The Marauders is a team of mutant warriors who originally worked for Mister Sinister. Under his orders, they performed assassinations, kidnappings, murder, and other illegal activities. More recently during the Dawn of X event, Kitty Pryde formed a new team of Marauders who protected mutant travelers and refugees.

The Original Marauders

The original team was created by Chris Claremont, John Romita, Jr., and Dan Green, 40 years ago in The Uncanny X-Men #210 (October 1986). The team consisted of established villains Sabretooth and Vertigo, and introduced Riptide, Malice, Arclight, Scrambler, Harpoon, and Scalphunter. Their story began during the “Mutant Massacre” crossover when they were sent to kill the Morlocks. Blockbuster and Prism joined the team later in X-Factor #10.

Mister Sinister worked mostly in the shadows, not appearing with the team until several issues after their creation. Much later, it was revealed that Gambit had been behind recruiting and organizing the team. Once Marauders died, Mister Sinister would clone them so that he could reuse them again, and he programmed them to shut down if they considered betraying him.

A new incarnation of the Marauders included new team leader Chimera with Blockbuster, Arclight, Prism, Harpoon, and Vanisher. Then Mister Sinister created the next version of the team with Aries, Coda, Chimera, and Azimuth.

Kitty Pryde’s Marauders

In 2019, the X-Men titles went through a reboot in the Dawn of X event. Mutant allies and former enemies came together to live on the island of Krakoa where sanctuary was offered to all mutants. They traveled to and from Krakoa using teleportation gateways. Unfortunately, some countries did not recognize Krakoa and would block the local gates from mutants who wanted to travel between the island and home.

Kitty Pryde created a new team of Marauders to protect mutants using those gates. Former X-Men including Storm, Iceman, and Bishop were joined by Pyro to be on the team. Once most of the mutants relocated to Krakoa, Kitty Pryde’s Marauders became a search and rescue squad for missing mutants.