{"id":4823,"date":"2019-10-24T20:49:46","date_gmt":"2019-10-24T19:49:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=4823"},"modified":"2019-10-24T22:23:16","modified_gmt":"2019-10-24T21:23:16","slug":"marauders-1-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=4823","title":{"rendered":"Marauders #1 – annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As always, this post features spoilers, and page numbers are based on the digital edition. And no, I’m not planning to do these for every issue of all the new titles, but the first issues of each seem worth a look.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

MARAUDERS:<\/strong> It’s first time we’ve had a series of this title. In the context of the X-Men, the Marauders are Mr Sinister’s henchmen, who first appeared in Uncanny X-Men<\/em> vol 1 #210 (1986) and committed the mass murder of the Morlocks. The original Marauders – or a bunch of them, at any rate – were last seen in Uncanny X-Men <\/em>vol 5 #18 (2019), where they all died fighting the X-Men. In the meantime, this book seems to have no connection to the team whose name is clearly being evoked, and going back to the literal sense of marauding, which would fit with the piracy angle (though not so much the rescuing bit).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

COVERS:<\/strong> The regular cast on their boat (whether they’re actually aboard it in this issue or not).<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

PAGES 1-2:<\/strong> Storm, Nightcrawler and Kitty Pryde invite some young mutants through the Central Park gateway to their new home in Krakoa. When Kitty tries to follow, she finds she can’t get through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the first time we’ve seen the Krakoa-era X-Men written by anyone other than Jonathan Hickman. Under Gerry Duggan, Storm and Nightcrawler are both still a touch evangelical about Krakoa; Kitty stays quiet during that bit, and as we’ll see, she’s going to be a bit of an outsider in Krakoa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since mutants are openly travelling to Krakoa, this flashback must follow Xavier’s worldwide announcement. If so, it’s odd that Kitty apparently hasn’t tried the gateways until now; she was among the X-Men shown planting Krakoan seeds in the opening of House of X <\/em>#1, several weeks before that announcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for why<\/em> Kitty can’t get through, there are two obvious possibilities: it’s something to do with her powers, or Krakoa won’t let her through (in which case, it must be refusing to explain itself to Cypher). No doubt we’ll get to the reason in due course. Of course, her inability to use the gates justifies her using boats and being a “pirate”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 3: <\/strong>The recap page, in the same format we saw in X-Men<\/em>. The only new information is that friendly nations have allowed Krakoan gateways to be stationed for mutants to travel through. (This sounds like a magnet for anti-mutant villains, but I guess that’s what the new Marauders are there to deal with.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 4:<\/strong> The credits, in the now-familiar style. The story title is “I’m on a Boat”, the small print simply reads “Mutant piracy, Sea Shores X”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 5:<\/strong> A data page, consisting of the text of a pages from Kitty’s diary that she throws into the sea as a drunken “message in a bottle”. US naval intelligence have found it floating around near Krakoa – they’re evidently rather desperate for any information about the place. Minor glitch: The intro says the message is in a “wine bottle”, but the Day Six text seems pretty clear that it’s the whisky bottle she’s just finished. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Day Five, Kitty seems notably un-sold on the whole Krakoan idea, and mildly confused that everyone else is on board with it. She seems to feel more left out than suspicious. But it means that the premise of this book is that Kitty is helping mutants to get to a utopia that she doesn’t quite believe in, which seems like it’s heading somewhere. If you think there’s something odd, or just cult-like, going on with Krakoa, then it’s also probably significant that these characters will be spending a lot of time away from the place. Note that when we see Emma later, she’s in London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

USAMRIID:<\/strong> The US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. Its functions include developing countermeasures against biological warfare. It makes some sense that it would take an interest in Krakoa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 7-16.<\/strong> Kitty and Lockheed finally arrive on Krakoa by boat, and are greeted by Iceman and Wolverine. Iceman wanders off to explore an unused gateway, and Kitty has a telepathic conference with Emma Frost. Embedded in this is a “data page” which is just the text of Logan’s shopping list for Kitty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The shopping list.<\/strong> The clear implication is that Logan can’t get this stuff on his own, but why not? Can’t he just go through the New York portal, buy it, and bring it back? Does Krakoa not want this stuff on the island? Or is it just a plot hole?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Homes on Krakoa<\/strong>: According to Iceman, you have to plant a flower and grow it. That fits with the Summers’ organic home in X-Men<\/em> #1. Kitty decides not to bother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kate\/Kitty:<\/strong> Emma makes a point of using “Kate”. We’ve seen a number of alternate futures before where “adult” versions of Kitty Pryde were called “Kate” to distinguish them from the present-day version. Kitty’s aged over time to the point where that switch is overdue, and she makes it at the end of the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The black market:<\/strong> I’ve pointed out before that there’s a contradiction between, on the one hand, Professor X’s public stance that countries have to recognise Krakoa in order to get mutant drugs and, on the other, the willingness to supply drugs to the black market. Emma offers a reason here – “mutants must also set the price for the black market to have a stable world economy” – but it’s not a hugely convincing one, unless the idea is to stop <\/em>drugs getting to unco-operative states. Whether this is a deliberate plot point or just some fuzzy plotting to allow for the premise of Marauders<\/em>, well, again, time will tell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

North Valnon:<\/strong> A blatant North Korea stand-in – even though the actual North Korea was listed as a non-treaty nation in House of X <\/em>#5. As best as I can tell, its only previous appearance was in another Gerry Duggan story, Hulk<\/em> vol 3 #5 (2014), where its army, equipped with experimental gamma-powered weapons, got beaten up by the big guy in two pages flat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brazil:<\/strong> The “mutant-hunting quadrupeds” around the Brazilian gates look an awful lot like the Warwolves from early issues of Excalibur<\/em>, though in bright red instead of white.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kitty’s wardrobe:<\/strong> Emma teases Kitty over her earlier costumes. The “big blue blouse” is the classic 80s Shadowcat costume. The “hideous photo of you in leggings and roller skates” refers to Kitty’s comically garish first stab at costume design from Uncanny X-Men<\/em> vol 1 #149 (1981). Emma doesn’t mention Kitty’s current costume, which is carried over from previous runs, but note that she’s still wearing basically a traditional X-Men costume in the face of a drastic revamp that she’s not quite part of. Emma suggests that Kitty will wear red as a member of the Hellfire Club, fitting with the vacant “Red King” role on the Quiet Council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 17-19.<\/strong> Iceman has foolishly wandered through the gateway to Vladivostok, where a bunch of heavily armed guys with power-suppressing technology are ready to shoot at him. He gets back through the doorway, and since the X-Men can’t just go through the doorway to get shot at, Iceman and Storm join Kitty on the boat to sail to Vladivostok and sort it out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russia was listed as a non-treaty nation in House of X <\/em>#5. Apparently Russian mutants are pressed into state service. Later on the thugs are described as a “Russian splinter group”, but that seems to be an error, since everything else suggests this is meant to be Russian policy. If you’re feeling generous, it might be that these soldiers are going off on a frolic of their own when it comes to their shoot-to-kill policy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The armoured guy, Phobos, seems to be new. The name (fear) has no obvious connection to his powers, but perhaps we’ll see him again and all will become clear. Or perhaps not. Edit:<\/strong> As pointed out in the comments, this could well be Professor Phobos, an obscure villain who appeared in Incredible Hulk <\/em>vol 1 #258-259 (1981). He was the secretly-evil mentor of Russian mutants like Darkstar and Vanguard, and did indeed wear armour that leeched the powers of nearby mutants. When last seen, he was being handed over to the Soviet authorities for trial. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 20-21.<\/strong> A subplot with Bishop, who’s investigating an alleged disappearance in Taiwan. Bishop’s meant to be one of the main cast of this book, but this is all we get from him this issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 22-32.<\/strong> Kitty and her crew – Storm, Lockheed, Iceman and stowaway Pyro – go to Vladivostok, beat up the thugs and liberate the gateway. Everyone else agrees to come home with Kitty instead of going through the gateway and leaving her behind. The main point of this scene is that Kitty is awesome and her seemingly-defensive powers, combined with martial arts skills, make her insanely dangerous. She’s much more aggressive about it here than we’re used to seeing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pyro.<\/strong> This is the original Pyro, St John Allerdyce, not the version who appeared more recently in X-Men Gold<\/em>. Pyro was a member of Mystique’s Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, and he died from the Legacy Virus in Cable<\/em> vol 1 #87 (2001), part of the same “Dream’s End” crossover where Moira died. Sorry, faked her death. We’ve seen Pyro once before in the Hickman run, in Powers of X <\/em>#2, where he killed Moira at the end of her second life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pyro is usually a villain, but he did reform somewhat in later years. And even as a bad guy, he was a pro-mutant terrorist, so it’s not out of character for him to sign on for this mission (even if he effectively gets pressganged). According to Pyro, he was one of the first mutants to be restored from back-up by the Five, which he thinks is because he was used as a test. That might be true, but his connection with Mystique makes me wonder if there were other reasons too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The “accent” is meant to be Australian. Pyro’s first appearance (X-Men<\/em> vol 1 #141, 1981) says outright that he’s English, but later stories consistently went for Australian, and that’s what stuck. Pyro’s power is only to control fire, not to create it, which is why he’s wearing a flamethrower – though for some reason Duggan has him ask the others for a light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kill no man.<\/strong> Storm reminds Pyro of the laws of Krakoa, as fixed in House of X <\/em>#6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 33-35.<\/strong> Storm agrees to stay with Kitty, and Kitty accepts Emma’s offer – “both of your propositions”. What are they? Well, that’s the plot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Marauders name.<\/strong> Neither Kitty nor Storm seems overly keen on it, recognising the connotations. We’re not entirely ignoring that, it seems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Storm and Emma. <\/strong>Storm is willing to ally with Kitty but not with Emma. But we know that Storm already turned down Emma’s offer, so she must know what it was – is she here in part to keep an eye on things? (And how does this fit with Storm’s role on the Quiet Council? Does she just grow a gateway to get back for the meetings?) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 36.<\/strong> Another of Sinister’s gossip columns, as previously seen in Powers of X <\/em>#4. The numbering continues from there. Presumably these five “Sinister Secrets” are trailers for upcoming Marauders plots. Items 12, 14 and 15 aren’t particularly guessable beyond that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sinister Secret #11.<\/strong> Kitty… sorry, Kate<\/em> was apparently the third choice for this role, after Storm and someone else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sinister Secret #13.<\/strong> The “Black and the White” presumably refers to the chess-themed Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club, now once again under the control of White Queen Emma Frost and Black King Sebastian Shaw. Sinister says that someone else didn’t get the invite to Krakoa, and presumably we’ll be seeing them in upcoming issues. Since all mutants are welcome on Krakoa, the obvious candidate is the cyborg Donald Pierce, leader of the thematically-appropriate Reavers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 37-38.<\/strong> The reading list, and the trailer page. The Krakoan reads NEXT: SHIP OUT.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As always, this post features spoilers, and page numbers are based on the digital edition. And no, I’m not planning to do these for every issue of all the new titles, but the first issues of each seem worth a look. MARAUDERS: It’s first time we’ve had a series of this title. In the context […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annotations","category-x-axis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4823"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4830,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4823\/revisions\/4830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}