Originally Posted by
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).