Marauders vol. 4

This was the breakout book amongst the first batch of “Dawn of X” series and the quality continued through vol. 2.  Vol. 3 was still fun, but it felt like things had settled into a “business as usual” kind of phase after Kitty Pryde’s resurrection had been addressed and Sebastian Shaw’s duplicity was dealt with.  Vol. 4 doesn’t turn things around.  It’s really kind of a lame duck volume post-”Hellfire Gala” as writer Gerry Duggan wraps up his run, tees up Steve Orlando’s, and migrates himself over to “X-Men.”  The good news is that the writer does have some fun with things as he closes the door on this chapter of the Marauders’ adventures.

We start off with “The Morning After” which immediately positions itself as a post-event stock-taking issue, but is actually setting up two plot threads that will run through the rest of the volume.  The more significant of these involves Shaw getting some answers regarding the possibility of resurrecting his wife, Lourdes Chantal.  This is something that isn’t going to happen, but not for the reasons he thinks.  Emma explains it to him in a flashback retcon that features some appreciably chunky and detailed art from Klaus Janson.  It’s a smooth enough retcon, though I get the feeling that Duggan is indulging himself in bringing back what feels like a relatively minor character.

I still think that this fares better than the other character he decides to do some salvage work on in this issue.  Post-”Gala,” Wilhelmina Kensington of Verendi (but they’ll always be the Hellfire Brats to me) is a girl with a broken mind courtesy of the Stepford Cuckoos.  Realizing that they’ve left a job half-finished, they go to work on turning who was once the most brazenly deranged of the group back into a normal girl by showing us how she got that way in the first place.  This eventually leads to the writer attempting to give the girl a happy ending in the Marvel Universe, which may work because she’s so normal now that I can’t think of a reason anyone would want to write her back in.

This is followed up by “Time for Tempo,” a one-off story that doesn’t spotlight the title character as much as you’d think.  Sure, her power of temporal acceleration/deceleration plays a key part in the climax of this issue, but just as much time is given over in the opening pages to Banshee as he finds himself trying to broker peace between rival Irish and Russian gangs.  This is before the Reavers show up.  Character focus aside, it’s still a breezily fun affair with some good one-liners, and decent art from Ivan Fiorelli.

Next is a two-part story, “Date Night” & “Night of the Comet” where the team takes a trip to Arakko (the planet formerly known as Mars) after Emma Frost gets word that a particularly obnoxious alien has been making trouble and throwing her name about in the process.  This alien turns out to be one Eden Rixlo, who I’ve never heard of before, but I’m guessing is someone Duggan created or dug up during his time on “Guardians of the Galaxy.”  What follows is at first a casual business dealing between rogues (which naturally involves a fistfight and an explosive) before turning into a fight for survival.  The latter part is the most fun as we get to see some creative uses of mutant powers to survive the vacuum of space.  I doubt this story will have any lasting consequences either, but there’s creativity to the writing, quality dialogue, and some nicely detailed art from Phil Noto.

“Many Happy Returns” only involves one such return, and that would be Harry Leland.  He was one of the original members of the Hellfire Club before being killed by Nimrod some years later.  Now he’s back and, after being re-acclimated to modern society by Emma and Sebastian, he’s ready to do his part for Krakoa.  Leland makes for an avuncular, appealing presence and his interactions with Sebastian, and especially Shinobi, are great fun.  The B-plot to this issue is similarly entertaining as it’s just a big brawl between Iceman and Fin Fang Foom.  Yes, it’s another story where Iceman explores the upper limits of his power, but it’s one where he fights a giant fire-breathing dragon along the way, and that counts for a lot.

That issue was illustrated by original “Marauders” artist Matteo Lolli and it’s clear that he was having a blast drawing that B-plot.  Lolli returns with Noto to illustrate the final issue in this collection as Emma and Sebastian are set up for their roles in “Immortal X-Men,”  the team pulls another fast one on Verendi, Iceman fights some frost giants, and Kitty has another go at solving her problem with the gates.  Given how none of the previous issues in this collection were building towards anything, it’s kind of impressive how much closure Duggan is able to summon with the transitions here.  Emma’s scenes feel the most like the writer is drawing a line underneath his run, but the sense of fun that has pervaded the previous issues remains here.

Duggan’s “Marauders” was a series that thrived on mutants enjoying themselves while they worked to make the world a better place on their own terms.  It was at its best when it had an overarching story to tell, yet it was never less than entertaining when it didn’t.  I’ll be checking out Orlando’s take on the series to see if he can summon the same kind of fun that was present in this one, though I’m not going to have to go far to see what kind of mutant-related stories Duggan has in store for us.  Not far at all…