New Mutants # 1 Review

Here’s my New Mutants # 1 review from Marvel Comics written by Jonathan Hickman, Ed Brisson with art by Rod Reis.

The second official generation of mutants coming from Charles Xavier’s school for gifted youngsters are back in a very big way and its all thanks to the Dawn of X mastermind Jonathan Hickman together with Ed Brisson with art by Rod Reis.

This volume of New Mutants finally does away with all the hatred and dark stuff they have gone through for a number of volumes through the decades.

We see them smiling, having fun and just generally being pleasant with each other. Hickman writes these characters with a sense of glee and renewed purpose. Unlike their “big brothers and sisters” with the X-Men, these guys literally just went on an adventure because they missed Sam Guthrie aka Cannonball. That’s all that got them to leave Krakoa. Its this sort of thing that we missed from the Claremont-era New Mutants.

And while the book is called New Mutants and stars some of the core characters from the book, its also a welcome surprise to see several members of Generation X working together with these young mutants. These characters include Chamber and Mondo. Both have interesting powers and traits that make for more engaging reading.

And because Hickman wants to write tight, we see some concepts and characters he prefers in this book, case in point, the Starjammers. These guys were written so well to highlight each character’s strengths. That moment with Chod and Cypher and Mondo was good while that fight between Magik and Raza was satisfying. The pay offs for the team’s actions are also shown almost immediately.

The art by Rod Reis is pleasant to look at and his action sequences are OK. This may not be filled with set piece action scenes but those little fights worked well for me.

Verdict: 9/10

Follow me on Twitter at @thefanboyseo for more X-Men news and updates!