X-Lapsed, Episode 037 – Marauders #5 (2020)
X-Lapsed, Episode Thirty-Seven
Marauders #5 (March, 2020)
“A Time to Sow”
Writer – Gerry Duggan
Art – Matteo Lolli & Lucas Werneck
Colors – Federico Blee
Letters – VC’s Cory Petit
Design – Tom Muller
Head of X – Hickman
Edits – Robinson, White, Cebulski
Cover Price: $3.99
On-Sale: January 1, 2020
Today we kick off the Dawn of X Wave One #5s with Marauders! We get some great callbacks to the long ago… and your humble host uncomfortably talks about the new(ish) take on Bobby Drake. I’d love to hear everyone’s thoughts on the post-2016 Iceman!
Also: I am questioned as to what my “review process” looks like… and I do my best to answer. All’at and much, much more!
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@acecomics / @cosmictmill / weirdcomicshistory@gmail.com
chrisandreggie.podbean.com
There is something wonderful about rereading Marauders along with you and the way that your comments spark ideas in my head. You returned to Kitty's drinking which is a feature of the book that slightly annoys me. But as I was looking at the pages I noticed that Kitty is drawn at the meeting with Shaw slumped over drunkenly but she isn't touching her glass of wine. Then she meets Emma at the red keep, pours a drink, sips it and then pours it away. I wonder if they are trying to imply that Kitty is trying to act like a drunk to fit the pirate stereotype but is actually sober. I'd really not noticed those details until I looked at it again in the light of what you said. It's weird that I've read and reread every issue of Marauders and never noticed that.
Interesting to hear you question how people reacted to Iceman coming out. Like you I had given up on Bendis's X-Men but I picked up issue 600 of Uncanny solely for the Paul Smith variant cover of Callisto and the Morlocks. This means I read the scene where Young Bobby asked Older Bobby why he was lying to himself.
I am gay and as a kid my favourite comic was X-Factor and the characters I most identified with were Iceman and Rictor. Both of them felt like me so it is weird to me that both were later revealed as gay. This doesn't mean I love everything that has been done with Iceman since. At times I think there has been a tendency to make gayness Bobby's only character trait. He has to be throwing himself at every man he sees. I quite like the way his sexuality has been dealt with in Marauders. I like the fact that he is putting his responsibility to Kitty and his found family above his romantic life. Turning down Christian for Kitty feels authentic and a step up from the boy crazy characterisation of recent years.
One of the best elements of this book is the use of X-Men history. Kitty and Emma, all the Upstarts references, the fact that Storm doesn't need powers, the web of friendship between the characters etc. All these little details help to enrich the story and feel like little presents to long term readers. It genuinely feels like they are valuing us older fans. I don't know why more comics don't value their history. We're in the era of everything being on Marvel Unlimited so it's not like you lose the new guys as they can explore the old stuff in a way I never could have back in 1986.
Also interesting to hear your philosophy of reviews. I must say I'm not a fan of scoring comics. It's so arbitrary that it can never truly mean anything. I tend to ignore scores when I read a review as I'm really trying to find out what they liked and disliked about the book which will give me more useful information than any score. It's possible to identify something I'll like from a negative review and something I'll hate from a positive one. I think I'm loving X-Lapsed so much because your style is to not just say what you think but to dig into why you like or dislike it.
I can't wait for you to get to the next issue of Marauders. It hit me like an anvil.