Marauders #27 - Review/Spoilers

[NewMutant]

Um, ...remember the Inferno teaser cover that had Psylocke, Bishop, and Magik?? Well, might be more of that mess.

Colossus. But yeah. X-Editors and marketing are mess.

[JamJams]

Why are Emma and Shaw still on the council if they are no longer overseeing the very thing the Summer court exists to represent?

I was about to ask this very same thing! They're on the QC because they run the organization, since they stepped down Lourdes and the Cuckoos should have their seats.

[NewMutant]

If anyone is feeling generous. I'd love a new Avatar of Christian toasting - preferably without text. Please and thanks!

https://twitter.com/AlsoPurp/status/...862361090?s=20

[Saithor]

I was about to ask this very same thing! They're on the QC because they run the organization, since they stepped down Lourdes and the Cuckoos should have their seats.

Short Answer: Krakoa doesn't have a government.

Long answer: The Quiet Council quite frankly is not a government. They do well below the bare minimum that a ruling body is meant to or even expected to, and don't even do what they do very well. Most the time, when someone comes forward to point out a part of government or civil society or anything they missed, they typically respond by putting those same people in charge of it in response, delegating under the assumption that someone who noticed the problem existed is the person best suited to handling it. And much of what they handle directly is either incompetent or fairly corrupt. Their solution to Orchis involved sending X-force against Orchis six times, when there was no real way for X-force to know what they should do differently this time, and instead just hastened the time till Orchis found out about industrialized mutant resurrection.

Diplomacy is mostly handled by the fact that they are giving away wonder drugs in order to get goodwill, but they are also crippling themselves with their choices in diplomats. Apocalypse going to diplomatic summits doesn't even work for an intimidation factor. The man literally tried to destroy 90% of the world's population in public, and has no remorse for it. It would be the equivalent of if Afghanistan had made Osama Bin Laden diplomat to America, you aren't trying to actually negotiate or even intimidate, you are just trying to piss certain people off. Magneto comes off good in comparison, even accounting that one time a diplomat bringing a gun to a meeting caused him to flip out about trust and the paranoia of humans...never mind he could kill everyone in the room with a ballpoint pen if he wanted too.

The council's structure itself is inherently flawed. You've got a twelve person group who are unelected, elect their own replacements, and are only accountable to themselves. We saw in Inferno that there is apparently no safeguards in place for bribing councillers into voting your way, and that it was formed from the start with a specific, dominant voting bloc in mind (As soon as they thought their bloc was in danger when they realized Emma would no longer trust them, Erik and Charles' immediately tried to put Colussus on the team, which, I like the character, but even if he wasn't mind controlled, isn't really qualified for that position). Some people have stated in other threads that the mutant population is likely fine with having no say in their governance because Krakoa is a post-scarcity society, but I call bullshit. People have political opinions divorced from their need for food and shelter, and the idea that there are no groups of people on Krakoa who disagree with the council is essentially declaring mutantkind a hivemind. We have in fact had several mutants openly question the Council, most recently in X-men and Hellions, indicating, I hope, that the authors are trying to reform it into something more long term and democratic now that Hickman's plan is in the wind and we need to keep Krakoa's government around. (If anyone seriously thinks that the Quiet Council was intended to be a long term ruling body by Hickman, I'd suggest going back and reading his earlier works and seeing how he typically treats groups like it).

As is Quiet Council responsibilities are essentially ill-defined at best. The most defined was the Spring Court with their managing of the Hellfire Trading Company, but that idea of managing the economic sector is undermined by the existence of X-corp, which really seemed to just be serving the same purpose. Magneto and Charles act most often as de facto heads of state even though they're technically just fellow council members. Mystique is dispatched on missions like she's just a member of X-force. Seemingly no one has actually assigned Sinister, Nightcrawler, or Storm a task till Storm was made regent of Sol and Nightcrawler was talked by Charles into handling the problems Nightcrawler brought up to him. Apocalypse mostly either served as the death pit guy until he went rogue and didn't get reigned in until things went well out of hand. Even on the wiki, outside of the Spring Court, none of the other courts have any defined roles, instead being defined by some initial trait the initial members of the court shared. In light of the fact that no one on the Council has any actual individual responsibility they need to fufill, it shouldn't be surprising that Shaw and Emma kept their seats because it's not like anyone else on the council is doing work either.

[useridgoeshere]

Reed’s negligence is also why there are Mutant haters orbiting the sun and Sentinels on Mercury.

[JB]

I was about to ask this very same thing! They're on the QC because they run the organization, since they stepped down Lourdes and the Cuckoos should have their seats.

Perhaps this very topic will come up in Immortal.

Emma of course has major influence over the Cuckoos so I can see her keeping her seat. Not so much with Shaw, unless it's his connections that are solely keeping the black market operations intact.

Reed’s negligence is also why there are Mutant haters orbiting the sun and Sentinels on Mercury.

Very true.

[Covetous_One]

Reed’s negligence is also why there are Mutant haters orbiting the sun and Sentinels on Mercury.

That was from the Illuminati era so Charles was negligent too.

[Marvell2100]

Um, ...remember the Inferno teaser cover that had Psylocke, Bishop, and Magik?? Well, might be more of that mess.

You mean the one that inferred that Bishop could possibly a traitor which ultimately amounted to squat?

X-Writers get our hopes up and then be like....

[Kingdom X]

Short Answer: Krakoa doesn't have a government.

Long answer: The Quiet Council quite frankly is not a government. They do well below the bare minimum that a ruling body is meant to or even expected to, and don't even do what they do very well. Most the time, when someone comes forward to point out a part of government or civil society or anything they missed, they typically respond by putting those same people in charge of it in response, delegating under the assumption that someone who noticed the problem existed is the person best suited to handling it. And much of what they handle directly is either incompetent or fairly corrupt. Their solution to Orchis involved sending X-force against Orchis six times, when there was no real way for X-force to know what they should do differently this time, and instead just hastened the time till Orchis found out about industrialized mutant resurrection.

Diplomacy is mostly handled by the fact that they are giving away wonder drugs in order to get goodwill, but they are also crippling themselves with their choices in diplomats. Apocalypse going to diplomatic summits doesn't even work for an intimidation factor. The man literally tried to destroy 90% of the world's population in public, and has no remorse for it. It would be the equivalent of if Afghanistan had made Osama Bin Laden diplomat to America, you aren't trying to actually negotiate or even intimidate, you are just trying to piss certain people off. Magneto comes off good in comparison, even accounting that one time a diplomat bringing a gun to a meeting caused him to flip out about trust and the paranoia of humans...never mind he could kill everyone in the room with a ballpoint pen if he wanted too.

The council's structure itself is inherently flawed. You've got a twelve person group who are unelected, elect their own replacements, and are only accountable to themselves. We saw in Inferno that there is apparently no safeguards in place for bribing councillers into voting your way, and that it was formed from the start with a specific, dominant voting bloc in mind (As soon as they thought their bloc was in danger when they realized Emma would no longer trust them, Erik and Charles' immediately tried to put Colussus on the team, which, I like the character, but even if he wasn't mind controlled, isn't really qualified for that position). Some people have stated in other threads that the mutant population is likely fine with having no say in their governance because Krakoa is a post-scarcity society, but I call bullshit. People have political opinions divorced from their need for food and shelter, and the idea that there are no groups of people on Krakoa who disagree with the council is essentially declaring mutantkind a hivemind. We have in fact had several mutants openly question the Council, most recently in X-men and Hellions, indicating, I hope, that the authors are trying to reform it into something more long term and democratic now that Hickman's plan is in the wind and we need to keep Krakoa's government around. (If anyone seriously thinks that the Quiet Council was intended to be a long term ruling body by Hickman, I'd suggest going back and reading his earlier works and seeing how he typically treats groups like it).

As is Quiet Council responsibilities are essentially ill-defined at best. The most defined was the Spring Court with their managing of the Hellfire Trading Company, but that idea of managing the economic sector is undermined by the existence of X-corp, which really seemed to just be serving the same purpose. Magneto and Charles act most often as de facto heads of state even though they're technically just fellow council members. Mystique is dispatched on missions like she's just a member of X-force. Seemingly no one has actually assigned Sinister, Nightcrawler, or Storm a task till Storm was made regent of Sol and Nightcrawler was talked by Charles into handling the problems Nightcrawler brought up to him. Apocalypse mostly either served as the death pit guy until he went rogue and didn't get reigned in until things went well out of hand. Even on the wiki, outside of the Spring Court, none of the other courts have any defined roles, instead being defined by some initial trait the initial members of the court shared. In light of the fact that no one on the Council has any actual individual responsibility they need to fufill, it shouldn't be surprising that Shaw and Emma kept their seats because it's not like anyone else on the council is doing work either.

This was a READ, but not an incorrect one lol. Definitely looking forward to Immortal X-Men to see what the QC is up to all the time. Right now I think we have more info on the duties of the Arrakko council.

[GregoryD]

To be fair to Charles, the info he took from Reed was something that could be used to hurt mutants,

There's no "to be fair to Charles" here.

The problem with mutant psychics is they feel that they have the authority to simply screw with people's memories and minds as they see fit.

This has always been the case. They toy with memories and perceptions and it's all fun and games.

The problem with it this time is that Reed Richards isn't some bum. He could easily be the richest man on the planet. He's been an ally, but at WORST a neutral party to the entire X-Debacle. The man is motivated by family and knowledge.

And now Charles thinks he can just come for Reed and screws with his knowledge.

Reed basically had an idea for a gun but didn't fire it at anybody. Charles IS the gun and took the shot the first time he could, then gloated about it afterward, talking down to Reed as if he were some child who needed to be scolded or punished. Not only that, but Charles has also made it well known that he believes that human parents of mutant children are incapable of raising their own kids and that a barely teen's agency is immediately more important than the grown adult who has raised them long before they ever expressed an X-gene..

Not only is this NOT the only Reed Richard on the planet, but Reed knows what he's lost and he knows people who can do the thing that he can't do and would be willing to build it anyway. How long do you think it'd take Dr. Doom to construct the device if Reed challenged him?

Doom is sitting over there knowing full well what they're using Cerebro for, which means he probably also knows how to obliterate it and the backups. He just needs the right person to ask him to pull THAT trigger. Nobody deserves immortality, after all.

[BobbysWorld]

This was a READ, but not an incorrect one lol. Definitely looking forward to Immortal X-Men to see what the QC is up to all the time. Right now I think we have more info on the duties of the Arrakko council.

LOL, there's a reason Isca was like lmao at the idea of just merging Arakko's ruling body with Krakoa's when Magneto first proposed it after X of Swords. She wasn't wrong to be like yeah we're hella messy, but at least we know we're hella messy and are fine with it. You all are hella messy but you think you're not. We are not the same.

[JB]

There's no "to be fair to Charles" here.

The problem with mutant psychics is they feel that they have the authority to simply screw with people's memories and minds as they see fit.

This has always been the case. They toy with memories and perceptions and it's all fun and games.

The problem with it this time is that Reed Richards isn't some bum. He could easily be the richest man on the planet. He's been an ally, but at WORST a neutral party to the entire X-Debacle. The man is motivated by family and knowledge.

And now Charles thinks he can just come for Reed and screws with his knowledge.

Reed basically had an idea for a gun but didn't fire it at anybody. Charles IS the gun and took the shot the first time he could, then gloated about it afterward, talking down to Reed as if he were some child who needed to be scolded or punished. Not only that, but Charles has also made it well known that he believes that human parents of mutant children are incapable of raising their own kids and that a barely teen's agency is immediately more important than the grown adult who has raised them long before they ever expressed an X-gene..

Not only is this NOT the only Reed Richard on the planet, but Reed knows what he's lost and he knows people who can do the thing that he can't do and would be willing to build it anyway. How long do you think it'd take Dr. Doom to construct the device if Reed challenged him?

Doom is sitting over there knowing full well what they're using Cerebro for, which means he probably also knows how to obliterate it and the backups. He just needs the right person to ask him to pull THAT trigger. Nobody deserves immortality, after all.

I've personally never seen it as "fun and games" but to each their own. Charles mind-wiping Reed and now Reed making a possible deal with Kate to somehow retrieve the taken information is good story potential to me. And that's all I want, good stories.

[Habis]

The device not only cloaks mutant genes, but can turn them off. His invention also made it so Franklin couldn't access a Krakoan Gate, which has horrible implications if weaponized. Even if it has some value for mutants (being able to help with problematic mutations, cloak them from enemies), the device could also easily be used against them. Considering Reed, while well-intentioned, used it on his own son without any regard for his own wants, he's clearly not a person they can take a chance on.

Reed had good reasons to be wary of Xavier's attitude towards Franklin. And to be honest, Xaviers was trying to recruit Franklin and convince him to go live in Krakoa. Reed, as a parent, had the right to keep his underaged son from going to places he doesn't regard as safe for him.

And Codex-X was explicitly NOT designed to disable or replace the x-gene, only to cloak it. Reed admitted it was theoretically possible to redesign it to remove the X-gene, but he never developed that version.

Yes, Reed could have created something to remove the X-gene... so what? Several lesser scientists have done the same: Dr. Kavita Rao's Hope Serum, Dr. Amara Perera's cure (which she never dared to make public out of fear for the consequences), the Mutant Vaccine (which could be injected before the mutant powers manifested), Marcus Glove's X-Cise, Dr. Tucker's prenatal test and cure for the x-gene (which worked only on fetuses). Tabula Rasa nanotech can annul all superpowers... etc.
What's the point of manipulating Reed's mind, then? That won't remove the risk of a mutant "cure" being developed, it only removes the existence of useful mutant cloaking technology...

[Kurolegacy]

The device not only cloaks mutant genes, but can turn them off. His invention also made it so Franklin couldn't access a Krakoan Gate, which has horrible implications if weaponized. Even if it has some value for mutants (being able to help with problematic mutations, cloak them from enemies), the device could also easily be used against them. Considering Reed, while well-intentioned, used it on his own son without any regard for his own wants, he's clearly not a person they can take a chance on.

I don’t recall at any point in the mini that it was ever mentioned that it could be used to turn off an X-gene. Only mention of it being used to harm mutants was from Xavier and Magneto at the end and, honestly, I think I’m gonna trust the expertise of the guy who designed and created the device over the people who flat out lie to their country on a daily basis and would call foul on anything if it doesn’t fit into their view of what’s good for mutantkind. Hell, I can’t help but find it funny that Xavier throws a fit about what he claims could be a way Reed’s device could be used yet is fine with Forge knowing how to make a weapon that depowers mutant. Hell, said device was just used to depower Moira. Oops.

That was from the Illuminati era so Charles was negligent too.

Xavier was dead during that time so he’s off the hook on that one. Beast on the other hand…

[king of hybrids]

It’s really telling when a pack of murderous social Darwinists who knife fight for their jobs and the genocidal front organisation for the machines are more organised as governments re delegation of roles than thr QC