Tuesday, 8 January 2013

New Mutants #51: Starjam

New Mutants #51 is more about the mentors than about the teens themselves. Our kids are still in space (after the events of #48-#50), and Xavier is deciding whether or not to return with them. He hoovers up memories: the Mutant Massacre is shocking, but not enough. The real surprise is seeing an advert for X-Factor on the tellybox: he recognises his original X-Men on screen.

Oh.

So, the main team really were just not paying attention: they only started noticing the adverts for X-Factor around the time of the Battle of Sheep Meadow. Maybe the kids just watch more TV?

Xavier decides to let go. The Starjammers need him and he can rely on Magneto. I suppose he must have done research on how that had been working out. One problem though: Magik is on strike. This is quickly worked round by Xavier ordering Karma to possess her and do it directly, something that is ruthless even for Professor X. Dani protests, so good on her.

Can Magneto be trusted? That's the question that Magneto himself has been pondering. He's got an offer to join the Hellfire Club as White King, and consults with Storm, who strongly urges he take it up. He doesn't, though - not on their terms anyway. Instead, Storm and Magneto join together, and wearing their own costumes. This is supposed to be an alliance, after all, not a supplication.

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4 comments:

  1. Austin Gorton10 January 2013 at 17:02

    This is quickly worked round by Xavier ordering Karma to possess her

    This is one of those things that's always bugged me about Karma. Couldn't Xavier have just done that himself telepathically? Isn't possessing people just a specific and limited form of telepathy?

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    1. Abigail Brady10 January 2013 at 17:42

      Xavier's never had had the ability to directly possess people, though, has he? He can mindwipe, but at this point I don't think he's even been shown to plant false memories. Huh. His fearsome rep as telepath supreme owes mostly to his power and range, rather than the variety of things he can do.

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    2. Austin Gorton10 January 2013 at 17:46

      Hmm, maybe my beef is more in retrospect. Because I know eventually Xavier will be shown to be able to take control of people telepathically, if he hasn't already (I'm thinking, for example, of the flashback in issue #309 that showed his using his power to prevent Amelia Voight from leaving him). But maybe, at the time this issue was published, that wasn't a thing he did yet.

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    3. Abigail Brady10 January 2013 at 18:04

      Certainly he'd have been able to solve a lot more things as a Professor X Machina if he could do that, which is the last thing X-Men needs.

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