Mauraders #16: A Dram Before Bed

This issue retook the slack spooled out by the “X of Swords” event. After a prologue wherein Storm and Bishop unpack Shaw’s plans, the pace slams into gear with Kate and Emma riding to meet Shaw on a pair of horses (does she not remember Butter Rum? That’s a joke, Frost fans. Emma’s wonderful in this book) in his ominous crystalline mansion in Hellfire Bay. Shaw is not expecting company — nor was he anticipating Kate greeting him by phasing through the door and giving him a couple of  good, old fashioned one-two punches. His power wasn’t a problem for very long (Emma brought her nullifier gun) and what followed was, well, basically a montage of Shaw getting the shit kicked out of him in a series of new and inventive ways, punctuated (empathically) by him taking a swig of something that definitely was neither whiskey or rum.

All of this could have been extraordinarily brutal, were the gore (and there is plenty of gore) not cut with incredibly witty dialogue (‘You’ve just been carrying an eye patch around with you?’ ‘ I thought that I might need it sometime’) and some truly excellent characterization. Shaw came off as what he is — a being so steeped in toxic masculinity that it actually makes him stupid. Storm was wonderful as a brutal mother, permanently pissed at the man who murdered her kid. And Emma, well, Emma is complicated. Is she Kate’s other momma— or is there something else going on? Claremont hinted at some (deeply inappropriate: Kate was 13) attraction between the two of them. Now that Kate’s an adult, the situation is very different. There has been a lot of tension between them, of one kind or another, from the start. It would be profoundly disappointing if Kate’s new acceptance of her sexuality was relegated to hints and surreptitious hints in the margins of the panels, but it doesn’t look like that is happening. And Emma did hold Kate’s hand for just a beat too long for a straight chick. 

As for the art, I am a huge fan of Caselli’s line work. Kate looks like a woman, not a child — even when she’s got her cheeks puffed out with liquor. His acting was plastic when it needed to be, and regal when appropriate.

In short, this series is wonderful.  I have rarely been so satisfied with the work on an X-Book. Do yourselves a favor and read this as soon as possible.