By Rebecca Gault — The relaunched Marauders, as Destiny of X kicks off, is a series that feels likely to become one of the books with the greatest consequences to the stability of Krakoa — Cassandra Nova, anyone? — and this week’s Marauders Annual #1 goes a good way towards setting that up. 

In Marauders Annual #1, we get a lot of moving pieces; there is a new crew to assemble after all and many characters to move into place before the launch of the new book in March. However, that doesn’t mean that this issue is short of stakes. We open on Akihiro, out in the field, and putting up a memory flare (a concept that is almost certainly rich with implications for how mutants both on and off Krakoa can communicate with one another) before undergoing a truly traumatic event, all in the name of unity and Love, of course.

With writer Steve Orlando taking the helm, figuratively and literally in the Marauders’ case, the writing here sparkles with a lot of intention — Orlando knows where he is taking the audience and does so at a brisk speed and some decisive character beats. Tempo has an especially shining moment here where we truly see how her mutation impacts her life. It’s a beat that crystallizes why her position on the Marauders might just be perfect. 

Some of these character beats don’t quite hit exactly as effectively — Psylocke’s, in particular, feels like a retread of old ground, but it is perhaps necessary in universe in order to move her into the appropriate place for the story to unfold. This is the moment where the machinations of such a shared universe become visible to a reader but it is easily overlooked within such a fast-paced issue. 

Creees Lee’s art seems just as dynamic as Orlando’s writing, decisively handling group scenes that, in lesser hands, could have become little more than a jumble of ill-defined faces. Yet, it is Petit’s lettering that really shines here with some magnificent and intuitive uses of space throughout — especially notable are the gutter-invading, threatening RUMBLE and the intense, unrelenting LOVEs scattered through the pages. Petit’s lettering steps up the true horror of the crux of this issue. 

There are those who would stand against Krakoa and they seem to be mobilizing. It’s a thread that is left intentionally loose and there is no doubt that a writer — whether that be Orlando or someone else in the X-Office — will pull on it sooner rather than later. 

It is fitting then that this is coming fresh off the back of Jonathan Hickman’s Inferno. Both seem to be concerned with shaking the foundations of Krakoa. Whether it will endure is not really the question at hand; instead, it is about how a nation reckons with the fallacies it is built upon.

The final pages offer a mysterious hook for the official relaunch, a thread that readers are left to chew on for the upcoming months but, if Orlando’s run on Marauders is as quick and dynamic as this annual is, we can certainly be promised a sea-faring romp that just might have significant consequences for the standing of Krakoa in the wider world.

Overall: A fast-paced, slick introduction to this new dynamic for the Marauders team that can occasionally feel like it has too many parts to move into place in one issue. 8.0/10

REVIEW: Marauders Annual #1

Marauders Annual #1 
Writer: Steve Orlando 
Artist: Creees Lee 
Colorist: Rain Beredo
Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit
Publisher: Marvel Comics
A NEW CREW SETS SAIL! With Kate Pryde at the helm, the Marauders are ready to renew their mission of mutant rescue! She’s got the mission—all she needs now is a new boat and a fresh crew to match. Pryde and Bishop must unite a crew of mutants, new and old, to spring Daken from imprisonment at the hands of a leader who’s as cruel as he is charismatic: the primal provocateur known as Brimstone Love! It’s the Marauders versus the Theater of Pain, a torture troupe that’s set up shop in Xavier’s School’s old backyard! Come aboard for the first adventure as Steve Orlando takes the helm with our sea-faring mutants!
Price: $4.99
Catch-Up on Marauders: Marauders, Vol. 1

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Rebecca is a literature student by day, a freelance writer by night, and a comics fan always. She is a big fan of everything superheroic and horrific. Right now, she can be found on Twitter at @phoenixfcrce.