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sparklingelectricblue · 17 hours ago

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Thoughts on Rogue: The Savage Land #2

X-Men vol 7, #12 came out on the 26th. Unsurprisingly, Magneto was no where to be seen in it despite being a featured member of the cast. Luckily for those who need a Magneto fix, Rogue: The Savage Land #2 and Amazing Spider-Man vol 6, #68.DEATHS came out on the same day. (It's me. I need the Magneto fix)

My thoughts on Rogue: TheSavage Land #2 ended up being a little long so I'm going to talk about Amazing Spider-Man vol 6 #68.DEATHS in another post.

Rogue: The Savage Land #2

There is less retelling the original story at this stage of the miniseries. This issue is all original scenes. It's still informed by the original story from Uncanny X-Men #269, #274/275, of course, but the main storyline is new. Rogue and Magneto following Zabu to find Ka-Zar because they think Ka-Zar in trouble. Really, Rogue goes and Magneto kind of tags along after being asked.

Or, as Magneto frames it, Rogue "dragged me away from my sanctuary to follow this cat to his master." Magneto, you so dramatic.

On their way to find Ka-Zar, they clash with giant flying dinosaurs. Rogue theorizes the dinosaurs are confused by changing magnetic fields. She asks Magneto about it and he neither confirms nor deny. Instead, he make a small comparison between Rogue and Xavier which is... interesting. Maybe he's purposefully not answering to gatekeep information. Or, maybe he just wants to hurry up and find Ka-Zar so the can go back to sulking in his "sanctuary".

image from official previews.

Rogue never gets a chance to find out because Magneto gets hit with some kind of blast which shreds his armor.

While we're on the subject of shredded costumes, please allow me a quick aside. There was a vocal yet small amount of people who were upset when this series was announced. There was a belief that this new story was going to be exploitative and merely an excuse to serve up barely clothed Rogue to basement dwellers. I can understand why people would have that reservation. Comic books have a history of being incredibly sexist.

However, my problem with a lot of the negative reactions to the news of the miniseries was that they framed the original story as merely an exploitative vessel for cheesecake too. That told me that they either didn't read the original story or they were intentionally misrepresenting it if they did.

Was there skimpy, sexy Rogue in that original story? Yeah, Jim Lee was drawing it so of course there was. But so was everyone else. You had the Savage Land residence all skimpily dressed because they live in the hot and humid jungles. On top of that, you have a hostile environment where things and people are hunting you for one reason or another. You also don't see agriculture for fiber in the Savage Land. It makes sense that modesty isn't a priority.

That's the in-universe explanation but you could also make the argument that nakedness was a metaphor for vulnerability. I doubt Chris Claremont and Jim Lee intended it that way but that's how I choose to read it.

Rogue had a skimpy outfit while she couldn't access her powers. By the time Rogue can access her powers, she's probably the most clothed person in the room in complete body armor provided by SHEILD. Magneto's armor gets shredded when he's physically hit by a blast. Then he's practically naked when Rogue wakes him from a nightmare and complete naked when held captive by Zaladane, his powers drained and his trauma on show for everyone.

Magneto's secrets for all to see in Uncanny X-Men #275

There's actually a nice inverse of the damsel in distress cliché when a fully clothed and powered Rogue rescues the naked depowered Magneto by carrying him out of Zaladane's clutches.

Rogue saving Magneto in Uncanny X-Men #275

And that's not even touching the on the main story which had geopolitical intrigue, struggles between good and bad and of redemption and revenge. It's a banger of story.

Anyways, back to Rogue: the Savage Land #2.

The blast came from a military group that Rogue recognizes as Atlanteans and realizes are hostile. Rogue and Zabu fight back but before Magneto can do anything, something makes quick work of them.

image used with permission from @cocoabubbelle-newblog's post on this issue found here. Thank you!

Look at that! That's adorable. If we one day got a callback to this where modern day Magneto gives her a subdued high five as a way to acknowledge their history and friendship, I would be happy.

So who made quick work of the Atlanteans? It's more Savage Land inhabitants, the Fall People accompanied by Nereel! Rogue recognizes her right way. They are also joined by a holographic image of Sylanda, who explains that someone is messing with the Savage Land environment which is causes clashes between various people. He calls out Magneto as the cause of the environmental changes given Magneto's history in the Savage Land. Honestly, I don't blame him for coming to that conclusion. The rest of the Atlanteans are quickly dealt with by Magneto and the holographic projection of Sylanda is disrupted.

We get a page of Zaladane doing evil occult magic stuff at a tower before seeing Rogue and Magneto settling for the night around a campfire.

I really like the fireside scene and not just because of the equal opportunity cheesecake. Magneto talks about how war never truly ends and violence always spread. Rogue hears him and correctly intuits that he's not just talking about geopolitical ramifications. Whether he realizes it or not, Magneto is revealing a lot about himself and his own struggles with cycles of violence.

image used with permission from @cocoabubbelle-newblog's post on this issue found here. Thank you!

Rogue has been shown repeatedly to be a character with high emotional intelligence (except in the current run of Uncanny X-Men). Rogue leaving Magneto because she doesn't want introduce more violence in life is a good way to showcase this. And it is a good way in which this series interacts with the original story. Rogue having this moment probably informs her reaction to Magneto's nightmares in the original storyline.

Rogue's loneliness was highlighted in the last issue and while it's not outright stated because this miniseries is from Rogue's POV, I think Magneto is also experiencing loneliness as well. Which explains why he keeps following Rogue even after Rogue purposely leaves him while he sleeps.

Before Magneto rejoins Rogue, she follows Zabu through what recently use to be an ocean. More signs of environmental disruption. It stinks of death so bad that Rogue makes a make shift mask to cover her nose.

Rogue finally finds Ka-Zar who is currently being waterboarded by the Deep Men. The water has run dry for them and they're resorting to sacrificing Ka-Zar to their God to try to bring the water back. Rogue knows that there are too many for her and Zabu to take on themselves. Instead, she uses Sylandan's holographic projector that she picked up to scares a majority of them away and free Ka-Zar. I love seeing a smart and resourceful Rogue.

Once Ka-Zar catches his breath, he explains how the ice damns have melted causing the water to flood out in the Marguerite Bay. This is when Magneto shows up to explain that the Savage Land is dying.

Ka-Zar thinks that Magneto is an enemy here. Again, I think it's fair to say his assumption is understandable. Rogue informs him that Magneto is on their side but Ka-Zar is skeptical. "Magneto the "Master of Evil Mutants" who turned natives into monsters. Are you sure about that?" Yeah, she is.

Ka-Zar hugs Zabu (so cute!) while Magneto explains what is going on. The "World Parents" are the towers throughout the Savage Land. "Ancient terraforming machines believed to maintain the environment..." Ka-Zar confirms this and accuses Magneto of planning to use them to enslave the Savage Land. Magneto denies this, simply saying that he detected electrical surges there while looking for Rogue.

Rogue saw those electrical disruptions when they were around the campfire and offers to show Ka-Zar the way. To which Magneto responds "Why, Miss Rogue, it'd be my honor." I was critical of how Mangeto sounded last issue but I'm super tickled by Magneto saying this. It feels very right for his character.

image used with permission from @cocoabubbelle-newblog's post on this issue found here. Thank you!

In my post about the different names Magneto has had (see here), I discuss how characters started calling him "Erik" after the name reveal in X-Men Unlimited #2 even though he was not shown to tell them to call him "Erik". So we finally have an panel showing that, which is nice. Now, we also know that "Erik" is not really his name but an alias. Regardless, I understand and appreciate why "Erik" is used by Seeley here. "Max" isn't revealed to be his real name to others in-universe until fairly recently so using Max here wouldn't have made sense.

There are plenty of ways to have Magneto using "Erik" make sense in relation to his character too, not just for continuity purposes. We know that "Max" was considered dead to Magneto until fairly recently. Or this could be a way to show how really guarded Magneto is, that there are levels or personal information that one has to get through in order to get to know him.

It's just one of the ways that shows that Tim Seeley has done his homework. I love when a writer does that.

The last page shows that Zaladane leaving one of the World Parent towers completely gutted. Using magic, Zaladane has made everything that the World Parent towers capable of now residing in her. She'll continue to the new World Parent tower presumably to do the same to the next one. She instructs her henchmen to "Foment chaos. Salt the land. Leave nothing behind." As she flies off, we can see the hands of creatures popping out of the ground.

Dinosaurs, magic, and zombies? Oh my!

I'm really enjoying this mini-series so far. The art by Zulema Scotto Lavina is great. Tim Seeley has referenced the original story a lot, even in small ways like how Magneto reforms his armor. At the same time, Seeley is filling the gaps from the original story as well. It's all in line with the original story but it changes the focus.

Seeley uses the main objective in this issue, finding Ka-Zar, as a way to show on a personal level how the environmental changes and resource disruption in the Savage Land leads to power disputes and cultural clashes. George Lucas could never.

Admittedly, I'm a bit bias. I'm obviously a fan of the original story. Magneto is one of my favorite characters and he written well here. I love this era of Rogue and this writing feel very faithful to it. And the themes fit into my interest as well. Seriously, I have a degree in Political Science with a minor of Interdisciplinary Studies of the Environment.

Cover of Rogue: The Savage Land #3. Ka-Zar, you are not going to win that fight buddy.

The cover of the next issue promises a clash between Magneto and Ka-Zar. My prediction is that Magneto will prove himself. By doing so, it will strengthen the original story. In the original story, Ka-Zar was not shown to have strong reservations about Magneto even though it would make sense for him to.

I wonder if they will completely forgo Zaladane's use of technology to absorb Polaris and Magneto's powers and stick with magic as the explanation. It would side step an unresolved story point where Zaladane told Polaris that the power snatching was only possible because they were related. This was before Magneto was made Polaris' father officially in the comics, but the fact that Zaladane was able to steal Magneto's powers too had people talking.

If they stick to the old story line then I wonder if Seeley would write if Magneto is Zaladane's father. I had a head canon that I wrote about it here. It was actually my first post on this Tumblr. But maybe it's best to instead retcon the story so that Zaladane was using magic this whole time and was probably lying to Polaris. Polaris has never been show to ask Magneto about it, which you would think she would. Magneto has never been shown to acknowledge that Zaladane is his daughter. Besides, how often can Magneto be shown as an absent dad?

I also want to say that I really appreciate it when people like @rei-ismyname and @cocoabubbelle-newblog let me use images they post from new issues. I can get images of older comics easily thanks to my Marvel Unlimited subscription but I get physical copies of the new issues. Your digital images are way better than me taking a picture of panels with my phone so thank you!

#rogue: the savage land #magneto #rogue #x comics #x men #ka zar #marvel 616 #zaladane #max eisenhardt #erik lehnsherr

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