Yeah, that kind of carelessness about details annoys me, too. Not only regarding Spiral. (Do artists not have a Marvel character guide or something? I mean, like the Official Handbook but specific for them).
Spiral was designed with three fingers because originally she was a Wildways bioengineering built creature as well as Longshot, Quark and the other slaves. Hence, also, the color of her hair, eyes and skin, different of Rita's. After Nicieza's retcon, we should infer that Arize put all these changes on her, apart from four extra arms.
Not a bad explanation, indeed. I like it.
Ha! If only it was so easy for her...
Just perusing some issues I can find. X-Force 60-61.. The artists are inconsistent with Longshot’s fingers for crying out loud. Then Kevin Lau does 61 and there’s even a panel where Mojo has too many fingers. I prefer to stick to the original source material and she has three fingers and a thumb. Even retconned as Rita later, adding four arms is more invasive than removing a couple fingers.
I can’t seem to find the story where she had more than one and a half bionic arms. Many appearances just have one. Some have none. Hence why I think of every time we see Spiral, we don’t know what part of her timeline we’re seeing
I like this explanation for her inconsistent arm changes the best.
The different timeline explanation is an interesting theory, but I think that it could become a little convoluted. It could possibly become a little confusing, trying to figure out how Spiral's appearances line up continuity wise.
Uncanny X-Men #248 Sep 1989
"The Cradle Will Fall"
Donald Pierce and his new compatriots, the Reavers, practice their coming attack on the X-Men.
Meanwhile, back in Australia, Longshot dreams.
In the state of Dreamtime, brought on by Gateway, Longshot speaks with Storm
and tells her that he must leave the group to search for his identity.
Nanny and the Orphan Maker, knowing of the coming deadly conflict with the Reavers,
finalize their plan to save the X-Men, quite against their will.
They arrive at the X-Men camp and swiftly capture Psylocke, Havok and Dazzler.
The three captured X-Men are placed in armor, designed by Nanny, which bend the X-Men against their will.
The three are then forced to use their powers against the still free X-Men, Storm and Colossus.
During the following conflict Havok is freed from his armor.
Still groggy, he fires a plasma discharge at Nanny's fleeing sky ship, which crashes to the ground, exploding on impact.
To his horror, Havok is informed that the ship carried not only the fleeing Nanny and Orphan Maker, but the captured Storm as well.
She is found dead among the debris.
Story by Chris Claremont. Art by Jim Lee and Dan Green.
Now, these pages for those who still think that Mojoworld is just a fun joke. Even in Dreamtime, there's hardly scenes so harrowing in X-books.
Nice symbolism, BTW, making Spiral a merger of Dazzler, Rogue and Rita --Longshot's three main lovers. CC was always great in this kind of play.
Nice point, too, Oscar Wilde's quote: 'You always kill the one you love'. Very accurate regarding the complicated relationship between Spiral and Longshot.
Last edited by Ricochet Rita; 10-14-2019 at 03:23 AM.
A slight tangent, but giving a shout out to probably the most popular obscure character from the second round of DC and Marvel's Amalgam Comics crossover titles, "Spiral-Harley", a fusion of Spiral and Harley Quinn. She only got referenced a couple times in the Batman the Animated Series inspired "Dark Claw Adventures" (Dark Claw being a amalgam of Batman and Wolverine), and the version shown was a robot duplicate within crowd shots in a amalgam of the Batcave and The Danger Room (if memory serves me right, I don't have a copy near me).
3094344-spiral harley.jpg3094791-spiral harley2.jpg
This is one instance where she has more presence in fanart (credit due to these fanartists)
d8bvezt-9254ae27-7524-4fc6-9017-94c1cebe4a67.png
Last edited by GilGarciaJr; 10-22-2019 at 08:19 AM.
One more fanart example.
spiral_harley_cover_by_krazypersan_d6qzr8z-fullview.jpg
I had no clue about her. Thanks!
Last edited by Ricochet Rita; 10-23-2019 at 03:32 AM.
I just made a search on #inktober2019
https://twitter.com/TerryDodsonArt/s...14574263992326
https://twitter.com/romononsense/sta...36685140942849
Last edited by Ricochet Rita; 10-26-2019 at 06:25 AM.
Those are great! They have made me wonder if anyone has ever drawn Spiral from the side however? Those shoulders must be a nightmare to draw from side-on!
Oh wow! I love that Dodson one especially
Make Good Art
Hahaha, that's really a good one! ;D
Yeah, there's a certain inconsistency regarding this. Most of artists draw her arms at the same level, 'in a row' so to speak. I think only JRJR use to draw them one below the other, from clavicle to low ribs, which is much weirder.
I guess arm placement is one of those things left open to artist's interpretation if there's no official statement from editorial on how Spirals anatomy works. The Marvel Legends action figure of her I own seemed to settle for having her arms in a triangle (1 set where a normal person's would be, the other 2 in a single row below, behind her breasts, along the ribs ).
Art by Robson Rocha.