Our mutant pirates (technically they’re privateers) head to the newly-terraformed Mars! But they don’t expect what they get from the new bad guy they meet at the spaceport. He doesn’t expect them either, since he’s been mindwiped. Who will shoot first? Marauders #24, writing by Gerry Duggan, art by Phil Noto, letters by Cory Petit.
Stephanie Burt: Hi Ian! This is my first time writing about a Star Wars comic. What should I expect?
Ian Gregory: Star Wars? This is a comic by Gerry Duggan and Phil Noto, which means we must be writing about Cable! This week’s Marauders really does feel a bit like a mash-up of a bunch of other series, but I don’t think it’s a bad direction for the series.
Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy
Stephanie: My rule for Marauders so far has been that when there’s a lot of Kate, it’s good, and when there’s no Kate at all it’s terrible (unless it’s a Vita Ayala guest shot). Here there’s some Kate, for the first time in a while, and… I enjoyed it immensely. So did Kate, till the end. She likes space! And she’s a confirmed Star Wars fan. You’d better be if you’re going to inhabit this issue. It’s not just the cantina shootout in a spaceport on a planet full of criminals, in which a hero with a violent past confronts a no-good very-bad guy about her ship; it’s also the color schemes. Kate’s cosplaying Leia, correct?
Ian: It’s a little more Han Solo circa-New Hope sans-vest, but the overall color scheme is very Leia. Either way, the Star Wars nod is beyond obvious, but I’d rather the transparency rather than trying to pretend this is something new. I mean, come on – they’re aiming blasters at each other under the table at a space cantina, talking about an old deal gone sour. The Marauders have typically handled piracy on Earth, so extending their jurisdiction to a little bit of space piracy is a nice, natural place for them to end up. I definitely prefer to see them exploring Arakko than busting racial-stereotype-mobs in a warehouse. I liked the Kate-centric first half of this issue (check that prominent necklace), as she’s been badly underserved in the book of which she is supposedly the star.
Stephanie: Yeah, it’s an obvious homage in a book that’s at its best when it’s genre-hopping. Also, Michael Jung, a critic whose work I hadn’t known before, called it before it happened.
Kate’s been under-served since she came back from the dead. Now she’s good. Not only does she get her Magen David necklace, she’s also got partly curly hair, which she has also styled in a way that’s… well, I won’t repeat myself, but if she tried for Leia buns and couldn’t quite get those, this hair’s the next best choice.
The Mars [Ed. note: Arakko] material’s also just a good read. Duggan and Noto work very, very well together here on a panel-by-panel way. Both in the action sequences, and in the pages that have to deploy talking heads.
Who’s this guy Rixlo? I thought he was a deep cut from earlier cosmic Marvel– maybe Bendis-era, since Duggan is writing some snappy Bendixian dialogue– but quick Google searches make it seem like he’s new.
Ian: Fans of Duggan/Noto Cable will also recognize the sound effects in this issue as one of that series’ best trademarks. When Emma crushes her glass in her hand, for example, her fingers seem to curl through the letters. I love how the transparent letters overlap with the actual effect they describe – the gun’s muzzle inside a “bang,” or a kick with a “whump” layered on top.
Rixlo also totally read to me as a deep cut character from, say, early-aughts Guardians of the Galaxy, but I also couldn’t turn anything else up on him. That’s kind of nice, because it means that his past with Emma will likely be rolled out in the coming issues – and I suspect that while he may be a scoundrel, we’ll learn that Emma really screwed him over, and the exact details of their history may be important. [Ed. note: Duggan wrote both Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy in the past but if he is from there, the Marvel Wikia doesn’t remember]
Stephanie: I love a good sound effect. This is the kind of issue (again, Bendis did this a lot) where we can just soak in how much the writer loves the characters and how well he knows them, even if they’re not going anywhere new. Duggan remembered that even when she’s phased, Kate has to breathe! That’s a Claremont-era plot point from way back.
Of course Emma screwed him over. He’s an adult who does not have mutants’ best interests at heart. Emma’s moral code is that you do what needs to be done to protect kids and mutants. And Rixlo can take care of himself. (As we see later.) Is there more to say about everyday life in Mos Eisl– sorry, Port Prometheus?
Ian: I liked the little glimpse we got of life on the ground in Arrako / Mars / Galm, but I’m still not satisfied. I feel like every interaction we’ve seen between Krakoan Earth mutants and Arrakan mutants has boiled down to — “ahh, those soft Earthers!” I’d like a little more texture in their interactions, and a little more information on Arrakan society than their Breakworld-esque fixation with strength. There’s pretty much infinite room for them to develop, so I’d appreciate a little more nuance or complexity.
Stephanie: Anything’s better than Breakworld. But Arrakan-Arrakan interactions so far are mostly boring (in terms of dialogue and character interaction) even when they look awesome (as they often do): they’re less like a nuanced space opera society (the Kree at their best) than like a whole group of demons plucked from their Hell dimensions (which is what they were at the start of X of Swords) and told to develop municipal governance and a working sewer and storm drain system, and maybe schools (are there Arrakan schools?).
Frankly, Duggan’s strength so far has been his work with existing mutant characters. I’d rather see him do more with Kate and Emma than try to write a life-on-Mars book from scratch. Someone should do an all-Mars mini-series though. I’d buy that. The Arrako Chronicles.
I’ve Got a Bad Feeling About This
Ian: Well, all’s well that ends well, as Emma gets Rixlo his payment (in the form of mysterium), and then he blows the lot of them out the airlock. It’s worth noting that at least Lockheed is established as spaceworthy, so the most important Marauder is likely safe. It’s a little hard to not see this double-cross coming from a mile away, but I appreciate that it ends the issue on a nice, punchy note, and sets up a story I’m actually interested in seeing resolved.
Stephanie: Well, there is some stuff involving Lourdes Chantel at the very end, but I don’t care about that subplot yet. I do care about, um, the entire cast of the book getting killed in space. Which Sebastian Shaw, the scoundrel, practically predicts. “We can’t have our entire side of the Quiet Council in the resurrection queue. It’d be embarrassing.”
Did you notice the panel where Sebastian Shaw, of all people, says that Krakoan mutants don’t commit murder? “We do not wish to kill. There is strength in restraint.” What a jerk. And a liar. Also he has the worst hair. DId you think he was going to poison Rixlo on the spaceship when he talked about the whiskey? I mean, he knows his whiskeys. And his poisons.
Ian: Shaw’s duplicity is, at this point, kind of funny. He gets a nice moment here, sure, but god he literally can’t stop scheming.
I like that contrast to Emma, where they are both constant schemers with seemingly similar methods, but Emma has totally different motives, and at least owns her obvious scheming. She easily admits to Rixlo – perhaps too easily, in retrospect – that she took some liberties with their agreement. Shaw is still fixated on pretending to be respectable. I mean, look at him try to hustle his way into an intergalactic whiskey distribution deal. A real capitalist, that one.
As for Lourdes, well, I suppose I owe Gerry Duggan an apology. I really ripped into the way he brought Lourdes back before immediately killing her off then bringing her back then writing her off. It really felt like, for a couple issues, he had brought a character back just to immediately get rid of her. It was also poorly timed, coming in the same issues as the Wilhelmina stuff, so I had basically no credit to lend for how Marauders was treating women. Well, here she is, and I’m glad for it.
Stephanie: Shaw wants money and the power that money brings. Emma wants safety for mutants and children, especially for mutant children. Both of them are willing to break any rule in order to get what they want, but they’re…. not the same.
The Greatest Teacher, Failure Is
Stephanie: So the big story components here are the Tatto– I have to stop doing that, sorry!– Arrako scenes, the dinner party in space, and the murdery end to that dinner party, and there’s a coda with Lourdes. We’ve talked about everything except the murder. Want to talk about that? What the heck? Were you expecting anything like it?
Ian: Well, given that Lourdes is a teleporter who, a couple decades ago, was capable of cross-country teleportation, I am making what may be a foolish assumption that the Marauders may have a deus-ex-mutantis to pull their feet from the fire.
Overall, I like the direction this points for the Marauders as a whole. They kind of handle the dirty commerce aspect of Krakoa, which makes the space stuff a natural fit for their theme. It lets them play a little bit of Firefly (or, more relevant, Starjammers) without changing the overall theme of the book. Kate has lots of space experience, too, so this could be an interesting way to work that expertise into the book.
Stephanie: I hadn’t thought of Lourdes as a space savior. I figured they’d just… get resurrected. Like the A-team of X-Men did in HoXPoX after taking on the Orchis station.
That’s our second Whedon reference this review, and we should probably talk about him, since he learned (I think mostly from Claremont!) that you can kill off characters to heighten suspense, and then took that tactic in what I’d call an excessive and manipulative direction: apparently killing off all the recurring characters (except Lockheed) at once is definitely a way to up the stakes, and also mock the guy. You want a sudden character death? Here’s an (apparent) sudden character death!
Duggan’s plotting throughout this run has taken full advantage of the way Krakoan resurrection works.
Oh, and: where are the Starjammers now? Maybe they’d like to visit Galm. Sorry, Tatt– sorry, Mars. Wait, no, Arakko.
Ian: We’ve already invoked Bendis, too, and he’s the one responsible for Kate’s tenure on the Guardians, which I have not read. Look, taking the X-Men to space is likely to drag up all sorts of old stories, many of which may be best forgotten.
Stephanie: To be honest I recommend her time with the Guardians. Of all the men Kate has dated Peter Quill did the least damage, and they probably had the most fun. Not that I want to see the Guardians in this book. I do want to see the Starjammers, though. Hey, they could give lessons in space piracy! (Space-privateering. Technically speaking.)
Ian: I’ve been pretty harsh on Marauders since I took over reviewing it, but that’s mainly because I’ve felt the book is totally directionless. And when it starts trending in a direction, I’ve always been disappointed by it – be it Madripoor, or the Gala/Wilhelmina stuff, or that last issue where Jumbo Carnation beats up gangsters in a warehouse. This is the first time since I’ve started reviewing this book where I’ve really felt like things are trending in an interesting and worthwhile direction. SWORD may be the premier X-space-book, but it’s kind of stuck in crossover hell and mostly handles higher diplomacy. Marauders seems like a great place to show the new challenges that terraforming Mars has brought our mutants. It’s a new direction, but it matches our existing characters, and gives Kate (the most compelling of these characters) a starring role.
Stephanie: I agree. Best issue since the one where Kate came back. I like this direction a lot, maybe the more so because Duggan’s trips to Earth-based foreign nations like Madripoor and Ireland have been such big nopes. And Kate. Loves. Space.
That said, though: these characters aren’t growing or changing emotionally right now– neither Emma nor Kate, so far. They’re just having adventures. But they’re fun adventures. And after the recent misfires, that’s both a delight and a relief.
X-Traneous Thoughts
- Bishop says Port Prometheus keeps killing off sheriffs. Is that a joke about clichés in Westerns, or a thread Duggan can pull for a later Mars plot?
- Hey, it’s Peepers! Everyone’s Best Friend.
- Not sure how I feel about the blue phasing effect Noto applies on Kate’s phasing – I kind of liked the visual absurdity of things just being inside her. (Same, and I figured the blue was something particular to the electrics on Arrako.)
- Are the potential overlaps between Rixlo and Lando (African American double-crosser in an otherwise white story; space guy with a mustache who likes dinner parties) a concern? Or am I overthinking everything?
- Love the colors generally here– not just the costumes but the skin tones and the backgrounds. When there’s a scene change, the feels change too.
- Krakoan reads: NIGHT OF THE COMET
Stephanie Burt is Professor of English at Harvard. Her podcast about superhero role playing games is Team-Up Moves, with Fiona Hopkins; her latest book of poems is We Are Mermaids. Her nose still hurts from that thing with the gate.
Ian Gregory is a writer and co-host of giant robots podcast Mech Ado About Nothing.
