The Marvel Secret Wars brings amazing Egyptian themed X-Men and Moon Knight
A few months ago, I shared with you some thoughts about the possibilities of Marvel Secret War’s EGYPTIA. It reminded me of Avengers Forever #11-12 with some of the Egyptian Avengers in the group montage. This is no doubt characters from the New Warriors three-parter, Forever Yesterday. But with the Secret Wars upon us, no story is off limits and we’re bound to find things we like in this mega-homage to everything Marvel has done for the last 50 years or so. What we got a look at just yesterday was some of the preliminary artwork and notes for this part of the epic story.
Luca Pizzari’s Egyptian motif is one of the most completely well thought out designs I have ever seen. His work mixes what we love about the characters with a complete emersion in the cool world of ancient Egypt. We see what would happen if Egypt was truly the foundation of our past, present and future.
To begin with, his venture into this alternate reality would not be complete with his take on the Moon Knight. Khonshu, the personification of vengeance, plays heavily in his Secret Wars Journal #2 story line. As far as I can tell, this Egyptian god has not ever been portrayed as female, but, as you can see by the designs, it works well. Pizzari went with the darkest ebony skin with white armor to ‘reflect’ the Moon theme. And you can’t go far in a story about Khonshu without running into a version of the Moon Knight. And the greatest servant of Egyptian Vengeance was Mark Spector. Only he’s given a different look and surprising new twist. Considering they share the moon as a strong part of their story, it shouldn’t be a surprise that someone would make Spector a werewolf. And, by the pics shown, he’s a werewolf mummy. Definitely a cool rendition and homage to the old WEREWOLF AT NIGHT comics from the seventies. All of this wrapped in the clothing, weaponry and jewelry of ancient Egypt.
But the real center piece of these drawings are his Egyptian renditions of the X-Men. I should have seen this coming, really. I wonder if they will play off the old story from New Warriors #11-13 where the cosmic villain, The Sphinx, had turned the world into a ‘what if Egypt ruled?’ and developed his own Egyptian Avengers to do his bidding. The designs were cool and the story was interesting. The problem was that Sphinx and his Avengers were pitted against the Mutant Liberation Front led by Magneto who is strangely absent from these designs. Possibly these drawings show the resistance the way it should have been shown in the first place. Everything is steeped in the look of ancient Egypt and their neighbors. As you can see, other African peoples are shown; especially ‘Nubians’ which gives us new looks at Shadowcat, Colossus, Gambit, Havok, Emma Frost, Blindside, Wolverine, Archangel, Sabertooth and, even, Sebastian Shaw (referred in the pic as the Sentinel).
Things of note:
1. Gambit 'merged' with Mr. Sinister.
2. Archangel with mummy wrapped wings due to a past injury.
3. Archangel also has the same markings on his face as Apocalypse and it is suggested that his injuries are due to a confrontation with him.
4. The guards pay homage to Sebastian Shaw and clothing is a mix of old school sentinels with Egyptian themes.
5. There is discussion of making the Shaw/Sentinel not a mutant, but more like Ahab. Hmm, Interesting.
6. Nightcrawler's looks nod to the classic, but his proportions are more beastlike.
7. The markings on Nightcrawler's body are Central African tribal scarifications instead of Christian.
8. Colossus bears a 'Russhkie' handlebar moustache.
9. Also, check out the page excerpt for a mutant game of 'Where's Waldo' with 30 mutants hiding in the crowd. I know i saw Bishop and, maybe Deadpool. See how many you can find and comment them below!
In conclusion, I wonder if these nods and design homages to Apocalypse will lead to a confrontation with him. Personally, that seems likely seeing that next door is the ‘Realm of Apocalypse’. This leaves one question. Is the Sphinx still around? Could be some awesome fireworks, to say the least!
