Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities X-Force: Shatterstar (#3 out 4/27 )

For Al.

Oh great, now I've got to write something about it.

In brief, it's certainly not as good as LSH#3, but it's not nearly as bad as I'd expect a comic plotted be Rob Liefeld to be. I'll write a better review later.

I always liked Shatterstar when I was young as Longshot's future son...and later when I was a bit older...as a human mutant with a mysterious past.

Damn that John Francis Moore and Adam Polina X-Force was awesome...only X title I collected in the 90s I think. The Moore/Cheung run was good as well.

Why isn't JFMoore writing more comics???

Excellent question.

And Al-- no pressure.

Funny thing was that as soon as I saw the title of this thread, I thought "Oh, I wonder what Arachne has to say"...

How I am like Rob Liefeld:


I threw out many of the old comics I used to write & draw myself when I was a wee lad, but I kept some of the later stuff (this would have been from the early 80s, ending by about 1983 or 1984 at the latest).

Anyhoo, A while back I was flipping through some of that old stuff I did, having a ball, when I realized Rob Liefeld stole not one but TWO characters from me!!

In an old ongoing Superhero/SciFi series I used to draw called THE HUNTED, there was a crew of 9 teenaged aliens from different planets-- sound familiar? and one of them was a cat-chick named FERAL!

The Hunted had a team of 5 superhero-allies on one of the planets they liberated, and one of those 5 heroes was named SHATTERSTAR! She was a hot chick, by the way. Not a dude who looked like a hot chick.

So, does Rob Liefeld owe me money?

OUCH!

Maybe they can get the drummer from STRYPER to play Shatty in the movie... HE was a hot "chick" too!

I'll start with an analysis of Shatterstar's character as written by Fabian Nicieza, instead of Spoiler Space, she says as if anyone cares about getting spoiled for this comic.

The first thing you notice about Shatterstar, is that he's arrogant. There's no other word for it. Shatterstar is sure, to the bottom of his heart (wherever that may be), that he's something special. The next thing you notice is that he's obsessed with control over himself. All his training and fighting is his way of proving he's in control. Anything that reduces his control, from love to alcohol, is to be avoided at all costs. (See X-Force #26, I think.) His shock at being sexually aroused for the first time (see X-Force #43) probably had more to do with his body suddenly being out of his control, than it did about strange emotions. In general Shatterstar is a pretty quiet guy, but on the rare occasions that he's truly comfortable he proves to have quite a sense of humour and a sense of theatrics. (see 2 part Arcade story) 'Star's favourite stunt seem's to be running himself through with his own sword. (He's done it twice.) Despite his reluctance to have anything to do with Earth folk, he is slowly adapting to his surroundings.

Now, on to X-Force: Shatterstar #1. I've never reviewed a comic before, so forgive me if this gets long winded or just doesn't make any sense.

The art on this issues isn't bad. While Mychaels art does show some of the exaggerated musculature that Liefeld is famed for, it's not as pronounced and can be ignored for pages at a time. His skill with faces needs improvement, but he's already drawing very realistic faces. I'm not sure this is appropriate for a character like Shatterstar, who's supposed look perfect, but it would look pretty good in a Wolverine book. The writing is wordy and humourless which doesn't really suit the character. That said, Shatterstar's monologue sounds like his voice. Overall, there aren't any major disasters in this book, but there's nothing that really makes it stand out either. This mini takes place as a prequel to the just completed X-Force mini, so we know pretty much how it's going to end.

The story opens with Shatterstar contemplating why he's been fighting in a dark and gritty Madripoor arena. He feels that it's honourless, but he's been at it for two months. With great restraint, he lets his current opponent live. It doesn't say if this has always been the case.

After the fight, he goes to a bar to collect his pay, only to find out that his employers want him to throw the next fight. If he doesn't agree, he won't get paid the full amount. It doesn't take long for 'Star to show the man, in rather painful terms, why this would be a bad idea. Afterwards a women (disguised by a robe, but it's obvious who she is, if not how she got into that robe) who's been following him around tells him why he's going to kill another man who's supposedly going to kill thousands. He tries to ignore her. One interesting point in this scene is that Shatterstar claims he's not a mutant. I'm sure he's said before that he was one.

Shatterstar returns home, wherever that is, to meditate using techniques evolved in the future and taught to him by a "friend, valued more than life itself." That seems like a strange description for Cable. Maybe he's referring to someone else. We get some brief references to 'Star's past. He fought in coliseums where a child once asked if he "was strong enough to shatter the very stars." He mentions a very bloody battle in someplace called Tazafar. His opponents look like high tech vikings. Then we get a bit about X-Force. There's no mention of Rictor for some reason.

The next thing you know, Shatterstar gets attacked by ninjas in red.(Don't you just hate it when that happens?) They can't seem to decide if they're trying to kill him or warn him off. At any rate, when they realize they're not going to beat him, the leader reveals himself to be the man Mystery Lady wanted dead. He's says he has the means (a dagger) to stop an unspeakable evil and that that's why she wanted him dead. He give's the mystical dagger to Shatterstar to protect. Shatterstar doesn't trust the guy, but he takes it anyway.

We then cut to a mysterious room full of tv screens where Mystery Lady, is watching a replay of Shatterstar's conversation with the ninjas. Povided by a traitor in their ranks. The lady is finally revealed to be Spiral, and she predicts massive death if the Skornn comes back. Or something like that. Strangely, the ninja refers to Spiral as "liege", suggesting that there may have been a shake-up in the mojoverse.

That's a really good question. I love his run. Wier and DeFillips run on New-Xmen has a similar feel to it, but it doesn't pay enough attention to the adults.

I think the second half of Fabian Nicieza's run on X-Force was favourite, though. I hated what Loeb did after Age of Apocolypse.

BRAVO!! BRAVO!! ENCORE!

Not a chance.

I have to agree about John Moore... His run, both with Adam Pollina and Jim Cheung, is the only part of my X-Force run besides what eventually became X-Statix that I still consider part of my collection proper. I loved Greg Capullo's art, but have to question his tastes in coworkers... Liefeld? McFarlane (SPAWN)?? fuggedaboudit! :rolleyes:

Liefeld actually only worked on X-Force for about eight issues. By the time Greg Capullo took over the art Liefeld was long gone.

Huh... he wasn't still writing? My bad. It was Fabian by then, right?

Yep. The stories were pretty good by that time, too.

You'll write a better review?! I thought that was about the best review a book like this could expect!
The worst part is that I loved Shatterstar years ago but I can't bring myself to read a book that involves Rob Liefeld. I *really* tried to like X-Force #1, but I loathed it! So, no, he doesn't get another chance.

Eh. I can forgive Fabe for "Reignfire" after JFM worked so hard to resolve it during his run... but I never liked Dani as "Moonstone" in the MLF. Or am I running together my eras again?

At any rate, I don't recall any explanation or resolution for Dani's time spent with the MLF... Like it was just swept under the rug.

Kinda like Cable being revealed as a cyborg at the end of Liefeld's stint, which was later ignored in favor of him having the technoorganic virus.

:rolleyes:

Is that why there's no sign of Rictor?

I don't think he ever said it, but a lot of others did. How can a genetically-engineered alien be a mutant? The obvious answer is that the mysterious x-gene defines a mutant, not actual cellular mutation, which means that even genetically-engineered aliens can be mutants. Still, he (and Warlock, for that matter) shouldn't be a mutant.

Other than a "friend, valued more than life itself". How Rictor would know these meditation techniques is a mystery.

Is this dagger related to the sword from the X-Force mini? Or is Liefeld just that "talented" that he can be repetitive?

We then cut to a mysterious room full of tv screens where Mystery Lady, is watching a replay of Shatterstar's conversation with the ninjas. Povided by a traitor in their ranks. The lady is finally revealed to be Spiral, and she predicts massive death if the Skornn comes back. Or something like that. Strangely, the ninja refers to Spiral as "liege", suggesting that there may have been a shake-up in the mojoverse. [/QB][/QUOTE]

Hah! I was right! The dagger, the sword, and Skornn! And I picked that up without reading the issue! Woo-hoo!

Sorry, Arachne, but I just can't get into anything with Liefeld. I was a *huge* fan of X-Force in the Loeb and Moore days (especially when it featured the gorgeous artwork of Adam Pollina). I own all X-Force issues (except Counter X and, because I haven't got the trade yet, the Milligan stuff) but I only really started to like it toward the end of Nicieza's run (with a few issues here and there that I liked a lot during his run). Watching Warpath return to normal human proportions, seeing Tabitha become more than a bubble-gum chewing Madonna clone, and the lack of those *hideous* costumes they used to wear were all major pluses. I wish I could like X-Force no matter who wrote it, but I can't.

That said, you should know that Samy Merchi (who's more of a Marvel fan) also loves X-Force pretty much no matter who writes/draws it.

Dani was Moonstar in the MLF - which is, of course, her last name. We later discovered that she was working for SHIELD and was an undercover assignment to infiltrate the MLF.

For the record, it was Nicieza who put Dani in the MLF and Moore who explained why she was there (SHIELD). However, there was nothing good about the Reignfire explanation. I'm not sure a satisfactory resolution existed (no version I read, whether by Nicieza, Loeb, or Moore, sounded very interesting).

Well, I forget who did the reveal before the AoA crystal wave, but it was Loeb who had him reverted off-panel. Moore tried to make a bit of sense of it, but it was a lost cause by that point.

Nicieza was the writer before AoA. I think he said Reignfire was Sunspot after going to the future and coming back. Or something. Loeb seemed to shove it off to the side but still have Roberto with the Reignfire powers. Moore did the "second" Sunspot thing (which isn't really an accurate retelling on my part), but none of it explained what happened to Bobby and why his powers changed so drastically.

Dani was working undercover right from the start. It was revealed back in X-Force Annual #3.

Loeb paid almost no attention to what came before him. It was a real anoyance for me. They'd been hinting for years that Sunspot could go bad, but Loeb just wiped it out by haveing Cable essentially brainwash Bobby.

Oh, and Ferroboy, I've crossed path with Samy Merchi a few times in the past. Been years, though.

That's what Loeb would have you believe, IIRC, but it was a girl that, ah, got his attention in the issue.

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Is this dagger related to the sword from the X-Force mini? Or is Liefeld just that "talented" that he can be repetitive?

This is a prequel to teh X-Force mini.

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Sorry, Arachne, but I just can't get into anything with Liefeld.

Don't blame you. I wouldn't have bought X-Force if Nicieza hadn't suposedly written it. Big disapointment.

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(except Counter X and, because I haven't got the trade yet, the Milligan stuff)

You don't want the counter X stuff. It was horrible. Pete Wisdome taught Proudstar how to fly.

I was only half-joking with that. Even so, Rictor was his best friend, and would still fit the definition of "more than life" (or whatever it was) than Cable. Even Nicieza followed up with those two being best friends in one of the X-Force Annuals. In fact, he started it, IIRC.

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Sorry, Arachne, but I just can't get into anything with Liefeld.

Don't blame you. I wouldn't have bought X-Force if Nicieza hadn't suposedly written it. Big disapointment.[/b]

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That's why I read the first issue. I tend to love things Fabian writes. I saw absolutely no evidence of his writing in the first issue and promptly dropped it.

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(except Counter X and, because I haven't got the trade yet, the Milligan stuff)

You don't want the counter X stuff. It was horrible. Pete Wisdome taught Proudstar how to fly. [/b]

[/qb][/quote]

Well, yes, that was sort of the problem. James flying and Tabitha with the generic energy bolts. Sam's look was fine and I don't think his powers changed. (I have a few scattered issues of Counter X, but nothing more.)