- Bonzo
- Mar 11, 2004
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Just like Mama used to make it!
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 back in the 60's, there was an x-men character called changeling (during the run of the comics that turned out to be so unpopular that the series was cancelled and they just started reprinting old stories with new numbers on the cover instead)
he was a minor villain who appeared in 3 issues, and he and Blob and two guys that nobody remembers turned on their leader, Mutant Mastermind, when he turned out to actually be a space octopus that was trying to start world war 3 (watchmen stole this). changeling used his powers exactly once and everybody acted shocked that a character named "changeling" had the ability to change into other people, and then he disappeared and was not mentioned again because he wasn't important and nobody cared about him.
later professor x died for the first time, and they went like two years with him dead before the writers decided they wanted to bring him back, and the way they did that was, he shows up, and everybody's like wtf, and he reveals that the him that died was actually changeling (remember? he got tricked by a space octopus back in 1967), who'd been dying of cancer and had come to professor x to ask for the chance to redeem himself at the end of his life (even though he didn't really do anything wrong except be tricked by an octopus?) by joining the x-men, and professor x was like "no, I'm a jerk. instead, secretly take my place and die nameless because I don't want to be bothered while I go prepare for an unrelated alien invasion."
so when they started developing the x-men cartoon, the people making it wanted to establish the background of tragedy and lost comrades that sort of define part of the relationship the x-men have with each other and the world at large, so they decided to take a member of the x-men that had died shortly after his first appearance and move that story up in the timeline so they could include it in the cartoon series. and the character they picked was, of course, changeling john proudstar aka thunderbird. introduced alongside colossus and nightcrawler in the all-new all-different x-men, thunderbird had been deemed to be too similar in personality to wolverine and killed off, then was hardly mentioned ever again. if you know of Thunderbird at all, it's orobably because his little brother Warpath shows up sometimes to be pissed off about professor x getting him killed, but by and large he's probably best known for being one of the only superheroes who it didn't even seem to occur to anybody to bring back.
but, as production approached, the showrunners became uncomfortable with the idea of having exactly one native american character specifically just to kill him off, and they sure as hell weren't gonna have two, so they dug through the archives looking for another x-man who'd died and nobody cared about, and that was changeling... even though he was never actually on the team. so effectively what they came up with for the cartoon was an entirely new character who just shared powers and name with changeling. but then, whoops, in the intervening period between the character being killed off and the comic becoming relevant enough to get a cartoon, the Distinguished Competition had snatched up the trademark to the name "changeling" for their own shapeshifting comic book character, changeling beast boy. so the cartoonists, presumably feeling pretty tired, just renamed him "morph", which kind of ship-of-theseus'd him into just being an entirely new character, and millions of children all had to watch this rando who we could just tell didn't really belong there hanging around and pretending to be part of the family (not unlike the namesakes of a certain character from the comics, eh? I am of course talking about changeling the stepford cuckoos, who are named after both the stepford wives and the midwich cuckoos (basis of the village of the damned))
Wow. Someone else actually knows all of this other than me. I was going thorough my 1st divorce when this cartoon originally aired, so I never caught it. I did however read all X-Men titles in real time from 1979-1992.
Jean also knew about Charles' plan to fake his death and didn't say anything.
Thunderbird is interesting and would likely gets LOTS of bad press if that were to happen today. Wien and Cockrum wanted a character that would flunk the first mission. Banshee and Sunfire were older, so it didn't make sense (what?) for them to fail since they were vets. So they decide to kill him. But, they really love his costume and think he's cool so they keep him around. But then they decide he's too much of a "loudmouth" so he needs to go since Wolverine is already there.
I have the Omnibus collections and they reprint the old letter columns there. There's a few from Native American fans who are over them moon there is a representation in their favourite title. Then they kill him next issue. Fans were upset, and of course their reply is "Well his was too much of a loudmouth".
Why they just didn't change Thunderbird's personality is beyond me. I mean, they are the writers! He says what they write. It was early enough and would have been a great story to see some reckless hothead learn to work in a team while still discussing his issues with society.
Wolverine at this time was boring. He only had a few lines and none of this catch phrases. Hell, he only gets interesting when the Hellfire Club shows up years later.
Anyway, I guess what I'm trying to say is that the writers (who have been called out for racism and sexism in many other examples) were wrong here. When you have a title that is based on diversity it helps to have a diverse team.
Sunfire left the team only a few issues after and he was, imho, more of a "loudmouth".
I know there was some internal drama at Marvel and Cockrum left mid-run. They ran some backup story in the middle of introducing the Star Jammers, and it's kinda weak. Things get so much better when John Byrne shows up.
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Mar 21, 2024 15:23
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May 14, 2024 00:53
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- Bonzo
- Mar 11, 2004
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Just like Mama used to make it!
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Question for the X-Men experts: In issue XXXX Wolverine was absolutely obliterated, but was able to eventually regenerate just from a small remainder of skin and blood. While I accept that as possible, how was the admantium regenerated to cover his skeleton? Since it's not natural to his body. Thanks.
The powers of The Shareholders.
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Mar 21, 2024 18:29
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- Bonzo
- Mar 11, 2004
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Just like Mama used to make it!
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Jesus is in canon a mutant.
True story:
I tried this argument with my youth pastor in 1986 and he wasn't having it. You'd have thought I called Jesus the F word for something and I felt really bad. A few weeks after my shop had a copy of God Loves, Man Kills and after reading that, I realized it was bullshit and never went to church again.
And then they took that beautiful graphic novel and made that horrible movie. sigh.....
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Mar 21, 2024 21:35
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Mar 21, 2024 15:23
