Saturday, April 16, 2011

New Mutants v1: Return of Legion TPB



What a pleasant blast from the past. New Mutants was one of my first comics, and I forgot how much I enjoyed this team of wannabe X-Men. Here we are 20-some years later, and the class has graduated up to full X-Men status, but the characters still feel the same. Cannonball still wants to be Cyclops. Sunspot wants to sleep with the prettiest X-ladies. Magma is still obsessed with Empath. Magik still has her secrets. I thought Karma got to act a bit kinder than I remember; she spends the first arc protecting a kid from Legion's vicious personalities. And Dani Moonstar. She always had the somewhat useless illusion powers and had to make due with her other abilities. Really, losing her powers on M-Day shouldn't make this much of a difference to Cannonball, she still kicks more butt than most of the team. I'm pretty sure ol Cannonball might have a crush.

And speaking of crushes, I think the scene with Sunspot trying to impress Rogue is my favorite moment in this trade. Sunspot is always trying so hard to win the ladies over, I'm glad to see him like this again and not brooding as Reignfire or one of his other awful incarnations. Legion is a fun villain and it is great seeing him used and brought back to the table so effectively. (Hard to believe he's been gone since Age of Apocalypse.)

Zeb Wells does a wonderful job recapturing the feel of those old comics. I don't think he mentioned Magnum PI, but surely that will come up soon. Diogenes Neves is a solid artist. He establishes the tone in Legion's mind right away, and his updates of the classic yellow and black suits really shine. But man, seeing that Bob McLeod cover really makes me wish we could get some classic artists back for at least some fill-ins.

Good

1 comment:

Martin Gray said...

Hmm, I read the first couple of issues of this and never got round to the rest. They're in a pile somewhere. now I want to crack tehm open.