King in Black: Marauders #1: Yo-Ho-Ho and a Bottle of Symbiotic Goo

This comic is a perfect example of why you should never have preconceived notions about anything. Honestly, I’m following King In Black rather casually and you can blame that on several factors none of which reflect on the quality of the event but rather my personal peccadillos when it comes to Marvel events and characters I follow. That’s the great thing about this issue though, although Duggan and the team seem like they are going in one direction at the beginning of the book, events swiftly chart the Marauder’s crew in a new direction in an issue that isn’t so much about the King In Black event as it is about what the Marauders are doing during this period.

Duggan points the team toward New York on a rescue mission to get back two of their own and that’s what I thought the whole book would be about but this quickly changes as the Marauders answer a distress call. From there it really becomes an examination of how the team deals with the logistics of rescuing people and the complications that arise from it from figuring out what to do with some people to dishing out some “poetic” justice to some human beings that richly deserve worse. All the while Duggan gives us great character moments between so many of the characters be it Bishop and Kate or Bishop and Pyro or Magneto and Emma and Kate or even Pyro and Lockheed although Bishop and Kate get the lions share of the focus and it’s Bishop’s inner monologue we are shown throughout the issue which is a great way to start of Black History Month. in my opinion There is still the threat of Knull’s dragons and the danger of the event but the focus is very much on the Marauders doing what they do best: rescuing people and yet Duggan doesn’t pass up the chance to remind everyone of the major rules of Krakoa and at the same time has fun with getting Kate, Bishop and co to bend the rules to help out some good old homo sapiens.

There’s some genuine insight and depth from the characters this issue evidenced very much in the dynamic between Bishop and Pyro. Pyro’s distrust of “cops” even though in this instance those “cops” are his own kind in X-Force and specifically Beast, whose interaction with Bishop only serves to demonstrate how that distrust is well deserved. Overall it’s a brilliant issue from a character voice point of view. It’s a large cast but everyone from the Marauder crew to the lesser parts from say Emma to Magneto is well voiced and in character.

Luke Ross has art duties on this one and he does a sterling job all round in combination with Carlos Lopez on colors.  Ross’s characters are all distinct and facial expressions are unique and individual. really I like the expressiveness of how he draws eyes on the characters. Everyone is well drawn from the crew through the other players like Emma, Magneto, and Lockheed who is particularly cute in his style. There are no real splashes but the issue is spaciously paneled and there is good detail across all thirty-four pages. If I had to sum up the art and colors in one word it would be fun and think the X-Office could certainly let Ross have a crack at a few other X-Books as a guest in the future at the very least. Petit on letters is a consummate professional as always and Russell Dauterman continues to prove he just does not miss when it comes to covers.