Rictor - Publication History

Publication History

Created by writer Louise Simonson and artist Walt Simonson, Rictor first appeared in X-Factor #17 (June 1987). Rictor was introduced in the late 1980s under Louise Simonson's run on X-Factor vol. 1. X-Factor owed its early popularity to reuniting of the five original X-Men characters. As the series continued, it needed to distinguish itself from the earlier X-Men stories. New characters were introduced to the series, and Simonson's run introduced Mexican earth-manipulator Rictor as one of several young wards to the senior X-Men characters. These characters would be spun-off into their own title, Simonsons's X-Terminators, in 1988. Simonson would later transfer Rictor to the cast of The New Mutants, during her run on that series, when she made sweeping changes to the existing cast and folded several of the X-Terminators into the New Mutants team.

Later, under Rob Liefeld's run on The New Mutants, Rictor would abandon the team in the final scenes of The New Mutants #98 (1991). At this point in the character's history, he was popular enough to feature in Marvel Illustrated: The Swimsuit Issue vol.1 #1, also in 1991. In the next issue, Liefeld introduced one of several of his "edgier" additions to the series, namely Shatterstar, a swashbuckling warrior from another dimension. With help from writer Fabian Nicieza, who provided the dialogue for Liefeld’s plots, Liefeld transformed he New Mutants into X-Force in The New Mutants (vol. 1) #100, the book's final issue. Liefeld and Nicieza launched X-Force (vol. 1) in August 1991. Later in X-Force, Liefeld brought Rictor back; he appeared in X-Force #10 and joined the team in X-Force #15. Introduced to Shatterstar for the first time, Liefeld's issues — a high-octane, gritty run typical of 1990s comic book trends — would establish the characters' friendship.

After his time on X-Force, departing in X-Force #28, the character made appearances in issues of Cable, Excalibur, New Warriors, X-Men (vol. 2). Fabian Nicieza brought the character back for X-Force (vol. 1) #38, and wrote a story in X-Force (vol. 1) #43 depicting Rictor's attempts to take Shatterstar to a nightclub and try to understand humans better just prior to Jeph Loeb's run, which would explore, as a subplot, the relationship between the characters mostly through subtext; Loeb's intention to write the characters into a relationship was not followed-up by his successors writing the character, and the romantic connection between the characters was not made explicit. The character would make periodic guest appearances until X-Force (vol. 1) #64 in 1997, which would be the character's last appearance for five years.

In 2002, the character returned in the pages of New X-Men as a member of Professor Xavier's X-Corporation. Following the House of M company crossover event storyline in 2005, which saw the character lose his mutant abilities, Rictor returned to the X-Factor title with Peter David's third volume of the title. X-Factor vol. 3 began with Rictor extremely depressed and suicidal over the loss of his powers, joining as a civilian member of Jamie Madrox (Multiple Man)'s team of superhero detectives, X-Factor Investigations. David's run would explore the character's romantic relationship with Wolfsbane (Rahne Sinclair), as first visited in the Liefeld run, and later made comic book history when the character was reunited with Shatterstar in X-Factor #45 (2009), which saw the two characters kiss. Storylines since, in the renumbered X-Factor #200 and onwards, have focused on the pair's explicitly romantic and sexual relationship.

In Avengers: The Children's Crusade #6 (2011), the Scarlet Witch successfully restored Rictor's powers.