Kewl! Me, I think I like the characters I like for their untapped potential more than anything... And Madison Jeffries is LOADED with untapped or misused potential... as are Wildchild and Diamond Lil.... Once I start to get ideas of my own I get really attached. I have really mixed feeling about how Jeffries has been handled over time... On the one hand I think him trying to replace Mac as the Alpha Male kind of followed Byrne's story... Jeffries was the dark horse who saves the day, after all, and gives a nice little speech about his admiration for what Mac stood for... right before throwing his friends under the bus to run off with Alpha Flight. I think if you look at Madison Jeffries as someone who's trying too hard to be something he's not, a lot of the things people have done with him start to make sense. I'm missing most of Mantlo's run, save for some of the less offensive issues, but I've finally caught up on this thread which has been helpful. I totally agree that Mantlo went WTF overboard with pushing Jeffries and Heather, and am bummed about how things went down with poor Bochs... so unecasary... And Aurora will forever have that psycho-***** third personality for writers to exploit now... Frank Tieri's handling of her outside of AF for example.
The thing that bugs me about when he hooks back up with Lil is how in one panel she calls him 'Mr. Jeffries' which is just weird for an ex-lover to do... and then she tries to apologize for Omega Flight and he says 'it's ok, I know all about that' or whatever.... Was that Hudnal or Mantlo...? I mean... it makes no sense... she's apologizing to the man who threw her under the bus for her mind control, and of course he knows all about it... just... wut?! I really wish they'd never hooked back up. Lil deserved better than Madison Jeffries, quite frankly! You'll see why I say that later on! And yes, I think you'll like her, she has a really cool story in LiveWorld at one point, despite the painful art.
Speaking of which, I'd love to attempt to re-draw some of that run for practice, if anyone has the time to transcribe the script, even for just one decent issue. I'm missing some of Hudnal's run, too, and I also don't want to draw directly from the bad artist's work because I find it influences me and limits how I can picture the story.
I liked that about Jeffries, too. Pretty much all my AF favorites are down on their luck, working class, and/or outcasts. I can rationalize the change in Jeffries being him 'taking his big chance' and getting carried away... That's how I reconcile a lot of his history, personally.
Eeeeeew Tieri.
If I ever worked for marvel I'd draw him with that squinty eye'd face and the nose that looked like it's been broken several times that Byrne had designed. That was a believable character. Last time I saw him he looked like Reed Richard's long lost brother, though, and acted like he'd become autistic or something... Have I missed anything good, or is this more a case of the absence of outstandingly bad developments passing as good enough? I just think he's gone from being stupidly over powered to completely pathetic wet noodle, personally. Kind of sad.