Longshot Saves the Marvel Universe: Comic Mini-Series
At his very best (His finest X-men Days), Longshot has been a B lister of the Marvel Universe. At his worst he’s virtually nonexistent. I doubt most people even know who he is as they read this right now. I can tell you though, that he is easily one of the most fun and interesting comic characters ever created!
Everyone assumes he’s a mutant because of his X roots, but his powers are actually magical. He can alter probability in order to gain “good luck.” That’s why the cover to the first issue is so awesome. Look at him with his fingers crossed with that knowing smile on his face. It’s a purely brilliant image. His luck ability is so great that it was said in Exiles that he moves randomly when fighting and it just works out in his favor.
His other, less-known ability is psychometry. He can touch an object and read residual psychic imprints from them. He can see any object’s past and sometimes their futures. Even though he’s not particularly bright, he can figure things out with this ability. Especially since his creator, Mojo, frequently wipes his memory.
His anatomy is very alien, due to him being genetically engineered. He has three fingers and a thumb on each hand, denser but hollow bones and a second heart. This makes him more agile and gives him incredible agility. The last thing about his design, he is incredibly handsome and irresistible to women and as they show in this series, gay men. I recently watched the episodes of “30 Rock” with John Hamm and it talked about how beautiful people get treated. Longshot get treated the same way. Pretty much everything about this character makes life as carefree as possible.
On that note, I’m glad to mention that with the beginning of this series, they FINALLY give him a new costume and a new haircut. He’s had a grunge rock mullet for most of his career. It’s good to see that that’s over, even though his new haircut is just as bizarre.
He has three weaknesses. If he pushes his luck powers too far, they will stop working. Second, his intentions with using them have to be pure. If he uses them selfishly, he will get a back luck effect. Lastly, every time he uses his good luck, it takes luck away from someone around him, causing an equal and opposing reaction. Probability has to be in balance, so bending it in one place causes it to bend in other.
That last weakness is what causes the events of this series. A cosmic god on par with Galactus, called the In-Betweener takes notice of his alteration of the balance and arrives to kill him. Because his luck is so ridiculous, an all-powerful cosmic cube falls into his hands just when he needs it. Cosmic reality altering energies mix with his probability changing powers and completely rewrite the universe.
The worst part of this new reality is that the In-Betweener has been split into two separate entities. One is the embodiment of chaos and the other is the embodiment of order. This world is like the Age of Apocalypse, but with magic based powers taking the place of mutants. The In-Betweener’s order side is the head of a magic hunting incarnation of S.H.I.E.L.D. so things get pretty intense. Unfortunately for everyone, having such a powerful cosmic entity, broken in half is severely damaging to the fabric of spacetime and Longshot has to find the Cosmic Cube and repair what he has broken before everything unravels.
Of course spacetime damage due to tampering is a very common plot device in comics, but its fun here. Seeing chaos and order fight each other on even footing for control is pretty awesome. Also it is quite fun to see how self-aware this title is. It’s almost like reading Deadpool comics in the way it pokes fun at itself. There is humor and action galore here, even though the story could be a little more original. It was still fun to see a redesigned Longshot have the spotlight for a change though. I prefer his tenure with the Exiles most of all, but this was great to see.
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Jonathan Thomas Jones is a speculative fiction author and founder of geekhavenreviews.com. He has been passionate about all things geek for his entire life. See more about him at jonathanthomasjones.com and follow him on twitter @jtgloryjones.
