WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Marauders #11, by Gerry Duggan, Stefano Caselli, Edgar Delgado & VC's Cory Petit, on sale now
Despite their rising prominence in the world, Krakoa's mutants have had to deal with a fair share of threats and tragedies. Perhaps the most devastating has been the loss of Kate Pryde. Her inability to be resurrected has been a sore spot since it was discovered. But sometimes, good things do happen to good people.
And in Marauders #11, Shadowcat has finally been resurrected by the Five -- thanks to Emma Frost realizing the surprisingly simple reason behind Krakoa's greatest failure.
One of the greatest gifts that Krakoa has given the mutant population is the power of restoration. Any time any mutant is killed, the Five -- a select group of powerful mutants -- work in concert to create a new body to house a perfect copy of their minds and memories. Only one mutant has proven incapable of being restored: Kate Pryde. Secretly murdered by Sebastian Shaw in a bid for power, the Five have mysteriously failed to restore Kate Pryde. Each time they make a new body for Kate, she doesn't break out of her pod like other mutants. Instead, the body dies within its pod.
Given her already strange relationship with Krakoa, such as her inability to cross through the Krakoa Gates, it's been speculated that something might be different about Kate, or that she might not even be a mutant at all. But it turns out, the key to Kate's resurrection was staring the X-Men in the face the whole time.
After seventeen attempts, Xavier is prepared to move the attention of the Five onto other mutants. However, Nightcrawler and the White Queen insist on one more attempt, especially after Lockheed reaches the island and psychically reveals the true circumstances of Kate's death to Emma. With Emma and Nightcrawler present for the last attempt, they witness the new body for Kate being constructed but not breaking free of the husk it's in. Nightcrawler notes that Kate is just out of phase with the rest of the world, but that they won't give up on her.
But this gives Emma an idea. Using her telepathy, Emma is able to briefly take control of Kate's body and force it to activate her powers to phase out of the pod. Instead of breaking the pod, Kate's body phases through it and finally escapes, alive. It turns out this was the key to reviving her. The reason she hadn't fought her way out of the pod -- like everyone else -- was that her body's natural instinct wasn't to fight but to phase. Pryde's specific mutant power was holding back her restoration. With Emma's help, Shadowcat has her memories restored, finally bringing Kate back to life.
Kate's death was hanging over the X-Men, causing nothing but grief for her teammates. Seeing Kate restored and fully prepared to resume her role as the leader of the Marauders is an exciting prospect. This means she'll be present to help bring down Sebastian Shaw. Her restoration could be kept a secret for a brief time, allowing Emma and Kate to lure Shaw into a trap. This also means that Kate can take her place back among the Quiet Council as the Red Queen, making her one of the most important mutants on Krakoa.
It's also just exciting for the X-Men to discover that while there are still mysteries to Kate Pryde and Krakoa, such as why she can't venture through the mutant-only gates, the question of her failed resurrections has been answered. The Five can now once again claim a perfect record on bringing the X-Men back to life and be prepared if Kate requires resurrection again in the future.