X-Lapsed, Episode 211 – Marauders #21 (2021)
X-Lapsed, Episode Two Hundred Eleven
Marauders #21 (August, 2021)
“You Are Cordially Invited to the Hellfire Gala”
“Out With the Old: A Tale of Hellfire Gala Past”
Writers – Gerry Duggan & Chris Claremont
Art – Matteo Lolli & John Bolton
Colors – Edgar Delgado & Glynis Oliver
Letters – VC’s Cory Petit & Tom Orzechowski
Design – Tom Muller
Head of X – Hickman
Edits – Bissa, White, Nocenti, Cebulski
Cover Price: $4.99
On-Sale: June 2, 2021
We are cordially invited to the Hellfire Gala… and so, if you can find something outrageous and/or stupid enough to wear – I invite you to be my date!
Today we kick things off with sort of a bird’s eye view on the event… it’s a tough issue to analyze, since so many of the story threads will be fleshed out as we proceed… and so, this is mostly a recitation of events with very little in the way of analysis and editorializing.
But that’s not all! Come for the Gala, stay for the x-tended Mailbag Segment!
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Twitter: @acecomics / Instagram: @90sxmen
It seems that there is a key element of the Hellfire Gala that we are going to disagree over. I work on fashion retail and have both a professional and personal interest in fashion. There is something particularly exciting about the cutting edge of fashion where the focus is on look above practicality. This is a key element of the red carpet at events like the Oscars and the Met Gala. A lot of the time I don't know or care who the person wearing the ridiculous outfit is but it's fascinating to see the pure unbridled creativity of a fashion designer with no limits. There is something joyous to me about bringing an element of that into superhero costuming. I think the costumes designed by Russell Dauterman and David Baldeon have done the best at getting the madness across. I think it's interesting that no-one seems to like Kitty's outfit when it is a long-running joke that Kitty has no fashion sense. The greatest missed opportunity is the fact that the key effort has gone into designing outfits for traditionally beautiful mutants. The first mention of Jumbo Carnation in Morrison's New X-Men referenced him designing wing gloves for physically transformed Mutants but everything he has designed for the Hellfire Gala could be worn by a human.
Effectively I was full-in on the Hellfire Gala and intended to buy every issue just as I had with X of Tens, quite quickly I changed my mind but we'll get to that when it occurs.
Onto the actual story, it was fun. I like the idea of setting up the entire storyline in the first issue with the other books giving further details of the night. It's nice to see further contact between the Krakoan's and the rest of the Marvel Universe. I get a distinct feeling that Marvel are already trying to roll back the Franklin Richards retcon and that in years to come it will be quietly ignored. We call this the Mopee manoeuvre. I like the fact that the Marauders were all continuing to be themselves and that the only person who really cared about the Gala was Emma.
The back-up reprint does lead us to question the announcement of the FIRST Hellfire Gala but it can be easily explained away. The original Hellfire Club was a semi-secret society operating in the shadows so it's entirely possible that most people won't be aware of it. This gala is an attempt at pushing the Hellfire Trading Company so it would make sense for Emma to push it as the First Gala. It is the first public gala so she's not entirely lying.
For me this was a great issue (providing I didn't look at the pictures of Ben Grimm) and at this point I was really excited about the rest of the gala.
Speaking of gaining powers, how did The Order work? Tony Stark screwed with their genetics to give them powers?