1980s
Ann Nocenti wrote the story for the Longshot limited series (1985-1986). After most of Marvel's artists declined to take on the project, it was offered to aspiring artist Arthur Adams, whose samples had been given to editor Carl Potts and Nocenti, his assistant editor, by editor Al Milgrom.
Explaining the concept of the character, which Nocenti borrowed from existentialist writers, she states, "Longshot is the idea of stripping someone of everything that they are. I never read comics, so the idea of a hero to me was different. I couldn't think of it in terms of a 'super hero' hero. I thought of it more as a conceptual hero. Not having a comic book background, I tend to come up with the metaphysics before I come up with the characters. I knew that I wanted to deal with the metaphysics of luck. It was a concept that interested me...what luck is, what probability is, how you could shift probabilities towards yourself. What are the repercussions of that? So, I did a character centered around that idea." Nocenti describes Longshot's state at the beginning of the miniseries by referring to him as "a clean slate. He has no memories, no past, no name, no nothing...In a sense, what I was trying to do was strip someone down to where he had none of the crutches that we normally have. Memory, in a way, is a crutch, or your name, or what you believe you are. So, Longshot's odyssey begins with some very basic questions: Who is he? Why is he here? Ultimately, he goes on a quest for his past and finds it in search of him."[2]
A design for the character of Longshot was put forward by Carl Potts, who outfitted the character in a jumpsuit that Adams thought to be reminiscent of the Starfleet uniforms from Star Trek: The Motion Picture.[3] Nocenti suggested that Longshot look distinct from other superheroes. She prescribed that he be an alien, have only four fingers on each hand, and has an unusual spine, though this last trait was not mentioned in the comics.[4] Adams created his own design, and wanting to distinguish the character visually, based his mullet haircut on that of musician Limahl, as no other major Marvel character had such a haircut.[3] Adams, who disliked the practice of having characters produce weapons and other devices from their boots or secret pockets that had never before been established, decided to include some pouches on the character's belt, a practice that influenced the artwork of the founders of Image Comics.[5] Nocenti came up with the idea of having Longshot's left eye glow when he uses his power for noble causes: "I was living in a loft on 26th and Sixth and we had a one-eyed cat. I'd go out at night and I'd see this one eye [glowing in the dark]."[6]
Longshot debuted in a six-issue, eponymous 1985–1986 mini-series. The series established the "Mojoverse", an alien dimension whose residents are addicted to televised gladiator-like entertainment and ruled by the tyrannical network head Mojo. Longshot possesses probability-altering or "luck" powers, and is an action star who escapes enslavement by Mojo. With no memory of who he is, he embarks on a series of adventures with the people he encounters, among them Ricochet Rita, who Adams modeled after Nocenti.[6] A Longshot ongoing series with Nocenti and Adams as the creative team was announced in 1988. According to Nocenti, "every issue is going to throw him into a completely different universe. So one issue, he's going to enter the world of the dead, and one issue he's going to go into a future world where he meets ageing heroes..."[7] However, the series never materialized. Mephisto was to be the central villain;[7] shortly after the series was cancelled, Nocenti began using Mephisto as a major villain in Daredevil.
After the miniseries, Longshot joined the X-Men in Uncanny X-Men Annual #10 in 1986, and remained with them until Uncanny X-Men #248 (September 1989).
1990s and after
Longshot appears in a story arc beginning in X-Men #10 (July 1992) by Jim Lee. He subsequently made occasional appearances in various Marvel books, such as Exiles, the 1997 one-shot Fools, and X-Factor (vol. 3), a book whose cast he joined in issue #35 (November 2008). He remained a part of that cast until that book's cancellation in 2013.
In November 2013, Marvel premiered Longshot Saves the Marvel Universe, a four-issue miniseries written by Christopher Hastings and illustrated by Jacopo Camagni.[8]
