Today in Comics History, March 1, 2023: Personally, I blame Max Dillon

from Rogue & Gambit (2023 series) #1 (Marvel, May 2023), text by Stephanie Phillips

Today in Comics History, May 19: Happy birthday, Grace Jones!

This is an expanded and updated version of a post originally published May 19, 2022.

Born today: model, singer, and actor Grace Jones! Last year, I apologized for not being able to find any comic book appearances of her. I've since found/remembered a few and some friends chipped in!


cover of the pop culture and comics magazine Starlet #1/1980 (Semic (Finland), January 2, 1980)

Stan Lee's even making movie cameos in comics now

Panels from Uncanny Avengers (2015 series) #9 (July 2016), script by Gerry Duggan, pencils and inks by Pepe Larraz, colors by David Curiel, letters by Clayton Cowles

What's Bully Reading?: Rogue Touch by Christine Woodward

I would read this Marvel novel even harder if it were narrated entirely in first person dialect by Gambit.

Comics Within Comics Month, Day 30: And then there's the time Gambit broke the Marvel Universe

It's Day 30 of a thirty-day month (I had to check that be sure, because it's hard to do that count when you have hooves and not fingers), so here's the finale and the culmination of Comics Within Comics Month! I hope you've been enjoying these little daily Oreo-sandwich-cookies of reality half as much as I have, and if you've enjoyed them half as much as I have, why haven't you been enjoying them twice as much so our enjoyment levels match? I lay up nights worrying about these things. Also: snakes.

But before I dip into the final Comics Within Comics, I just wanted to give a tip o' the old Bully-cap to online pal Graeme Virtue, who only sounds like a character out of a Garth Ennis comic but who is actually a journalist for my very favorite (honest!) newspaper in the UK, The Guardian!, which no longer features all the typos that the panels on I'm Sorry I haven't a Clue attributed to it. (Barry Cryer: "The Guardian: Yesterday's headline should have read 'Caesar Slayed' not 'Caesar Salad.'") Graeme lives in Glasgow, my favorite Scottish city I've never visited, and someday I shall get up there and buy him a pint, especially since he was so kind to tweet


Jings! Thank you very much, Mister V. This one is dedicated to you. I'm sorry it's a Gambit story.




Cover of What If...? (1989 series) #100 (September 1997), pencils and inks by Klaus Janson
By this point in Marvel publishing history the Watcher had been unceremoniously booted from his host duties of What If?, so we're dropped right into the middle of the story which surely must have made sense to those who have read between the lines of every single X-Men title including Fallen Angels. As I can piece it together, this alternate reality isn't designated in any of the hefty colorful Official Handbooks of the Marvel Universe, but I'm gonna dub it Earth-99709, aka "The One Where Gambit Does Something Stupid." (Yes, yes, i know...how to distinguish it from all other universes...universii?...is a problem.) As part of his life debt (or was that Chewbacca?) to Mr. Sinister, our ragin' Cajun has collected, gathered, and out and out stolen the Morlocks's "tithe boxe," in which is sealed the Ultimate Secret of the Universe™. I imagine it comes from the same store where Indy got the Ark, where Jules Winnfield got the briefcase with the nifty glowing interior, and that 1964 Chevrolet Malibu repo'd by Otto Maddox came from. Or maybe Amazon.com. Naturally, Rogue and her thirty-five pound hairpiece vow to stop Gambit!


Panels from "Paper Skin" in What If...? (1989 series) #100 (September 1997); co-plot and script by Ivan Velez Jr.; co-plot, pencils, and inks by Klaus Janson, colors by Glynis Oliver, letters by Chris Eliopoulos
Gambit, of course, big cheaty-pants that he is, refuses to play fair and traps Rogue under a big-ass rock. Golly, Gambit is certainly getting boulder, isn't he BWAH-HA-HA-HA-HA I'm so sorry.


Gambit contemplates possessing the Ring the Box for himself, which is so powerful that it has completely erased his inner mental Cajun accent.


Now possessing the Tithe Box, Sinister...well, I'm not really certain what he's doing here, but that fits in just fine with all the rest of his decade long plots to bedevil and baffle and tickle the X-Men, including that time when he made the young orphan Scott Summers go to bed without being able to watch the episode of Galactica 1980 with Starbuck in it. HE'S EVIL YOU SEE.


Rogue enters, and WHOA THAT'S NOT ROGUE THAT'S A MAN, BABY. Actually, it's the result of a kiss Rogue and Gambit had after Gambit delivered the box. Rogue's energy-stealing powers sucked (ewwww!) the powers and personality (and apparently he jawline) of Gambit and put it in Rogue, who can now probably call him/herself Rougbit. Or Gamogue. Take your pick. Vowing hir revenge upon Sinister, she attacks him but fails to comprehend the meaning of his words: that they, as Shakespeare put it are as mutant flies to wanton fanboys; they kill and resurrect and re-kill X-Men for their sport. Nope, Rogue doesn't get it...


...until the box falls open and Rogue discovers...hir reality is just a fiction created by the people who make comics books. What the--?


(And those comic books are...)


Cover of [Peter Parker,] Spider-Man (1990 series) #82 (August 1997), pencils by John Romita Jr., inks by Scott Hanna, colors by Gregory Wright, letters by Richard Starkings



Cover of Maverick (1997 series) #1 (September 1997), pencils by Jim Cheung, inks by Andrew Pepoy



Cover of The Incredible Hulk (1968 series) #455 (August 1997), pencils by Adam Kubert, inks by Jesse Delperdang



Cover of X-Men (1991 series) #66 (August 1997), pencils by Carlos Pacheco, inks by Art Thibert, colors by Liquid Graphics



Cover of Alpha Flight (1997 series) #1 (August 1997), pencils by Scott Clark, inks by Chris Carlson


And of course...




Yeah, I agree: those cover repros in What If? #100 are not incredibly detailed. Notice that they took cover images, splashed a single color across them and then plastered the logo on top of it. But look carefully at the shadows and details that can be seen and you'll find they're all August or September 1997 books. Which you thought were going to be worth mucho moola and you have double-bagged in your own longboxes, so check 'em out!

Because this is the Mighty Marvel Age of Bountiful Bonuses from Bully, check out this article from Marvel Vision #21, aka "The Marvel Age of the 1990s created by someone who couldn't restrain themselves in desktop publishing," detailing the What If? #100 story! Just be warned, though: it's about Gambit.

(Click picture to Rogue Has a Headache So Big It's Got Gambit Written All Over It-size)

Same Story, Different Cover: The one where Rogue shoves a grapefruit in Storm's face

Left: Uncanny X-Men #185 (September 1984), pencils by John Romita, Jr., inks by Dan Green
Right: X-Men Classic #89 (November 1993), pencils and inks by Paul Smith

(Click picture to permanent record-size)

365 Days with the Warriors Three, Day 96

Panel from What If? v.2 #12 (April 1990), script and pencils by Jim Valentino, inks by Sam de la Rosa, colors by Tom Vincent, letters by Phil Felix

365 Days with the Warriors Three, Day 22

Panel from What If? v.2 #12 (April 1990), script and pencils by Jim Valentino, inks by Sam de la Rosa, colors by Tom Vincent, letters by Phil Felix

365 Days with Hank McCoy, Day 288

Panels from Ms. Marvel v.2 #9 (January 2007), script by Brian Reed, pencils by Mike Wieringo, inks by Wade Von Grawbadger, colors by Chris Sotomayor, letters by Dave Sharpe

New York Times Book Bestsellers of the Marvel Universe

365 Days with Ben Grimm, Day 291

Panel from Fantastic Four vs. X-Men #2 (March 1987), script by Chris Claremont, pencils by Jon Bogdanove, inks by Terry Austin, colors by Glynis Oliver, letters by Tom Orzechowski

Friday Night Fights, Ladies Night: The Night They Drove Old Dixie Up Through the Roof of the X-Mansion

Well, howdy y'all, sugah pies! An' you, Bahlactus. Now set yo'self down in the rockin' chair on the porch an' Ah'll spin yo' a li'l yarn that's 'bout as thrillin' as the hound dawg who went down to the fishin' hole an'...

No. No dialect. Let's start again.

Long before Rogue of the X-Men was a bouncy, curvy, big-haired, magnolia-drawled superhero:




Even before she was Anna Paquin with a bad dye-job, a slightly-too-tight leather catsuit and a diminishing character arc:




Even way before the comic Rogue started taking Paquin's fashion advice:




But not before Rogue was growing up with her mute musical mama on a backwater New Zealand beach:




...she was an angular, nasty, wicked, evil, all-around bad girl who made her debut in Avengers Annual #10 by attacking and incapacitating Carol Danvers, once known as Ms. Marvel:



Panels from Avengers Annual #10 (1981), written by Chris Claremont, penciling and coloring by Michael Golden, inking by Armando Gil, lettering by Joe Rosen


So is it any wonder that when honey-drawled Miz Rogue comes a-knock-knock-knockin' on the front door of 1407 Graymalkin Lane, Salem Center, New York, looking to join up with those misfit mutants of mirth, the X-Men, that she receives the cold shoulder?




Nobody wants her on the team. Not regal, strong-willed, bathrobed Storm:


Panels from Uncanny X-Men #171 (July 1983) written by Chris Claremont, breakdowns by Walt Simonson, finishing and inking by Bob Wiacek, coloring by Glynis Wein, lettering by Tom Orzechowski


Not blue, fuzzy future Catholic priest Nightcrawler:




Not even Mary Sue Kitty Pryde is keen on the idea:




So, then, how do you think X-Men hanger-on Carol Danvers is going to react to the news? (Here comes the Friday Night Fights part, folks!)




Yeah. Just about like that.




One punch! One punch! Oh wait, Rogue's comin' back around to get her licks in...




Whoa, that went about as well for the South as the Siege of Vicksburg. (Look it up, history fans!)




So, every time from that point onwards, whenever you read Rogue bein' all cute and coquettish and giving you that honeydripped accent of hers and lockin' lips with the detestable Gambit, just remember: the South's most famous heroine goes down like a pack of cards when she's hit by a former US Army Major intelligence agent turned Kree superheroine turned binary-star-powered adventurer. As do we all. As do we all.

Still, that's no reason not to like the little swamp rat. She takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin', y'all. As Phil Harris once sang: "That's what I like about the South."




Bahlactus would never hit a lady.

Extreme Makeover, Marvel Universe Edition

Rogue, 1982 edition


Rogue, 1991 edition

Images from the invaluable Grand Comic Book Database

Separated at Birth: Ya running and ya running/And ya running away/But ya can't run away from yourself

L: Uncanny X-Men #173 (September 1983), art by Paul Smith
M: X-Men Classic #77 (November 1992), art by Adam Hughes
R: Rogue #9 (May 2005), art by Scott Eaton and Dan Hillsman
(Click picture to honey-and-magnolia-size)