Jun 14, 2024
(review for the whole arc, might edit some stuff at some point)
I feel like recently I've seen a lot of dislikes towards Louise Simonson's work. honestly her on X-factor or New Mutants I love a lot. Yeah, I do not think it's all perfect, but a lot of CC's work is not perfect either. Especially X-factor, which while very very underrated for how much of the current X-landscape and tropes are based on it, is stuff that the fandom loves dearly. it has stuff I'm iffy about, but even then it's kinda charming. But especially her start in The New Mutants for me is up there with Sienkiewicz's time on the title, both being the absolute peaks of new mutants comics. People say the Demon Bear Saga is the best CC/Sienkiewicz story, i like the Demon Be
ar Saga, but I prefer Legion, even if it has in a way fewer the new mutants in it, but that's a review for another day and the point is that this particular story ''a sudden death'' or whatever it's called, deserves the same spot IMO.
Simonson did something I feel Waid did with his Fantastic Four or at least similar. She started her run, very lightly, the approach with the characters was way different than Clearemont's. For me Simonson and Claremont are like Tolstoy and Dostoevsky.I felt like those were kids, I know people hate that, but I love it. She took away most of the confusing at times introspection and those big battles that were happening there, maybe she removed a little bit of the complexities of the characters, but she made each one stand out way more, while they were simple and way more instinctual. And I get how this could be seen as a negative, i again i see Simonson as Tolstoy to CC's Dostoevski, which means that her lighter touch towards the character also had merits and those merits were explored exactly in this arc i am going to talk about, it made the arc way more visceral. I Also, I felt like the whole thing, at least in those early issues had way more of a consistent vision of what it wanted to be. Don't get me wrong, CC's New Mutant was a generation run, but when we look at it, as a whole, it's on the disjointed side, especially some of those early issues. it had peaks but they seemingly came out of nowhere like the issue with cloak and dagger.
The instinctual nature of this run is important because this arc is all about that, it's about how the pureness of those kids can lead to tragic consequences. As about how being an x-men is a choice, that even if means that you are a superhero, could be the wrong choice for mutants, which is a foundational concept to the x-men as a whole. It's the foundation that nobody is really right in regard to the ideological battle of the franchise. the new mutants were often in situations where they were outclassed, like the demon bear saga for example and while that was a terrifying moment for them, where the panic was all-consuming, no small thanks to Sienkiewicz's art, here is different. The previous issue Simonson did, framed this way better because it was made for the fall to be bigger. As I said those issues were fun, the biggest problems were the crushes the girls had on the boys, and Cannonball just being anxious about how much cooler Lila is, just a low-stakes, problems that seemed way bigger to the characters because they were kids, than they actually were, with few little things like the drugs and so on, which in a way alluded that the world is way more dangerous outside of their belief. Which came to fruition in this arc. Like here, the fault is totally on the new mutants, their lack of experience, their way of viewing the world, of feeling like they always win, because that's all they know, because consequences do not exist for me. What the characters experienced here broke their world in its totality. The stuff that was happening on the island was very intense and brutal, especially towards the animates, in a way foreshadowing what was going to happen to the mutants, the animates were crushed by the Doctor, they were abused and it felt like they had no way of escaping it, so they became what the doctor wanted them to be. The whole atmosphere of the island is terrible, I mean it's good, but from the moment the mutants stepped on it, all turned upside down, that was the boom, it felt like a different comic, which made it worse. it is exactly like how before ''The Unthinkable'' by Waid, he used a few of the previous issues to establish a light very creative, and warm tone, building or more like establishing the family dynamic of his run, which was based on jokes or just the quirks of each character. The issue themself were very well constructed and had a lot of heart in them, but they always ended on a good note, a light note. Untill at least the unthinkable came and the longer depressing storylines came, exploring the hurt slowly for a lot of issues. What happens in new mutants is similar. What happened on the island seemed like a nightmare, with its ups and downs, the mutants were finding peace, and they were getting excited, only to be crushed again and be powerless again and all contrasted so much to what they knew within Simonson's run. So we talk about a really, really good planing, that was pretty much impossible to see, but there, because the dangers were constantly around like again the drugs and so on. Simonson found a way to make the whole arc on the island feel unsafe, and dangerous, like another territory. All that was greatly accentuated by Blevins art.
One thing about this whole story is that it does not hold its punches or if it does, it holds them for a sec only to find a better opening to strike, which also applies to Blevins art. his art can be disgusting, can be almost caricature-like, it's not even always about his style, but what it's about what is chosen to be shown and usually this is the thing that makes it hurt hurts. There are some particularly haunted panels here. It's like again, it wants to pull your heart out, it stands on those haunted places for too long sometimes. Don't get me wrong blevings unrealistic, exaggerated style definitely does bring a lot to the table. It makes them seem like children and very expressive children at that, with very big eyes accentuating their pureness. It's almost like this exaggeration, makes the story even sadder, it makes it scream, where another artist would have made it cry. It's a panic-inducing feeling, but again not quite like tha panic of Sienkivic, here it was not such a horror journey, it was more real, more grotesque, it's quite like a Disney movie that turned real, while retaining the disney style. And it's really respectable he managed to do this, when his art is actually very consistent in what it does, not like Sienkievic who is always fluid with his art. Btw i am not saying Blevins is the better artist, I am not this crazy.
After this issue, after the tragedy that happened on the island, the comics delve deep into the sadness. It does not shy away from exploring, how much it affected the team, how extremely what happened pushed them, and all the wrong ways the team coped with it. It's hard to read because you see the kids are not doing themself favors, but it's hard to not empathize and understand that you don't have the right to judge a tragedy as that and the people who suffered from it. It can be ham-fisted at times, it can be over-explanatory, but those are kids, they are in panic, and oversharing comes from the lack of encountering such a thing. Each one of them takes what happened in a different, albeit most do similarly and some of them need a lot more time to heal. TBH I don't think all their mourning hits the same, clearly, some characters have a lot more basis in their sadness, as it fits them better to take it a certain way. Illyana, Rahne, and Magneto are the clear highlights for me. And especially Magneto the shift in his attitude, the moment he understood what happened are some of the most gut-wrenching pages I've read probably ever.
What they've experienced brought them closer, it revealed what they did not talk about before, it established new connections between the new mutants and had an impact. As a final, I see Forge's battle with Magik and him being a reflection of what Illiana could become if she let her anger control her and her inability to deal with tragedy. Illyana is a very borderline character, she is very prone to extreme behaviors, becoming unrecognizable and trying to solve every problem, but in the wrong way, so this is exactly her nightmare when she loses the only constant she has in Colossus, her faith in Magneto and Dough. Plus also Illyana has the demon voices whispering in her ear, so is hard not to listen to them, when emotionally she feels so weak. The choice not to kill Forge shows that there is hope, no matter how dire the situation is, how every bone in her body wants to kill him and sees only that. And Forge pretty much says where that hope lies. Her friends, in the end, are exactly the people to stop her from making that mistake, which means that while they have each other to keep in check, they all can manage to survive it. Because they show her a different perspective, one which she being so consumed by anger can't.
Obviously, the run continues and continues to walk the line between a child's fantasy to a child's nightmare and at times combines both. more
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