Over on ComicsXF’s increasingly quasi-regular Patreon bonus podcast Our Son Pete, we’re covering the mid-2000s series New Excalibur, which prominently features the Juggernaut in a heroic role.
At the time, heroic Juggernaut, or “Huggernaut,” was a relatively new concept. Chuck Austen took groundwork laid by Chris Claremont and Fabian Nicieza and leaned all the way into it, moving Cain Marko into the mansion and giving him a sidekick in Sammy “The Squid-Boy” Pare.
Austen then has Cain’s longtime crime/life partner, Black Tom Cassidy, kill Sammy in the culmination of Tom’s yearslong sickness, a test of Cain’s loyalties and a test of the X-Men’s trust in their enemy-turned-ally.
By New Excalibur, Cain still has some crimes to atone for, but he’s largely on the side of the angels, hanging out with his musical idol Dazzler and his new sidekick Nocturne (Pete Wisdom is also there).
Flash forward 20 years, and Cain is fulfilling largely the same role on the Alaskan X-Men team. He’s the team tank, he pals around and eats giant sandwiches with Magik, and he takes orders from a guy he once tried to pound into the ground (Captain Britain then, Cyclops now).
Could Cain be turned back toward the dark? Probably, under a good enough writer with a good enough story. But given how often X-villains go nearly full face (Magneto, Quentin Quire, Deadpool, Pyro, even Black Tom), and how often those end up becoming fans’ favorite version of the character, why would you want him to?
Long live the Huggernaut!
Check out our exclusive preview of X-Men #34, out next week, and keep scrolling for the basic deets.
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W: Jed MacKay | A: Greg Land | CA: Tony Daniel
Cain Marko has been a bully, a criminal, a terrorist, a super villain. And now he’s an X-Man. But on a team of X-Men who have all, at one point, been villains, how does the Juggernaut stay a hero?
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Dan Grote is the editor and publisher of ComicsXF, having won the site by ritual combat. By day, he’s a newspaper editor, and by night, he’s … also an editor. He co-hosts The ComicsXF Interview Podcast with Matt Lazorwitz. He lives in New Jersey with his wife, two kids and two miniature dachshunds, and his third, fictional son, Peter Paul Winston Wisdom. Follow him @danielpgrote.bsky.social.
