The Four Color Media Monitor

Polygon announced writer Tim Seeley's produced a miniseries that's supposed to explore Rogue and Magneto's time together in the Savage Land, which originally took place in Uncanny X-Men #274 from around 1991:

If you’re an X-Men ’97 fan who wasn’t just surprised by the revelation that Rogue and Magneto have history but also instantly wanted to know more, Marvel has just the comic for you. Rogue: The Savage Land, a retro limited series from a great team of modern creators, will dive back into the 1990s story arc that first took two very different X-Men characters and strung a wire of sexual tension between them.

In 1991’s Uncanny X-Men #274, Rogue found herself almost powerless and stranded in the Savage Land, Marvel Comics’ own Land of the Lost-style Antarctic oasis. How did she find herself there? Don’t worry about it. What did she find when she got there? An alliance with an amorous Magneto and the scantily clad Ka-Zar, Marvel’s own Tarzan analog (and oft-played Marvel Snap card), against the evil sorceress Zaladane. Rogue and Magneto’s romance was never truly to be, after he executed Zaladane — a level of villainy Rogue just did not vibe with anymore — but that hasn’t stopped later writers from calling back to the attraction they once briefly shared.

You know, if what Mags did was wrong, and it's kept in canon, doesn't that sour the milk for retrospectives? Of course, if killing the evil sorceress was a bad idea writing-wise, then maybe it'd be better to jettison it from canon? I've noted before that, just like in the DCU, if there's bad storylines in the MCU that need to be expunged, then maybe it'd be for the best to do so. And then, if, like with various male criminals, including those seen in the Punisher, this sorceress was so awful and Mags was acting in self-defense, then maybe his act shouldn't be looked upon as total villainy, even if it's not above scrutiny and evaluation. Of course, this is exactly why the storyline from the mid-90s where Gambit was "established" as having unwittingly led Mr. Sinister to the Morlock lair and enabled the villain to slaughter the community there should definitely be expunged from any continuity. Unfurtunately but unsurprisingly, no objective view is taken on such issues by the columnist.

The article, interestingly enough, says:

For Rogue: The Savage Land writer Tim Seeley (Nightwing, Shatterstar), a chance to go back to Rogue’s time in the Savage Land was “a dream job, and probably the absolute perfect Marvel gig for me,” he told Polygon via email. “In these 5 issues I get to utilize my love for 80s X-Men, Jim Lee, Chris Claremont, Zabu, scantily clad heroines (and heroes!) and probably most importantly: DINOSAURS.” [...]

“We’re going to deliver something fresh,” Seeley promised, “while honoring the impossibly sexy and epic classic tale of a young Rogue, and two of the weirdest allies a girl from Mississippi could ask for: Magento and Ka-Zar.”

While I can't bring myself to buy modern Marvel, based on how abominable it's become since Joe Quesada took over, and C.B Cebulski's done little to improve the situation, I do appreciate Seeley's willingness to respect the idea of writing Rogue as a sex symbol. But the way Marvel keeps milking dry their creations in a modern sense is ruining everything, right down to how they remain stuck on an incoherent canon since the turn of the century. The same path that's led to the latest depiction of X-Men in a horror-themed direction. We could honestly do without that.

Labels: history, marvel comics, msm propaganda, violence, women of marvel, X-Men