LONGSHOT: Page 5 of 5

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

BIOGRAPHY - Page 5

Longshot stuck around New York and just let himself go wherever his instincts took him. After getting himself a brand new hairstyle, he realized that he was running very low on money. He decided to try and use his powers to get some free food but it backfired on him and he caused a house to explode. This gained him the attention of the cosmic entity the In-Betweener. The In-Betweener represented a balance between order and chaos and saw the power of luck as an unwanted factor in the universe. He had been killing anyone who displayed particular streaks of good luck, so when Longshot started abusing his luck power he was deemed too dangerous to live. However, thanks to a series of not-so-random events, Longshot got hold of a cosmic cube and he used it to remove the In-Betweener from existence. This time, luck was not on Longshot’s side and instead of the In-Betweener being erased, a new reality was created and the cosmic entity was split into two separate beings of Order and Chaos.

In this new reality, Order ran SHIELD and used his power to wage a war on Chaos. Order saw magic as being tied to Chaos and so an anti-magic regime was put in place. Longshot, the only person to remember what life was like before, was found by Doctor Strange. He was recruited in the quest to take down Order but, after a fight against him, the rest of Longshot’s team were entranced under Order’s power. With Chaos running amok and the reality straining to hold itself together, it was up to Longshot to save everyone. After finding the cosmic cube, which had been disguised in the form of a teddy bear, Longshot put reality back to the way it was. Realizing that his luck powers were dangerous, he was ready to accept death. Fortunately, the newly reformed In-Betweener took mercy on him as he realized it was the cosmic cube that was dangerous and not Longshot. [Longshot Saves the Marvel Universe #1-4]

Longshot ended up back with the X-Men just in time for their world to turn upside down once more. The Red Skull unleashed a devastating psychic attack and turned everybody's moral compass around. Longshot was caught up in it and found himself acting in a much more selfish and aggressive manner. He and Sunfire were then sent to attack X-Factor, who now had a new line-up and worked for a company called Serval Industries. X-Factor had protected themselves from the psychic attack and had taken control of the US government's nuclear launch device so that no-one would be tempted to use it in their altered mental state. Whilst Longshot and Sunfire attacked X-Factor and managed to make short work of the team, Cypher managed to escape from them with the launch device. He tricked them into following him through Serval's headquarters and into the team's teleportation room. The duo were subsequently transported across the globe to Tokyo where they would be out of the way until the chaos died down. The Red Skull was eventually defeated and the world's heroes were once again reverted back to their usual selves. [Axis crossover, All-New X-Factor #16-17]

Back in Mojoworld, Longshot began another revolution campaign against Mojo using a pirate video feed to build subscribers and draw support away from Mojo's network. Longshot's efforts were effective enough to prompt Mojo into attacking Earth, drawing the X-Men into another televised special. The X-Men were captured and separated into a series of Legacy scenarios, a "greatest hits" of battles and villains for which Mojoworld viewers held nostalgia. Mojo used new broadcasting pillars to transmit the X-Men's plight to viewers on Earth, building power through this new audience. He hoped to use the pillars to transposition Mojoworld itself to Earth permanently.

Longshot intervened on Mojo's plan, guest-starring in the scenarios to save the X-Men from attackers and using his remote cameras to pilfer viewers for his own feed. With the proper modifications, Longshot's cameras were able to move the X-Men between scenarios to gather their forces, and eventually out of the virtual environments all together. By this point, Mojoworld was starting to transpose on top of Manhattan, leaving the X-Men at the heart of Mojo's operation. Longshot led the X-Men to Mojo's command center, where he intended to pull the plug on the broadcast to end the crossover. Mojo himself arrived to interfere with Longshot's work, but Magneto and Polaris joined forces to emit an electromagnetic pulse strong enough to wipe out Mojo's system. Longshot was left behind as the dimensional bridge closed, leaving him on Earth searching for a way home. [Mojo Worldwide crossover]

Longshot remained on Earth for some weeks after that. He was available with a series of X-Men reservists to explore the mystery of Jean Grey's return to life. [Phoenix Resurrection: The Return of Jean Grey #2-3] However, Longshot somehow contracted a terminal illness which left him delusional and dangerous. The Wakandan seer known as Atlas Bear foresaw an unstable Longshot bringing about the apocalypse under the influence of a Mojo he was hallucinating. She hired Domino and her Posse to eliminate Longshot before his threat became manifest. As a fellow X-Man with her own luck powers, Domino recognized Longshot was hurting, and refused to kill him. Instead, the Posse and Atlas Bear agreed to seek aid on Mojoworld. Longshot had discovered the means to return home since his exile and brought them to Planet Orphan. After the Posse fought through an entire army and said “please,” Mojoverse medicine saved the day and the apocalypse was averted. [Domino (3rd series) #9-10]

Longshot's affliction was supposedly, somehow an allergy to humanity itself. Still, he was able to return to Earth at least long enough to attend the funeral of his former teammate, Wolfsbane. [Uncanny X-Men (5th series) #17] Longshot's status as a genetically-spliced construct based on a mutant makes it difficult to guess how welcome he would be on the new mutant nation-state of Krakoa. The Celestial Ship and other sources have deemed him "close enough" to being a mutant in the past. However, his origins trend dangerous close to the Chimera mutants seen in previous future timelines, which the ruling council of Krakoa may deliberately wish to avoid. When last spotted, Longshot was back on Mojoworld and may even have returned to his role as the Fallen Messiah under Mojo's control yet again, leaving the answer to that question for the future. [Incoming! #1]