Writers: Nunzio Defilippis and Christina Weir
Artists: Keron Grant (p), Rob Stull, Pierre-Andre Dery and Sean Parsons (i)
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Plot:
The book opens in Venezuela, where a woman is shot dead by the police, during their efforts to put down a mob uprising. We then see this woman was the mother of a young mutant named Sofia, and since her uncle is unwilling to take her into his already crowded home, Sofia is sent to America, where her father lives. As she arrives in America, Sofia is quick to discover her father is a very wealthy, but busy man who doesn't have the time, or the inclination to be a father to her. However, she does find a friend in her father's assistant, who makes every effort to make Sofia feel welcome in her new home. However, the same can't be said for the children at school, as they make every effort to make her feel like a outsider, and in spite of her continued efforts to make friends, she finds herself continually rebuffed & ignored. We then see her finally lose her cool on her birthday, as tired of being treated like she crawled out from under a rock Sofia pays a visit to her father's store, and unleashes to full fury of her wind controlling ability. We then see she is taken into custody by the police, and it is here that Dani Moonstar, a former member of the New Mutants steps forward to offer Sofia a chance to become a student at Xavier Academy. Needless to say she jumps at the opportunity to go to a school where her mutant gift would be accepted.
Comments:
Of the new titles that Marvel has unleashed under the Tsunami banner, this is the one that made its way onto my must have list, sight unseen, as I've spent the better part of my comic reading life following the New Mutants and the only time I gave up on the group was during the early 1990s, when the group turned into a rough & tough squadron of proactive soldiers. Still, there's close to two decades worth of loyalty attached to the cast of the New Mutants, and while this opening issue doesn't exactly mark the triumphant return of the team, I can't deny that it was great to see Dani again. The cover to this issue makes it seem like we can expect Shan, Amara & Rahne, so all we need to complete the collection of all time favorite cast would be Sam & Bobby (I would've asked for Illyana to but I'm willing to accept that she's dead). Now this issue does seem to suggest that the cast members of the original team are going to act as teachers to the next generation of mutants, and as such I suspect the focus my be centered around a largely new cast, with the first cast member being Sofia, a young woman from Venezuela with the ability to control the winds. Now given the early years of the original series was far and away the most enjoyable period of that book's history, I have to say that I'm not overly upset that the focus might be on the new generation, just so long as the original cast members aren't completely ignored.
With this said up until Dani's arrival there's relatively little in this opening issue that I would consider overly exciting. I mean it is nice to see a young mutant who was perfectly comfortable with her gift, and that up until the moment of her mother's death she had a pretty stable life. However, when she arrives in America the story quickly begins to cover ground that I've seen many times before, as her father forbids her from using her mutant power, for fear it would disrupt his life style, and the situation at school is also quite familiar, though I did rather enjoy the idea that she made an active attempt to make friends, as far too many writers fall into the trap of making their alienated teens into wallflowers who stand in the background lamenting over the fact that they have no friends. Now this is a perfectly valid personality type, but it's also one that I feel has been over used, and I'm quite pleased to see that this isn't the case this time out. There's also a nice throwaway moment in which Sofia uses her power to lift herself over a wall, and I enjoyed the little tumble she took as it's a cute way of showing us this is an ability she has yet to master. As for the moment in which out lead character lashes out at the world, and earns herself the attention of Xavier's school, it's certainly an impressive display of the raw power at her command.
The news about this book struggling to meet its deadline before it even had issue one in the can, would seem to be partially validated by the presence of three inkers, but Keron Grant put in a seven issue run of issues over on "Iron Man", so I know he's capable of at least the appearance of a monthly artist, and my fingers are crossed that this book won't stumble its way out of the gate thanks to a shaky art team. However, putting aside my concerns about the art's ability to meet its monthly deadlines, I did notice that Keron Grant looks to have adopted a more restrained approach to the art, as his figure work has the characters looking like normal people, and they aren't stuck in painful looking poses. The art also does a wonderful job detailing the rather difficult nature of Sofia's power, as while it does use the artistic cheat where lines are used to indicated the direction the wind is blowing, the scene where she unleashes her full elemental fury inside the store is very impressive, with the one-page shot detailing her power at its height being a particularly strong visual. The issue also offers up a pretty solid sequence where we see Dani makes her way to the police station, as it's a scene without any explanatory text, but it very easily understood what this woman is doing, and for the more observant readers, who she is.
Final Word:
A bit of a slow start to this series, and truth be told Sofia's story is hardly breaking new, unexplored ground. Now it's a well crafted story, and by the end we have a character who is nicely defined, both in the power that she controls, and the frustration that she feels at being removed from an environment where she was loved, into one where she's rejected at every turn. The latter half of the issue also manages to nicely establish the role that the members of the original New Mutants will likely play, as Dani Moonstar steps in to offer up an invitation to our young mutant when she lashes out at the world, and manages to get herself thrown in jail. Still, I'm a little concerned that the opening six-seven issues are going to be basically the same plot, as Dani makes her way about the country rescuing young mutants who will make up the team. Plus, it doesn't help that this is a plot that has been seen many times before in the X-books, and fans of the original series might be a little disillusioned by the lack of involvement by members of the original team.
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