See the 11 answer words debuted by Alex Briñas.
T | S | A | I | M | P | E | L | A | S | S | E | T | G | P | S | |||||
A | L | L | A | C | I | R | C | A | T | E | A | R | A | T | O | O | H | |||
B | I | L | L | Y | O | C | E | A | N | A | R | C | A | D | E | F | I | R | E | |
S | T | E | F | A | N | P | R | E | G | G | E | R | S | T | O | N | E | D | ||
G | R | R | P | A | D | D | U | N | E | R | U | G | ||||||||
G | R | E | E | N | D | A | Y | S | P | E | E | D | S | A | R | P | ||||
R | O | D | S | E | I | C | A | S | S | C | O | L | D | P | L | A | Y | |||
I | S | L | E | C | R | O | O | N | S | T | O | N | E | M | A | T | E | |||
T | A | Y | L | O | R | S | W | I | F | T | I | W | O | N | T | C | E | L | ||
T | H | Y | I | N | R | O | A | D | F | O | R | R | E | A | L | |||||
P | R | O | W | M | E | T | A | L | L | I | C | A | Y | E | S | M | ||||
S | E | E | N | O | T | E | O | N | E | O | N | E | D | O | I | |||||
E | T | C | W | O | L | F | S | T | H | E | S | P | I | N | N | E | R | S | ||
A | R | A | T | N | O | R | S | E | A | S | T | O | N | S | T | O | P | |||
L | I | L | W | A | Y | N | E | N | E | O | S | N | A | Y | Y | M | A | |||
C | O | L | S | E | T | T | L | E | M | C | H | A | M | M | E | R | ||||
U | M | A | Z | E | R | O | R | U | E | D | E | O | ||||||||
A | T | L | A | S | C | E | M | E | N | T | E | D | T | I | T | L | E | S | ||
F | R | A | N | K | Z | A | P | P | A | S | U | P | E | R | G | R | O | U | P | |
R | O | T | A | I | R | O | U | T | A | S | I | D | E | O | G | R | E | |||
O | D | E | T | O | P | S | Y | R | E | E | S | E | Y | O | W |
ERIK: Music and wordplay are but two of Alex's superpowers (you can see some of her punny drawings on her Instagram), so when this puzzle's then-half-formed theme needed rescuing, I knew who to shine the Bat-Signal for. Through a couple of revisions and upwards of a hundred emails, the collaboration was always fun, and I'm looking forward to her next puzzle.
ALEX: Erik was the true superhero here — zipped nimbly through the bulk of the work and picked up after all my snafus. I'm a super-newbie to everything in the crossword world, but I do enjoy myself a good pun every now and then, so this was fascinating and foreign and exciting and daunting all at once! And I owe much thanks to Erik for inviting me to sidekick this mission in the first place.
For your enjoyment (we hope), here are some of the theme answers from the cutting room floor:
[Human Torch's favorite band?] (3,7,4)
[Blade's favorite band?] (7,7)
[Wonder Twins' favorite band?] (5)
[Storm's favorite rapper?] (6)
[Beast's favorite singer?] (6)
[Wolverine's favorite guitarist?] (5)
[Lady Deathstrike's favorite band?] (13)
[Banshee's favorite band?] (5,5)