{"id":8772,"date":"2023-02-18T17:56:11","date_gmt":"2023-02-18T17:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=8772"},"modified":"2023-02-18T17:56:11","modified_gmt":"2023-02-18T17:56:11","slug":"marauders-11-annotations-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=8772","title":{"rendered":"Marauders #11 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/a>MARAUDERS vol 2 #11<\/strong>
\n“Pre-Genesis, part 1”<\/strong>
\nWriter: Steve Orlando<\/strong>
\nArtist: Eleonora Carlini<\/strong>
\nColourist: Matt Milla<\/strong>
\nLetterer & production: Travis Lanham<\/strong>
\nDesign: Tom Muller<\/strong>
\nEditor: Jordan D White<\/strong><\/p>\n

COVER \/ PAGE 1.\u00a0<\/strong>Fang and Lockheed fight Brimstone Love.<\/p>\n

PAGE 2.\u00a0<\/strong>Data page. This is a reprint of page 8 of\u00a0Legion of X<\/em> #1, with Kate’s post-it note added. Here, it’s serving mainly to establish Kurt as Krakoa’s ethical philosopher.<\/p>\n

PAGE 3.\u00a0<\/strong>Kate contemplates the map.<\/em><\/p>\n

Dead Mutant Cove\u00a0<\/strong>is the surfing bay from\u00a0X-Force<\/em> #25-26. In this book, it was previously seen in issue #8, when Tempo and Theia went to watch the sunset there.<\/p>\n

The map<\/strong> was in the mysterium puzzle box that Kate received in\u00a0Marauders Annual<\/em> #1, effectively the first issue of Orlando’s run.<\/p>\n

“It seems the first blood spilled between us is yours.”<\/strong> This is what Cassandra said last issue when Kate defeated her and stranded her in the past – the immediately preceding line was “Good work, Sprite… proud of you.” Kate’s logic in that issue was that she was taking revenge for the death of her father (as one of the many slaughtered on Genosha at Cassandra Nova’s instance in\u00a0New X-Men<\/em> #115), in which case the first blood was obviously spilled by Cassandra. Kate is apparently dwelling on what Cassandra meant by her comment. Perhaps Cassandra was simply alluding to the time travel angle, which meant that Kate was objectively taking revenge for something that hadn’t happened yet, though the fact that our attention is being drawn to the comment suggests there’s more to it.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

PAGES 4-5.\u00a0<\/strong>Kate and Kurt discuss Threshold.<\/em><\/p>\n

Nightcrawler<\/strong>\u00a0has horns to reflect his magical mutation in recent issues of\u00a0Legion of X<\/em> – presumably, this takes place between\u00a0Legion of X\u00a0<\/em>#6-7, unless he gets restored to this form at the end of the arc.<\/p>\n

“Nor do most of us, absent a golden faceplate and a council seat.”<\/b> A roundabout reference to Destiny.<\/p>\n

“I thought I did. Do what’s right but not allowed…”<\/strong> This speech calls back to Kate’s very confident speech to the Marauders in issue #8 about why they needed to go back in time to Threshold. She was very confident about it all at that point.<\/p>\n

“A new friend recently told me, ‘There is no weapon mightier than an idea.'”\u00a0<\/strong>This was in Weaponless Zsen’s farewell letter to Kurt in\u00a0Legion of X\u00a0<\/em>#5.<\/p>\n

The Spark.<\/strong> Nightcrawler’s hazily-defined “try something new” philosophy, which is meant to be mutant-specific on the logic that the availability of resurrection justifies (certain) higher risks. Basically, he’s telling her that if she can’t alter history and prevent the fall of Threshold, she should find some other way of satisfying her urge to help instead.<\/p>\n

PAGE 6.\u00a0<\/strong>Recap and credits. The title “Pre-Genesis” alludes to the plot point of Kate engineering the creation of Threshold in the first place (see below), and might also be a play on the “Regenesis” branding that the X-books used for a while after\u00a0Schism<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The recap says that the question of where the puzzle box map leads is still outstanding, but it isn’t, at least not in a literal sense – it led Kate to find Cassandra in issue #1, as she points out on page 10.<\/p>\n

PAGES 7-9.\u00a0<\/strong>Scratch preaches in the Theatre of Pain until Fang attacks.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Theatre of Pain subplots have been running in the background throughout this volume. Scratch’s spiel about Krakoa rejecting unity in favour of separatism is basically the Theatre’s angle from\u00a0Marauders Annual<\/em> #1. Obviously, it’s an incoherent mixture of “the mutants have betrayed the dream” and “civilisation is a lie”; quite why this is meant to appeal to anyone beyond a handful of eccentrics is beyond me, but we’re apparently being shown that the Theatre is building some sort of fringe following.<\/p>\n

Fang was tortured by the Theatre for one of its shows in\u00a0Marauders Annual<\/em> #1, which is why he wants revenge. Lockheed has also been shown hanging around throughout these subplots.<\/p>\n

The rat on page 7 is\u00a0Dirt Nap<\/strong>, possessing the body of a rat, who’s been seen watching the Theatre’s activities throughout these subplots. He gets casually killed here, but I have to say that – yet again on this book – I find the visual storytelling impenetrable. Is the idea that Scratch kills Dirt Nap and takes his heart out? If so, why is the heart human size when Dirt Nap is in the body of a rat? Why do the two hearts suddenly appear on the lectern on page 8 when they clearly weren’t there on page 7? This is just bad visual storytelling. Basics, people! Basics! The motivations of Scratch and his followers are obscure enough as it is – at least make it clear what they’re\u00a0doing<\/em>.<\/p>\n

PAGE 10.\u00a0<\/strong>Kate talks to Theia.<\/em><\/p>\n

Santo<\/strong> Marco.<\/strong> Serving here as a generic South American micronation, Santo Marco is the inexplicably Swiss-looking country that Magneto briefly conquered in\u00a0X-Men<\/em> #4, back in 1964. It’s occasionally popped up more recently with an anti-mutant government, for example in\u00a0Weapon X\u00a0<\/em>vol 3.<\/p>\n

The X-Men uniform.<\/strong> Kate describes her generic X-Men uniform as “my old training uniform”, by which she presumably means it’s the costume that she wore right at the start of her career, as Sprite. She’s a bit vague about why she’s wearing it, other than “it’d help get me in the right headspace”, but note that Cassandra addressed her as Sprite last issue before the “first blood spilled” line. Strictly speaking, she ought to be wearing a mask, but okay. (She wore a maskless version of the costume at other points in her career too, but we’ll ignore that.)<\/p>\n

Theia is also in the generic X-Men uniform that she (and the other Threshold Three members) had in the previous issue’s epilogue.<\/p>\n

“The seed was the same… My name was already etched in Krakoan on the side…”<\/strong>\u00a0Issue #9 establishes that the Thresholders were apparently spawned from “the Seed”, which was the same object as Kate’s mysterium puzzle box, but at an earlier point in its timeline. This thing had opened in Threshold’s “birthing sea” and “filled our waters with life”, creating all the humans and mutants alive at that point in time. Thus, Threshold is a human\/mutant culture that existed and died out before humans actually evolved on Earth. The point is that Kate has figured out that she’s supposed to complete the time loop by using time travel to create Threshold in the first place.<\/p>\n

PAGES 11-12.\u00a0<\/strong>The Marauders help in Santo Marco.<\/em><\/p>\n

Triage<\/strong> is a healer from the Bendis run, who’s done essentially nothing since then. As Aurora says, he did join a makeshift Marauders rescue squad in dealing with the aftermath of X-Men Green’s attack on an oil rig in X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic<\/em> #44.<\/p>\n

Christian<\/strong> would be Christian Frost, Hellfire Trading’s current Red Monarch.<\/p>\n

Feedback\u00a0<\/strong>was a member of Beta Flight in the dying issues of Alpha Flight<\/em> vol 1. He hasn’t been seen since that book’s final issue in 1994.<\/p>\n

PAGE 13.<\/strong>\u00a0The Marauders visit Hammer Bay.<\/em><\/p>\n

This is the capital of Genosha – the giant statue in the middle was formed from the wreckage of one of the Sentinels as a memorial in\u00a0New X-Men<\/em> #132.<\/p>\n

PAGES 14-16.\u00a0<\/strong>Fang defeats Scratch.<\/em><\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, Fang says that Lockheed was monitoring on behalf of the Marauders in the Theatre of Pain subplot pages, but he was hanging back in the hope of leading them to Brimstone Love. Scratch promptly gives up Brimstone Love’s location.<\/p>\n

“Since his Westchester community fell…”<\/strong>\u00a0Again,\u00a0Marauders Annual<\/em> #1.<\/p>\n

PAGE 17.<\/strong>\u00a0Kate makes her pitch.<\/em><\/p>\n

Basically, Kate is proposing to use the dead of Genosha as the genetic source material for the Thresholders. She doesn’t seem to be proposing that the Genoshan dead will actually be resurrected in the distant past, merely that they will provide the genetic material that, combined with the birthing sea, will spawn a new generation of mutants.<\/p>\n

The Kin Crimson<\/strong>‘s attempt to destroy the Thresholders was seen in flashback in issue #4; they called it “the First Blood Spilled” as one of the Shi’ar’s hidden secrets, which were the main theme of the first arc in this volume.<\/p>\n

Bishop<\/strong>, as a time traveller, strongly implies that he was already aware that something along these lines happened, at least in his own timeline. Which… implies that he knew that the Genoshan genocide was coming, which seems dubious. After all, his whole agenda for his early years was to try to alter history by dealing with the X-traitor, so it’s not obvious why he would have felt inhibited from saving Genosha.<\/p>\n

PAGE 18.\u00a0<\/strong>Polaris arrives.<\/em><\/p>\n

Polaris<\/strong> does indeed have a degree in geophysics, according to\u00a0X-Men: Trial of Magneto<\/em> #2 (and\u00a0X-Men<\/em> #5).<\/p>\n

Tempo<\/strong> is now being portrayed as able to look into the future, which is absolutely not how her powers have traditionally been portrayed. But we already made her a time traveller, so okay. When she says that any future you can see is erased when you act on it, she presumably just means that by definition, you’re doing something which didn’t happen in the version of the future you saw, and therefore you prevent it from occurring in quite the same way. (Whether it’s actually\u00a0erased<\/em>, or simply becomes a timeline that diverged at a point in the past, depends on what model of time travel we’re working on this week.)<\/p>\n

PAGE 19.\u00a0<\/strong>Wicked arrives.<\/em><\/p>\n

Wicked <\/strong>was a character from\u00a0Excalibur<\/em> vol 3, who’s barely been seen since. She had the power to talk to the ghosts of Genosha. As Wicked points out here, if the ghosts were still hanging around Genosha then that would be inconsistent with the idea that they’re all in the Waiting Room awaiting resurrection – so Wicked’s ghosts are not literal spirits of the deceased, but “manifestations” of their psychic echoes or something on those lines.<\/p>\n

PAGES 20-21.\u00a0<\/strong>Kate sees the ghost of her father.<\/em><\/p>\n

He’s not looking too well, even for a ghost.<\/p>\n

PAGES 22-23.\u00a0<\/strong>Fang tracks down Brimstone Love.<\/em><\/p>\n

Johnny Dee<\/strong> is a character from the “no more mutants” era whose only significant appearances were in the minis\u00a0X-Men: The 198\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Civil War: X-Men<\/em>. His rather odd power was to create voodoo dolls of people whose DNA was consumed by the mouth in his chest, which he regarded as having a mind of its own. He was sent to jail for killing a US general in\u00a0Civil War: X-Men\u00a0<\/em>#4 in 2006, but presumably got released to Krakoa under the amnesty. He’s basically a villain and a seemingly odd choice for Fang to align with.<\/p>\n

PAGE 24.\u00a0<\/strong>Data page – Kate’s handwritten notes on the “mutant circuit” that she hopes will create the population of Threshold. It’s not entirely obvious that she really\u00a0needs\u00a0<\/em>Wicked for this, but fair enough, she wants to ask permission (in some form) from her genetic donors. I’m not sure this is really a mutant circuit in the strict sense, which normally means powers being used\u00a0at the same time<\/em>, but it’s certainly a combination of powers more broadly. Note that she needs Fang and Cerebra for this – Cerebra is missing, and Fang is off pursuing revenge in the B-plot.<\/p>\n

The Krakoan text reads “GREEN LAGOON” – as the small print in the top left explains, Kate has written this on a napkin.<\/p>\n

PAGE 25.\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 #11 “Pre-Genesis, part 1” Writer: Steve Orlando Artist: Eleonora Carlini Colourist: Matt Milla Letterer & production: Travis Lanham Design: Tom Muller Editor: Jordan D White COVER \/ PAGE 1.\u00a0Fang and Lockheed fight Brimstone Love. PAGE 2.\u00a0Data page. This […]<\/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-8772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annotations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8772","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=8772"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8774,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8772\/revisions\/8774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}