Usually there are two flavours of stories I feature in this occasional series - European comics and rather racist books from the Golden Age. But today I have a rarity - an appearance by Angola in a contemporary mainstream super hero comic from Marvel Comics!
The comic in question is Marauders #20, published last year by writer Gerry Duggan and artist Stefano Caselli. Marauders is one of the many new X-Men books which have been published over the last few years since Jonathan Hickman redefined the franchise so as to render all the mutant characters basically immune to death (Hickman knows that the key to drama is to lower the stakes). The X-Men, who had previously felt somewhat like a cult instead leaned hard into that concept as now they all basically talk like a bunch of Scientologists. They like to think that on their island Krakoa they're a veritable nation, but Krakoa seems to be little more than a hotel resort.
Anyway, it's not as though the current set-up will last forever - fact is, Hickman himself foresaw an endgame for his story. But Marvel, in their wisdom, decided to keep the status quo running beyond its expiration date, as that has historically never been a problem with comics.
So then: the Marauders are pirates. But not the Captain Phillips-type contemporary pirates, they're... quasi-super hero pirates. Strangely, Nightcrawler is not among their ranks, despite being the lone X-Man renowned for his love of swashbuckling. But the one-eyed Callisto is there, which is a pretty good joke.
In this issue the Marauders sit around on their boat swapping stories about Storm and wagering on how many knives they think she owns. The Angolan connection comes up when Bishop states that Storm once helped him out in Angola. This comes as a surprise to Storm, since she doesn't recall ever being in Angola with Bishop. And so begins the flashback:
Based on the dialogue, it seems there were some Angolan mutants (not depicted on-panel) and Bishop and Pyro of the Marauders were exchanging some of Krakoa's super-medicine for their release. But as the flashback begins, Bishop and Pyro are facing four armed Angolan soldiers who want to change the terms of their deal. Oh no! How will Bishop (able to absorb any form of energy, basically unkillable even without Krakoa) and Pyro (walking flamethrower) ever overcome four men with guns?
Actually, this doesn't come down to a fight - it's a bit more clever than that. There's a storm forming in the sky above and Bishop claims that Storm herself is responsible for it. It's a bluff, but a loud thunderclap convinces the lead officer to relent and agree to the original terms of their deal.
And that's it - just one page of the comic given over to Angola, but that's still the biggest role Angola has ever featured in a Marvel comic.
Strange that all the Angolan soldiers spoke English... it's not exactly common over here, speaking as an ESL teacher in Angola. It could just as easily have been set in the Congo or Nigeria - the story references Angola, but doesn't actually depict Angola. But I give Duggan credit for making a token effort.
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