Every week we spotlight the various characters, phrases, objects or events that eventually became notable parts of comic lore. Not major stuff like "the first appearance of Superman," but rather, "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. Here is an archive of all the When We First Met features so far! Check 'em out!

Today we look at the introduction of some comic book cousins, namely Sunfire's cousin, Mariko, Iron Man's cousin, Morgan and Mary Jane Watson's cousin, Kristy.

First up we have the X-Men's trip to Japan in X-Men #118 by Chris Claremont, John Byrne and Terry Austin, where they meet up with former X-Man Sunfire...







Wolverine then runs into Sunfire's cousin, Mariko...





They go on to become star-crossed lovers before Wolverine, you know, stabbed her to death (SPOILER ALERT!).

Next, we have the Iron Man feature in Tales of Suspense #69, by Al Hartley, Don Heck and Mike Esposito, where we meet Tony Stark's douchebag cousin, Morgan...





Finally, in Spectacular Spider-Man #145 by Gerry Conway and Sal Buscema, we meet the character find of 1988, Kristy Watson...