New Mutants, Vol. 1

New Mutants (2019)

by Ed Brisson, Flaviano (Illustrations), Marco Failla (Illustrations)

The future comes knocking! With the original New Mutants off in space, the rest of the youth of Krakoa begin to take initiative and craft the tomorrow they want to live in. Armor leads an outreach party, seeking young mutants who have chosen not to come to Krakoa — beginning with Beak, Angel and their family! But what starts as a simple visit to check in on old friends goes dangerously wrong! In the face of a terrible tragedy, the New Mutants must soldier on despite the pain — but reality itself is beginning to betray them, and they're losing hope quickly. Helping young mutants in crisis is becoming downright nightmarish. Can the New Mutants find a way to strike back and preserve a Krakoan future for all young mutants?

COLLECTING: NEW MUTANTS (2019) #3-4, 6 and 8-12.

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

208 pages, Paperback

First published December 15, 2020

About the author

Comic book writer.

Credits include: COMEBACK, SHELTERED, THE FIELD (Image Comics), SECRET AVENGERS (Marvel), ROBOCOP, SONS OF ANARCHY, HELLRAISER (BOOM!) and X-FILES/TMNT: CONSPIRACY (IDW). Plus, you know, a bunch of stuff I can’t talk about yet.

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

So. There are 2 New Mutant titles and they are running side by side, which is hella weird.*
Ed Brisson is writing this one and Hickman is writing this one.




Ok, for a lot of Marvel titles, I used my Marvel Unlimited account. Which, I tried to do this time, thinking I was somehow reading the 2nd volume of Hickman's New Mutants. It was insanely confusing reading them in single-issue form and I certainly didn't read them in the correct order. Or I guess skip over some of them in the correct order. I don't know what I did, to be honest.
All I know for sure is that I will never attempt New Mutants again in single-issue form.
Stick with the volumes they give you, people!



I eventually wisened up and just got the volume from Hoopla, and that cleared up a lot of the wonky shit. However, it meant that I'd also read parts of this already. Whatever. It finally made sense.



Armor goes on a mission to help Angel & Beak and everything goes fubar.
Boom Boom & Glob both feature prominently.
There's also some weird throwback country that still dresses like they're part of the Roman empire and are living out in a jungle somewhere. I think it was in South America, but don't hold me to that because I didn't give enough shits to hold onto that information.



It wasn't a bad story but I don't think it was necessary. What it did seem like was another of Hickman's big ideas spinning wildly out of control. Reign it in already because I feel like I'm drowning in mutants.
No offense to anyone who loves it, but I probably don't really care about any of these characters enough to continue with this New Mutants title.

*Edit:Or not, according to my comic guru friend, Chad. This was supposedly filler because an artist was having trouble keeping up. And yet I still say, WHAT THE FUCK, MARVEL?!

[Baba · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the other New Mutants volume, but I would suggest to read this one after New Mutants by Jonathan Hickman, Vol. 1. Despite this being Hickman's X-verse, this volume follows mostly human anti-mutant sentiment and actions, so brings little new to the mythos except a closer look at some new-ish mutants, and other young mutants we haven't seen much off. Sad to say as a big New Mutants fan, but X-fans can probably give this entire run a swerve! 5 out of 12.

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ed Brisson turns his version of the New Mutants into a team that goes out into the world and helps mutants who haven't come to Krakoa. Those two stories are pretty bland. Where it got interesting is the last issue where they go after a website that was publishing the names and addresses of mutants, instigating the violence against them. Glob gets some moments to really shine here. The title could use a tighter focus. We'll see where it heads after X of Swords when Vita Ayala takes over.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the first half of this one; it was fun, frantic, funny and had fab art; but then, in the second half, what I’ve dubbed ‘Krakoa-stink’ kicked in and the characters started to feel more like a creepy cult than heroes again. Ugh... no thanks.

My other issue with this book was how badly most of the characters were introduced to the reader. I mean, I know who they all are but I’ve been reading the X-books for nearly four decades... for any new readers there was next to no introduction to these characters at all. You’d think with all these Hickman-esque text pages they could use one of them to give new readers brief character bios.

[Jesús De la Jara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Este volumen me gustó más que el anterior. Por una parte Amara, Armor y Boom Boom van a Brasil para reclutar a mutantes en países que no aceptan a Krakoa. Luego van a Carnelia (país ficticio cerca a Ucrania) donde también son rechazados para recoger a una mutante que deforma la realidad un poco. El personaje de Boom Boom es muy divertido y aparte se siguen las aventuras de este "nuevo grupo" dentro de los New Mutants.
Aquí también se da una pequeña discusión entre Cyclops y Magik por el desastre en Nebraska. Finalmente descubren a DOX una página al más estilo actual que se dedica a rastrear y vomitar odio contra los mutantes a manera de blog. Magik se encarga de ellos.

[James DeSantis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty decent Mutant story that covers using the media to hurt mutants, finding peace in being who you are, and trying to work together as a unit/team. Also dealing with some racism on there as well is always a X-Men type thing.

Overall, enjoyable if not pretty standard. Crazy since right after this series, Ed Brisson writes issue 13, which is a Sword Tie in, and it is the BEST new mutants issue across the board of the new run, better than both Brisson and hickman's previous New Mutants issues.

Very excited to see what Vita brings to the table. A 3 out of 5.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book starts out with a tone that feels…reverent. Like, it’s written by New Mutants megafans, to be read by New Mutants megafans, and I’m sitting here wondering what the big deal is.

And if this book becomes yet another outlet for Skrull/Brood/Shi’ar nonsense I’m out. Those stories and their intentionally-unrelatable characters just never do it for me. “Oh look at me, posing haughtily - I’m a Superguardian, you will never understand our sophisticated history you cretinous terrans.”

Something about Bobby’s unflappable arrogance just makes me want him to take a punch in the mouth.

And here’s a dumb question: if there’s a Krakoa gate on the Starjammer, why do the mutants have to spend more than one minute on the ship that’s taking them to non-gated space? Why not just wait til they reach destination, walk through, walk off and be on their merry way? “I want to stretch my legs” should be incredibly easy with a gate in the hood of the ship.

Once it gets action-y though, I stop feeling left out and start getting into the reading of these, the holy text of Roberto.

Unfortunately I read these in publication order and didn’t notice when we fully switched creative teams in the middle, so I think I mostly enjoyed Brisson over Hickman doing this team thing. Oh well, space Marvel isn’t entirely bad. Just prone to being overwritten.

And issue 7 is pretty danged hilarious.

Still enjoyable enough - the characters aren’t all well-adjusted, like - and I’m sure New Mutants super fans are seeing some deep cut references I’m missing. It’s just so hard to remember all these weirdos, I can’t keep them straight.

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marvel essentially split New Mutants into 2 books, each following a different cast of characters. This one deals with the ones that stay on planet while the rest go into space. It's not bad. The last issue with Glob and Magik was very good.

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ed Brisson's issues of New Mutants are collected here in their entirety (bar the X Of Swords tie-in) as he brings the other New Mutants (the ones that Hickman hasn't already called dibs on) into the spotlight.

Brisson's one of those dark horse writers - I see his name on Marvel books and I'm usually like 'oh this'll be alright' and it actually turns out to be superb. Brisson uses characters you wouldn't expect in ways you wouldn't expect to tell a Dawn Of X story that the other X books are skipping right over - what about the mutants that don't want to move to Krakoa?

The opening arc in issues 3-4 and 6 focus on the retrieval of Beak and Angel; it manages to make mortality mean something important despite the X books basically making a joke of it now, and has an ending that'll make you think well after it's ended as to whether the New Mutants made the right call (plus Boom Boom is always great fun).

The following arc brings the New Mutants into a psychadelic mindscape in a country that refuses to allow mutants through the Krakoan gates, and then there's an epilogue issue that rounds off a plotline that Brisson seeded in the first three issues in spectacular fashion, with an inspired speech from Glob Herman of all people (one of Brisson's self-professed favourites).

The artwork is split fairly neatly between Marco Failla and Flaviano, who seem fairly straight forward on the surface but really get to stretch their creative muscles in this volume - Flaviano especially does some zany layouts in the mindscape issues that will blow your mind.

It's a shame Ed Brisson didn't get more solo time on New Mutants - he had a good handle on these characters and a story to tell across these eight issues, and I'd loved to have seen some more from him.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

A hodge-podge collection of stories, which is ok. Some good. Some less so. What I find interesting are the cast of New Mutant characters and how the different characters interact with eachother.

[Matthew Ward · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this volume so much more than I did the volume by Hickman. I enjoyed this weird team here on Earth more than the space stuff in general. I love seeing the mutants deal with Krakoa throughout the world and seeing the politics come into play in areas of pushback against the new nation. One of the better volumes I’ve read from the Krakoan era stuff so far.

[Anna Quilter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not really sure what I was reading here
Mish-mash and disjointed.
A story that didn't really resonate.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a pretty average collection of stories featuring a good mix of original New Mutants and some of the newer characters like Glob and Armor from newer iterations of the team. I didn't find this as engaging as Hickman's story--it was decent enough, but there is nothing particularly memorable here.

Both Brisson arcs in this volume involve a group of the New Mutants trying to bring mutants safely back to Krakoa. The first arc has a small group popping in to visit Beak and Angel in Nebraska, to check in on them and try to convince them to come to Krakoa. A drug cartel from central America shows up and holds Beak's family hostage, and things don't go particularly well for anyone. Pretty standard "gosh, the world sucks for mutants" fare.

The arc following this has a new mutant in the eastern European nation of Carnelia (which is anti-mutant and notably did not recognize Krakoa as a sovereign nation) who has manifested powers that she can't control which envelop the world around her into her nightmares. There was a lot of potential for some interesting exploration of the characters' fears that really got left on the table. Most of the team just stands around talking, making for a pretty dull story.

The element that ties both of these stories together is the revelation that there is a mutant doxxing website that is tracking the movement of mutants through the Krakoan portals, and this is what led to the deaths of several mutants in the world, as well as escalating both situations in these story arcs. Magik, Mirage, and Glob go to the website's headquarters and confront its president. The best part of this is the follow-up scene where Glob opens up to Magik about his internal struggles with his anger and his mutant-hating father.

The stories here were entertaining enough, I suppose, but they didn't have the gravity that some of the other Dawn of X stories have had. Nothing in this volume feels important--it all seems like it could be safely skipped and you wouldn't really be missing any crucial plot threads or character development. What's particularly frustrating is how Marvel decided to split up the first Brisson arc and alternate back and forth with Hickman's superior arc for the early issues of this series. I'm glad they decided to stop doing that for Brisson's second arc.

What I do like about this title overall is that there is a very large roster of characters to pick from, and the writers are including a good mix of older classic New Mutants characters and some of the newer mutant youth on the X-teams. The art in this volume is handled by several different artists who all do a fine job and the quality and style is fairly consistent throughout. The best thing about these issues art-wise is the covers on the latter arc. They are magnificently wild and trippy, but unfortunately nothing in the issues lives up to the creative potential suggested by the covers.

Ultimately this story arc was fine, but there's nothing about it that has me excited enough to recommend it. If you want to read all of the Dawn of X stuff, you won't regret reading this, but otherwise, I wouldn't go out of my way.

[Brian Garthoff · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was not expecting to like Brisson’s issues of New Mutants slightly more than Hickman’s overall but that’s kind of what ended up happening. Particularly some of the more psychedelic looking scenes that cropped up in this volume. And I kind of hope we are done with the two author format at this point. 3.5 stars

[Andres Pasten · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entretenidas historias, lastima no conocer del todo a los personajes y la historia previa. Un final acorde a los tiempos actuales (black lives matter), que recuerdan porque surgieron los X-men inicialmente. Se viene x of swords...

[Chantaal · Rating 2 out of 5]

X-Men 2021 project continues!

Previous reviews under the spoiler:
House of X/Powers of X ⭐⭐⭐
X-Men, Vol. 1 ⭐⭐
Marauders, Vol. 1 ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Excalibur, Vol. 1 ⭐⭐⭐
X-Men/Fantastic Four: 4X ⭐⭐⭐⭐
X-Force, Vol. 1 ⭐⭐
New Mutants (Hickman), Vol 1 ⭐⭐⭐

This was fine.

I can see why these two different New Mutant storylines were split and told separately; Hickman's New Mutants was a fun space romp that got the band back together and featured lots of Shi'ar alien fun. Brisson's New Mutants stays very much on earth, dealing with very mutant topics.

Unfortunately, this story has been told five million times before, and it's been told so much better. Were it not such a lukewarm story, I may have been invested. As it was, all I could think of was tons of other classic anti-mutant storylines I'd rather read instead, particularly X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills.

Everything here was heavy handed and boring. The cartel thugs holding Beak's family and the New Mutants were boring. The Eastern European country trying to hurt the mutants who came in to save them was boring. The team going in to take on the website that doxxes mutants was boring (and manages modern social commentary terribly).

There was a lot of cool art in this, particularly with the new mutant they find that deals in nightmares - lots of really neat nightmarish, psychedelic spreads. That's about all I really liked about this.

I didn't really care about any of the story or the characters, in the end.

[Jake Salsgiver · Rating 5 out of 5]

The other half of the New Mutant comic started with Hickman.

It was really good, and continued its story seamlessly adding in the OG New Mutant team when they returned from space. The New Mutants band together to rescue Mutants who are unaccounted for on Krakoa, and help others reach Krakoa in countries that don’t recognize Krakoa as a nation.

First off, the art was incredible. A fully new mutant character Cosmar was introduced and her powers are wild. She’s a 13 year old girl who just manifested her mutation and accidentally kills her parents. Her power is that she manifests her dreams and nightmares into reality and augments reality into her dream. Which led to some INCREDIBLE and trippy full page art works. Her power also releases a tranquilizer that not only forces her to sleep and continue to dream (and thus bend reality uninterrupted) but also can catch others and cause them to dream along with her and expand her field of power.

The bad guy in this book was actually very scary as well. The enemy was very real and less comic book evil. A blog site for “concerned citizens of the world” posts sitings, addresses, and any other information they can get on mutants around the world. Causing the death or severe injury of mutants or their loved ones. Which is a real thing that has happened before because of internet trolls.

I never thought I’d resonate with a GLOB HERMAN story arc but here I am having done so! It felt like a very real and accurate take on what it feels like to be a minority and/or LGBTQ person living in a conservative world. And just the joy one can have from being able to live as their authentic self.

High hopes for the next New Mutants books!

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brisson's New Mutants is delightful for its collection of a wide variety of young mutants, from the original New Mutants and X-Force through Generation X and Morrison's cohort. (Admittedly, the characterization is light on many of them, but for others it's good).

It's less delightful in its plotting, mainly because Brisson's New Mutants don't really seem to have a place in the Krakoa world. Hickman's New Mutants had tried to solve the problem by having them be the space-team, but Brisson instead falls back on the idea of bringing mutants back to Krakoa, which isn't that original.

Oh, the first story, with Beak and Angel is pretty good for its focus on those characters (and less so for its somewhat dull adversaries: a drug cartel). The long second story really drags though, with its mutant black hole story, which I feel like I've read before, at various times starring Legion, Mikhail, and Xorn. The only particularly good element is a look at how foreign governments are (inexplicably) resisting Krakoa.

The only story in the volume that really felt like it defined its own space was the last one, featuring New Mutants going after mutant doxxers. (And also featuring some great background on Glob.)

Overall, this book is too scattered and too unfocused to be great, but it's 3.5 stars.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Strange dichotomy of there being 2 New Mutants titles running side by side, but trading off every couple of actual issues. I don't know how a person is supposed to actually read this in single issue form and have it make sense, but these collected volumes aren't too bad. In this one, the other half of the team (the one not off fighting in space) goes to Nebraska to collect Beak and Angel and their kids, and then makes a trip to Nova Roma, a remnant Roman empire colony deep in the Amazon jungle, for one of the mutants to visit her father and help battle some strange creatures. And then there's a weird new "dreaming" mutant in a former Soviet country that must be rescued. And a face-to-face confrontation with the management of a doxing website that has resulted in more than a few mutant deaths and injuries. Lots going on. Not a lot of focus. But the art isn't bad and it's nice to spend some time with some new (to me) characters (Boom Boom, Maxime and Manon, Amara) and have some others (Armor, Glob) start to shine a bit more.

[Adam Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this issue by issue when they were released but now I'm giving the Dawn of X books between House of X and X of Swords a reread.

Rounding up generously from like a 2.5 -- the first half of this volume is pretty weak for me. The villains don't feel interesting or compelling in any way, they really don't stand out from anything else going on in the Dawn of X lineup, and the cast (aside from Boom-Boom, who Brisson does a GREAT job with) is forgettable. After the classic New Mutants return from Hickman's adventures in space (see New Mutants by Jonathan Hickman which I loved but was too short), everything starts to work a little bit better, and Flaviano finally gets to shine a little bit on art throughout the nightmare arc. This is just a mixed bag. If it weren't for my love of Boom-Boom I'd probably just give it a 2.

Pros: Did I mention BOOM-BOOM? Rod Reis on some phenomenal covers. Eventually some New Mutants.
Cons: Angel and Beak? Maxime and Manon? Cartels? Nova Roma? Meh.

[Fraser Simons · Rating 2 out of 5]

Finally caught up with all the X-men and new mutants, pretty much. This alternate? New Mutants wasn’t nearly as good as Hickman, and I can see why it segues into one team writing it, which was an incredible, but short, run. This explains Karma, a character I didn’t know about but is featured in the last volume of the new mutants run I really like, but otherwise was pretty lacklustre. Didn’t like the art and the story was very bland.

[Alan Castree · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was so much better reading these stories separately rather than mixed together. This one eventually picks up where the Hickman story left off but you need to go though another story to get there.

This series seems to be dealing with Mutant Hate groups that are publishing personal information about mutants which leads to radicals hurting or killing them. It’s quite a sad story but an interesting take.

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like a lot of the new X-Men content, this book was middle of the road. The general idea of a team going out to help mutants get to Krakoa is fine, but most of it teetered on the line of being gimmicky with the enemies that were confronted. And because the characters were never introduced well, it made the emotional impact quite small.

[Emmett Spain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once I figured out how this fit in with the other New Mutants book, I plugged in to the vibe of the stories and really enjoyed them. There were some characters I didn’t know or understand much—the Dawn of X books generally assume that you know everyone and their backstories, which is a distancing assumption—but I enjoyed this nonetheless.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

It might be sacrilege to some, but I actually preferred this to the Hickman issues.

Also, once I make Glob Herman's vegetarian laksa recipe from issue #10, this might get another half-star from me. That genuinely sounds delicious.

[Matt Quann · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this set of stories much more than the Shi’ar storyline in the last collection. I’ll follow along after X of Swords if it seems interesting.

[Caleb Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great character work here - kind of scattered plot, though. These characters deserve to be two separate books.

[Philip · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.75ish stars.

The drop in quality from Hickman’s New Mutants to this one is astounding.

[Usamah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much prefer this than the previous volume. It definitely is the characters because I felt much more of a connection with the ones in this

[Jiro Dreams of Suchy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The new mutants fight doxxers, cartel members and monsters of new Rome. The introduction of Cosmar is great- she is a super unique character and I am excited to see her control her power.