New Mutants #33
Written by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning
Illustrated by David LopezIn the wake of the events of X-MEN: SCHISM the New Mutants find themselves at a crossroads. A decision needs to be made that will change their lives forever. Featuring fan-favorite artist David Lopez (Hawkeye & Mockingbird, Mystic).
X-Men #20
Written by Victor Gischler
Illustrated by Will ConradGUEST STARRING IRON MAN 2.0! The fallout of Schism pushes the X-Men and War Machine at each other in Eastern Europe as sentinels are being traded on the black market. But things aren’t as they seem and the X-Men and War Machine are going to have to work together to stop a truly horrible plot.
Schism is over; Regenesis is here! The mutants are split! It’s supposed to be a great time to jump in on the books — or is it?
I’ve never read either of these books and took it upon myself to check them out. Are they worth picking up in the X-Men reboot, or do they just go about business as usual, forsaking the new-reader friendly jumping on point Regenesis implied?
Find out after the cut! As a note, some spoilers are discussed.
Like I said, I had never read any of these books, but when Schism and Regenesis were announced, it wound up flagging my interest in the books. I was a tad concerned because I hadn’t really enjoyed anything Gischler had written before, and the New Mutants were a group I never connected with. However, with the new status quo, both books sparked my interest, especially given the fact one of my favorite characters and one of the best teams in comics happen to be on these books now. (Those would be Psylocke and DnA, respectively.)
The thing I’m glad to report is that they both manage to make the books easy to read while not stifling the books with a .1 issue. Both books read less like a forced issue to “jump in” and read like an organic place to jump in.
New Mutants, however, succeeds a little more at this, with a rather different status quo than might have been expected for an X-Men Blue Team. Instead of sticking around on Utopia, which is always under attack from someone or something, they moved into a San Francisco house in The Mission District. From here they’ll probably go on missions for Cyclops (spoiler: they will), but a part of me hopes that it’ll resemble a reality show of sorts, one where we’ll watch a group stop being polite, and start getting REAL! The Real World! OK, maybe not, but the setup gives it a more relatable quality, seeing as instead of living on an artificial island that was brought up by merpeople or at a school where quite literally every room can be a Danger Room, it feels like a bunch of twenty something adults (and an extra-terrestrial) who bond as a close-knit family.
However, that’s not to say the Adjective-less X-Men fail in this endeavor. Far from it, in fact; the beauty of this book is that while it respects the things that came before it, it makes things easy to understand. It also drops the reader into the thick of the action, going after those classic X-Men villains, the Sentinels. One can wonder how Sentinels are still considered viable villains after 50 years and thousands of sliced and diced metal robots on the floor, but they stand as one of the greatest and most reliable villains in the X-Men canon. You want to suck a reader in? Make the villain Magneto or Sentinels; nearly instant classic. The inclusion of the larger Marvel Universe with War Machine/Iron Man 2.0 is also a great choice, as the militaristic undertones of the Sentinels means the US government would get involved, and when they get involved they’ll send in their very own Iron Man.
Continued belowOne of my favorite parts of X-Men AND New Mutants are the casts. While DC gloats about their diversity initiative or whatever, the X-Universe actually practices it. The X-Men book in particular does a great job of having a more or less even split of male and female characters (who are all awesome, mind you) to having a group of characters that represent more than white people in spandex. It’s a breath of fresh air to see such a unique look to a team, and one that doesn’t demean or offend when they include the characters. And if you even want to take it a step further, both of these trams even have characters who aren’t mutants per se! Warlock and Jubilee are characters who are unique even by mutant standards, as one comes from space, and the other is a vampire (who thankfully doesn’t sparkle).
And then there’s the art; the wonderful, wonderful art. They are as different as night and day, but they’re both great in their own way. New Mutants is bright and sunny, with art used somewhat for comedic effect. It’s also perfect for Warlock, who I don’t think could work in a dark light. He’s too much of a goofball to be gloomy and gritty. David Lopez even reminds me a bit of Multiversity Favorite Frank Quitely in his style and composition. That’s probably the best compliment I can give to an artist, as Quitely is one of my favorite artists. It doesn’t’ QUITE reach the depth of Morrison’s favorite collaborator, but it’s still amazing work that should be appreciated.
The X-Men art provided by Will Conrad, on the other hand, is gritty and grimy, which works for the tone of the book, which is…well, gritty and gloomy. If I compared Lopez to Quitely, Conrad reminds me of Mike Deodato, Jr.’s noirish style. It shouldn’t be missed either.
The books are both excellent jumping on points for new and old fans alike. You can’t go wrong with either book, but I’d recommend New Mutants just a tad bit more because I like the setting and art a tiny bit more.
Final Verdict: New Mutants #33 – 8.5/X-Men #20 – 8.0
