LONGSHOT: Page 3 of 5

Publication Date: 28th Sep 2020
Written By: Monolith, Peter Luzifer and Gremlin.
Image Work: sixhoursoflucy.
Biography

BIOGRAPHY - Page 3

Apparently he succeeded, for when next he was seen months later, Longshot was back in the thick of it battling Mojo and Spiral for the freedom of the Biped race. He came to Malibu, California to find Dazzler, who had been living there with Lila Cheney ever since she had emerged amnesiac from the Siege Perilous, unaware of their previous time together. Attacked by Spiral and Mojo's arena warriors, Lila attempted to teleport them all to safety, but her transport wave was hijacked and carried them to Mojoworld instead, right into the fat blob's clutches. The three of them managed to escape with some help, and met up with the Cadre Alliance. With his sense of self more fully formed since his time with the X-Men, Longshot was capable of committing to Alison now in the way she wanted and, being near to him, her memories returned. The two became lovers and co-leaders of the rebel army against Mojo. It wasn't enough, though. At the climax of their well-planned and executed insurrection, both Longshot and Lila Cheney were captured as prisoners of Mojo. [X-Men (2nd series) #5-7]

Dazzler returned to Earth in order to recruit the X-Men to the cause, but Mojo was prepared for that and a trap was sprung that captured Professor Xavier and the X-Men's entire Blue Strike Force, while Dazzler was left for dead in the sewers of Mojoworld. Longshot and the X-Men were manipulated into acting out a strange rendition of the Wizard of Oz for Mojo's amusement and profiteering from the broadcast, culminating with Longshot (as "Dorothy") leading one group of X-Men against another dressed as flying monkeys. Xavier remained outside the drama and, even though he was immobilized as Mojo's prisoner, he was able to use his powers to override Mojo's influence on his students one by one. Dazzler also managed to scare up some help in the form of Mojo II The Sequel, a clone of the original who claimed to be "flawed" in the sense that he cared about the lives of other beings. He had been attempting to set up a private network to overthrow Mojo on his own recently, and working through the X-Men simply made things that much easier. After being freed, Longshot himself delivered the final blow that apparently killed Mojo and set free the Biped slaves of Mojoworld. With Mojo II The Sequel promising to rule fairly and Alison discovering she was pregnant with Longshot's baby, everything seemed headed for a happy ending. [X-Men (2nd series) #10-11]

Why exactly things didn't work out isn't clear, although Dazzler and Longshot were eventually married, or at least underwent some ceremony that could be considered the equivalent of a wedding. The political structure of the Mojoverse also was in a flux, with some forces trying to set up Longshot as the new ruler over Mojo II, treating Longshot and Dazzler like royalty in the Wildways. Late into Dazzler’s pregnancy, she ended up in battle with Mojo’s forces and went into premature labor. By chance the time-traveling Shatterstar and Rictor were on hand to help her. Shatterstar ended up delivering his own grandson, who, in a twist of fate, ended up being himself. As he had grown up 100 years in the Mojoworld’s future, he knew he couldn’t let Dazzler raise him, otherwise his entire history would be re-written. So he mindwiped Dazzler and Longshot and took his infant self into the future to live out his pre-destined life. Both Dazzler and Longshot were left believing their child had perished. [X-Men (2nd series) #47, X-Factor (1st series) #259]

 

 

In the long run, Mojo II managed to seize power and demonstrated he had only been lying earlier about having benevolent motives — he set up a new entertainarchy virtually identical to his predecessor's, and Longshot and Dazzler were once again cast into the role of rebel leaders. Together with Quark and several others, they fought against Mojo II’s regime, but they were eventually betrayed by a traitor in their midst. Unexpected help arrived in the form of Spiral, who sided with the rebels against Mojo II, and eventually the tyrant was defeated. [Marvel Fanfare (2nd series) #4-5]

 

The peace didn’t last for long, as the original Mojo returned at some point, replacing his clone to restart his own tyrannical rule once again. Upon his return, Mojo began pushing for even greater levels of real violence and warfare to air for his networks, making the carnage of the rebellion that much more gruesome. Using Spiral to access holovids from the future, Mojo had an edge against Longshot's people. All the rebellion knew was that they were on the verge of a conflict called the Hundred Years War which would ultimately end with the death of Mojo and the martyrdom of the warrior known as Shatterstar. With the help of Shatterstar's teammates in X-Force, Longshot and Dazzler took the war to Mojo and managed to stop his latest scheme to draw power from Earth to fuel his need for ratings. Shatterstar himself was critically injured in the process, at which point Spiral surprisingly pointed the way to a solution. She had the heroes search out the comatose form of an Earth mutant named Benjamin Russell, and Longshot performed a certain ritual that placed the dying Shatterstar’s essence into him. Spiral hinted as to there being some connection to both Benjamin and Shatterstar. Her earlier statements that the Hundred Years War would end with the male child of a human and an Arize-spawn leading the way seemed to suggest that she knew of the connection Shatterstar and Longshot shared. However, due to Longshot’s numerous mind-wipes, he was unaware that Shatterstar was both his son and his genetic template. [X-Force (1st series) #59-61, X-Factor Annual #7]

Sometime later, Longshot sensed that he had to search for something, although he didn’t know what. Wandering through the odd and uncharted Regions of the Mojoworld, he came across a red creature named Thingee trying to eat small humanoid named Nutt. Longshot tried to help the dwarf but failed and Thingee devoured Nutt. Longshot jumped in after him, which caused the creature to explode, killing all three of them. Suddenly, Longshot found himself before the Whirl of Light, the gateway to heaven, but wasn’t allowed inside because he was no longer pure of heart, and instead ended up in Kansas. Longshot decided to go to New York to ask the X-Men for help, and along the way he befriended a little girl named Betty. Unfortunately, Longshot had no idea that Thingee had been brought back to life as well, and it attacked Betty after he left her. The local authorities believed Longshot to be responsible and, after escaping from them, he broke into the sanatorium to which Betty had been taken. There, Longshot met a bunch of patients, who trusted in him to help Betty and them as well. When they were attacked by Thingee another time, Longshot and his friends joined hands and their love produced a tornado of positive energies. The tornado transformed Thingee back to his original state, a creature of pure light, which became tainted by too much despair. The next day, Longshot said goodbye to Betty and left for New York, with the patients from the sanatorium accompanying him. [Longshot One-Shot]

It is unknown if they ever reached New York or not, but eventually Longshot returned home to the Wildways. Mojo would soon overstep his own boundaries and nearly destroyed his entire world when he created the incredibly powerful baby version of the Age of Apocalypse villains - Dark Beast, Sugarman, Holocaust and Apocalypse. The devastation these X-Babies caused was so complete that Dazzler returned to Earth believing Longshot to have been killed in the chaos. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #393]

However, it seems he did survive, but for a time Longshot was so demoralized that he languished in Mojo's dungeons, unable to muster up the determination to fight again. He received his kick in the butt when the reality-traveling group known as the Exiles were drawn into combat with Mojo, and tried to enlist his assistance. Though honestly they did most of the work, Longshot's brief return to combat restored his fighting spirit and he seemed eager to begin the rebellion against Mojo anew. [Exiles (1st series) #18-19]

Alas, it seems that this time around proved to be no more successful than any other, as Longshot once more ended up in Mojo's custody and his memory was completely wiped as it had been so many times before. His path would soon cross paths with the Exiles again, as their newly-employed dispatcher, Heather McDaniel-Hudson, made an arrangement with Mojo. The Exiles were involved in a dimension-hopping war with a phenomenally powerful mutant named Proteus, who could alter reality to suit his whims and possess the bodies of other people, burning them out from the inside. The conflict had already claimed the life of one Exile, and Heather was desperate to ensure it did not happen again. She contacted Mojo through the equipment of the team's Panoptichron base, offering a deal: in exchange for access to the Crystal Palace's pan-dimensional viewing ability for his broadcasting pleasure, Mojo would provide the Exiles with Longshot as a new member. Heather hoped that Longshot's ineffable luck would turn the tide against Proteus. [Exiles (1st series) #73-74]

Longshot proved himself a worthy addition to the team by being the only one able to withstand Proteus’ reality warping abilities. He was able to hurt the crazed mutant even when he was inside the Hulk from the 2099 universe, but things took a turn for the worse when Proteus jumped into Longshot’s teammate Morph. Serendipitously, Proteus was eventually trapped inside Morph’s body and tricked into believing Morph’s memories were his. [Exiles (1st series) #75-82]

Longshot and the Exiles continued on with the team’s mission of fixing broken realities. On one mission, however, he ended up being captured and brainwashed by that world’s Madame Hydra aka Susan Storm. She used Longshot to take down Blink, who was no match for his fighting abilities. Thankfully, Longshot’s luck enabled him to overcome Madame Hydra’s influence just in time to help turn the tide of the battle. Madame Hydra and her schemes were eventually thwarted but the cost was that the team and the entire universe were wiped out of existence. [Exiles (1st series) #91-94]