Hoo-boy. The Marauders were kind of a breath of fresh air when they appeared way back in Uncanny X-Men 211. Here were all-new villains with new powers and unknown capabilities, and hey, is that an Eskimo throwing harpoons?

It is.

Yeah, that air didn’t stay so fresh. These guys were essentially an update of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, with a perhaps too-generous helping of racial insensitivity.
But still, Scalphunter, the unfortunately-named Native American of the bunch, actually had a rather cool innovation: His outfit was covered with the components to make any sort of firearm from a dinky little handgun up to a sizable cannon. His mutant power allowed him to whip up the right gun for the job lickety-split, which he then used with ruthless efficiency. Well, he killed some Morlocks at any rate.

What makes him interesting — aside from the fact that the Marvel database claims he’s 6′6″ and 175 pounds, which are scarecrow-type proportions — is that his clothing is the gun, or the raw materials for the guns if we’re being picky. It makes me wonder why he didn’t maximize his clothing potential, with a hat and scarf — the more he wears, the more heavily armed he becomes. Look at those boots he’s wearing — it’s not like he’s a slave to fashion.

Also, Scalphunter represents the leading edge of the “firearms appearing in the X-Men, and comics in general, with regularity” trend. Sure, the Hellfire Club’s minions were all armed, but they were cannon fodder — this held true throughout comics for a long time. Nobody who wanted to be taken as a seriously threatening super villain grabbed a gun and went after a superhero; you needed a superpower to challenge them. Scalphunter kinda-sorta changes the game a little bit. There was an element of superpower to him, but when it came right down to it, he was willing to face off against Cyclops not with superspeed or invulnerability, but with a regular old hail of lead. We’re so very close to Cable and all those other gun-swinging mofos when we get to Scalphunter.

And just like at every other point in American history, the Native American — the original — gets bumped to the shadows while a white man takes center stage.
Go ahead, Scalphunter — shoot Cable in the ass next time you see him.

-Paul

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