#margali szardos

[teal-bandit]

Bedtime stories

[laughing-screaming]

A conversation that may have happened at some point…

Irene: So anyway, here’s that baby I told you about.

Margali: *accepts tiny baby Kurt* Oh, thank you! He’s beautiful! I will love him and raise him as my own!

Irene: Super. Sounds good. Thanks for the help… Oh, and when he fucks your daughter and kills your son, try not to get too dramatic about it.

Margali: Um, what?

Irene: What?

Margali: You said—

Irene: Oh, nothing. Just the wind. I was clearing my throat. Don’t worry about it. Peace out!

(Irene sprints off into the forest)

[why-i-love-comics]

X-Men: Before the Fall: Sons of X #1 - "Run it Again" (2023)

written by Si Spurrier art by Phil Noto

[evilhorse]

I think we’ll skip the cuddles, Mutti.

[asscrasher]

Margali Szardos is the Princess of Disks (reversed)

Also known as the Page of Pentacles, this card represents the exact opposite of what Margali stands for. Youthfulness and pregnancy (in relation to her adopted son, Nightcrawler), patience, order and sympathy; she’s a natural inversion of the card. The pregnancy association is especially relevant as Margali’s source of magic comes from practicing The Winding Way, an obvious play on the menstrual cycle.

[heckcareoxytwit]

In order to save Nightcrawler, Pixie, Jackie Chopra and Doctor Nemesis who had been held captive by Orchis; the mutants - Legion, Blindfold and Banshee seek help with Mother Righteous even though Legion doesn't trust her. Then, Legion and Mother Righteous set off to Orchis space station where Legion breaks the captives out while Mother Righteous holds Nimrod off by using her magic and talking down to him. The rescue mission goes well for Legion until he encounters Margali who beheads him with a sword before throwing Legion, Doctor Nemesis, Pixie and Jackie Chopra out of the airlock. Margali tries to take back Nightcrawler until Mother Righteous appears and sucks the magic/soul out of Margali. After a brief fight, Mother Righteous brings Legion and the mutants back from the orbit.

X-Men: Before the Fall - Sons of X #1, 2023

[amazing-nightcrawler]

tag drop.

[x-mencomics]

The Uncanny X-Men #177 - Sanction

In an empty amusement park, Mystique fights against the X-Men. She slices Wolverine's throat with a knife and he dies. She stabs Kitty and she dies. In the amusement park's house of mirrors, she uses the mirrors to amplify Cyclops's optic blasts and aim them at Colossus, killing him. Then she strangles Cyclops to death. She changes her costume to one that can absorb Storm's lightning and when Storm predictably strikes Mystique, Mystique absorbs it and redirects it to a nearby fuel truck which explodes, killing Storm. She shoots Rogue with a very powerful gun. Then Nightcrawler shows up. Mystique tries to kill him with that knife, but he teleports away, then punches her, knocking her out cold.

Mystique wakes up. Seems like it was all a dream. Arcade and Miss Locke burst into the room and congratulate Mystique on a job well done against his X-Men robots in Murderworld (see issue #146). Mystique had previously asked Arcade to set up Murderworld as a training ground for her and her Brotherhood to practice fighting against the X-Men. Mystique wants to fight and kill the REAL X-Men and get Rogue back from them.

Meanwhile, at Stevie Hunter's dance studio, Kitty asks Stevie about Storm's new look and attitude. She says Storm has become a total stranger to her. Storm walks in and overhears Kitty, asking if Kitty thinks she's some kind of monster now. Kitty says that compared to what Storm was, maybe so. Kitty walks out of the room. Storm confides in Stevie that she thinks Kitty may be right about her...

In space, on board the Starjammer, Lilandra says goodbye to Charles. He tells her to come back for him some day, and she says she will. In another room on the ship, Alex and Scott say goodbye to their father, Christopher. Charles, Alex, and Scott are beamed back to earth, and Christopher and Lilandra begin their long journey back to the Shi'ar Empire.

Kurt and Amanda, and Kitty and Peter go on a double date to the ballet. While Peter and Kitty go park the car, Kurt and Amanda walk inside. Kurt talks to Amanda about how he wishes he could meet his father like Scott and Alex have. He also recalls meeting Mystique and asking her about a possible connection between himself and her because of how similar they look (see issue #142). Mystique responded that he should ask his mother. Margali Szardos is Amanda's real mother and the woman who raised Kurt. Amanda says all she knows about Kurt's past is that Margali found Kurt on the side of the road when he was just a baby. Amanda suggests they call Margali tomorrow to talk more about it.

Suddenly, there's a huge explosion in a nearby building. Peter transforms into Colossus, yells for Kitty to call the Fire Dept, and rushes into the building. He wants to save anyone who's inside. But the building seems completely abandoned. Until the Blob shows up.

The Blob says the explosion was a trap to get the X-Men to come inside the building. The Blob punches Colossus and he goes flying. Then Pyro appears and starts burning Colossus with his fire powers. At first Colossus seems fine, but then the flames get hotter and hotter. Colossus turns red; then white-hot. Pyro makes a giant bird out of flames which carries Colossus out of the building and into a nearby construction zone. The flame-bird disappears, but Avalanche is waiting there in the construction zone. Avalanche uses his powers to make a liquid nitrogen trucks explode, and Colossus is covered with the liquid nitrogen. Kitty rushes to the construction zone and finds Colossus. The liquid nitrogen has turned him to stone!

[possessionisamyth]

learning more about margali and marvel is so fucking stupid for giving kurt 2 evil moms

itd be way funnier if she was still evil but continued to love her children with all her heart, so like, when theres an evil team up with her involved this makes the xmen specifically send kurt so that when he gets hurt margali would safety bubble him and then blow the whole building up

[scarlet--wiccan]

Avengers #57 was not only failure, but a refusal to represent vital Romani history in spite of the identities-- and stereotypes-- it invoked.

As Jason Aaron’s Avengers expands the history and mythology of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, readers have been introduced to several new characters from several different time periods. Issue #57 introduced us to Sergeant Sebastian Szardos, an American military officer who had a brief tenure as Earth’s Sorcerer Supreme during World War II. Sebastian is a distant relative of Margali Szardos, who most readers will remember as Nightcrawler’s adoptive mother. The Szardos family are, notably, Romani, and like most Romani characters in superhero comics, they have deep ties to witchcraft and mysticism.

Sebastian makes frequent reference to his Romani ancestry, but rather than identifying as Roma, Rom, or even g*psy, he simply claims to have “witch blood.” What’s more, the character is fighting literal German Nazis, but the comic makes no mention of the fact that the Nazis actively attempted to commit genocide against the Romani people during the Holocaust-- something which should color Sebastian’s viewpoints and motives regarding the war.

Why does this matter? For one thing, the Szardos family already have a number of racially charged, problematic elements in their narrative, so doubling down on these exaggerated stereotypes is not a great look. More importantly, however, Holocaust distortion and the erasure of Romani history are serious, ongoing problems in the real world that still cause actual harm today.

Romani people are constantly being written out of Holocaust and WWII history. The European Romani population was targeted for ethnic cleansing, interned, and executed in camps. Families, like mine, were separated and many had to go into hiding. We suffered enormous losses, but you almost never hear about it in history books, memorials, or even present day news coverage. [compare this article vs this one] In the UK, recent legislation has all but outlawed Traveler and Romani ways of life, but the majority population fails to understand that we are a marginalized and oppressed community. History refuses to name and acknowledge anti-Roma racism, and historical narratives refuse to give voice to Roma who were present and suffering during pivotal moments such as the Holocaust.

Margali Szardos, who first appeared in 1980′s X-Men Annual #4, was a single mother who was able to raise three children by working as a fortune teller. She’s also a practicing witch.That, in and of itself, is not an unrealistic story. Fortune telling has, historically, served as a survival-based trade for Romani families, especially women who were unable to seek more conventional jobs. Witchcraft and folk medicine fall into a similar category, and so Romani witch characters like Margali are not necessarily false or offensive. The problem here is that Margali wasn’t written as a Romani woman with an authentic witchcraft background-- she was written as a witch whose Romani background serves only to add exotic flavor to her story. When you add the fact that Margali is often morally bankrupt, and there’s a lot of weird colorism happening with her biological kids, the material poses a lot of problems that no writer has ever really tried to fix.

[teal-bandit]

Do not touch him

[eggbagelz]

thoughts and prayers for margali it's bathtime for kurt

[why-i-love-comics]

Legion of X #9 - "A Voice in the Wilderness" (2023)

written by Si Spurrier art by Netho Diaz, Sean Parsons, Alvaro Lopez, & Java Tartaglia

[evilhorse]

I am the dragon of intellect!

[comicwaren]

“The only real challenge we face, my lovelies, is this: Are you willing to put your faith in me?” -- Mother Righteous

Cover art for X-Men: Before the Fall - Sons of X #001, “Run It Again”

Art by Phil Noto

[proxy616]

Legion of x#10 Margali using her magic to turn Kurt’s own humanity against him.