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Friday, September 3, 2010
A Fashion Massacre
Evidently, Casey Edwards really likes the Marauders
The conversation went something like this... “You know what would make a cool revamp?” “Who?” “The Marauders.” “Yeah, I guess they’d be cool.” “You guess! They were the greatest X-Men villains ever! They slaughtered the Morlocks, locked Shadowcat into phase mode, almost killed Cololussus, and totally destroyed Angel’s wings. The old Sabertooth vs Wolverine fights were thing of legend, not to mention...” “Okay, okay. I got. So you really want to do a Marauders revamp huh?” “Sure if you don’t mind.” Or at least that’s the way I remember it but I lost a lot of brain cells in college, so I tend to be forgetful. What was I saying? Oh yeah, the Marauders. He was obsessed with revamping his favorite X-Villains and me being a man who knows a little bit about obsession (why oh why won’t Tyra return my calls), who am I to stand in his way. This week Casey Edwards gives up the It’s a Wonderful Life version of the Marauders (click on the image to see the full version)… what is, what was, and what could have been. Take it away Clarence, I mean Casey: +++++++++++++ I look at the X-men and all there various adventures as a tragedy. Not tragedy for the characters, a tragedy for me, for the readers. Overtime I've gone from a love/hate relationship with the X-Men to a more straightforward hate/hate relationship. In my opinion, the problem with the X-franchise is the incessant need to reinvent itself on such a grand scale and yet never have the courage to maintain any conviction to the changes. All the mindless low class character killing and high class character resurrecting made me livid. A universe I loved for its lush fully realized world became a mess of clones, redesigns, and changed motivations. In among all these changes the X-Men's superb gallery or villains slowly became over-saturated, ineffective, and often forgotten. So when Erick asked me who I would give the Spin Doctors treatment, I thought of characters that deserved a redesign but also would be more than just a makeover. I thought of characters that could appear in continuity and excite folks. Characters that could bring me to a new enlightened love/love relationship I thought of the Marauders and the rest is already history. So without any further adieu, let's break it down to the Spin Doctors standard and look at the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. ”The Good” The Marauders started out with glory and gunfire and rapidly chalked up a status of brutality and capability not often seen by villains. The best thing about the Marauders was how truly capable they seemed. With Sabretooth being able to keep Wolverine at bay, the Marauders stopped one of the X-men's biggest edges at first strike. The remaining X-men were than left with the realization that without their brutal killer they were ill suited to be able to go far enough to stop the Marauders. The Marauders created a new fear in the world of the X-men. With the Marauders on the loose, human beings taken over by fear and prejudice were hardly a problem compared to a group that only wants to kill you for the fun of it. Battles with the Marauders left characters in states worse than death that caused strife and misery well past the issue itself. Riptide put Nightcrawler in a coma and wounded Colossus to a point where the surgery to save his life left him paralyzed and stuck in his metal form. Harpoon left Angel pinned to a wall (a catalyst that would late have angel's winds amputated) and left Kitty stuck in her "phased out" state. Just by touching Havok Scrambler nearly levels a skyscraper and leaves Havok with emotional and physical injuries. Fights were often interesting when conflicting powers clashed. Rogue and Scrambler at some point touched one another and merely passed out. Nightcrawler took Riptide on a flurry of teleportation that left him confused. The fights were legendary, the characters powerful and capable. So when the final stand of the Marauders occurred in the Inferno crossover, many felt it was a satisfying and fitting end to a band of villains who had truly made us fear for our heroes. ”The Bad” Not to say the Marauders were not without their faults. Many of the designs seemed limited to the rushed schedule of the art at the time (many of their appearances were during Marvel's summer gimmick of two issues per month) and due to Marc Silvestri's style at the time, some of them just seemed overly sketchy. Many powers of the Marauders were excessive lessons in redundancy. Both Arclight and Blockbuster essentially covered elements of super strength while Harpoon and Prism used energy projectiles. In addition the Marauders hinged on the concept of cloning, a story idea that can easily create bigger messes than anyone can keep up with. Luckily many of these problems could be dealt with. Clones can be destroyed (in the hopes of leaving only originals) and costumes can be redesigned. Plus thanks to the concept of Morrison's evolution addition to mutants of the world we can even tweak redundant powers to be both unique and offer different functions. The Ugly People are always willing to wash away the bad, it's the ugly that leaves a scar and tragically thanks to backtracking ideas and misuse the Marauders have to deal with that too. The biggest problem is that Inferno wasn't the last stand of the Marauders, it just should've been. First Scott Lobdell linked Gambit to the Morlock massacre that seemed to make little sense in itself. And with the X-men forgiving Gambit made the horrific events of the Mutant Massacre seem like a bad dream. Later appearances in X-Man and Gambit would register the remaining clones of the Marauders feel like easily dispatched flunkies. The worst transgression being when X-Man single handedly annihilated all of the marauders. Meanwhile Sabretooth seemed to evolve farther and farther away from the character he was when part of the group. It was even went so far as to separate him by having the material to clone Sabretooth destroyed and make a note that Sabretooth was the only "original" (i.e. non clone) Marauder left. With a whimper it seemed that the Marauders would be forgotten in the X-men universe or left delegated to a new pathetic existence and we certainly can't let that happen, now can we.  You’ve got the look
Visually I wanted the Marauders to have a more unique feel from one another but maintain an echo of their old designs for easier recognition. Some elements I kept as partial echoes such as Vertigo's skirt maintaining her old moving pattern and Blockbusters full form shirt keeps the pattern of his old one sided spandex. Others were merely built on top of. Harpoon's old outfit fits underneath his new Eskimo gear to ground his character and emphasize his heritage. Arclight's military background is pushed forward with only the top of her shirt left from her spandex look. Other characters are merely new variations on the same idea such as Prism and Scrambler. Others had changes to establish what would be the implementation of theoretical story concepts. Malice would be possessing a Sinister clone with only the broach separating her from the true Sinister. Scalphunter sans weaponry outfit would refer to a new limitation to his powers. With our team looking good the last question is...what to do with them? A New Massacre The catalyst for the return of the Marauders would arise in Malice recovering from her apparent death on the astral plane. (X-Factor #102-105; if Shadow King taught us anything it's that if you’re on the astral plane death anything but permanent). Running with the theory that Sinister's endless returns are at least partially due to him having clones of himself. Malice possesses one of Sinister's back up bodies and goes about purifying the genetic information of the other marauders. Malice then goes about a production of a set of Marauders closest to their original forms as possible. (sans Sabretooth who, with Gambit, destroyed his stockpiled genetic info; Gambit; 3rd series #9) Due to Malice purifying the genetic information of the Marauders the new Marauders would be free of the genetic imprint that prevented them from betraying Sinister. (Scalphunter admitted to this limitation in Gambit; 3rd series#9) These new Marauders would have a redefined sense of character with the basis that any identity traits sinister disapproved of would be restored. A large part of the Marauders return would have to revolve around elements of the current Weapon X series as they are using Sinister and even had an appearance by Scalphunter. (WeaponX#13) To clear the air, Scalphunter would kill the existing clone of himself under service of Sinister while Malice and the rest of the Marauders would go about destroying any remaining clones of themselves kept in storage as well as back up “Sinisters”. The Marauders would than lead a new Massacre on the refugees from Neverland that Sinister is experimenting on. This would lead in a confrontation between the Marauders and Marrows new group. With Weapon X and more importantly Chamber caught in the middle we could have a battle worthy of the good old days I yearn for. The fate from there would not be for me to decide and as not all elements are fleshed out the fine tuning would dictate some conclusions. And in the end whether or not they survive the X-men would be ushered back into a world they built. "Welcome to the X-Men, hope you survive." That's it from me folks. I hope you enjoyed this guest column as much I did. Some of the work done here has been brewing in my head for at least a decade. I want to thank Erick for the invitation and www.uncannyxmen.net for the superb reference and remember to check out the Spin Doctors forum. > All characters are ™ & © Marvel Comics. All Rights Reserved.
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April 22, 2008:
February 4, 2008:
November 20, 2006:
A Comic-Con without the Captain
