Marauders #8 goes once more into the breach!

Stephanie – quick! It’s Ian! I’ve traveled back in time billions of years to warn you that a rogue microorganism has infected the creatures you refer to as “pets”! We can only save your beloved cats and dogs if we first review Marauders #8, written by Steve Orlando and illustrated by Eleonora Carlini, colors by Matt Milla, letters by VC’s Ariana Maher!

Hot Tub? Time Machine!

Ian Gregory: I think this very first scene of Marauders #8 — a bath scene, of all things — is one of the more interesting scenes writer Steve Orlando’s done in the new Marauders. In some ways it feels like the tide of the team has turned against Kate. As Kwannon points out, she’s been running the team like a dictatorship, and while her decisions have certainly been morally informed, she hasn’t really considered the opinions of her teammates or paid much attention to their well-being. I think that the easy access to resurrection has made Kate much more reckless in her planning.

Stephanie Burt: Nobody’s forcing Aurora, Tempo, et al. to stay with the Marauders! They could always just quit and take up molecular biology or nouvelle cuisine or some other pursuit that doesn’t involve ships and rescues. The Marauders are either a privateer — a ship with a captain — or an away team that has to work together under fire. In fact, the last third of this book gives us a metaphor for that join-or-die unity, when Amass uses her powers to literally join the team together. I think Kate has the right attitude here. I also think Kate’s hair looks great above the water, all done up and curly like it ought to be. The Krakoan era has been lamentably low on bath scenes compared to some earlier eras of X-books. However…

Ian: There are some very valid concerns raised here that going back in time as far as Threshold will have serious effects on the modern timeline. Rather than just the little hop into the 1990s to retrieve the time capsule, this feels like a very major decision with potentially massive effects on continuity — and Kate basically makes it by herself, without really consulting anyone else. I expect that her determination to “save lives and not be stopped,” as she says, will get her in trouble not just with her team but also with Krakoan leaders.

Stephanie: It’s a real dilemma! And, as Bishop points out, it’s not a new dilemma, though I think he misrepresents his origin (that is, Orlando misrepresents it): Bishop came here from his future (on his timeline) pursuing murder-goatee dude Trevor Fitzroy, who was already mucking up timelines (in Uncanny X-Men #282-283). But, as Billy Bragg once sang, that’s all in the past. Just like the science fantasy worldbuilding that Orlando seems to love to do.

You know who also traveled to the past a while ago to save mutants, even if it meant overwriting her own world? Kate freakin’ Pryde. The one from Earth-811. That’s what Kates do. However… that Kate was trying to save herself and her family from a certain dystopia. Our Kate, in Marauders #8, risks overwriting her timeline to save a civilization she knows almost nothing about, in the inconceivably distant past. It’s in character and it’s her decision to make, but it is absolutely impulsive and dangerous. And her team decides to help her do it.

Ian: Maybe my issue is that all this discussion has been shelved in favor of expediency. It probably isn’t good pacing to have our characters debate and debate about time travel ethics (I’d read it, though…). Instead, it makes more sense to just get to the parts where things happen. But, as a result, it feels like everyone’s morals and objections are just token, and that Kate bulldozes straight through. People have problems, sure, but only if those problems can be stated and addressed in half a page.

Stephanie: I don’t disagree. But the bulldozing? It’s in character. (And if you really want to compete for a No-Prize: remember time travel to the past in a Marvel comic never erases future Earths and timelines — it just creates new ones, better ones, if you win. That’s why you can still visit Earth-811. Or at least you could before Secret Wars [2016].) 

Show on the Beach

Ian: The core of the first half of Marauders #8 is catching up with our three Threshold mutants’ perspectives on Krakoa. This sequence can further be divided into Bar, Brooding, and Beaches – throw in some Baseball and we’d have the Four Horsemen of the X-Men. First we have Crave eating his way through the Green Lagoon, which gives us some more work on Greycrow and Kwannon’s relationship (as well as a background spot by Maggott). I appreciate that Orlando consistently brings in scenes between these two as a kind of counterpoint perspective to Kate. 

Stephanie: I, too, like it! Aren’t we supposed to call Kwannon just Psylocke now, though? Matter-eating powers are good for comedy, and this team knows how to use them: I love how Crave takes literally the invitation to eat bullets. He even chows down on part of a handgun. Please no one tell him about competitive eating. Also please give artist Eleanora Carlini more comedic scenes to draw. I love everything about the Green Lagoon here.

Ian: Next is Amass and Cassandra Nova having a bonding session on the cliffs, but, uh, huh? What? I know that Amass wouldn’t know any better but boy if I were on the Marauders I would not let Amass go talk to Nova all alone. I find it interesting that Nova seems to have a pretty clear political position here – that she doesn’t care for the rules of Krakoa, only for mutant survival – except that there is literally no one in living history to have done more to wipe out the mutants than Nova. Is this an actual stance she believes in, or just another mind game? Amass’ frustrations are valid, but I question the usage of Nova here, especially given an incident later in Marauders #8 we’ll discuss down below.

Stephanie: Between the conversations with Cassandra and the new ancient origin for John Sublime, Orlando’s trying hard to put this series into dialogue with the Morrison run, in a way that won’t distract or confuse newer X-readers unfamiliar with those classic tales. If you do know those classic tales, however, you may be wondering, as I have done for eight issues so far, why Kate Pryde would invite Cassandra along, and whether we’re supposed to believe that Cassandra is anything other than a mass murder weapon waiting for the right moment to go off. And yes, I have read the pre-Krakoan, Tom Taylor-written X-Men Red, in which nanobots make Cassandra a good guy. She doesn’t sound like a good guy here. 

Ian: Finally, we have a beach scene with Tempo and Theia. I want to reiterate that I enjoy every effort being made to get Tempo out of her helmet and letting us get used to her face. I appreciate the budding dynamic between these two, but I also wonder if Tempo’s stated aversion to time travel and desire to avoid affecting the timeline has been tossed aside too readily. That felt like a really powerful part of her character during the first arc, and now she’s totally willing to go even further back and make even bigger changes without much regard for the consequences. Maybe that’s just the side-effects of a crush.

Stephanie: Crush crush crush crush crush. Not sure it’s in character but it works as a scene on its own. Check out the off-center and non-perpendicular perspectives Carlini takes on Tempo and Theia as one gives the other her hand. I’m dissolving like a sand castle here. I’m washed away by time and tide.

Ian: In total, I like that Orlando took the time to work on these characters individually, rather than letting them form into a gestalt “past mutant” collective. I like that they all have unique perspectives on Krakoa and their past, and slightly different goals. Of course, this means that the cast of Marauders balloons outward yet again. At least once half the cast dies in a fight again things will get more manageable.

Stephanie: Funny you should bring up a gestalt mutant collective. Before they form one for the big fight they need outfits: not just matching costumes but breathable air-suits, like space suits, since they’re going back to a time before the Earth had a fully modern oxygenated atmosphere (I think). Jumbo Carnation and Stitch, whose own costume and skills reference Kate’s old Excalibur outfit, supply our privateers with all they need: airtight suits with each mutant’s name in large characters down one leg, like on sports uniforms. Why have no X-costumes done that before? Someone call Uni-Watch!

The Great War

Ian: Sure enough, once the Marauders actually make it to the past, they’re immediately outmatched in a fight. Carlini’s art on their merged form and the time travel sequence is some of her best yet. In terms of fights, this is a short sequence, but I like how punchy it feels and how quickly everything spirals out of control. This is helped by the return of Carlini’s angled panels, which feel like her default for big fight scenes.

Stephanie: I agree. Carlini’s really hit her stride with group scenes and fight scenes! And Orlando’s worldbuilding feels at least consistent. Ian, what did you think of the major backstory the data pages give? I think he’s using data pages brilliantly. They get the exposition, and Carlini gets to draw feelings and people and action. And, here, a kind of mash-up of multiple people with multiple faces as Amass blends all the mutants in one. A kind of Cubist X-chimera. Or maybe a Steven Universe-style fusion, like Alexandrite.

Ian: You’re right on the data pages. There was an awkward “middle period” of the Krakoan X-Men books where everyone was using data pages, but no one seemed to know what they were for. They worked great in HoXPoX, felt unnecessary for about six months to a year, and now I think they’re back to being cool again. Orlando knows where to put the exposition, and how to give each data page a “frame” so the reader is getting actual character voice, and not just a textbook recitation.

Stephanie: Yes! Not all talented comic book writers turn out to be talented prose writers. But Orlando does.

Ian: There’s this curious moment with Cassandra Nova here where she’s taken by surprise by a Sublime-infected mutant. As she’s strangled, she cries out for Charles to let go of her — referencing, of course, Grant Morrison’s iconic womb-strangling from New X-Men. This is a very strange moment of vulnerability from the exceedingly sociopathic Cassandra Nova, and I wonder if this heralds an attempt to rehabilitate her into something more human (I would like to point out that, technically, Nova is neither human nor mutant but instead a psychic soul vampire made flesh), or if this is all part of her long-term plan to appear relatable and trustworthy, before she commits another genocide or something.

Stephanie: Can we do the book without Cassandra? Just imagine she’s not there and Kate never invited her onto the team? Like those cuts of the Star Wars prequels where everyone edited out their least favorite character?

Ian: Do you feel like we’re entering into a bit of a pattern? There’s a line between riffing on a book-wide theme, and just repeating the same plots, and we’re nearing it. This feels a lot like the start of the Kin Crimson arc, what with the Marauders traveling to an alien, distant land to rescue mutants and immediately being defeated by the surprisingly powerful locals. An unfavorable point of comparison, too, is that while all the Kin Crimson stuff was visually very distinct, the antagonists being microorganisms means we’re just dealing with what appears to be garden-variety (by X-Men standards) mind control.

Stephanie: May I concur in part and dissent in part? I prefer the Threshold plot to the Kin Crimson plot because here Orlando gets to make up his own society out of nothing, with the Enshrined, the Unbreathing, the infectious Arkea and the rest of it. The Kin Crimson story had to squeeze itself in around existing Shi’ar continuity, the heir to the throne, the Superguardians, etc.: it felt crowded. This one doesn’t. But it does feel like a do-over for that first arc.

I’m also enjoying the tiny dollop of paleobiology. The Unbreathing prefer the pre-oxygenated atmosphere that the early Earth really had. And Sublime’s enemy Arkea has the same name as real-life microorganisms. That’s cool.

Ian: I’m also a little frustrated with how removed we are from modern mutant issues. I don’t want to belabor this point, because we’ve gone back and forth on all the sci-fi elements in this series over the course of the last seven issues, but it does feel in some way like Kate is running away to distant and dangerous locales to avoid the modern world. Maybe that’s something she’ll reflect on, when she realizes that charging into Threshold without so much as a plan got Daken infected by proto-Sublime and her team’s face punched in.

Stephanie: She’s answering what she takes as a society-wide distress call! And she’s used to immortality… oh, fine, you’re right. It was dumb to go in with no plan. Look at what happened to her in the Duggan run, though: assassinated, resurrected, honored, one kiss from a never-before-seen tattoo artist, and then no character development at all. Plus she has to be the voice of Lawful Good on a Politburo — sorry, a Quiet Council — that includes Essex and Shaw. I’d run away too.

Ian: I think perhaps I’ve sounded like a downer on Marauders #8, but I really did enjoy it, and I’m hoping we get some twists and turns as interesting as the first arc while things progress.

Our Flag Means Notes

• Love the hermetically sealed space-tracksuits from Jumbo and Stitch.
• Another nice touch is that only the first line of dialogue is untranslated when they return to the past – after which point the language pack kicks in and translates the rest.
• We got extremely distracted by Tempo’s non-standard “icy” speech bubble, the first of its kind in this series. Very 90s, and not in a good way.

Stephanie Burt

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

Ian Gregory is a writer and co-host of giant robots podcast Mech Ado About Nothing.