The Case For... Havok

It's time for 5th installment of the mostly monthly Case For.

With the exception of a couple notable big names (Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Scarlet Witch, Moon Knight, Bullseye) Hasbro has done an applause-worthy job of putting out the Marvel Universe's heavy-hitters. In only 2 years, we have (and yes, this is counting figures like Sentry which have yet to ship) most of the current core-title Avengers line-ups and a large section of Spider-Man’s rogues gallery. X-Men fans, however, usually have a long list of characters they want to see.

One can argue that X-Men just don’t get the same love those other groups get, but being honest, the one new X-figure (more or less) per wave keeps up with other major groups like the Avengers, Spider-Man, Marvel Universe, Bad Guys, and seriously out-performs other groups like Cosmic Characters and New Classics (Young Avengers, Runaways, Agents of Atlas, The Initiative, New Warriors and other groups that are not as iconic as many other figures), but the number of different X-groups and X-characters means more characters are beloved to more people.

All that is a long-winded way of saying important X-characters like Havok are still missing in action. One of the first additions to the original X-Men, Havok left after the all-new, all-different X-Men came on the scene, but returned for the Australian years. During the 20+ issues during which the X-Men were effectively disbanded (250-273), Havok was a Genoshan Magistrate before joining the newly government sanctioned X-Factor.

Over the next 80 issues, Havok was featured either as leader of X-Factor, or as one of X-Factor’s then arch-enemy the Brotherhood. Follow that up with his 30+ issue stint as the main character in Mutant X and a return to the X-Men featuring high points (The Rise and Fall of the Shi’ar Empire) and low points (a botched engagement to Polaris, a cross-over with the Exiles where he faced the “evil” Havok personality), the character has almost 40 years of history behind him.

With the upcoming storyline War of Kings promising to resolve ongoing storylines for both Havok and the Starjammers, Black Bolt and the Inhumans, and even Nova and many players from the Annihilation stories, Havok will be once again in the spotlight.

Unlike some of the Case For characters, Havok has actually had a few action figures before (certainly better than Polaris who was lucky to get a bad repaint of an early Rogue sculpt for her action figure debut) so the odds of him being made eventually look pretty good.

Now, the case against Havok can be strong as well. Most importantly is the fact that none of Havok’s re-inventions has been successful. He has been the bitter younger brother living in Cyclops’s shadow, the confident team-leader, the space-rebel, a mutant trying to live a normal life, an outsider trying to do good in a world of evil… and none of these lasts very long. When a majority of the character’s stories involve said character possessed by Eric the Red, mind-wiped by the Siege Perilous, brainwashed by the Dark Beast, psychically induced to love his nurse by a comatose mutant, and possessed by an evil version of his own psyche, one may wonder if he has any purpose on the team other than being the one to get mentally messed around with by one villain or another.

His pre-disposition for possession and manipulation rubs off on those he's near, as Polaris has also been possessed and distressed a number of times (possessed by Erik the Red, Malice, and the Shadow King, brainwashed by Apocalypse into becoming one of his many Horsemen, haunted by visions of Daap, driven insane by Havok's death and more insane by his return), Wolfsbane spent years programmed to love him before Haven cured her, and we've already talked about his nurse.

The Case For... Hepzibah

Hopefully everyone had a great long weekend (for those in the United States that is) but we're back with the fourth installment of our Case For... series. This time, we look to the X-Men for inspiration.

While at first glance Hepzibah may appear to be little more than a fanboy request (with 30 years of Hepzibah history, the majority of her appearances have been little more than incidental to her membership in the Starjammers) Hepzibah has been hanging around the X-Men since the Rise and Fall of the Shi'Ar Empire that started in Uncanny X-Men 475.

Since coming to Earth her status has picked up. She struck up a romance with Warpath, assisted Wolverine's X-Force squad during Messiah Complex and despite being sidelined briefly with an injury, she was recently seen rejoining the X-Men in San Francisco [side note: hopefully Marvel editorial will some day see fit to explain what happened. We saw Messiah Complex with the controversial "No More X-Men" proclamation, then a couple one shots where random members of the X-Family sat around whining about not being X-Men, then simultaneously we see Cyclops sending Wolverine out to kill Mystique, Cyclops sending Wolverine and X-Force out to kill the Purifiers, a guy who appears to be Cyclops sending the Young X-Men out to kill the New Mutants, Angel becoming Archangel in a story that theoretically takes place after Angel is in San Francisco, nobody cares about Xavier, there are missing X-Men and more danglers than a 1990's X-Men issue]

Hepzibah has a surprisingly tangled history with many Marvel characters. Around Avengers 350 she attempted to assassinate Black Knight, she's been a long-time teammate of Ms. Marvel (who was going by Binary at the time), participated in the Avengers epic Galactic Storm, has met Excalibur, the New Mutants and Hulk's Pantheon and been a long-term mate of Cyclop's father Corsair.

With many of the X-books still in a state of disarray awaiting X-Men: Manifest Destiny, her status is undetermined, but for the foreseeable future it looks like she'll remain with the X-Men.

The downside is that, like we said earlier... she's always been a bit player. Even her fellow Starjammers Corsair, Chod and Raza have had action figures in the past (granted, they were the result of X-Men The Animated Series's Phoenix Saga), and as perpetual fans of the Jim Lee era Jubilee, or of Marrow or Polaris can atest, mere X-Men status isn't always enough to get a figure made.

The Case For... Captain Marvel (Mar-Vell)

Continuing our look at why certain figures of certain characters should get the Super Hero Squad treatment, we look at Captain Mar-Vell.

Mar-Vell is Marvel’s Barry Allen. Both deaths are the characters’ most widely remembered characteristic. Both have had extended family carry on their name (while Barry had both Wally West and Bart Allen become Flashes, the Captain Marvel title has been taken up by Genis-Vell, Mar-Vell’s child via artificial insemination, and Phylla-Vell who… well… same story, but this time in a recreated dimension, and half-Kree, half-Skrull Teddy Altman, the Young Avenger known as Hulkling) And finally, both have had “resurrections” jammed into massive crossovers.

Playing the dual-role of shocking-plot-twist and mostly-un-used-character during Civil War, Mar-Vell has been mostly missing since his return, only to be revealed as a Skrull infiltrator (and thus making Civil War that much more palatable for those unhappy with some of the developments) but Secret Invasion promises to give Khn’nr a little more story.

Captain Marvel hasn’t had as many chances at action figure stardom as some of his fellow super-heroes, but for someone with 40 years of history, he’s overdue. An Avengers ally, the original source of Ms. Marvel’s energy, father of current Guardian of the Galaxy Quasar and Young Avenger Hulkling, he’s a thread throughout the Marvel Universe.

And finally, that costume’s a classic. It was the inspiration for Ms. Marvel’s original costume, and has been adapted for use by almost every other character that has attempted to use the Captain Marvel name.

On the downside, his most famous story was his death, there’s no telling how long Khn’nr is going to continue using Mar-Vell’s form and a legitimate attempt to resurrect the good captain will probably be as ill-received as the Civil War fake-out. Although he’s certainly famous amongst comic fans, would he have enough appeal to the marketing powers at that be at Hasbro if there’s no current Captain Marvel?

The Case For... Nova

In the second "The Case For..." segment, we're talking Nova.

His cred: He's a bona fide 70's star for Marvel, and as Secret Invasion (and Brian Michael Bendis) have shown old is the new new. Just like "is the new ____" is the new over-used cliche.

He's had the dubious honor of having 4 absolutely distinct series, starting in the 70's as a Peter Parker-esque loser-type do-gooder and later Skrull bashing space crusader, then his 90's New Warriors spin-off where he juggled cross-overs power loss and replacements, then the baseball slinging series of the late 90's where for some reason almost everyone learned of his secret ID and without any good reason, to his most recent Annihilation-inspired series.

For anyone looking for suspected Skrulls, might I add that Richard Rider spent undocumented years in outer space fighting them, only to one day mysterious be sent back to Earth powerless until Night Thrasher "jump-started"
his powers? I'm not saying he's a Skrull (because then the Xandarian Worldmind would be ridiculously stupid) but he had a better chance of Skrullhood than others.

Anyway, he's the seminal New Warrior, appearing in every incarnation but the current X-Warriors line-up, and if Loners and the Initiative
have shown anything it's that there's a soft-spot for 90's teen heroes in the hearts of many (but in Loners' case, the wallets of few.)

We've seen him in action figure form back when Toybiz did the Silver Surfer line, and in the upcoming Marvel Legends wave, and in Minimate form with the upcoming Gamora 2-pack.

The design is a recognizable classic, albeit one that has been modified over the years, from the original, to the Annihilation style, to Kid Nova's browns, to full face-mask/shape-capable, to the vaguely Peter Quill style v-shaped star formation of New Warriors Volume 2.

And as for storylines, he'll play equally well busting heads with Spidey or battling Galactus out in an asteroid belt. He's gone toe-to-toe with Iron Man and decimated the Thunderbolts. The only thing he doesn't have? He's never been an Avenger.

Affiliations? He's a former Fantastic Four ally, at home with Super-Skrull and Silver Surfer, classic New Warrior (probably the most likely to get a figure), was a
Defender for a day back in 1978

Plus if all that's not enough, he does currently star in his own series which has benefited from tie-ins to Civil War, Annihilation and soon, Secret Invasion.

The downside: Well, he's never been A-list, and if you need proof of that, look to his appearance in wave 23 of Minimates and wave 19 (or however you want to calculate it) of Marvel Legends. Yeah, he's been in his own title on and off for years, but all 4 volumes don't even bring you to 80 issues.

The Case For... Luke Cage

To begin, this is an idea I've tinkered with for a while. I didn't want to simply spout off wish-lists of characters, no matter how obscure or unlikely just because there's plenty of space. If you want a run of the mill Super Hero Squad want-list, you can visit any message board to see threads that are nothing but laundry lists of "needed" characters. Here, in each edition of "The Case For..." we're going to make the argument for a particular character. The main criteria is that there needs to be actual reasons why the character should be made. Of course, as the line goes on and the number of characters that have been released increases, we may have to stretch for some of the choices. On with the show...

Luke Cage has been a mainstay of the Marvel Universe for the better part of 36 years. Not always in the spotlight (for instance, after Power Man and Iron Fist ended and before his 90's revival in Cage he was largely missing. After the short-lived Cage and before minor revivals in Heroes For Hire and in the pages of Alias he was also mostly absent), he remains a recognizable icon.

His ties to many super teams make him a great roster-filler. Heroes for Hire, the Fantastic Four (albeit, only briefly), the Defenders (mostly in a consultant capacity during the Valkyrie/Nighthawk/Hellcat incarnation) and most importantly the Avengers would all find a place for the bullet-proof tiara wearing hero.

As a member of the New Avengers, Cage is one of the few remaining characters in need of a Super Hero Squad now that Ronin (as either Echo or Hawkeye depending on your preference) is amongst the released rumored Walmart SKUs and we've already seen Sentry's sculpt. Of the post-Civil War New Avengers, only Echo, Iron Fist and Cage remain un-sculpted.

He also remains a key-player in the Bendisverse, the corner of Marvel's universe controlled by Bendis. From his role in the Max series Alias, Secret War, House of M, New Avengers and Secret Invasion, Cage is a prominent star of the modern Marvel Universe. Outside of the Bendisverse, Cage is also going to be amongst the featured Avengers in the Avengers/Invaders mini-series, and of course we're also anticipating a Gendy Tartakovsky Cage out of continuity mini-series some day.

The downside: outside of his 70's era costume, he's never had a distinctive and consistent design. Preparing cage in a retro-70's costume is going to be too retro, too throwback for some, while his current non-costume is about as distinctive as "Ms. Marvel in jeans and a hoodie" or "Tony Stark in a suit that looks nice. Not too nice, because he's not a snob, but it's still sharp. Expensive sharp, not necessarily design sharp" would be. Distinctive until Cage changes his shirt.

Also, no fan could rest until an Iron Fist is released to team up with. Although Hasbro has shied away from "dream packs" where both characters in the two-pack are related in such a way that the pack feels complete, satisfying, Luke Cage and Iron Fist would be a dream-pack for many fans. It would also make up for the number of Cable/Deadpool fans who shook their fists at the heavens upon learned they needed to purchase separate two-packs to get the pair.

In short: Cage may not be A-List, but he always ends up in the high profile projects and would help round-out any Squad fan's New Avengers roster.