The X-Men took their place as the most popular Marvel team in the ’80s and since then, the only thing that has been able to depose them is a multi-billion dollar film franchise. With the men and women of X coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel has been tapping into the nostalgia for the X-Men, with the comics starting to take things in a direction that was very ’90s-influenced in late 2024. “From the Ashes” was basically a failure, but things have gotten a lot better for X-fans since then and, with the dissolution of the Avengers in Avengers: Armageddon,the House of Ideas is creating an X-team to take their place. Maximum X-Men stars a roster of X-Men diehards, but there are two mutants who aren’t like the others: Firestar and Justice. Firestar has been an X-Man before, but this is Justice’s first stint with the team.
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Justice is an interesting character in the history of Marvel Comics and is honestly one of the most complicated mutants out there. Vance Astrovik first appeared back in 1975 and has been a member of the original Guardians of the Galaxy, the New Warriors, and the Avengers. He’s a hero who has had one of those histories that you can really only have in American comic books. His psychokinetic powers made him a powerful hero, allowing him to stand with the most biggest heroes in the world and he’s had cool costumes, but it’s definitely been a ride. There’s time travel, changing history, manslaughter, and low self-esteem. Justice is easily Marvel’s most complicated mutant and bringing him to the X-Men is the latest in one of the most bizarrely complicated roads in comic history.
Vance Astrovik’s Origin Is Classic Marvel Madness
So, when modern Marvel fans think of the Guardians of the Galaxy, they’re usually thinking of the version that showed up in Annihilation and would go on to become the basis for the Marvel Cinematic Universe team. However, older Marvel comic readers know that there are two versions of the group, the modern one and the really modern one. The original version of the Guardians came back from the 30th century, where humanity was enslaved by the Badoon.
The first time fans met them was in Giant-Size Defenders #5, when the team came back in time to help stop an enemy made by the Badoon. They were led by Major Victory, who was from the present. Young Vance Astrovik was a mutant whose powers never ended up manifesting. He’d become an astronaut and was put in hibernation for a deep space mission. He awakened to a world where humanity were slaves and became the leader of the Guardians of the Galaxy, his mutant powers manifesting, becoming a future freedom fighter.
The Guardians would come back to the present all the time, fighting alongside the Avengers and Defenders against a variety of threats. Eventually, a split in the time line would occur when Vance decided that he didn’t want his past self to have his life. The two Vances had a conversation and the younger one’s powers would manifest, changing his future forever. The Guardians’ future would become that of Earth-691, while Vance in the present went in a familiar yet different direction – he’d become a superhero. This time, he’d take up the name Marvel Boy and would end up founding the New Warriors.
Vance was positioned as one of the male leads of the book – he even was given a relationship with Firestar – partly because he was a mutant and it was the early ’90s and partly because of his history in the Marvel Universe; he was one of the most recognizable characters on the team. He’d eventually get the biggest story arc of the early days of New Warriors (Vol. 1), when he ended up accidentally killing his mutantophobic father with a telekinetic burst when his dad was attacking him. We got a trial arc and Vance spent time in the superhero prison the Vault, even helping foil an escape attempt. When he got out, he changed his name to Justice, devoting himself even further to heroism.
As Justice, he’d end up leading the New Warriors. New Warriors (Vol. 1) is honestly one of the most underrated team books in Marvel history, with Vance playing a crucial role in why the comic worked so well. We knew that he had the potential to be a great hero because of his time in the future, so seeing him have a rather eventful character arc as a teen hero was awesome. He became a favorite of many fans (my library had all of the early issues of New Warriors (Vol. 1), so I was one of them) and would survive the ending of the New Warriors by getting the biggest promotion you could get in the Marvel Universe – he joined the Avengers.
And not just any Avengers team, either. Vance was part of the 1998 Kurt Busiek/George Perez reboot of the group. He and Firestar would be brought over to Earth’s Mightiest Heroes in Avengers (Vol. 3)’s opening story arc and officially were made members of the group in issue #4 (which is my favorite Avengers roster premiere ever). The New Warriors were played as the next generation of heroes, so two of them actually joining the Avengers felt perfect. Vance’s story arc throughout the book was a kid getting to live his dream and failing at first, with Firestar (who didn’t want to be there and just did it for him) doing a better job than him, finally finding his place with the group in “Ultron Unlimited” (which is out of print because Marvel hates its readers apparently; it’s the best Avengers story ever).
It felt like the start of bigger and better things for the character, but Busiek started to take the team in a more classic roster direction and Justice would end up falling from the spotlight. Since then, the character has barely been a part of the Marvel Universe. At best, he was a background character, like when he was a trainer for the Initiative post-Civil War, and at worst he was a non-entity. Some of us have been waiting a long time for Justice’s next act and it’s honestly about time.
Justice Joining the X-Men Is the Culmination of Years of Stories
The story of Vance Astrovik is one that is pure Marvel Comics. He became a astronaut and a futuristic freedom fighter before deciding that was lame and changing his history. He then became one of the best teen Marvel heroes ever (seriously, his arc as Marvel Boy leading up to becoming Justice was spectacular) and would be one of the few teen Marvel heroes to actually graduate in any kind of way that counted. However, he wasn’t able to keep his foothold and ended up falling into the crowd of characters who never amount to anything.
Justice joining the X-Men is perfect for the character. Right now is honestly a great time for the team; their books have gotten a lot better and Maximum X-Men boasts an amazing creative team in Christopher Yost and Tony S. Daniel. Justice was a rising star who lost his shine and that’s a great place to start with a book like this. Justice does exceptionally well on A-list teams and hopefully this stint with the X-Men will be the one that allows him to break free.
What do you think about Justice? Do you think that the X-Men will make him a star again? Sound off in the comment section below.
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