"If you're a mutant and you can't get to Krakoa...then the Marauders will bring you home!"
— Captain Kate Pryde, Marauders #1
Marauders is a 2019 comic book series, focused on the titular team (not to be confused with Mr. Sinister's team). It is part of the Dawn of X relaunch, and is written by Gerry Duggan and drawn by Matteo Lolli, who had previously worked together on Deadpool.
Notably, this series is of a genre that's never been covered by X-Men before: Pirates. The merry band of Marauders, led by Captain Kate Pryde joined by Storm, Iceman, Bishop and Pyro (and their Team Pet Lockheed), who set sail in the open seas to protect those hated and feared! But every seaborne venture needs a patron, and the Marauders' mission soon becomes entangled with the political battle between Emma Frost and Sebastian Shaw over control of the Hellfire Trading Company.
The first issue was released October 23, 2019.
The series ended in January 2022, replaced by a second series, written by Steve Orlando as part of the wider Destiny of X relaunch.
Collected editions
- Volume 1 — collects #1-6
- Volume 2 — collects #7-12
- Volume 3 — collects #16-20 and King in Black: Marauders #1
- Volume 4 — collects #22-27
Marauders provides the following tropes:
- All Girls Like Ponies: Emma has acquired horses. She tells Kate she had several growing up rich as they ride on the beach together discussing their revenge on Shaw.
- Artistic License – Physics: Kate Pryde must have quite some momentum to break her nose just casually strolling into a closed portal.
- Back from the Dead:
- Pyro, who died saving Senator Kelly from Post way back at the turn of the millennium, is one of those resurrected by the Five. In fact, he mentions he was the first mutant they tried the process on.
- Jumbo Carnation, dead since around Quentin Quire's first appearance, is back and designing clothes for Hellfire royalty.
- The person who is assigned to keep track of Kate's comings and goings at the X-desk reports that their mother's senility was cured by Krakoan drugs, although she "should have died" from the degenerative disease already.
- It takes awhile, but Kate finally comes back to life after Shaw kills her.
- Badass Boast: In case she is about to die, Kate makes sure her last words are this.Kate: (drowning) I will live again only to kill you – and when I return, you will beg for my blade!
- Bad People Abuse Animals: Wilhelmina's cat looks brain damaged, the way her kittens in Uncanny X-Men (2011) used to after she squeezed them extra hard.
- Battle Trophy: It's not ultra-tech or magical, but a Russian colonel has a nice sword, which is why Kate announces to him that she likes it and she's going to take it from him. He tells her she'll need to pry it from his dead hands. It just takes a well-aimed kick and Kate has a cutlass fit for a pirate.
- Blatant Lies: The Black King tells his son that Emma begged Xavier and Magneto to let her form and run the Hellfire corporation, whereas anyone who read House of X knows they had to convince her.
- Breather Episode: Issue #12 is less intense than previous issues and focuses on Kate going horseback riding with Emma, Kate's friends welcoming her back to life with a party, and bailing on that party to get new tattoos.
- Call-Back:
- Jumbo Carnation died from a drug overdose after being mugged back in New X-Men. Callisto gives him a knife to defend himself if he gets assaulted again.
- In his written remarks on her death, Charles notes that Kate was the sort of friend who always let you know when you were being a jerk.
- Illyana calls Kate "Backpack" in reference to her schooldays at Xavier's.
- For her "it's really me" part of the ritual, Kate tells Storm that she once threatened to leave her over a haircut; when Storm first showed up with a punk mohawk in The '80s, teenage Kitty took it as a personal betrayal.
- Celebrity Paradox: Issue #23 reveals an excerpt of an in-universe novel published by Timely Publishing. Marvel's original name was Timely.
- In one issue Pyro is mentioned to be a fan of Rick and Morty, one has to wonder what the episodes Mort Dinner Rick Andre and Vindicators 3: The Return of Worldender look like in the Marvel Universe. Not to mention all the times the show has referenced Marvel, especially referencing the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
- Comically Missing the Point: Also dramatically. A Russian soldier runs right through Kate, and shouts to his comrades that she's just a hologram. Poor guy.
- Conlang: Kate having trouble teaching herself Krakoan "the old-fashioned way" implies it's rather complex. However, it has been implied by characters that it cannot be learned except telepathically.Emma: (in Krakoan) Slainte!
- Continuity Nod:
- Bobby identifies Pyro as the original by his Australian accent. For a brief time in X-Men Gold they had a Suspiciously Similar Substitute for Pyro.
- The whole concept is a call back to "Kitty's Fairy Tale" (Uncanny X-Men vol. 1 #153). A very long time ago, Kate told a story where she cast herself as a pirate; now she's one in real life.
- Kate was what Kitty called herself by the time of the Bad Future of "Days of Future Past".
- Sebastian Shaw mentions the law about not killing humans established in House of X.
- Emma worries that if she dies, she'll be resurrected with the wrong nose, a reference to New X-Men where it was revealed that she had had plastic surgery done.
- Jumbo Carnation is working with Emma Frost to design clothes for the Hellfire group. Back in New X-Men, Emma only learned of Jumbo's designs after his original death and expressed disappointment she hadn't been able to meet him. Coming off of that, Callisto gives Jumbo one of her knives with instructions on how to use it in case he's ever attacked again like in his first appearance.
- Callisto and Jumbo discuss her modelling past; she was a super-model when Masque restored her former beautiful appearance to mock her.
- For the first Hellfire Gala, Emma had Jumbo fashion an X-shaped diamond brooch with a silver bullet-shaped inlay for Kate's ensemble, as a callback to when Kate phased the Breakworld Bullet through the Earth at the end of Joss Whedon's run on Astonishing X-Men, as a reminder to anyone who saw the brooch that they are alive because of Kate doing what no one else could.
- Emma mentions her sister Cordelia, and that she still hasn't been resurrected.
- The vacancies left by Apocalypse and Jean are brought up at a meeting.
- Cool Ship:
- Kate's ship, The Marauder, is a high-tech luxury liner commissioned by the Hellfire Club and it's armed with a Phalanx CIWS and a couple of main cannons.
- Christian's ship, Mercury, is a submarine whose interface is sometimes a piano. Turns out to be Christian's customized one. It also doubles as a spaceship.
- Cool Sword: Kate steals a cutlass from a Russian soldier and keeps it when she goes back on the boat.
- Cruel Mercy: Kate, Emma and Storm force this on Sebastian Shaw for killing Kate and nearly killing Lockheed. Not only he loses an eye and the aftereffects of poisoned medicine have all but crippled him, if he dies he will be at the end of the resurrection list and will lose his seat at the Quiet Council.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Shaw feels his eyescream punishment is this, but Kate inverts the trope by making his real punishment for attempted murder, a fifty/fifty chance of surviving poison.
- Distracted by the Sexy: Emma opens her shirt and flashes some Russian soldiers in order to easily take over their minds.
- Do Not Call Me "Paul": Kate dislikes when people call her "Kitty" enough that when Bishop momentarily reverts to old habits, Kate responds by calling him "Bishy".
- Drowning My Sorrows: Since Kate can't go through Krakoa's portals, she ends up sailing there... and drinking a lot of whisky from Logan's stash.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Even Mr. Sinister's Red Diamond gossip column is thoroughly disgusted that the Fenris twins (Andrea and Andreas von Strucker) are welcomed under Krakoa's blanket amnesty for mutants and is appalled by their inclusion. Their father was a high-ranking Nazi and founding member of HYDRA, and they took after him.
- "Eureka!" Moment: In issue #11, after numerous attempts to resurrect Kate, the Five are stumped as to why this husk body isn't busting out of the Egg. That little bit makes Emma Frost realize why — Kate doesn't bust through barriers, she ignores them, thus Emma uses her telepathic powers to urge Kate to phase out of the egg.
- Eye Scream: Sebastian Shaw ends up getting his right eye clawed off by Lockheed as payback for almost killing him and killing his owner Kate.
- Fantastic Racism: The series' premise is of Kate and other X-Men helping mutants get to Krakoa from countries who forcibly keep mutants from reaching Krakoa. The first issue alone shows North Valnon, whose kleptocratic leader has the entrance cordoned off, parts of Brazil are infested with mutant-hunting quadrupeds, Taiwan using China's nationalism to "discredit" the portals and Russia are sending mutants to gulags.
- Fire/Ice Duo: Pyro's mutant power is pyrokinesis (control of fire), while Iceman has an Omega-level thermokinesis (temperature manipulation— most obviously seen as ice).
- Five-Token Band: Our crew is pretty diverse. There are three women, one is Jewish and bisexual (and the leader) and the other Kenyan-American. Of the three men, there's Iceman (gay), Bishop (Black; half Aboriginal Australian, no word on the other half), and Pyro (Australian). There's also Lockheed, who's an alien.
- Freudian Excuse: Wilhelmina's is tragic. The Cuckoos find that Wilhelmina's father molested her, and to deal, the girl compulsively killed her mother and an untold number of pets.
- Friend to All Living Things: When Kate finds an ornament made of real ivory in the Zhao residence, she "accidentally" drops it into a wall, and is a little sad that Mrs. Zhao doesn't seem to be home so she can slap her for buying ivory.
- Genre-Busting: A pirate-flavored X-Men comic, while still retaining the superhero aspects of the brand.
- Good is Not Nice: Kate does not mess around much. She shoots a soldier in the kneecaps with a submachine gun burst and then she phases the gun into the legs of a pair of nearby soldiers.
- Gossipy Hens: The Red Diamond, Sinister's bar. It makes some dubious, Gossip Evolution-y claims, such as Cassie Lang being pregnant.
- I Am the Noun: When Storm asks if Logan knows that Kate got into his liquor stash, Kate replies, "I. AM. The. Stash."
- I Can't Do This by Myself: Emma doesn't feel that she can remain her best, most ethical self without Kate around.
- Joisey: In the king in Black tie-in, when Kate tells the human trafficking victims she'll drop them off in New Jersey, they beg her not to. Kate expresses understanding, but they explain that it's not Jersey specifically, but that they were supposed to go to Canada.
- Kick the Dog: Or the dragon. Shaw traps Lockheed in a net and throws him overboard.
- Killed Off for Real: Seemingly Kate in #6. In #10 it becomes even more real, as the Five can't seem to bring her back. #11 opens with her funeral... and ends with her resurrection.
- Knuckle Tattoos: Kate twice gets a pair across both hands and displays them in full-page art— a variant cover for issue #2, the main cover of #12, and last page of the latter issue. Her first set is the nautical term "Hold Fast". Her second is the personal message "Kill Shaw".
- Manipulative Bastard: Sebastian has his son Shinobi resurrected and grooms him to be the Red King while lying that Kate and Emma were the ones that killed him. Due to Emma already awarding the Red Royalty post to Kate, he has to be the Black Bishop for now.Sebastian Shaw: We'd need to tailor you in black for now, but do not discard your red suits. The future is still being written.
- And in issue #6, we see just how manipulative he can be when he lures Kate into an ambush without her Omega mutant friends around.
- Metaphorgotten: Played with. While speculating on Kate's inability to resurrect, Kurt remarks that figuratively speaking, Kate is "out of phase" and needs guidance. Emma's epiphany is taking it completely literally as she realizes Kate's husk is phasing, and needs to be shown the way out of the cocoon.
- Ms. Fanservice: Emma Frost, though Tamer and Chaster than in the past, wears a mix of tailored and low-cut clothing which she uses for Distracted by the Sexy purposes.
- Storm wears some deep cleavages.
- Mundane Utility:
- Shaw has Forge engineer a whiskey distillery out of Krakoan vegetative tech, and then gets Tempo use her time-manipulation abilities to rapidly age that whiskey. End result, a 50-year old whiskey produced in about two hours.
- Masque, whose flesh-shaping powers were once primarily used for Body Horror, has found a new use for his powers; working at a hospital financed by Emma Frost, he acts as a mutant plastic surgeon, repairing cleft palates and other life-threatening deformities.
- No-Flow Portal: Bishop throws a grenade through a portal and is himself unaffected on the other side of the portal. Not to mention that the portals can't make up their minds how to deny non-mutants entrance.
- Outgrowing the Childish Name: Katherine Anne Pryde, formerly known as "Kitty" with various cat-related nicknames, now calls herself "Kate" to signify her new responsibility in taking charge of the Marauders crew.
- Outrun the Fireball: Thanks to Tempo, the Marauders manage to evacuate an entire area under a threat from a bomb with thirty seconds on the timer.
- Parrot Pet Position: Lockheed sits perched on Kate's shoulder as if he's the parrot to her pirate captain.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: Played with. Emma and Kate have a conversation where the former explains to the latter that she's trustworthy because she never would give a kick in the ribs to someone just because they deserve it. When she and her crew raid a Russian military blockade preventing mutants from emigrating to Krakoa she does kick a guard in the ribs after subduing him.
- Pictorial Letter Substitution: The Marauders title logo has a skull with an X-logo on the forehead in place of the second "A".
- Pirate Girl: With Kate now captaining a ship, wielding a cutlass, letting her winged companion perch on her shoulder, and naming her team a pirate synonym, she looks like one of these.
- Pirate Parrot: Since Lockheed can fly and likes to sit on Kate's shoulder, he essentially acts like this, but on steroids— he's a sentient being and a fully-fledged agent of SWORD who knows more languages than Kate does.
- Plot Parallel: Issue #4 has Kate trying to convince Bishop to be her Red Bishop... and Wilhelmina asking Zhao to be her White Bishop.
- Plunder: The other reason why Emma commissions the Marauders. The primary mission is mutant rescue, but Emma loves her money— so the team is also charged with looting from enemies, recovering valuables, discovering useful trade goods, smuggling on the international blackmarket and other privateering opportunities.
- Portal Network: Notably, the series starts with Kate being unable to use Krakoa's worldwide portals, so she steals a boat and sails to Krakoa.
- Punny Name: Kate argues that Bishop was born to be the Red Bishop of the Hellfire Trading Company, seeing as he's already named that.
- Reed Richards Is Useless: Subverted. For once, Iceman tries to refreeze the poles— but he can't.
- Reverse Psychology:
- If Emma and Kate hadn't been so eager to put Shaw in his place, they might have realized that if he really wanted them to do a job he wouldn't have called it "women's work".
- A member of Verendi taunts Kate for being "babysat" by the Omega level mutants, thus setting her up for the next trap.
- Sexy Shirt Switch: Bobby is taking a cruise on Christian Frost's private submarine, the Mercury, and wearing Christian's monogrammed bathrobe while they flirt, subtly indicating that they slept together.
- Shout-Out:
- The name of the first issue is “I’m On a Boat”.
- Emma admitting to watching Jersey Shore while recovering from plastic surgery.
- An orcish creature fighting Iceman in Issue #27 utters the sentence: "I guess earthling's back on the menu, boys!" to similar results.
- Skewed Priorities: As much as Sebastian Shaw appreciates the Five bringing his son back from the dead, he finds that Forge's whiskey recipe aged in a time bubble by Tempo is the true miracle.
- Tamer and Chaster: Emma Frost's outfit, while admittedly bearing a low neckline, is much more modest than most iterations of her costume, covering her entire torso and legs.
- The Team Benefactor: Emma Frost is explicitly funding the group's operations.
- These Hands Have Killed: Inverted with Masque. When the Moira McTaggart hospital opens and he first uses his flesh-shaping powers for good – reconstructive surgery on a baby born with a cleft palate – he stares at his hands like he can't believe what he just did with them.
- This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!: Sebastian tells Emma there will be no Red King, and Kate appears.Kate: Actually...I am the Red Queen, bitch.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Kate does this deliberately after Emma points out that she's never given an extra kick to the ribs to because the person deserved it. Within a couple of issues she is leaving a pillow partially inside an assailant.
- Unfriendly Fire: Kate Pryde is murdered by Sebastian Shaw, a fellow mutant, Krakoan, and member of the Quiet Council.
- Vanity License Plate: In Emma's telepathic reenactment of Jersey Shore, Pyro's car has the license plate number "KRK04".
- Viking Funeral: They give Kate this send-off after a number of attempts to resurrect her, as is approproate for a pirate queen.
- Year Inside, Hour Outside: When they finally catch Yellowjacket, the telepaths make him feel like hours have passed when it's only been a few minutes.
- Your Mind Makes It Real: Not only can Emma make Pyro see things, that part we knew; but what she makes him hallucinate is what Yellowjacket, the tiny man in his head, sees as well.
