The Man Who Loved Comics
15
By The Time I Get To Phoenix Dave’s original drawing of what’s been called Marvel Girl’s “go-go costume,” which even suggested her name be changed, was seen in A/E #24. This later sketch of that outfit was done for a fan; with thanks to Richard Donnelly. [Marvel Girl TM & ©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.]
Canadian guy who was going to battle the Hulk would be called Wolverine or Badger.” Visually, Marvel’s Wolverine had little in common with Dave’s earlier concept. Another X-Men character in whose creation Thomas played a role was the African weather ‘goddess,’ Storm. Originally, Cockrum had intended for her to be a shape-shifter called The Black Cat, who “could transform into a humanoid cat, a cougar or similar large cat, or a tabby housecat.” Unfortunately, “[b]efore we could use her, two or three other female ‘cat’ characters popped up,” and a change in strategy was necessary. The decision to give her weather powers actually came from Thomas, via an off-hand comment which changed the character substantially. Originally, Wein and Cockrum had intended to use one of the artist’s preexisting creations, Typhoon, who was originally intended for “The Legion of Super-Heroes,” in the X-Men grouping. Thomas suggested, “Why don’t you make the Typhoon guy the girl?”40—and thus Storm was born. The X-Men also gave the artist an opportunity to finally publish a character he had carried with him since his days in the Navy. “I first thought up Nightcrawler while stationed on Guam,” he wrote online in 2006. “My notion then was that he was a demon who had screwed up on a mission from Hell, and rather than go back and face punishment, he hung around on the mortal plane as a sidekick to a guy I called ‘The Intruder.’
When Jack Kirby first created his Demon [in 1972], I decided to drop the demon origin—but I still pictured him as very animalistic, running up and down buildings on all fours, howling at the moon, etc..” About his favorite character, he wrote in 2006, “When I got the opportunity to work on X-Men, I brought Nightcrawler with me. Writer Len Wein gave him the German persona, and there you have it.” Another X-Man that dated back to Cockrum’s pre-professional days was the Russian mutant Colossus. “Colossus was loosely based on a character I had come up with in college, named ‘Mr. Steel,’” he told his online fans in 2003. In 2002, he said about the hero, “I think we just tended to think ‘Strong Guy.’ And that’s what he was. I started wanting to know more about him when I did a back-up story in one of the endless reprints of Giant-Size X-Men #1... When it came to Peter’s [room], I suddenly realized I didn’t know enough about him to furnish [it]. I thought about it for a long while... then it hit me how incongruously appropriate it might be if Peter had the soul of an artist and poet. And I added the easel with an unfinished painting, and the art supplies and all. After that, I think Chris did begin to see more in Peter than just ‘Strong Guy,’ and he did do more development.” Thunderbird is another X-Man that dated back to Cockrum’s pre-pro days, potentially as far back as 1966. In 2002, the artist rediscovered a sketchbook with two fully colored pictures of the character, although, he stated, “This isn’t John Proudstar, but the costume is pretty close to the one Marvel rejected.” With the X-Men revival underway, Cockrum returned to the Thunderbird design which he had drawn almost a decade earlier and modified it slightly. It was ultimately rejected, and about it, he wrote in 2002, “The first Thunderbird design went for a sort of Kirbyesque look, but the editorial people felt that the metal helmet I had him wearing was too ‘Steve Canyon.’ I redesigned him to the version we used.” In 2006, the artist would write, “I do agree it was a bad move to kill Thunderbird off—he was a great-looking character with a lot of potential
The First Hundred Covers Are The Hardest Glen Cadigan sent the scan of original, signed art at left with a note identifying it as “The X-Men (Vol. 2) #100 variant cover (unused—sorta. Marvel had someone else lightbox and reink it. Dave’s penciled and inked version was never published).” Retrieved from the Heritage Comics Archives. [©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.]