New Mutants #25
Written by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning
Illustrated by Leandro FernandezWhatever happened to X-Man? Cyclops needs to know and he’s enlisted the New Mutants to locate and capture Nate Grey — by any means necessary! But after being manipulated at the hands of Norman Osborn, just what has become of the unstoppable X-Man…and how far will he go to stay unfound?
X-Men Legacy #248
Written by Mike Carey
Illustrated by Jorge MolinaAge of X: Aftermath, Part One
Almost as quickly as it began, Age of X has left us for greener pastures. The story of Legion’s descension into madness followed by his most powerful act yet has left some of our heroes rather disjointed, while Illyana’s epic quest against the elder gods have created a colony divided. Drama galore!
So now that “normalcy” has been restored and a new age begins for both titles, which is worth following? Are they both worth following? How many X-Men books should you be reading, anyway? While that last question is obviously one left for personal and spiritual debate between you and your wallet, I can at least help with the first two.
Check out some thoughts on the post-Age of X world after the cut.
Let’s get one thing absolutely clear from the beginning: there are a ton of X-Men titles right now, and all of them “matter.” It’s an odd thing to say, but it’s 100% true. The X-Men have created a nice little corner of the Marvel Universe that generally goes undisturbed, allowing creators to tell the stories they want to tell and not be bothered by anything other than the X-Men titles. There are just so many! X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, Astonishing X-Men, X-Men Legacy, X-Factor, Uncanny X-Force, New Mutants, Wolverine, and Schism is coming sooner than you think. Fans of the ongoing saga of the mutants are certainly divided as to which titles to follow, because in all honesty – every single one of these titles is good for a varied assortment of reasons. In fact, to be perfectly truthful, I had all my things in order to drop both X-Men Legacy and New Mutants after Age of X ended.
Yet, here we are.
Let’s start by talking a bit about New Mutants. The title was relaunched by Zeb Wells a couple years ago, returning the fan favorite characters back to prominence with a BIG opener that returned Legion to our world and began a long story in which Illyana finally got some long-waited revenge. It was a lot of pay-off for fans that had previously followed the characters, but also managed to be singularly entertaining for newer readers like myself who did not follow the characters before. Wells breathed new life into the team Claremont made famous, giving them a fresh voice for a new readership and putting together a rather intense and sharply plotted story of revenge. That’s why when it was announced Wells would be leaving, most people assumed there was no easy way that anyone could follow up a run so great.
This is why you call Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning to the scene. Most people know the duo for their intense and epic work on the space opera that was Annihilation, Annihilation: Conquest, War of Kings, Realm of Kings, and Thanos Imperative (and everything in between, of course). The duo make for one of the best (and busiest) teams in comics, and now they’re here on New Mutants. And what is there first order of business? To clean house, on multiple levels. Zeb Wells obviously left the title very open ended, with the revelation of Illyana’s mass manipulation not sitting well with others, as well as the events of Second Coming and Necrosha leaving some open doors as well. And while X-Force deals covertly with threats to our heroes, Cyclops’ new task for the New Mutants (sans three members) is to find Nate Grey, aka X-Man, who was last seen in Dark X-Men.
DnA (as we fans affectionately call them) come right in swinging with a rather impressive debut of a first issue. As much as the very first issue of Zeb Wells’ run was establishing characters and whatnot, so it is for the beginning of DnA’s work. We begin with our heroes literally crashing through the ceiling, showing us not only what characters we get to see in the title now but also their new status quo as a team. It’s an incredibly clever way to begin a book, and it’s a very smart move to literally just show the reader what they’re going to be getting right from the beginning. By placing us in the action, we get to set a tone for the series as a reader and easily help pull us right into the story.
Continued belowThen the house cleaning comes. DnA script a Sorkin-esque dialogue sequence between Cyclops and Magik, as the two discuss her vendetta against the elder gods and how her actions have impacted the team. I don’t say it lightly when I say that this entire sequence makes the issue. As much as I will go on to tell you about the other good things from the title, this is by far the best part of the issue. This is the first issue of a new arc, so obviously there is a lot to be introduced by the new writers for the new readers, but with this one scene alone DnA show rather eloquently that this isn’t just a book about kids learning to fight and going on to do said fighting. This is a smart title where consequences matter and real dangers are afoot for our various heroes, and that is not shown any more plainly than the last page of the sequence (which is too good to discuss further). It’s a scene so sharp you might accidentally get a paper cut while reading it.
The only major downside to the issue is it’s not as “new reader” friendly as one might have hoped. DnA did a great job of bringing back the Cosmic Marvel U to new readers while still appeasing older readers, but the issue very heavily relies verbally on what came before it. While Age of X is not really discussed beyond a single line, the events of the Fall and the Rise play heavily into the current story and the way certain characters are behaving. While this is obviously an important element of the story, one would have hoped that for the readers sake there would be more focus on the new as opposed to just making the New Mutants ready to start taking on all of the X-Men’s old threats (which, again, is a really cool concept).
It’s an incredibly strong start, though. Fans of Wells’ New Mutants should certainly appreciate the tone shift as DnA come on board, and Fernandez’s art is a great addition to it. Fernandez has a nice cinematic style that really helps push the action along smoothly and clearly, with the Cyclops/Magik scene in particular being very well visually paced. DnA give the issue a nice solid padding of content that will hopefully not be too off putting for new readers, but those reading the title regularly should feel rather at home with. While this is a possible spoiler for the rest of this review, New Mutants actually beat out X-Men Legacy for quality this week – and that’s not a usual occurrence.
So let’s look at X-Men Legacy, which was home to the Age of X. For a while now, X-Men Legacy’s biggest problem was that this title, unlike the others, was fairly directionless. When Mike Carey first took over writing the X-Men title, he was writing the “Rogue’s team” book. After Messiah CompleX, this changed to the Professor X book, before once again becoming about Rogue and her adventures, with lots of appearances from Magneto. It’s not inherently a bad thing per se, because the stories the book told happened to be really good. There just wasn’t a lot of focus to the title.
Now Age of X has happened, and for the first time there are a lot of threads left open for Mike Carey to cover. You’ve got changes to Hellion and Chamber (who is apparently back), a surprising return which will assumedly lead to more surprises (in space!), and more of the drama that is Rogue’s life. The thing about X-Men Legacy that has always really worked for it is that this title is the more adult/drama oriented title. It’s definitely a lot more mature than the other books (as in there are generally less punches thrown and more time spent asking why punches should be thrown), so when you get an issue that’s heavy on the exposition and character-based drama like this one, it’s not odd. After a mini-event like Age of X, it’s actually even welcome.
The issue basically takes the reader on a walk through Utopia as people give their reactions to the events that happened. Given that the entire world remained changed for a week (with memories that lasted a lifetime), it has certainly left some of the characters with a form of post-traumatic stress disorder. Given that this is the X-Men, there are certainly ways to deal with this issue, though, and the issue seeks to explore what this means for the various characters, with some obvious slant given to the cast on the cover of the book. While Legacy certainly had been a tad bit unfocused for a while, moving from story to story, it actually appears that the trauma the characters have endured might be the best thing for everyone involved. Some of Carey’s best stories in Legacy were while he was dealing with Professor X’s torrid past and the truth behind it all, and having a new reason to give a very character-based drama story here (as opposed to the two rather “ok” team stories post-Second Coming) has resulted in a rather powerful set-up issue of things to come.
Continued belowThat’s probably the most noteworthy and exciting bit about the issue, though. As mentioned earlier, there really are a lot of threads open in the title, and they all point to rather interesting future stories. Legion is more self confident now, and his ability to channel his alternate personas is completely changed. Scott has a new mission that needs to get done – and it’s in space. Gambit still loves Rogue but doesn’t want to be near her anymore, whereas Magneto is looking for love (in all the wrong places, the cover to the next issue reveals). If Legacy sticks to the drama and keeps itself a strict cast of characters as opposed to a revolving door of guest stars to hang out with Rogue, Legacy will rather quickly become the X-Title for hardcore X-Fans looking for so much more than just punching. (Not that there is anything wrong with punching, of course.) Who knows, we might be back to just random stories soon – it’s not like Carey’s teams haven’t quickly disolved in the past due to whatever reason. For now, though, it’s a good time to be onboard with the title, at least to see how the Aftermath plays out.
Long story short: New Mutants and X-Men Legacy are both still great titles to follow. Both essentially offer completely different types of stories than the rest of the X-Universe, so the ultimate trick is to just figure out what you like best and go with it. However, with the variety that the X-Books have, you’re bound to find something – and these are both great places to start.
Final Verdict: New Mutants – 8.5 / X-Men Legacy – 8.0
