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| X-MEN: LEGACY #228 preview art by Daniel Acuna |
The villainous Emplate recently made his presence known once more in the X-Men's world, and in X-MEN: LEGACY #228 by writer Mike Carey and artist Daniel Acuna on October 21, he will sink his teeth into a new campaign against his mutant foes.
The vampiric mutant, who previously plagued the kids of Generation X, has returned looking for more mutants to feed on. With Carey's love of the X-Men's storied history, he had a number of reasons for choosing to revisit Emplate.
"I wanted a villain who was really creepy and unsettling, and Emplate seemed to fit the bill," the writer notes. "He was easily my favorite bad guy from the Gen X days, and nobody seemed to have been interested in using him since-although as it turned out, I only just got in there ahead of [X-FORCE writers] Craig [Kyle] and Chris [Yost], who had a role for him in Necrosha!
"I also love the fact that Emplate effectively has his own dimension, this weird, not-quite-place where he's both overlord and prisoner. That's where Rogue has to pursue him to in issue #228, and of course it's a place where he holds all the cards while Rogue is struggling just to come to terms with what she's seeing. Even the laws of physics don't work in quite the same way there."
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| X-MEN: LEGACY #228 preview art by Daniel Acuna |
"The power set, essentially," the writer remarks. "Penance had that incredibly tough diamond-like body, and somehow Emplate-who feeds on bone marrow-was able to feed on her over a period of years without killing her. Roxy also has diamond skin, and can 'super-produce' in a similar way to, say, Marrow, generating and firing shards of diamond from her skin. Emplate looks at this spontaneous generative power and it strikes a chord. Maybe he'll be able to feed on Bling! in the same way as he did on Penance, drawing on her body mass and her energy without ever quite killing her."
Given the fact that Emplate must feed on the marrow of mutants in order to keep his strength up, it should come as no surprise that he appeared emaciated when he attacked the mutant community of the newly established Nation X.
"[Emplate's been] on very short rations, we have to assume," explains Carey. "We don't know, of course, how long he can survive without a meal. Some life forms can live for years between feeds, with increasing discomfort and loss of function. I'm imagining that Emplate has made a few kills along the way, but that he's now close to starvation and
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| X-MEN: LEGACY #228 preview art by Daniel Acuna |
Once Emplate has gotten hold of a mutant, he can also replicate their abilities, a power similar to that of Rogue's.
"It's true, they both sample other people's powers through bodily contact," Carey confirms. "We had a scene in mind where they both tried to use their powers at the same time and there was a sort of feedback effect that laid them both out. Most likely we won't use that exact scene now, but it would be interesting to see, wouldn't it?"
Emplate previously helped galvanize the Generation X team, becoming their first major opponent after their formation, and has since plagued the younger mutants of the Marvel Universe in particular, for reasons Carey believes he understands:
"I think the fact that he's a former golden boy himself; a young mutant who had the potential to be something incredible, but who followed the darker implications of his powers without conscience, and turned himself into a monster. There's a terrible sense of tragic waste about him. He's the [X-Men Universe's] Darth Vader.
"[And] it's not so much that he acts as a catalyst for the formation of a new group here, but he does make Rogue re-evaluate Cyclops's job offer."
Looking to the future, Rogue and her wards have more than just Emplate to fear.
"We're doing a two-for-one deal on drop-dead terrifying X-Men villains. After Emplate...but I've said too much."
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can't wait for this
:af42683d65="colossalpikachu"]:af42683d65]"We're doing a two-for-one deal on drop-dead terrifying X-Men villains. After Emplate...but I've said too much."[/quote:af42683d65]Looking at the previews for December this line must refer to the Necrosha event. It seems Destiny is making a return and she's bring back a major villain but I'm wracking my brain to think who it could be. Apocalypse ...
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:af42683d65="colossalpikachu"]:af42683d65]"We're doing a two-for-one deal on drop-dead terrifying X-Men villains. After Emplate...but I've said too much."[/quote:af42683d65]Looking at the previews for December this line must refer to the Necrosha event. It seems Destiny is making a return and she's bring back a major villain but I'm wracking my brain to think who it could be. Apocalypse, Sinster and Magneto are all still alive so it's obviously not them, maybe it's Sabretooth (before the clones in X-Force) as Wolverine did decapitate him. Does anyone have any suggestions for who the 'dead' villain might be?[/quote:af42683d65]They are referring to "drop-dead" as in terrifying, not as they are literally dead. Magneto is reappearing in Uncanny X-men so it could be him.
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i'm liking how this book looks like its going to explore some of those younger mutants who seem to have been sidelined for so long. Hope we see some interesting things here.
:be35a05b08]"We're doing a two-for-one deal on drop-dead terrifying X-Men villains. After Emplate...but I've said too much."[/quote:be35a05b08]Looking at the previews for December this line must refer to the Necrosha event. It seems Destiny is making a return and she's bring back a major villain but I'm wracking my brain to think who it could be. Apocalypse, Sinster and Magneto are all still ...
View More
:be35a05b08]"We're doing a two-for-one deal on drop-dead terrifying X-Men villains. After Emplate...but I've said too much."[/quote:be35a05b08]Looking at the previews for December this line must refer to the Necrosha event. It seems Destiny is making a return and she's bring back a major villain but I'm wracking my brain to think who it could be. Apocalypse, Sinster and Magneto are all still alive so it's obviously not them, maybe it's Sabretooth (before the clones in X-Force) as Wolverine did decapitate him. Does anyone have any suggestions for who the 'dead' villain might be?
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[color=seagreen:cd9eae4368]Now that you mention "two-in-one", I want to see the (slightly aged) twins, too.[/color:cd9eae4368]