By Steve Morris
As I’m writing this, the Tories have basically just told the world that they’re going to break international law. This follows several years of Donald Trump repeatedly breaking the law himself with no repercussions, and in the wake of a social media revolution which has explained how concepts like “bail” are designed to only apply to poor people. Rich people can just pay it off, and not blink twice about whatever law they broke. It’s a world where the people at the very top get to design all the rules, and don’t have to be accountable for any of them. Even as half the Conservative back-bench are apparently on cocaine at this very moment, thousands of people are in jail for supplying them with their stock. As we say in Yorkshire whenever we have to think about the people at the top “it’s one rule for me, and one rule for thee”.
That’s why Marauders has been such a satisfying read across the past six issues. It’s cathartic. It’s a book where the powerful are repeatedly shown that their position is an invented concept, and doesn’t matter when you’re facing up against an intangible force with a sword and pet dragon. Marauders has followed Kate as she’s come face to face with several people who have said “I’m too important for you to hurt me” moments before she’s punched them in the face. As she moves from villain to villain in this issue, she does her damage and moves on quickly, finding newer and more powerful adversaries hiding behind each other. Here we have white supremacists who are backed by the sovereign nation of Madripoor, which is represented by two people who have nothing to do with Madripoor at all.
They in turn are backed by money from Sebastian Shaw, who is meant to be one of Kate’s current allies. And then it looks like he’s either being backed by Verendi or working alongside them. The weaponry of ground-level terrorists and extremists is provided through layers and layers of authority, which fundamentally wants one thing: for everything to stay the same as it always has. They want the feeling of power, and they want the money that comes with it, and they don’t want anyone else to take any opportunity or threaten them with competition.
Kate stabs the extremists and throws the “representatives” of Madripoor overboard. Get in the sea.
She doesn’t know who Verendi are, and has no idea she’s been betrayed by Shaw until it’s too late. It mirrors the feeling i think many of us have had in recent days: there are so many corrupt people screwing us over that it’s impossible to focus and take them out one at a time. Kate knocks out three separate threats and saves the day, only to be attacked from behind by Shaw, who sinks her ship and kills her. She spits venom until the end, realising that she can’t save Lockheed. She dies defiantly, and Shaw then sits on the deck of his luxury yacht and soaks in the sunshine.
In the real world, that’s where the story ends, and Kate becomes another revolutionary lost to a noble cause. But this is comics, and her revolution doesn’t have to end just because she’s died. I don’t think any of us could be prepared for how the last few years have radicalised us all – yet something is only radical whilst authority is resisting against it. A punch to the face from Kate Pryde would be just the thing to end that resistance for good, wouldn’t it?
Marauders #6: A Time To Reap
Writer: Gerry Duggan
Artists: Matteo Lolli and Mario Del Pennino
Colourist: Erick Arciniega and Federico Blee
Letterer: Cory Petit
Designer: Tom Muller
Steve Morris runs this site! Having previously written for sites including The Beat, ComicsAlliance, CBR and The MNT, he can be found on Twitter here. He’s a bunny.
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