In "When We First Met", we spotlight the various characters, phrases, objects or events that eventually became notable parts of comic lore, like the first time someone said, "Avengers Assemble!" or the first appearance of Batman's giant penny or the first appearance of Alfred Pennyworth or the first time Spider-Man's face was shown half-Spidey/half-Peter. Stuff like that.

Today, based on a request by reader William B. (perhaps inspired by the release of "Logan" this weekend), we look at when Rictor and Shatterstar, one of Marvel's most prominent gay superhero couples, first met each other.

TECHNICALLY, they first met in "X-Force" #13 (by Fabian Nicieza, Mark Pacella and Dan Panosian - the first issue of "X-Force" post-Rob Liefeld), when Weapon PRIME (sort of a Cable Revenge Squad) attacked X-Force...

It was the next issue that they actually really met, in the sense that they actually A. shared a panel together and B. spoke to each other...

So that's the answer, William!

But just for fun, let's also see where the whole "Rictor/Shatterstar in love" stuff came from.

Now, clearly, Fabian Nicieza did not intend for their relationship to be anything other than friends, but at the same time, he definitely put in some interesting groundwork that the next writer, Jeph Loeb, picked up on, for when he decided to make the friendship something more.

In "X-Force" #34 (by Fabian Nicieza, Tony Daniel, Jon Holdredge, Bud LaRosa and Harry Candelario), Shatterstar revealed that he learned Spanish so that he and Rictor could communicate privately...

In "X-Force" #43 (by Fabian Nicieza, Tony Daniel and Kevin Conrad), Rictor and Shatterstar went dancing and Shatterstar was uncomfortable when a woman hit on him. He and Rictor really showed some serious bonding here...

In the next issue, Jeph Loeb took over (with art by Adam Pollina and Mark Farmer), and it was Loeb that clearly went for "Hey, there is something between these two" when he had Rictor leave and have this be how Shatterstar took it...

Loeb was also writing "Cable" at the same time, and that book had the actual departure of Rictor in "Cable" #22 (by Jeph Loeb, Ian Churchill and Scott Hanna)...

I mean, come on.

But "X-Force" #56 was the true "I mean, come on, people, do we need to draw you a map here?" moment...

It would be well over a decade before it was finally made explicit, though, in "X-Factor" #45 (by Peter David, Valentine De Landro and a bunch of inkers)...

Thanks for the suggestion, William! If anyone else has a notable comic book first that they'd like to see me spotlight, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!