My past MC2 Costumes
posts have looked at every variant costume (or robotic shell) worn by Bluestreak, J2, Freebooter, Mainframe and American
Dream and even a few I
missed until recently. While I haven’t completed a full-blown new entry in
this occasional series for a long while, that changes today because we are
looking at the costumes of Kevin Masterson aka Thunderstrike.
Kevin’s most iconic costume made it’s first
appearance in What If #105 during a cameo appearance from the next
generation of Avengers, before they were fleshed out at all.
Notably, both Kevin’s adult civilian design and at
least the beginnings of his unique Thunderstrike costume were developed
at least as early as late 1995 by artist, co-creator and the most
dedicated fanboy ever, Ron Frenz. Courtesy of Mr Frenz’
Facebook:
A Little Slice Of Kevin!
Design sketches for young Kevin Masterson.
One from the original THUNDERSTRIKE series and two from
the development of the A-NEXT series years later.
As usual, we’ll be doing things from an in-universe
chronological order. While Kevin’s first appearance as Thunderstrike is What
If #105, his first chronological appearance is a flashback seen in A-Next
#1. With all that said I’d first like to point out that Kevin’s
civilian attire in A-Next #1 shares a colour scheme with his super hero
costume seen shortly afterwards in the same issue which acts as an origin story
for the second generation Thunderstrike. It’s a nice touch. Here’s both
for comparison:
Now, I know these are really just colouring mistakes but
I’ve kind of made it my business to point out as many as I can find in previous
entries. Besides, it bolsters the number of variations! One common colouring
mistake is the bands around Thunderstrike’s wrists, which are sometimes
brown (I believe the intended colour), sometimes red like the rest of the arm
covering and sometimes one arm band is brown and one arm is red (A-Next #1,
#2, #3 etc).
Another fun variation, which sometimes comes with different wrist
band colours is the Thunderstrike costume with the red ‘T’
logo design on Kevin’s chest (A-Next #3, A-Next #6, J2 #5-#6, American Dream mini-series). I suppose you could No-Prize
these minor changes and modifications as the artistic Mr Kevin Masterson
tinkering and playing with his costume. I mean, it is magical in nature and
appears as he wills it!
This next one is one I think is possibly the most
oft-miscoloured, at least after the wrist bands. Colourists seem to struggle to
keep Kevin’s axillary area exposed, instead colour the whole of the
chest and underarm area the same brown as his costume when it should be his
flesh tone. As far as I can tell, this first occurred briefly in A-Next #4
in just one panel but we see it many times afterwards.
Next up is probably my personal favourite one. After electing
to stay behind on an alternate world, Kevin’s appearances naturally
trailed off for some time but he still managed to appear in a black/grey
version of his standard costume in a photo seen with fellow Avenger Stinger
(Wild Thing #4). Interestingly enough, this basic colour scheme returns
in the infamously miscoloured Spider-Girl #81 which has proven a great
source for variant Avenger costume colours.
Just a few issues later in Spider-Girl #83, we get
another Thunderstrike tweak, this time with a costume absent the arm guards.
Again, another colouring mistake and this one is pretty egregious. Keeping with
this theme, we also catch a glimpse of Thunderstrike red-handed in Spider-Girl
#87!
Over on the cover of Last Hero Standing #1, Mark
Bagley depicts Kevin’s Thunderstrike costume’s ‘T logo’
without encircling it. A minor detail perhaps, but it certainly changes the overall
look.
In the Avengers Next mini-series, Kevin spends
most of his time without his powers and is thus depicted in civilian attire.
However, Kevin does go into battle wielding the Grim Reaper’s Scythe
in Avengers Next #5 before his ability to transform into Thunderstrike
is restored.
I may have missed out on a costume, if so please let me
know! Otherwise, let me know what variant costume you’d like to see the MC2’s
Thunderstrike don once more.
Until I find more time amid burping a newborn to dedicate to
pawing through old comics for colouring mistakes, I remain
frogoat
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