Marauders, Vol. 1

Marauders (2022)

by Steve Orlando (Writer), Creees Lee (Illustrator), Eleonora Carlini (Illustrator)

A new crew sets sail! Captain Kate Pryde’s got the mission — all she needs now is a boat and some mutant sailors to join her on the high seas. Pryde and Bishop must unite a surprising crew of mutants, new and old, to spring Daken from imprisonment at the hands of the primal provocateur known as Brimstone Love! But can the Marauders ever be ready to welcome aboard…Cassandra Nova?! One of the most infamous villains in mutant history might be the team’s only chance to unravel a mystery stretching two billion years into the past! Who are the Kin Crimson? The Marauders point their keel towards Shi’ar space — but the Majestrix has raised an intergalactic armada to stop the mutants in their tracks! Cannons ready!

COLLECTING: Marauders Annual (2022) 1, Marauders (2022) 1-6

Genres: Comics, X Men, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book

200 pages, Paperback

First published November 22, 2022

Reviews

[Baba · Rating 2 out of 5]

New crew, new mode of transport and new team members, but same old underwhelming series despite including the likes of Cassandra Nova, Bishop, Daken and Aurora. Like many book in this Krakoa era too much going on, told too quickly with relatively no character development! A 5 out of 12 Two Star read in this case. Best thing about this volume was the Annual and also the artwork in the last two collected issues, #5 and #6, by (Mr) Andrea Broccardo; and sublime cover artist Kael Ngu - see below:

2024 read

[Jesús De la Jara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Se lee con Marauders Annual 1 en donde ubica explica la formación del nuevo equipo.
Este extraño aparato se una antigüedad de millones de años conduce a Casandra Nova, la malvada "hermana" de Charles Xavier quien incluso mató al padre de Kate. Aún así se le da la oportunidad y todo el equipo va rumbo a Chandilar, el mundo trono de los Sh'iar. Ahí reina Majestrix Sandra quien es informada sobre "La Primera Sangre Derramada". Un terrible secreto Sh'iar que también le impresiona. Este volumen cuenta este enfrentamiento.
Bueno un número regular, no me emociona tanto como con Duggan, además que las asventuras espaciales no son mis preferidas. Por lo menos pude conocer a antiguos mutantes de una ciudad "El Umbral" y me gustó también lo que Daken se ganó en Shiar.
El último número es del evento Judgment Day.

[Alex Sarll · Rating 2 out of 5]

People slag off X-Corp, Children Of The Atom, X Of Swords - and not without reason. But I think this may be the stinkiest turd in the Krakoan punchbowl. The pedigree is fine; the previous Marauders run, at least early on, was devious, swashbuckling fun, undoubtedly the best thing I've read from Gerry Duggan, a writer I've often found a bit of a makeweight. And Steve Orlando has written some very entertaining comics in his time too, not least Midnighter, whose winning brand of in-your-face queerness and shred-your-face ultraviolence he is again at liberty to deploy here, with Daken joining the team and two of his lovers joining him. Yet somehow it never takes flight, and nor do the other promising ideas Orlando drops in, even though several (Bishop charging batteries with excess energy he's absorbed, then giving them out as part of the mutants' outreach efforts; an alliance of mutants and flatscans angered by Xavier abandoning his old dream of coexistence) sound great in theory. The art doesn't help - skeevy without being sexy on the opening annual, thereafter cutesy and vaguely manga in a way which doesn't mesh with the story at all - but nor is it the whole problem.

Where it really goes off the rails, though, is once the big plot gets underway. Gods know ambition is something which corporate superhero books need more often, but there's still such a thing as running before you can walk, and here Orlando, entering the X-books on a subsidiary title, just crazily grabs at lots of big elements which should either be handled with extreme caution because past their debut they've often disappointed (Cassandra Nova; the Age of Apocalypse), or which simply represent everything I least want from an X-Men comic. I've never really clicked with the Shi'ar Empire, but if I thought they left me cold before, I hadn't reckoned with an 'everything you know is wrong' story about the secret society guarding their true history! Which turns out to intersect with a forgotten mutant civilisation on prehistoric Earth - but no, not Okkara, *another* one, even earlier and grander - and somehow even less exciting. The attempt to redo a recent big reveal, insist this one goes up to 11, and then wonder why it doesn't land in the same way, is almost Chibnall-esque - as is the utter thrill-vacuum of the results, progressing through which becomes a life-sapping, entirely unrewarding effort of willpower. And yet somehow this one gets a second volume! Not with me, it doesn't.

[Khurram · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a bad first outing for the new Marauders. Yes, the story is all over the place, but that is time travel and prophecy stories anyway.

The Marauder has been wrecked, and most of the team has moved on. So what better time to upgrade both the ship and the team? Why not take a mission on for a secret box containing a message for the past and the word of a mass murderer?

Yes, I only started picking up this book as Psylocke joined the team. However, I do like Kate Pryde as captain and Bishop as co-captain. I am interested to see where the team goes from here. Maybe more earth-based next time. The book finishes with a cover gallery, including variant covers.

[Guilherme Smee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Steve Orlando, Steve Orlando, Steve Orlando, seus roteiros não estão funcionando! Tentei dar uma chance para esses Carrascos deste autor, que todo mundo me avisou que era ruim. Mas eu simpatizei com a equipe e com a ideia da história se passar no espaço e desenvolver a Casta Escarlate dos Shiar. Mas não adianta, Steve Orlando é um escritor que quer ser grandioso, fazer coisas grandiosas, mas não sustenta a grandiosidade. Incluir Cassandra Nova na equipe dos Carrascos foi tão tão ruim quanto inventar mais uma leva de pré-mutantes espaciais que eram rivais dos proto-Shiar. Isso vais ser esquecido por todo mundo num estalar de dedos. Ainda tem o traço mangazado de Eleonora Carlini, que foi uma péssima escolha editorial. Ele não é ruim, mas funcionaria bem para uma revista em quadrinhos com humor, e o roteiro de Orlando se leva a sério demais. Uma coisa não se encaixou com a outra, assim como muitos dos conceitos de Orlando não se encaixam com a trama que ele desenvolveu. Uma pena, Kate Pryde merecia mais!

[TJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I quite enjoyed the annual issue that introduced the new team, but things quickly spiraled out of control, and I lost interest by issue 2 or 3. The characters in this are good, so I wish it was more character focused. It’s just a lot of plot and stuff happening in space. 2.5/5 stars.

[Adam Fisher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing launch of the new Marauders!
New Team: Kate Pride, Bishop, Daken, Psylocke, Aurora, Tempo, Somnus, and Cassandra Nova
New Ship: The New Marauder is seaworthy and space worthy
Two stories here:
1) Daken vanishes and ends up in the clutches of Brimstone Love, who is leading a group of mutants and humans who all wanted both species to live in equal harmony, but reject Krakoa's supremacy. The team goes to rescue him and the crowd is broken up.
2) (Ironically titled "Extinction Agenda" - was this on purpose as homage to the original story, or a mere coincidence?) Kate is given a puzzle box from the far future, and it has a handwritten note from her inside with "The First Blood Spilled" and a map. Following this, they discover that the "First Mutants" had dealings with the Shi'Ar and so they head off to "rescue" what's left. Enter the Kin Crimson, a secret society of soldiers who keep Shi'Ar secrets even from the royalty. They don't want anyone to find out about the "First Blood".
A fight unravels between the mutants and Shi'Ar and eventually the Empress overthrows the Kin Crimson, arresting them for treason, and makes peace with Krakoa once again.
At the very end, one of the mutants was saved and resurrected, citing Kate as her hero and mentor. From the future, Cerebra. (Really interested to see what happens with her.)

Marauders has been a great book since the relaunch and it continues to be. Looking forward to see what survives as we head into A.X.E..

Strong recommend. You should be reading this X-Title.

[Jason · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5
This title used to be one of my favorites. It's terrible now.

[Francisco Eustáquio · Rating 3 out of 5]

So Kate Pryde assembles a new team of mutant "pirates" that, this time, traveled not the seas but space. The art of Eleanora Carlini wasn't my cup of tea. The story felt a little rushed and focused on the action. I would like to have read more about the characters. The inclusion of Cassandra felt really forced. I liked it better towards the end when we got to focus a little bit on the characters and the cliffhanger was OK.

[Michael Church · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good lord this was bad. I was torn between 1 and 2 stars, and leaned toward 2 because a) there was still some good buried in there, b) I felt bad giving anything 1 star, and c) I think I was more bothered because it felt like this was using poor use of pieces from good series. This takes characters from Marauders, X-Factor, and Hellions, all of which I loved, and uses them very poorly.

My first recommendation is to maybe skip this book for now. Or read it online or from the library. It was not fun. The characters didn’t feel like themselves. A lot of the powers are really hard to follow. Somnus in particular seems kind of useless, though I love his design. Tempo is also hard to understand how her powers are supposed to work. Kate and Kwannon feel the most “off” compared to their last incarnations. And I got so sick of Kate talking about the Marauders being a family in the annual. Her dialogue in particular was atrocious.

My second recommendation is to read the backup story first. It’s the Marvel Voices: Pride story about Somnus and his backstory. Which is a cute concept, but doesn’t really make sense. He’s a gay man from the 60s who recently died and was given a second chance at life by Daken because they spent a night together that turned into several years, thanks to Somnus’s power. Since Somnus never came out in his life, Daken gets him resurrected on Krakoa so he can live as an out gay man.

However, there seems to be zero adjustment period. In what seems to be his second appearance in a Marvel comic, he’s fully out and proud. Which is great from a representation standpoint, it just is narratively confusing. Plus Steve Orlando gives him several moments that are kind of indulging in that. He gets like a page and a half dedicated to having a crush on a character from a tv show he remembers. They constantly are referencing his relationship with Daken (who they almost exclusively refer to as Akihiro, which I can’t remember if there’s a reason for or not). I normally would love seeing all this on the page, but in a book that has so much going on, it takes up space that was sorely needed.

Which brings up my next issue. There’s no space for anything happening in this book. Cassandra Nova is brought back for almost no reason that I can discern other than shock value. There are 8 lead characters (Kate, Bishop, Tempo, Aurora, Akihiro, Psylocke, Somnus, and Cassandra), plus members of the Shi’ar, and they manage to introduce a bunch of new characters with this Kin Crimson plot. There is so much going on that none of it feels fleshed out, none of it makes full sense, and it is disappointing.

The art doesn’t help at all. It’s often muddled, and focused on looking like stuff is happening without making it super clear. Eleanora Carlini has talent, there are some panels that are a nice pose or composition, and Matt Milla’s colors really work, but it’s so muddy and hard to make out what is supposed to be happening that it becomes frustrating. I liked Andrea Broccardo on issue 5 was probably the best, but I was already so annoyed by everything going on in the title that it didn’t help. Especially when ANOTHER new character got introduced in the last page. Creees Lee was alright on the annual, but, again, I was distracted by these characters not feeling correct and being annoying.

Which then brings us to the actual story, which is utter garbage. There’s a “mystery box” that is 2 BILLION years old. First off. That’s just ludicrous at that point. Then the actual mystery is one that makes little to no sense. There’s an idea of “the first blood spilled” that required a secret cabal of powerful Shi’ar warriors to protect and wipe out from memory. Turns out, the horrible secret of this literal space empire is that they tried to kill off a bunch of mutants on earth 2 billion (again, BILLION) years ago and lost. It’s a dumb mystery with no payoff. Like we knew that it would have something to do with killing mutants. It was pretty much exactly what I expected without any unexpected twist. Except maybe for the fact that the Shi’ar lost. But again, not nearly enough to be something that required all this extra stuff to hide for billions of years.

The one good thing to come out of this is that apparently there were 10 things being kept secret by the Kin Crimson. Only 3 were defined, so that leaves another 7 plot threads that could be picked up in hopefully better stories.

I’ve rambled on long enough. I could probably keep complaining about various aspects. I think it’s more disappointment than anything. It’s a great cast with a lot of potential and a queer writer at the helm, but it just did not work. Maybe this just means there’s nowhere to go but up. One can hope.

[Luciana Cavalcante · Rating 3 out of 5]

Marauders Annual #1 - Hellfire and Brimstone (**)
#1 Extinction Agenda (***)
#2 Extinction Agenda, part 2 (***)
#3 Extinction Agenda, part 3 (***)
#4 Extinction Agenda, part 4 (***)
#5 Hell Can Wait (***)
I like this crew better. The art isn't great, but the story is a bit better than the last run.

[Ben Hewer-Darroch]

Why are they pirates? Why do they have a boat? None of this matters because Kitty Pryde gets to look hot as hell in her cool pirate outfit and that is reason enough.

[Ross · Rating 2 out of 5]

A whole new everything in this new reboot of 'Marauders'...

It wasn't my cup of tea. At all. By a long shot.

Where to start? The art, maybe? The art is very sketchy. Sketchy, as it loose and freeform. I've never seen Bishop look like a malnourished Ethiopian before, but there you go. Characters don't look anything like you'd expect them to.

What about the story? Choosing a Shiar story as the first outing for your group is....unique. Marauders has been , largely, a Earth based book focused on protecting mutants on the planet. Now, they're spaceship flying freedom fighters?? Add to all this, the fact that Shiar stories are HEAVY in lore and exposition. It's just a lot to digest. How do you fix it? By (wrongly) deciding to cram internal memos in the story that jumpstart the exposition and progress the story so you don't have to 'lore dump' another 4 issues of backstory to catch your readers up.

End a scene with a bit of lore and then turn the page to read an entire page of internal correspondence describing the previous bit of lore in more depth (yawn

Characters? This is going to take some time to get used to. Nobody on this team is remarkable or unsung. They're all misfits and I'm not sure how long a book of misfits will continue.

Bonus: Hard Skin is very 'Green Lantern' like...hmmm....
Bonus Bonus: Wet Skin is yet another coopting of the whole Symbiote/Klyntar process...

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a bit surprised that (per Goodreads ratings), this relaunch of the Marauders series was pretty much universally detested. It's not great, but it's certainly adequate. No worse than some of the New Mutant, X-Factor, or Excalibur books.

Maybe the key is to have read Hellfire Gala - Immortal first, which curiously includes the prelude to this series (Secret X-Men). Without that, I can only imagine how hard it would be to understand all the Shi'ar nonsense taking place here.

And whooo boy is there a lot of Shi'ar nonsense. Steve Orlando attempts to take a page out of Jonathan Hickman's book, shoehorning in a huge amount of Shi'ar backstory (including a new secret society). Unfortunately, the Shi'ar just aren't that interesting unless you're a longtime X-fan. For a relative newbie like me, they're just another alien race. Whatever!

The plot here features a reformed Marauders team flying off to Shi'ar space to rescue the first mutants. Cassandra Nova is now on the team (again, you gotta have deep X-knowledge to care about her reappearance), alongside a number of unfamiliar faces. The book is 50% fight scenes, 50% dense dialogue. Like I said, it's not great, but it's adequate. The X-sheen is certainly there and the plot, while messy, is ultimately understandable. Not my favorite Marauders volume, but it won't stop me from continuing with the series.

[Trevor Dailey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Orlando is off to a great start. Cassandra Nova is such a polarizing figure and I appreciate her dychotomy with the rest of the new team. Curious to see how things will shake out after Judgment Day.

[johnny ♡ · Rating 2 out of 5]

the quality plummeted omg

[Sam Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is absolutely not a 2 star book, god y’all are just mean. You’d think Orlando killed your puppy, damn.

No, this isn’t Duggan’s Marauders. But it doesn’t try to be Duggan’s Marauders, either.

Yes, it has aspects that I get people might not like— This run is not only is crazy Shi’ar focused (which can be hit or miss for people, me included!), it’s got time travel weirdness, and it’s got everyone’s least favorite character, Cassandra Nova.

But honestly, this run is nowhere near as bad as the reviews and commentary I’ve heard from people made it out to be. I honestly really fucking enjoyed it. The art was very stylistic and it was some panels in particular were really cute and even made me laugh. So I really don’t understand the art complaints.

The strongest part of this new Marauders series is the characters. Orlando gives some of these characters some of the best characterization that they gotten in years, especially the lesser used characters in the x-books. Heather (Tempo) really shined for me, and honestly, I’d say Cassandra Nova did as well, surprisingly.

Orlando also did a great job building Akihiro and Aurora’s relationship that was established in X-Factor (2020) and I love how he’s written both of these characters. They’ve both suffered from some really bad writing in the past, and I hope we continue to get great characterization for these two in both the rest of Orlando’s run and in future stories. I absolutely love Akihiro getting a new codename— please dear lord let Marvel not bring back the Daken name. That’s my biggest fear.

I also really loved the addition of Somnus and I really enjoyed getting to read more about him. He seems like a character with a lot of potential and he is a good reader-POV character, asking questions that newer readers might also be confused about, in a way that felt really natural. I’m also just really happy for Akihiro to have another friend, he needs more people who love and care about him.

I’m really excited to read volume 2 and I’m definitely going to need to physically buy both of these volumes.

[Chris · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’d heard this was bad, but I wanted to give it a fair crack.
Jesus, they weren’t exaggerating.

A mess all round; writing, art and colours are all an absolute whiff.
Editorial for this era of x men all round should never work in comics again. Bomb after bomb incoherent word salad and this is up there with the books written by Vita Ayala, Danny Lore, Leah Williams, Charlie Jane Anders as being the worst comics I’ve ever had the misfortune to set eyes on.

Orlando has never been able to structure or tell a coherent story, but any raw potential he showed at DC with Electric Warriors or Martian Manhunter has long gone.

Horrible

[Rick Ray · Rating 1 out of 5]

Duggan's Marauders was up there as one of the better titles through Dawn/Reign of X, but the Destiny of X relaunch of the title with Steve Orlando at its helm saw my interest in this title really plummet. I'd be the first to agree that having a team of mutants who sail around the world rescuing mutants seems like a silly concept for a modernized Marvel world where helicarriers and Quinjets are much more prevalent, but there was a charm to the series nonetheless. So when Orlando decides to take this new Marauders team into space, I was already dreading the direction for the story. The Shi'ar play a prominent role in the series as well, and really they haven't been handled well since Hickman's brief stretch writing "New Mutants".

The new team under Kate Pryde's leadership includes Aurora, Daken, Somnus, Tempo, and Psylocke, and Orlando finds a way to force Cassandra Nova into to the mix. The randomness of the team makes it clear that Marauders is picking up the shattered pieces of Leah Williams' X-Factor, Tini Howard's X-Corp and Zeb Wells' Hellions, but none of the characters really fit together. Missing is the charming interactions we had between Kate and her teammates from the previous team iteration, and instead we get some pretty clunky characterizations.

The art isn't all that appealing here either, since the artists change rapidly between issues making it seem clear that this became an afterthought title during the "Destiny of X" era. Very little is paid off in this first several issues, and even Kate seems relegated to being a secondary character in a series that once vaulted her as one of Krakoa's most interesting mutants. A shame this book has fallen in standards and I'm not hopeful that the second arc will be much better.

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 3 out of 5]

More of a 3.5, but we're rounding down.

Steve Orlando takes the wheel of the Marauders while Gerry Duggan heads over to the main X-book, and while the spirit of the series is intact, the setting is very different. We're heading back into space again, and the Marauders find themselves smack bang in the middle of a Shi'ar conspiracy that stretches back to an original mutant colony, because why not!

It's ambitious, I'll give it that. Orlando throws familiar members like Kate and Bishop into the mix with newcomers like Somnus, Aurora, and Daken. It's an eclectic mix, and I like the quirkiness of the cast, but the story sometimes feels like it spends more time explaining what's going on than it does enjoying itself. The ideas are sound - the Shi'ar's history with the X-Men is on full display, and I like that this is still recognisably Marauders even though it's very different to the previous volume - but it's sometimes a little too verbose for its own good. Less really is more sometimes.

On art for the most part is Eleanora Carlini, in probably her most defined style I've seen in a while. It's not quite as impressive as Stefano Caselli was on the previous series (but expecting anyone to hold up to Caselli is a tall order so that's probably on me).

The latest incarnation of Marauders is carving its niche, for better or worse. It's fun, but sometimes I think it wants to be a bit more groundbreaking than it needs to be.

[Christian Zamora-Dahmen · Rating 2 out of 5]

It started off nicely. The annual had a great set up, and the coming together of the team felt organic (which is rare in today’s x-teams, which just feel so random).
Great annual and then the regular series got started… with the Shi’ar empire… There’s this thing about the Shi’ar that makes me weep with boredom. Their space drama has been the same for about 50 years. I do recall a mini-series sometime that gave the Imperial Guard a well deserved depth, but other than that, it’s the same song played over and over again. This story was no exception. And while I did try to enjoy the story, that was real hard task.
Anyway, on the side of nice surprises there is Tempo. Orlando is giving her an unexpected edge and curiously enough, she’s become a favorite of mine. I know, I know, I do laugh at her chicken suit every now and then, but still, she’s becoming a well rounded character.
On the bad side, Aurora and Psylocke do feel a little off. Skrulls playing them wouldn’t have done a worse role.
Kate and Bishop are okay. I just wish there was a little more time to explore them.
Somnus is interesting, but nothing there, yet.
And Cassandra is a one note character. Yeah, I know she’s bad ass. Just stop saying it and do something.

[Joey Nardinelli · Rating 2 out of 5]

Felt like I was reading and reading and reading this waiting for that fascinating thematic underhook (maybe I made this word up, but like underpinning + hook?) that would pull me fully within, and instead it just ended up being more Shi’iar gobbledygook that felt opened and resolved by the ending, sorta. The inclusion of a symbiote felt out of nowhere and the reveal of the mystery riddle also felt undercooked or mostly pointless. Adding a galactic history to mutantdom just doesn’t feel all that pressing given the focused nature of the Krakoan narrative. This also felt like a different version of Pryde and Bishop than I’ve been reading in the series prior, which was jarring given the move from old series to new went without any reason to expect such a change. The stuff with Daken and Somnus seems interesting, but rushed. Same with Nova. I think I’m just not interested in this current iteration of this team, and I worry reading this run is going to be like my experience of reading Excalibur of late, where all the obscure crap about Otherworld and England will parallel my general disinterest in Marvel’s Shi’iar space opera mumbo-jumbo.

[Chad · Rating 1 out of 5]

Steve Orlando continues to confirm my belief that he's a terrible writer. Kate Pryde and Bishop put together a new team of Marauders that now has a spaceship and heads to Shi'ar to investigate this 2 billion year old mystery box with Kate's handwriting in it. The team has zero personality nor is there any reason for any of them to be on the team. The characters in this book are paper thin. The "mystery" is stupid, not at all surprising and no one really cares about something that happened 2 billion years ago. Why should that matter now or cause a war between mutants and the Shi'ar? This whole shadow organization is redundant. They even mention the Raptor conspiracy in the Shi'ar from a few years ago. It's all put together terribly and more than likely will never be seen again.

The main artist on the book is Elenora Carlini. I've liked her art in the past but it's more Mangaesque here. The faces all look like little kids except for Cassandra Nova who looks like some kind of goblin. This was my favorite of the X-Men books outside of X-Men when Gerry Duggan wrote it, now it's the worst.

[Alfredo Luna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Man, I'm such a sucker for X-Men space stuff! I was wary of this book losing Duggan, but Steve Orlando did a pretty fun job! Like I said, with Kitty Pryde at the helm of a story that dives into Shi'ar mythology and has plenty of interstellar adventure, I am kind of fish in a barrel. Carlini's illustrations took a moment for me to glom on to, but I think she fit the vibe of the story and I was a fan by the end. I didn't care for the annual as much as I did the first arc, but pulling a team together from nowhere is always a tough sell. I should also say that I was extremely skeptical about popping genicidal maniac Cassandra Nova onto a team...but holy cow it worked?? Hoping to see this team gel together a bit more as we go. I adore the Krakoan era so much, really, but sometimes I feel like because there's SO much ground to cover, both in plot and in the sheer number of characters around, we sometimes don't get to spend much time with any one group together. It's a fair trade off, but still a bit of aa drag, because some of these teams I'd like to read a long run of.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow, the only thing worse than Gerry Duggan leaving Marauders is the horrific mess that new author Steve Orlando makes of everything. Definitely one of the worst volumes in all of the Krakoan X-Men.

I mean it's not just that Duggan's thoughtful, character-based Marauders has been replaced with action-adventure. The action-adventure actually has some redeeming points, like the idea of secrets within the Shiar Empire.

It's that IT DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE. We get a neat plot about the first mutants, but they turn out to just be some aliens. Why are they mutants that the X-Men would care about? They're not. What does this actually have to do with the history of mutants that we've learned about most recently through the story of Arakko? NOTHING.

How can Kitty just die casually now without the problems of her last death and resurrection? WHO KNOWS.

And what does this all have to do with Avalon and some mutant stored on a hard drive or something. WHO KNOWS!?

Marauders should have just ended rather than being replaced with this horrible comic that demeans the name.

[Craig · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is really pretty bad, especially coming on the heels of the previous iteration. The artwork is chaotic and hard to follow during action sequences and everyone's face is far too cute and Manga-ish. The writing isn't that great, either. Who are the members of this new team and why are they there? Never addressed. Do we really need yet another group of mutants in space? I thought the whole idea of the Marauders was to patrol Earth and help out mutants who couldn't get to Krakoa through other means. Did we really need Cassandra Nova added to a team? Does every big bad evil mutant who ever lived get a shot at re-life again, just because? This is probably going to be what takes everything down, I'm guessing, looking at what's happening with Mr. Sinister. Ultimately, though, this was just kind of "blah" from start to finish...

[Allaiyah Weyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Keeping the rating neutral until I've read enough volumes, & this review will cover the whole series & be updated.

New writer, new artist, new colorist, new ship, trading the sea for the stars, lost a few members & gained a few from X-Factor, Hellions, & elsewhere. All this combined was enough to merit a new volume 1, which is a bit confusing as there was no time break from the last Marauders series that continued into 2022.

Matt Milla's coloring is amazing, & makes me linger on each panel longer. The Shi'Ar dialogue is cheesy cringe, boardering on Shakespearian levels of over-the-top camp. At least when a villain did that in Hellions, her companions mocked her for it.

Cassandra Nova is something of a snarky comedienne & there's something gratifying about watching her humiliate Kin Crimson. My headcanon is that she sounds exactly like Phyllis Diller.

[Jennifer Sigman · Rating 2 out of 5]

The art is awful. I know they were going for an anime look since they decided to try to Captain Harlock the Marauders, but you literally could not tell who half these people were because they looked the same.

The addition of Cassandra Nova was a choice, for sure. I didn't even know she existed until I read The X Lives & Deaths of Wolverine, and didn't know she was alive until reading this. I know why the writers brought her back, but there's never a good explanation as to why the Krakoans brought her back.

And it's just a weird story, spread out way too thin. This absolutely didn't need to be 5 issues. 2, maybe.

[Avril · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gah! Too much tangled continuity, not enough exposition. If I hadn’t been listening to Jay and Miles X-plain the X-Men I would have been even more lost than I was. Even so, the final reveal is a character I’ve never heard of, which definitely lessens the impact. Oh, well. Still some fun, but I preferred the previous Marauders run. The Sh’iar space jerks just aren’t my favourite galactic empire with whom to spend time.

[Tyler Jenkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this team better as sea pirates not space pirates. Although I really like the new team, I would just prefer to see them back on Earth. Because as I’ve said, Marvel’s cosmic stories are incredibly complex and hard to follow if you haven’t read every single thing. And of course as the team heads to Shi’ar space in search of mutant ancestors they only find a complex plot that provides fun action but confusing interactions with characters I don’t care about.