Moonstar knows how to really hit people where it hurts

[iamrman]

From X-Force #27 by Fabian Nicieza and Matt Broome.

Comments

[icon_uk]

Ah yes, that time Dani Moonstar went undercover with the MLF under the cunningly misdirection-inducing codename of.. umm... Moonstar?

The different powers and full face mask were, I believe, intended to make it seem there was some sort of uncertainty in readers as to whether this was Dani or not (as she hadn't been seen in a long time).

As effective disguises go though, this was somewhere between Bucky Barnes choosing the codename "Bucky" and Ric Grayson.

[iamrman]

Yeah, I wasn't sure whether there was supposed to be some big mystery. This is the same time Reignfire appeared. I'm still not sure what his deal was. A clone of Roberto or something?

[starwolf_oakley]

Right after AGE OF APOCALYPSE they tried a "Reignfire was possessing Sunspot" thing.

Wikpedia says:
Originally, Fabian Nicieza had meant for Reignfire to be a time traveling, slightly older, more mentally disturbed version of Sunspot. However, when a later writer John Francis Moore took over the title he changed the original plan and came up with the explanation about the protoplasmic, amorphous origin.

[dewinged]

I think Moore finally wrote the story, but the Reignfire reveal was Nicieza's last X-Force issue before AoA. They changed creative teams during AoA, and was Jeph Loeb who took over...and made me leave the book because it really sucked.

[viridian5]

...and made me leave the book because it really sucked.

You weren't alone in that.

[dewinged]

I wish I had known back then. The fandom at the time was not as supportive.

[iamrman]

It was almost like they were making things up as they went along.

[beyondthefringe]

That explanation always made my head hurt.

[iamrman]

Yeah, it doesn't make things better.

[starwolf_oakley]

Details from CBR.com.

https://www.cbr.com/the-abandoned-an-forsaked-is-sunspot-reignfire-or-what/

[30secondstonataliemars]

An evil science fire clone

Who got stuck in a space robot

And then Selene was like "Gonna make this robot call me daddy"

But it got blown up

BUT

Selene had a demon fuckbuddy who kidnapped X-force and she showed Roberto some dream sequences which he deduced were fake by going "Jokes on you my life is a miserable spiral of depression, I know I could never be happy"

Selene then had her demon fuckbuddy bring his dead girlfriend back from the grave so he'd oin the Hellfire Club and then Marvel forgot all about this for a few years and it got wrapped up in an arc where Sebastian Shaw has Viper kidnap the Queen and try to murder her with a theme park and then gets stabbed up by a racist cyborg and Selene tries to tentacle fuck Rachel Summers but gets banished by the power of plot contrivance because a plot summary of the X-men is 50% lesbian porn and 50% fucking lunacy

[iamrman]

Reading that made me feel like what I imagine a stroke to be like.

[30secondstonataliemars]

And yet somehow every word of this was canonically accurate 0_0

[deh_tommy]

Pfft, next you’ll be telling me that the good Alucard is really Count Dracula.

To be fair to Nightwing, Ric wasn’t a disguise, he was a brain damage-induced amnesiac persona.

[iamrman]

What?! You mean Alucard isn't who he claims to be!

But seriously though, it always amuses me when people are surprised at the revelation. In the Hammer films, Peter Cushing was always kind enough to write it with a mirror.

[sinisterlink]

Next you’ll be telling me that Dr. Acula isn’t a legitimate doctor.

[zachbeacon]

Glad I'm not the only one whose mind went to Scrubs.

[30secondstonataliemars]

"A REAL FUCKING VAMPIRE"

[zachbeacon]

Remember when Wolverine thought he could hide behind an eye patch?

[iamrman]

Everybody knew it was him, but decided to humour the angry man with knife hands.

[mazway_75]

Jessica Drew said that pretty much verbaitm. "Right, anyone's going to ask the guy with the metal claws and short temper "what's with the dumb eyepatch?""

And an ally shrugging "come on, you think anyone in this town uses their real name?"

[deh_tommy]

“Did you see the sunrise, Moonstar?” ~ Iceman (probably)

[iamrman]

Either that or something about painting with all the colours of the wind.

[windleopard2]

I initially misread the title as Moonstone not Moonstar.

[sinisterlink]

I did as well. I first saw the scan and was like, “Wow, she looked REALLY different back then”.

[scorntx]

Same.

[icon_uk]

Now the thing is that that would have been an effective (if weirdly random) disguise for Moonstone.

For Moonstar... not so much

[scorntx]

Well, we know Karla is not above pretending to be other people for the sake of an Evil Plan.

But she prrrrrobably draws a line when it's racist.
Maybe.
Hopefully.

[iamrman]

Yeah, Karla Sofen is a lot of things, but I'm fairly sure a racist isn't one of them.

[arilou_skiff]

You know, for all it's 90's-ness I kinda like the costume? They could lose some of the more culturally insensitive bits, but the basic "high tech/psionic archer with face mask and contrasting hair" isn't a bad look.

[mastermahan]

The full-face mask is really underdone on female characters. It's like this outfit and Sensor Girl.

I'd cut back on the gratuitous skin, though.

[icon_uk]

Stephanie "Spoiler" Brown's original outfit would be another.

Madame Masque of course

Jack Kirby's Morgaine Le Fay

The female Saints in Saint Seiya nearly all wear full face masks

But yeah, not many.

And it honestly took me a long time to realise that the non-red parts of Moonstar's costume were meant to be skin, as it's not a skintone she'd ever had before and I could never imagine Dani wearing something like that, and I just assumed it was a bodysuit under the armour, but it looks like just bad colouring. On the vaguely plus side, it's at least not whitewashing her, which is a step up from some takes I guess?

[arilou_skiff]

Huh, I thought it was supposed to be spandex too. Even Trump isn't *that* orange.

[deh_tommy]

I always thought Batwoman wore makeup to go with her wig in the costume, but apparently that’s just how she’s drawn outside of the costume too and the only answer I’ve gotten as to why she’s whiter than the Joker is “she’s a redhead and redheads are pale-skinned”. Skin colour in comics can be weird.

On the other hand, it could just be the lighting making her look orange.

[mastermahan]

Skin tone is tricky. It doesn't take a huge amount of color difference to change how someone is perceived, or even to dive into the uncanny valley like Moonstarfire here. I remember how '90s comics would portray Egyptian characters like Sphinx or Asp with slate grey skin. Even today characters like Storm or Monet still sometimes look like tanned white people. None of which is great.

At least Batwoman looking like one of the Endless doesn't have huge racial connotations.

[mastermahan]

I'd say Madame Masque and Morgaine Le Fay are a bit different. They're still drawn as having attractive faces on their masks, as opposed to being a blank like this.

There's Mayday Parker and Spider-Gwen as well.

[deh_tommy]

Oh wait, is that skin? I thought that was just orange fabric.

[shadur]

Same.