It says it in the title, but I think it is worth mentioning: hey, kid, there are spoilers in this post.
Normally we wouldn’t do this type of article. Speculation is one thing and we find great joy in trying to figure out what is coming next, but if we can avoid direct spoilers of comics on the day they come out we will. We’d rather you read your comics on your own without us ruining things for you as much as possible.
But one thing that happened in “Uncanny X-Men” #11 warranted a certain amount of discussion and attention, so we’re going to go ahead and talk and speculate about it.
And, again: spoilers.
You guys ready? Ok. Let’s begin.
In today’s “Uncanny X-Men” #11, the current arc was closed off as the book gets ready for the upcoming “Battle for the Atom” crossover about to take place. That crossover will assumedly derail most of these books from what’s going on in their A stories, and “Uncanny X-Men” seems to be no different; what was verging into a wild magical territory is now temporarily resolved. Time to put the development of the new characters on hold for a little bit, because big things are about to happen in a different arena.
However, the last page of the issue did give a hint of what was going to be coming from the book after the crossover, with the following character reveal:
That’s pretty standard, right? A big splash page villain looks mysteriously at the viewer, and we get to think about what his or her intentions are and why. Comics!
Of course, the reason this is worth mentioning at all beyond just a “Oh, hey, it’s ____” comment on a forum is because this character is the long-awaited first appearance of this guy towards the lower left:
That image, for those unfamiliar, is the David Finch variant for “New Avengers” #1, Bendis’ ongoing follow-up to the ‘Disassembled’ storyline. What makes it of note is that that character was never seen again after this cover.
I know. Weird.
While I’m not sure the original reasons for the character’s appearance on the cover, he was essentially put out there as a tease for a new hero in the new Avengers line-up. And then … nothing. We were given Ronin shortly after with a completely different design, but this Johann Kraus-esque figure became a non-entity. Supposedly he was never meant to be Ronin; he was someone else, and someone else who didn’t make the final cut.
And now he’s in “Uncanny X-Men” as a new mystery villain. Assumedly, anyway. He seems pretty villainous, all things considered, and Scott isn’t a fan.
Although, whatever it was that caused him from becoming a hero into being a villain should certainly provide an interesting story angle. That is, assuming that it’s not just a completely arbitrary change to the never-before-explained character than was originally intended, which is just as likely I suppose. But, hey, we’re speculating for the fun of it, right? It’s not like anyone has told us anything. It’d be rather fun if his origin story detailed someone that tried to be a hero and just wasn’t allowed to become one; it’d give Bendis a good opportunity to get all meta on us. Everyone loves meta, right? (Or is it just me?)
Anyway.
I forget what the original quote is or who said it, but there’s a thought that there’s no such thing as a wasted idea; rather, the unused ideas scribbled on notebooks (or inked and colored on variant covers) are simply waiting for the right time to be used properly. This character, whoever he is and/or was, was just used too soon (which is what I choose to believe over the idea that he was just thrown out, because I’m an optimist), and now his sudden appearance adds a certain air of intrigue for Real Life Comic Continuity Nerds like myself, who remember and/or care about these sort of Inside Baseball Comics things.
