{"id":4871,"date":"2019-11-20T23:32:26","date_gmt":"2019-11-20T23:32:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=4871"},"modified":"2019-11-20T23:32:26","modified_gmt":"2019-11-20T23:32:26","slug":"marauders-2-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=4871","title":{"rendered":"Marauders #2 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Oh, all right then. I’m not guaranteeing to keep these up, but let’s cover this one quickly. As always, this post is full of spoilers, and page numbers are from the digital edition.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

COVER \/ PAGE 1.<\/strong> The Black King and the White Queen in a drawing room, pushing models around a map of the far east. Emma seems to pushing a model of Kate Pryde and her boat towards a model of a cartoon bomb. The place names on the map are all genuine except for what appears to be “Hellfire St[raits]”, which seems to lie between the cities of Xiamen (in China) and Kaohsiung (in Taiwan).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 2-3. <\/strong>The recap and credits. The title is “The Red Coronation”. The small print hasn’t changed since last issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 4.<\/strong> A data page with another slightly redacted memo from the US Naval Intelligence agent tasked with keeping track of the Marauders – there was one of these in issue #1. Largely, this explains that after issue #1, the Marauders headed for Tokyo, took out a whaling vessel on the way, did some partying, and then stole a pleasure craft to go after a Madripoor-registered vessel. Presumably this is the Marauders going after Black King’s rogue ship on Emma’s instructions, as referenced later in the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Madripoorian flags.<\/strong> Given Madripoor’s notoriously lax attitude to, well, everything, it’s hardly a surprise to learn that it’s a nation used as a flag of convenience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The FBI.<\/strong> Curiously, the memo ends by changing subject and complaining about a lack of co-operation from the domestic US intelligence services, who haven’t even provided something as basic as a list of Krakoan gates in the USA. This seems like a plot point – we’ve yet to find out why the US was so relaxed about instantly signing up for Xavier’s deal, or handing back Sabretooth during House of X<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 5.<\/strong> Emma Frost makes an offer to the Stepford Cuckoos, which they turn down.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We don’t see what she offers them, but it’s evidently a position in the Hellfire Club. (Presumably it isn’t the position of “Lord Imperial”, since she goes on to say that she’s leaving it vacant until she gets Sebastian Shaw in line.) Emma seems to be rather more cynical about Krakoan stability than the Cuckoos are; of course, she doesn’t live there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emma’s costume.<\/strong> Emma is wearing a costume with a feather effect over her right shoulder and all down her right arm. It might be coincidence, but the anonymous main bad guy in X-Force <\/em>also wears clothes with a feather pattern on the right arm. (Emma is wearing this same costume in the cover, which is by a different artist.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 6-7.<\/strong> Emma meets Sebastian Shaw at the Hellfire Trading Company’s London offices<\/em> and gives him a dressing down for straying from his remit.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The building is overgrown with Krakoan trees on the outside, but the interior is more notable – it seems completely normal. Are they putting on a show for the Krakoans as much as for the humans?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shaw is meant to be supplying Krakoan drugs to approved black market purchasers but seems to have been diverting the drugs to richer countries for quick money. This only really makes sense if the mutants aren’t currently able to keep up demand. We see in the next scene that the approved black market purchaser was a country that can’t publicly deal with Krakoa due to its instability and domestic politics (or at least someone who lives there).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 8-14.<\/strong> Flashback: The Marauders take out Shaw’s rogue ship.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not a particularly challenging fight for the Marauders, since the opposition consists of a bunch of random sailor thugs and long time D-lister Batroc the Leaper, who does his best but knows a lost cause when he sees one. Kate rebuffs his attempts to cut a side deal, but otherwise treats him with reasonable grace. Note, though, that Storm is already muttering about Pyro’s casual attitude to the “kill no man” law, and worrying about the group’s habit of wandering off with boats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After this flashback, the Marauders must return to Russia, meet up with Colossus, rescue a bunch of mutants, and bring them all back to Krakoa, as seen in X-Force<\/em> #1. Then they apparently go back to Taipei to meet with Bishop, who was already there last issue investigating a disappearance. (You can also do it by having X-Force <\/em>#1 take place before this issue’s flashback, but that means the opening memo is no longer referring to the Batroc mission – which works<\/em>, but isn’t as satisfying.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 15.<\/strong> Emma tells Shaw that she’s already appointed the Red Monarch.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shaw apparently had his own candidate in mind, and is furious to learn that Emma had already unilaterally filled the seat before his return. (More on Hellfire Club structure later.) Throughout this issue, Emma assumes that Shaw would have tried to appoint his mistress, but it’s not clear that she’s right. Chances are we’ll see this character later when Shaw appoints them to a role under him instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 16-22.<\/strong> Bishop tells the Marauders that Xavier is dead, so they get drunk and have tattoos done<\/em>, before travelling to London to get their vessel.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor X was killed in X-Force<\/em> #1. Iceman’s immediate response is that the Five will be able to bring him back in the usual way, but everyone seems to recognise that it’s not so straightforward given Xavier’s own role in the cloning process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kate’s drunken partying here is really pretty out of character, but maybe spending long stretches at sea with Pyro has that effect on you. Pyro, for some reason, decides to get a skull tattooed on his face – not the sort of thing he’s ever shown an interest in before – and nobody else thinks it might be a good idea to stop him. It’s all… kind of weird.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gateway.<\/strong> Gateway was the silent teleporter who opened portals to let the X-Men travel around the world during the late-80s Australian era. It’s not very clear in the art here, but he spins a bullroarer when he uses his powers. Kate’s inability to use the Krakoan portals seemed to be the rationale for the pirate set-up, but access to Gateway effectively makes that academic – she’s here now because of her role on the boat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 22-25.<\/strong> Emma and Shaw argue, and Kitty reveals herself as the Red Queen.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shaw’s “long history of hedging bets against mutantdom” primarily consists of his involvement in making Sentinels for the US government, but Emma was an ally of his for a lot of that period. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 26.<\/strong> A data page about the Hellfire Trading Company management (?) structure. Basically, there’s meant to be a Lord Imperial at the top, with White, Black and Red monarchs beneath, and Bishops and Knights below. Currently, only the monarch and the White Bishop roles are filled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Traditionally, the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club had a chess theme, which meant black and white. However, Warren Ellis’s Excalibur <\/em>run in the mid nineties showed the London version of the Hellfire Club having black and red kings and queens; perhaps the colour change happened when the American branch was formed. For what it’s worth, the Red Queen in Ellis’s story was Nightcrawler’s mother Margali Szardos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How appointments to these roles work is unclear; the suggestion seems to be that Emma could somehow appoint the Red Queen unilaterally, as long as she did it before Shaw took office. It seems that in the absence of a Lord Imperial, they have to vote. Of course, comic book company law is not exactly renowned for its grounding in reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lord Imperial.<\/strong> The idea of a “Lord Imperial” who was the true leader of the Hellfire Club worldwide started cropping up in later Claremont stories. For most of X-Men history, the Lord Imperial was apparently a nobody called Sir Gordon Phillips, who may have been a figurehead; he finally appears in Uncanny X-Men <\/em>#388 and gets in three lines of dialogue before being murdered by Sabretooth. However, Uncanny X-Men<\/em> #452-454 have Sebastian Shaw and Roberto da Costa fighting for the title, and Claremont also established evil telepath Elias Bogan as a former Lord Imperial in X-Treme X-Men<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Accolades”.<\/strong> This rather archaic term for the granting of an honour is also being used over in Excalibur<\/em> – though it’s properly applicable to knights, not bishops as shown here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christian Frost.<\/strong> Emma’s telepath brother, originally introduced in passing in Grant Morrison’s New X-Men <\/em>run, but given a much more extensive role in the Emma Frost <\/em>solo series and the recent Iceman <\/em>book. He’s not the most stable person in the world, but Emma probably wants to keep him under her wing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 27.<\/strong> The Krakoan read NEXT: QUEEN. And yes, that’s Professor X in the background art, which is the solicited cover art for issue #3. Or someone wearing his helmet, at any rate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oh, all right then. I’m not guaranteeing to keep these up, but let’s cover this one quickly. As always, this post is full of spoilers, and page numbers are from the digital edition. COVER \/ PAGE 1. The Black King and the White Queen in a drawing room, pushing models around a map of the […]<\/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,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hoxpox"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4871","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=4871"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4872,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4871\/revisions\/4872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}