X-Men #67-72
Originally released in 1997
Written by Joe Quesada (#67, 69), Scott Lobdell (#68), Joe Kelly (#70-72)
Art by Carlos Pacheco (#67, 69-72), Pasqual Ferry (#68)
The Marvel vs. Capcom collection releases today, serving as the triumph of a movement to make Capcom's Marvel games available again after an extended period of them being almost impossible to purchase legally. Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is seen as the crowning jewel of that collection, though as far as its roster goes, it largely took sprites from pre-existing games. On the Marvel side, it only adds three new characters: Cable, Bone Claw Wolverine, and Marrow. Cable makes sense given how much of a major character he is, and Bone Claw Wolverine is a quick and easy way to fill out the roster, but Marrow's inclusion has me curious.
I get that X-Men were really big in the late 90s (the game came out in the year 2000), but even with that in mind, she seems like such an odd choice when stacked up against the likes of Nightcrawler, Kitty Pryde, Jean Grey, Beast, etc. when it just comes to X-Men characters alone. (and that's not even getting into the Fantastic Four, who are conspicuously absent) As I result, I'm looking into an X-Men comic from the era that features Marrow to get an idea of why she might have been picked.
This issue starts off in the middle of a storyline called Operation: Zero Tolerance, where Bastion (an advanced Sentinel) is carrying out a plan to kill all mutants. Aiding him in this operation are Prime Sentinels, which are capable of passing as human until the moment that they need to strike. As a result, it creates an atmosphere of paranoia, as nobody can be trusted.
Meanwhile, Bastion has kidnapped Professor Xavier. Xavier claims that he's lost his mutant abilities ever since the appearance of Onslaught, but Bastion believes he's faking it. From what I know about Xavier, either one of those could be true.
Senator Robert Kelly, one of the most staunch mutant haters out there, is having second thoughts about his role in this, realizing that his actions are Nazi-esque. Meanwhile, Henry Peter Gyrich feels perfectly content with this plan, proving himself to be one of the biggest scumbags in Marvel.
With many of the X-Men captured, Iceman is leading a small "team" of Dr. Cecilia Reyes (a doctor who has an unreliable mutant ability), Marrow (a Morlock, a type of mutant that lives in the sewers, who's openly racist against humanity), and Sabra (an Israeli spy) to escape Bastion's Sentinel army. I put team in quotation marks because none of them get along very well - Iceman's new to being a leader, Dr. Reyes wants nothing to do with this, Sabra is cold and distant, and Marrow hates everyone that isn't a Morlock.
With Sabra's information, they manage to track down the place where Bastion is holding a child hostage to force his mother, a police officer and friend of the X-Men, to cooperate with Operation: Zero Tolerance.
The team confronts Bastion, though Senator Kelly gives an off-screen speech that results in Operation: Zero Tolerance being cancelled. Unlike the X-Men, Bastion isn't willing to die for his beliefs, so he doesn't fight SHIELD agents and lets them take him into custody. (Which will presumably last until a fraction of a second after he wants to break out - given Bastion's openly genocidal nature, one would think that SHIELD would take harsher precautions beyond simply arresting him)
However, that's not the end of Bastion's threat to the X-Men - Iceman brings his group to the mansion only to find that it's been picked clean, and the rest of the team arrives with a nanotech bomb implanted inside of Cyclops. Jean is doing her best to keep it from spreading, but it's a temporary measure.
Not helping matters is the arrival of Juggernaut, who somehow (thanks to the disappearance of Xavier) has been given sole control over the X-Men's funds. As most of the team tries to fend him off, and Juggernaut quickly realizes that the X-Men are falling apart, Dr. Reyes works with Jean, Iceman, Wolverine, and Marrow to try and remove the bomb safely, which is far easier said than done.
I won't go over the gruesome details, but they do successfully remove the bomb. However, the team's time split apart has resulted in some friction. I'm not entirely sure what's going on between Rogue and Gambit at the moment, but Gambit's no longer with the team, and Rogue says that he's dead to her; he betrayed the team somehow, though I'm not sure how.
Despite there being a lot of X-Men already (including Joseph, who might have ties to Magneto; I'm not clear on how accurate that is), Marrow, Dr. Reyes, and another mutant named Maggot whose powers are useful but gross are added to the team.
As a few doors open, a few more close, as Cyclops and Jean take this opportunity to leave the team, at least for now. (they seem to be going on a vacation) They have second thoughts, especially with the team being in flux like it currently is, but they ultimately decide to follow through with taking a break.
Around the point that Marrow became a prospective member of the X-Men, I started to understand why she was one of the two (technically three) Marvel newcomers for Marvel vs. Capcom 2. She's brash, aggressive, not much of a team player, and clashes with authority figures - she seems to be set up as the Wolverine equivalent for a new generation of X-Men. (ironically, one of those authority figures is Wolverine himself)
Maybe someone at Capcom really liked her powers, though I feel like Marvel recommended her thinking that she'd be a huge figure in X-Men going forwards. That doesn't seem to have been the case (outside of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and these comics, I'd never heard of her or seen her referenced elsewhere), so it's entirely likely that they jumped the gun when they could have waited a few years to see if she'd be popular, or if her popularity would stick. Still, in the context of X-Men from 1998 or 1999 (when Marvel vs. Capcom 2 was being made), I can see why she would have been included in Marvel vs. Capcom 2, so her appearances in these comics accomplished what I was hoping they would.
No comments:
Post a Comment