{"id":8658,"date":"2023-01-07T21:55:24","date_gmt":"2023-01-07T21:55:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=8658"},"modified":"2023-01-07T21:55:24","modified_gmt":"2023-01-07T21:55:24","slug":"marauders-10-annotations-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=8658","title":{"rendered":"Marauders #10 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/a>MARAUDERS vol 2 #10<\/strong>
\n“Here Comes Yesterday, part 4”<\/strong>
\nWriter: Steve Orlando<\/strong>
\nArtist: Eleonora Carlini<\/strong>
\nColour artist: Matt Milla<\/strong>
\nLetterer & production: Travis Lanham<\/strong>
\nDesign: Tom Muller<\/strong><\/p>\n

COVER \/ PAGE 1:<\/strong> A Psylocke pin-up.<\/p>\n

PAGES 2-4.<\/strong>\u00a0Kate and Amass fight Stryfe.<\/em><\/p>\n

When we left off, Amass had been captured by the Unbreathing. Kate disappeared earlier in the issue but (as pointed out in the comments last time) the implication was that Amass had used their powers to absorb her. That was also hinted at on page 22 of the previous issue, when Amass told himself to “stop talking to yourself – someone might think it’s strange”.<\/p>\n

That implication is confirmed here, and also explains why “Amass” recognised Stryfe when he unmasked at the end of the previous issue – presumably that was Kate talking.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Stryfe’s plan here is apparently to alter history by engineering a conflict that will destroy all breathing creatures and leave him free to shape history. (He doesn’t explain\u00a0how<\/em> he’d be able to retain control over the Unbreathing, but he’s obviously got influence over them now, so fair enough.)<\/p>\n

Stryfe recognises Kate, though he calls her Kitty. At this stage, it’s impossible to say where any particular story fits into Stryfe’s personal timeline, since he’s become rather like Kang – his appearances could take place in virtually any order from his point of view, and there could be all manner of divergent Stryfes wandering around on top of that.<\/p>\n

At any rate, Amass does the heroic sacrifice thing by trying to absorb Stryfe in order to let Kate escape. Stryfe simply vanishes from the story after this point.<\/p>\n

PAGE 5.<\/strong> Data page, covering the mechanics of Kate’s escape from the Unbreathing’s base. Apparently they prefer to go by Darkbuilders; it makes sense that their name for themselves wouldn’t define them by something they\u00a0don’t<\/em> do.<\/p>\n

PAGE 6.<\/strong>\u00a0Kate alerts the Marauders.<\/em><\/p>\n

Presumably she’s contacting – or trying to contact – Psylocke or Cassandra here.<\/p>\n

With the best will in the world, the art on this page is just unreadable. I have literally no idea what is happening in the last two panels, and I’m not exaggerating.<\/p>\n

PAGE 7.<\/strong>\u00a0The Marauders and Grove fight Arkea.<\/i><\/p>\n

PAGE 8.<\/strong> Recap and credits. I’m not sure why Crave and Amass (but not Theia) are shown with red highlighting – maybe it’s supposed to be Crave and Fang, to signify that they’re both dead? Amass certainly doesn’t die fighting Stryfe – we see him again later in the issue.<\/p>\n

PAGE 9-11.<\/strong>\u00a0The Marauders fight Arkea and Sublime in the birthing sea.<\/em><\/p>\n

We were told last issue that Arkea had infected the Thresholders’ “birthing sea”, where they spawn the next generation. Apparently for the purposes of this scene, it’s possible for Arkea to spread herself “too thin”, which begs the question of how Arkea and Sublime managed to wipe out so many mutants in the first place (as opposed to just surviving within the wider mutant population).<\/p>\n

Bishop can use his energy absorption powers to kill things by absorbing all their energy. Fair enough, I’ll buy that as an extreme application of the way his powers are defined – especially since it turns out to be completely impractical as a method of fighting, so it makes sense that he hasn’t done it before.<\/p>\n

PAGES 12-17.<\/strong>\u00a0Cassandra defeats Arkea and Sublime.<\/em><\/p>\n

She offers herself as a host body and apparently just correctly figures out that her psi-powers are powerful enough to destroy them. It’s not obvious why she didn’t do that earlier, or what’s led her to risk it and\/or realise it’ll work, and it feels very “time for the plot to end now”. In issue #8 Cassandra told Amass that she knew the Marauders would ignore her warning and go back anyway, and that when they did so, “there will be no rule but my own” (whatever that’s supposed to mean). Perhaps she always had this in mind.<\/p>\n

The puzzle box<\/strong> is the Seed from which the Thresholders entered the world, as explained last issue (but since it’s made of mysterium, the strong implication is that it was sent back in time at some point). At any rate, this\u00a0is<\/em> the same puzzle box that Kate was given at the start of Orlando’s run, but at a much earlier point in its own timeline.<\/p>\n

I’m genuinely unclear what the characters are talking about when they mention “billions” and “trillions” – I\u00a0think<\/em> it’s the number of… particles of Sublime and Arkea viruses? Or something?<\/p>\n

PAGE 18.<\/strong>\u00a0Tempo and Theia.<\/em><\/p>\n

We’re into the epilogue, and Theia reminds us that Amass’s plot remains unresolved. Stryfe doesn’t even get a mention and as already mentioned, there’s a nagging hint that Cassandra had a plan for when she got back here. Oh god, we’re being set up for a sequel arc, aren’t we?<\/p>\n

“Your suits are damaged. You cannot stay.”<\/strong> You might be wondering why this is an issue once Arkea and Sublime have been defeated, but issue #8 did say that one of the purposes of the suits was to “protect the past from today’s germs” – and tries to explain why the Threshold Three didn’t have them, by saying that they hadn’t been in the present day long enough to pick up modern day viruses. I really don’t think you can get away with that in a world that’s just been through two years of social distancing, to be honest, but that’s the official reason.<\/p>\n

PAGES<\/strong> 19-21.\u00a0<\/strong>Kate defeats Cassandra and strands her in the past.<\/em><\/p>\n

Kate<\/strong> decides to give up on the idea of altering history by saving Threshold from extinction, though in fairness she\u00a0did<\/em> achieve the immediate goal of saving Threshold from Arkea and Sublime. Presumably the Unbreathing pose an existential threat to Threshold mainly due to the damage done by Arkea and Sublime, since the back story suggested that the Thresholders had largely driven them into retreat until they made an ill-advised decision to finish the job.<\/p>\n

Apparently somewhere along the line Kate formed an agreement with Grove to strand Cassandra in the past in Thresholder custody, and then Somnus used his powers to wipe it from everyone’s memory until the time came to put it into action. This is all very obscure. The dialogue suggests that Emma Frost had a hand in this plan, but at the same time, Kate was separated from the Marauders before they met Grove, so she only had a chance to make an agreement with Grove between pages 17-18, at which point why bother wiping it from people’s memories? I guess<\/em> we’re meant to take it that Kate already had this as a plan when going into the past, and then regained her memories and discussed it with Grove and wiped it again but… this is all over-complicated.<\/p>\n

“You killed my father.”<\/strong> Kate’s father Carmen died in the Sentinel attack on Genosha which Cassandra orchestrated in\u00a0New X-Men<\/em>\u00a0#115 (2001), although this wasn’t revealed until\u00a0X-Men Unlimited<\/em>\u00a0#36 (2002). It’s largely been overlooked among the many, many reasons why taking Cassandra onto the team seemed odd, but Kate is essentially telling us that she only put Cassandra on the team in order to manipulate her into a position where she could be permanently disposed of. Presumably this is also a private deal with Emma, since it’s a blatant violation of the Krakoan amnesty and the Threshold excursion makes it Wonderfully Deniable.<\/p>\n

Emma, of course, was also a survivor of the Genoshan attack – in which most of her then students died – and naturally isn’t very keen on Cassandra either.<\/p>\n

Grove<\/strong> heals from her injuries in a mostly vegetative form, and turns out at the end to be the future Okkara (which means she goes on to become the island that will eventually split into Krakoa and Arakko, all as per the back story established circa “X of Swords”). This was foreshadowed in issue #8, when Amass said that Krakoa was “almost familiar”.<\/p>\n

PAGE 22.<\/strong> Data page: Kate writes a letter to her late father, celebrating the demise of Cassandra Nova and somewhat explaining the plot. I really don’t see what the misdirection “crystal box” in Kate’s own mind is adding to this story, given that it doesn’t come into the plot until moments before it ceases to matter.<\/p>\n

Jean altered Cassandra’s morals in\u00a0X-Men Red<\/em> #11, in an attempt to teach her empathy; per issue #1, all it achieved was to make her a fanatical protector of mutants rather than a fanatical destroyer.<\/p>\n

PAGES 23-24.<\/strong>\u00a0The Thresholders are resurrected again.<\/em><\/p>\n

Since they were returned to their home time and lived out the remainder of their lives there, they are now simply dead mutants like any other, except with back-ups on hand. Therefore, they qualify for resurrection. That leaves Tempo free to pursue her relationship with Theia – though in another weird storytelling decision, Tempo doesn’t even appear on the page where they’re actually resurrected.<\/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 #10 “Here Comes Yesterday, part 4” Writer: Steve Orlando Artist: Eleonora Carlini Colour artist: Matt Milla Letterer & production: Travis Lanham Design: Tom Muller COVER \/ PAGE 1: A Psylocke pin-up. PAGES 2-4.\u00a0Kate and Amass fight Stryfe. When […]<\/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-8658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annotations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8658","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=8658"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8660,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8658\/revisions\/8660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}