Gunfire: The Marvel Character That Should Have Been

Recently a friend of mine inherited a sizable chuck (like 15 short boxes) of early to mid 90s DC comics and asked if I wanted to take some of the books off his hands. Never one to say no to free comics, even those from a publisher I rarely read from an era better left forgotten, I leapt at the chance. While I tried to pick out some of the more interesting titles (Millar/Hester on Swamp Thing, Waid's Flash run, Ennis/McCrea Demon, etc), i just couldn't resist all those deliciously awful 90s series like Guy Gardner Warrior, Extreme Justice, and, the most 90s book of them all, Gunfire.



Created by Len Wein and Steve Erwin, Gunfire is a six year-old's imagination (or maybe just my six year-old imagination) come true: He can turn anything into a gun. Wrenches, sticks, lead pipes, tire irons, construction girders, it doesn't matter; as long as he can point it at something, he can make it shoot.



Pretty awesome, right? Well, awesome for the 90s at least.

Anyway, secretly Gunfire is Alex van Horn, the newly anointed CEO of the technology firm Van Horn Industries after his shady father died from a space alligator bite. Don't ask, it's DC in the 90s. With all kinds of cash at hand, Alex decides to use his powers to put Van Horn Industries on the up and up by destroying all of the misappropriated Van Horn tech. This quest puts him up against a litany of technological freaks, from guys in armor that can shoot stuff and guys in armor that can deflect stuff, to a man with transparent skin and even his own not-so dead father.

It's, um... an interesting book, if not a little repetitive and derivative. For those really interesed, I live blogged this earlier in the week. Go relive the madness, if you dare.

Throughout my experience with the book, I couldn't quite shake an uneasiness with the book; like, it just felt wrong. At first, I thought it was because I wasn't used to DC books, and that off-ness was just me being out of my comfort zone. Not a bad theory and it helped ease those thoughts for a while. That is, until I saw this:



And it hit me, Gunfire is totally a Marvel character. Admit it, if you saw him hanging out with Nomad and Deathlok, you'd totally think they were a new (and totally badass) super team. Probably something with 'Extreme', 'Revenge', or ' Deadly' in the title. Or, more likely, all three like: The Extremely Deadly Revengers! But I digress.

Unlike most DC characters, Gunfire's base of operations was in New York and not some fictional coastal city. More, aside from a brief appearance from The Mirror Master and the fact that he first appeared in an issue of Deathstrike, Gunfire has no ties to the DCU at large. No wonder I kept expecting a mention of the Daily Bugle.

On a more meta level, Gunfire doesn't fit the traditional mold for a DC hero. Normally the DC heroes are gods striving to live among men or, more so at the time, the latest in a legacy of heroes. Gunfire however is just a kid thrown in over his head trying to clean up the Van Horn name.

Last but not least, his villainous and not-so-dead father looks just like Stryfe. Because I think we can all agree that Marvel (and to an extent Image) had the market cornered when it came to behind-the-scenes armored supervillains.



In the end, I can't decide if Gunfire got let off easy by being in the DCU. At Marvel, he probably would have gotten a bit of a push in '94 before fading into obscurity only to be used as a punchline to a Bendis joke fifteen years later. At DC, even though he more quickly drifted into obscurity, he never became a joke. Instead, Sterling Gates cut off his hands during New Years Evil and Garth Ennis made fun of his powers in Hitman # 1,000,000.

Oh well, better luck next time Gunfire. Until then, you'll always be my favorite Marvel Hero that never was.

Exploring the Insa-NINETIES: 8-Ball

Oh, the 90s, what a woefully underrated crazy-ass decade. All anyone thinks of when they think of you is big guns, bigger muscles, and even bigger tits. Thankfully, there are connoisseur of the 90s like myself to set the people straight.

Today, it's my pleasure to introduce you to the sensational character find of 1991: 8-Ball!



For the record 8-Ball is an ex-pool shark / military propulsion system designer, who built himself a pool cue that could magnify any force, donned a silly helmet, and turned to a life of crime. You know, standard stuff. Good for him for living what he loved... I guess.

He even convinced three other dudes to hang out with him wearing somehow more ridiculous costumes.



Ridiculous costume, even more ridiculous henchmen, it's like he's straight out of the sixties. I guess all he needs now is some kind of themed mode of transportation, like a flying cue ball or...



A flying 8-Ball rack, yeah that works.

Naturally, a villain like this must face off against some pretty grounded, street level heroes. Right? A guy like this totally smacks of Nomad or maybe even Thunderstrike. So where'd he first appear:



Sleepwalker. The book about the crazy alien that can only interact with this world when his college-aged slacker of a host is sleeping or otherwise unconscious. Yeah, goes together like chocolate and chicken: It's kinda weird, but if you just go with it I guess it makes sense.

Unfortunately, I don't know much else about the guy. I assume he continues to be a headache for ol'Sleepy, but I can't say for sure. I mean, you can't just get rid of a character made of pure gold like this, can you?

The only thing I do know is it looks like I have some Sleepwalker back-issues to go through.

The Bill October 6, 2010

It's weeks like this that get me excited.

You know the kind: where you have a stack of great books and don't know where to start; That fantastic feeling after you've read three great books in a row; The knowledge that the three bucks you just threw down on each book was money well spent. Yeah, this week was like that.

But enough of the preamble, let's get to it!




Best of Miniseries of the Week:

Taskmaster #2
Writer: Fred Van Lente
Artist: Jefte Palo


I desperately want this book to be an ongoing.

Coming off the henchmen filled violence bonanza of the first issue, this one ups the ante with the introduction of what is quite possibly the new character find of 2010: The Don of the Dead.

Who knew that you could make the Taskmaster that much cooler if you put him in a sombrero and gave him a rock band?

Let's back up a step. In this issue of the Taskmaster's quest to figure out his own history, he heads to Mexico to see what he can find. It's there that he finds the first batch of soldiers he trained including they're leader, the aforementioned Don of the Dead.

With laugh out loud quips, spot on charactization, and Dios de las Muertes skeletons on motorcycles, this book is everything that you could possibly want in a quality read. I'm crazy looking forward to the next issue.

And even more looking forward to the next appearance from Don of the Dead. Please don't make me beg Fred, you wouldn't like me if I beg.




Best Ongoing of the Week:

Avengers Academy # 5
Writer: Christos Gage
Artist: Jorge Molina


Now this is how you pull off a team book.

I have a history of reading a bunch of these "young heroes learn the ropes" books, and this is by far the best of the bunch. Some can't figure out how to develop the new characters (Secret Warriors); others have great interactions, but move slower than they should (Young Allies); And some just never really blossom (Avengers Initiative). Avengers Academy should become the manual for how to do it right.

In this issue, we get an insight into the most fame hungry member of the team Striker as he reveals how the team finally got it's chance in the spotlight. Throughout the story we see just how multifaceted this would-be villain is. At times a sleazy douchebag and others a confident, compassionate hero, Striker really broke out in this issue and showed how great a character he really is.

Seriously, this is a fantastic book. And while I say this a lot, you should totally and absolutely check it out; you won't be disappointed.

Assuming, of course, that you appreciate great characters, fun situations, and an engaging story.




That's all I got. I could gush about Chaos War, or Hawkeye and Mockingbird, or even Young Allies (It's still a great book, even if it's a bit slow!), but I won't bore you. Suffice to say, my pull list is all kinds of amazing. Feel free to ask me anything about it, or the books above, in the comments. I'm sure I can gush some more for you if you really, REALLY want.