Ahoy, muties - the X-Men sail at dawn! Mutantkind has begun a glorious new era on Krakoa, but some nations’ human authorities are preventing mutants from escaping to this new homeland. Which is where Captain Kate Pryde and her high-seas allies come in! Funded by Emma Frost and the Hellfire Trading Company, Kate and her crew of Storm, Pyro, Bishop and Iceman sail the seven seas to liberate their fellow mutants - as the Marauders! But the real cutthroats are back home in the Hellfire Club’s Inner Circle, where Sebastian Shaw has recruited a new Black Bishop to aid in his machinations against the Club’s two queens. As tensions rise, Kate’s crew finds itself caught in the dead center of the Battle of Madripoor! Can the Marauders avoid being made to walk the plank?
This was good! Kitty Pryde...Kate? Kate Pryde can't use the gates to get access to the mutant island Krakatoa. So, Emma Frost uses this little glitch in the system to get Kitty Kate to head up the Marauders - and some other spoilery stuff.
Anyway, she and Storm, Iceman, Pyro and...some other folks...head out to rescue mutants and get the new medicines out to the black market dealers. The story makes more sense than I do, I swear.
This one was suggested to me as one of the really good new X-comics by some trusted friends, and they were not wrong. Which kind of surprised me (even though they're normally right!) because I've never read a Marauder comic in my life. And it looked kinda dumb. In my head, I was thinking, Great. X-men. But on a boat! So, pirates? That'll be fun. Pffft., but dammed if it didn't have a great plot! And I'm not going to spoil it. But if you're liking the main X-men title by Hickman and wondering if you should branch out? <--Yes! Do it!
This is definitely my favorite of the Dawn of X titles outside of X-Men. All the interplay and backstabbing with Emma Frost and Sebastian Shaw is fantastic. Plus Kate Pryde! She's my favorite X-Man along with Nightcrawler and making her a pirate is a whole lot of fun. Speaking of Nightcrawler, how can you have a pirate X-Men title without the original swashbuckling blue elf? The art's a bit pedestrian but c'est la vie.
Kitty Pryde can’t use the Krakoan portals for Contrived Reasons and has to boat it if she wants to go to the X-Men’s latest not-at-all-creepy-cult-like hideaway. But then Emma Frost proposes she become a pirate captain because something something trade price drugs black market something something whatever doesn’t really matter and now she’s head of a new group called the Marauders!
Arr, it blows! What all that nonsensical preamble amounts to is Kitty and co. sailing everywhere and fighting one-dimensional mutant baddies while Sebastian Shaw and Emma Frost talk obtusely in chess terms about stuff - Black King, Red Bishop, Red Queen, etc. So basically Marauders is your average crap X-Men comic with added Hickman-esque pretensions.
Joining Kitty are Storm, Pyro, Iceman and Bishop, all characters I couldn’t care less about, while the B-story is about Shaw’s dreary political maneuverings to do something villain-y for more Contrived Reasons. The story’s vague at best and what does happen is unremarkable - Marauders, Volume 1 is such a boring read and I didn’t care about any of it.
"If you're a mutant, and can't get to Krakoa . . . then the MARAUDERS will bring you home!" -- Kate (don't you dare call her 'Kitty') Pryde, striking a perfect freeze-frame pose with her ready-made tagline
A graphic novel headlined by the X-Men alumnae formerly known as Sprite, Shadowcat, and/or Kitty Pryde? Sign me up, forthwith! The tough but tender Ms. Pryde always been one of my favorite 'X' stars - I think she's simply a good audience surrogate of sorts - and here she teams up with 'X' colleagues Storm, Nightcrawler, Ice-Man, and Pyro to form an impromptu rescue squad (their mission: spanning the globe to escort any harassed or persecuted mutant to the safe harbor of Krakoa, a mythical island hidden somewhere in the Pacific) with the dramatic action/adventure romp Marauders. It was the kind of fun, involving and occasionally off-the-wall type of graphic novel - enough fight scenes, humorous moments, and soap-operatic scheming that it skillfully goes back and forth from slightly silly to deadly serious with surprising ease - that I needed at this moment.
I have to be honest, I've kinda grown tired of the whole Dawn of X thing by this point. Most series feel like a chore for me to read every week, there is no spark of inspiration that I felt when all the #1s were coming out. I mean, if you count 'em all, Hickman's X-Men reboot comics and spinoffs are close to 50 total issues already, which is more than most comic runs get in their lifetime, and they're only just finishing off their debut story arcs. I get the feeling that the only title that I will stick with regularly will be the X-Men proper past this point, and I will occasionally check out a trade of this or that spin-off if I feel like it.
Still, I'd say Marauders itself is the best non-Hickman book of the bunch. It's got Kate Pryde (aka the best X-character) as a lead, and Duggan writes her so well. The silent rivalry between her and Sebastian Shaw is intriguing and will no doubt result in some explosive confrontations down the line. The rest of it though... There is nowhere near enough focus on other members of this team, and the overall plot past the Pryde/Shaw conflict is very vague. As a result this book reads a bit like filler material, just like pretty much every other Dawn of X title by now.
I don't know, man. Maybe launching six new titles for a line that comes out every week is not the best move to keep the audience engaged. After reading almost 40 issues of Dawn of X without any of the stories really taking off I mostly feel exhausted and fed up, and the initial triumph of HoxPox is but a distant dream...
Urban swashbuckling X-Men, Marauders are basically the underground team in charge of negotiating the new X-Drugs, a team lead by Emma Frost and Sebastian Shaw, with a rebellious Kitty Pride as captain, a promiscuous Iceman, a new somewhat friendly Pyro, and Storm, the babysitter. Pure entertainment, awesome art, it ends with a shocker.
Kitty, now Kate Pryde is unable to enter Krakoa via the Gates! She ends up becoming captain of the crew and boat, the Marauders with the likes of Pyro, Storm, Iceman and Bishop! In a book that thinks it's way cleverer than it is, and has a rather droll and forced maturing of 'Kate' Pryde has just enough Hellfire Clue and Emma Frost appearances to make it readable. 6.5 out of 12. On the bright side there's always Lockheed!
Well, the rot that has set in over in the core X-Men books is clearly not confined to them. Despite this one not being scribed by Hickman, you still get more of the same crap: information dumps, bad graphic design, characters acting completely out-of-character, heroes acting more like the villains they used to fight.
I mean, honestly... What the holy Hell is this shit?!
The only thing I like about these books is the artwork, which is of a pretty high standard throughout.
It seems to be working for Marvel, though, as I seem to be the only dissenting voice.
Marauders is easily the best X-Men book right now besides X-men main flagship title.
As stated in my issue reviews, this is mostly about Kitty becoming a badass leader. Forget the name kitty, she now goes by kate, and she's ready to kick some ass. With that she starts a crew of X-Men to help save and protect other mutants. With storm and iceman and a few others you have a team ready to do just that. However, behind the scenes you have Kate working with Emma on a plan while Shaw, a piece of shit, is working against Kate/Emma. Who will come out on top?
The thing that makes this title fun is Kate but also the classic X-men feel. Saving other mutants, having a grand adventure, and all the fun plotting in the background. It helps the art is solid and there's some great fight scenes, and showcase of people's powers. I also enjoyed the side cast and Storm gets to shine big time. Shaw is a piece of shit so he is entertaining but when it just focuses on him he is the least interesting part of the series.
overall, some great stuff. This is one I plan on reading single issues till they stop. A 4 out of 5.
Essentially X-Men meet One Piece and Pirates of the Caribbean with Kitty Kate Pryde playing Jack Sparrow... Captain Jack Sparrow.
The ending and Emma's interactions with Katherine and Shaw where ☆☆☆☆☆ ones, but storyline was a real mixed bag for me, besides overmentioned characters mostly of the Marauders crew and villains were far from being interesting ones, and you just can't release a swashbuckling mutant pirares title and keep out good old Nightcrawler from its main cast.
Still a good read, but I think it could have been a far better one.
As Gerry Duggan is the current mainline X-Men writer, I thought I’d go back and read his original Dawn of X series Marauders.
About Kate Pryde being a sort of pirate, it does have his signature sense of humor. And as this era goes, it’s very much about politics and society.
Not necessarily the most crucial of the various X-titles to read, but it adds well to the world that was built by Hickman. Still, it’s perfectly fine to just read the main title and not go so deep into this particular cast of characters.
Kitty cannot reach Krakoa so she travels by ship before she decides to become a mutant rescuing pirate and they fight Russians and rescue mutants on Brazil before coming to Taiwan and fighting a politician who hates mutants. Then going to Madripoor and fighting X-Cutioner and Yellowjacket sort of. Then there is something with the Red Queen and the new Hominus Verendi led by Kilgore in the background. Shady deals. Secret villains. A whole lot of conspiracy.
Its weird and bad and boring and bland. Some portions are good and the art is clean but its just so boring reading it. Its meh. Skip it.
SUPER FAST REVIEW: “Wear a sheet and get beat, ya racist clowns!” Pirates and X-Men mix? Okay, then... So right away I’m gonna say I really like the artwork. There’s also some bad-ass action scenes and a fairly interesting plot mixing superheroes, business themed drama and pirate adventure- quite the interesting, unexpected mix. Oh and the ending made the next volume get it’s place in my reading list. Unfortunately I didn’t care as much about these renditions of the characters (Half of Kitty’s character is dedicated to “I’m Kate now” to the point that it’s mildly annoying and Pyro has one of the worst face tattoos I’ve seen on a comic character since Jared Leto played the Joker). The dialogue was a little “ehhh” and aside from that line I put at the beginning of the review, some of the political commentary towards the end was executed in a kinda cringe way (Oh one of the bad guys is a rich racist with blonde hair and a red tie named Donald, gee I bet that took a lot of creativity...) like I don’t mind political commentary or even like Trump but holy fuck, I would hope you can do better than that (EDIT: In the comments someone reminded me that Donald Pierce is an older villain I somehow forgot, though still notable he did have some bad guys with him who yelled “Humanity first” and he isn’t usually wearing a red tie so I think they made him more Trumpy on purpose). Oh, also once again, didn’t like my comic being interrupted by prose pages and graphs. So yeah, I’m not crazy about it but I didn’t dislike it. I hope volume 2 is better because I do usually like the characters featured and know Duggan can write a pretty fun comic. If you think X-Pirates sounds cool, it’s worth a shot.
Dawn Of X as a linewide X-Men event is interesting. Powers Of X and House Of X had such a unique feel to them, I was worried that a) the X-Men books wouldn't be able to live up to that feeling, and b) all of the books wouldn't be able to establish their own identities. Of those I've reviewed already, X-Men and New Mutants were both by Jonathan Hickman, so they're almost exempt from both of those, so Marauders is the first one that might have problems.
I'm happy to report however, that it absolutely does not. Marauders focuses on Kitty Pryde, now going by Kate, and her motley crew of pirates as they sail around the world rescuing mutants who can't make it to the Krakoan gates for some reason or another. Kate herself can't use the gates, because they don't accept her, which is a mystery in and off itself. Marauders becomes the political book of the line, even moreso than X-Men itself, as the machinations of Emma Frost and Sebastian Shaw drive the series, as well as yet another mutant hate group led by the young Hellfire Club. These first five issues establish the status quo, and then upend it entirely by the final issue, which I'd call a successful first arc, as Gerry Duggan digs into Kate's psyche while maneuvering the other X-Men books around her.
Matteo Lolli's the main artist, with a few others chipping in nearer the end of the six issue run. This is probably the only place Marauders falls down, because the art's kind of pedestrian. When you compare it to the artists on the other X-Books right now, it definitely feels far too straight forward for it's own good. When you've got each book carving out a visual identity for themselves as well as a story based one, it's a glaring fault when one book doesn't quite manage it.
Marauders is probably one of my favourite non-Hickman X-books right now, up there with Excalibur. The intrigue and world building is top notch, as is the character work for the main few characters, but the art definitely lets it down. It's not bad, it just doesn't stand up to its peers in the rest of the line quite as well as it should.
This was a lot more fun than I was expecting, though there's some serious questions raised about Kitty - sorry - Kate Pryde's judgement and mental well-being.
Honey, are you...are you OK?
Duggan does a good job of keeping the surface action bubbly and carefree while ratcheting up the tensions behind the scenes, bringing things to a head at the end of the final issue in the collection.
This title doesn't seem to be "essential" out of all the new Dawn of X books, but it's a damn good bit of fun. Kitty Pryde, or Kate as she now prefers to be called, can't go through the portal gates of the new island nation of Krakoa for reasons that have yet to be discovered. So she ends up taking a gig Emma Frost offers with the Hellfire Club, becoming the new Red Queen and sailing around the world, delivering Krakoa's life-improving drugs and collecting mutant refugees who can't access their nearest gate for one reason or another.
Kate Pryde is such a delightful character, and Gerry Duggan really captures all of the best parts of her personality quite well. She recruits a crew of Storm, Iceman, Pyro (yes, the classic villain!), and Bishop and sets sail. I particularly enjoyed all of Kate's attempts to recruit Bishop as her Red Bishop in the Hellfire Club, and his resistance to the idea. Making Lucas Bishop a real Bishop is a little too on the nose, as he tells her. Of course, any story involving the Hellfire Club would not be complete without plenty of inner turmoil, scheming, and backstabbing. And there's plenty of that as White Queen Emma Frost and Black King Sebastian Shaw constantly plot against each other.
If I have one complaint about the book, it's that, so far the new villainous group Homines Verendi hardly seems like much of a threat. They have the resources to hire real threats (though the thugs they've recruited so far are C-list at absolute best), but the fact that they The first arc ends on a wonderful cliffhanger and I look forward to seeing how it resolves.
There were quite a number of different artists on this book, and I applaud the editorial staff on the X-books for hiring artists whose styles were similar enough that the change-ups were noticeable but not at all jarring while reading the issues back to back. If they are going to swap out artists to keep the books coming out on time, that kind of consistency is greatly appreciated.
Could you skip this book and still follow the main plot threads of the Dawn of X relaunch? Certainly, but by doing so you'd be missing out on a really enjoyable voyage. As long as the book delivers this kind of fun (and the scheming, oh, the scheming), I plan to stick around for a while.
One of the stronger series that was born from the recent X-Men rebirth. This story focuses on Kate Pryde who, unfortunately, runs into a problem as she attempts to enter Krakoa and is thus led to becoming a pirate captain to a crew that vows to save mutants. The Marauders aren't without their own enemies with the arrival of Sebastian Shaw. With excellent artwork, there's something truly appealing to how this story is told and developed.
Ok, so Kate Pryde, (Kitty) can’t get through the portal to Krakoa, so she sails there. But what if she’s not the only one who can’t get through? What if government troops are blocking the way to get to the land where mutants can be free. What will they do? That’s when the Marauders are formed. With, Captain Kate guiding them no mutant will be left behind!
Good setup, right?
I really enjoyed this, BUT there was a couple things that bothered me. Just like PoX/HoX, there are these huge pages of just text. I mean for goodness sakes I’m reading a graphic novel, there has to be a better way to convey this information. There wasn’t as much compared to PoX/HoX, But it’s still there. And with this big text it just makes it more confusing for me. Now there’s this whole thing with Black bishops and White bishops and stuff which is all conveyed through text. Which FOR ME made it more hard to understand.
Now, I loved the characters in this. I loved all of there personalities and the team has a lot of chemistry together.
I’m planning on reading some older x men titles, but when I finish that I will probably come back to this series.
Wow, qué horrible final, la verdad no lo vi venir, espero desde luego pronto los siguientes números. Bueno creo que ha sido muy buena idea juntar a Kitty Pryde (Kate a partir de ahora) y a Emma Frost. Ésta que está a cargo del Hellfire Club como Reina Blanca comparte con el temible Sebastian Shaw (el rey Negro) y consigue un cupo vacante para el Rey Rojo que es propuesto a Kate. La relación de ambas ha sido y es compleja y aunque suene bastante disparatado el cómic creo que su dinámica es lo que más me ha gustado. En efecto vemos a Kate convertida en una pirata a bordo de un barco multipropósito y formando un grupo llamado Marauders al cual reclutará a Storm (quien no está a gusto por estar en algo organizado por Emma), Icema, Pyro y Bishop. Claro, ellos se unen más por cariño a Kate que por compartir sus planes. Sin embargo Kate tuvo esta decisión a raíz de no ser aceptada por Krakoa el nuevo hogar de los mutantes quien por razones extrañas no la acepta en su isla. Su objetivo es reclutar a los mutantes que no pueden llegar a Krakoa paseando en su gran barco.
This is my first Dawn of X book since HOX/POX, and it's out of order but I don't care - Kate Pryde's the lead and that means it's the top of my pile. This is a fun romp that makes Kate the captain of the Marauders, keeping the shipping lanes open for Hellfire Club and rescuing mutants from hostile countries (though why she can't get into Krakoa is convoluted and not explained - hopefully a setup for Hickman's long game). This Kate is a bit rough around the edges, more drunk and tattooed, but frankly I love it. She's joined by some favorites including Iceman, Storm, and a hilarious OG Pyro. I don't care much for Sebastian Shaw, the art is run of the mill and the page-long prose excerpts are annoying AF...but I'm enjoying this.
UPDATED REVIEW going down from 4 to 2 stars. Because even though Kate it STILL really sucks, because Maybe someday the writers and Marvel execs will be brave enough to look back to
Out of all x-books (first volumes) of krakoa era this was my favorite because it was so fun to read and this book made me reconnect with a character I didn't particularly care: Kate Pryde
The dynamic of the team is very good and some get to have some epic and badass moments. I never thought i would have seen Emma and Kate actually become friends and they just work so well together !!
(Spoilers) And on the latest issue we have Sebastian Shaw who absolutely wants his son to be the red king (which is currently taken by Kate) so he traps the team and Kate finds herself all on her own and this left by a big cliffhanger of whether Kate will survive to sebastian's attack.
I honestly feel like this book was made for me, it features my top two favorite X-men Storm and Emma Frost as well as Gerry Duggan who is one of my favorite comic writers. The story mostly follows Kitty (Kate?) Pryde who for some reason can’t enter Krakoa through the gates, this seems like the big mystery that’s being set up for this series. Kitty (Kate?) with the help of the Hellfire trading company sets up a crew of mutants calling themselves the Marauders to help rescue other mutants as well as help the hellfire trading club out. The characters are all written great, I especially love Kitty (Kate?) and Emma. I’m a huge fan of the way Kitty (Kate?) My only complaint for the characters is that the other members of the Marauders especially Storm and Iceman, just seem like footnotes to Kitty (Kate?). The best part of Marauders was the stuff with the Hellfire trading company, I loved watching all the politics and backstabbing that goes on it’s quite entertaining to read and makes the story really engaging. I also loved watching Emma be an absolute boss and take charge of everything. My only issue with the plot would be that the pacing could be off at some points, but overall it’s a really solid story that is definitely worth a read.
3.5 stars, I have mixed feelings about Vol. 1 of Marauders, and Marvel’s whole approach to the Dawn of X in general. There is no shortage of X titles to choose from, and with many more coming I am looking to keep up on the ones I like the most. But aside from a strong #1 & #6, this title is sort of middle of the road for me. Kate Pryde is really well done, but as a whole this has mostly been 6 issues about turmoil surrounding mutant pharmaceutical companies and krakoan gatekeepers. The writing and characters are solid and aside from Pyro’s stupid face tattoo this was a pretty good intro.
As for Marauders going forward, I am unsure if it will stand out in a market that already was over saturated and is soon to be absolutely flooded with X titles.
Starts like a pirate kiddie book before turning into a power play within the former Hellfire club. Eh, why not? The Marauders as endangered mutants smugglers and Sebastian Shaw vying for power is fine by me. No, what upset me was characters out of... character. First Pyro acts like he’s twelve. So far it’s annoying but not unacceptable. My problem is with Storm and Kitty and the level of violence they both use, seemingly incompatible with their original personalities. Characters can change through time, I get it, but so radically and from out of the blue? Hardly. The rugrats from the junior Hellfire club (Kilgore, Frankenstein, Kensington, Enduque) didn’t help me appreciate the book one tiny bit. I’ve always found the idea of these pre-teen geniuses and psychopaths totally ridiculous. I’ll add that Duggan’s plot seems somewhat flimsy and doesn’t inspire much confidence in the long term.
Fun with Kate the Pirate. Oh right, all of a sudden she hates been called Kitty after Oh I don't know, a gazillion years of being called like that?! But ok. So, Kate's a pirate now and she has a crew and she goes on adventures with well, mostly to find other mutants to bring back to the island, and the real reason is that she's pissed cuz she's the only mutant that can't cross the damn Krakoa gates? What's up with that Hickman/Duggan? That's a nice mystery that I DO wanna find out about.
Also she has a bunch of other X-Men, like Storm and Iceman with her along the way..
Fun, interesting story with a really nice cliffhanger!
You like Kitty? You're gonna love this one!
You like X-Men? Your'e gonna like this one!
You don't like X-Men? You may start liking them after this one!
Hahahaha!!! THIS is the side-story X-Men content I have been wanting for a couple of years now! Kate Pryde is the new captain of a pirate vessel, funded and directed by the Hellfire Company (now more business than Club) to protect Mutant interests around the world.
We have an eclectic crew including Kate Pryde, Lockheed, Pyro, Storm, Iceman, and more. Wolverine makes a few comedic appearances, and Emma Frost and Sebastian Shaw lock wits back on land. The banter is witty, the stakes appropriately raised, and the spray of seawater smells of adventure!
Highly recommended to fans of the X-Men. This is my favorite Dawn of X title, beating out X-Factor and the plain X-Men lines.
Easily my favourite collection that’s spun out of HoX/PoX. It deals most intimately with the new mutant status quo, the character work is terrific, and the artwork is frequently stunning. This is the series that feels most new and fresh. More please!