Daredevil #269 Aug 1989
"Lone Stranger"
Under directions from Spiral, the Blob and Pyro, functioning as Freedom Force,
attempt to track down a pretty young mutant named Amanda who has not registered.
The lecherous Blob immediately declares her "his girl".
Daredevil gets wind of this and decides to find the mutant girl before Freedom Force can.
In an attempt to even the odds, he gets Blob drunk. Daredevil finds the girl.
Pyro is close behind and refers to Daredevil as, "the lucky red jumping bean".
Meanwhile Amanda is sitting off to the corner wondering why a stranger is risking his life to protect her.
The Blob is still in the bar, groping some random lady bartender and causing general distress.
The Blob and Pyro resume fighting over who gets Amanda. More chaos ensues.
Eventually, Daredevil saves the day,
leaving a melancholy, lonely mutant girl behind.
Script by Ann Nocenti, pencils by John Romita, Jr., inks by Al Williamson
I understand what you're saying. I too loved her solo appearances, and I think particularly the Body Shoppe is an awesome concept which could still work for a bunch of stories.
I wish she could have her own miniseries, since in her 34 years of publication life she's generated enough (and varied) stuff to create her own story, maybe traveling between dimensions, maybe in 616 working as a bounty hunter or a stuntwoman, or collecting on her debts, or founding an occultist cult of her own.
In the novel there's no hint that it's a connection between them. Even though I obviously respect Nocenti's intention, I've got to admit that I kind of like what Nicieza did in 'Shattershot', specifically in the X-Factor issue, by turning Spiral/Rita in sort of a living loop (as well as Longshot in a perpetual Fallen Messiah). I think it fits perfectly well with the 'spiral' simbology, with the cyclic neverending fatalist spirit of the Wildways, and above all with the melancholic mood of the original Limited Series. Spiral/Rita as a character of a Greek tragedy has all the sense for me, although as you well pointed out it maybe aligns her with the archetypical group of 'female villains-who-are-not-actually-villains-but-victims'.
100% agree. She's one of the very few female villains who had got to avoid the (omnipresent) allusions to her physical appearance...that is, beyond her six arms. It annoys me that a woman is always described according to her beauty or lack of it, while it doesn't happen the same with men. Spiral being more or less good-looking is absolutely irrelevant --Rita, in fact, wasn't a hot chick at all.
Yep. Let's boost her magic skills, absolutely. That's when I like her the best.
Mmmm... Could you develop this a bit more?
Well, you have this all-powerful, very male person of power in Mojo, who takes this woman, tortures and brainwashes her, modifies her body against her will, and she's pretty much labeled as a slave (figuratively and literally) as her identity (and not in the consensual type of way either, no kink-shaming here). Now given of the things in the news over the past few years: Weinstein, the Me-Too movement, Epstein, etc. Well even if these things were never originally part of the intentions of her origins as written in the 80's, sooner or later it's likely some comparisons might be made about her in-universe origins. I'm not trying to derail this appreciation thread into some sort of political soapbox, but I think there's enough for some fans and writers to start making some connections if they're inclined to do so.
There could be a really good tension if a writer could get Rita's newfound search for self-actualisation up over her past misdeeds (can they all be attributed to Mojo/Spiral's circumstances? There's the question.) to make her a sympathetic character, at least enough for her to maybe ally with the X-Men. Frenzy and several others have shown that it's fertile ground having a character reform, successfully or not.
On another topic, any fans of Ultimate Spiral? Straight out Mutant in that universe, no know magical powers (as far as I remember), refugee from Genosha, and last heard living with a sister in America. (Sorry if this should be for separate thread)
Spiral_(Earth-1610).jpg
Last edited by GilGarciaJr; 09-13-2019 at 09:57 AM.
Ah, OK. I myself am all for sociopolitical stuff in comics, so this subject you're proposing would be no problem to me at all. Spiral taking a breath to analize her wounds, the obvious and the subconscious, and trying to empowering herself, would be a great plot.
She serenely and dispassionately facing her past actions, together with the previous plot, would really make a good re-initiation story. Volunteers...?
Oh God, ABSOLUTELY!!! I'm a fan of Vaughan, particularly of his Ultimate X-Men run, and particularly of 'The Most Dangerous Game' arc. I think he did a wonderful work with Nocenti's characters and scenarios, turning them upside down but in a somehow absolutely coherent way. Reading a liar, assassin, negligent but jealous Longshot was frankly something delightful. Spiral, on the other hand, was much closer to the original one, since she felt abandoned and hurt so she wanted vengeance.
For those who might be interested, in the novel Rita is a convict in a space branch penitentiary, along with Longshot (the 'Prisoner X' from the title). This prison, despite being an institution of USA government, is run by Mojo and used as a resource for a 'prison life' 24-hour TV channel, a mix of reality show and (hidden) snuff. Spiral plays here her usual role as Mojo reluctant right hand.
--but as you can see, Nocenti is always political, that's her thing. The novel deals quite seriously with matters as prison building profit business, abuses in correctional system or violation of personal privacy, among other issues. So the development you're hinting for Spiral is not crazy at all.
During the last past years I've been celebrating September as 'Longshot's month', given that the first issue of the former Limited Series was published in September 1985 (cover date).
According to that, September should be equally 'Spiral's month', since she had her debut in this very issue (along with Quark, Gog and Magog: Mojo, Major Domo and Arize appeared later).
In her first appearance, six-armed Spiral looked closer to a Hindu deity, because she was semi-nude. It wasn't till #2 that she wore her characteristic helmet, custome and boots. However, right from the start (in her first panel) she showed her hate towards Longshot.
Later she was about to stab a baby to death in order to open a interdimensional portal to bring her and her mates home. Geez, she was wicked, but what a powerful presence!
I don't dare to wish her a happy birthday, because 'happy' is a word that doesn't go well with Spiral. But, hell, congratulations anyway!!!
Last edited by Ricochet Rita; 09-22-2019 at 06:52 AM.
As a tribute, here's a song I call 'Spiral's woe' because it's got a loop magical tune and its lyrics are the most allusive.
How could I be so immature
To think he could replace
The missing elements in me?
How extremely lazy of me!
I love Spiral. I just wish modern artists would remember she only has three fingers and a thumb like Longshot, and all Mojoverse denizens. Also, her bionic arms change. It’s usually one and a half bionic arms. Sometimes it’s just one. Sometimes none. I recall in the late 90’s someone had more... that part I usually chalk up to being different parts of her timeline.
Last edited by Thundershot; 09-25-2019 at 06:27 AM.