Marauders vol. 3

The previous volume ended with the resurrection of Kate Pryde and her determination to make Sebastian Shaw pay for killing her in the first place.  She may have had to put that on the back burner for a bit — what with the interdimensional competition for the fate of Krakoa and Earth that went on between volumes — but vol. 3 starts off with her, Emma Frost, and one other aggrieved party getting the payback they so richly deserve.  Then it’s off to the North Atlantic for a token tie-in to the “King in Black” event, a trip back to Madripoor to settle things with the Hellfire Brats, and then dinner on a galleon as the series sees one of its own off onto bigger and better things.

“Marauders” has always been one of the most enjoyable titles of this current era of “X-Men” and writer Gerry Duggan keeps things ticking over quite well here.  Initially, anyway.  That opening issue where scores are settled is easily the best one in the volume as it represents the culmination of two volumes worth of setup.  It’s also damn satisfying to see Shaw get what’s coming to him after that.  What follows could best be described as “business as usual” for this series.  The “King in Black” issue is basically filler that tries to distinguish itself by putting positive spin on human/mutant relations at the end.  As for the Madripoor-based issues, they  offer up some villains who represent an interesting problem with Krakoa’s “Kill no Man” law while staying within the bounds of the series’ established formula.

The final issue does do a good job of paying tribute to the character it’s centered around, which allows vol. 3 to go out on a high note.  This third volume also maintains the same standard of quality, art-wise, as Matteo Lolli and Stefano Caselli again illustrated all of the issues.  All of this means that there’s still a lot to like about this third volume.  It’s just that I didn’t expect “Marauders” to settle into a comfortable formula so quickly.  Maybe it’s for the best that vol. 4 represents either the end of the series or the last one written by Duggan.