Guesses as to the mysterious ninth member of Orlando's Marauders cast?

[BobbysWorld]

So yesterday Orlando did a twitter Q&A thread where somebody asked for a hint about the ninth member of the cast, and his response was that nobody's guessed who it is yet, and he's a big fan of Morrison's 13 member JLA lineup. I'm not sure who all has been guessed, at least in terms of guesses he's aware of, but back when Orlando first teased that there was going to be a ninth member of the Marauders cast, a lot of people bombarded his twitter feed with guesses and Thunderbird and Jessie Drake were two of the most common ones, so there's no way its either of them if it hasn't actually been guessed yet.

For the record, the actual hints given about the mysterious ninth cast member are:

1) They're a mutant who hasn't really shown up in the X-books before, outside of maybe one or two tangential appearances in an X-Men affiliated book ages ago, possibly decades ago.

2) He also said they were a pretty big deal representation wise, as in they were among one of the first instances of representation for some marginalized group.

3) And the JLA lineup he said he was a fan of - specifically in response to being asked for another hint as to the ninth cast member of Marauders - included Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, Wally West, Kyle Rayner, Orion, Big Barda, Oracle, Plastic Man, Huntress and Zauriel.

Anyone have any guesses based on all that?

The character that stands out from that particular JLA lineup for me, particularly when combined with the hint about representation....is Barbara Gordon aka Oracle, one of the most iconic disabled superheroes in comics.

And given that the mystery ninth Marauder member has historically NOT been affiliated with the X-Men before in the past, or even been much of a presence in X-books (though again, he made a point to qualify that statement by saying they might have appeared in an X-Men adjacent book decades ago but they were never known for having a presence in the X-books specifically)....my amateur sleuthing has me thinking that perhaps the mutant in question might be.....

Janelle Chord aka Silhouette.

Primarily known for being a member of the New Warriors (but appearing in the original X-Force run in the Younghunt crossover as X-Force and the New Warriors joined forces against the Upstarts), Janelle is a Vietnamese mutant with Darkforce powers who is known for using crutches due to longterm spinal injuries. This makes her one of the earliest instances I can think of for disability representation - specifically in terms of superheroes who require mobility aides. Her Darkforce abilities have been tweaked over the years so sometimes she can do varying tricks with it that other writers don't acknowledge, but for the most part she's a teleporter - a powerset the cast doesn't already have covered. Sure, they have the Krakoan gates, but those lack the versatility of an actual teleporter and though Kate's got people working on the problem she still can't use them herself for the moment, meaning a teleporter could be really handy to have on her team in particular.

Any other guesses? Or thoughts on if it might be Silhouette and how she might gel with the cast, for those who are familiar with her?

(Not gonna lie, part of this guess is just really wanting it to be her. I'm a big fan of the classic New Warriors and Silhouette in particular. Darkforce powers are always fun and she and her brother have interesting history that I would love to see Orlando's take on).

[Dante Milton]

Maybe Chance from Fallen Angels, with the revelation that the character has transitioned to a man since first appearance. Silhouette sounds like a good guess. I'm not very familiar with the New Warriors, but they have other mutant members right? Who are the other ones, beside Justice and Firestar?

[BobbysWorld]

Maybe Chance from Fallen Angels, with the revelation that the character has transitioned to a man since first appearance. Silhouette sounds like a good guess. I'm not very familiar with the New Warriors, but they have other mutant members right? Who are the other ones, beside Justice and Firestar?

I actually thought about Chance as well, and would love to see him again!!

As far as mutant members of the New Warriors go, other than Justice and Firestar (and not counting the lineup of depowered mutants after M-Day, since they just used the New Warriors name but had nothing to do with the classic version of the team or its later iterations).....other mutant New Warriors include:

Silhouette (Silhouette's brother Andrew Chord is also a mutant known as Midnight's Fire, though his abilities are primarily just superhuman strength, speed, senses, etc)

Namorita

Rina Patel aka Timeslip (with various time manipulating powers that she mostly uses to take short jaunts forward and backwards in time, almost like a version of teleportation, but also she has a kind of precognition that stems from her future self projecting her consciousness back in time)

Chris Bradley aka Bolt (electrical powers, had the Legacy Virus, was close with Bobby Drake at one point as like a surrogate little brother, and later was the protégé of both Maverick and Cable, he died during the Neverland/Weapon X storyline as he heard about Maverick's death and took up his identity to avenge him, only to be shot and killed as an impostor by the real Maverick who had faked his own death to infiltrate Weapon X as Agent Zero....yup, I reeeeeally want him to come back and for all of this to be relevant given the role Maverick plays in Wolverine's solo run, lol)

Donyell Taylor aka Bandit (Night Thrasher's mutant half-brother and Silhouette's occasional boyfriend, he also has electricity powers as well as having operated as Night Thrasher himself at times)

Rafael Carago aka Helix (he was a latent mutant whose powers were activated by the Spider-Man villains The Jackal and Spidercide unleashing a biological weapon on his town. Essentially, his power is a variation of Lifeguard and Darwin's abilities...he 'instinctively recodes his DNA in response to external threatening stimuli, undergoing millions of years of evolution in mere moments, shedding his enhancements involuntarily once the danger is past. Primarily his powers have allowed him to grow in size and strength, harden his skin, cancel psychokinetic energies in his vicinity, counteract poisons, etc)

Zachary Smith Jr. aka Microbe (a mutant member of the team who died in the Stamford/Civil War Incident....basically his powers let him communicate with bacteria and other micro-organisms. 'Microbe could exacerbate the effects of different bacteria on people, causing them to become sick or nauseous to varying degrees, or do the opposite and sterilize wounds by keeping micro-organisms away from open and exposed injuries. With the proper micro-organisms present he could fix a flat tire, cause metals to rust, prevent milk from spoiling, manipulate flesh-eating bacteria so that they only attacked cancer cells, and other specific effects.')

Deborah Fields aka Debrii (only briefly a member of the team before the Stamford Incident and then appeared in Avengers Initiative....she's never officially been named as a mutant in the books, just in interviews by writers. 'Debrii is described as a "telekinetic magnet". She is able to move masses of small objects at will and is capable of manipulating a great mass of her attracted "debris" at one time. She can use any "debris" around her to defend herself from attacks or to attack her enemies. During the New Warriors' battle with the Mad Thinker's Intellectual Robots, she took control of a pile of scrap metal, crafting a shell in the form of a large monster around her body, and manipulating this creation as a weapon.')

[Uncanny X-Man]

So yesterday Orlando did a twitter Q&A thread where somebody asked for a hint about the ninth member of the cast, and his response was that nobody's guessed who it is yet, and he's a big fan of Morrison's 13 member JLA lineup. I'm not sure who all has been guessed, at least in terms of guesses he's aware of, but back when Orlando first teased that there was going to be a ninth member of the Marauders cast, a lot of people bombarded his twitter feed with guesses and Thunderbird and Jessie Drake were two of the most common ones, so there's no way its either of them if it hasn't actually been guessed yet.

For the record, the actual hints given about the mysterious ninth cast member are:

1) They're a mutant who hasn't really shown up in the X-books before, outside of maybe one or two tangential appearances in an X-Men affiliated book ages ago, possibly decades ago.

2) He also said they were a pretty big deal representation wise, as in they were among one of the first instances of representation for some marginalized group.

3) And the JLA lineup he said he was a fan of - specifically in response to being asked for another hint as to the ninth cast member of Marauders - included Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, Wally West, Kyle Rayner, Orion, Big Barda, Oracle, Plastic Man, Huntress and Zauriel.

Anyone have any guesses based on all that?

The character that stands out from that particular JLA lineup for me, particularly when combined with the hint about representation....is Barbara Gordon aka Oracle, one of the most iconic disabled superheroes in comics.

And given that the mystery ninth Marauder member has historically NOT been affiliated with the X-Men before in the past, or even been much of a presence in X-books (though again, he made a point to qualify that statement by saying they might have appeared in an X-Men adjacent book decades ago but they were never known for having a presence in the X-books specifically)....my amateur sleuthing has me thinking that perhaps the mutant in question might be.....

Janelle Chord aka Silhouette.

Primarily known for being a member of the New Warriors (but appearing in the original X-Force run in the Younghunt crossover as X-Force and the New Warriors joined forces against the Upstarts), Janelle is a Vietnamese mutant with Darkforce powers who is known for using crutches due to longterm spinal injuries. This makes her one of the earliest instances I can think of for disability representation - specifically in terms of superheroes who require mobility aides. Her Darkforce abilities have been tweaked over the years so sometimes she can do varying tricks with it that other writers don't acknowledge, but for the most part she's a teleporter - a powerset the cast doesn't already have covered. Sure, they have the Krakoan gates, but those lack the versatility of an actual teleporter and though Kate's got people working on the problem she still can't use them herself for the moment, meaning a teleporter could be really handy to have on her team in particular.

Any other guesses? Or thoughts on if it might be Silhouette and how she might gel with the cast, for those who are familiar with her?

(Not gonna lie, part of this guess is just really wanting it to be her. I'm a big fan of the classic New Warriors and Silhouette in particular. Darkforce powers are always fun and she and her brother have interesting history that I would love to see Orlando's take on).

As a big New Warriors fan I love the idea of Silhouette joining the Marauders (and Firestar joining the X-Men) however a 9 people team is a big commitment not every writer can pull off successfully. The risk is leaving the majority of the team as wallpaper as the just-concluded Marauders book by Duggan amply demonstrated. So... wait and see I guess.

[Dante Milton]

Thanks for the response, BobbysWorld, very comprehensive. I remember Chris Bradley from X-Men Unlimited, I had no idea he had appeared again after that. It sounds like a diverse group of characters, but Silhouette does seem the likeliest option per the meaningful representation comment. I wouldn't mind seeing any of these characters show up in an X-book if they aren't being used elsewhere.

[Rift]

I always love how BW puts so much research and effort into these kinds of posts. I didn't really notice it until I started talking the Iceman thread, but he wrote a lot of good, in-depth looks that explain the character and many of the writing problem's he faced.

But I have a better guess, and I think you know what it is.

1) They're a mutant who hasn't really shown up in the X-books before, outside of maybe one or two tangential appearances in an X-Men affiliated book ages ago, possibly decades ago.

Hellion appeared in New Mutants (which I'd say is X-Men affiliated for the sake of this argument), New X-Men (the second-volume of a mainline X-Men book, but it's more of a spin-off, and these New X-Men weren't really X-Men X-Men), and only made guest appearances or cameos in mainline X-books. All his other major appearances have been in spin-off books.

2) He also said they were a pretty big deal representation wise, as in they were among one of the first instances of representation for some marginalized group.

F**kboy representation. He's not one of the first instances of it, but he also checks off the amputee/disability box.

3) And the JLA lineup he said he was a fan of - specifically in response to being asked for another hint as to the ninth cast member of Marauders - included Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, Wally West, Kyle Rayner, Orion, Big Barda, Oracle, Plastic Man, Huntress and Zauriel.

Oh, look at that. They happened to have a telekinetic among them. Gee whizz, ain't that a peach in the pie? Now everything's lining up.

The smoking gun? He once mentioned that, if he had the time, he'd like to include Academy X kids in the story.

Or it could be Wind Dancer. She's one of the few (kinda?) biracial Latinas in the Marvel, and one of the only Venezuelan characters in the X-Men, period. She has even less X-Men-related appearances than Hellion. She can fly like half of the JLA.

[BobbysWorld]

Rift, you make excellent points. However, the only reason I don't believe Hellion is the mysterious ninth member of the cast is because I believe he's the SUPER mysterious tenth member of the cast, so super duper mysterious Orlando hasn't even dared allude to his presence yet.

(LOL no but someone else on twitter did ask about the possibility of Academy X kids showing up in Marauders, and he said he'd love to have some of them show up here and there if he has time or space. He said Wind Dancer is his personal fave from that era. Though of course I think we can safely say Hellion being his Fave of Faves was implied).

[mugiwara]

LOL no but someone else on twitter did ask about the possibility of Academy X kids showing up in Marauders, and he said he'd love to have some of them show up here and there if he has time or space.

Ah, the standard polite way to say "LOL nope" that I've read many times when somebody asked about the New X-Men.

[Sutekh]

Chance, from Fallen Angels (not to be confused with the Spider-Man villain of the same name) was my first thought, based on those criteria, but Silhouette Chord would be a treat!

[IN-a-Synch]

I thought I saw something about Cassandra Nova

[Nicoclaws]

Oh, Silhouette could be cool ! Don't know much about her but I liked her visuals. And her power would make sense.

Funny that if it were Silhouette or Chance (who I had to google), that would add another asian person to the team ! Most diverse team in Reign of X ?

[Lady Midnight]

Don't forget Stitch's appearance.

[Master of Sound]

I would jump full of joy if it would indeed be silhouette. She does have abilities no other X-Men has, well Psylocke a bit during her Crimson Dawn period, but barely used. So yes, I'll love Silhouette to join.

[blinkingblah]

Would love love love for it to be Silhouette! She was my favorite New Warrior!

Typhoid Mary is going to be my guess! "tangenital appearance" sounds like a Mary clue. Also Kinda with the way stuff is heading in Reign of X makes me think it might be The Typhoid Mary!

Also thought of Justice but he wasn't really ever marginalized for anything other than be a douche.

[Milici]

Pathway? Murmur?