I said last time that Tachyon was one of my favorite members of Force. Today's focus, the oddly-named Eightyfive, was the other. He seemed the product of a pitch for What If...? I can just imagine the bullpen session: Hey Stan, what if Tom Selleck was born the mutant master of magnetism and then joined a hair band? Thanks to Jim Valentino, the world need wonder no longer.
The Magneto comparison was pretty in-your-face. Eightyfive was a mutant...just not a human one. Rather, the one who makes the ladies' hearts point to true north was a mutant pink-skinned Kree! (That was quite a shock to me when I first read it.)
The Magneto parallels continue in the explanation of Eightyfive's name. Due to being a member of the maligned Kree racial minority, at birth he was merely issued a batch number, rather than a real name. (Marvel Wiki) (Yet again, however, Comic Vine reports a slight variation on this, claiming the character's name derived from, "the cell block in which he was kept captive.") It's hard not to read that and remember Magneto's own backstory as a persecuted minority under the Nazis.
Finally, like the X-men's original big baddie, Eightyfive is frequently called the "master of magnetism." He even even exhibited the ambiguous moral qualities and conflicted virtues of Magneto. Take, for example, his battle with Aleta in Guardians of the Galaxy #6 (NOV 1990):
The parallels are so blatant, it's difficult to imagine they weren't conscious choices on Valentino's part. What I'm curious about is why? Especially given the direction he took Guardians with the creation of Haven and the lost colony of mutants, it seems like Eightyfive (or a similar character) would've fit better there. (Especially considering some of the oh-so-forgettable lieutenants of Rancor like Batwing and Rhodey.) I've always wondered what Valentino's long-term plans for Eightyfive were.
Following the events of Guardians of the Galaxy #6 (NOV 1990), the Guardians took possession of Captain America's shield. Having lost Mainframe/Vision's tournament, Force (and their ship) were transported 15 parsecs away from the planet. Though there were some voices that wanted to go back and kick the crud out of the Guardians, Interface definitively announces the mercenaries will be cutting their losses and moving on. (This makes sense, as Interface now realizes the shield did not possess the mystic power that he had assumed.)
The Guardians are gifted (again, by Mainframe) with the coordinates of the long-lost colony of free earthmen. The next several issues are dedicated to the saga of their travel to this long lost world, which winds up being quite deflating when they finally get there. Rather than a colony of free men, what they find is a world under the oppressive authoritarian rule of a handful of mutants. While the Guardians are busy struggling to free the humans from the yoke of Rancor and her lieutenants, Force is ever so slowly re-introduced into the storyline. This takes place in
Guardians of the Galaxy #11 (APR 1991)
In a single page, we drop in on Force where Interface informs his crew that something the size of a person, but the heat of a star is heading toward them on an intercept course from, "the space sector we just left" (presumably, the sector containing Mainframe's world.) This is, literally, all we hear of Force for another issue. We're left to ponder if this "anomaly" is Firelord...the Phoenix...or something else entirely.
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| you can spot Eightyfive on the far right of this panel |
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