Art by Paul Pelletier
- Name: Longshot
- Code Names: Longshot
- First Appearance: Longshot #1 (Sept ‘85)
- Powers: Lucky, Pyschometry, Hollow Bones, Unnaturally Attractive
- Teams Affiliation: X-Men, Exiles, X-Factor Investigations
About
Where do you draw the line between dumb luck and uncanny skill? For Longshot, that line has always been blurry at best. He was never intended for the X-Men, it is doubtful he was expected to be remembered at all, but having the right creators at the right moments in their careers put Longshot in the perfect position to join the post-mutant massacre X-Men. The eternal optimist is unlike anyone in the X-Men’s line up, an outsider on a team full of them. He doesn’t show up often, but when he does it seems to be exactly what’s needed to shake up a roster. It makes you wonder, is Longshot really that great of a character or has he just gotten ridiculously lucky?
The character was so unique that he could have only been created by people who weren’t comic creators. Ann Nocenti (never really a comics fan, just someone who fell into the industry) decided she wanted to write a character that dealt with luck and tried to craft a story around a hero who could shift luck in his favor, but only if he was acting altruistically. Editor Carol Potts did the initial character design for Longshot, in collaboration with Nocenti he gave Longshot the four fingered hands and the star glow over his eye. The biggest challenge was finding an artist who wanted to draw the inaugural mini-series. Nocenti was known for being very high-concept and the script bleed her ideas. Every artist Potts had approached declined the job so they took a gamble on 19 year old Art Adams who had never drawn a full comic, much less a mini -series. Adams added the character’s trademark mullet and pouches to store his throwing knives. The unique character design and kinetic, cross hatched, art-work in this mini-series would go on to heavily influence the creators of the 90’s. This creative team came together out of nowhere and got very, very, lucky.
Art by Art Adams
Longshot was introduced on the run, being shot at for reasons he didn’t understand before jumping through a cross dimensional portal and landing in New York. He didn’t know what was going on, he didn’t know anything about his past, didn’t know his name, didn’t even recognize his own face. He was a blank slate. He went on several small adventures like, rescuing a baby, becoming a stuntman, going on a diamond heist, battling She-Hulk & Spider-Man, and fighting a demon dog (all with pretty much no real thought for why, because that’s how Longshot rolls) before someone showed up from his past life. His ram-headed friend Quark told him of his history as the leader of the slave rebellion against Mojo and the Spineless Ones, how Arize the Creator artificially grew all the slaves and made him uniquely lucky and rebellious. Quark told him how Mojo still needed to be stopped. As Mojo and his six-armed mystic assassin Spiral built a temple on Earth, Longshot, Quark, Ricochet Rita (one of Longshot’s stunt man friends and a past version of Spiral), and Dr. Strange attacked and sent Mojo and Spiral back where they belonged. Invigorated by his newly found sense of meaning, Longshot vowed to resume his rebellion against the Spineless Ones and Quark and Rita declared they would join him as the series ends.
Art by Art Adams
That series was intended to lead into an ongoing that never materialized. How lucky then, that Nocenti was editing the X-Books at the time? Mojo and Spiral would go on to show up in a New Mutants Annual where they gave Betsy Braddock (Psylock) robot eyes with camera’s in them before she joined the X-Men. While Mojo and Spiral (through Betsy’s eyes) were watching the X-Men train in the Danger Room, Mojo decided to spice things up and teleport Longshot in. It became apparent that Longshot’s rebellion was unsuccessful and he had suffered from amnesia again. Having nowhere else to go Longshot stayed at the Xavier Institute and became an active member of the X-Men after the team was decimated in the Mutant Massacre event.
Art by Art Adams
Longshot became a valuable team member, adding levity to the often dark times the X-Men world face. He grew especially close to his new teammate Dazzler and their relationship would cause one of the most interesting continuity snarls in X-Men history. He went with the X-Men as they travelled through the Siege Perilous and staked out in the Australian Outback with the team. After long, dreams, nightmares of his past came to haunt him, memories flooded back and he began to see things he had long ignored or forgotten. He remembered the Spineless Ones enslaving his people. He remembered the rebellion. He remembered how Mojo had turned Rita into his servant Spiral. These revolations lead Longshot to leave the X-Men and Dazzler, after losing her memories after a trip through the Siege Perilous, forgot about him. As luck would have it, the two were eventually reunited and, along with the X-Men and the newly created X-Babies finally defeated Mojo. Luckier still, Dazzler was pregnant with a son, and wouldn’t you know there was a mysterious character from the future of Mojoverse in X-Force at the moment.
Art by Jim Lee
Dazzler showed back up on Earth having, apparently, miscarried and fought in a war against the Spineless Ones. Longshot was nowhere to be found. When the reality-hopping Exiles were pulled into the Mojoverse they sought out the lucky mutant, however Longshot was tired from fighting all the time and unwilling to continue his life of violence. Lucky for them, they were able to strike a deal with Mojo to free Longshot for him to join the team. Mojo, always one for tricks, made sure to wipe Longshot’s memory, again. After working with the Exiles for a while, Longshot was reunited with Dazzler but he had no memory of their love and could not bring back the spark they had. He left for Detroit after reading a newspaper article saying that that is where he was recently (which seemed odd to him but Longshot just goes with these sorts of things).
In Detroit, Longshot found out that a Skrull named Nogor the Talisman had replaced him during the Secret Invasion. Eventually he grouped up with X-Factor Investigations where his psychometry powers were very useful in dealing with clues. On that team Longshot grew close with Mojoworld transplant Shatterstar. As that series ended it was revealed that Shatterstar was not created like the other slaves, he appeared in mid-air on Mojoverse (much like Longshot did when he first appeared on Earth) and Arize used his genetic material to create Longshot. It was also revealed that Dazzler did not miscarry all those years ago and she and Longshot gave birth to a baby boy named Shatterstar before their memories were wiped of the events. This genetically made Longshot and Shatterstar each other’s father and son. Paragraphs like that are why I feel like this blog is necessary.
Art by Valentine De Landro
After all of these revelations, Longshot got his own mini-series again called Longshot Saves the Marvel Universe where, after getting a much needed haircut, Longshot went to buy tacos, attained possession of a Cosmic Cube, and shunted everything into an alternative reality where the physical manifestation of Order was trying to kill him, and all others who could manipulate luck, in order to help the universe run more orderly. Luckily, after teaming up with the physical manifestation of Chaos, Longshot was able to set everything right and get his tacos, all without losing him memories. The series was a fun reminder of the reason for Longshot’s existence, asking what it means to be lucky. The character has yet to show up in the All-New All-Different Marvel Universe but it is only a matter of time before this classic X-Men rears his beautiful head.
Art by Jacopo Camagni
Must Read
The best thing to read for Longshot is something I didn’t touch on in too much detail, but shows exactly why people love him. That is the Outback Era of Uncanny X-Men (Issue #229-#250).* While he is never the focus of the stories, Longshot is the perfect foil for all the dark stuff happening to the mutants at the time. He is fun at a time when the X-Men are dealing with having to fake their own deaths, fighting a country that used mutants as slave labor, thwarting a demonic invasion, and constantly running for their lives against the Reavers. The Outback Era is much beloved because it takes a weird team of classic A-List X-Men like Wolverine and Storm and throws them together with guys like Longshot and Dazzler in a unique location for an X-Men comic we haven’t seen before or since. This is not well collected in a single trade and the individual volumes command a very high price online so Marvel Unlimited is the best place to read all of these.
Art by Art Adams
Ranking
I am starting to dread the ranking portion of this blog because I really like most of these characters (believe me when we get to someone I straight hate I will not be subtle about my feelings). Longshot is someone that I enjoy, but if I’m making a team of X-Men I don’t think about him. I think his luck powers are often used better than other characters with similar abilities like Domino or Black Cat from Spider-Man. I love the drawback that he has to be doing good for his powers to work, I just never question that Longshot is going to get lucky because he is so dang good hearted. In his first appearance he drops everything to rescue a baby from some demons because he read about in the newspaper. He just does good without thinking about it, there is no tension with the character. I would be fascinated to see someone more morally grey, like Domino, with that kind of restriction on their powers because I think you could write much better stories that way. Maybe I am being too cynical and I need to just accept that Longshot is kind of a goofy, good, character and there is nothing wrong with someone who wants to be good just to be good. Either way I am going to have to rank him right under Glob Herman at number 5 in the Xavier Files.
Longshot was requested by /u/badluckartist on reddit and then also by /u/AdrianIsBeast. Thanks for the request guys it was a lot of fun. If YOU have a character you want me to do, send me a message on my Ask Box and I’ll get it added to the list. If you send it anonymously I can’t respond privately to you which means if there is an issue or something I think you should know, I can’t tell you and that would be sad. Thanks for reading!
* You could make an argument to start reading this at #213 and go a littler further. Like most of Claremont’s X-Men there isn’t a perfect cut off point for everything.
Zachary Jenkins co-hosts the podcast Battle of the Atom and is the former editor-in-chief of ComicsXF. Shocking everyone, he has a full and vibrant life outside all this.
