{"id":7854,"date":"2022-05-05T22:12:15","date_gmt":"2022-05-05T21:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=7854"},"modified":"2022-05-05T22:12:15","modified_gmt":"2022-05-05T21:12:15","slug":"marauders-2-annotations-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=7854","title":{"rendered":"Marauders #2 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>MARAUDERS vol 2 #2<\/strong>
\n“Extinction Agenda, part 2”<\/strong>
\nWriter: Steve Orlando<\/strong>
\nArtist: Eleonora Carlini<\/strong>
\nColourist: Matt Milla<\/strong>
\nLetterers: Ariana Maher & Clayton Cowles<\/strong>
\nEditor: Jordan D White<\/strong><\/p>\n

COVER \/ PAGE 1:<\/strong>\u00a0Erik the Red and Cassandra Nova… fighting psychically, I guess? Cassandra is drawn with two superimposed faces.<\/p>\n

PAGE 2.<\/strong>\u00a0Lockheed finds a pile of bodies.<\/em><\/p>\n

Or rather, what looks to be a single body made up of other bodies.<\/p>\n

Lockheed<\/strong> is traditionally Kate’s pet\/sidekick, but he didn’t appear in the previous issue and I don’t think he was mentioned.<\/p>\n

The Order of X<\/strong> are presumably the owners of the church building that he’s exploring, given the illuminated “X” sign outside and the “X” on display in place of an altar. They’re a mutant-worshipping cult who emerged in the aftermath of Professor X announcing the creation of Krakoa in\u00a0House of X<\/em> #1; it’s been suggested in some stories that they may have been damaged in some way by the Professor’s worldwide telepathic message, and at the very least it had a big impact on them.<\/p>\n

PAGES 3-4.\u00a0<\/strong>Delphos briefs Xandra.<\/em><\/p>\n

Delphos\u00a0<\/b>identifies her order as the “Nobles of the Kin Crimson”. Their function is apparently to suppress various events from Shi’ar history which, for one reason or another, are deemed too damaging to become public knowledge; we’ll come back to that. Her claim that the Order have been recognised by previous regimes seems to be confirmed by Gladiator, who’s been there all along; Xandra is a relative newcomer to the Shi’ar, raised elsewhere, which presumably explains why she doesn’t share everyone else’s cultural acceptance of the Kin Crimson. (That raises the question of what Vulcan knows about them from his own time as Shi’ar Emperor, but he wasn’t there long, so maybe it never came up. Then again, Vulcan’s back story involves him being assigned as a slave of Eric the Red before he escaped to Moira, so he might know quite a lot.)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

As in the previous issue, Delphos refers to her predictions not as premonitions but as “preconceptions”, a word which would normally imply something rather more negative and closed-minded.<\/p>\n

Delphos appears to have told Xandra the truth about “the First Blood Spilled”, given the data page on page 14. On the other hand, she also tells her that Deathbird’s rescue is in hand, and the cutaway panel – which seems to show Deathbird fighting three elephant-men in Kin Crimson style armour – doesn’t exactly support this. The implication seems to be that the Kin Crimson were responsible for Deathbird’s abduction in\u00a0Secret X-Men<\/em> #1.<\/p>\n

“The First Blood Spilled”<\/strong> is evidently something only to be spoken about in cryptic terms, which is handy. We’re told directly that it’s something that the Shi’ar’s ancestors did, and Xandra believes that it would spark a war with Earth. Given the reason the Marauders are coming – to hunt for survivors of a first wave of mutants predating Arakko – one has to assume it’s something to do with the exploitation of ancient mutants. Presumably it also has an ongoing dimension, since it’s hard to believe that Xandra would anticipate war over a piece of undiscovered history.<\/p>\n

“They fought for me, Delphos.”<\/strong> Various issues, but most obviously\u00a0X-Men<\/em> vol 5 #7, when the X-Men put down a Stygian uprising.<\/p>\n

“For a genetic throwback…”<\/strong> Deathbird has long been described as a Shi’ar “genetic throwback”, because she still has full avian features that the Shi’ar have mostly lost by evolution. In other words, she’s a mutant, but she tends not to be called that.<\/p>\n

PAGE 5.<\/strong> Recap and credits.<\/p>\n

PAGES 6-11.<\/strong>\u00a0The Marauders fight Eric the Red.<\/em><\/p>\n

Eric the Red<\/strong> was a villain from the early Claremont\/Cockrum issues of X-Men\u00a0<\/em>in the late 1970s, now being revealed as a member of the Kin Crimson. Despite the way Kate talks here, his battles with the X-Men were long before her time.<\/p>\n

In the original stories, he’s just portrayed as a regular agent of the then-emperor D’Ken, sent to stop Lilandra from making contact with the X-Men and overthrowing D’Ken’s rule. However, the implication of this story is that he wouldn’t have been wandering around in Kin Crimson gear if there hadn’t been something more pressing – the Kin Crimson’s professed agenda seems to be limited to matters which they consider culturally existential threats. Eric seems to be saying here that the reason he was assigned to Earth in the first place was to make sure that the mutants didn’t learn anything about something or other to do with the Shi’ar, a task which required no work from him at all until Kate came into possession of the mysterium box in\u00a0Marauders Annual<\/em> #1.<\/p>\n

It has to be said that for someone who has supposedly devoted his life to keeping dangerous state secrets, Eric seems remarkably keen to tell the Marauders to their face that they’re on the verge of uncovering dangerous state secrets.<\/p>\n

The Hard Skin.<\/strong> This is new, but it’s evidently the technology that Eric was using to make energy barriers at the end of the previous issue. Normall, when you’ve got orders of space cops making solid light constructs with the power of their mind and they only come in one colour, Green Lantern is being referenced – but see also below re Cerise.<\/p>\n

“D\u00e9gu\u00e9dine.”<\/strong> “Hurry up”, in Quebecois French.<\/p>\n

PAGE 12.<\/strong> Data page about the Hard Skin.<\/p>\n

D’Bari III.<\/strong> D’Bari is the star that Dark Phoenix destroyed in\u00a0X-Men<\/em> vol 1 #135, killing the entire D’Bari race. However, those guys lived on D’Bari IV, and besides, they didn’t have anything like the powers mentioned here. There’s some implication that the Kin Crimson may have killed them all off.<\/p>\n

Cerise.<\/strong> Cerise was a member of Excalibur during the Alan Davis run. Her back story involved her being a Shi’ar soldier who deserted rather than fire upon innocents. She had red energy projection powers too, so the implication seems to be that she’s connected with the Kin Crimson too.<\/p>\n

PAGE 13.<\/strong>\u00a0Xandra and Gladiator.<\/em><\/p>\n

Gladiator basically tells Xandra that the establishment keep some things from the ruler so that they needn’t be distracted by them. The core of this whole idea seems to be that the Shi’ar have a horrific imperial past which is kept suppressed by a conservative establishment who believe (perhaps correctly) that it would be damaging to Shi’ar self-perception and interests. Xandra’s complaint that the decision ought to rest with the throne might carry a bit more weight if she was actually elected.<\/p>\n

PAGE 14.<\/strong> Data page. An exchange among the members of the Kin Crimson.<\/p>\n

Pilgrimm.<\/strong> Pilgrimm was a demon from the Ru’Tai race who fought the X-Men circa\u00a0X-Men<\/em> vol 2 #75. He has no obvious connection to this arc, but it seems equally unlikely that Orlando would hit on the same name by chance.<\/p>\n

The Hodinn.<\/strong> Supposedly a race of sentient stars. A last survivor of the race, calling himself simply “the Hodinn”, appeared as a member of the Imperial Guard in X-Men: Kingbreaker<\/em> and was killed. However, another Hodinn showed up as an Imperial Guard member, G-Type, in\u00a0Realm of Kings: Imperial Guard<\/em> #5. The context seems to suggest that either Betel or Pr!z is the Hodinn involved in the Kin Crimson.<\/p>\n

The Ten Shames<\/strong> are mostly just names at this point. However, Emperiax the Red was the author of the previous data page, and apparently the inventor of the Wet Skin (whatever that is). Birj was the home planet of Terrax, a former herald of Galactus; it was wiped out by the Phoenix Force in the 2011 one-shot\u00a0Point One<\/em>.<\/p>\n

PAGE 15.<\/strong>\u00a0Gladiator and Xandra head for the Roc.<\/em><\/p>\n

Gladiator<\/strong> claims that the Kin Crimson haven’t shown themselves in centuries. But Gladiator would have seen Eric the Red during the battle over the M’Kraan Crystal in\u00a0X-Men<\/em> vol 1 #107-108. Is he lying?<\/p>\n

The Roc<\/strong> is Xandra’s warship.<\/p>\n

Delphos<\/strong> seems pretty happy that Xandra is shaken by all this – is she hoping to get rid of Xandra, or just thinking that this is a sign that Xandra is falling into line?<\/p>\n

PAGES 16-20.<\/strong>\u00a0The Marauders fight Eric the Red (cont.)<\/em><\/p>\n

The two Kin Crimson nobles who show up in this scene – the dragon and its rider – are\u00a0Betel<\/strong> and\u00a0Pr!z<\/strong>, who said on the previous data page that they were on their way to help Eric. Eric also names them towards the end of the scene. If either of these guys is supposed to be a Hodinn, it must be the rider – and indeed the cross symbol on his face is somewhat reminiscent of G-Type’s costume.<\/p>\n

“My own brother asserted himself better in the womb.”<\/strong> Cassandra is referring to the fact that the unborn Charles Xavier killed her in the womb, though she survived as a disembodied mind.<\/p>\n

PAGE 21.<\/strong>\u00a0Somnus brings the Marauders into his dream.<\/em><\/p>\n

Somnus<\/strong>‘s back story involves him spending a night with Daken which, thanks to his dream powers, subjectively lasted years. At the moment he doesn’t have very much he can usefully contribute in a fight, but what he\u00a0can<\/em> do is set up these sort of meeting rooms which give people plenty of time to think out a plan. It’s a start.<\/p>\n

Diversion: I like the\u00a0idea<\/em> of Somnus a lot, which is that he’s a guy who lived out a decent enough but closeted life, and now, thanks to resurrection, gets the chance to do things over in a life with opportunities that he didn’t have before. But… I don’t really get the sense that this is a guy who’s lived a full life already.<\/p>\n

PAGE 22.<\/strong>\u00a0The Kin Crimson battle Cassandra Nova.<\/em><\/p>\n

Presumably their main concern is to stop her from disclosing the Shi’ar secrets, and maybe her status as a Mummudrai – some sort of Shi’ar term for an evil twin – itself has something to do with their secrets.<\/p>\n

PAGES 23-24.<\/strong> The Marauders plan, and Xandra has to make a decision.<\/em><\/p>\n

Basically, Somnus has bought them time to think while their oxygen is still there… but he hasn’t allowed for the Shi’ar showing up to just shoot them.<\/p>\n

PAGE 25.<\/strong> Trailers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition. MARAUDERS vol 2 #2 “Extinction Agenda, part 2” Writer: Steve Orlando Artist: Eleonora Carlini Colourist: Matt Milla Letterers: Ariana Maher & Clayton Cowles Editor: Jordan D White COVER \/ PAGE 1:\u00a0Erik the Red and Cassandra Nova… fighting psychically, I guess? Cassandra […]<\/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],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annotations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7854","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=7854"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7854\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7856,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7854\/revisions\/7856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}