New Mutants #15-#17: Chasing Demons

New Mutants #15 starts the day after Uncanny X-Men #180. Kitty is missing. So are the X-Men. Illyana is worried enough that she sends an astral projection to go check on Kitty, and unfortunately finds her a captive of Emma Frost, whose illusions are fooling Doug into thinking nothing's wrong.

Kitty and Frost notice the psychic form, and Illyana cries out in pain. The New Mutants - who've been left behind in the mansion, go see what's up, engage in a spot of demon-hunting (the spell backfired a bit), and then sit down and have a Serious Conversation with Illyana.

Illyana 'fesses up about the sorcery, and tells them about Kitty. The Fantastic Four and the Avengers have also been captured by the Beyonder and forced to participate in his miniseries, so that's not much use, and they are reluctantly forced to catch the bus to MA. On the bus, Rahne is freaking out about Magik, as might be expected, and someone - Sam - finally tries talking to her about theology, rather than just passively watch her denounce herself as the work of Satan.

Illyana dons Kitty's old New Mutants uniform, and they start the rescue attempt. The entrance to the Massachusetts Academy is impressive, being from the direction of below, with the help of Magma.

They roam around the school at will, seeking out Kitty and Emma, and eventually being confronted by a team of mutants at the Academy: consisting of Catseye, Empath, Jetstream, Roulette, Tarot and Thunderbird (who seems to be the first Thunderbird's brother) - a sort of dark mirror of the New Mutants called the Hellions (groan). They fail to escape, and wind up in a well-appointed school jail.

Well, most of them, anyway. Illyana has broken out the soulsword and teleporting, and has managed to get herself and Dani to Limbo. S'ym proves to be properly loyal, and rescues them, allowing them time to regroup. After a brief detour to a 1985 in which the entire New Mutants team are Hellions, they arrive a week after #16. The Hellions aren't thrilled about the management either, and propose a duel for the New Mutants' freedom. Just as this seems to be working out for them (the match is Cannonball vs. Jetstream, which if nothing else is sure to produce a lot of collateral damage), Frost and Shaw arrive. Thanks to continued youthful rebellion on the part of the Hellions, the New Mutants are able to get away.

The Hellions are what this title really needed - an enemy of equal stature, and that provides everyone something interesting to do during a fight scene. The same reason, I suppose, that the Brotherhood was created, back in the day. With Magik joining the team (assuming that she stays permanently) they become slightly more powerful; and finally we are done with the Kitty/X-Babies feud.