4 posts tagged “neal adams”
Oh, sure, she had a mutant power, all right- when she sang her sweet love song, all the dudes in Maggy’s secret lair immediately became transfixed and frozen in captivation, a power that didn’t do much good when one member of the X-Men was a red-blooded American GIRL, and it was Jean Grey indeed who eventually put the kibosh on Magneto and his New Men’s plans!
Expertly crafted by Roy Thomas and Neal Adams, Lorelei really stands out as one of the prettier mutants in a the X-Men canon (and that’s really saying something!) but unfortunately, Lorelei and her fellow Savage Land Mutates only made two or three more appearances (in the silver age), and sadly, none of them featured Neal Adams on pencils!
Talk about rare appearances! In fact, most of my life growing up, I only had TWO things with Lorelei in it: X-Men #63 and a battered old issue of FOOM which featured the X-Men, as well as some new artwork regarding Magneto’s merry mechanically-engineered mutants!
And by the way, at the end of X-Men #63, the Mutates appear to be losing their powers and reverting back to their former selves…when Lorelei appeared next in the Avengers (drawn by Big John Buscema), she not only had her powers back- but had gone from blond to redhead! How the heck did THAT happen? I guess when Magneto fills you up with Mutant Powers, even the residue has a bit of kick!
Lorelei
First Appearance: X-Men #63
Created by Roy Thomas and Neal Adams
supervixens!@greyvictory
My first exposure to Black Canary was during the Alex Savuik / Mike Grell art run of Green Lantern / Green Arrow, and one of my first memories of seeing Dinah Lance out of costume was of her trying to down some of Ollie’s hot chili recipes- tears are streaming down her cheeks as she gasps something like “Best paint-remover I ever tasted!” Ahahahhha! I remember thinking, “Wow, Her hair’s BLACK! Nice!”
Another memory I have of Black Canary being particularly alluring was in some old issue of I think the BRAVE AND THE BOLD that my friend had because he liked BATMAN. In this issue, Bats and Dinah teamed up to fight the Penguin, at some point, Black Canary gets captured, the baddies strip her down to her bra and panties(!) and tie her up to a chair. I remember later telling my friend that I had to pick up that issue, and he laughed and said, “Ahhh, you only want it ‘cause Black Canary’s in her underwear!”
Well….it was true, but in the end, the issue had already sold out and I never got a copy for myself, otherwise it’s probably a good bet that a scan from that comic woulda been posted here!
12/08 Edit: Okay, found that issue and here's that memorable scene with Black Canary I was talking about...
When I would see her in the pages of the newly revamped JUSTICE LEAGUE, my mind NEVER accepted the girl wearing that costume as the SAME Canary I grew up with. Uh-Uh! So you can guess how happily ecstatic I was when I saw this awesome Brian Bolland cover when Action Comics #609 came out:
YES!!! As Black Canary kicked off a new solo adventure story, the first thing writer Sharon Wright did was have Dinah LITERALLY throw the blue spandex costume in the incinerator, much to the chagrin of Ollie, who mutters, “You’re lucky I didn’t succumb to toxic fumes!”
Black Canary
First Appearance Flash Comics #86 by Robert Kanigher and Carmine Infantino.
Favorite Artists: Neal Adams, Mike Grell, Alex Savuik
Jean Grey, telekenetic mutant,founding member of the original X-Men, and sporter of not one but TWO of my favorite super-heroine costumes! First Up; Marvel Girl!
Okay, at first glance, Jean Grey’s outfit seems to be nothing more than a green dress with yellow gloves and boots.Then looking closer, you realize…Yep, It’s a dress, alright!
So why do I love this costume so much?!
I don’t know, but I WILL say that in the era where Sue Storm was wearing the same outfit as Reed Richards and Wanda Frank & Janet Van Dyne were wearing one-piece bodysuits, Jean’s dress outfit was positively original and sexy!
I know that a lot of people had an aversion to the new costumes of the Original X-Men, especially John Byrne ,who seemed to be obsessed with the original outfits (Kitty Pryde and later Jean in the Hidden Years reflect this) and Neal Adams, who quickly changed the Angel’s Yellow ‘n’ Suspenders look to a more sleek style, but hey, one of the first classic comics I read was Avengers #53, and John Buscema’s depiction of the X-Men will always be THE defining look of the group.
One of the first 12¢ comic back issues I bought was Issue #39, which of course, featured the X-Men for the first time in their “new” outfits, as illustrated by Don Heck and Werner Roth, but it wasn’t til my friend James got this hardcover book published by Grandreams which reprinted the Neal Adams Sentinels stories that I really fell in love with Jean’s Marvel Girl outfit. He really made her look terrific in that dress!
For some reason, the green Marvel Girl outfit is one of the things that IMHO Byrne didn’t seem to care much for , and as I’d mentioned before, he couldn’t wait to find a reason to get her out of the green dress and back into the yellow and black suit in The Hidden Years strip. But that’s okay, because she gave the costume to Candy Southern to wear, and my didn’t she look nice in it!
Up Next: Phoenix!
The Mighty Dave Cockrum strikes again with this totally awesome outfit, one of my favorite designs, and I don’t care that he designed practically the same identical suit for Ms. Marvel… In fact, that costume is gonna show up any time now on this list!
Man, I just love this outfit, and it only got better when Byrne took over! Funny thing, one big difference in the way the two artists depicted the costume for me was that in Cockrum’s drawings, the green part of her costume always seemed like cotton material, for some reason, with leather boots and gloves, whereas Byrne’s illustrations always looked completely slick, like some kind of cosmic latex!
And another thing I mentioned before, John Byrne just loved drawing girls in pretty clothes, and Jean was no exception- in fact, he really draped Ms. Grey in some wonderful outfits over the years, but my favorite has to be the green off-shoulder dress she’s wearing in Uncanny X-Men #114. Just so damn pretty!
Call me stubborn (yes) and hard headed (yep, yep), but as far as I’m concerned, the Jean Grey that we knew and loved has passed away, and I refuse to subscribe to any of those revisionist storylines that sprout up regularly like evil baobabs seeking to invade and destroy my planet! Argggh…
Jean went out in a thoughtful, unselfish and poignant way, and that’s how I want to remember her.
Jean Grey:
First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #1 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Jean Grey:
First Appearance: X-Men #1 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
First Appearance in new Marvel Girl Costume:
X-Men #39 by Roy Thomas and Don Heck
Favorite Artists:
Werner Roth (X-Men 48,49)
John Buscema (Avengers #53)
Neal Adams (X-Men #56-65)
First Appearance in Phoenix Costume:
Uncanny X-Men #101 by Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum
Favorite Artists:
Dave Cockrum and John Byrne
This is part of an ongoing series spotlighting my favorite Comic Book Super-Heroines.
If you would like to view past entries, please visit the Archives at:
supervixens!@greyvictory
While Ororo’s STORM costume has the distinction of being my favorite Super-Heroine costume of all-time, My SECOND favorite costume goes to another mutant in the Uncanny X-Men pantheon, Miss Lorna Dane, better known to the superhero world as POLARIS!
Ms. Dane has had quite a few costume changes over the years (not to mention monikers), but the outfit I’m referring to is her original green silk “harem” style costume that was first introduced to us all the way back in X-Men #50, as conceived by writer Arnold Drake and Jim Steranko.
My introduction to Polaris came during the Byrne / Claremont run of the X-Men. My very first X-Men issue I ever read was #125; "There's Something Awful On Muir Island", the first part of the Mutant X storyline. The issue ends with Lorna on the phone telling Scott that they are being attacked by someone or something on Muir Isle and would appreciate it if the X-Men would drop on by for back-up...
At this time, I didn’t know she was a super-hero, and simply thought she was the (green-haired?) girlfriend of Havok. A few issues later, when the group is getting ready to have a showdown with Proteus, she is seen in the background taking off her sweater to reveal that sexy costume underneath. (What a shot…I’ll never forget it!) At that point, I realized, "Hey! She's Somebody!"
As I began to collect the back issues of the X-Men, I began to appreciate the dynamics of the “Muir Isle” gang (Lorna, Alex Summers, Jamie Madrox and Moira MacTaggert) as the trusted friends who, although never X-Men per se, would always come running whenever there was trouble with the Mutant Team.
I remember reading this and thinking, “Wow, those guys really love and care for each other…no other group has the bond that they do.” Also worth noting is the demeanor of Hank. In the Avengers, he's the goofy jester, but whenever the X-Men need him, he shows his strong, smart, reliable side. But I digress...
At some point I fell in love with the artwork of Jim Steranko (and really, which Silver-Age Marvel Comics aficionado hasn’t?) and really wanted to get issues #49-51 which he’d done these gorgeous covers for. When I finally got my hands the issues, I was stoked to find that this was the first appearance of Lorna! I eventually got the Neal Adams issues as well, finding out how she and Alex hooked up (by dumping poor Iceman on his butt!) as well as seeing her character develop from a shy meek girl to an outspoken superheroine!.
When Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum revived the X-Men in ’76, she was given the official moniker Polaris, as well as a new costume that I truly despised, supposedly of Shi’ar origin but looking a lot more like Shrinking Violet’s costume in DC’s Legion of Super Heroes.(which was also designed by Mr. Cockrum) Fortunately Byrne had the kindness to drape her in my beloved costume instead when he took over the run.
You know, one thing I’ve always felt was that John Byrne liked Lorna’s character a lot. After all, it was the Byrne/Claremont team that did that Marvel Team-Up story, but even more proof came to me when Byrne did his stint on the short-lived “X-Men Hidden Years” strip. He really fleshed out Lorna’s character,including her as much as possible in the storyline and even giving her a well deserved solo arc in”The Promise”.
There’s this one passage that’s really great when Bobby pushes Lorna too far with his “You’re MY Girl “ shtick and she really lets his have it!
After Byrne left the original X-Men run, they immediately changed Lorna’s costume back to the Shi’ar outfit, one that I had to endure till she was outfitted with a far more sensible one in the Peter David “X-Factor” run (a run I rather liked as it utilized three of the “Muir Isle Gang" members!).
Nowadays I’m not sure just what kind of outfit Lorna is running around with, but a casual glance at some (relatively) recent X-title covers such as X-Men #180 and Ultimate X-Men #61 reassure me that all those involved are still doing their duty of keeping Lorna a Cute and Sexy Marvel Commodity, no matter what the costume!
First Appearance: X-Men #49 by Arnold Drake and Werner Roth
First Appearance in costume: X-Men #50 by Arnold Drake and Jim Steranko
Favorite Artists:
Werner Roth (X-Men #49)
Jim Steranko (X-Men #50)
Neal Adams (X-Men #57-65)
John Byrne ( Uncanny X-Men #119-129)
If you would like to view past entries, please visit the Archives at:
