Marauders vol. 1
Even if it wasn’t that great, Gerry Duggan’s “Infinity Wars” event and tie-ins at least showed me that I didn’t have to fear reading something from the writer. Not after he drove my interest in reading his further adventures of “Deadpool” into the ground all those years ago. Now he’s part of the “Dawn of X” initiative, writing about the adventures of Captain Kate Pryde and her crew as they advance the mutant agenda on the high seas. Even better is how Duggan has delivered a genuinely fun and surprising storyline that exceeded my expectations.
The Hellfire Trading Company is mutantdom’s business face as it controls the pricing, trading, and shipping of the drugs that provide numerous benefits like extended life to humans. Emma Frost is the Company’s White Queen and public face, while Sebastian Shaw is its Black King and the face of the black market. While it will surprise no one to learn that the two of them are constantly at odds, Emma’s latest recruit into the Company is certainly unexpected: Kate Pryde — “Kitty” if you haven’t kicked yourself of the habit of calling her that yet.
Kate is unique amongst all mutants. Unique in the sense that she’s the only one who can’t use Krakoa’s teleportation gates. Nobody knows why, but this has led her to want to lead a life off of the island. This makes her perfect to play the role of enforcer for the Company, along with fellow mutants Storm, Iceman, Bishop, and Pyro. It’s their job to help out mutants in countries that aren’t open to Krakoa and to make sure the mutant drugs get where they need to go. Even if Sebastian has other ideas.
“Marauders” is best described as a high adventure romp over the open seas. Kate may be bitter about Krakoa’s “rejection” of her, but she’s not going to let it get her down. It’s fun to see her dive into the role of mutant liberator in a way that still feels true to her positive mindset, even we get to see a more ruthless side of her than usual. While it’s always nice to see Iceman, Storm, and Bishop, they don’t get a whole heck of a lot to do besides play backup for the Kate Pryde Show. Pyro at least gets to have fun as the wacky loose cannon, but Kate’s show is the main attraction here and a lot of fun to watch.
While it’s nice to see her star turn work out this well, I really wasn’t expecting Duggan to make Sebastian Shaw more interesting than he has been in years. Though his High Society/Old School schtick has made him a reliably hateable villain over the years, he really doesn’t have more than that and his power absorption mutation to recommend him. Here, Duggan actually makes him into an interesting villain by showing us the work he puts into his schemes to take over the Company.
Seeing him put under Emma’s thumb in the second issue gives him a genuine motivation for wanting to take her and Kate down beyond just simple villainy. Then we see him trying to win back his newly-resurrected son Shinobi by showing him around this brave new world, and telling him one little lie about his death. A death I was surprised to see worked rather organically into this story, and in a way that actually showed Sebastian to be capable of empathy. So when he finally makes his move at the end of the volume, it feels like the culmination of his arc rather than something forced by the dictates of the plot.
I will say that the culmination of Sebastian’s arc here does have the potential to kneecap the series, given how it involves taking one of its key players off the board. It’s a ballsy move by Duggan, who I have to believe has some larger plan in store for this series. He does set up some plot points that aren’t resolved here: The mystery of Kate’s rejection, new old villains Homnes Virendi and the consequences of Sebastian’s ambitions. It doesn’t bother me that there are all these threads left hanging, as the general storytelling here was quite strong.
If only it looked better. The art in “Marauders” is generally fine, but it’s not on the same level as the writing. Part of that is because there’s a variety of artists on board this issue: Ostensible main artist Matteo Lolli illustrates the first two and parts of five and six, Michelle Bandini does issue three, Lucas Wernick handles issue four and part of five, while Mario Del Pennio does the parts of issue six that Lolli doesn’t. They’re all capable storytellers and most are good with the comic timing that the writing asks them to display. It’s just that there’s very little flash or style to the art here, which is a shame.
Even if the art isn’t quite up to snuff, the writing really makes “Marauders” worthwhile. It feels strange to type that given the most I’ve written about Duggan over the years has involved expressing skepticism over his talents. His work here is a big step back in the right direction, and it might even get me to check out his creator-owned work if the quality here wasn’t a fluke.