House of X and Powers of X are hard acts to follow. Despite taking on the load of setting up a new status quo, they are undeniably the most potent issues of the last decade for the X-Men. However, with the new status quo established, here is where books can really take off. Hickman has his X-Men ongoing, but what about the oddball corners of the Marvel Universe?

No book comes more oddball or off the wall than Marauders. Gerry Duggan is the one steering this vessel, with artist Matteo Lolli and colorist Federico Blee at the mainsails. Cory Petit letters the pages while working the poop deck, and this ends the strained nautical euphemisms.

At some point during the events of HoX, Ororo Munroe and Nightcrawler are showing some mutants the way to Central Park’s Krakoa gateway. Kitty Pryde is with them, and all goes well… until the portal rejects her the way, one might run into a wall at 30 miles an hour. Kitty is nothing but resourceful, so she steals a boat and sails to Krakoa the long way. Once she arrives, Emma Frost has a job offer: sail the seas and distribute the mutant drugs intended for mankind safely. The captain of the first ship of the Hellfire Trading Company. With Krakoa apparently having a mad-on for Kitty, what decision does she make?

This is nothing short of a delightful and wondrous book. Gerry Duggan has an excellent knack for getting characters down and did a fantastic job with her and the rest of the cast. Kathryn Pryde has never been written this well in a good, long time. Kitty feels like a natural extension of her days with Excalibur and meshes well with the days of Bendis. Dialogue is bright and happy, with plenty of perfectly timed humor and enough weight when needed for drama. It is also an utter delight to see the return of Pyro, the original Pyro who died of the Legacy Virus in the 90s. While he was never that deep a character, Duggan breathes some new life into the character with nuance and reactions to the whole reinvention of the X-line.

The art is as spectacular as the writing. Matteo Lolli has a real knack for body language (or perhaps Bobby language), with Iceman being a particular treat. The brief Wolverine cameo screams the needed emotions and works perfectly without even needing the written word. Action is beautifully done and utterly brutal when it needs to be executed. Times like this, it’s easy to tell that Kate was trained in the arts of ninjutsu… and also trained in combat by Wolverine himself. It’s hard to see a comic looking better this week, and few can match this presentation.

Books like this are why people need to read comics, and is a wonderful addition to the X-line. Go get this book yesterday.

Grade: A+