Marauders #2 Spoilery Review and Discussion - The Red Coronation

[Veitha]

The issue opens up with a data page from the US Navy. They've been tracking the Marauders and the Hellfire Ships for a while now, even though Storm is making it hard for their satellites to track them. The US Navy theory is that the Marauders are just a big flashy show to draw eyes elsewhere while the true drugs shipping takes place elsewhere.

Cut to the preview scene with the Cuckoos first and the Hellfire meeting next, where we see Emma messing around with Shaw and making fun of his money problems and bad investments.
Essentially Shaw has been moving Krakoan drugs to rich countries, invading Emma's territory and breaking his part of the deal (he should only deal with the black market).

Because of this now Emma is going to punish him and show him that he shouldn't try to work behind her back. She sends the Marauders to catch a ship that was to reach an African country that couldn't get the drugs, but that was instead diverted by Shaw to a rich country house to profit from the drugs selling.

Badroc the Leaper is the mercenary that has been hired by Shaw to bring the drugs to the new location, and the team fight him and his crew.
Nice scene with Ororo being kicked by Batroc and being like "I should kill him now. But I swore not to kill goddammit". They fight, Pyro is overzealous and very fun to watch and in the end Batroc tries to work out a deal with Kitty. They'll split the money and then send the drugs to the original destination, but Kitty says they don't care about money now (Krakoa grows it on trees quite literally) so they're going to sink everything. They leave Batroc and his crew at sea while the Costal Guard heads there to arrest them.

After Bobby and Pyro try to sell the ship they head to Taipei to meet with Bishop. But first they go clubbing and they get drunk because why not.

When they meet with Bishop, he tells them about Xavier's assassination. Quite bummed about it, the Marauders go to a tatoo shop to drink and get a tatoo. Except no one wants one (for various, kinda hilarious reasons), except Pyro who is all in for this new heroic role and gets a freaking skull tattoo on his whole face. I love him.

Emma and Shaw are arguing in the meantime. Shaw says that stealing the ship and sinking the goods has hurt him economically and that he wants something in return for that excessive measure: he wants to choose who will sit on the Red Throne. Emma says to him that no way she'll let him choose, in fact she had already covered up, even before Shaw was brought back to the Hellfire Club. She's always had in mind who the Red King/Queen would be and, when she was the only one in charge, she elected him/her.

She then telepatically sends Gateway (nice to see him! And working for Ems. Gen X throwback) to get them in Taipei and go to London for Kate's coronation. They get there and see their new, shiny ship : the Marauder, that is as big and excessive as you'd expect from a ship commisioned by Emma Frost. Oh and there's guns.

The crew is left there, while Kitty heads for the Hellfire Club, where Shaw is losing his mind and he gets so angry that he even smashes Emma on a wall and she's like "what are you even going to do to stop us other than having to repay me for the broken wall?". Right at that moment Kitty shows up and announces that she is the new Red Queen.

There's a data page with the new Hellfire hierarchy. No more Queens and Kings, just monarchs with a bishop and a knight each. Christian Frost is the only one that has already been elected, as the White Bishop.