There are a lot of comics out there, but some just stand out head and shoulders above the pack. With “Don’t Miss This” we want to spotlight those series we think need to be on your pull list. This week, we look at “Marauders” by Gerry Duggan, Matteo Lolli, and Federico Blee.
Who Is This By?
Gerry Duggan is widely known for his work with Marvel Comics. His most famous position was as the writer for “Deadpool” between 2012 and 2018, but he also has had runs on “Nova” from 2013 to 2015, “Hulk” through the ‘Omega Hulk’ storyline from 2014 to 2015, “Star Wars: Chewbacca” in 2015, “Uncanny Avengers” from 2015 to 2017, and many more comics besides. For DC Comics, Duggan wrote the “Arkham Manor” miniseries from 2014 to 2015. With Image Comics, Duggan worked on “The Last Christmas” in 2006 with Rick Remender and common “Deadpool” collaborator Brian Posehn, and wrote “The Infinite Horizon” from 2007 to 2011, which was nominated for an Eisner Award for Best New Series in 2008. Outside of comics, Duggan also contributed to the script of the Xbox video game Sunset Overdrive.
Illustrator Matteo Lolli also has an extensive history with Marvel Comics. He illustrated various “Marvel Adventures” comics from 2008-2009. Afterward, he penciled the years of 2016 through 2018 in Duggan’s “Deadpool” run, 2014-2015’s “Hawkeye vs. Deadpool,” and several other “Deadpool” stories, along with 2018-2019’s “Asgardians of the Galaxy.”
Compared to his co-creators, colorist Federico Blee does not have as extensive a bibliography. However, his work with Marvel is also of note. He provided colors for “She-Hulk” comics from 2017 to 2018, the comic adaptation of “Solo: A Star Wars Story” in 2018, “Asgardians of the Galaxy” from 2018 to 2019, and “Iceman” in 2019. He has also been continuing his work on the backup stories for “Aero” that began in 2019 as well.
Aside from the original illustrator, there are several others, from the most recent issue to others coming soon. Michele Bandini is known for her illustration of “Captain Marvel” from 2017 to 2018, along with her more recent pencils on “Marvel’s Spider-Man: City at War” in 2019. Lucas Werneck is known for various single issues in the likes of BOOM! Studios’ “Power Rangers” or “WWE,” but has also had a two-issue run in 2016’s “Harley Quinn” and a single issue in “Age of X-Man: NextGen.” Stefano Caselli has had a widely varied history as an illustrator, with stories ranging from “Hack/Slash” at Image Comics to “Avengers,” “Spider-Man,” “Venom,” and much more at Marvel and others beyond.
What’s It All About?
Unlike most mutants since the start of the Jonathan Hickman-helmed ‘Dawn of X’ line, Kate Pryde (formerly known as Kitty Pryde) cannot use the Gateways of Krakoa to enter the island, for reasons unknown. Left to drift and act as a bootlegger for her friends, she has fallen from her position as a schoolteacher (due to the lack of a school) and is relatively isolated from most of mutantkind. Wallowing in alcohol and sarcasm, she takes up the role of protecting mutants abroad as well as helping to control and limit the black market interests of other Krakoans by way of the Hellfire Trading Company, formerly known as the Hellfire Club. Employed by and partner to the White Queen, Emma Frost, Kate acts as the captain of her own privateer enterprise in the vein of a modern take on Age of Sail pirates, forming the group known as the “Marauders” alongside the likes of Iceman (Bobby Drake), Storm (Ororo Munroe), and Pyro (St. John Allerdyce), not to mention Kate’s good friend and pet Lockheed the draconic Flock.
Aside from having to deal with villains outside of the country, she and Emma seem to have a mutual enemy in Sebastian Shaw, the Black King of the Hellfire Trading Company and their rival on the Spring sector of the governing Quiet Council of Krakoa.
What Makes It So Great?
“Marauders” is something essential that many comics should strive for: fun. While Kate’s trials and tribulations are rather sad on one level, with her seemingly going through what is essentially a midlife crisis between her heavy drinking, devil-may-care attitude, and random flings as she takes up her pirate persona, the way Duggan writes the story around her makes it relatively easy to overlook some of the sadder parts and focus in on the ridiculous events that transpire, such as battles borderline played for laughs and agreements between different sides of a conflict outside of others’ sight.
Continued belowOn the other hand, outside of the action-heavy piracy, we have the machinations of the Hellfire Trading Company itself, with the political maneuvering between the various Monarchs as they try to keep the upper hand in the increasingly global focus of Krakoan policy. These scenes between Emma Frost and Sebastian Shaw act as framing devices for the behavior of the Marauders themselves, and while calm are also indicative of the more “civil” side of interpersonal conflict in the book, showing how someone can be torn down physically or verbally on top of, as our privateers show, financially.
How Can You Read It?
“Marauders” is available wherever comic books are sold. “Marauders” #3 is available today, and subsequent issues release roughly, though not exclusively, every other week.
