New Mutants (2019-) #15 by Vita Ayala
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Two issues into Vita Ayala and Rod Reis’s run and I’m definitely sold on this book.
The struggle with any modern New Mutants book is whether it should focus on the original team, who are far from “new” at this point, or a group of young mutants who aren’t the New Mutants but are both new and mutants. What this book has done is strike the perfect balance, casting the original New Mutants in the role of mentors and teachers of a new generation of mutants on Krakoa.
However, all is not well in this mutant Garden of Eden, as the Council is refusing to resurrect Rahne Sinclair’s deceased son, the child she had with the Asgardian wolf god, Hrimhari. Of course this begs the question: Why? They cite a lack of evidence that he’s actually dead. Might he still be alive somewhere? After all, he is half immortal god, so…it’s a definite possibility.
But, more worrying than that is the presence of Amahl Farouk, aka The Shadow King, on Krakoa. Are the Council aware of his presence? Or is he there secretly? Either way, he seems to have taken upon himself to provide additional mentorship to a small group of young mutants, encouraging them to sue the Crucible not to restore powers lost on M Day, but to restore their physical appearance to what it was before they lost control of their powers when they manifested and irreversibly “disfigured” themselves.
I love how Ayala is thinking about how the processes developed in Krakoan society would affect these young mutants and present them with both opportunities and challenges, and to also expose some of the inherent weaknesses in those systems. It’s interesting and creative work and I’m very much looking forward to seeing where it’s all heading.
Rod Reis’s artwork compliments the story perfectly, evoking Bill Sienkiewicz’s ground breaking work on the title during the eighties without outright aping it. At times it’s highly impressionistic, which may be jarring to some who are more used to overly detailed and crosshatched artwork, but I personally find it very refreshing.
Random Ramblings Of A Ragamuffin 