Normal Topic New Mutants and Levels (Read 805 times)
polarboy
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New Mutants and Levels
Nov 28th, 2017 at 1:21am
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I'm very excited about the New Mutants movie scheduled to release on April 13, 2018. It occurred to me that the New Mutants as they appeared in the 1980s make for an excellent team to discuss the concept of levels and how they might relate to character growth within a comic book.

Let's assume that Cannonball, Sunspot, Wolfsbane, and Psyche (later Mirage) have zero experience when they debut in the New Mutants Graphic Novel, which takes place just before New Mutants #1.

If we look back at that original series, which issue would you estimate the New Mutants advanced to second level? How about third level? Or even fourth level?

To help job your memory, here's a link to the New Mutants covers ...

http://www.coverbrowser.com/covers/new-mutants
« Last Edit: Nov 28th, 2017 at 1:24am by polarboy »  
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Majestic
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Re: New Mutants and Levels
Reply #1 - Nov 28th, 2017 at 2:16pm
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I don't remember those issues enough to hazard a guess, but this reminds me of what I did for Alpha Flight back in high school.

To figure out what level each character was of that team, I went through and calculated how much XP each of them got per issue (at the time it only went up to something like issue #12); then I advanced each character and leveled them appropriately.
  
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polarboy
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Re: New Mutants and Levels
Reply #2 - Nov 28th, 2017 at 7:40pm
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Majestic wrote on Nov 28th, 2017 at 2:16pm:
I don't remember those issues enough to hazard a guess, but this reminds me of what I did for Alpha Flight back in high school.

To figure out what level each character was of that team, I went through and calculated how much XP each of them got per issue (at the time it only went up to something like issue #12); then I advanced each character and leveled them appropriately.


Majestic, if you happen to remember any of your notes about Alpha Flight, that would be fun to read. At the time of Alpha Flight #1, the team had fought against the X-Men, then half of them went up Wendigo while the other half went against Machine-Man, and then everyone except Snowbird helped Thing battle a mystical giant. Sasquatch had made a few guest appearances on his own by this time.

We know that Puck rose through Gamma/Beta flight faster than anyone and fought against someone called the Black Bishop prior to Alpha #1.

Marrina is definitely 1st level in Alpha Flight #1.

Snowbird, from what we saw at this time, had more experience than Marrina.

Shaman, Northstar, and Aurora had more experience than Snowbird.

Vindicator would have slightly more experience than the others -- except for Sasquatch, who arguably had the most experience of everyone by Alpha Flight #1 (depending on how much we want to infer about Puck).

« Last Edit: Nov 28th, 2017 at 11:27pm by polarboy »  
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Majestic
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Re: New Mutants and Levels
Reply #3 - Nov 29th, 2017 at 3:34pm
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Sadly, I no longer have much from back then.  And though I held on to multiple folders full of the Marvel and DC heroes' V&V character sheets my friend and I made back then, I gave them back to him a number of years ago. Sad
  
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Ranger
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Re: New Mutants and Levels
Reply #4 - Dec 4th, 2017 at 1:46am
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Strangely I was a fan of New Mutants for a while (not a big fan of most post classic X-Men) and I would estimate a noticed growth in the characters give or take about every 12 issues.
  

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polarboy
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Re: New Mutants and Levels
Reply #5 - Dec 5th, 2017 at 11:54pm
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Ranger wrote on Dec 4th, 2017 at 1:46am:
Strangely I was a fan of New Mutants for a while (not a big fan of most post classic X-Men) and I would estimate a noticed growth in the characters give or take about every 12 issues.



Yes, I would argue that the original members had definitely leveled up by the time Kitty Pryde was demoted to the team in New Mutants #13 and through their original adventures with Magik and against the Hellions.

By the time of their first encounter Legion (and the book's artwork radically changes), they seemed to have leveled up again.

Beyond that point, I'm not sure. But they definitely seemed to progress in confidence and skill.

  
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