Everyone’s familiar with what Adam-X looks like (or if you’re on this site, you do – otherwise, you have some pretty horrible google results!)
Adam-X has been a favorite of mine since his creation. Initially it was because he looked “cool” and the fact that he had taken down, not just Cable (who I admit to never really being a fan of), but the rest of X-Force too, which is no easy task.
Now you’re thinking, “What do you mean he looks cool?” Keep in mind, he came out in 1993 (X-Force Annual #2) along with a metric ton of new characters that Marvel released with these annuals (some were heroes, some were villains). At the time, I was 23. I was (still am) into heavy metal, so the long hair appealed to me, as a rocker.
These days, the over abundance of blades might be a bit much in today’s market. (But then again, you might have heard Wolverine not only has Adamantium claws; but now they’re fiery hot, admanatium claws… yeah, like that’s not excessive either… But that’s neither here not there, let’s focus on Adam). On a thread on the CBR forums, and recently on Twitter, while discussing Adam-X, I said I’d redesign him but not change too much and used the first image to give an idea.
Essentially, I’d remove his shoulder blades, his arm blades, his leg blades, the spikes on his leg, and his waist blades. I’d leave the blades on the top of his gloves (as he could use those to backhand someone during a melee fight to cut them), and leave a knife on his boot, and his two traditional axe like weapons that strap to his back.
People asked if I’d leave the long hair and the backwards baseball cap, and the answer to both, was, “Sure, why not?”
The way I see it is, Adam doesn’t come from Earth, he doesn’t really adjust to Earth customs. So the long hair doesn’t seem unusual to him, if he comes from a planet where warriors had long hair. The backwards hat, it can come or go; but for all the people that make fun of it, I wear a backwards hat very frequently and have not seen anyone come up to me and mock me for it. (I’d welcome them to!)
So simply removing the abundance of blades, I think, would assist in making Adam a more viable character in today’s comic market.
