The final trailer for Fox's Deadpool 2 dropped earlier this morning, and with it came our first clear look at Deadpool's X-Force. Along with Terry Crews' Bedlam and Zazie Beetz's Domino, the teaser offers a good look at a character that's been in the background of earlier trailers: Lewis Tan's Shatterstar, the man rocking fabulously long red hair and a star tattoo on his left eye.
Like most of the new mutants in the film, Shatterstar is probably not familiar to audiences who aren't a deep into X-Men canon. He first showed up in 1991's New Mutants #99 (by Fabien Nicieza and Rob Liefeld) as Gaveedra Seven, a genetically altered humanoid from the planet Mojoworld, though he also hails from a century into the future. Created to be a slave by the tyrant king Mojo, Shatterstar was genetically engineered as a human gladiator and fought for his king's various television programs - think American Gladiator with actual killing. Because death was so common and pervasive in his life, he learned about honor and pride in being a warrior over the course of his numerous battles. Eventually, he escaped Mojo's rule and joined the rebel force known as the Cadre Alliance as a freedom fighter.
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During his time with the Alliance, Shatterstar was sent back in time to Earth in order to gain help from the X-Men. However, he wound up arriving at the time that Cable was reorganizing the splinter X-Men group known as X-Force, and thus missed meeting the X-Men proper. Cable, Domino and the New Mutants team all fought him at first, but Shatterstar was eventually able to successfully plead his case for help and became one of the founding members of the new X-Force.
It's here that things took a turn for the strange, which is, frankly, nothing new for an X-Men character.
While he was in the present day, Shatterstar came to have memories of the life of a man named Benjamin Russell, someone he'd most certainly wouldn't know considering he's from another planet, not to mention form the future. After a fight with the Mojo of the present day left him with a serious injury, he and fellow X-Force members Longshot, Cable and Siryn were taken to a mental institution in Vermont. One of the patients there was a mutant named Benjamin Russell, who looked like Shatterstar, had no living relatives, and had conveniently been in a coma since his powers emerged. Longshot was able to transfer Shatterstar's soul into Ben's body, making Ben look like Shatterstar in the process, and they merged into one being. For the first time in his life, being one with Ben made him feel "whole" -- and it wasn't explained why until 2013.
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As it turns out, Shatterstar the son of Longshot and Dazzler. In 1992, it was hinted as such, and 1995's X-Force #45 confirmed Shatterstar had Longshot's DNA back. When Dazzler had revealed her pregnancy to Longshot back in '92, he suggested "Shatterstar" for the kid's name, but she was later seen without the child. For a long time, it was just thought that she had miscarried, but Peter David's X-Factor run in 2013 established that the child's future self actually wiped his parents' memories of his birth, and sent his younger self to the future.
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It sounds relatively simple, except for the part where the parentage is all wrong. In the "Hell on Earth War" storyline, Shatterstar and his boyfriend Rictor are blasted by Mephisto into Mojoworld's "past": the era of his arrival in Mojoworld. Unlike the other Mojoworld rebels, Shatterstar wasn't created by the one known as Arize, he just appeared from the sky one day. Using Shatterstar's genetic material, Arize was able to create Longshot, making Shatterstar his dad's dad. Shatterstar and Rictor later arrive in the future of Mojoworld where Dazzler is giving birth to...him, so Shatterstar wipes his parents memories, steals his baby self, and delivers himself to the future of Mojoworld. He was able to successfully deliver himself and ensure his future, and both he and Rictor made it back to the present day as of Secret Empire.
Now, it's doubtful that Deadpool 2 will present the whole "I'm my own grandfather" thing to the audience (unless it leads to a killer Jerry Springer joke), but we will see on the big screen -- and what's actually important -- are his swords. With them, he can create portals or powerful shockwaves. It takes a lot of energy to do so, but they prove to be useful for a getaway or to finish an enemy off. Combined with the enhanced strength, reflexes, and intelligence, it's easy to see why the Merc with a Mouth would include him in his X-Force team in the fight against Cable.
There's also the matter of Shatter's sexuality which is also... complicated. Originally, the character was involved with a woman named Windsong, who was meant to be his "bond mate." But she died before they could meet in the Mojoverse, and he later said that he just never felt any sexual stirrings or romantic love, indicating he was asexual. Shatterstar's co-creator Rob Liefeld himself said as much, and Fabian Nicieza said that he'd written his final issue of X-Force with the confirmation that Shatter was asexual because he needed to learn about human behavior before he learned about sexuality. Shatter was planned to think he was in love with Rictor, a male mutant and X-Force teammate, before coming to see that he simply valued his partner greatly as he learned to differentiate between the emotions and understanding them.
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But whatever intention the two original creators had, other writers at Marvel didn't follow them. Jeph Loeb wanted to make Shatterstar and Rictor a couple when he was writing X-Force, but left before that could happen. Later, writer Peter David made their relationship official with kiss during his 2009 X-Factor run. David and then Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada both defended the decision; David drew inspiration from Doctor Who/Torchwood character Jack Harkness, and the attraction is one other Shatterstar and Rictor writers picked up on as well. As a result of David's writing his and Rictor's relationship, Shatterstar is currently both bisexual and polyamorous. It hasn't been indicated whether this'll be in the film, though given that Negasonic Teenage Warhead's been said to be gay, and Deadpool himself has shown some evidence of being queer in the films, it wouldn't be too surprising.
As one of the founding members of X-Force, both in the comics and in the films, it remains to be seen if Shatterstar will stick around for future installments in the Deadpool Cinematic Universe. Both Cable and Domino are confirmed for multiple films, but Tan hasn't revealed whether he has a similar deal as Brolin and Beetz. Here's hoping he does, if only because that ponytail is too good to appear in just one film.
Debuting May 18, director David Leitch’s Deadpool 2 stars Ryan Reynolds as the titular Deadpool, Morena Baccarin as Vanessa, T.J. Miller as Weasel, Leslie Uggams as Blind Al, Brianna Hildebrand as Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Stefan Kapičić as Colossus, Zazie Beetz as Domino and Josh Brolin as Cable.