Thunderstrike's Costumes

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Missed MC2 Costumes

 

It’s been a long time since I did a MC2 Costumes post. For anyone unfamiliar, I’ve so far detailed every variant costume (or robotic shell) worn by Bluestreak, J2, Freebooter, Mainframe and American Dream. While I’m not going to hit you with a full-blown new entry in this occasional series today, I did want to do a sort of update to cover some of the costumes I’ve missed from passed entries.

 

This first one I found while rereading J2 #11 for my recent posts covering Howard the Duck in the MC2 and Shang-Chi in the MC2. I genuinely don’t know how I missed it the first time, but here’s Zane Yama in his own standard looking martial arts training uniform or ‘gi’ after realizing he should have some fight training for when he isn’t a nearly indestructible behemoth of a boy as J2.

 

Next up is a very minor one I missed for American Dream: Shannon’s standard costume as it appeared in the American Dream mini-series (with wings on the helmet) sans her iconic gloves and disk launchers. I figured for completeness’s sake I’d include it here (American Dream #2).

 

Finally, while it’s not actually seen in the issue proper, from the Ron Frenz drawn cover of American Dream #4 we have a depiction of Shannon transformed into one of Silikong’s ‘crystal creatures’ which were alternatively referred to as ‘crystal soldiers,’’crytal slaves’ or simply ‘crystal monsters’. The cover is a reference to the Red Queen and Silikong’s plan to turn American Dream into crystalline form to ‘publicise’ his elicit army building process.

 

That’s all I have for today. I may find time in the future to return to this series but I’m not sure when due to time constraints. If you think I’ve missed any more costumes or ‘looks’ let me know in a comment.

 

Until I develop my own line of super hero attire, I remain

 

frogoat

American Dream's Costumes

Now, this probably should have come out much earlier but for various reasons no one cares about, it didn’t. So for this next entry in my new favourite research-heavy series of posts about the MC2, we’ll be looking at the statuesque blonde champion of truth and justice herself, the MC2’s Avengers own Shannon Carter aka American Dream. Specifically, we’ll be taking a deep dive through her various appearances to showcase any and all of American Dream’s Costumes.

 

Obviously, the star-spangled Avenger’s most iconic costume is her most used design which first appeared fully in A-Next #4, alongside the rest of Shannon’s Dream Team members. Artist and co-creator Ron Frenz had this to say about designing the look on Adam Chapman’s Comic Shenanigans podcast:

 

‘I was working too hard to avoid the obvious. When I first conceived of the idea of doing a female Captain America, I playing with a bunch of different ideas. One of them was a black girl with no hair sticking out the back. What I didn’t like at the time - which I look back at it now it’s probably something I shouldn’t have worried about - I didn’t like the way the brown skin looked against the medium blue of the suit. So, I kept playing with different ideas, we had a lot of different ideas; a lot of different ideas for names, a lot of different ideas for approach. At one point what occurred to me - and which I thought was something Tom responding to well- was we weren’t going to make her related to Steve Rogers. We didn’t know enough about Steve Rogers to have her be a cousin or something like that. But Sharon Carter was right there and I said ‘well, wait a minute! She’s related to Sharon Carter!’ And right there, I said ‘screw it, I’m going to make her a statuesque blonde!’ We just kind of went with it from there.’

 

Here are some of the initial designs that Ron has shared online in the past, presented in no particular order. These really demonstrate the process and give a nice taste of what could have been:

 

As usual, we’ll be doing things from an in-universe chronological order. With that said here’s the earliest ‘costume’ for Shannon Carter as seen during a flashback in American Dream #3. It’s really just Shannon’s gymnastics attire, but I like that she’s almost always colour coded in red, white and blue. It’s a nice touch.

 

Here’s more gym attire from Shannon’s high school years, specifically from her first meeting with Brandon Cross (later known as Freebooter) as seen in the next flashback in American Dream #3.

 

It’s not clear exactly when, but Shannon got a job as an Avengers Compound tour guide, so I figured I’d include it here rather than ignore it or place it later. First appearing in Shannon’s first appearance in A-Next #1, this uniform returns in the American Dream mini-series.

 

Just as we did with Freebooter, I’m going to also include Shannon’s martial arts training uniform or ‘gi’ (American Dream #3). It’s worth noting that neither Aerika nor Blue wear these uniforms here, suggesting only Brandon and Shannon had martial arts focused training. This would make sense given the two young women have superhuman abilities while Shannon and Brandon have only their skills to rely upon.

 

Up next, we have Shannon’s first superhero identity: Nomad. Presented to her by her mentor Clint Barton aka Hawkeye as a graduation gift, Shannon expressed her desire to evoke the image of Captain America and carry on his legacy (American Dream #3). I’ve done some colour changes to give you an idea of what it would have looked like without the flashback colour filter.

 

American Dream #4 finally depicts our earliest instance on-panel of Shannon wearing her iconic American Dream costume, just in time to see the newly formed Avengers team gain headlines.

 

In the pages of A-Next #3 we get a white and red variant of Shannon’s tour guide uniform. It’s this same issue that we’d see the Dream Team for the first time, hidden in shadow prior to their debut next issue.

 

In the real world we’d get our first glimpse of the American Dream costume in full in A-Next #4. Nuff Said!

 

Two issues later, we get a new American Dream costume and tour guide uniform all rolled into one, with A-Next #6 giving us this design which resembles one of Ron’s design sketches above. I kind of like it, though it makes me wonder whether Shannon’s secret identity is public knowledge and it’s just Hope Pym that is oblivious to it in the American Dream mini-series?

 

While not an actual alternate costume, we see Shannon in her American Dream suit without her mask on in A-Next #8 so here it is, for my completeness sake.

 

American Dream has a slight change of look while on the parallel world ruled by Doom in A-Next #11, when her long golden locks are cut off to allow her to gain the upper hand in a battle. This look remains consistent for a while after the A-Next series concluded with Shannon’s guest appearances retaining the short hair until Spider-Girl #30. From then on, Shannon presumably used a wig to cover her shorter hair while it regrew. It goes without saying, from A-Next #11 onwards Shannon wields the iconic shield of the alternate world’s Captain America.

 

Backtracking slightly, I wanted to mention the occasions where Shannon has run out of her wrist and calve-mounted projectile disks, or when her disk launchers have been removed by an opponent (A-Next #12, American Dream #4).

This next one is a bit of an oddity. Presented as a bonus pin-up image in the Spider-Girl Annual ’99 we also see new costume design by Ron Frenz once more. I’m also guessing there may be a colouring error on the boots and gloves, but who knows?! This scene might be canon, but I’m not sure where you’d place it if it is. I’m probably just overthinking it!

 

 Here’s what Ron Frenz said about it in the aforementioned podcast interview:

 

‘I had also come up with a different design that only showed up once in a pin-up in a Spider-Girl Annual. There was a pin-up of Spider-Girl fighting the Avengers and the team involved Coal Tiger and a different design of American Dream where her costume was a darker blue and she had no hair sticking out. That was a thought I had, because she promises herself in issue eleven ‘if being a soldier is the only way I can rid the universe of scum like you then a soldier is what I’ll be’ or something like that. So I kind of saw Shannon as possibly going through a darker time, a more serious approach to everything. Which ended up not being the way the character went because the book got cancelled and she ended up in the hands of Defalco and Todd Nauck and Pat Olliffe and a bunch of other people. C’est la vie!’

 

Back in Spider-Girl #31, there seems to be either another disk on her wrist area or else some kind of never before seen gadget which doesn’t return the following issue or ever again.

 

Skipping forward to Spider-Girl #81 which is both a great story and great source of colouring errors, we see a few different colour mistakes, with the white areas of Shannon’s costume appearing flesh-toned and a bluer colouring on her entire suit on another page. The bare arms look returns in Spider-Girl #83 with Dream also having blue coloured disks (this will happen on and off, just go with it!) and carrying a silver shield which sometimes appears to have a ring of colour. The blue disks with the addition of blue gloves also cameo. Moving on!

 

In her own American Dream mini-series we get a good look at Shannon’s motorcycle and because she’s a paragon, her costume includes a themed helmet. We’ll be seeing a lot of this helmet in later stories.

 

Also in this mini-series, for the first time (outside of a cover image for Last Hero Standing) we see the classic Captain America-style wings atop American Dream’s mask, courtesy of artist Todd Nauck,

 

Appearing in the Spectacular Spider-Girl mini-series, we get a new variation on Shannon’s classic American Dream costume by Ron Frenz. Here, the red and blue stripes do not extend to the back. This look appears with and without the helmet, but notably doesn’t include the little wings on the mask.

 

American Dream next appeared in the Captain America Corps mini-series, with wings on her head again and stripes all the way around her abdomen. But this time, the stripes form a slightly different cut which doesn’t point upward toward the star on her chest.

 

Another variation which seems to only appear mid-way through a battle seen in Captain America Corps #4 and #5 is the addition of a belt with pouches. Presumably Shannon picked this up during the conflict because it’s not seen beforehand and is absent upon her return to her home reality. Dream also uses a firearm in this battle.

 

Finally, for the MC2 story during Secret Wars: Spider-Island, American Dream returns to the variant of her costume seen in the Spectacular Spider-Girl mini-series.

 

I think that’s it. If you think I’ve missed out on a costume, please let me know. I can take it! I think American Dream has the perfect blend of classic and new in her costume design which makes her stand out as a unique and iconic character in her own right.

 

Until I throw together my own red, white and blue star and striped costume, I remain

 

frogoat