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| Rangers | |
|---|---|
 The Rangers. Art bySteve McNiven. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | The Incredible Hulk (vol. 2) #265, (November 1981) |
| Created by | Bill Mantlo (writer) Sal Buscema (penciller) |
| In-story information | |
| Base(s) | Texas |
| Member(s) | Firebird Living Lightning Fifty-One Red Wolf Shooting Star Texas Twister |
The Rangers are a fictionalsuperhero team appearing inAmerican comic books published byMarvel Comics. The team first appeared inThe Incredible Hulk (vol. 2) #265 (November 1981) and was created by writerBill Mantlo and pencillerSal Buscema. The title page ofThe Incredible Hulk (vol. 2) #265 also credits Mark Gruenwald with co-creation of The Rangers.
Team members usually hail fromArizona,New Mexico, orTexas.
In the story "You Get What You Need!" published inIncredible Hulk (vol. 2) #265 (November 1981), writerBill Mantlo, pencillerSal Buscema, and Mark Gruenwald created the superhero team Rangers. The team consists of western charactersFirebird,Shooting Star,Texas Twister, thePhantom Rider (Hamilton Slade, then called Night Rider), and the contemporaryRed Wolf.[1]
The members of the team have been identified in the 142 registered superheroes who appear on the cover of the comic bookAvengers: The Initiative #1 (June 2007).[2]
The Rangers began by accident.Rick Jones was being held captive by the villainousCorruptor, who had theHulk under his influence. Rick sent a shortwave radio message to attempt to contact theAvengers. The message never reached the Avengers, but instead five individuals intercepted the message and responded: Shooting Star and Texas Twister, Firebird, the Phantom Rider, and the contemporary Red Wolf.[1][3][4]
Although the five Southwestern adventurers were unable to stop the Hulk's rampage, they did enable him to defeat the Corruptor. At the battle's end, Texas Twister suggested that the five of them get together whenever a threat to the Southwest crops up. They agreed and took the collective name of the Rangers.[1][3][4]However, because of the geographical separation among the members, they rarely acted as a team. Additionally, Shooting Star was revealed to be possessed by a demon at the next meeting of the team and the demon had acted against the team meeting.[5]
Shooting Star's identity was at some point taken over by an unnamed demon in the employ ofMaster Pandemonium, who believed Firebird to be one of the possessors of his fragmented soul. To keep the Rangers from meeting regularly and perhaps posing a threat to him before he had completed his study of Firebird, Pandemonium dispatched the demon to take Shooting Star's place. Firebird nevertheless believed the demon to be hiding among the Avengers' West Coast branch and with her guidance the Rangers confronted the heroes, only to flush the demon in Shooting Star out of hiding. The demon claimed that Shooting Star was a human guise it had taken long before, that there never was a Victoria Star. The Avengers imprisoned the demon at their Compound and began an investigation of Master Pandemonium, but the Texas Twister, demonstrating a curious lack of concern, did not accompany them.[5] Soon, however, Texas Twister returned to the Avengers Compound at a time whenHawkeye was alone, demanding to see the captive demon. Twister declared his love for the demon, which turned back into Shooting Star. Texas Twister went on to explain that the demon had come to him months ago when Twister's powers seemed to be fading, making him afraid that he would lose Shooting Star if their rodeo act broke up on account of his lost powers. The demon offered to augment the Twister's powers in exchange for his soul, and the Twister agreed, but after his powers were restored he begged to be spared, so the demon possessed Shooting Star instead, casting a spell that prevented Twister from telling anyone about this. Twister studied the occult until he found a means to expel the demon from Star.[5] The demon then possessed Twister himself and battled Hawkeye and Shooting Star. Ultimately, Star threatened to kill the demon rather than allow the possession to continue, and the demon reluctantly imprisoned itself in a statue. Texas Twister and Shooting Star were reunited.[5][6]
The Rangers next appear as a team towards the end of theCivil War storyline, in which it seems they have been reformed as the state superteam forTexas. The original five members are joined byArmadillo, a reformedsupervillain, andLiving Lightning, a former Avenger.[7][8] Armadillo later quits and joins theHood's crime syndicate, though it is possible he later rejoined the team after several of the villainous members of the team were recruited to pose as heroes in Taskmaster's Initiative. The Rangers next assist in protecting the President fromHydra's attack. There are injuries but no fatalities.[9]
During theSecret Invasion storyline, the Rangers are seen battling aSkrull who had been impersonating Red Wolf's wolf Lobo.[10][11] They come into conflict withKaine aliasScarlet Spider inHouston,[12][13][14] then they joined forces with him to battle a monster made of pure energy.[15]
