Marauders Annual Begins New Era for Kate Pryde’s X-Men Team

Marvel Comics has announced the release of Marauders Annual #1 which will feature Kate Pryde seeking to recruit a new Marauders team in the wake of the ongoing Inferno event, which is set to redefine the X-Men‘s status quo, paying off on Jonathan Hickman’s recent revamp of the franchise.

Gerry Duggan and Matteo Lolli’s Marauders was first announced back in 2019 as one of the six titles of Marvel’s relaunch of the X-Men comics with the ‘Dawn of X’ initiative. The series followed Kate “Kitty” Pryde as she took to the high seas to travel the world, saving mutants. After the island of Krakoa announced itself to the world as a sovereign nation for mutants, several countries leaped to block mutants from traveling to the haven through its biotech teleportation gateways. Herself unable to use the gateways due to an issue with her phasing powers, Kate was tasked with forming a crew and rescuing those mutants being prevented from journeying to Krakoa. Kate’s original crew consisted of Bishop, Storm, Iceman, and Pyro, and the series saw the team clash with tyrannical governments and supervillain business mogul Sebastian Shaw.

Now, Marvel has announced that – in the aftermath of the Inferno miniseries – many of its ongoing titles will be changing. Marauders will be among those titles, with Steve Orlando taking over from Gerry Duggan as the series’ writer. Orlando’s run will begin in January with the release of Marauders Annual #1, by Steve Orlando and Crees Lee. In its announcement, Marvel states, “Orlando will launch the book with an exciting cast shakeup and a threat that strikes at the heart of the mutant nation of Krakoa.” The first issue will see Kate and her new team consisting of Bishop, Psylocke, Aurora, and Tempo launch a rescue mission to save Wolverine’s son Daken from the villain Brimstone Love.

As a series, Marauders has proved a massive hit with fans. Kate Pryde, former leader of both the X-Men and the Guardians of the Galaxy, has been a fan-favorite since her introduction in 1980 and putting her on the high seas as a modern superhero swashbuckler was a masterstroke that allowed for a surprising degree of character development. Orlando’s run on the series looks as though it’s going to continue catering to dedicated X-Men fans, both old and new. The series will feature the present-day debut of Brimstone Love from Marvel’s 2099 timeline, and feature Somnus, a recent addition to the Marvel Universe in Marvel’s Voices: Pride #1.

After the sure-to-be cataclysmic events of Inferno, it’s exciting to see that a team with little name recognition but plenty of fan investment will return in a new form. The Marauders and Kate Pryde are set to continue as staples of the X-Men franchise, and fans eager to experience the next chapter in their saga should make sure to pick up Marauders Annual #1 on January 12.

Source: Marvel

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