A Curse On The Black King! A Reckoning Comes In Marauders #16

Vengeance is on their minds as a reckoning comes to the Hellfire Trading Company in Marauders #16 by Gerry Duggan, Stefano Caselli, Edgar Delgado, and Cory Petit.

Christina Eddleman: Vishal, as much as I loved swords, I’ve been craving this issue for what feels like an eternity. They say revenge is a dish best served cold, so maybe that’s why this comes after two banquet issues? Either way, I have been salivating over Shaw getting his just desserts.

Vishal Gullapalli: I really have to agree, Christi – it’s been so long since we got a real spotlight on our Red and White Queens that I really felt like something was missing over the last few months. But now we’re back, and just in time for what feels like the most satisfying payoff we’ve gotten since the Dawn of X began!

Judge

CE: The mystery of the Krakoan plant that ensnared Kate is wrapped up neatly at the start of the issue. I’d been wondering about the fate of this bit of evidence for a while, and there is something incredibly satisfying about how quickly Bishop and Storm tie a bow on this case. Any longer would have spoiled the pacing for the delicious revenge to follow. Caselli and Delgado give us a gorgeous Red and White Queen duo, and boy do the pair make an entrance.

VG: I love, love, love how we’ve gotten to see Kate use her phasing powers for combat – it’s not specifically something new, but this feels so much more inspired than the pretty rote “Kate sticks her hand in someone and threatens to solidify.” [Ed. note: I don’t know Vishal, that sounds brutal. Would Kate ever do that???]

Punching Shaw through the wall is a kickass way to make an entrance. But also, I need to bring up the horses because Kate and Emma ride to Hellfire Bay on white and grey horses, respectively. It’s incredible. Of course, the only way to make this entrance even better is to end it by a nut shot to Sebastian Shaw. Vengeance is sweet.

CE: Every panel oozes a very powerful and controlled revenge. Kate stepping over/through Shaw, Shaw crawling towards an imposing Emma, Shaw pleading with Kate – Caselli’s artfully angled panels impart such dynamism to each page. Shaw’s powerless is so poetically done, mirroring Kate’s own powerlessness at her death. Kate does not need her powers to give Shaw a knife hand strike to the throat, however, reminding us of how well trained in combat she is. I really do appreciate how subtly Duggan has built up Shaw’s devotion to whiskey throughout this run, small moments that make torturing Shaw through his prized possessions that much sweeter. [Ed. note: It pained me to see good whiskey go to waste like that]

VG: Caselli does a fantastic job through this entire issue – in just the two pages after Kate and Emma enter Shaw’s room, Shaw’s facial expressions go from cocky to shocked to in pain to worried about his whiskey, and this level of expressiveness is always there. I feel like I haven’t appreciated Caselli’s art throughout this run, but I really have to give him props here because this entire issue is just masterfully drawn. Kate’s treatment of Shaw’s whiskey may have been the highlight of the issue, too. Breathing booze into the fireplace is such an iconic moment for her that I feel like everyone on Krakoa felt like they were missing out on, even though they had no idea it was happening. I also love that Shaw’s love of his whiskey never dissipates – he even sticks his arm into a fire to try and retrieve even the smallest droplet of the good drink. And somehow, despite how pathetic he looks this entire time, this isn’t the most desperate thing he does all issue, is it Christi?.

CE: It most certainly is not, Vishal. Shaw’s botched attempt at taking his own life is definitely a low point, but perhaps an obvious choice on Krakoa. While resurrection protocols do soften the blow (parden the pun) of suicide, Duggan gives us just the right level of lighthearted with the page of Kate’s retrieval of Shaw’s body in front of Glob. It is so well timed and the choice of Glob as the odd spectator is very much appreciated.

VG: I do have to wonder if Shaw was trying to take his own life or if he just erroneously thought that he would be fine jumping out the window – Shaw thinking he was on the ground floor is a hilarious image to me. But either way, the damage is totally done to Glob’s fragile mental state. I’m curious where he ran when he saw that because that boy sprinted away. [Ed. note: To his chickens of course]

These moments of levity amidst the drama are something that Marauders has excelled at for me, and something that I really missed during the crossover issues. And now that Shaw is incapacitated and constrained to his manor, Kate and Emma finally get to interrogate him and enact proper restitution for his actions.

Jury

CE: What justice is there for a mutant killing another mutant? The two options presented by our Queens are joining Sabretooth, or a “private Hellfire matter.” While the first, perhaps, seems the more honest of the two options, the second certainly seems to fit the Hellfire Trading Company. What is absolutely unbelievable is any of Shaw’s rationale for killing Kate to begin with. Emma’s fierce and swift retribution for calling Kate “Kitty” was so beautiful it almost made me gloss over Shaw’s supposed logic that by killing Kate he freed her from any doubts that she wasn’t a mutant. That poor excuse for a motive makes the vengeance to come that much sweeter.

VG: Christi, you’re a teacher, so I feel like your experience with this may be a little more tiring than mine, but Shaw’s grasp at an explanation here feels like when I would totally not do my homework but would try to come up with some excuse for why I didn’t have it and just pray the teacher would give me credit for it. I don’t think it ever worked once, but I never really stopped trying, and it seems like Sebastian Shaw has that same go-getter attitude that I did when I was 11. “No I swear I did the best work ever on my homework you just can’t see it!” I’m so delighted by just how pathetic Shaw is in this issue – he’s so clearly been defeated and is trying every possible play to sneak his way out of what is his rightful comeuppance.

CE: That comeuppance involving Lockheed and Storm was incredible. The two’s entrance was delightful, and Storm’s flare for the dramatic was really accentuated by that backlighting from a lightning bolt. I’m so appreciative that Lockheed’s near death receives its justice as well in all it’s gruesome detail. The spitting of the eyeball into the flames was absolute perfection. That fireplace gets an awful lot of use this issue.

VG: That eye scene was gnarly! I legitimately did not expect to see something like that in a standard Marvel comic, but this issue has really just delivered everything. I also love Emma’s line right before – “The young lad will only acquire a taste of what he wanted.” Lockheed has been established to be sentient and incredibly intelligent in past x-books, this time Duggan makes sure we know he’s properly vengeful. I also want to point out that Shaw wearing the eyepatch reminds me a lot of Wolverine’s “Patch” persona – the facial hair plus the eyepatch plus the white shirt really put the whole look together for me. I’m also in love with the fact that Storm was there and party to everything that happened – I feel like there was a lot of characterization of Storm that leaned into this peaceful serene goddess personality, but Ororo Munroe would never let someone who killed her daughter get away without a real significant punishment.

Executioner

CE: If Shaw was scared before at the loss of his powers, every ounce of his body should be terrified by Storm and Lockheed’s arrival. The final act of revenge is so beautifully executed: whiskey laced with the same poison in the Krakoan drugs Verendi obtained through Shaw. Caselli’s panel of Shaw staring up at the fearsome trio of mutants calmly and cooly explaining their plot was beautiful to behold. The cavalier attitude as to whether Shaw lived or died was fantastically callous and everything Shaw deserved.

VG: This was such a great punishment because it’s literally just the consequences of Shaw’s actions – his shady dealings with Madripoor and Verendi resulted in the tainted medicine. He’s literally getting a taste of his own medicine. This also reminded me a lot of Emma taking Pyro into the minds of Verendi so they could mentally feel the pain of being burned alive – she’s not just vengeful in her own way, she’s enabling her peers and subordinates to exact their own vengeance upon those who’ve wronged them. I also love that there’s explicitly a resurrection queue and that Emma’s using her position on the council to influence when her sister gets resurrected – it’s so Frosty. [Ed. note: If Cordelia Frost is low on the list, then Adriene Frost most have gotten her name completely erased.]

CE: Vishal, I couldn’t have said it better myself. This coordinated assault involves Emma doing very little besides enabling those closest to her to obtain justice. It’s cold in a way that’s very very hot. I loved the tiny detail pointing out that Kate had been carrying around an eye patch just in case; I mean, she is a pirate now. Cavalierly leaving Shaw to an uncertain fate overnight felt so right. While I almost hoped the poison would kill Shaw, seeing him laid so low was incredibly satisfying.

VG: I’m also really happy that we got to end on a tie back to the greater Krakoa status quo, seeing how this new Shaw would be received by the Council. These two pages were just fantastic. Kate, Emma, and Ororo all rolling in with Shaw, the Council voting, Mystique deciding that Shaw deserved whatever he got and needed no interrogation. The whole scene was a delight and a very strong reminder that Marauders is still one of my favorite books coming out. Shaw’s evil grin at the end of it all would be foreboding if I didn’t have the utmost faith in the rest of the cast of the book to keep him in line.

CE: The page of the council voting was one that I keep coming back to. The layout is so unique, and I’m so intrigued by the way it highlights that two council seats are vacant through somewhat blurred panels on that curved nine panel grid. A standard council shot around the council table would have sufficed, but this brought a fresh feeling to the not-so-typical council meeting. Those two empty council seats are becoming increasingly significant and it’s highlighted subtly and effectively.

VG: I’ve mentioned it a couple times but as much as I enjoyed X of Swords I did really miss Marauders. To be honest, I almost forgot how much I enjoyed this book because we hadn’t gotten it in a while. But Duggan and Caselli have come back with one of the strongest issues of the series and I could not be happier for it. I cannot wait to see where Marauders goes from here, the possibilities seem endless.

CE: The pacing of this issue was so well done, I kept looking for more pages when I got to the end. This was one of those wonderful “I couldn’t put it down” issues. The absence of any data pages was appropriate as each of these pages was beautifully done and incredibly impactful. Marauders is back in full force with this issue and I’m ready to see where it goes.