Shatterstar

Shatterstar (Gaveedra-Seven; Earth name: Benjamin Russell) is a mutant superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Fabian Nicieza and artist Rob Liefeld, the character first appeared in The New Mutants #99 (March 1991), after which he became a member of the superhero team X-Force. He later became an employee of X-Factor Investigations, a private detective firm starring in the series X-Factor. Shatterstar is an unusual character among Marvel's mutant superheroes in X-Men books in that, although a human mutant, he was raised in an alternate dimension known as Mojoworld with no knowledge of his origins. When he arrives on Earth he has little understanding of Earth relationships, customs, and culture. At the time of his introduction, he largely conformed to 1990s comics trends: an emotionally closed off, brutal, macho warrior. Subsequent writers, such as Jeph Loeb, later attempted to show the character's adjustment to human norms and his development of close friendships on Earth, and in particular with his teammate Rictor. An early mystery about the character concerned his similarities to the mutant hero Longshot, which was later resolved in a 2010s storyline that explained Shatterstar is the son of Longshot and Dazzler, sent a century back in time by his future self. Paradoxically, his DNA was then used to create Longshot. Since 2007, the character has been portrayed as an outgoing queer superhero in an on-off relationship with his superhero colleague Rictor and in 2009, shared the first same-sex kiss in a mainstream Marvel Comics publication. One of his creators, Liefeld, criticized the development, having previously depicted the character as asexual. His other creator, Nicieza, stated his intention was to use Shatterstar as a blank slate to explore sexual identity. X-Factor writer Peter David introduced the romantic pairing with Rictor, building off of...