Thoughts

And so this Hellions and Kitty Pryde story comes to an end. And with it the first era of the New Mutants.

It’s pretty clear from the opening panels of the next issue of New Mutants that they’re trying something radically new. Which necessitates abandoning what the title had been so far.

Which is understandable. This title has never really found its feet. The characters seem a combustible mix on paper but it’s never really fully clicked. Bad Ideas get thrown into mix (yes Team America I am talking to you here) and characters seemingly killed off in clumsy ways.

Claremont works well as a “low level” writer incorporating the personal lives of his leads into cosmic adventures. But while he can do this with adults living in contemporary New York with a vitality that seems fresh – it all seems lost in a boarding school environment. Things are too detached from the outset, while at the same time not quite being fantastical enough a setting to be the engine for stories.

The end result has been a comic that’s pleasant to read but mostly just there. It all feels completely unessential.

So it’s all about the change. And nothing illustrates the scale of that more than the final panels. Take a look at the very conventional (and slightly silly) presentation of the Demon Bear that’s coming for Dani. Next time we see it the Bear and the title will be very different indeed.

Fun Panel

Following my comments on the last issue – I would sign up for a hundred issues of this image in a heartbeat.