Hmmph. I have two nits to pick with the commentary:

• Beast is now "blue-furred and brutish-looking" -- he wasn't always -- he used to look like he does here
• my ASS that's not Snowbird ... I know there's supposed to be a cutoff point, but ... didn't Snowbird do that?

I e-mailed to the guy on the second point, and he said that it couldn't possibly be that character because "Gaiman said in interviews that he's not using characters created after 1969, and Snowbird was created after 1969, so Dare can't be Snowbird."

I don't buy that at all. There is no other possiblility, unless it's someone totally new. She sure ain't the Hulk... .

Is there a cite for Gaiman's date, and when did that character first appear?

It's just that ... she walks like a duck, you know?

The only place I've seen the cite is in his annotations for issue #1.

eta:

It's just that ... she walks like a duck, you know?

Tries to remember if Howard the Duck makes the cut off...

DX, I found this from a June Marvel press conference:

As for other characters, Gaiman said that he ended around 1969 in regards to when characters originally debuted - although there are many others included for those who look.

Which leads me to think annotations guy is wrong.

We shall see.

I've got a feeling that Ms Dare is sitting in the middle of an entire vat of red herrings, and that the question of who or what she is supposed to be is the crux of 1602. For one thing, she is based and named on an actual historical character. But, in the real world, this character would have been dead for more than a decade, so her existence in this timeline may have something to do with whatever started the Marvel universe centuries ahead of time.

Another thing is that up until Ms Dare turned into Hooty the Killer Owl, there were plenty of indications that she was that century's equivalent of Storm. I think that the Snowbird thing is another misdirection.

I was going to say that Snowbird was a pretty minor character to be used in such a major role, but then again, Gaiman did an entire miniseries focused on Black Orchid, so maybe this is another case of him playing with an under-appreciated character.

What indications were there that Virginia was Storm? I'm all over Ororo Monroe, but apart from white hair, I don't see it.

On Virginia Dare, I never saw an intentional storm connection, except maybe the hair. For a moment in 1602 No. 2, I was thinking Gwen Stacy, but that seemed odd. Snowbird works, for any reason except artificially imposed meta ones. One of my favorite possibilities is that Snowbird is mystically bound to the land--ostensibly Canada, but I can accept a fudge-- so if it is her, her seperation from the North American Continent should start threatening her life. It makes her, like, Capt. America, a perfect herald from the New World, but serves to complicate her story. Also, I'm an old Alpha Flight fan, so I'm definitely rooting...

ita, when Dr. Strange had his vision about the cause of the strange weather plaguing England, he had a vision of Virginia. In #2, the Queen mentions that Virginia brought good weather with her. Yeah, it's pretty minor, but it's there.

I'm learning sooooo much about this comic universe, man. I feel so edjumacated.