And the X-Factor pitch tale blows my mind. I always wondered why the last Freedom Force story felt... weird, you know? It was so intense, like FF got turned into the Suicide Squad. And then... it went nowhere. Just the end of the team. But there was a beginning pitched for 'em.

And we were THIS CLOSE to having Pyro on an X-Team. Huh.

"A couple of issues earlier, writer Joe Casey introduced us to Stacy-X, a mutant who also happened to be a prostitute (who worked at a ranch with all mutant prostitutes, similar to the Mustang Ranch in Nevada)."

I'm in the process of buying a plane ticket to the Mustang Ranch in Nevada. Who knew all mutant prostitutes... co-mingled there? Thanks!"

I have a sneaking suspicion that this is why the character that appeared in the story was actually changed - the assumption that comic fans in general were too stupid to recognize Giuliani, so they'd better use a more recognizable politician instead. Plus, well, Clinton sort of lends himself to sexual jokes, doesn't he?

----

>>> Well, as you might imagine, for a guy like Starfox who was known to sleep with a lot of women (including some of his teammates), later writers began to think, “Hmmm…that’s a little troublesome, as far as powers go.”

That was actually present almost right from the beginning - right after he first revealed the fact that he HAD that power, Wasp spent a fair amount of time feeling incredibly awkward around him, and eventually told him outright that not only was it disturbing that he could do that, but that he also never bothered to tell anyone (or deliberately kept it secret). His defense was something along the lines of "I never do it to friends... unless they ask!", and it was probably the earliest attempt to head off people complaining about his magic rape power.

---

>>> When did Polaris become “strong girl”?

It's already sort of been explained, but just to flesh it out a bit more, in Uncanny X-Men #250, Polaris is basically abducted by Zaladane, and has her magnetic powers stolen from her. Right after, she immediately becomes super-strong and grows taller. At the time, it was implied to be a secondary mutation - but later, during the Shadow King storyline, it's implied her actual power was to become a battery for negative emotional energy, both absorbing and amplifying it. Her strength came from channeling that energy into her body, and when the Shadow King was killed and she was freed from the psychic web he'd put her in to drain her negative energy (in Uncanny #280), she'd reverted back to her normal magnetic powers.

So she was basically "Strong Girl" for about 30 issues, from 1989 to 1991 or so. Though she wasn't actually IN many of those issues. If the decision to change her back was a late one, it makes sense that they would have been planning to have her be the super-strong and really tall version instead of the normal magnetic one.

It was obviously a pile of horse-pucky hype - and not even the most egregious example of the kind of baloney that was flying thick and fast in those days - but it's still amusing to see that the fellas really had nuthin' up their sleeves, even if it's almost 20(!) years after the fact.

Me, I never did a pitch on it. They just came to me and said, “Here’s the team, we’d like you to write it.”

That actually makes a lot of sense, Peter, as apparently, by the time Fabian and Erik were no longer going to do the book, their team lineup was basically your team lineup.

It's like if, during the Kyle Rayner GL run, they introduced a blonde crew-cut police scientist background character named Barry Allen.

I was sixteen when I first met the Crimson Commander. I never knew he became a cyborg and later, a creation of Erik Larsen. (Of whom, I will not say a bad word EVER, for his is ... Kirby's Man! Dare I Say It? 'NUFF SAID!)

Keep them columns comin', Brian! We'll GET you that winner at Pimlico, Billy! Just you wait!!!