Marrow has a night out on the town
Originally Published September 1998
We begin with New York's Finest, officers Cleveland and Aguinal, whom you may recall were recently traumatized when they encountered Marrow during Operation: Zero Tolerance. Today, they are overly superstitious scaredy cats who jump at shadows and fail at eating pretzels.
They have the extreme misfortune to encounter the original source of their complex, who is menacing a lovely, harmless surface-dwelling couple who just happens to have expressed some anti-mutant sentiment within earshot.
Ultimately, she shows clemency and runs off into the night, but the narration reminds us that she lives by a code -- do unto others worse than they do unto you.
Hot on her heels are Storm and Callisto, tracking her after she ran off when Cal arrived at the mansion to tell her that she was to stay with the X-Men, partly because it's simply not safe in the Morlock tunnels anymore.
Meaning, of course, at that moment a mysterious, dark, beastly figure is skulking around the sewers, using Callisto for doubtless unsavory purposes -- and is inconvenienced by the fact that his prey has flown the coop.
In Central Park, Marrow finds another pair of targets, but is intercepted by Cannonball. Being that Sarah has a not-so-secret crush on Sam, she can't help but flirt.
Back at the mansion, where it is inexplicably fully daylight, there is some friction between Dr. Cecilia Reyes has words for Maggott, whose slugs have devoured some of her medical books.
Back downtown, Callisto admonishes Storm that the X-Men only ever seem to save the hot mutants like tween Kitty Pryde, and there is no love for an uggo like Marrow, who Storm once tried to kill.
Ororo reminds her best frenemy that Marrow was literally in the midst of committing an act of terrorism at that particular time, which makes it all okay.
Cannonball takes a break from his search for Marrow (who gave him the slip between panels) to think about how his Ma is getting real sick down in Kentucky, and he may have to leave the team to go look after her. Marrow -- popping back out of hiding -- interprets this as another person abandoning her.
At this time, they are interrupted by Cleveland and Aguinal, who do their best to face their worst fears.
At the mansion, Maggott admonishes his slugs that if they must eat Cecilia's medical books, they should eat the whole thing. Beast arrives to talk to Maggott about how maybe the best place for Maggott is at the Massachusetts campus, with Generation X, away from, you know... us.
Marrow tackles Cleveland and prepares to strike a killing blow, but hesitates, thinking about how actually she has grown since arriving at the mansion, all because of a sweet Kentucky boy who is unfailingly polite -- but who may be leaving her just like everyone else.
She asks Cleveland whether he's ever truly lost anything, and he confirms he has -- because of her. Seems his and Aguinal's career standings really took a nosedive due to the trauma she inflicted, resulting in their being ostracized.
This hits home with Marrow, and Cannonball puts a fine point on it by asking whether she wants to be a monster or a protector.
Callisto and Storm also arrive in time to weigh in, reminding her that there is a place at Xavier's for her. She concedes, saying a bittersweet farewell to Callisto...
And agreeing to, at the very least, a truce with Storm.
She also gets a ride back to the school on Cannonball's back, which I think constitutes second base action for her.
The X-Men part ways with Aguinal and Cleveland, who think perhaps they are ready to go back on their old beat. And of course, the mysterious figure watches from the shadows, with a little hankering to menace the Morlock.
Further Thoughts:
I, personally, am very ready to move on from this whole "Marrow doesn't want to be an X-Man and nobody wants her there either" story. There are only so many times you can have her run out on her own and cause trouble and they go rein her in and she learns a valuable lesson or whatever. And in fairness, they've not really run that story before, but it feels worn out nonetheless. I'm happy if Marrow is finally fully incorporated into the team and we can just move forward.
The other questions are -- is Cannonball leaving, or not? Is Maggott joining Generation X, or not? You can't tease these things and then double back on them, which we've already seen with Scott and Jean in Uncanny X-Men, getting ready to move back from Alaska (after only a few weeks) and bring some radical new vision to the dream, only to decide nah, it's not important. I recently read an archived article from Italian outlet Lo Spazio Bianco, in which Steve Seagle discusses the editorial indecision and interference he and Kelly experienced while writing the books. And while I may not necessarily think the ideas he presents are winners, it's plain to see how hard/impossible it would be to create good work in that environment.
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