Marvel’s premier kaiju attacks our favorite airborne mutant privateers and a fire-vs-ice clash ensues! Meanwhile, back on land, Hellfire Club OG Harry Leland is making heavy weather at the UN in Marauders #26, written by Gerry Duggan, art by Matteo Lolli, colors by Rain Beredo, letters by Cory Petit.
Ian Gregory: In contrast to the last two issues of Marauders, which focused on a very tight space storyline, this issue feels absolutely massive. We’ve got Harry Leland, Fin Fang Foom, and the return of Shinobi Shaw, all in a tight 24 pages.
Stephanie Burt: Hard disagree, to be honest. To me it still feels thin. The Original Flavor Hellfire Club Reunion is fun, they do chat for a few pages, and the diplomatic stuff could have consequences, but most of the issue’s a fight with a ridiculous giant monster famous for being a ridiculous giant monster, an enormous bit with green wings. I had fun, but I still felt that not much happened– maybe because (as with Marauders #3, the last Shinobi-centered issue) not much happens to characters I care about.
Leland to Beaver
Ian: Harry Leland is technically a supervillain, but when I sat down to think about it, he really didn’t do much villainy in the past. Sure, he’s part of the Hellfire Club, and fights Wolverine in the Dark Phoenix Saga, but he’s more window-dressing than character. When it comes down to the dastardly plots of the Hellfire Club, Leland always seemed to be more of an observer than planner. At the very least it means his return here, played mainly straight and without any acknowledgment of any past evil deeds, isn’t quite as morally complex as some others.
Stephanie: Once you’re OK with Sebastian Shaw in your corner, you’re gonna be OK with Harry Leland. A fortiori, as our friend Rob Secundus might put it.
Am I OK with Harry Leland’s rather tropey combination of big round heaviness, weight-increasing powers, jolly happy-go-lucky attitude, and relative unimportance? Not really– I’d rather read about Volstagg, if we’re gonna stick with that trope– but it doesn’t torpedo the art, or the plot: it’s just worth pointing out.
Ian: I always like seeing more of the resurrection process. I like that Leland “didn’t take it well” at first, which makes perfect sense given the length of his death, with no intermediary resurrections (Necrosha notwithstanding). Of course a guy from the eighties wouldn’t take a forty year time jump very well (although, given Marvel’s sliding timescale, maybe it’s only like ten years? I hate it), so I like that Emma and Shaw have to “ease him into it” through false memories. I also like the big panel of Krakoa he wakes up to – I like the attention to various modes of mutant travel, like flying and ice-bridging.
Stephanie: He’s kind of a goofball. I like his green suit and his impractical ruff and I love his genuine delight at what Krakoa has become. I don’t like the way that the trio of Sebastian, Harry and Emma, as drawn here, highlights the absolute impracticality of Emma’s white bondage outfit. I know it’s a classic, but I just don’t see her wearing the corset here. Who’s she trying to impress? Maybe she’s dressed exactly as she dressed when John Byrne drew her because she’s trying to keep the illusion up for Harry, but I found it…. not quite de trop for who she is now.
Ian: Leland is really well suited to his role as UN ambassador. Unlike Shaw, I don’t think he ever went through a public supervillain phase, so he likely mysteriously disappeared as a somewhat well-known and well-respected businessman. I’m also always happy to see more of Pyro’s writing skills coming into play, here creating a (hopefully romantic) backstory for Leland. I think it’s possible that Duggan has done more in this issue to characterize Leland than in the rest of the history of the X-Men. I’m much more interested in seeing how these underdeveloped characters grow than I am in seeing his takes on some of the existing, classic characters.
Stephanie: Duggan understands Kate. Other than that, I think you’re right. Leland’s a character who gives a new writer a lot of blank canvas. That said, Duggan is also off this title in about a month, which gives him very few chances to paint on that canvas. Maybe we’ll see Mr. Leland in adjectiveless X-Men one of these days. [Ed. note: Someone does have to stop Nimrod…]
Fin, Fang, and Foom
Ian: Fin Fang Foom arrives, just in time for Iceman to beat him up. We’ve sort of got an Every Iceman Story Ever on our hands (in which Iceman doubts his own capabilities after realizing just how powerful he is, and how he cannot live up to that potential – see Uncanny X-Men #314) based on the title page quote. But in the actual scene itself, Iceman just sort of rolls with the punches and doesn’t offer any sort of commentary. Dragon literally shows up, gets beat, and leaves. Why?
Stephanie: Fin Fang Foom is literally the monster of the week. And to be fair, we haven’t had That Iceman Story in the Krakoa era, unless I missed it. I think we haven’t had a Bobby-centered story since Sina Grace’s Iceman series, which I liked. And we haven’t had a Bobby Gets Really Freakin’ Gigantic So People Mistake Him for a Frost Giant story since, what, the Liu run? when he became a kind of petty, malevolent god and almost froze the whole world? And Kate was there. When she says she’s never seen a giant menacing Iceman before in her life, she’s not telling the truth, and Bobby (if he’s paying attention) would know it.
Ian: I was wondering that myself, actually – it’s been awhile since I read that Astonishing, but I was thinking to myself “surely people can’t be that surprised when Iceman gets big anymore, right?” My best guess for the inclusion of this scene is to give us both our obligatory once-an-issue fight and to remind the reader who the titular Marauders actually are. As the series focuses more on the members of the Hellfire Club, it naturally neglects our main cast. However, at least in this issue, the Hellfire stuff felt actually necessary and interesting on a character level. I like Fin Fang Foom as much as the next person, but he really is fulfilling his role as designated punching bag in this issue. If only we still had thought bubbles, and we might have gotten some insight into Iceman’s character.
Stephanie: We did get Lockheed saying “Aroo.” Also, this particular kaiju fight feels like a series of comedy bits. Like nothing and no one even expects us to take it seriously for an instant. “You’re only getting the better of me because you attacked me while I was celebrating my win!” the monster exclaims, retreating. He’s after the whiskey barrels: he just wants a drink.. And his face is the opposite of threatening. He looks like a green mule enjoying a comedy club. Or maybe a talking horse. Aroo!
I hope Giant Iceman is fun to draw– he’s fun to watch, though not exactly a novelty. I wonder if he’s gonna go off and sulk in the polar regions and suck on an iceberg, or something. I would love to see more about his connection to the water in the atmosphere, the ice on the seas, and the waters of the Earth, especially given real-life climate issues. An Omega-level mutant with ice powers might be able to help, or at least to sense when something’s amiss involving ice.
Ian: Maybe I just didn’t find it very funny. Fin Fang Foom has incredible comedy potential, even beyond stuffing Boom-Boom into his pants as per Nextwave, but the jokes here fell flat, perhaps because this scene felt so out of place. I have felt that obligatory fights have become something of a line-wide issue. The issue is more apparent in Marauders where it feels like the series is in a constant war with itself. The pirate stuff leads very naturally into fights, but the Emma and Shaw scenes involving backdoor dealings or Krakoan politics do not. Because the book has these two very different identities, we’re constantly jumping between two very different stories. In the worst case, as in this issue, one of these two groups only makes an obligatory appearance.
Stephanie: I think you’re right about obligatory fights. I also think Duggan is spinning his wheels right now, and who can blame him? That said, the monster fight A-plot, “minor character develops through conversations” B-plot can work beautifully. Claremont did it all the time!
The problem here is that the monster fight is so goofy, and the minor characters are either people who have no emotional connection to the readers so far (Mr. Leland) or people the readers want to punch in the face (Sebastian and Shinobi). Seriously, Marauders readers at this point are Kate fans and Emma fans and Iceman fans. Why would you not want to punch Sebastian in the face? Or at least shave off his sideburns.
Shinobi Shawn’t
Ian: Shinobi hasn’t really been in the book very much since Kate died, so I had to do some digging about his appearance here. In his first appearance, Shinobi makes an off-handed reference to how his powers resemble “Uncle Leland’s” more than his own father’s (X-Factor #67, 1991). This idea seems to have gone dormant until Marauders #17 where Emma Frost makes the same insinuation to Sebastian Shaw. And then, sure enough, in just two pages, Sebastian manages to prove why he’s a bad parent by showing up with a drunken Leland and dumping him on Shinobi with the revelation that, in fact, Leland is his true father.
Stephanie: Good research call! I suppose I’m one of those terrible readers who wants everything “relatable,” but I would like to know why it matters to Krakoan politics more broadly, or why it matters to any of the other characters, that Shinobi isn’t Sebastian’s bio-kid. I’d rather see more slapstick like the moment when Harry and Sebastian fall into a pit together (a pit that Harry created). Just your usual scheming murder goons yukking it up.
Ian: I actually agree – it’s really interesting to see Sebastian with someone he considers not just a peer, but a friend. He’s basically gone it alone for decades, so I found it very interesting to see how capable he actually is of unwinding and relaxing. And all this stuff with Shinobi feels a little like resolving plot points for the sake of it – like, “look, Harry Leland’s back and the only outstanding plot regarding him was his relationship to Shinobi, so we cleared it up!” However, Shinobi has been almost a non-factor in this book, which makes me wonder the point of this retcon / plot-line payoff beyond satisfying the continuity-heads. Timed with Leland’s return, I wonder if the two of them will become more central to the book, but we asked the same thing about Shinobi nearly twenty issues ago. Is this just a payoff for the sake of payoff, or has Duggan actually been setting something meaningful up?
Stephanie: If he has, I guess we’ll see it in adjectiveless X-Men in 2022? [Ed. note: Or perhaps Devil’s Reign]
Ian: By the way, does Shinobi strike you as a little young here? His dialogue certainly seems that way, and his face is definitely more youthful than his first appearances. Maybe that’s the consequences of 90s art, but Shinobi definitely seemed much older in his first appearances than he does here. It’s a fairly minor difference, but one that really stuck out to me this issue.
Stephanie: When he acts and looks older I have trouble taking him seriously but you’re right. He looks positively de-aged. Everyone in a Matteo Lolli book looks smooth and round and young– that’s just Lolli’s style– but with Shinobi it’s exceptional. –Also, who’s the short-range teleporter in the beret with the Cindy Crawford mole on the last page? Should I feel dumb because I don’t know who she is? She’s definitely a teleporter, not a phaser. I want her to be Nocturne wearing an image inducer, but that’s very clearly too much for me to ask.
Ian: That’s Lourdes Chantel, in her third redesign of the book! Ever since we got the big flashback issue and retcon about her being alive, she’s shown up for a page or two in every other issue. She’s been teased so much that I almost can’t believe that she’ll actually show up for real
X-Traneous Thoughts
- The “barbarian” mentioned in the data page by Emma Frost is, in fact, Conan the Barbarian
- I’m a big fan of trimmed-beard Leland. He looks like a nice, trustworthy fellow.
- There’s a soft visual retcon during Harry’s flashback, in which Nimrod looks more like his modern appearance than his classic, more pointy-lined first appearance.
- Krakoan Reads: BON VOYAGE
Stephanie Burt is Professor of English at Harvard. Her podcast about superhero role playing games is Team-Up Moves, with Fiona Hopkins; her latest book of poems is We Are Mermaids. Her nose still hurts from that thing with the gate.
Ian Gregory is a writer and co-host of giant robots podcast Mech Ado About Nothing.
