New Mutants #62: Rome Sweet Rome

New Mutants #62 drops the ball from #61. It seemed like they were about to do something decisive and defy Magneto; but instead they are grieving (fair enough), and reading a letter from Magma.

What's she been up to since she joined the Hellions? Well, she gets to be teased by a different set of people now. Progress of a sort. You'll remember that she transferred to the Hellions partly because of Empath but also partly because her dad wanted her back in New Rome. Her attempt at enrolling at the Mass Acad is possibly a last-ditch effort to continue to be of value in acquiring intelligence. It doesn't work. Dad wants her back anyway. For extra joy there is the prospect of an unwanted arranged marriage.

Empath goes with her - on Emma's suggestion. And then, since there has to be an adventure, their private plane crashes (sabotage?) Magma won't use her setting things on fire power because she's worried about burning down the entire Amazon and depriving the air of oxygen. She uses her survival skills to get them through the next few days, before they are found by her father and his troops.

I don't have much to say about this issue. It looks like it's a fill-in: Blevins, who is the regular artist on the article now (hey, don't I know that surname from somewhere) had to do a double-length #60 and won't be returning, with the main plot, for #64. And it's difficult to do a fill-in when you're in the middle of changing your status quo: your only options are the Flashback Adventure or the Meanwhile, Here's What Some Other Characters Are Doing. Same problem that Uncanny had around the same time.

And far from being a start of new storylines, Magma is being more or less written out of the series now. She won't be a regular on a series for a protracted period again until the 2000s. Good-bye Amara. Your potential was wasted.

New Mutants #56: When Outside Rome

New Mutants #56 starts immediately after #55. The issue's main plot are attempts by the New Mutants and the Hellions to rescue Bird Boy (who I figure is probably the source material for the Weekly World News's character Bat Boy.)

The teams clash without having any real dispute, it's just their usual setting for interaction. The Mutants end up taking Bird Boy home: we'll find out more about him later. But that's calling that the A-plot is like saying whatever scientific expedition the Enterprise is on that week is automatically the A-plot.

What this issue is actually about is Magma, who Claremont spent so much time setting up and then has mostly ignored. She's far more foreign than anyone else there, having grown up in a culture that was completely isolated from the "modern world", even by reputation. But in practice she's not been the one who has been getting the culture shock, and beyond a rivalry (if you can call it that) with Selene and being handy in a fight may as well not have been there.

She's had a letter from her dad saying that her letters have been very useful but that she should come back home now. She likes Empath of the Hellions (this was teased a bit in #53-#54), and she wonders whether she wouldn't be treated better at the Mass Acad. So, assuming that Emma's offer is still open, she decides to transfer. Perhaps she's thinking that'll keep her dad happy. All a bit sudden, though. And that Selene, she's still Black Queen. Has she thought about this much?

New Mutants #53-#54: Pleased To Meet You

New Mutants #53-#54 is a two-part story set in one night. The gang have been grounded for weeks, Sunspot and Warlock have run away, and Magneto thinks he has just the idea to cheer them up: a party at the Hellfire Club, which the Hellions have also been invited.

This is not one of Magneto's better plans. And some of his have been real doozies.

It actually turns out surprisingly OK. Everyone gets little character moments. Wolfsbane and Catseye bond; Cannonball and Jetstream develop their rivalry; Magma discovers that Selene might be her ancestor (a distant very-great-grandmother - so I think we're supposed to believe that Selene actually is the Roman moon goddess at this point); Karma goes snooping for intel about her brother and sister; and Moonstar and Thunderbird face off about their respective teams. They end up in a challenge to find out who had sold a dodgy copy of a statue of Selene to a Hellfire club member; the Hellions win, by pointing the New Mutants at the early levels while the Hellions go straight to the boss fight. Sneaky.

Cypher and Roulette end up in bed together (after Cypher got lucky), where they are caught by the other New Mutants. This might possibly warrant adding them to the chart, except that the dialogue seems more pre-coital, so it will remain unadjusted.

And, while they were having all that fun, they've been basically driving off Karma, who has now left the team (again), on a quest to find Leong and Nga. According to the letters page in New Mutants #65, this was to have been a plot in Fallen Angels 2, which never did happen for various reasons...

New Mutants #43: Lack of Empath

New Mutants #43 is really quite unsettling.

The Mutants have unfinished business from the recent arc (#38-#40) where they were sent to the Massachusetts Academy, and while Emma Frost is untouchable, there is still the matter of Empath, who very nearly killed Sharon and Tom, staff at the school.

So, having agreed that he can't just be allowed to get away with it, they take revenge upon him. Cold, pre-planned sadistic revenge. I dunno, it's 1986 and suddenly everyone thinks they're the Punisher. Empath's team, the Hellions (led by Thunderbird) come to rescue him before they actually get as far as doing anything irreparable.

And then, that's it. No consequences (well, not in this issue, at least), just a warning from Thunderbird that the Hellions will look after their own as much as the New Mutants did. If things had had got worse, would they have expected the X-Men to step in and save them? Um, not that that actually has happened, as a rule, in New Mutants, obv that would be fairly rubbish if the title characters weren't the heroes in their own book. But then, here we have a clear case of that.

New Mutants #38-#40: And They Woke Up And It Was All Real

New Mutants #38-#40 deals with the aftermath of Secret Wars II. The New Mutants were resurrected, but as soulless automatons, talking but not caring. Only Dani seems a bit more active, crying, and explaining what happened to Brightwind for us. Thor appears to her in a vision with a message of hope. As a frog. (Never mind Loki being a girl or a kid, Thor was a frog! Blame Walt Simonson.)

Magneto, now going by the name "Michael Xavier", Charles' cousin, isn't able to do much about this, and, after much consideration, takes Emma Frost up on her offer of taking the students off his hands. He closes down the school, with only Dani and Warlock refusing to leave. The X-Men are still in San Francisco, otherwise they'd surely put a stop to this.

I think we're supposed to reckon Emma is causing all this, especially once Empath is found lurking around the school grounds, using his powers to forcibly rpslash Sharon and Tom. At the Massachusetts Academy, we find out it is instead real damage from the Beyonder, as Empath simply can't work on them, and Emma fixes the kids at least part of the way.

Meanwhile, Magneto is wondering whether he did the right thing, Dani goes to visits her parents, and then Sharon and Tom turn up, almost dead, reporting what Empath did to them. Magneto decides that he'd been emotionally manipulated too, and sets off to rescue the kids.

Emma sees this coming, and via her local police force summons the Avengers, here consisting of Captain America, Wasp, Black Knight (Dane Whitman), Hercules, Namor and Captain Marvel (Monica Rambeau), and tells them the mutant terrorist Magneto is planning on abducting some of her students. In doing so, she sort of gives herself away to the Avengers, as they realise that the only reason Magneto might be interested in them is if they are mutants. Anyway, Avengers and Magneto fight, but the New Mutants - who have been partly fixed by Emma, show loyalty to Magneto and defend him. The Avengers are at least temporarily persuaded of his reform, and allow him to leave with the students. As does Frost - she knows she can't hold them against their will, and gets some brownie points for next round by not trying.

The story has a detached mood matching its subject material, and it's not immediately obvious what is happening or is motivating any of the characters. I'm not entirely convinced by the ending: but I guess Emma can't be as much as a hardass as we'd been led to believe.