WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Marauders #21 by Gerry Duggan, Matteo Lolli, Edgar Delgado, Tom Muller, and VC's Cory Petit, on sale now.
The Hellfire Gala is underway, and the mutants in charge of the Hellfire Trading Company have pulled out all the stops for the evening's festivities. With an international group of heroes and dignitaries on Krakoa, Emma Frost is using the event as a moment to show off Krakoa. However, one of the White Queen's old teammates, the X-Men veteran Banshee, threatens to put a damper on the proceedings.
And as he compliments Emma in Marauders #21, Sean Cassidy drops a hint that he and his fellow ex-Generation X mentor may be heading for a more substantial reunion soon.
While the guests mingle and marvel at the wonders on display throughout the event hall, Emma Frost is busy ensuring that all of them stay happy with the entertainment as well as their company. As she works her way from one group to another, Emma catches the eye of Banshee, who stops her for a moment to compliment her on the way things have turned out. When she expresses her happiness that he accepted her invitation to the event, Banshee mentions another invitation she sent him. Before he seemingly declines it, Emma cuts him off from giving her any bad news and returns to her hosting duties. Although the contents of that invitation go unrevealed, it seems likely that Emma wants to draft Banshee into the Marauders.
Banshee and Emma Frost have worked together plenty of times in the past, though none of their partnerships were as famous as their shared role of running the Massachusetts Academy, the home of the '90s teenage X-Men team Generation X. First appearing in 1994's Uncanny X-Men #317 by Scott Lobdell and Joe Madureira, the first unofficial Generation X team was comprised of Jubilee, Skin, Monet St. Croix, Synch, Husk and Blink during the "Phalanx Covenant" crossover. After Blink's death, fan-favorite characters like Chamber joined as Lobdell and Chris Bachalo kicked off the Generation X series. Unfortunately, Generation X disbanded when the Massachusetts Academy closed its doors in 2001, and that particular chapter in history would become yet another in a long line of failures as far as Banshee was concerned.
Things could very well be looking up for Sean Cassidy sooner than later, though. After earning a respectable second-place finish in the recent election to choose a new X-Men team member, Banshee may change his mind and join the Marauders, or at least work alongside them in an upcoming adventure.
Banshee is featured on the cover of the upcoming Marauders #23, and while his exact capacity is that story is unrevealed, it wouldn't be surprising for him to join the team on a permanent basis. Banshee hasn't really had a real home in the X-Men's corner of the Marvel Universe, in years, and the X-Men election results indicate a clear interest in the character. And after working so closely with Emma Frost over so many years, he has her trust in a way that only a handful of X-Men do.
The sea-faring heroes of the Marauders may not be the kind of structured teams Cassidy usually runs with, but they aren't far removed from the sort of high-flying heroics that he excels at. Even if Banshee lost the election to join Marvel's main X-Men team, the Marauders may be the precise kind of team Cassidy needs to step back into the spotlight.
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