X-Lapsed, Episode 067 – New Mutants #9
X-Lapsed, Episode Sixty-Seven
New Mutants (vol.4) #9 (May, 2020)
“Something Rotten In…”
Writer – Ed Brisson
Art – Flaviano
Colors – Carlos Lopez
Letters – VC’s Travis Lanham
Design – Tom Muller
Head of X – Hickman
Edits – Bissa, White, Cebulski
Cover Price: $3.99
On-Sale: March 11, 2020
Stop me if you heard this one before – in today’s issue, our heroes head over to a Russian-ish country that doesn’t recognize Krakoa as a sovereign nation.
Yeah, it’s that again – but, at least this time out we get a new reality-warping mutant to deal with, and get to see some of the weirdos from the Mutant Liberation Front!
Also: X-Cellent listener mail, including a missive that isn’t totally on board with the HoXPoXDoXSoX direction! Lotsa meat on the bone today – I hope you’ll join us for the fun and discussion!
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@acecomics / @cosmictmill / weirdcomicshistory@gmail.com
As with Excalibur and X-Force it turns out that the Brisson New Mutants gets considerably better immediately after I dropped it. I sometimes wonder how much of the comics industry is kept afloat by people buying the next issue in case it gets better. We're so used to a certain bit of coasting that we put up with it. This issue the characterisation of Boom Boom felt less odd because we had her contrasted with Dani and the others.
There's no doubt that they are trying to integrate the Nextwave version of Boom Boom with the original X-Factor version but in order to do that you pretty much have to ignore 100 issues of X-Force.
I wish Marvel had kept Nextwave out of continuity. As a standalone book it worked by combining pop culture (particularly the prevalence of reality tv) with humour and superheroics. It was a fun read and showcased some of the best work of Stuart Immonen's career but it could not work in continuity. By being folded into the Marvel Universe it damaged Monica Rambeau, Boom Boom, Machine Man and even Fin Fang Foom. A fun little series was not worth ruining a number of characters.
This issue was the first where I really enjoyed Flaviano's work. Obviously he suffers in comparison to Rod Reis but he handles the combination of industrial buildings and crazy reality warping really well. He also manages to differentiate a number of different blonde white girls enough that we can tell them apart in close up which is no easy task.
It was interesting to hear Andrew's point of view in the feedback section. I have a certain level of identification with the idea of checking out the X-Men to see how they were being ruined this time. The only difference is I picked up each new launch in the hope it would be great only to be disappointed. Where Andrew and I differ (I think) is in our idea of what the X-Men should be. I have mentioned before that I came into US comics with the Mutant Massacre. I consider the Claremont run from about issue 200 up to 279 to be the best era of X-Men. The main characteristic of this run is change. Claremont at his peak never gave us what we expected and that is what I want from the X-Men. So often what fails with X-Men relaunches is that we've seen it all before. My favourite thing about the current run is that they are doing things that I never would have imagined. I have so many criticisms of the books but they have reignited my X-Men fandom because they demand a response. Having theories about what is really going on takes me back to wondering about Wolverine's origin or who Maddie Pryor was. This feels like the X-Men I loved because it is worthy of discussion and I'll take that even if I end up disappointed by individual stories or how the whole era ends.
I also feel I should have to apologise for the fact that Chris has to trail my comments. What listeners may not notice is that I often skip a couple of days then binge the podcast so some days Chris receives essay upon essay from me. I feel it's a medical miracle that Chris remains so calm in the face of my onslaught. I imagine it would defeat me.