Today I am outsourcing "Bad Super Costume Wednesday" to our friends at UGO. Specifically, for this guy:
K. Thor Jensen's writeup pretty much says it all:
Adam X The X-Treme may be the most 90s superhero ever. His name even has "Extreme" in it, for God's sake. Check it off the list: backwards baseball cap? Goatee? Mullet? Mullet and what I guess are supposed to be dreadlocks but look more like pigtails? Spikes and sharp things everywhere? This guy probably got his powers from taking a bath in radioactive Mountain Dew.
Aside from pouches and the singular achievement of killing off comics for a decade, I think the greatest Image legacy is making pigtails on super-heroes normal. That's just so sweet.
Wow. Something so extreme it doesn’t need the “e” to slow it down.
I would love to watch him sneeze. Oh wait, he’s so extreme he probably just lets them fly instead of trying to cover his mouth. Even turning his head would be dangerous. I see a nose on the floor after the first one.
You seem to be forgetting the Scarlet Spider-esque ripped sleeves. This may be the single most 90’s character ever created. Unless you count the new Wonder Girl armor from this Teen Titians cover: http://media.dcentertainment.com/sites/default/files/TT_Cv11_0.jpg
According to artist, Brett booth, there is actually a reason for all of the spikes, though he never elaborated on what that reason might be.
I am so pleased to note that, despite my backlog of useless comics knowledge, I have absolutely no idea who this character is.
But, WOW, lookit all those BLADES! How the hell does he walk through a room without spilling several quarts of blood (either his own or some unfortunate bystander?)
Sadly, I cannot say the same as John. I am somewhat familiar with Adam-X, a mutant from Earth who was somehow Shiar too. I think he was originally supposed to be the elusive Third Summers Brother.
Leave it to the 90s to give Shredder spikes to a good guy.
This is pritty bad, but what do you expect from the company who gave you 70’s Powerman and Hypno Hustler! If I need a good old fasion blood letting put old Adam on my contact list!
Marvel actually made a figure of this fool, and I worked in a comic shop when it was released. We had to take one out, because of how terrible he was. The figure actually didn’t have the hat, but he did have a pony-knob to finish the mullet-cornrows-pigtails combo. He also came with axe throwing action, which they had to give him because his “powers” were so stupid that there was no way to make them on a toy. For those of you who don’t know, he had the ability to fry an opponets blood, after it was exposed to air. Looking back, he had to have been an inside joke by someone at Marvel. He’s a complete stereo type of everything bad about “EXTREME” comics, he debuted in X-Force, and his power was to make your blood boil. The worst part about ol’ Adam X? He was supposed to be the 3rd Summers brother. Really.
Imagine him trying to snog Phoenix (Rachel Summers) in the Hound costume from the Excalibur days!
Seems like all those 90’s characters just needed a hug.
One question though, When he goes to the can, how does he wipe with those things? Just wonderin’……
just found this on wikipedia:
“Cyclops utilized to try to stop Juggernaut, Adam X was used to ignite Juggernaut’s blood. The result was “worse than ineffective” as Juggernaut remained unstoppable, and for 15 minutes, burned anything he touched”
So yeah – pretty useless
Have at buddy, with all those spikes, that doesn’t look like a good idea. Although that comment about how does he wipe was pretty funny. I’m guessing, because he’s so “extreme,” he doesn’t bother, and just lets the crusties build up….ewww.
Okay, this guy has just surpassed Shatterstar as the object of my derision for stupid ’90s characters.
Aww, who am I kidding? I hate them both.
I’ve no idea who this guy is, but he looks the way I imagine a redneck spawnchild of Thor and Wolverine would look.
it’s like they took the most 90s/80s elements of azrael batman, thor, sabretooth, and threw in a backwards hat so you really knew he was “a tough guy character from the 90s”.
Get rid of the dreads, the soul patch, and the backwards hat and he could easily pass for some one-shot “head minion”-type guy working for Doctor Doom or whoever. Were that the case, the costume might not be so bad.
I gotta say, I’m digging the Tron-suit on Superboy. Is this from the New 52?
I must admit I was unaware of Scarlet Spider. I looked up images of him and my brain is itching as it tries to visually repress the absurd blue shirt on his red uniform. For some reason this offends me more than a lot of visual atrocities in the comic book world.
As I often say, “There’s nothing sadder than a white guy with dreadlocks.” I have been proven wrong. There’s nothing sadder than a white guy with dreadlocks wearing a t-shirt that has Schick blades glued to it.
Wow. Looking at this picture, all that’s missing is blank white eyes and thigh pouches.
Also, the longer I look, the more I wonder whether this is a parody or if they were actually serious about him.
Yeah, it is. At least it’s not the cut-off sleeves they used on the cover of Issue 1 of Teen Titans.
Oh, it wasn’t just a shirt, it was a hoodie without sleeves. It was at the beginning of the Clone Saga, but somehow made its way into the 90s era cartoon.
Two things: First, the good news. I just did an interview the other day with Joey Esposito, the Comics Editor at IGN. Sorry for fraternizing with the competition, Jeff. Anywho, here’s the interview, which is actually more of a profile piece. — http://mcknightsreview.blogspot.com/2012/04/comically-speaking-interview-with-joey.html
And now for the bad news. This actually just happened. I bought it from my local comic shop. My brain is trying to figure out whether to laugh/cry/vomit/give up hope on humanity. — http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JoO9zqkjjNs/TwhtnNoljaI/AAAAAAAAHjU/SFfuMHNO4RY/s1600/deadpooh.jpg
If I have to live with that image seared into my brain, then so do you. MUAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Double-you. Tee. Eff? Seriously? What jackhole thought that was a good idea? I…no, seriously? I just, I don’t have words for what a bad idea…you know what, I’m just going to go, curl up into the fetal position, and weep for humanity.
He pretty much ends up fighting everyone but Rabbit and Owl in this thing plus over-grown Gummy Bears, who are manufactured henchmen of Christopher Robin (Robinson.) Yeah. Pretty horrible.
Hunh. See, if I saw that I’d think it might be fun, depending on how it was done.
Its one of those things that’s so horrible it’s awesome, but only if you don’t read it more than once.
I can buy that Adam X was intended as a poke at the EXTREME conventions of the day. On the other hand, that seems to be the explanation for EVERY bad costume from the Nineties. I wonder how many of them would have said so at the time, and how many are engaging in revisionist history …
I’m torn on the subject, only because he was intended from the start to be a gimik character. His debut was in X-Force Annual #2 from 1993. Every annual that year featured a brand new character. Now it’s possible that he was just a product of 90’s bad taste, look at poor Genis-Vell here. Same as Adam X, this was his first appearence, and he’s just full of bad 90’s costume dreck. On the other hand, since Adam X did come from X-Force, it could be argued that he was intended to be a shot at Liefeld, who had already left to go form Image and create a whole universe of Adam X level awfulness.
This probably looked good in his head or he liked Dark Supergirl (Darkseid controlled) a whole lot or she is in that time of month and doesn’t want to be hugged by her BF (Superboy)
I think it’s more to do with one of the gods controlling her armor and therefore controlling her while she wears it.
So she can hold memos and receipts.
for me, its a genius costume!, lets think that his spiky costume is actually a limiter to control his power O.o
Agreed, I always say the saddest creatures on the planet are blacks who dye thier hair blond and white dudes with dreads!
Wow, I find the extreme-ness of this extreme character the be extreme-ly extreme!
Well, now we know where Lobdell got his idea for the new Arsenal design.