New Mutants Classic Vol. 2

The New Mutants Classic

by Chris Claremont, Bret Blevins (Cover Art), Sal Buscema (Artist)

Nova Roma, a city on the move - back several thousand years In their earliest adventure abroad, the New Mutants discover a long-forgotten colony of the Roman Empire and an enemy they won't soon forget: Selene the Black Queen Then, Magma and Magik join the team just in time for war with the White Queen Featuring the future Warpath and the original Hellions, harbingers of horror and heroism for years to come Collects New Mutants #8-17.

Genres: Comics, X Men, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Comics, Superheroes, Comic Book

232 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 10, 2007

About the author

Chris Claremont is a writer of American comic books, best known for his 16-year (1975-1991) stint on Uncanny X-Men, during which the series became one of the comic book industry's most successful properties.

Claremont has written many stories for other publishers including the Star Trek Debt of Honor graphic novel, his creator-owned Sovereign Seven for DC Comics and Aliens vs Predator for Dark Horse Comics. He also wrote a few issues of the series WildC.A.T.s (volume 1, issues #10-13) at Image Comics, which introduced his creator-owned character, Huntsman.

Outside of comics, Claremont co-wrote the Chronicles of the Shadow War trilogy, Shadow Moon (1995), Shadow Dawn (1996), and Shadow Star (1999), with George Lucas. This trilogy continues the story of Elora Danan from the movie Willow. In the 1980s, he also wrote a science fiction trilogy about female starship pilot Nicole Shea, consisting of First Flight (1987), Grounded! (1991), and Sundowner (1994). Claremont was also a contributor to the Wild Cards anthology series.

Reviews

[Baba · Rating 3 out of 5]

A just OK phase of the New Mutants' early years with Nova Roma and Magma's debut and a little bit of Magik. Also the debut of the Hellions mentored by none other than, The White Queen, Emma Frost.

The stories are okay (especially the Nova Roma arc), but it already feels like the book is flagging, when compared to the then absolutely booming Uncanny X-Men title. This volume collects The New Mutants #8 to #17. A 7 out of 12, Three Star read.

2017, 2014 and 2010 read

[Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

New Mutants starts to get better. After a strange storyline involving a hidden Roman city in the Amazon, which at least introduced the visually striking character Magma, a lot of the better elements of New Mutants begin to get introduced in this volume. Doug Ramsey first appears, some conflicts with Kitty Pryde involving more crossovers with the X-Men, and then best of all Illyana finally becomes a major character and we see more of her dark Magik powers. Don't know why it took so long for her to become a member.

It all culminates in a battle with the White Queen's Hellions, an evil "rival school" team of young mutants which was an excellent idea. Although most of the Hellions never turned out to be memorable characters, the concept worked really well and made for a better and more organic storyline than most of the random adventures the mutants would stumble into.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kinda rough at the beginning, but this hit its stride in the second half.

[Stephen · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5 to 2.0 stars. My review of the first volume of this series is pretty apropos here as well. Not horrible, but basically unnecessary title cashing in on the success of the Mutant titles during this period. B list (or C list) heroes, villians and story-lines.

[Devero · Rating 5 out of 5]

Proseguendo la rilettura di queste storie, per me dei classici, salta all'occhio il lavoro di costruzione a livello di psicologia dei personaggi che Claremont compie continuamente. Non solo dei protagonisti, il cui numero aumenta piano piano nonostante la scomparsa di Karma, ma anche dei comprimari. Stevie Hunter, la madre di Sunspot, la stessa Kitty Pride e il futuro Cypher.
Le storie qui raccolte sono, graficamente, le ultime prima della grande rivoluzione artistica determinata dall'evoluzione del tratto di Sienkiewicz. Vedono l'apparizione di villains di tutto ripetto, come Emma Frost (e i suoi Satiri-Hellions, gruppo antagonista che Claremont caratterizza ottimamente) e Selene, personaggio che, agli esordi, è molto lontano da quello che diventerà solo qualche mese dopo sulle pagine degli X-Men. Vedono sopratutto lo sviluppo di Illyana Rasputin, la sorellina di Colosso, cresciuta di colpo di 7 anni ed ora adolescente maledetta dalla permanenza nel diabolico Limbo, dove alla mercé di Belasco e Sym ne ha passate di tutti i colori.
Ecco, presto dovrò rileggermi la mini a lei dedicata all'epoca, Magik, prima di proseguire la rilettura della serie.
Nulla da dire, in quegli anni Claremont era davvero il miglior sceneggiatore in circolazione.
5 stelle al volume.

[Jonathan · Rating 2 out of 5]

From a decent start, the stories collected here seem like a step backwards, rehashing the same character beats without much evolution. Mileage will vary on how much you enjoy wacky random hijinks, as the New Mutants are whisked off to an ancient Roman city hidden in the Amazon and then face off against Emma Frost's Hellions. This does introduce Magik to the group which is cool, although it's clear they still don't really know what to do with her character yet. Also, I'm taking a star off for how much they needlessly sexualize Dani- I wouldn't have a problem with a series like this exploring budding teenage sexuality as a theme if done right, but the combination of her age and the fetishization of Native American costumes really crosses the line. This is not a character expressing her own sexuality, she just randomly happens to be put into these skimpy as hell outfits for no reason.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very dense volume that talks about many social issues. I did like the Roman enclave in South America.

[Michael Emond · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't like the first volume and this one is worse. At least the first one had the Graphic novel that I liked - this one has boring stories - new characters introduced that are instantly irritating (Magma - what a jerk she is) and a storyline that is distasteful.

We get Chris Claremont completely out of good ideas and falling on two main ideas 1) mind control 2) his characters can't control their powers and/or might become evil and out of control. You get that with Magma who causes volcanoes to erupt everywhere and dreams of igniting the entire Earth. You have Magik who might become an evil magic overlord one day. You have the White Queen enslaving the entire New Mutant team (the distasteful story-line). You have the female members being drugged and the males drugged to fight each other. You have the most distasteful villain this side of the Purple Man - who is called Empath and he can get you to fall in love with him or hate a friend so much you want to kill them. In a later issue he causes two young mutants to have so much lust for each other they end up have sex for days unable to control each other (basically a form of rape). How was that being allowed in comic books? And why was Chris so sick as to think that would make good entertainment. A lot of people praise Chris' writing and his early stuff is classic - but his later stuff is really sick and twisted.
Overall - these stories are not only boring but we are 17 issues into this title and I really am not interested in any of these characters.

[Sam Poole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yes! The Nova Roma arc was better than I expected, and Amara comes right out of the gates as a real (ha ha) firecracker (ha). This collection is more cohesive than the first volume, in spite of an interruption from Secret Wars. The teens' disparate personalities start to mesh much better, and Claremont is clearly well within his element at this point. Instead of a mini-X Men team, which is what they appear to be in the first volume, this is a fully fleshed out group of kids who act AND look like teens. Great art, especially of the characters, and great page layouts. There's not much about this book that I didn't enjoy, although it didn't quite hit the emotional nerve that the Uncanny books at the time did. Katie on the team is great, Ilyana's everything is incredible and fascinating, and the introduction of the Hellions was a much-needed (and awaited!) addition. Awesome, better than the last volume and filled with a strong, definitive Claremont voice that shines throughout.

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Our team of New Mutants spend a lot of time away from school in this volume. Starting off is the lost civilization story that introduced a lost colony from ancient Rome in the mountainous origins of the Amazon River. But the volume ends with the team getting kidnapped/captured by the evil White Queen, Emma Frost of the Hellfire Club and her band trainees the Hellions. New team members Magma and Magik come aboard and guest appearances by Kitty Pryde and Professor X help round out this fun-filled and action-packed collection. This title still hadn't reached it's peak yet, that begins with the next volume, but Claremont was certainly in the top of his form, weaving exciting and entertaining stories with melodrama and making the first school for mutants (or superheroes) a believable experience.

If you like the film Sky High, you'll love The New Mutants!

[Lulu (the library leopard)]

Hm…that was a bit of a mixed bag. I didn't really enjoy the Nova Roma stuff (Amara was introduced in brownface? Dani is running around in a bikini even though she's a teenager, is that necessary?), though I liked the later stuff with Magik a lot. Also, the part where the New Mutants pooled their savings for bus fare so they could go save Kitty from Emma Frost's evil academy was cute. I don't really like Amara, though, and I think it's too bad that Xi'an got replaced by her so quickly.

[Tshepiso · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Volume 2 of New Mutants Classic was a bit of a mixed bag. Our first major arc follows the New Mutants in Nova Roma, an untouched Roman civilization in the Amazon rainforest, after their expedition into the jungle goes awry. The team gets wrapped up in political schemes, meet a fellow young mutant, Amara, and fight off the evil mutant sorceress Selene. I didn't particularly love this story; while the plot had its moments I ultimately found the story plodding and the new characters introduced uninteresting.

I will say I got more into the book in its back half. Here Illyana Rasputin takes centre stage as she and the New Mutants attempt to rescue Kitty from Emma Frost, the Hellfire Club, and her new team of teen mutants the Hellions. Illyana has quickly become a new favourite. Her angst about her time in limbo, her magic and how it's perceived is really compelling. To be fair a lot of our mutants characters, like Rahne, Dani and Amara, also struggle with feelings of monstrousness. But, in contrast to the others, there's a real darkness, secrecy and shame imbued in Illyana that make those moments hit. It makes her friendship with Kitty all the more consequential because Kitty is the only person in her life who doesn't see her any different. And moments like Dani promising to have Illyana back are so meaningful because of the alienation and fear she's experienced.

I am still finding my feet with the team as whole. While they have their moments I still don't feel like I know and connect with them well enough. I respect Claremont's attempts at pathos for the characters but unfortunately some if it just doesn't work. Rahne especially failed to click with me. While I understand her shame is tied it with her religiosity and the fact that her wolf form's bloodlust causes distress could be interesting. But unfortunately the way she projects her religious shame on to others makes her pretty unlikable. With the rest of the cast I think I just need more time to connect with them. We haven't delved as deep as I would like with them but I'm sure Claremont's trademark characterful storytelling will grab me in time

My final pet peeve with The New Mutants is its hints of romantic subplots. Throughout the book characters express feelings of jealousy and attraction to each other and while it's understandable in a teen book I still found it trite. I think Claremont fails to develop compelling reasons why any of these characters are attracted to each other for me to really root for any pairing.

Overall I'm not loving the New Mutants like I hoped I would. But the Hellions plot gripped me in the end so I'm hoping the team will grow on me.

[Nicholas Driscoll · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe two and a half stars.

The story arcs for the most part didn’t work for me and I kept waiting for the Nova Roma one to end. Basically our heroes go to Brazil and find that a massive ancient Roman city somehow continues to exist unchanged in the middle of the rainforest, and they get captured and forced to fight in the arena and mistaken for gods, etc. for me at least it felt cheesy without being fun.

We are introduced to another mutant, the astonishingly powerful Magma (at first I thought she was named something else at first?). Somehow she manages to create volcanoes in the middle of Rio de Janeiro without much consequence... basically no consequence to the story.

Then suddenly Shadowcat comes in and she has this weird antagonistic relationship with the New Mutants that I’m pretty sure was never set up. And we get a super sorceress and an anti-X-Men group of trainees who roughly have equivalent powers to the New Mutants.

Instead of a werewolf, we get a werecat.

We have a flying cyborg against Cannonball,

We have some girl who can create monsters for tarot cards instead of deepest fears ala Dani.

And a strong guy against Roberto.

Even have a guy who can basically take over people’s minds like Karma.

I was pretty disappointed, especially when Ilyana didn’t bring her giant demon slave with her to fight Emma Frost. Her demon can defeat Professor X easily, so it would’ve been a huge help. Plus the stuff in the hell dimension makes no sense. Ilyana is like, “I healed myself, but we don’t have time to waste!” Then it turns out she can travel through time and into the past. It’s so asinine. If she can travel into the past, she can basically do whatever she wants, even if it takes a few tries to get the write timeframe.

Anyway, an underwhelming set of stories. Interesting, though, that like four out of the five original members of the team are basically Christians, at least nominally, with Karma a Catholic, Cannonball a Christian of some sort, Wolfsbane a Protestant, and Roberto having some sort of Catholic background I think.

Anyway, not very good. Going to stop reading for now.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm rereading almost all of Claremont's run on the X-Books for the umpteenth time. I just love them. Really, the only thing I fault this book on is well, it's Claremontness. That's not a bad thing really. Densely plotted... characters with depth.

But I don't think the classics trades format does Claremont, the master of the long term payoff, many favors. As annoying as only having the stories in black and white is... I think The Marvel Essentials line was the IDEAL format for reading his X-Titles. in the 8-10 issue format you get him starting maybe seven plots and finishing 3 of them. Not much feels complete. In a phonebook style collection... you get maybe 15 plots start but satisfying closue to about 12 of them.

But that does lead to one question.... the first volumes of Marvel Essential to come out were Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, and X-Men. But X-Men started with the Wein/Claremont runs. Was 24 issues or so chose as the length because that's how long filled a phonebook sized book or since what they NEW would be their biggest seller (since it hadn't been reprinted quite as much at the time) was Claremont's X-Men... and was as long as it takes Claremont to tell a story.

As much as i love the first three volumes of New Mutants Classic.... part me of me mourns the Essential New Mutants vol one (containing the graphic novel, issue 21, the X-Men issue where they fight the New Mutants, and New Mutants Annual #1) that never was.

[Kelly McCubbin · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the rest of the Marvel universe was hurling itself into the ridiculously stupid, "epic", crossover event, "Secret Wars" which would ultimately form a pattern that mars the company's output to this day, Chris Claremont was taking a step back and getting back to basics with a new team of young mutants (younger than the X-Men when he took them over), New Mutants.
In this second volume, particularly after co-creator Bob McLeod steps out of the picture, you can feel Claremont nudging these characters' emotional pieces around the board trying to figure out what makes them "them"; trying to find an effect that takes what was good about the soap opera-esque X-Men while stripping away some of the melodrama.
It's not all great. He falls back on old tropes and old villains a few too many times. But when he hits it, it's surprisingly satisfying. Inters tingly, dropping Kitty Pryde into the mix may be the masterstroke that makes the team gel, giving them a friendly irritant to work around.

This comic was about to take a very sharp turn with the arrival of Bill Sienkiewicz in the next volume, but after years of being THE superstar writer at Marvel, Claremont is surprisingly studied and methodical here.

[Lance Grabmiller · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reliving my youth again. This collects The New Mutants #8-17 (October 1983 - July 1984).

Never found Claremont's writing quite as strong in this title as with the main X-men title and this is a good case in point. The first quarter of the book is the Nova Roma storyline which is cliche buried in mountains of ridiculousness. The "lost world" had already been a cliche in comics by this point (and a cliche in pulp literature of various types for almost a hundred years by the time this was published). It was not made any fresher here in its ridiculous premise. An early Roman civilization in the middle of the Amazon where everyone switches between Latin and English with ease? And better yet, they are, for some odd reason, decedents of the Inca. Makes even less sense in the book as it really isn't fleshed out or explained, but at least the story gives us the character Magma, who is an important early member of the New Mutants.

[Adam Stone · Rating 3 out of 5]

The concept of Nova Roma feels silly to me every time I read this era of comics. Essentially, Claremont wanted a way to write about Roman politics so he plopped a Roman empire into the middle of The Amazon Rain Forest the same way Stan Lee plopped a dinosaur/early man locale in the middle of Antarctica and called it The Savage Land.

The story is pretty decent, introducing and fleshing out Magma, giving us more reasons to like Sunspot, and furthering the Hellfire Club storyline without making them the focal point of any stories.

The inter-team romance angles are a bit soap opera-ey and fell unnecessary but it does feel accurate for how teenagers interacted in the 80s.

If you enjoy the Claremont X-Men years but haven't really invested any time reading any of his New Mutants titles, I think you're missing out. But if the Claremont X-Men years don't appeal to you, I would give this a pass.

[Carlo Gnutti · Rating 3 out of 5]

La prima metà del volume vede i Nostri che vengono rapiti e portati a Nova Roma, un’antica civiltà romana ma nascosta in mezzo alle Ande. Qui faranno la conoscenza di Amara, figlia di un politico della città, che si scoprirà poi essere una mutante capace di controllare il magma sotto la superficie terreste (da qui il suo nome di battaglia Magma).
Mi ha sorpreso molto vedere Roberto uccidere la strega cattiva gettandola nella lava, violando così una delle regole sacre degli X men.
In questi numeri viene finalmente approfondito a dovere il personaggio di Rahne/Wolfsbane, mostrandocene sia la pudicizia sia il suo sentirsi sempre più a suo agio nei panni del lupo, al contrario della sua forma umana.
Kitty e Illyana sono migliori amiche
Nel numero 14 il demone S’ym torna per riportare Ilyana nel Limbo. Lei riesce a sconfiggerlo ma lo risparmia, quindi il demone le giura fedeltà. A fine numero vediamo finalmente Xavier riuscire a camminare.
Nella seconda metà del volume Emma Frost imprigiona Kitty nei sotterranei del suo istituto, così Illyana -che ci viene detto essere la sua migliore amica- convince i Nuovi Mutanti ad andare a salvarla.
Il numero 15 e’ ricco di riferimenti a fatti accaduti in numeri precedenti di Uncanny x men (di fatto e’ un prosieguo di Uncanny 180). Sempre qui co viene mostrata la versione mostruosa/demoniaca di Illyana
Sam consola Rahne in un momento di grande sconforto: e’ un sempliciotto di buon cuore, come Peter Rasputin/Colosso.
Nel numero 16 fanno il loro esordio i Satiri, che sono sostanzialmente una versione cattiva dei Nuovi Mutanti, con tanto di mentore (nel loro caso la “regina bianca” Emma Frost) e una stanza molto simile alla stanza del pericolo.
Sembra anche che tra Sam e Amara ci sia del tenero.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this volume. The characters and their motivations made sense and the New Mutants themselves were really easy to connect with.
I especially connected with Rhane. Her deep rooted insecurity concerning herself as a person and her faith really struck a chord with me. The way those things come through in her actions and her relationships with her friends was something I related to very deeply. I will also say that the brief glimpses we get into her past concerning the church and the pastor she was raised around really hit home because I've had very similar experiences with a church and pastor myself.

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

The original run of The New Mutants begins to hit its stride here as the characters develop and Illyana (aka Magik) joins the team. By bringing in the mystical parts of the Marvel multiverse, this title begins to differentiate itself from its X- cousin books.

Vol. 2 still falls prey to some of the repetitive writing tropes that were common in 80s comics.

Supplemented this with the Magik miniseries (which is essential background on Illyana) and Uncanny X-Men 180, which bridges issues 14 and 15. The fact that it’s not included here is a critical oversight.

[Arturo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is tons better than the first volume. It's the characters development that really has me hooked. Plus we have many story points that will lead to future storylines. Magma, Kitty, Sym, Magik, Hellfire Club, Hellions. Dare I say it? This stuff is gold.

[Connor · Rating 2 out of 5]

I accidentally read volume 2 before the first, so that may cloud my judgement. I had trouble getting into this, and it was a bit of a chore to get through. I enjoyed the stories towards the end with Magik a bit more.

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Comics are a magic medium because you’ll encounter a storyline where the New Mutants find New Rome hidden in the Amazon jungle and you’ll react like it’s completely normal. I’m too brain poisoned at this point, I have terminal X-Man-itus.

[Carlos Tineo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is miles better than the previous volume. Looking forward to the Demon Bear Saga.

[Tasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is getting better.

[Julia Benassi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Si no fuera porque el enfrentamiento con los Hellions me aburrió un poco le habría puesto 5 estrellas, so perfect

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Nova Roma saga is wacky but the 3parter of NMs vs. the Hellions is gold

[Ryk Stanton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Magma was never my favorite, but the Kitty Pryde storyline made up for that

[Mary Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still don’t like this book as much as UXM, but it’s starting to pick up for me. Love seeing Kitty interact with the New Mutants and LOVE the addition of Illyana to the team.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

The continuing adventures of Cannonball, Mirage, Wolfsbane, and Sunspot. Magma, Magik, and Cypher enter the picture in this volume. Not a bad read and a little better than the first volume.