WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Marauders #2, by Gerry Duggan, Matteo Lolli, Federico Blee, VC's Cory Petit and Tom Muller, on sale now.
After the House of X/Powers of X relaunch, all of the X-Men have relocated to the island nation of Krakoa. Thanks to the use of special portals only accessible to mutants, mutants all over the world can now access the island and start a new life in this safe haven.
However, one fan-favorite X-Man who, for a reason that has yet to be revealed, cannot cross through the portals. Whenever Kitty (who'd rather you start calling her Kate now) Pryde attempts to reach Krakoa, the portal turns solid and impenetrable to her.
But the X-Woman known as Shadowcat doesn't let that stop her from helping others. As it turns out, there are plenty of mutants all around the world who are forcibly being kept from the Krakoan portals, and she has established a new team, the Marauders, to sail around the globe and help as many of them as she can.
Kate's team is a subdivision of the Hellfire Trading Company, the evolved form of the Hellfire Club that's overseen by Emma Frost, the White Queen and Sebastian Shaw, the Black King. But there is one seat left open -- that of the Red Queen.
For some time now, it's been an open secret that Kitty Pryde would join the Hellfire Company's leadership as the Red Queen, and in Marauders #2, she finally accepts the position. But she does so by embracing her new identity completely. And she does that by ditching her old X-Men costume and embracing what she now is: a pirate.
In Marauders #1, Kitty put her new crew together while wearing her classic yellow and blue X-Men costume. However, there was already a sailing flair to her look when she added a red scarf to her ensemble. With constant bruises on her face from her sea-faring adventures, Kitty led the Marauders on their first mission on a small, weary boat.
But all of that changes in the second issue of the series. Thanks to Emma Frost and the deep pockets of the Hellfire Trading Company, the Marauders now have a highly armored and weaponized yacht, The Maruader, as their base of operations. But even though their mode of transportation is pristine and fancy, Kitty still keeps her rebellious edge. The name Marauders was picked because her team's possibly illegal actions can't be tied back directly to the X-Men and Krakoa. On the sea, the Marauders are pirates, and Kitty embraces that identity fully.
Taking on the responsibility of the Red Queen, the former Shadowcat is no longer one of the yellow and blue X-Men. Instead, she trades her costume for a long red trench coat that not only emulates her status as the Hellfire's Red Queen, but a sea-bound criminal. With a white blouse, sailor's boots and large belt, Kitty's outfit makes it clear that she is now the captain of her ship. Better yet, she now wields a sword as a weapon, and she even takes the pirate motif even further by getting her knuckles tattooed with the words "hold fast."
As it stands, Kitty Pryde, the X-Man, is gone. In her place now stands Kate Pryde, the pirate captain of The Marauder and the Hellfire Company's new Red Queen.