Where It All Began: Reviewing ‘Maruaders’ #7

In the time since the revolutionary form of resurrection that mutants now enjoy was revealed in 2019’s House of X, the system has undergone many changes. From the Crucible to bring back the depowered mutants to the Waiting Room doorway that Wanda created to bring back those who died before the Cerebro backups began, it’s only reached further to right wrongs with mutants gone too soon. Now not even time itself can stop the return of mutants.

Thanks to the timely (not sorry at all) arrival of Cerebra, displaced from 2099, the Marauders and the Five have managed to bring back the last three Enriched, as they call themselves, from Threshold. These individuals and their lost companions were the original mutants essentially.

When it comes to the X-Men line I often feel like there are far too many time-displaced folks and far too many other mutation-related groups being folded in all the time, causing others to fade back into the background each time. One of the frustrations many have is that there are so many mutants/x-characters that often people go years without their favorite even getting to be background cameo material. Yet, surprisingly, I do not have an issue with any of what Steve Orlando is adding to the line here. In fact, I feel the complete opposite.

Maybe I’m a sucker for building out even more depth for a world, but the idea of an ancient society of mutants that were living and thriving (until war and their own viral creations turned on them) is not only a solid one but one that opens this already vast universe even more. At the same time, the addition of Cerebra not only brings in an awesome character from Marvel 2099 it brings in representation with Shakti Haddad being of Indian descent, one of many areas of representation that even the Mutant nation is light on. Using her to also alter ways that resurrection can be done is just inspired, as it keeps evolving a process that could have just become a passee stuck in place as a background element rather than an intriguing feature to the new status quo. 

Also, that last page reveal of who/what destroyed Threshold is not per se a deep cut, but definitely one that would catch most off guard as it wasn’t a concept that I ever thought would come back up. In fact, it’s been nearly a decade since the last time they were even touched. Orlando is really enjoying pulling out bits and pieces from X-history and I’m all here for it. 

With this issue, Eleonora Carlini returns to handle the series art, alongside regular colorist Matt Milla and Rachelle Rosenberg who joins him on the coloring duties. In the first issues of this run, there were a lot of action scenes and gorgeous space work for Carlini to bring to life, and there is some action here but we get a lot more character-focused work here and it’s still quirky and beautiful, and fun. There is a smoothness to the art that flows across the page so well, no matter what is happening, yet there is also a sort of sharpness to what Carlini brings to the page. Part of that comes from the just varied types of panels that are on display, angular and slashing across the page making every page just vastly different from the other as it helps keep everything moving swiftly. 

There are a lot of similarities in the work that Milla and Rosenberg are doing here, making it hard to even tell where one’s work ends and the other one begins. This is exactly what one would want in a situation like this to make things one smooth collaboration on all fronts. Their colors are slick and soft with a lot of pops of vivid brightness that at the same time have a weight to them as these colors are toned down somewhat. It allows the work to be whimsical and superhero-like but also keeps a bit of reality and seriousness around. Those previous space issues came with a ton of vivid reds and purples, here there are a lot more powerful greens and yellows to be found especially in the realm of Krakoa. 

Great lettering work comes with an energy and a power that gives the words within these pages a distinct personality. Ariana Maher is a great letterer and this always shows up on the pages. I’ve mentioned it before but I really enjoy when Maher employs the sentence case in dialogue, as it sets a nice baseline for volume/tone within an issue so that anything that deviates, whether lower or higher, it’s inherently clear where that character is in any given moment. It’s the same sort of vibe that comes with the variety of SFX that are to be found within the pages, ranging from more ‘normal’ leveled ones to those that are big bright bold, and loud on a page so that they cannot ever be missed as they add to the story. 

Marauders #7 is now available from Marvel Comics.