Review: Marauders #1

Will this new team of Marauders be as entertaining as the previous team?

Marauders #1
Marvel Comics
W: Steve Orlando
A: Eleonora Carlini, Matt Milla
$4.99 (Available on Marvel Unlimited)

What to Know
The Marauders were created to help get mutants out of rough spots and to Krakoa. Since Kate Pryde can’t access the Krakoan portals, she uses a boat as transportation. The boat also allows Hellfire Trading to smuggle medicines to places that aren’t accepting them. After the last few missions, most of the team decided to move on.

What Happens
The new Marauders are rescuing an out of control mutant, Fever Pitch, in Wyoming. We see Kate and Bishop along with Psylocke make the save. After returning to Krakoa, we learn Cassandra Nova has been resurrected and living on Krakoa; Kate visits her to find out how an ancient box (I believe they said 2 millions years old) contained a map to the spot they were at and a note in Kate’s handwriting. After some bickering, we get the famous Hickman-inspired Infographic that has become standard in X-Men books to learn about the new team. The book then goes into pages detailing each member’s motivations for joining.

The new team consists of Kate, Bishop, Psylocke, Tempo, Daken, Aurora, Somnus, and Cassandra. Many of the team members question Nova’s inclusion before we get another Infographic of the evaluation of the Krakoan Medical Team: Dr. Nemesis, Cecilia Reyes, and Mr. Sinister. Nova tells Psylocke she has nothing to hide and allows her to check her mind; what Psylocke doesn’t see if Nova somehow prevents Psylocke’s psychic blade from entering her head and it allows her to block her true motives.

We learn the team is headed to Shi’ar space to find a group of lost mutants, one of the first generations. We jump to Shi’ar space and see Majestrix Xandra learn about the missing mutants and instructs her forces to stop the Marauders; if they were to find the mutants, it would lead to war with Arakko.

The Marauders are attacked by the Shi’ar and are ordered to turn back by Erik the Red.

Thoughts
A good start to the series; the last Marauders book was one of my favorites from the Dawn of X line and this looks like it’ll continue to be good. The team is an interesting mix of mutants; we get some featured in other books (Psylocke/Daken/Aurora) to some we haven’t seen much of (Somnus/Tempo), to one that we didn’t expect to see (Cassandra Nova). I also like the book expanding from Earth to space; there are plenty of good stories to tell here.

This is my first time reading Orlando’s work and it was enjoyable. His exposition set up the story well and he had a good feel for the characters. The art was more cartoony then the previous series, coming off almost as a Manga-inspired style; while I can find this style of art distracting, it fit the feel of the story pretty well.

Rating
3.5 out of 5; it’s a good setup issue and looks like it could really head up.