While Xavier is worrying about Illyana (perhaps something he should have been doing more of recently), S'ym - Belasco's head minion - turns up, takes down Xavier, and lays in wait for Illyana. Oh dear. She uses her mutant power to bring the New Mutants into the mansion (and in a curious bit of timey-wimey, intersecting with a bit of Magik #3), where they start the requisite punching. Teamwork, as usual, proves key. Magma gets to use her powers in controlled combat for the first time, by making a mini-volcano inside, busting up the floorboards. I can see a small problem with that.
Magik recovers. Her spells prove ineffective, so she is forced to resort to the soulsword. With this she threatens S'ym into her service. Stevie Hunter witnessed all of this, so Magik rips a trick from Xavier's playbook and mindwipes her. All that is remembered is Magik's mutant power: the light circles. She keeps the magic to herself.
I really rather liked a lot of this issue, but I think it's less that teamwork provided key and more that teamwork provided a little bit of breathing room for Illyana to bother to solve the crisis.
ReplyDeleteIt bodes ill that the last three issues have involved two in which a spectacularly powerful character generates drama by being rubbish at self control, and a third in which a spectacularly powerfulc character generates drama by being too upset to do anything useful.
From those three issues alone, I'd be very doubtful as to whether Claremont has any sensible way to avoid endless iterations of "New Mutants show up, Magma and Magik win instantly".
He mostly nobbles them - Magma by just forgetting what she is capable of; Magik by losing control of Limbo. Which is why they're first for the chopping block I suppose (along with Doug).
DeleteIt's not a hole he learns to avoid, either. I'm reading Excalibur now and Ray is just stupidly overpowered compared to the rest of the team. So she spends a lot of time depowered/unconscious/etc.