Art by Jorge Molina
- Name: Sarah
- Code Names: Marrow
- First Appearance: X-Men: Prime (July ‘95)
- Powers: Can grow and project bones from her body
- Teams Affiliation: Morlocks, Gene Nation, X-Men, Weapon X, X-Force
About
The X-Men are built on second chances. When the original run was canceled with issue #66 it looked like the X-Men would be an odd misfire from Lee and Kirby, but editor Len Wein decided to give them a second chance and revitalized the franchise with Giant Sized X-Men #1. After Chris Claremont resigned from the series after a 17 year run due to lack of creative control he was given a second chance to do X-Men the way he thought they should be done and gave us great runs like X-Treme X-Men, End of Greys, and even an opportunity to start right where he left off with X-Men Forever. Even death provides second chances for the X-Men, Charles Xavier once said “Mutant Heaven has no pearly gates, only revolving doors.” It shouldn’t be shocking that the X-Men are always willing to give a second chance to any mutant, even a former terrorist like Marrow.
Marrow’s history is tied to the outcasts of the mutant world, the underground community known as the Morlocks. Known only as Sarah at the time, the child who would become Marrow was among the crowd when Angel was captured by Calisto, and she watched as Storm shoved a knife through Calisto’s heart to claim leadership of the Morlocks. She adored Angel, worshiped him even. He was everything she could never be, he was beautiful and able to fly free while she was monstrous and trapped in the sewers. Her life was torn apart during the Mutant Massacre as she watched her friends and loved ones mowed down before her eyes. Even her beloved Angel, the man who had come to rescue them, had his wings clipped. Gambit, who had led the Marauders down to the tunnels, had part of his better nature win out and rescued Sarah from the fray. All innocence and hope died in her that day, her Angel had been torn out of heaven and her leader, Storm, wasn’t there to protect them. When Mikhail Rasputin flooded the tunnels years later, she no longer cared about living and accepted her end.
Art by Joe Madureira, Tim Townsend, and Steve Buccellato
The next phase of her life would make life in the tunnels seem amazing. Rasputin didn’t kill the Morlocks but teleported them to a hellish dimension known as The Hill. He placed himself at the peak and told the Morlocks that only the worthy could join him atop The Hill. Marrow became a fighter, working her way through every opponent, growing bitter and angry. She killed her former community and made it to Mikhail. She was one of the elite, the fittest, and the leader of the new Gene Nation. They set their sights on home, stronger, older, and more deadly.
Art by the artists of X-Men: Prime, it was a big art jam issue and I just cant tell who did what
When Gene Nation returned to Earth they realized that time on The Hill moved differently. A couple years, maybe less had passed on Earth but the child Sarah had matured into the woman known as Marrow. With a look that evoked Japanese body horror and a kinetic design, she was the perfect vessel to show off new artist Joe Madureira and writer Scott Lodbell gave her a dark, vicious edge. Gene Nation began a brutal campaign against humans that drew the attention of the X-Men. They had become terrorists in no uncertain terms with a dark vendetta against the surface dwellers. After a confrontation with the students of Generation X, Marrow was confronted in the sewers by Storm’s X-Men. She was left with no real exit but she could get vengeance on the woman who abandoned the Morlocks in their time of need. She wired a bomb to her own heart and met Storm, if her campaign with Gene Nation was over she would at least take the weather witch out. Marrow forgot what she had seen as a child, she underestimated Storm’s brutality, taunting Ororo with how she had won. All it got her was a failed revolution as Storm plunged her arm into Marrow’s chest and ripped her still beating heart out.
Art by Joe Madureira, Tim Townsend, and Steve Buccellato
As this is still comics, and we can’t have even the most minor of character stay dead, it was revealed that part of Marrow’s mutation gave her a second heart, a second chance at life, and she teamed up with Calisto to continue her assault against humans. Calisto helped calm Marrow down and she was able to better control her appearance, looking more human instead of the bony mess she had been. Calisto was injured during Operation: Zero Tolerance and urged her young friend to seek out the X-Men. She found Iceman and Cecelia Reyes and assisted them during Bastion’s attack, proving herself enough to be asked to return with them to the Xavier Institute. She struggled to fit in with the X-Men, especially Storm and Wolverine, and was torn between keeping Calisto safe in the tunnels and her new life with the mutants. She quickly ran from the team, not feeling welcome, and returned home. In the tunnels she saw Archangel fighting with the Hulk villain Abomination and something began to change in her. The creature that she used to worship, the man she had thought dead, had returned and she did everything in her power to help him defeat the beast. Calisto had begun to recover and this got Marrow to reassess her situation, she thought she could be more than this monster and rejoined the X-Men.
Sarah took this second chance to finally begin to connect with her X-Men teammates. She was able to reconcile her differences with Storm and respect her as team leader. She worked with Wolverine to control her fury and joined his ever growing rank of young female mentees. Her closest bond was to Colossus, the massive metal mutant shared his art with her and she began to understand that he was nothing like the cruel dictator his brother had been. Marrow worked to control her appearance and got an attractive redesign. Marrow wasn’t long for the team and during the six month time jump before Claremont came back to the books she disappeared without any explanation.
Art by Adam Kubert, Tim Townsend, and Liquid!
The next chapter of Marrow’s life was unexpected and took a turn for the strange. At some point SHIELD captured and brainwashed her into becoming an agent. The drugs she was given started having an impact on her mental well-being and, after a confrontation with Spider-Man, she faked her own death to escape the program. She resurfaced when she heard that the new Weapon X program could make her beautiful if she would become an agent. What she failed to account for was how sadistic the director of the program was, he believed that emotionally torturing his new recruits they would become more loyal. He had Sarah raped and beaten on a mission to kill an old friend from Gene Nation. By the end, she couldn’t walk away. Sarah was dead and only Marrow remained. She worked with them for a time until she was able to rally an underground network of mutants to become her new Gene Nation and restart the assault against the humans. Weapon X wasn’t pleased with her defection and sent Agent Zero to stop her. Zero decided not to martyr Marrow but instead kill every last one of her followers, leaving her alone and powerless. Her second chance with Gene Nation ended worse than the first.
Art by Brandon Badeaux, David Newbold, and Tom Chu
When the mutant race was decimated Marrow was one of the many to lose her gifts. To make matters worse the boney protrusions she had out at the time just stayed out, she had no control over them. She returned to the remains of the Morlock tunnels trying to lead the lost people. She found some hope when Calisto was seemingly repowered by Quicksilver and joined him in Mutant Town alongside her mentor. She was committed to getting her powers back but the reaction all the repowered mutants had to the treatment was enough to dissuade her, for now.
Art by Ramon Bachs, John Lucas, and Art Lyon
Marrow fell of the radar for a while before appearing in the aftermath of the bombing of the city of Alexandria. Cable found her, repowered and deranged, constantly talking to and about someone named Baby. Still he recruited her to join his new X-Force, acting as the army of the mutant nation. Marrow joined the team in their attack on the weaponeer Volga, who was believed to be behind the attacks. Volga had been experimenting with genetic manipulation and using repowered mutants as weapons. X-Force tracked Volga down to make him pay for Alexandria and Marrow viciously tore through his guards coming face to face with the man himself. Volga was calm during the encounter. He told Marrow that she volunteered to be a test subject for him so she could regain her powers. He told her that he warned about what could happen but she wanted to press on anyway. He told her what she had lost, what her second chance had cost her. She was pregnant at the time and her powers cost her the life of her baby. And to make matters worse, her team leader Cable wiped her mind of it to make her a better soldier. Marrow was broken, catatonic, and struggled to come to terms with what she had done. She continued to work with X-Force but she would never, truly be the same again.
Art by Jorge Molina
Must Read
Marrow joined the X-Books when the weight of the 90’s finally began crashing down on itself. You can pin point the drop in quality across the entire line of books to her appearance as well as seeing a resurgence soon after she left the X-Men. What Si Spurrier was able to do with her in X-Force, however, was of the highest quality. He took a character, made the readers hate her for her attitude and personality, and then turned it on its head and made them feel sympathy and disgust in equal measure because of her choices. The entire run is really a dig into the psyches of bad people who are trying to do a good thing. While the art can be a bit spotty this book is well worth digging into for all X-Men fans. It is available on Marvel Unlimited or in three trades.
Art by Jorge Molina
Ranking
I am struggling with the ranking because I honestly dislike Marrow a ton. She came off as so abrasive in her early appearances that I never got round to buying her as a hero. Once she left the X-Men she was just disposable. That X-Force run did a lot to make her a more interesting character but didn’t make her any more likable. I can’t enjoy a character who would selfishly make a chice that would lead to the unintentional death of her child. She risked it all to get back a life that she hated because it was the only time she felt important. Spurrier does a fabulous job on the story but he intentionally made the team unlikable and for Marrow that is just too much to overcome. At least Darwin is someone I can enjoy reading about, because of that Marrow is entering as the new number 18 in the Xavier Files.
Marrow was requested by /u/CaptStiches21 and /u/the-good-son on reddit. Thanks for the request! If YOU have a character you want me to do, leave a comment and I’ll get it added to the list.
Make sure to check out our interview with X-Men ’92 writers Chris Sims and Chad Bowers for more 90’s X-Men awesomeness. Issue #1 is out now!
If you liked what you read be sure to subscribe to the tumblr so you never miss an update. You can also follow me on twitter@Xavierfiles where I throw out my thoughts about the X-Books that come out each week. That’s also where I harass Cullen Bunn and Dennis Hopeless about getting Maggott back into the X-Men books, join in on that fun with #BringBackMaggott! Or like the Facebook page!
Next week we talk about the other side of this story as the Morlock leader Calisto joins the Xavier Files.
Zachary Jenkins co-hosts the podcast Battle of the Atom and is the former editor-in-chief of ComicsXF. Shocking everyone, he has a full and vibrant life outside all this.
