Longshot

Longshot
Cover of Exiles #74. Pencils by Paul Pelletier.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Longshot #1 (September, 1985)
Created by	Ann Nocenti (writer) Art Adams (artist)
In-story information
Species	Mojoverse slave race (Freemen), mutant
Team affiliations	X-Factor Investigations New Excalibur Exiles X-Men Wildways Rebellion
Abilities	Psychometry Probability manipulation Superhuman agility Expert hand-to-hand combatant Proficient in the use of bladed weaponry Proficient in the use of firearms Healing factor

Longshot is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, most commonly in association with the X-Men. Created by writer Ann Nocenti and artist Art Adams, he first appeared in Longshot #1 (September 1985), the first issue of a six-issue miniseries that represents the first major work of both Nocenti and Adams. The Longshot series established Longshot as an amnesiac fugitive from another dimension who discovers that he has favorable probability outcomes, or "good luck," that protect him when his motives are pure, and that he was a genetically engineered slave who led a rebellion on his dystopian world against his former master and archenemy, Mojo.

The character subsequently becomes a recurring fixture in the various X-Men related books, which see him as a member of the X-Men from 1986 to 1989, a member of Tony Bedard and Chris Claremont's Exiles teams, and a member of the third incarnation of X-Factor from 2008 - 2013, as well as in his own solo adventures. Versions of the character have also appeared in the Ultimate Marvel line of books, and television and video games.

Ann Nocenti wrote the story for the Longshot limited series. After most of Marvel's artists had declined to take on the project, it was offered to aspiring artist Arthur Adams, whose samples had been given to editor Carl Potts and Nocenti, his assistant editor, by editor Al Milgrom.

Explaining the concept of the character, which Nocenti borrowed from existentialist writers, she states, "Longshot is the idea of stripping someone of everything that they are. I never read comics, so the idea of a hero to me was different. I couldn't think of it in terms of a 'super hero' hero. I thought of it more as a conceptual hero. Not having a comic book background, I tend to come up with the metaphysics before I come up with the characters. I knew that I wanted to deal with the metaphysics of luck. It was a concept that interested me...what luck is, what probability is, how you could shift probabilities towards yourself. What are the repercussions of that? So, I did a character centered around that idea." Nocenti describes Longshot's state at the beginning of the miniseries by referring to him as "a clean slate. He has no memories, no past, no name, no nothing...In a sense, what I was trying to do was strip someone down to where he had none of the crutches that we normally have. Memory, in a way, is a crutch, or your name, or what you believe you are. So, Longshot's odyssey begins with some very basic questions: Who is he? Why is he here? Ultimately, he goes on a quest for his past and finds it in search of him."