When it comes to comic books, one of my favorite things to do is watch for cameos from my favorite obscure characters. It’s one of the ways I built up my fandom in the 90s: searching out back issues where my favorite characters randomly showed up and had a line or two.

This is the entire basis behind my ongoing Strong Guy Watch series. I’m a big fan of the Strong Guy character, and for the past several years, he’s been making random cameos here and there. It’s fun to keep an eye out for the big lug.

Here he is at the recent Crucible

With Dawn of X bringing back every single mutant character who ever lived, the Watch has quadrupled to include every favorite mutant I’ve ever had! Multiple Man, Maggott, Stacy X, Abyss, Blob, Mimic and so many more! None of them are starring characters in any of the Dawn of X comics, so I’ve got to stay eagle-eyed for when any of them might pop up at any time!

This week’s X-Force #9 features the best yet showcase of a bunch of my favorite characters! Everybody’s hanging out at The Green Lagoon!

Click to enlarge

Obviously we’ve got Strong Guy, who seems to be macking with Selene at the top middle of the picture. We’ve also got a couple Multiple Men hanging out on the bottom. He’s still wearing his classic costume, so the ongoing debate of a new Multiple Man costume remains ongoing. Writer Benjamin Percy continues to be the only Dawn of X creator to use Multiple Man, even if it’s only for quick, wordless cameos. Also, of note: this is the first comic book panel in literal years that features Multiple Man, Strong Guy and Wolfsbane…even though none of them are hanging out together.

This image is also the first reveal of what Blob is doing in Dawn of X: bartending!

I’ve been eagerly anticipating the Blob since his star turn in Age of X-Man last year. Bartending is a fairly good use of the character and I hope to see him get some attention soon.

We’ve also got Maggott canoodling with M at the bar, so that’s neat! And the rest of the scene in the actual comic features quick appearances from Avalanche and Toad!

I love panels like this in Dawn of X. This is a smorgasbord of mutant cameos in a way we’ve never seen in comics before! I hope they keep it up every now and then.

Still no sign of Mimic…

————————