***Spoiler Warning***

What’s up everyone! Welcome to Beyond The Panel. Coming at you today with talk about Marauders #11! In other words, pretty much the issue that we have been dreading since Kate was first slain. Anything other than the Marauders, Hellfire Trading Company, and all of Krakoa reeling from the death of Kate Pryde would have been unacceptable. The only mutant who couldn’t cross through the gate or be given passage to be revived.

With this issue, they jumped right into a real farewell for Kate. It was only a matter of time, but it was also worth thew wait to finally have her friends in one place to grieve, because if one thing was definitely bothersome, it was the lack of people trying to fight for a way to get her through the gates. Funny how there they all are after she is dead. Either way, it was a great scene full of hearts broken, and plenty of looks which could kill since there is only one person some might blame for what happened.

What did take me by surprise in this chapter was them actually reaching a point where there was a resolution to Kate’s problem. There might be some out there who will call this a rush job, but I see things differently. Most of us have been waiting for this issue, though what we were waiting for was the funeral service, nothing else like what happened in this issue. Even then, it has been some time since Kate’s death. So attempts were made, all reaching to this point where someone would have thought of something that no one else did about her situation. Aside from this, there was only one other thing which happened that I’m glad they didn’t hold off for too long. That being the arrival of the one person who could shed some light on what happened to Kate. This mystery too was only going to hold for so long. Kate’s death would have otherwise been too clean, and any other answer leading to it would have been too convenient.

That said, I’m glad for what transpired here, because there was another conversation that needed to come from Kate’s death. This of course being the conversation about kept secrets. Xavier has been playing a bold game since Krakoa became a thing for the mutants, and something just doesn’t sit right about the difficulty this one mutant has had with interacting with the island.

This brings us to the interior work from this art team. Again Stefano Caselli has made for an excellent addition as penciler for this book. Issues like this one you could easily engage with because he does such a great job with putting life into his characters. For this issue in particular, I enjoyed the panels here and there where he tossed in a close-up. A look can say a thousand words, and there was no better time than now to create that visual when everyone has feelings over Kate’s death. Even Emma who you are never too used to seeing this shaken up over another person. The anger, frustration, even the tears did not hurt to see from her. As for the color work, consistently great, which is all that you could ever really ask for from Edgar Delgado on this book. With this issue taking place on Krakoa mostly, there was of course the natural beauty his colors were able to bring out in the settings.

In the end, Marauders #11 was a solid issue for the way they set a new game in play. The time for grief has passed, and with this bunch right here? Somebody is in some trouble.