita draw up the character for Len Wein to write. Herb Trimpe, the artist of the issues, drew the first "official" Wolverine drawings, but has denied his part in the creative process.

-Envisioned as kind of a one-off, he was curiously brought into 1975's Giant-Size X-Men #1, one of the only characters not invented for that issue. Likely because the writer, Len Wein, had JUST worked on him, and they were working on an "International" team of mutants. It's quite funny, though- most one-off characters don't suddenly get into the starring role in another book so quickly. In a funny accident, Gil Kane accidentally made Wolverine's mask far too large on the cover he drew for the issue, and Dave Cockrum (the new penciller) liked it so much that he just kept it. It's hard to imagine the older style of the character being that popular.

-Wolverine's introduction into the X-Men was pretty funny, though- he isn't recruited as a solitary character (Nightcrawler was on the run; Storm was being worshipped as a Goddess; Colossus was on his family farm), but in a group of his bosses. Professor Xavier gives him a bunch of reasons to join his X-Men, and Logan more or less shrugs and goes "why not?", royally pissing off his bosses in the Canadian government by quitting on the spot. A very characterful moment- a bit more rebellious than we'd later expect from him.

Wolverine- The Least-Popular X-Man:
-Wolverine would slowly get more development- early on, he was impetuous and kind of annoying, flirting with Jean Grey (who was in a relationship with Cyclops), mouthing off, and smirking a whole bunch. New writer Chris Claremont had taken over, and with John "Thunderbird" Proudstar dead, the soon-to-be-named Logan was the odd man out, getting less to do than the others. Claremont & Cockrum (who based Logan somewhat on Timber Wolf character-wise and visually- he was a grump with pointy hair) had suggested dropping the character from the series, but Cockrum's successor, John Byrne, championed the character, being Canadian himself, and got his way. He would even eventually drop the trademark yellow & blue costume (which was more inspired by the University of Michigan's "Wolverines" colors) for a brown & tan look, figuring that it was goofy that a stealth-themed character would be wearing the most visible costume on the team. He briefly wore Fang's Imperial Guard uniform when that character was killed, but Byrne dropped it, as it was hard for him to draw.

-A LOT of Wolverine was up in the air, however. Right before Jean is turned into The Phoenix, a year or so into the run, it's finally revealed that his claws are REAL, not just things on his gloves. When Cyclops is astonished, Logan just says "You never asked"- a typically-flippant remark from the guy who was mostly known for calling Jean a "frail". We never really learn what ACTUALLY makes him a Mutant for a while, I believe- he eventually develops Enhanced Senses and a Healing Factor as powers.

Wolverine Gets Popular:
-The well-recognized "Game Changer" of Wolverine's popularity was when the team had been badly beaten and embarrassed, held captive by the Hellfire Club. Wolverine had been thrown into the basement of the Club by the density-altering Harry Leland, and was thought dead, while the rest of the team were bound and helpless. But then, in an AMAZING piece of business from John Byrne & Terry Austin, he rises from the waters beneath the HQ, costume torn up and looking pissed off as all hell, declaring that "now it's MY turn!". Logan single-handedly fights through the HQ, savagely mauls a trio of Hellfire Club goons who come to see him, and is believed to have EXECUTED Harry Leland in their rematch (Cyke asks what happened to Leland, and Logan goes "Don't ask."). In short, Logan was now AWESOME, engaging in some bad-ass stuff that you just didn't SEE from most comic book superheroes!

-And yeah, you could feel the shift happened, as the creative team slowly "got" the character. He shifted into more of a "Desperado/Free Rider" type, which was a LOT cooler than being a smirking punk kid. His rebellion was less immature, and more "I'm my own man". And he was SAVAGE- when every other hero was talking about how life was sacred, and pulling their punches, and rescuing innocents, here was this BAD-ASS just moving down bad guys if he had a chance, occasionally getting so angry he'd nearly kill his own teammates! Now THIS was something different! In an era before The Punisher, Logan was one of the only heroes I can think of who actually fought to kill- though only sparingly, and when he was either enraged, or there was no other way.

-By 1982, Wolverine was so popular he even got a LIMITED SERIES, where Claremont ramped up something else he'd been adding- his love of Mariko Yoshida, and a Japanophile bent that was then very new and VERY unique for comics. Before that, most characters from Japan were wearing rising suns on their chests and ranting about Hiroshima; here, we got the full breadth of the culture- reserved, shy women. Samurai. Ninjas. Claremont & Frank Miller's work in the decade (and on the Wolverine four-issue Limited Series) completely lionized Nerd Culture in thinking that "Japan Was Awesome", changing comics forever.

Wolverine Gains Dimensions:
-Just being a tough, rebellious kill-happy superhero would have been enough to make Wolverine popular, especially in the 1980s, but an ICON? No- you need something more. And then we got it- despite his gruff exterior and free-wheeler lifestyle, Logan had a soft spot for numerous people. He was a great drinking buddy with Nightcrawler. He respected Colossus, but though of him as a "kid" and would try to steer him right. He REALLY respected Storm. He even had a Tortured Romance with Jean Grey, who loved Scott instead of him, breaking his heart and giving him some pathos. But with Kitty Pryde, we saw his softer side. Where you'd think he wouldn't be able to stand an over-eager little kid, he instead became protective and almost a father-figure, getting a soft spot for the "Kitten". In a Wolverine and Kitty Pryde Limited Series, the two saved each other's lives, and gained a new relationship as she slowly became his "Junior Partner". This would humanize Logan, much as Robin would humanize Batman in THAT book, and give a new depth to the character. The contrast of the broad, grumpy Logan with a tiny, svelte teenager would be pretty fascinating, though the repetition of this schtick over the years would lead to some... uncomfortable questions.

-And of course you can't mention Wolverine without mentioning THE MYSTERY!!! Yes, his origin was famously shrouded in mystery for decades- we didn't even know his FULL NAME. We didn't know how old he was, where he came from, how he got his metal claws (said to be in "Bionic Housings", ie. he probably wasn't born with them), and more. And the whole "Mystery" thing became a huge aspect of the character, as Logan himself didn't know his own past. And the bits and pieces we'd figure out over the years only made fans want to see it EVEN MORE.

-A big part of Wolverine's appeal also came from the "Indiana Jones" factor- he took a LOT of ass-kickings, and could SELL the damage, given that his power was to eventually recover from it. Claremont even added a bunch of "he's aging" stuff to the character, as he'd reflect on the aging process, and how he wasn't healing as quickly any longer. He now acted more of a grizzled veteran than a smirking youngster.

Wolverine Gets His Own Book, aka "The Logan Sensation":
-November 1988 finally saw Logan become the first X-Man with his on ongoing series- thirteen years after his debut. Jesus- a couple years later and guys would get their own solo book MONTHS after their debut in another book! The Wolverine book was grittier than the X-Men one, often going around the world and doing more "regular guy" stuff like Spycraft, fighting personalized assassins, etc., instead of Costumed Mega-Villains. By this point, Iron Fist baddie Sabretooth would be morphed into a Logan-specific villain, and they'd gain this huge backstory. We'd learn more about his past- his old loves, his old jobs, and more.

-By the early '90s, Wolverine was simply the biggest name in comics. He was EVERYWHERE- Wizard Magazine featured him on the cover more than any other character. Copycats sprouted up like wildfire in every company imaginable- the Silver Slasher was the first (the Legion of Super-Assassins were pastiches of the X-Men the same way the Imperial Guard were pastiches of the Legion of Super-Heroes), but we'd soon gain craploads of shameless attempts at cashing in, especially once a band of '90s artists would join forces and revolutionize comics (and later form Image). Every superteam you can think of had a gruff, angry, claw-wielding psychopath who didn't take orders well, and was very animalistic. The Avengers would add Deathcry. Every X-Book would have a mandatory "Claw Guy" (Feral on X-Force was among the more bald-faced attempts at creating a "New Wolverine"). Image Comics would more or less be founded on the concept of "Copy Wolverine and Cable as Much As Possible". The X-Men would later add Marrow to copy Logan's gimmick all over again (now, it was LOGAN who was left corralling the newbie, in a cute twist).

-And of course every character started picking up a "Mysterious Past" as a generic, lazy-ass way of both ripping off Logan, and making it so the writers didn't have to write actual backstories any longer. That's right- in the 1990s, LAZY BACKSTORIES BECAME A CLICHE.

Wolverine In The '90s:
-Logan would get a lot to do in the '90s. When Claremont left the X-books (his plan was to have Wolvie brainwashed by The Hand and become an assassin for a number of years), Larry Hama took over Wolverine, giving us some of his patented "grounded" stories, including stuff he liked, such as military tactics, World History and "Airplane Porn". He'd gain cover privileges on the Anthology book Marvel Comics Presents, always getting one of the four stories to himself. His enemies would now include Cyber, Shiva and Omega Red, and Kitty Pryde would be replaced as "Teen Sidekick" by the extremely-different mall rat, Jubilee. He'd be the most important character on the X-Men Animated Series, which would become very popular (though not really beloved in retrospect, it DID give us a very iconic "Wolverine Voice"). And in the Fatal Attractions crossover, he'd have the Adamantium ripped off of his skeleton by Magneto (!!!), savagely injuring him and leaving him a mess, and revealing that his claws had always been a part of his skeleton. It would take a considerable length of time for him to get it back, making "Bone Claws" his status quo for years, as well as an odd bit where he was more monstrous, thanks to artists drawing him as a noseless animal when Cable's son tried to re-bond Adamantium to him.

(To Be Continued... my essay got a little out of control)

[MacynSnow]

I thought some of Wolvies Enemies were kindof....tacked on after his Limited got so popular.