Marauder #25: Night of the Comet

[superboyprime]

"Jonathan’s story was so big that it accommodated a lot of very different ideas. Mutant pirates, mutant magicians, and everything in between. He had populated Krakoa with everything he thought he’d need and then asked us what we would like or need. Fun is our north star (Northstar is in X-Factor). Every month we send a comic to press, we’re trying to just make the biggest, funniest comics we can. I hope Kate living out her childhood dream of a life on the sea is a gift to her." - Gerry Duggan

Comments

[cainofdreaming]

Didn't it used to be that Shaw only absorbed kinetic energy, and that was the one thing Bishop didn't?

[mastermahan]

Yes, and yes. Shaw, at least, had already revealed he can absorb other forms of energy, but that they convert to kinetic for him.

What I'm wondering about is how passing the same energy back and forth increases it. Pouring water from one cup to another doesn't create extra water.

[bruinsfan]

Speaking of, where did the water that Bobby turned into that protective ice shell come from? I usually just handwave his powers as pulling in moisture from the atmosphere as needed, but there's not any around them.

[deh_tommy]

Isn’t he made of ice, or is that just around is skin? He could probably pull some reserves there if he’s in a pinch.

[blues32]

He's converted himself into ice. Way back when, he covered himself in ice (hell, it used to look more like snow originally), but learned to convert himself some years later. It was about then that he reached omega level mutant status. Still, he needs moisture to do it. And even if he DID get the moisture from somewhere, where did he get the breathable oxygen?

[sabertoothlotus]

With the power of Handwavium(TM), of course!

[dr_archeville]

There was a time (back in his X-Factor days) when Loki massively amped up Bobby's powers, and he had to wear a Neutralizer Belt to keep things in check. It was never explained how Loki did this, but I've always figured it involved creating some sort of link to the Casket of Ancient Winters, if not to Niffleheim itself. So Bobby not only can make ice by freezing any ambient moisture in the atmosphere, he can pull it in from Niffleheim.

[tinygaylaura]

If I remember right Shaw gets stronger and stronger the more he's hit

So each blow he lands on Bishop here would be a stronger blow than the previous one so that would be how the energy would increase here

As for Bishop not previously being able to absorb kinetic energy...I am sure I remember a story where him and Gambit pulling a trick where he absorbed kinetic energy allowed them to stop a runaway train but even if I am misremembering that its always possible his powers have simply grown more advanced with time. It's not unheard of after all. Quite a few mutants have abilities that have become much more powerful and able to do more as they've used them more and learned new tricks with them

[blues32]

Well, according to the animated series, he absorbs the energy used against him. Not just the impact, but if someone tries to lift him, he absorbs that too.

Speaking of his powers becoming more advanced...how did he recover from what the mothervine virus did? It originally gave him the ability to absorb the latent energy all around him, but evolved further to the point where he was being drained of his energy, leaving him helpless.

[beyondthefringe]

In the old days, if I remember correctly, Shaw powered himself up every morning by punching the wall, so the nature of the kinetic impact didn't matter... Naturally, he's been subjected to power creep over the years.

Mutant powers don't have to make sense: two energy absorbers/redirectors like Shaw and Bishop can -obviously- create unlimited energy by acting as a loop. They're the answer to clean, renewable, endless energy!

Hell, wasn't it part of the X-Corp thing that a bunch of thermal generators together could power a flying island? Or rechargable batteries? Or ultra-fast wifi? (Whatever their business plan really was...)

[donnblake]

I mean if we start insisting on conservation of mass and energy we'll be here all day.

Okay, but for a No-Prize- they're each pretty beefy guys. In addition to the energy they're transferring back and forth, each blow adds the power of a pretty hefty punch.

Now, Bishop's usually got some sort of Future Gun or grenade or something on him that I would think would speed that up a bit, but maybe he dressed light this morning.

[tinygaylaura]

This story was a lot of fun

It's always nice to see the X-characters getting to have an adventure where the stakes aren't quite so grim and horrifying as they often are and I always love getting to see Kate kick some ass

These scans did leave out my favorite scene though where Emma is absolutely extremely turned on by watching Kate kick the stuffing out of the space pirate villain who stole their ship and tried to kill them

Emma loves watching her girl work :)

My one complaint is that the very stylised art here might be better for an issue thats more character stuff rather than for action scenes. It's a little stiff for action sequences but that's just my opinion. It's certainly not BAD art I'm just not sure it was suited to this story

[jgraygaming]

I get that the Cuckoos are clones of Emma but are we sure the artist realized this actually was Emma and not one of them?

[tinygaylaura]

What makes you say that?

[jgraygaming]

She looks exactly the same as how this artist portrayed the Cuckoos in the Cable series. There's no indication she's the older, more powerful White Queen. She just looks like another in the set. Emma's earned the right to be a matriarch. She shouldn't look just like her kids.

[tinygaylaura]

They did draw her a bit same face-y with the Cuckoos here your right

[shakalooloo]

Noto does unfortunately sometimes give characters more childlike stature - bigger heads, mainly - from time to time. Check out that panel of Kate and Emma standing at the spaceship door in the last scan, for example.

[donnblake]

This was fun! Nice blend of "We have to save ourselves from space with these six random tools," and "Everyone team up and combo your powers."

[tinygaylaura]

Marauders is such a fun book :)

I'm excited for Fin Fang Foom next issue!

[deh_tommy]

Aw you bloody tease, I was hoping Rixlo would get away scott-free and they all get collectively embarrassed like they feared they would.

A bit late to pay lip service to Kitty’s Judaism after all the things they did to her in this book, but better late than never I suppose.

[tinygaylaura]

??????

This book was the book that actually referenced Kitty's Judaism for the first time in ages including with a scene with Kurt giving her back her necklace, which she hadn't been drawn wearing in AGES before this series

[deh_tommy]

That’s also the book that has her as a drunken pirate grievously and violently injuring, disabling, and possibly even murdering people on the regular, changed her name, gave her tattoos and had her cremated in a non-Jewish funeral. In a vacuum just one of those might raise an eyebrow but be otherwise harmless, but all of them in the one book is downright questionable.

[tinygaylaura]

"That’s also the book that has her as a drunken pirate grievously and violently injuring, disabling, and possibly even murdering people on the regular"

All the people she did this to had it coming so I see all of this as a positive thing and it's part of what I love about her in this book

And all of the actions you bring up are shown in a heroic light by the story too

Pirates are awesome. And shitbags getting the crap kicked out of them and getting what they deserve is awesome.

"changed her name"

No?

It didn't?

Her name is Katherine. Kate is short for Katherine. "Kitty" was a nickname? Her name has ALWAYS been Kate?

"gave her tattoos"

How is that a negative?

"and had her cremated in a non-Jewish funeral. "

That I agree was extremely poorly done and was a terrible decision on Duggan's part.

[donnblake]

Rachel Knight here writes about the significance of the name change, tattoos, and funeral in terms of Pryde's Jewish identity.

On the other hand, Zach Rabiroff here shows a considerably more positive take on the book's engagement with the question.

[tinygaylaura]

I don't think the issues either of these commentators discuss here can be summed up with anything as simple as one of them having the "Right" opinion and one of them having the "Wrong" opinion regarding how Marvel as a whole and this series handles Kitty's Jewish identity

But yes I do agree with Rachel Knight here about just what a terrible decision the way Kitty's "Funeral" was handled was as I said.

[jgraygaming]

Plenty of Reform Jews do have tattoos (and Kitty/Kate is pretty obviously Reform based on her practices to date) but I do agree the funeral was poorly handled. My biggest problem has always been the assignment of the name "Marauder" to a team helmed by a Jewish captain. The original Marauders were a team of mutants sent by Sinister to commit genocide by slaughtering the Morlocks. Having a team we're supposed to be rooting for, one led by a Jew, has always felt like bad taste to me. An argument can be made for repurposing the word and rehabilitating it... but some words shouldn't be rehabilitated.

[tinygaylaura]

My guess is out of universe that they went with Marauders because it sounds pirate-y as team name

I think there is something to be said for taking a name that used to be connected to one of mutantkinds darkest hours and making it a name that instead inspires hope by using it for a team that rescues mutats and fights back against their persecution and oppression

[jgraygaming]

I know reclaiming and redeeming words can be powerful but... I can't see a team of Indigenous superheroes calling themselves the Colonizers or an Israeli team calling themselves the SS.

Maybe it is just me. Fall of the Mutants occurred during my formative years and they did a really, really good job of emphasizing how absolutely brutal, sadistic, and cruel the Marauders were. Even the Power Pack tie-in issues, where the Power children find the slaughtered Morlock kids in the nursery...

[deh_tommy]

“Warren, I respect you as a friend, but there aren’t enough hours in the day for me to explain why your proposed ‘Krakoan Kidz Klub’ is a horrible way to appeal to our youth.”

[tinygaylaura]

"This is your "Ghost costume" from last Halloween all over again, you really need to take a step back and think about how these things look"

[arilou_skiff]

I do think the Kitty to Kate thing was supposed to be a well-meaning attempt at showing that she is no longer a child using a childish nickname and instead an adult with a full name, but I can see if they missed the subtlety.

[donnblake]

I'll admit that I was surprised to see that brought up as a question of Jewish identity- of the Katherines, Catherines, Katelyns, etc, that I know, none of them go by Kitty, and the only Jewish woman is a Katie.

[jgraygaming]

I've always suspected Kitty was named after Kitty Hart-Moxon, a Holocaust survivor who was imprisoned in Auschwitz. She wrote a book, I Am Alive, about her experiences from '39 to '45. It was published in 1961.

[scorntx]

According to the records, John Byrne named her after a friend of his.

Which, admittedly, does require taking John Byrne at his word.

[donnblake]

Also, the Kill Shaw tattoos are a bit amusing now that Shaw's just, like, walking around hanging out with the team again.

"Kill Shaw? Who's Shaw?"

"Oh, just this asshole coworker."

[silverhammerman]

This is light, inoffensive, and fun. Not exactly what I want, but still nice, and it's the least politically weird this book has been in a while.

Then it kind of gets spoiled by Bishop calling for mandatory military service (or at least preparedness), but hey, if certain Scandinavian countries are still doing it, why can't the mutants? Also, that said, Krakoan war games sound more interesting than a good 75% of these books, so I'm not saying no to the idea.

[tinygaylaura]

He's not calling for millitary service he's saying "Hey so you know how 95% of the planet wants to literally genocide our entire people? I feel like it would be a good idea for mutants to be trained in at least basic self defence in the event one of the billions of bloodthirsty racists on this planet try to murder them or worse"

[blues32]

It's closer to five to ten percent.

[tinygaylaura]

I envy your hopeful view of humanity in the Marvel universe :(

[blues32]

Well, first off humans don't make up 95% of the Earth. There are other creatures living here too. Second, while they may not LIKE mutants, it's highly unlikely that many humans actively seek genocide against them. Mostly because, if they did, the mutant race never would have lasted long enough to make Kraoka. Hell, the biggest genocidal act against mutants was committed by Xavier's...sister...thing. Whatever she is. You could argue Scarlet Witch's "no more mutants" thing was worse, but at least most were still alive afterwards. So I would say that, of the entire human population, about 10% would actively seek to exterminate mutantkind from the face of the Earth.

[scorntx]

Two things:
Is there some reason they don't have Emma, the telepath, telepathically relay the instructions rather than have everyone use up this limited supply of air gabbing?
(Okay, Emma might not want to be in Shaw or Pyro's head, but if the alternative is dying in a way that could be avoided...)

Shouldn't that be Lucas? Because, uh, pretty strong memories of it being spelled that way the last twenty-odd years.
Simple goof, or proof that this is in fact some alternate Bishop having surreptitiously replaced regular Bishop for some reason?
(It could happen!)

[blues32]

Speaking of, why did Pyro feel the need to LIGHT a fire to illustrate his point about it wasting oxygen? I don't know, it seems like you shouldn't do the thing that has the consequences you're hoping to avoid.

[scorntx]

Well, Pyro at least has the excuse of being what they call in technical terms "a flamin' eedjit".

[tinygaylaura]

I like to think if this issue was an episode of a TV series Kate's fight with Rixlo would be set to Keelhauled by Alestorm :)