{"id":8363,"date":"2022-10-07T23:02:10","date_gmt":"2022-10-07T22:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=8363"},"modified":"2022-10-07T23:02:10","modified_gmt":"2022-10-07T22:02:10","slug":"marauders-7-annotations-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=8363","title":{"rendered":"Marauders #7 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/a>MARAUDERS vol 2 #7<\/strong>
\n“Here Comes Yesterday, part 1”<\/strong>
\nWriter: Steve Orlando<\/strong>
\nArtist: Eleonora Carlini<\/strong>
\nColourists: Rachelle Rosenberg & Matt Milla<\/strong>
\nLetterer: Ariana Maher<\/strong>
\nDesign: Tom Muller<\/strong>
\nEditor: Jordan D White<\/strong><\/p>\n

COVER \/ PAGE 1.<\/strong> Kate Pryde (and Lockheed) look up at… well, presumably that’s Amass in merged form.<\/p>\n

PAGE 2.<\/strong> Obituary for Mike Pasciullo.<\/p>\n

PAGE 3.<\/strong>\u00a0Stringfellow and Scratch argue.<\/em><\/p>\n

This continues the Theatre of Pain subplot which has been running in the background and looks set to stay there for a while yet. The previous issue also opened with a page of Scratch addressing a Theatre of Pain audience, while being watched by Lockheed, who in turn was being watched by Dirt Nap (the rat). The previous subplot was placed in Philadelphia; this one is in Waterbury, Connecticut.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Stringfellow\u00a0<\/strong>is an obscure character whose only previous appearance was in\u00a0X-Treme X-Men<\/em> vol 1 #35 (2004). As his dialogue suggests, he has the ability to turn people to rubber. Somewhat bizarrely, he was serving as Sunspot’s bodyguard in his previous story. He’s wearing exactly the same clothes as in that issue, which are apparently his costume – the T-shirt, which we can’t see clearly here, depicts a yellow smiley face with a blank expression and an eyepatch.<\/p>\n

Scratch<\/strong>‘s mutant power of immunity to mutant powers was established in\u00a0X-Man<\/em> #70.<\/p>\n

PAGE 4.\u00a0<\/strong>Kate and Cerebra talk.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Not every Krakoan stray lands on the eve of judgment.”<\/strong> Cerebra arrived in the present day at the end of issue #5, only for her story to be immediately interrupted by issue #6’s\u00a0Judgment Day<\/em> tie-in.<\/p>\n

“My Cyclops could’ve just changed the floor to potting soil.”<\/strong>\u00a0This Cerebra is from the latest version of the Marvel 2099 timeline (which has been rebooted multiple times in recent years) – specifically, she comes from the version seen in the recent\u00a0Spider-Man 2099: Exodus<\/em> miniseries, also written by Steve Orlando. The new version of Cyclops 2099, seen in\u00a0Exodus<\/em> #5, has the power to transmute thing with his eye blasts.<\/p>\n

“Cable said you’d need me.”<\/strong> When he rescued her in\u00a0Spider-Man 2099: Exodus<\/em>\u00a0#5.<\/p>\n

PAGES 5-7.\u00a0<\/strong>The Marauders visit Captain America, Nebraska.<\/em><\/p>\n

Captain America, Nebraska.<\/strong> This small town previously appeared in\u00a0Captain America<\/em> #695 (2017). It renamed itself in Cap’s honour after he saved them from a white supremacist group, the Rampart, shortly after being woken from suspended animation. The sign is the same one seen in that story (or rather, from the same set, since the location is totally different).<\/p>\n

“American subtley, Somnus.”<\/strong> Somnus, like Aurora, is Canadian.<\/p>\n

The Watchdogs.<\/strong>\u00a0A hard-right puritan militia who were recurring villains in Captain America<\/em> in the late 1980s.<\/p>\n

Fang.<\/strong> As indicated last issue, Daken has taken the name and costume of Fang after having it offered to him by the Lupak.<\/p>\n

Horsepower.<\/strong>\u00a0This is his first appearance, but his 2099 counterpart appeared in\u00a0Spider-Man 2099: Exodus<\/em> #5. In that story, he was one of the mutants who had settled in the Savage Land after the fall of Krakoa, and he had gone on to join the X-Men. None of the characters here know that, but Cerebra will, when she meets him.<\/p>\n

The art is really unclear about what’s going on in the fight between Daken and Horsepower. I think the idea is that Daken’s claws snap off and he uses one of them as a weapon, but it doesn’t really come across clearly. (Don’t worry about the claws, they’ll grow back.)<\/p>\n

PAGE 8.<\/strong> Recap and credits.<\/p>\n

“Here Comes Yesterday.”<\/strong> The arc title references “Here Comes Tomorrow”, the final arc of Grant Morrison’s run.<\/p>\n

PAGE 9.\u00a0<\/strong>Data page. Kate Pryde and Dr Nemesis discuss Cerebra (with ForgetMeNot from\u00a0Legion of X<\/em> taking the minutes). Basically, Nemesis confirms that Cerebra’s powers could be used to help the Five extract the Thresholders (mutants from the distant past) who are stored as data in the timedrive that the Marauders recovered in issue #5. She could also be used to make back-ups of at least some mutants if they’re out of back-up range for Cerebro.<\/p>\n

PAGE 10.\u00a0<\/strong>Bishop collects a boost fruit, and Cerebra uses it to extract the Thresholders’ data.<\/em><\/p>\n

Christian Frost<\/strong> was appointed as Red Monarch in Marauders Annual<\/em> #1. The name\u00a0was<\/em> used in that issue, but in a context where it could simply have been a generic term covering both him and Kate. Presumably, though, Orlando is writing the character as non-binary.<\/p>\n

PAGES 11-14.\u00a0<\/strong>The Thresholders are resurrected.<\/em><\/p>\n

Obviously, these are all new characters. As they explain, they combined their powers to escape the fall of their society by sending themselves forward in time, hoping that eventually they’d be found by someone with the technology to reconstitute them – which has finally happened.<\/p>\n

Bishop understandably doesn’t trust them too much just yet.<\/p>\n

PAGE 15.\u00a0<\/strong>Data page: a memo from Bishop and Psylocke (the two Captains in the Marauders) to Cyclops and Magik (the two who aren’t), updating them on the Thresholders plot. In other words, if you’re reading the trade paperbacks, this is where volume 2 recaps the plot of volume 1.<\/p>\n

PAGES 16-17.\u00a0<\/strong>The Thresholders react.<\/em><\/p>\n

“I know what the Chronicle said, but this is unbelievable.”<\/strong> Aurora and Daken both voice doubts about the genuineness of this story – despite the plot of the previous arc being that the Shi’ar’s dealings with Threshold are a vital piece of hidden history. Of course, that doesn’t in itself prove that these three are genuine.<\/p>\n

Daken makes two arguments for why this whole plotline doesn’t make sense. The first is the lack of any evidence of Threshold’s existence, but Bishop reasonably argues that anything can vanish if it was long enough ago. For some reason he then goes on to talk about the Oxygenation Catastrophe, which was something else entirely – a radical change in the atmosphere of the planet that increased the level of oxygen in the atmosphere and wiped out a lot of species to whom oxygen was toxic. This comes up later in the issue, but it’s a bit odd that Bishop comes up with it independently. It’s not something at the forefront of most people’s minds.<\/p>\n

Daken’s second argument is that it’s simply impossible for a mutant society to have existed before humans. On conventional Marvel history, this is undoubtedly correct: mutants were created when the X-gene was added to humans by the First Celestial Host about a million years ago. However, this account was retconned by Jason Aaron’s current\u00a0Avengers<\/em> run, which asserts that the Progenitor died on Earth at around the time of the dawn of life and was responsible for the existence of superpowers. On this version of events the emergence of a “mutant” race at the dawn of history just about works, and the Thresholders go on to claim that humans existed in those days too. Nonetheless, this still involves either humanity evolving twice, or evolution taking a completely different course on Marvel Earth.<\/p>\n

Still, note that Orlando is openly inviting us to question whether this is all nonsense.<\/p>\n

“When I came here, the X-Men welcomed me.”<\/strong> Bishop is much more trusting of the newcomers, but precisely because he sees a parallel with his own status as a man out of time back when he debuted in 1991.<\/p>\n

PAGES 18-22.\u00a0<\/strong>Theia recounts the story of Threshold.<\/em><\/p>\n

It’s a paradise which got wiped out in a revenge attack by the creatures who survived the Oxygenation Catastrophe, basically. Again, this doesn’t make a huge amount of sense, as described – how did a race that couldn’t breathe oxygen survive long enough to allow Threshold’s population to evolve? And why does Theia say that they had “no choice” but to attack? How does that help improve their position?<\/p>\n

Reading between the lines – and bearing in mind that Daken and Aurora were jumping up and down a few pages ago saying “this story doesn’t make sense and these people are not to be trusted” – my guess is that the Thresholders are time travellers who fled back to the dawn of time to start a new society, triggered the Oxygenation Catastrophe themselves, and wiped out a perfectly innocent society of non-oxygen-breathers. Heck, even Cassandra Nova tells us later in the issue that they’re hiding something.<\/p>\n

PAGES 23-25.\u00a0<\/strong>Kate agrees to help but Cassandra explains the truth.<\/em><\/p>\n

Kate rather ambitiously wants to go back in time and prevent the fall of Threshold, which certainly sounds like it could have obvious time travel paradox problems.<\/p>\n

Cassandra identifies that the bacterial weapons created during Threshold’s war with the Unbreathing were\u00a0Arkea\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0Sublime<\/strong>, “sibling bacteria”. Sublime is a villain from Grant Morrison’s\u00a0New X-Men<\/em>, and a sentient bacteria with various host bodies; it claims to have been around since the dawn of time and therefore should indeed be around at this point in history. His sister Arkea is more obscure, but comes from Brian Wood’s\u00a0X-Men<\/em> run in 2013-14. According to Wood’s story, the two battled for control of the planet and Arkea was driven out into space.<\/p>\n

PAGE 26.\u00a0<\/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 #7 “Here Comes Yesterday, part 1” Writer: Steve Orlando Artist: Eleonora Carlini Colourists: Rachelle Rosenberg & Matt Milla Letterer: Ariana Maher Design: Tom Muller Editor: Jordan D White COVER \/ PAGE 1. Kate Pryde (and Lockheed) look up […]<\/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":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annotations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8363","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=8363"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8365,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8363\/revisions\/8365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}