MOJOVERSE DIMENSION: Page 4 of 4

NOTABLE CHARACTERS

Mojo

First appearance: Longshot #3

Powers: Magical powers, including teleportation, several types of energy-blasts and protective spells. His powers are increased by worship. Mojo is a force of chaos and death: plants and small animals die killed by his vicinity, people become ill, the weather is disrupted and he can age and kill people with his touch. Superhuman strength (mainly due to his size), healing and toughness.

Longshot

First appearance: Longshot #1

Powers: agility, increased healing, psychometric powers, chance manipulation (luck)

Spiral (alternate Ricochet Rita)

First appearance: Longshot #1 (as Spiral), Longshot #2 (as Ricochet Rita), revealed to be the same person: X-Factor Annual #7

Powers: six arms, dances magical spells, swordsmanship, runs a bodyshop

Note: Spiral is Ricochet Rita from an alternate timeline. In the regular timeline, Rita was captured by Mojo and she became a figure on his airship. The X-babies freed her and she became their guardian. In an alternate reality Rita was instead transformed into Spiral.

Ricochet Rita / The Agent

First appearance: Longshot #2, Excalibur: Mojo Mayhem (as the Agent)

Powers: none (As the Agent: shapeshifting (in a way most like Husk), gaining the powers of however signed a contract with her)

Notes:

• During "Mojo Mayhem" Rita was captured by Mojo and became "the Agent", Rachel Summers destroyed the Agent-guise, but Rita was still possessed by Mojo. She was freed after the X-babies agreed to work for Mojo.
• Spiral was revealed to be Ricochet Rita in another timeline.

Magog

First appearance: Longshot #1

Powers: Strength

Notes: Magog is the father of Gog and one of Mojo's most important hunters.

Gog / Pup / Gog’n Magog

First appearance: Longshot #1

All appearances: Longshot #1-6, X-Men (2nd series) Annual #1, #46-47, X-Force #59-60

Powers: Magical magnet on earth: absorbs magical energy to become bigger and stronger, mutates constantly

Notes: Gog is the son of Magog. Originally he had the size of a small dog, but on Earth he absorbed magical energy to become the great monster he is today. Magog befriended Longshot when they were on Earth, but he later turned against him.

Quark

First appearance: Longshot #1

Powers: strength, chance manipulation (luck), discorporation into smoke

Arize

First appearance: Longshot #5

Powers: technological genius, incapable of receiving transmitted programs (unlike the other people of his race), purple skin and facial hair (unlike the other people of his race)

Major Domo

First appearance: Longshot #4

Powers: none, android (calculation, energy direction)

Minor Domo

First appearance: Uncanny X-Men Annual #12

All appearances: Uncanny X-Men Annual #12, Excalibur: Mojo Mayhem, Marvel Comic Presents #89

Powers: none, android

Dazzler (Alison Blaire)

First appearance: X-Men (1st series) #130

Powers: convert sonic vibrations into various forms of photovoltaic energy, including photon pulses, laser beams, hard-light holographic illusions, destructive force fields, light fog, hypnotic bursts of light, and levitation

The Yes-Men

First appearance: Marvel Comics Presents (1st series) #89

Powers: no superhuman powers known

Notes: The Yes-men are three stooges who serve as advisors for Mojo. Their job exists solely in agreeing with Mojo's plans.

Mojo II, the Sequel

First appearance: Uncanny X-Men Annual #16 (in shadows)

Powers: none known

Notes: A clone of Mojo, whom he intended to star in a movie, but then he decided otherwise. Mojo II was discarded and became director of a pirate station against Mojo's rule. Mojo II tricked the X-Men into helping him become ruler, but he has later been dethroned.

Shatterstar (Gaveedra-7 / Benjamin Russel)

First appearance: New Mutants (1st series) #99-100

Powers: Increased strength, speed and agility, increased healing, can direct an energy blast through his blade.

Note: Shatterstar is the child of Dazzler and Longshot, but he was sent 100 years in the future to be raised.

QUESTIONS

What happened to Rachel in the Mojoverse?

A Graphic Novel was promised, but never released. Two flashback panels in Excalibur (1st series) #64 only show her capture and subsequent escape. The strongest hints are actually to be found in Excalibur: the Sword is Drawn, where Rachel sends Kitty a nightmare of the X-Men being snotty actors in a film studio. Later, when she really escaped, Rachel crash-landed into a costume party, but believed she was still in one of Mojoworld’s film studios. Rachel has visited Mojoworld numerous times in the intervening years and has only loosely alluded to being a prisoner of Mojo in the past.

Are Dazzler and Longshot married?

Yes, they have been mentioned as husband and wife of each other various times. For example in X-Force (1st series) #60: “ - and abandoning the life she knew as Dazzler, she now fight alongside her husband for the freedom of his homeworld.“

There was never a wedding shown in any comic book, so it must have happened off-panel, and to be accurate the ceremony must have been held in the Mojoverse. In X-Men (2nd series) #5-7, the amnesiac Dazzler and Longshot re-united and teleported to Mojoverse, with her remaining there until Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #392, when she arrived on the X-Men’s doorstep, claiming Longshot was dead. Dazzler believed Longshot to be dead for a while, despite him being revealed to be alive and working on the dimension-hopping Exiles. Eventually, the two were reunited in X-Men: Die By the Sword #1-5 but, due to extensive mindwipes, Longshot couldn’t remember her. The two tried to reignite their relationship afterwards, but Longshot revealed in X-Factor (3rd series) #35 the two had gone their separate ways again and divorced.

However, since the "wedding" took place in an alternate dimension, and her husband was also considered an alien, the legal status of that wedding in the main Marvel Universe is questionable.

What became of Dazzler’s baby / pregnancy? Is Shatterstar the child of Dazzler and Longshot?

In X-Men (2nd series) #11, Xavier mentally discovered an unborn child within Dazzler and she retired from superhero duties to prepare for it.

Alison next appeared in X-Men (2nd series) #47 and, due to the nature of the time flow between comics and real-life, Dazzler should have still been pregnant. However, when Iceman asked about the baby, Jean Grey delicately told him she didn’t sense another life within her anymore. For many years, it was believed that Dazzler had either miscarried the child or she had given birth and her memories were wiped. There was no concrete proof of either and the subject was seemingly forgotten, with only theories being thrown around.

The truth was eventually revealed in X-Factor (1st series) #259, when Shatterstar and Rictor found themselves time-travelling through Mojoworld. After a fight with Mephisto, both men were seemingly killed but in fact they were cast into Mojoworld’s distant past, with Shatterstar arriving some time before Longshot had been created. The scientist Arize found Shatterstar and used a modified version of his DNA to create Longshot. When Rictor eventually arrived months later, Shatterstar teleported them forward through time, but not far enough as they arrived to find a pregnant Dazzler. Clearly taking place sometime between X-Men (2nd series) #11 and #47, Dazzler was heavily pregnant, indicating the time flow in the Mojoverse was faster than Earth. She went into labor whilst the two men were there, with Longshot’s absence being explained that he was away fighting in the rebellion.

When she gave birth, the baby had a black star over its eye, and Shatterstar confirmed that it was his infant self. The convoluted series of events meant that Shatterstar was essentially Longshot’s “father,” and that Longshot and Dazzler were in turn his parents. Knowing that he needed to be raised in the far future for this eventuality to end up occurring, he mindwiped Dazzler and teleported his infant self to the future to complete the time loop.

Whilst it appears convoluted, these series of events explain the nature of Longshot and Shatterstar’s relationship, whilst also clearing up a 20-year-old mystery.

What is the connection between Benjamin Russel and Shatterstar? And how does Spiral fit into it?

Despite the revelation of Shatterstar being Dazzler and Longshot’s baby, the subject of Benjamin Russel’s place in the situation still hasn’t been cleared up. Benjamin Russel was revealed as a mutant from Earth, looking exactly like Shatterstar (or Shatterstar like him). He was comatose and held at the Weissman institute. Spiral was a stuntwoman called Ricochet Rita and was one of the first Earth people that Longshot ever met. Unfortunately for her, she was captured by Mojo, tortured and modified into the unhinged sorceress Spiral. In X-Force (1st series) #61, Shatterstar’s body was gravely injured and so his essence is placed into the comatose body of Benjamin Russel.

Spiral knew where to find the boy:

Cable: "Spiral, how did you know to come to this place (Weissman Institute)? How did you know about this particular boy?"

Spiral: "Is it not enough that Shatterstar will live again to fulfill his destiny? Is it not enough that both young men mean more than all the world to me...?" (tears in her eyes)

Shatterstar: “I... live. And for the first time in a long while... I feel whole. Thank you."

Sounds like the resemblance between the two is more than coincidence, almost as if they were once separated and now are made whole. Given that Spiral not only dances through time and space but is also a skilled engineer and magic-wielder, it is highly likely she is somehow involved. She has been shown to have a maternal side, not only with Benjamin but in later issues of Uncanny X-Force (2nd series) with a young girl named Ginny.

An original theory was that Spiral somehow stole the baby from Dazzler’s womb, and that created Shatterstar and Benjamin from it. This theory can be debunked with the revelation that Dazzler did in fact give birth to Shatterstar, but the baby was taken to the future. Despite this, much of Shatterstar’s early life is shrouded in mystery as his next canonical appearance was as an adult. Given Spiral’s ability to time travel, she could have easily gained access to a baby Shatterstar in the future and created Benjamin from him. Benjamin hasn’t been seen or referred to in over 25 years at this point and it would be a brave writer to tackle the subject.

Is the Mojoverse really unique amongst the realities?

In Exiles (1st series) #18, Mojo makes the bold claim that there are no alternate realities of the Mojoverse and (subsequently) himself. The dimension exists outside of regular time and space, and is not subject to the multiple realities that run alongside the main Marvel universe.

Whilst this claim does seem a bit far-fetched, especially given that it comes from Mojo’s own mouth, there is circumstantial evidence that it might be true. Mojo himself has a distinct lack of alternate versions depicted, and those few times he has been shown in alternate realities he tends to be a background cameo. Given that he is able to move through time and space, one can attribute these appearances to the same Mojo. The only other version of Mojo seen was Mojo Adams, a human from the Ultimate Universe. Despite the name and similar theme of being a tyrannical TV producer, this isn’t a true alternate version.

During the Exiles arc, other characters question Mojo’s claim as they find it hard to believe themselves. They bring up the subject of Longshot, who should also be unique amongst the multiverse but a number of the team remembered him from their own different realities. Mojo claimed that every time the Exiles travelled to the Mojoverse, they were all travelling to the same one and they all had dealings with the same Longshot. Whilst there have been alternate versions of Longshot and Spiral depicted in the comics, the two have spent enough time on Earth to be victims of branching timelines and nexus events that spawn them.

So, despite Mojo’s absurd claims, the Mojoverse does seem to be a unique place within time and space.

What is the Wildways?

In New Mutants (1st series) Annual #2, according to Mojo, he created the Wildways and it initially seemed to be a transitional dimension between the Mojoverse and other dimensions, akin to a pocket dimension. When Cypher and Warlock attempted to save Psylocke, they were seemingly transported to the Wildways dimension. This wasn’t real, though, and they were merely in Psylocke’s mind. Over time, things began to get a little muddled and the name Wildways began to be used as another name for the Mojoverse.

In the letters page of Excalibur (1st series) #110, one of the writers addressed the confusion and explained that “the Wildways are the mystical crossroads from which Spiral draws her powers.”

In X-Babies Reborn, Mojo and Spiral are shown walking through a strange world labelled as the Wildways. Depicted as a place where physics didn’t seem to apply, it showed numerous paths twisting around in the sky. Mojo used the dimension as a breeding ground for the X-Babies, suspending their stasis tubes in the air as they matured.

Wildways was also the name of a TV program Mojo created to brainwash mutants.   

Theory – The Wildways is indeed a separate pocket dimension to the Mojoverse, either created or discovered by Mojo. Over time, the term “Wildways” has been used interchangeably with “Mojoverse” creating some confusion. In many cases, such as the Shatterstar series #1-5, where the term Wildways is used, they are really talking about the Mojoverse.

Please visit http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix7/wildwaysdim.htm for a more in-depth analysis of distinction between Wildways and Mojoverse.