Marauders #14 (XoS 13 of 22): A Dance With The Death

There’s few surprises in this issue of Marauders. From the moment you enter Wolverine’s first person narrative to the first scenes before the feast, every possible twist is planted as a seed to be opened later, in a narrative that feels like a filler issue on the grand scheme of things that is “X Of Swords.” But Marauders #14 is trying to sell its details, not an innovative or surprising plot or structure, so let’s get into them.

The purpose of presenting a bunch of the contestants with their adversaries is going through all the issue: Cypher gets threatened by Bei, Magik-Uh-Magik meets Pogg Ur-Pogg, both Magik and Gorgon test Isca, and, as it’s more than teased in the cover, Ororo and Death have a dance. I’m not personally a fan of Duggan’s humor so most of these didn’t make an impression on me reading, but some interactions (like Wolvie and Brian’s cocky moment) feel really tense and parodic at the same time, which is what the issue was going for: To entertain you as a waiting room for what’s to come. There’s various degrees in which, while doing this, some characterizations feel off in these characters, as they get overshadowed by the ideas in the mind of the writers. I could quote Magik’s swashbuckler exaggerated attitude as her solely defining trait, but, for me, the biggest sample of this are the scenes that lead to Storm’s dance, which is coincidently shown as the most dramatic moment.

Some of the decisions of both Marauders and “XoS” have been in favor of giving the fans cool things to be excited about. I mean cool as in fanservice, but also as in newfangled or aesthetically appealing. From the point of view of catching interest in a story, that is a really good decision. But here, in the actual execution of it, I feel like Storm’s (possibly performative) chemistry with Death isn’t really working on the big scheme. In a rational way, seeing Ororo’s life as constantly dancing with death is a good idea. But the few lines dropped about it, while she and Death (the character, the mutant, Apocalypse’s son) take a long sensualized dance that resembles tango (which in itself is a nice touch), don’t come as much impacting, believable or poignant. They don’t add a lot of information or depth to the cover or the story being told. And, in turn, that cover feels newfangled and interest-catching too, but not weighty or revealing. Plus, the unrealistic posturing and over-stylized feel of it falls on this same flat line.

The art, in pair with the rest of the narrative, focuses on details a lot without making meaningful emotional connections between the scenes, in a way that sometimes feels cold and sometimes witty or funny. That also reflects on the facial expressions and body posturing, which sometimes feels unnatural and stereotyped, like the unrealistic cleavage in the women or the overexaggerated torsos and abs of the men. On the other hand, it definitely wins expression and openness in the most action packed scenes (and especially Wolverine, who shines in this issue). The colors are of almost every palette imaginable through all the issue, and that sometimes overloads the reader, but it also works in sync with the tense scenes or shifts in narrative, where color changes greatly.