DCU Previews: Bronze Tiger and Buying Time

The DCU Fan Set Project has been a lot of fun to follow so far. In addition to long overdue groups like Speed Force and The Rogues receiving their due, fan-favorites such as Emerald Enemies and the Suicide Squad have also been given a chance to shine.

Today I’m fortunate enough to preview not just one, but two cards for the Suicide Squad team. Although I haven’t had a chance to see any other Suicide Squad cards, I think the following two do a great job of establishing the team’s mechanics while staying true to the nature of the comic books.

But enough talking about the cards, I’ll just show you the goods!

CLM: Batroc the Leaper!

As you are probably aware, UDE is expanding the definition of a ‘Crime Lord’ for their upcoming Vs. System expanasion. This will allow Captain America and Iron Man villains such as the Red Skull and HYDRA to make an appearance in the game without having to go through the trouble of creating a new team affiliation.

This is great news for Crime Lords fans, since it promises to create some very interesting team-up possibilities. More importantly, it will allow one of my favorite internaional villains to make his first appearance in the VS. System.

Sacre Bleu! It’s Batroc ze Leaper!

CLM: Ooh, Barracuda!

In most situations new writers take over an established title (like Batman, for example) with the goal of writing about the characters they grew up with. As a result many books tend to stagnate, since both readers and writers are unwilling to take the risk of introducing new characters and shaking up the status quo.

However, there are a brave few whose creations have taken on a life of their own. Today we look at one of the most recent, and greatest additions to the Marvel Universe’s pantheon of crime: Barracuda.

Crime Lords Month: Ruby Thursday

Comic book creator Steve Gerber recently passed away, and much of the media coverage surrounding his death has focused exclusively on his most famous creation, Howard the Duck. While Howard’s influence in modern comic book storytelling should not be overlooked, Gerber was responsible for many other wild and wacky characters during his time at Marvel.

Even when writing about the most absurd of subjects, he made a point of making the charasters believable, and treating them with dignity. Today at The Brave and the Blog we’re going to look at one of my favorite Steve Gerber creations, the bubbleheaded villainess known as Ruby Thursday!

Way Too White: X-Men

The one thing I’ve always loved about the X-Men is their message of diversity and unity. If you look past the alien invasions, alternate dimensions and well… crap, the X-Men are at their strongest when they are a story about prejudice. That’s why Magneto is such a compelling villain. He isn’t merely evil for the sake of it: He witnessed the horrors of predjudice firsthand during the Holocaust, and will stop at nothing to prevent that from happening again.

Sadly the X-Men sometimes lose track of that in the comics; and more often than not the current X-team (save for the occasional furry blue mutant) is extremely white. But there are plenty of characters in the X-verse who do not fit this mold, it’s just rare that they receive any focus or special attention.

This is also the case in the VS. System. Despite the fact that the X-Men have been featured over three times now, there are some major minority X-characters who have yet to make an appearance in the card game. Here are two of my favorites, complete with fantasy cards I made myself:

 

Northstar

Northstar (Jean-Paul Beaubier [Ed: Thanks gdaybloke!] ) is a Canadian mutant gifted with incredible super-speed. He’s so fast, in fact, that he can travel at speeds up to 99.9% the speed of light — Quicksilver can’t do that! Originally a member of Alpha Flight, Northstar was a fixture of the team in the late 80’s/early 90’s. In 1992 a public controversy was generated when writer John Byrne revealed that everyone’s second favorite Canadian mutant was also a homosexual.

Following the initial controversy surrounding his coming out, Northstar was doomed to obscurity by an editorial mandate. After Alpha Flight was cancelled in 1994 the character remained in limbo for a number of years, appearing in the X-Men titles periodically until he became a regular cast member in the 2000’s.

Sadly the character was killed by a mind-controlled Wolverine during the “Enemy of the State” storyline, then resurrected by The Hand and turned evil, and then taken into S.H.I.E.L.D. custody. As far as I know he’s still locked up, which is a shame because he’s still one of the few gay male superhero characters. The fact that there are eight different incarnations of Rogue and none of Northstar just buggles my mind. Really

With Alpha.Flight rumored to be a team in the upcoming Marvel Universe I’m expecting Jean-Paul to show up. I only hope he is dual-affiliated with the X-Men, because really, nobody wants to play as Alpha Flight.

 

Dust

Dust (Sooraya Qadir) is a mutant from Afghanistan gifted with the incredible power to transform her body into a cloud of sand and maintain control of herself while in that form. This makes her a living sandstorm, capable of stripping away human flesh of gaining access to nearly impenetrable places with ease.

She was first introduced as a background character in Grant Morrison’s New X-Men, but in time grew to become a fixture among the young students at the Xavier Institute. She’s also going to be a member of the upcoming Young X-Men series, alongside the handful of other students who maintained their powers after the Decimation.

Dust is awesome not just because of her powers but because she’s the only positive Muslim superhero out there. Especially given the current state of the world, I can’t imagine an X-Person more important or relevant than Dust.

But she doesn’t have a card. And Wolverine has 13. Sigh.