45 – MOJO II
9 May
Subject: Mojo II
Real Name: Mojo II
Height: Unknown Weight: Unknown
Group Affiliation: None
First Appearance: X-Men Annual #1, April 1992
Power Ratings:
- Energy Projection: 1/7
- Mental Powers: 1/7
- Strength: 1/7
- Fighting Ability: 1/7
- Intelligence: 4/7
So not wanting to be behind on posting, most of these entries were written WAY ahead of time. In fact the first entries were written back in April of 2010, 9 months before the site launched at all. I wanted enough of a buffer to allow me to take extended breaks and still not be under pressure to update (which would be very annoying in the middle of an actual deadline).
This entry for Mojo II was my return after one such extended break, and a lot of it had to do with how stupid of a character this was to have to review; I just wasn’t looking forward to it at all. Mojo II is the result of having to “modernize” Mojo, a memorable but unorthodox villain that had fallen out of heavy rotation by this point, a villain that won’t even appear in our lineup for another 8 cards, mind you.
Mojo II takes everything that was unique about Mojo (a huge, manic, diva-like megalomaniac who belonged to a race of hideous aliens who are so far they regressed to literally being spineless), and just made him another crazy supervillain with a feminine physique and tattered cape. He was no more menacing than his far more interesting predecessor, and as far as I know he certainly turned out to be a one-off villain (Mojo I would appear in X-comics far more often than Mojo II after Lee left).
Speaking of Lee, the art here is competent with a relatively dramatic pose and slightly canted composition. The side-B portrait is way too messy, which I guess helps show the character’s insanity, but it was pushing Lee’s ability to do exaggerated faces.
Mojo II’s Power Ratings are… who cares, really.
tags:
I can see why you were not excited about reviewing this character. With such pathetic ratings and single appearance, even I couldn’t remember who this was, and I had almost every issue of Lee’s run of X-Men.
He appeared in the X-Books’ annuals that year, crossing each series over. If I recall correctly none of it made it into the actual series.
I have the Uncanny Annual of this storyline, with some over the top art by Jae Lee, who drew some crazy proportions that actually worked for the Mojoverse (I think Jim Lee’s interpretation is inspired by Jae’s rendition, or they codesigned the character together), but it also had an Archangel with a hundred foot wingspan and everyone had a face that looked like a monster.
Mojo had captured Xavier, and the X-men. He controlled half of them, sending them to fight for one of his television shows. In the background Mojo 2, and LongShot were planning to overthrow Mojo’s government…