The rigors of command aren’t for everyone. And even Reed Richards has to take some time off from costumed life every once in a while. Welcome to Ten Things: Ten Ex-Leaders!
Whooshman-Bicarbonate Films, in conjunction with An Amateur Comics Historian and, unbelievably, Polar Boy, Presents:

TEN THINGS: TEN EX-LEADERS!

10) NOMAD

Once the leader of the Mighty Avengers (and the only founding member of the group who wasn’t actually present at its founding), Steve Rogers lost faith in his red-white-and-blue self-image after a run-in with the Secret Empire. The resulting malaise led him to become Nomad, The Man Without A Country, sending the former Captain America off on a journey to find himself… or America? I dunno, it’s been a long time. Regardless, during his run as artist-formerly-known-as-Captain, he encountered The Avengers again, battling alongside them for a moment as the new costume in town.

9) VAPORLOCK

After her uncle destroyed her armor and ended her career as Steel, Natasha Irons volunteered for Lex Luthor’s Everyman Project. Gaining solar energy powers, she led the new Infinity, Inc. team as Starlight, until the truth about Luthor’s bioengineering came to light. (Hint: He could turn off all the powers at a whim. Lex Luthor has a lot of whims.) A year later, survivors of the team reformed again, with Natasha gaining new powers of intangibility, an aftereffect of Luthor’s treatments. Though they tried to make a go of Infinity Inc. again, Natasha let her uncle John Henry “Steel” Irons take the reins for the second try.

8) THE AUTEUR

A would-be scriptwriter, Alex Flores was a neighbor and romantic interest of Simon “Wonder Man” Williams in Hollywood. When his ionic energy powers went haywire, Alex and the other denizens of their apartment building all gained ionic super-powers of their own and set out to fight crime as The Crazy Eight. With the ability to create incredibly realistic illusions, The Auteur was one of the more formidable team members, falling into a leadership role partly to protect her daughter, who was also empowered. Their careers ended when Wonder Man reabsorbed the energies that gave them their powers, leaving Alex as merely a writer once more. Sadly, her relationship with Simon didn’t end quite so cleanly.

7) COMMANDER COLD

Hailing from the 25th Century era that spawned the Reverse-Flash, Henry (surname unrevealed) led a law enforcement squad modeled on The Flash’s Rogue’s Gallery. Traveling back to the modern day, Commander Cold targeted Barry Allen for the murder of one of his lieutenants, only to find out it was a setup by person or persons unknown. Commander Cold lost all his team members to death, incapacitation, or madness before losing his life in combat with Captain Cold who, understandably, was unhappy about gimmick infringement.

6) STORM

A multiple-term X-Men team leader, Ororo Munroe’s duties (be those as Queen of Wakanda or otherwise) have kept her busy enough that she has been fine working as just one of the mutant guys. During Jean Grey’s tenure with the X-Men Red team immediately after her resurrection, Storm served as her secret weapon, advisor, and team big gun, Most recently, she has been serving as the Regent of Mars after the planet’s terraforming by Arakko, making her the leader of the settlement deemed the capitol of the solar system.

5) LIMIT

Once the ramrod of The Intimidators, an oh-so-very-1990s team of antiheroes and post-modern caped jerks, Limit (real name unrevealed) is the biggest jerk of them all. With the ability to teleport within his own line of sight, he is relatively effective and herding his colleagues, but is somewhat overshadowed by the return of Astroman, a time-lost Silver Age hero in the Kryptonian mold. Though their adventures were cut short by either sudden cancellation or loss of creator interest, Limit and his team were chafing at working with the goody-goody square from the sixties.

Weirdly, this was also the initial premise for the introduction of Supreme a decade or so earlier.

4) HAVOK

The younger brother of perennial leader Cyclops, Alexander Summers has been the leader of X-Factor, The Six, and the Avengers Unity Squad. (Take *THAT* Scotty!) Most recently, though, he has served under Psylocke as a member of Mister Sinister’s Hellions, a team of mutants too unreliable, unpredictable and/or un-non-murderable to leave unsupervised. His phenomenal cosmic powers notwithstanding, it’s a bit sad to see Havok fall so far, especially since his ex, Polaris, is enjoying a run on the primary X-team after finishing her doctorate.

She clearly won the breakup…

3) SPECTRUM

A former Detroit police officer, Matt Trakker was a child prodigy and street racer whose antics left him on the wrong side of the law once too often. When natives of planet Cybertron arrived and began wrecking stuff, he joined the Mobile Armored Strike Kommand (MASK), an initiative to fight the giant robots with transforming vehicles of human origin. Said group existed as a sub-team of G.I. Joe, allowing Trakker to meet and team with the Real American Heroes, the alien Micronauts, ROM Spaceknight and Action Man, eventually realizing that some of the robots in disguise weren’t as evil as others.

Trying to figure out the IDW Hasbro Shared Universe continuity will make even my head hurt a little, and I’m a fan of the Legion of Super-Heroes.

2) LUMINARY

The First Daughter of the President of the United States, Meredith Owens got her powers from a strange alien being who claimed to be healing her on an unspecified infection. Since then, the strange luminous engrams on her skin give her energy powers and the ability to fly, which she uses as the US representative to The Front Line, a team of superheroes headquartered in Canada. This causes some friction with her father’s administration, who are uncomfortable with the team not being tied to United States interests.

1) THE THING

The ever-lovin’ blue-eyed idol o’ millions, Benjamin J. Grimm isn’t just the strong right arm of the Fantastic Four, he’s the team’s gentle heart as well. When Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Woman chose to retire to raise their children in suburbia, Ben stepped up as FF team leader, bringing in his ex-girlfriend and the Human Torch’s ex-girlfriend to round out their numbers. Since one of them was married and the other emotionally unstable, it made for a chaotic time for the FF, and Ben even took an additional dose of cosmic rays that mutated his rocky orange hide further. I’m not saying that he was a BAD leader, I’m just saying that Reed unretired not long after and Ben has never been left in the driver’s seat again.

Maybe fewer exes next time around, big guy?

Once again, this week’s topic, Ten Ex-Leaders, is all me, but feel free to follow along @MightyKingCobra to suggest a topic of your own! There’s always more Ten Things madness on my Twitter or check out the full Twitter archive here! As with any set of like items, these aren’t meant to be hard and fast or absolutely complete, if only because Krakoa-era X-Men change their lineup every four issues, for some reason. Either way, the comments section is below for just such an emergency, but, as always: Please, no wagering!

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