Marauders #23: Click Click, Boom Boom

This issue was considerably better than the last. There was less loss of agency and more explosions, which was a tremendous relief. Most of the action took place in a warehouse filled with Reavers, Russian and Irish mobsters, and Sean Cassidy and since the focus was on the Marauders being badasses and Tempo finally getting some character development, it was a large step up from last month’s cringeworthy misogynistic misfire. I’ll start this review by examining the book’s strengths, before moving on to areas where the story fell down or could have been improved.

First off, as I hinted in the recap, it was wonderful to see Banshee back in action. The last time that he had a real role in a story he was basically a Deathseed Zombie, so it’s good to see that he’s taken advantage of the Resurrection Protocols. As ever, when Banshee and Emma are in the same room their friendship steals the focus, and it was wonderful to see a bit of their old Gen X chemistry.

As I mentioned, it was great to see Tempo finally getting fleshed out. Her stab at redemption is considerably less problematic than Emma’s last week. In any case, Tempo is depicted as feeling regret for her part of the MLF and was willing to see herself exploded as a means of realigning her own moral balance. As a result, we got to see an absolutely fantastic scene with Tempo and Red Queen Kate Pryde surviving an explosion, and one can only hope that there’s more to come as the story progresses. 

I have to say that I preferred the Cuckoo’s actions in this story to their rough retraumatizing of Wilhelmina in the last issue. Abuse stops when the abusers are publicly shamed, and since they carried out their public shaming of the elder Kensington with Wilhelmina’s full consent, it worked.

I have to say that I absolutely loved watching Jumbo Carnation hulking out and destroying the mafia(s). He is an undervalued character, with a great deal of potential, and it’s wonderful to see him in the spotlight.

I thought that the construction of this story was very good. I’m probably not going to be revisiting it later, but I enjoyed it. The one aspect that I really disliked was some of the art. Throughout most of the book we were treated to individualistic faces, good acting, and some excellent scenery. But I have to say that sometimes the expressions bugged me. There are a few very anime-like moments that don’t really fit with the feel of the book as a whole and really distracted me. If they had been consistently deployed, or not present at all, I would have enjoyed it more. 

Taken as a whole, this issue was a dramatic improvement over the last. It was a fun read, with good art and an enjoyable story. What more could you ask for?