Latest / Vigilante Vibes Podcast / Ep. 126. Who is Northstar in Marvel Comics?!

Transcript

Ep. 126. Who is Northstar in Marvel Comics?! · Vigilante Vibes Podcast

0:18
Hi, guys, it's Megan with vigilante vibes.
0:20
And I'm here with another character breakdown.
0:22
And we are continuing the theme of Pride month.
0:26
And I was very excited to talk about this character, Marvel's
0:30
first openly gay character, John Paul Bober.
0:36
Bo Beer. I've never seen it said out loud
0:38
before. So Bo Beer, North Star.
0:41
He is North Star, he was created by Chris Claremont and John
0:45
Byrne, and he first appeared in X-Men #120 in April of 1979 as a
0:51
member of the Canadian superhero team Alpha Flight along with his
0:54
twin sister Jean Marie Beau Beer.
0:58
I don't know Aurora, her name is Aurora.
1:02
He didn't really get a personality beyond the the
1:07
French Canadian guy until Alpha Flight got their own book in
1:10
1983, which was initially both written and drawn by Byrne.
1:15
Byrne has always been very upfront that when he began
1:18
fleshing out the personalities of the members of the Alpha
1:20
Flight, he wanted one of them to be gay.
1:23
As early as 1988, after Byrne had left Marvel and created
1:27
Maggie Sawyer for DC, and before Comics Code Authority lifted the
1:31
rule against queer characters, Byrne flatly told the magazine
1:36
Amazing Heroes. That's the name of the magazine
1:39
I created. The first gay superhero, meaning
1:41
North Star. While his sexual orientation had
1:44
been hinted at prior to this issue, Alpha flight #106 marked
1:48
the definitive reveal. North Star went on to have the
1:52
first gay wedding in Marvel Comics, an Astonishing X-Men
1:56
Volume 3 #51 in 2012, further solidifying his place in comic
2:01
history. Now that's all well and good,
2:05
but that doesn't do you much good if you don't know who North
2:07
Star is. North Star, he's a former
2:10
Olympic and pro ski champ who also happens to be a mutant,
2:15
signs up in Canadian superhero team Alpha Flight and starts
2:19
going by the name North Star. He was going by Jean Paul, which
2:24
is very, very French Canadian. While there, he reconnects with
2:28
his long last twin sister, Aurora, and the two of them
2:31
spend some time fighting the good fight.
2:33
Eventually, North Star moves on to the X-Men, where he takes
2:37
charge of a group of young mutants he calls Alpha Squadron,
2:41
a nod to his Alpha Flight days. That's a very, very short
2:45
version of him. So let's talk a little bit more
2:48
about this iconic character. Not long after they're born in
2:52
Canadia, Canada, Canadia, what is happening?
2:59
Twins John Paul and Jean Marie Bobeer lose their parents in a
3:03
car crash, which is very sad, very sad.
3:07
Anyways, their mom's cousins, the Martins take them in and
3:12
they can't afford to raise both kids.
3:15
So Jean Marie is sent off to a Catholic girls school and the
3:19
twins grow up not knowing each other.
3:20
But I feel like the Catholic girls school will be expensive
3:23
too. I just want to point out I don't
3:27
know anything about Catholic girls schools.
3:28
But yeah, just moving, moving on, moving on.
3:33
When the Martins pass away, 6 year old John Paul ends up in
3:37
the foster care system. So it was all for nothing.
3:40
He still ended up in the system as a teenager.
3:43
John Paul gets caught stealing by Raymond Belmondi or Belmond.
3:48
I can't imagine his name is pronounced Raymond Belmond,
3:52
right? Oh my God, I don't know who
3:55
surprisingly doesn't turn him in.
3:56
Instead, he becomes a mentor and a father figure.
4:00
Raymond helps John Paul deal with the fact that he's immune
4:03
and also gay. He introduces him to skiing,
4:06
which John Paul falls in love with.
4:09
He also helps him learn to control his super speed.
4:12
Later, John Paul joins a circus and becomes an impressive
4:16
trapeze artist. He finally feels he's found a
4:19
family, but he's still angry and and he ends up joining the
4:23
radical separatist group Front Deliberation du Quebec.
4:28
I'm so impressed with myself right now.
4:31
As a Courier for one of its more extreme selves, he gets involved
4:35
in a bombing plot, but after saving innocent people from the
4:38
blast, he realizes he doesn't agree with their violent ways
4:41
and cuts ties with the groups altogether.
4:44
John Paul gets back into skiing, secretly using his powers to
4:48
become the world famous and wealthy Olympic gold medalist.
4:51
I would too. I'm not going to lie to you.
4:53
Keep it 100. I would 100% do that.
4:56
Around this time, Canada's Department H is putting together
4:59
a superhuman team called Alpha Flight.
5:01
The team's leader, James Hudson, AKA Vindicator, later Guardian,
5:07
sees a photo of John Paul and notices he looks a lot like one
5:11
of their new recruits, Aurora. Turns out they're twins.
5:15
When they reunite and touch, they create a blinding flash of
5:19
light, shocking everyone. Jean Paul is thrilled to find
5:22
out he is a sister and joins Alpha Flight as North Star,
5:25
mostly to be with her, even though he's not super into the
5:29
whole superhero gig. As a part of Alpha Flight, the
5:32
twins team up with heroes like Shaman, Snowbird, Sasquatch, and
5:38
their leader Guardian. They go on tons of wild
5:41
missions, including a few run insurance with the X-Men.
5:44
As part of Alpha Flight, the twins team up with heroes like
5:47
Shaman, Snowbird, Sasquatch, and their leader Guardian.
5:51
They go on tons of wild missions, including a few run
5:54
insurance with the X-Men. But Alpha Flight eventually
5:57
disbands and that's when he joins the X-Men and then becomes
6:02
a more teaching role for the young mutants of Alpha Squadron.
6:08
So I want to get into he man, he has such an iconic character,
6:16
but his story is very sad. His coming out story is very,
6:22
very sad. So I will get into it.
6:25
Just a trigger warning for baby death.
6:32
I don't really know how to go about that without saying it
6:34
like that. I'm so sorry, but that is your
6:35
trigger warning so be careful. In Alpha flight number one O 6,
6:40
he finds a baby in a dumpster. John Paul promptly adopts the
6:44
baby and names her Joanne Bobeer, only to learn that she
6:47
is HIV positive. The media picks up the story,
6:51
sparking an outpouring of sympathy for the baby and
6:54
infuriating an obscure retired superhero named Major Maple
6:58
Leaf, which is so Canadian, created specifically for this
7:04
issue, who burst through the wall of the hospital like the
7:07
kool-aid man to UN alive. This little baby.
7:11
John Paul defends her with his life, and as they smash their
7:15
way across the city, Maple Leaf screams that his son also died
7:19
of AIDS, but because he was gay, no one cared.
7:23
Sadly, Joanna does not survive. The experience pushes John Paul
7:27
to go public about being gay, hoping his openness will spark
7:31
more honest conversations around HIV awareness and prevention.
7:37
Do not presume to lecture me on the hardships homosexuals must
7:41
bear. No one knows them better than I,
7:44
John Paul says as he's swinging his fists.
7:47
For while I am not inclined to discuss my sexuality with people
7:52
for whom it is none of their business, I am gay.
7:56
That ends that quote. Later, he starts dating Kyle.
7:59
It's not always been easy balancing superhero duties in a
8:03
relationship, but after some ups and downs, they make it work and
8:06
eventually tie the knot. Let's talk about North Star's
8:11
powers. Norsar can move and fly at
8:14
superhuman speed. He basically taps into the
8:16
energy in his body at a molecular level, converting it
8:20
into a forward motion. In theory, he could get close to
8:23
99% the speed of light, but in reality, things like breathing
8:28
and the insane amount of friction would seriously mess
8:31
him up before he got anywhere near that.
8:33
To protect himself, he can tweak his molecules in a way that
8:37
makes his skin tougher, so he can handle speeds up to at least
8:42
a Mach 10 without getting hurt by wind or turbulence.
8:47
Thanks to a temporary power boost from the Children of the
8:50
Vault, his speed and durability got even better for a while.
8:55
When he's carrying someone who's not protected, though, he keeps
8:58
the speed at around 60 mph so they're still able to breathe.
9:02
He's trained himself to breathe just fine at much higher speeds.
9:06
Northstar can also speed up parts of his body independently,
9:10
like his fists, so he can land super fast punches in combat.
9:15
On top of that, he can manipulate his molecules to
9:18
create a super bright burst of light, kind of like a human
9:21
lighthouse. That used to only happen when he
9:24
and his sister Aurora touched, but at times they've been able
9:27
to do it solo. It seems like things have gone
9:30
back to the original setup when they need each other to pull it
9:34
off outside the powers. John Paul.
9:38
Like I said, he's a top tier skier, a skilled trapeze artist
9:41
from his circus days, and fluent in both French and English.
9:46
One of Alpha Flight's big missions was to bring back
9:50
Wolverine AKA Logan after he left the Canadian government to
9:54
join the X-Men. They ambushed the X-Men in the
9:57
Calgary managed to capture Wolverine, but he escaped almost
10:01
right away. After that, the government
10:03
basically gave up on getting him back and eventually Department H
10:07
shut down, causing Alpha Flight 2 disband.
10:11
Later on, while visiting his sister Aurora, Northstar
10:15
discovered that her strict religious upbringing caused her
10:18
to develop a split personality. One side bold and carefree and
10:21
the other side shy and quiet. When James Hudson, AKA Guardian,
10:26
brought Alpha Flight back, now running independently without
10:30
government backing, Northstar rejoined to keep an eye on her.
10:33
Her ongoing personality and struggles pushed him to seek
10:36
professional help, but he couldn't go too far without
10:39
risking their secret identities. During a visit with his old
10:43
mentor Belmond, Northstar witnessed Belmond being unalived
10:49
by Deadly Earnest, who had kidnapped Aurora.
10:53
With the help of Nemesis and Ernest's daughter, he rescued
10:56
Aurora, but she was furious when she found out John Paul had
10:59
assumed she seduced Ernest to save herself.
11:04
Their argument ended up with her cutting ties completely and John
11:08
Paul left Alpha Flight. Aurora, wanting to be even more
11:12
different than her brother, had Sasquatch modify her powers.
11:16
When she later found out about North Star's terrorist past, she
11:21
threatened to expose him. Despite all that, they
11:23
eventually patched things up after Sasquatch apparent death
11:26
and fought the Hulk together in Vancouver.
11:29
During the fight, they realized that touching each other now
11:31
canceled out their powers, an unintended result of Aurora's
11:35
changes. The same battle convinced the
11:39
Canadian government to reinstate Alpha Flight, and North Star
11:42
rejoined. He goes back and forth a lot and
11:45
it's whatever. His past with a terrorist group
11:47
came back to haunt him when a vigilante named Scourge started
11:50
hunting former members. But Scourge was eventually taken
11:54
down and the Prime Minister pardoned John Paul.
11:57
Soon after, North Star saved a woman from a suicide attempt
12:00
during a ski event, exposing his powers to the in the process.
12:05
This led to accusations that he had cheated in past
12:08
competitions, ending any chance of going back to the
12:11
professional sports. But he did cheat, so like
12:14
accusations. Not long after that, North Star
12:17
felt seriously ill, thanks in part to the villain Pestilence.
12:22
While Alpha Fly searching for a cure, Loki showed up with a wild
12:27
story that the twins were actually as guardian light
12:30
Elves, and John Paul was dying because he lacked access to his
12:33
light. Aurora used her powers to heal
12:36
him, but then got captured and dragged into the realm of the
12:39
Dark Elves. John Paul, unaware of her fate,
12:42
went to Asgard. Eventually, the gods scolded
12:45
Logie for his lies, and he tried to make amends by returning
12:49
Aurora to Earth. Alpha Flight later rescued John
12:53
Paul and in a battle against the sorcerer Liam, he helped restore
12:57
Aurora's powers, now with the added ability for both siblings
13:01
to generate light on their own. After Alpha Flight disbanded
13:04
again, a bigoted businessman named Carl Carriage framed
13:08
Northstar for murder. The Canadian government sent
13:11
Weapon Prime after him, and he was also targeted by the
13:14
assassin Arcade. With the help from former
13:18
teammate Heather Hudson, who goes by Vindicator now cleared
13:22
his name. John Paul later teamed up with
13:25
his old Alpha Flight crew to expose the shady new version of
13:28
Department H and to take down a revived Weapon X.
13:31
He wrote an autobiography called Born Normal, and while promoting
13:35
it at a book signing in Philly, Jean Grey recruited him for a
13:37
temporary X-Men mission to stop Magneto.
13:40
Back in Canada, John Paul became a successful businessman, but
13:44
when Professor X invited him to teach at the Xavier Institute,
13:48
he agreed, especially after witnessing a young mutant's
13:51
tragic death during a mission. This is when he started teaching
13:55
the Alpha Squadron, which has been brought up a few times.
13:59
Sorry. Later Northstar was killed by a
14:02
brainwashed Wolverine as part of a hydroplot then brought back to
14:06
life. Also brainwashed and used to
14:08
lead Hydra forces. He ended up seriously injuring
14:11
Nick Fury while under mind control and went on a violent
14:14
rampage targeting the anti mutant bigots.
14:18
Wolverine eventually stopped him and Northstar was taken into
14:21
SHIELD custody. Held in a virtual reality prison
14:25
where time passed faster, Jean Paul resisted deprogramming.
14:29
He was freed by the Children of the Vault, who used him in a now
14:33
brainwashed Aurora in a mission to kill Sabretooth.
14:36
The twins were captured by the X-Men, who tried to heal their
14:41
fractured minds using AVR therapy loop in their life
14:44
stories. Though the session was
14:48
interrupted, it helped. The twins later helped the X-Men
14:51
during a scroll invasion. John Paul also started a new
14:55
company, Team North Star Extreme Snow Sports, with his boyfriend
15:00
Kyle. Eventually, Wolverine convinced
15:03
him to rejoin the X-Men. He helped stop Norman Osborne's
15:07
Dark X-Men and rescued Magic from Limbo.
15:11
Despite the ongoing strain between hero work and his
15:13
relationship, John, Paul and Kyle finally worked things out
15:18
and got hitched. After the events of the Chaos
15:22
War, North Star reunited with a resurrected Alpha Flight, but
15:26
chose not to rejoin them full time.
15:28
Instead, he moved back to Canada with Kyle.
15:32
During the age of X-Men reality, where everyone was immune and
15:37
romantic relationships were outlawed, North Star became part
15:40
of Department XA kind of mutant police force.
15:44
Haunted by dreams of his real life with Kyle, he eventually
15:47
joined a rebellion alongside Jubilee, Iceman, and others.
15:52
When Psylocke restored everyone's memories, North Star
15:55
remembered his past and rekindled his friendship with
15:57
Iceman. Back in the real world, North
16:00
Star relocated to Krakoa, the new sovereign mutant nation.
16:05
There he and Aurora joined Cyclops, LED scouting missions,
16:09
and continued their role in building a new future for
16:12
mankind. So that is the iconic character
16:16
of North Star. It's John Paul is a great
16:21
character. A lot of depths that went into
16:24
making his character. As always, I have comic book
16:30
recommendations I think you should check out, starting with
16:34
Uncanny X-Men #120 Alpha Flight 106, Astonishing X-Men Volume 3
16:44
#51, Astonishing X-Men 48 through 68, X Factor Volume 4,
16:53
Amazing X-Men Volume 2, and Uncanny X-Men #410 and so on
17:00
from there. So I hope you let this character
17:03
breakdown. With that being said, have a
17:05
marvelous day.