X-Lapsed, Episode 022 – New Mutants #2 (2020)
X-Lapsed, Episode Twenty-Two
New Mutants (vol.4) #2 (January, 2020)
“Space Jail”
Writer – Jonathan Hickman
Art – Rod Reis
Letters – VC’s Travis Lanham
Design – Tom Muller
Edits – Bissa, White, Cebulski
Cover Price: $3.99
On-Sale: November 27, 2019
Order in the court! (Ham and Cheese)
It’s here that the New Mutants have their day in court… will Roberto’s wicked space lawyer get them off, or will our young heroes wind up incarcerated by the Shi’ar Empire for life? Worse yet, will they get stuck hanging out with Cannonball’s annoying better half? Those answers, and a whole lot more… in this very episode!
Also: Losing touch with friends, dealing with the realization that you’re no longer a comics’ intended audience, and some great listener mail!
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@acecomics / weirdcomicshistory@gmail.com
chrisandreggie.com
chrisandreggie.podbean.com
I'm continuing to love the podcast. Thanks again for the feedback. I love hearing the stories of people's fandom. I don't think the attempt to own firsts is a particularly Wizard-era thing. I know my early back issue purchases were all about getting those firsts. My first one was tracking down Uncanny X-Men 185 which features Storm losing her powers. I sought that issue out because of the footnotes in Uncanny 220, I spent £2 on that issue at a point when new comics were 50p. My second one was (appropriately) Marvel Graphic Novel number 4 featuring the New Mutants.
Like you I enjoyed this issue. Loved the group hug you focussed on but my favourite touch was that Rahne stays in the hug for 2 panels more than the other New Mutants. It takes me right back to the Fall of the Mutants and Sam saying he would adopt Rahne as a younger sister when she was distraught after Doug's death.
Hickman very cleverly centred the relationships so he could do all his sci-fi stuff without losing us.
I have to wax lyrical about Rod Reis again. He is a genuine artistic genius. I loved the entire issue.
I felt bad hearing you say you were looking forward to reading issue 3 to see if you like Deathbird for once. I wonder if your reaction to issue 3 will reflect mine.
Your spoiler free references to X of Swords referenced old Captain Britain. To be honest most of what I saw in X of Swords used what Claremont built on top of Moore's foundations. Of all things, Fall of the Mutants was a key part of the jigsaw. It would agree that I have clearly missed stuff because of not reading Excalibur but I was impressed that Hickman and Howard explained a lot of the story so far. This is something that we don't see very often in modern Marvel and may just be because the pandemic delayed the story so they thought readers may have forgotten elements. The only thing that confused me was that Pepe Larraz drew Saturnyne as identical to how he drew Emma Frost in HOXPOX. The fact that Saturnyne exclusively wears white really didn't help.
I bet you're really enjoying rereading the Marvel UK Captain Britain. It's fascinating to see the development of Moore and Davis in those first stories. Moore moves from a Claremont copyist to a unique voice, and Davis goes from sketchy to accomplished in a very short period of time. I hope you do have time to produce something for us about these books. You are right to focus on the effectiveness of the Fury storyline. The creeping fear and dread the 2 Alan's evoke still gets me everytime I read it. Masterful.