07 – CANNONBALL

Subject: Cannonball
Real Name: Sam Guthrie
Height: 6′ Weight: 150 lbs.
Group Affiliation: X-Force
First Appearance: New Mutants Graphic Novel 1982

Power Ratings:

• Energy Projection: 2/7
• Mental Powers: 1/7
• Strength: 2/7
• Fighting Ability: 3/7
• Intelligence: 2/7

This was the Cannonball that I was introduced to, daredevil-ish with a mop of blond hair, full muscles, and a gaudy costume complete with old flying goggles, so imagine my surprise when I saw his first appearance in New Mutants #1, where he was nothing but a lanky hick. Only then did I realize that Cannonball was simply one of the many victims of Rob Liefeld’s sense of style and anatomy. How else would you explain someone with triceps that big, being six feet tall and only 150 pounds?

Lee’s art does this modern take on Cannonball well enough, with a youthful smile on his face, except nothing about his look would inform you that he was something like a decade younger than most of the other X-Men, being a founding member of the New Mutants. His back portrait looks more appropriate, but then doesn’t match the hulking physique of the guy in the front of the card.

Power-Ratings-wise, his explosive powers are hardly represented in his nearly flatline statistics, which either shows an inaccuracy in his Energy Projection rating (which I would think his power counted as), or a textbook example of how inadequate these ratings are in highlighting the uniqueness of certain characters like Sam here.