• • Comic Book Reviews
• January 12, 2022

Marauders #27 Review

Written by: Gerry Duggan

Art by: Matteo Lolli, Phil Noto

Coloring by: Rain Beredo, Phil Noto

Lettering by: VC’s Cory Petit

Marauders was my favorite X-Men book at the beginning of Dawn of X. Among the original 6 titles, it still remains my favorite. Marauders #27 is an end to that story, with a new creative team and cast starting this year, and I don’t know if this is the best way to end it. Like the last issue of Excalibur, this spent a lot of time setting things up for the next series, but where Excalibur had been building for issues, everything here feels so random here.

Kind of like when Storm left the series a few issues ago, Emma Frost’s departure feels artificial. Marauders #27 acts like she’s done so many great things when she’s done far more in other books. I don’t love Marauders because I feel a lot is happening, I love Marauders because it’s fun misadventures on a pirate ship. There are a lot of fantastic story moments, mostly revolving around Emma Frost and Kate Pryde kicking the shit out of Sebastian Shaw, but after that plot line finished, the book focused more on being about fun misadventures than anything serious.

I appreciated it because it was a breath of fresh air from the other books that all had some grand and forlorn conclusion they were building to. Marauders #27 doesn’t feel like a conclusion to the series it became.

This issue has a lot of goodbyes, promotions, and send-offs that it hasn’t earned. That’s more than a bit disappointing because this series is legitimately great, and deserves a more tonally consistent send-off. It’s not bad, it’s certainly worth reading, but if you’ve read every issue of Marauders so far, it’s going to feel more than a little strange.