Roger Ash

by Roger Ash

When I was growing up, there was no comic hotter amongst my friends than Marvel’s X-Men by Chris Claremont and John Byrne. I eagerly awaited each new issue and would get any of the X-Men related miniseries that hit the stands. I was intrigued when some younger students joined Xavier’s School For Gifted Youngsters and received their own title, New Mutants. The issues written by Claremont and drawn by Bill Sienkiewicz remain favorites of mine and cemented Dani Moonstar/Mirage as my favorite character on the team. But over time, I drifted away for Marvel’s Mighty Mutants for some reason. I’ve tried now and then to start reading the books again, but they were so continuity heavy that they were practically impenetrable and were a chore to read. However, with events such as House of M and Schism, it seemed like the X-Men line had been streamlined. Combine that with the fact that two of my favorite writers, Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning, were taking over on New Mutants, which features many of the original team members, and I decided it was time to journey to the X-Universe again. And I’m glad I did.

New Mutants: Unfinished Business

New Mutants: Unfinished Business collects issues #25-28, Abnett & Lanning’s first issues on the title, with art by Leandro Fernandez, Michael Ryan, and Norman Lee. The beginning of the story is an epilogue to the previous storyline. Some of what was going on was lost on me as I hadn’t read the previous issues, but the end result of the epilogue sets up a new direction for the series. Dani Moonstar is made the team leader and the New Mutants are given a purpose – they are told to basically clean up the X-Men’s messes; to take care of anything that they left unfinished. Their first mission is to find the missing Nate Grey, AKA X-Man.

New Mutants #25 page 1

The search for X-Man is quite exciting as the New Mutants meet some new foes and even cross paths with Captain America. Since Nate Grey appeared when I wasn’t reading the mutant titles, this story served as a nice introduction to the character and his powers. But what really makes this storyline shine is the leadership of Dani Moonstar. She is portrayed as a strong and knowledgeable leader who listens to her team and their advice, but during battles she is completely in charge; giving orders while also kicking ass and taking names. She also won’t take any guff from Cyclops and stands up for what she thinks is best for her team.

The art by Leandro Fernandez is fine, but neither did it excite me much. My biggest complaint about the storyline is that even though I have a passing familiarity with the characters, I don’t know that well anymore. While Dani really shone in the spotlight, it would have been nice if the other team members had been given a basic introduction such as a caption saying who they are and what their powers are during a battle like Abnett & Lanning did so effectively during their run on Guardians of the Galaxy.

My favorite story in the collection is the final one which takes place after the three-part X-Man adventure. Dani brings in therapist Gus Grim to talk with some of the troubled members of the New Mutants – specifically Sam Guthrie/Cannonball, Xi’an Coy Manh/Karma, and Illyana Rasputin/Magik. While this issue doesn’t provide the slam/bang action of the previous story, it does provide some fantastic character moments and filled in some of the gaps in my knowledge of what’s been going on with the characters. I really like Gus Grim and hope he returns in future issues (granted, he may have already since I haven’t read anything beyond this collection yet). The art by Michael Ryan and Norman Lee was also more to my personal tastes.

There are a handful of extras in the collection including variant covers, character sketches, and a nice article by Robert Greenberger in which he speaks with Abnett & Lanning about their plans for New Mutants.

New Mutants #26 cover by Marko Djurdjevic

All in all, I really enjoyed New Mutants: Unfinished Business. I found it to be new reader friendly, I really enjoyed the way that Abnett & Lanning handled the characters, and the story was exciting and fun. I’m looking forward to seeing where they take the New Mutants. If you’ve been looking to add some mutant adventures to your comic reading, this would be a good place to start.

Now, go read a comic!

Purchase

New Mutants: Unfinished Business