New Mutants vol. 1

I wasn’t planning on writing a review of this volume, or any of the other first volumes coming out of the “Dawn of X” relaunch.  No, my original plan was to bring in Myron and Rob (who was supposed to be with us on that podcast but had some last-minute scheduling conflicts) so we could talk about all of the first volumes in one go.  That may still happen, but it’s been pushed for reasons that I think are pretty obvious at this point.  So until then, I’ll be reviewing these new volumes as they come.  Starting with… “New Mutants?”

Yes, that’s right, the first volume of the relaunch to arrive in print isn’t from flagship title “X-Men.”  It still manages to be one written entirely by Head of X (that’s his official title in the credits page) Jonathan Hickman as this first volume collects the issues he’s written, and are illustrated by Rod Reis, of “New Mutants.”  The other, alternating issues written by Ed Brisson and illustrated by Flaviano and Marco Failla, will be collected in a future volume.  Hickman and Reis haven’t given any indication they’ll be returning to this series, which leaves it feeling like a miniseries that was slotted into “New Mutants” because they didn’t want to publish it as such.

Questions about how this series was meant to be serialized aside, it’s a fun interstellar romp that sees the team getting into all sorts of trouble in Shi’ar space.  The team is a mix of OG “New Mutants,” Sunspot, Wolfsbane, Mirage, Karma, Magik, and Cypher, and former “Generation X’ers” Mondo and Chamber.  There’s no real reason for all of the same team together, besides the fact that most of them used to hang out together, but you really shouldn’t think too hard about that.

In fact, if you were to listen to Roberto “Sunspot” Dacosta then you’d probably hear him say the same thing.  Though this is a team book, Sunspot is first among equals here as his charmingly arrogant persona defines much of this volume.  Whether it’s paying a Space Lawyer to get everyone out of jail, trying to romance Deathbird, or buying an apartment building on the Shi’ar homeworld, a lot of his actions drive the plot.  However, he’s also Hickman’s chosen mouthpiece for recapping the plot in the issues after the first, where his “I can’t hear you over the sound of how awesome I am” delivery will either amuse or infuriate you.

You can count me as someone who was thoroughly amused by Roberto’s antics.  They’re a more detailed version of how Hickman wrote the character back in “Avengers” and giving the character more space to run his mouth turns out to be the right move here.  Even when he spoils a big fight scene during one of the recaps and Mirage calls him out for it.  That part right there is also a good example of how the writer manages to keep Roberto likeable.  He usually winds up getting some kind of comeuppance for his arrogance, so it’s never just a matter of him running his mouth without consequence.

A better question to ask would be, “How do you square this version of Sunspot with the one Al Ewing was writing in ‘New Avengers’ and ‘U.S.Avengers?’”  Ewing took Hickman’s awesome bro version of the character and rolled his confidence into someone who was also capable of seeing all the angles and was capable of staying one step ahead of the bad guys at every turn.  I loved it and was sad to see that version of the character fade into the background of “Avengers:  No Surrender.”  You could say that this version decided that those kinds of smarts weren’t worth having if they weren’t going to drive sales.  So we’re stuck with him, in all his currently glorious smugness.

The rest of the cast are pretty entertaining to see in action.  Some more than others.  On the “more” end of the spectrum are Magik, Cypher and Mirage as they each get several scenes to show why they’re all fun additions to the cast and maybe even have larger significance to the overall plot.  That leaves Mondo, Chamber, and Karma as the “others,” but even they get their moments, with Karma justifying her presence through the “Punch yourself!” sequence alone.  

Then there’s Wolfsbane, who looks to have been aged down when she went through Krakoa’s resurrection process into a much less mature and more fun-loving version of herself.  More than Roberto’s characterization, this one struck me as being very much at odds with the version of the character I’m familiar with.  I won’t deny she has her moments as well — she likes to lick shiny orbs in her wolf form — but seeing her like this took some getting used to.

As for the main plot of this volume, it initially involves the team heading into Shi’ar space to meet up with fellow teammate Cannonball and his Superguardian wife Izzy to drop off one of the Krakoan portal flowers at their place.  Their ride happens to be the Starjammers, who promptly ditch them after the team interferes with their piratical ways.  From there it’s a mix of prison, Shi’ar courtrooms, Majestrix-in-Waiting Xandra needing some courtly tutelage, Deathbird, Shi’Ar Death Commandos, and some RPG-style combat the reader can engage in to see who wins in a fight between the team and the Imperial Guard.

Then you’ve got the art from Rod Reis, and it boasts a surprising refinement of his style.  While his work has always had an appealing etherealness to it, things feel a bit more grounded here.  In fact, fans of Bill Sienkiewicz will see some interesting stylistic callbacks here.  From the way certain characters are drawn in specific scenes, to the sound fx, to bits like the ultimate comical exaggeration of Karma’s “Punch yourself!” bits, it recalls the most distinctive (and best) artist to grace the pages of the original “New Mutants” in quality fashion.

Overall, this is more or less an excuse for Hickman to amuse himself and his reader at the expense of narrative integrity.  I’d be upset about that if this was a story that demanded seriousness, but it’s very much not.  Still, there’s a lot of setup here.  You can see the vague outline of a more in-depth story involving the Shi’ar Empire being laid here and I have no doubt that Hickman will circle back around here eventually.  Which is when we’ll get to see Roberto Dacosta:  Interstellar Real Estate Magnate and I for one can’t wait!