Marauders Annual review *spoilers*

[danielsan52]

I want Stitch and Tempo together.

Also… she should have sewn his eyelids shut.

[JB]

Wait?? Was there really an Elias Bogan mention???

I would love to see him make a return. It's been a while!

[mugiwara]

I didn't expect so see a character from the Muties miniseries again, but here we are.

rco011_wxkel3.jpg

[Jeanspryde]

Is anybody going to make a Kitty Pryde appreciation thread for 2022?

[lordozone]

Wait, is this story implying anyone who rejects Krakoa and believes normal humans and mutants should still seek to co-exist is also a blood thirsty angry part of a mob who will cheer public executions?

Yes, the only character in this comics who fight for coexistence and questions the ideology of Krakoa is a psychopath who looks like Satan. Not a fan of the writing.

[king of hybrids]

Regarding the Hellfire brats, I feel they should have been traded off to be Champions villains in exchange for something

[xhx23x]

This is a decent set up, but I am not really a fan of Psylocke here. While I do want to see the fallout from her recent trauma, it was a bit weird to see her be all sad and crying every other panel. I particularly hated the family line in Daken's room. The other thing is now the mystery box is Kitty's story? I know we're just starting to unlock that plot, but somehow this direction feels anticlimatic.

But everyone else was pretty strong, I liked the idea of the main baddy essentially taking advantage of people mixed to negative feelings on Krakoa here, though I hope if they are taking this route there's a fairer take on that side (I prefer the Krakoa era to the fighting for co-existance era, but I don't want the new direction to devolve into pointless online debates.)

Tempo was the standout for me. So I'm on board.

[LordUltimus]

This is a decent set up, but I am not really a fan of Psylocke here. While I do want to see the fallout from her recent trauma, it was a bit weird to see her be all sad and crying every other panel. I particularly hated the family line in Daken's room. The other thing is now the mystery box is Kitty's story? I know we're just starting to unlock that plot, but somehow this direction feels anticlimatic.

But everyone else was pretty strong, I liked the idea of the main baddy essentially taking advantage of people mixed to negative feelings on Krakoa here, though I hope if they are taking this route there's a fairer take on that side (I prefer the Krakoa era to the fighting for co-existance era, but I don't want the new direction to devolve into pointless online debates.)

Tempo was the standout for me. So I'm on board.

Wasn't the point of this that the Krakoa era IS still about coexistence? Somehow? Don't think about it too hard?

[AppleJ]

Well, I'm glad SOMEONE brought up the coexistence thing.

Same. It's been needed to be addressed.

[pkingdom]

No but i do think that it was showing that “allies” that get this mad when a group doesn’t act the way they want them to were never allies in the first. I also think Orlando was moreso making a statement about bad faith actors like Brimstone Love who don’t actually believe in what they’re saying but will use their charisma to get a rise out of people.

Yeahhh, Brimstone Love is a maniac obsessed with pain and cruelty, that manipulates those around him like a cult leader...but he is still have a point that the comic fails to address, because Krakoa is not about coexistence, even if specific humans can live in it, they are the exception, not the rule.

Because that is what Xavier said in his speech when creating Krakoa, that he was abandoning coexistence as a false dream. And while in private he has said otherwise, nothing that Krakoa has done in a public way, has shown that they follow the dream, so Kate, if you want people to believe in coexistence, better prove with actions, not empty words.

I mean, in the issue one character mentions that "towels" are a human concept and while is meant to be more of a funny joke, it shows that Krakoans considers themselves above humanity, not part of it, because that idea, "x is a human concept that doesn't work for us", is something that keeps popping up in this era beyond Hickman.

[*]Okay, so Somnus is giving Iceman and Christian a pleasant dream. I was hoping he was just creeping on them or trying to set up a threeway. Suddenly he's a lot less cool now. [*]But he also not-flashed some strangers, which is pretty cool.[*]Brimstone's motivation are pretty interesting. I like how his words and motivations seem good, but everything else shows malice. Aside from the obvious red flags, he's ruling people with fear to get what he wants, while claiming to be noble. He also refuses to listen to others, assuming everyone has ill intention. He claims everyone is trying to silence him, but he's the one who instigating things and not even giving others a chance to speak.

When you describe Brimstone like you it sounds like you're describing most of the Quiet Council. Hell, about a 3rd of the books have been mutants chest-thumping their way through international relations.

I didn't read it as 'we're mad you didn't do things THIS way', at least not with the little information we were given. Its very easy too imagine or even think of there being plenty of humans that really supported mutant/human coexistence, and then suddenly all the mutants vanish and Xavier beams a glorified 'Magneto was right and we're better than all of you and replacing you' speech into everyone's heads. What kind of message does that send to their friends and allies?

Also, hi. It me. The guy who called Somnus a dream rapist. His use of his powers still comes across really creepy here, and the idea that he knows Daken better than anyone because he used a one night stand to invade his mind and give him a happy fantasy is deeply uncomfortable to me. If nothing else its lazy writing to retcon a 'super special most important person' into Daken's life.

And for those who didn't read his introduction, Somnus also has a giant family he left behind. He died of old age surrounded by his loved ones, including children and grandchildren, who I guess just won't ever find out that grandpa isn't dead anymore and is just wandering the world.

[Huntsman Spider]

Regarding the Hellfire brats, I feel they should have been traded off to be Champions villains in exchange for something

Rich brats who think they're above laws and morals and do whatever they please to whomever they please? Yeah, they definitely could make good Champions villains, maybe hiring the likes of the Freelancers for more direct/physical aggressions against the Champions.

[Outburstz]

Reading the issue I came to this thread expecting the predictable Brimstone love is right rah rah rah non sense

What I was not expecting was everyone calling Somnus a predator like what the heck.

[Psycwave]

The Somnus scene was kinda weird. Why would Bobby/Christian ask Somnus to send them on a dream prom before going to Ibiza? Why are they sleeping in the hot tub? Why have a giant block of ice in my hot tub? He’s not clicking.

Is he gonna put on shoes before they go to space?

[Grunty]

Honestly, so much about the current era comes down to 1) execution and 2) who is writing a particular story. There are some writers like Ayala (and personally, I think Orlando), who drawing upon their own visceral understanding of things like respectability politics, are able to write nuanced stories that show mutants refusing to play respectability politics in regards to being mutants specifically but without trampling all over other aspects of their identity and disparaging human members of the other marginalized communities they're part of.

But then you have others like Hickman, who for all his skill with sci-fi plots, like, has never so much as displayed an INTEREST in examining certain aspects of marginalized identity and lived experiences, or like, concepts like intersectionality, and thus in contrast just reduces characters to being mutant or non-mutant and tramples all willy-nilly over everything distinct and real-world-relevant about a mutant character's identity. Giving us the end result of.....the bullshit from NM#1 where it doesn't sound like Dani and Berto have just stopped playing respectability politics but full on swapped personalities with generic Acolyte zealot #9 from the 90s.

Which makes it very tricky getting a handle on where I stand with a lot of these concepts, personally, because I feel like I'm getting whiplash from one writer's take to the next. Sigh.

Come to think of it. Wasn't this usage of "human" as negative term primarily showcased in Hickman's stories?
Because the first other example that comes to my mind was in his Vault story when Synch went: "Human words. Useless words."

From what i saw Hickman really striked me as the kind of writer for whom the characters he uses are less people and more just chess figures who fullfill specific roles to progress the big game (his macro-plot) he has in mind and if a figure does not fit a certain role, he will bend them out of shapes so they will do (Moira X being the prime example here).
Which works fine in original works, but if it's an allready established universe with well explored characters it can easily result in these characters not feeling like themself anymore or being reduced to specific parts of their characters losing nuance in the process.
Not to say he can't write individual characters right, but that it might have been of secondary or even tertiary interest to him here.

So yeah i wouldn't be suprised if his main interest was on how a society of people with super powers would progress over generation, than with the mutant metaphor of them representing various marginalized groups.

In that regard i can't shake off the feeling, Hickman's intention for Krakoa and the current status quo was to showcase the beginning of mutantkind "losing themself", by moving on a path which would have ended in them descending into a The City (from the Ultimate Universe) style society, becomming similar "post human" creatures as Homo Novissima.

Basicly being on the path of becomming a telepathically communicating hive minded impersonal society, where people are artifical created to fullfill specific functions in machine via their combination of super powers, either individualy or as "circuits".

We allready saw the seeds for this development in the Chimeras of Life 9.

With that in mind, it certainly makes sense why he would have characters use the word "human" as negative term and rejection of "human things" (culture, history, morality, mortality) as something desired, describe mutants combining their powers akin to becomming machines (circuits), showing a disregard for their mortal coils and embracing cloning and alteration of their new bodies as their new natural way of life (the crucible), Xavier being intentional creepy looking and the other intentionaly negative aspects under all the sunshine and green leafs.

But with this possible story being scrapped now, the scenes of heros talking so negatively about "human" things might become even more awkward in retrospective.

Kinda like the first two seasons of Star Trek: Next Generation.

Rich brats who think they're above laws and morals and do whatever they please to whomever they please? Yeah, they definitely could make good Champions villains, maybe hiring the likes of the Freelancers for more direct/physical aggressions against the Champions.

Indeed the concept itself is sound. Especialy when set up against heros of their own age range.

But the Hellfire Kids were just introduced in the worst way, by randomly overtaking a well established organization with pre-existing leading figures, essentialy creating the sense of not having "earned" these positions of power but having recieved them via the "deus ex machina" of a writer trying to push them and then being set up as enemies of adult heros.

Few people like it when their beloved adult characters are outclassed by randomly introduced new kids, who they are then supposed to respect as valid enemies, despite said kids being annoying brats.

[LordUltimus]

I mean, we've seen racists killing mutant allies en masse in the Krakoa era. What, are they not good enough to bring to Krakoa when THEIR lives are being taken, but Sabretooth is?