Kitty Pride — I mean Kate — is a badass. After the Central Park gate to Krakoa effectively punches her in the face (see below), she channels her frustration at being unable to portal to Krakoa into something productive. She’ll help those who can’t get to Krakoa get there, even if Kate herself can’t pass through* the gates, for reasons unknown.
(*It’s strange, because Kate can physically be on Krakoa, she just can’t conveniently travel to there through the gates.)
When Emma of the Hellfire Trading Company learns about Kate’s unique predicament, she naturally has a business proposition. After some mind-reading conversations, it’s decided that Kate will captain a massive ship, sail around the world, and liberate mutants who are unable to access the gates. It’s on these pages where the art really shines. Kate looks like a hologram/ghost as she discusses things over with Emma, with colorist Federico Blee responsible for that sucessful effect.
Most of the time, the mutants in this predicament are political prisoners of some kind. This issue focuses on Russian mutants who are under military capture. It takes a nine-page, highly choreographed (and weirdly patriotic) fight sequence to bring them down.
Like all of the books of Hickman’s X-Men universe, this issue is tacitly political. But because it’s a tie-in, the creators are allowed to have more fun with it. And writer Gerry Duggan and artist Matteo Lolli did just that. There’s plenty of banter and scrunched facial expressions to go around.
This series isn’t something I’d continue with, but if you like pirate-style adventures, zany X-Men characters, and watching mutants kick communist butt, then this is just for you. The story is about mutant liberation just as much as it is about Kate’s liberation; that is, becoming her own woman.
Secret Society Comics 