The Model Mutant

Bizarre Adventures #27 (July 1981) included three vignettes starring past or present X-Men: Iceman, Phoenix, and Nightcrawler. Iceman's story took place at a winter carnival featuring ice sculptures of numerous superheroes. In his civilian identity as Bobby Drake, the mutant hero noticed that Angel was the only X-Man with a sculpture. It doesn't seem fair, he thought, and then used his powers to add an Iceman sculpture to the display.

At this point, Angel had a unique place among the X-Men. In spite of the public's prejudice against mutants, Angel had publicly disclosed his true identity as Warren Worthington III. His feathered wings had a favorable connotation, in contrast to Nightcrawler's blue skin and tail. Additionally, Angel's ability to fly made his mutation largely unthreatening. This combination of factors made Angel more palatable to the general public than most mutants.

Defenders of Light and Dark

The Queen in Black storyline prompted Iron Man to organize two strike teams to do battle against Hela. Led by Iron Man, Team Dark included Agent Anti-Venom, Cable, Darkstar and Cloak. Team Light, on the other hand, included Beta Ray Bill, Photon, Sunfire and Dagger. Each issue of the limited series displays the classic Defenders nameplate on the cover, but Iron Man's passing reference to the teams as Earth's Defenders seemed incidental (#1).

I purchased this edition of Defenders of Light and Dark #1 (September 2026) with a variant cover featuring Cable and Cloak.

Dr. Strange's Mystic Maze

This creative maze appeared in Fun and Games Magazine #1 (Sept. 1979).

Quadruple Word Find

This puzzle from Fun and Games Magazine #1 (Sept. 1979) asked readers to find the names of each of these heroes four times:

Power Man Valkyrie Hawkeye Ghost Rider Nick Fury Moondragon Nova

Most of these characters were Defenders or would become Defenders at some point.

Pat Walker

Although they occasionally dated other people, Buzz Baxter and Patsy Walker were high school sweethearts. As a sign of their deepening connection, Buzz eventually started calling her Pat from time to time, while everyone else still knew her as Patsy. Rival classmate Hedy Wolfe, meanwhile, often referred to her as Red.

The covers of Patsy Walker #112 (Dec. 1963) and #114 (April 1964) show Buzz Baxter calling her Pat.