Reign of X Mini-Reviews: New Mutants / Excalibur / Hellions

New Mutants 14-18
Written by Vita Ayala
Art by Rod Reis

Vita Ayala was a good choice to replace Ed Brisson on New Mutants – they have a very natural affinity for writing young characters, and immediately gave the series a focus and mission that was lacking in Brisson’s issues. Ayala has tightened up the core cast to a group of classic New Mutants characters – Mirage, Karma, Wolfsbane, Magik, Warlock, Warpath – and have put them in charge of an outreach program to help give structure and a sense of purpose to Krakoa’s youth, not all of whom know who or what they want to be in this new society. There’s enough action and adventure moments for it to work as a superhero series, but Ayala is writing a story about young mutants trying to find themselves and seeking out paths that don’t involve becoming a proper superhero and attempting to solve problems with violence. 

Ayala’s strength as a writer lies in their empathy, and the plot of this run of issues is largely driven by characters’ pain and emotional needs, and how this makes some characters lash out and others become confused by conflicting feelings. The main story is about the Amahl Farouk – the sinister telepath who is the host of the demonic psychic creature the Shadow King – also deciding to become a mentor to young mutants, and manipulating some particularly vulnerable kids who’ve been traumatized by their mutations to seek ways to change their circumstances. 

Ayala carries over the Brisson creation Cosmia for this plot – she’s a teenager who hideously warped her body and just wants to be reset in her original form so she can feel like a normal person again. This is a very understandable angst, and it’s hard not to side against the book’s own protagonists when they – mutants, but normal looking humans – try to tell her that her mutation is who she is and thus beautiful in its own way. Ayala is very good at puncturing the sort of well-meaning but patronizing things we say to people in pain, and doing it in a way that doesn’t totally undermine a character like Mirage’s wisdom and generosity. 

Rod Reis’ loosely gestural and very colorful art remains a major highlight of this series, and his skill for conveying nuanced emotion in facial expressions and body language adds a lot of depth to what Ayala is trying to achieve in their character writing. Reis is also terrific with atmosphere and nails the pages where Ayala asks for psychedelic horror or storybook grandeur. Ayala is aiming high, but Reis is elevating the material on every page. 

Excalibur 16-20
Written by Tini Howard
Art by Marcus To
Color art by Erick Arciniega

Given that X of Swords spent a lot of time establishing the terrain of Otherworld and gesturing towards the many story opportunities offered among its realms it has been very disappointing that in the immediate wake of that story Excalibur – the X-Men series focused on Otherworld adventures – brushed all that aside for five consecutive issues telling the convoluted story of Betsy Braddock coming back after seemingly dying in the crossover. 

There is some narrative value in this plot as it provided an opportunity for Tini Howard to get around to exploring the complicated relationship of Betsy and Kwannon, but I don’t think we get anything very deep here. Ultimately Kwannon forgives Betsy for inhabiting her body for many years and moves along in the role of Psylocke, but it feels more she’s making a legal statement after a court settlement than anything that feels emotionally natural. 

Howard’s writing is still frustrating. She has good ideas and a strong notion of who Betsy Braddock is, and I’m intrigued by her exploring the character by putting her through a series of failures. But the best elements of Excalibur are mostly conceptual, and I think she stumbles through plotting on an issue-to-issue level and in making use of her full ensemble cast. At this stage it’s pretty clear that Excalibur is ultimately a Betsy Braddock solo series with a large supporting cast, and not a proper team book as it’s sold. Rogue, one of the best and most beloved X-Men characters, has spent 20 issues of this series essentially playing the role of “Betsy’s friend” without any real story of her own. Gambit fares even worse, mainly playing the role of “Rogue’s husband.” Jubilee and Rictor get a little more to do, but their stories are presented as minor relative to things directly pertaining to Betsy. 

Unlike the second arc of Marauders in which Gerry Duggan took Kate Pryde off the board and used it as a way of exploring the other characters in the series, Howard took Betsy Braddock out of Excalibur so the other characters could mostly just talk about missing her and trying to bring her back. I like Betsy Braddock a lot, she’s one of my favorite X-Men characters, and don’t mind this sort of focus on her but it’s time for this series to be more honest about what it is. Rogue getting reassigned to Duggan’s new X-Men series is a good sign, both for the good of that character, and for Excalibur moving away from wasting major characters in the orbit of Braddock. 

Howard has clearly made some effort to tell a complete plot in any given issue, at least in terms of setting an obstacle and overcoming it, but for the most part these seem weirdly inconsequential. Maybe part of the problem is how abstract the conflicts tend to be, particularly in a set of issues like these where everything’s so psychic and mystical and not rooted in physicality or social dynamics. Even when this storyline gets a proper antagonist in the form of Malice, the story ends up defeating the concept of the character – a disembodied psychic creature that hijacks bodies – by fleshing out her backstory and giving her a body in the end. Howard aims for pathos in telling Malice’s story, but it mostly just comes across as corny and as a clumsy parallel to Betsy’s own history. 

Marcus To’s art continues to be pleasantly average in scenes that are mostly talking and hanging out, and egregiously bland and flat whenever he’s asked to draw anything particularly fantastical, which is quite often in a series largely focused on fantasy genre scenes and psychic abstractions. Given that Howard’s writing has come off much better when paired with heavyweights Pepe Larraz, R.B. Silva, Phil Noto, and Mahmud Asrar on X of Swords, it’s very likely that these issues would have come across much better if To was not the artist. 

Hellions 7-12
Written by Zeb Wells
Art by Stephen Segovia
Color art by David Curiel

Hellions remains a highlight of the line as Zeb Wells explores some of the most warped X-Men characters with equal measures of dark wit and empathetic nuance. Wells is very good at making sure his eight characters get a roughly even amount of spotlight in any given story but in this run of issues we get a little deeper into the three weirdest cast members – Nanny, Orphan Maker, and Wild Child. The sorta contrived narrative reason for this is that after being resurrected from having died in Arakko the three have come back as “sharpened” versions of themselves, i.e., like even more themselves than they were before. In effect this means that Orphan Maker is even more petulant and childish, Nanny is more vindictive and monomaniacal, and Wild Child struggles with his profound primal urge to be an alpha while consistently finding himself in situations where he most definitely is not. Wells gets a particularly good scene out of this subplot in the Hellfire Gala issue in which Wild Child runs into his ex-girlfriend Aurora and finds that not only is she embarrassed by her past association with him, but she’s also with Daken, a bigger and more obviously alpha version of Wild Child. Wells manages to take the character’s plight - rooted in toxic masculinity and powerful incel vibes - and make it weirdly poignant without making him come across any less creepy and psychotic. 

Wells’ plotting is strong, particularly in the run of issues in which the cast is held captive by Arcade and Mastermind, but the pleasure of this series is in the genuinely funny dialogue and the way Wells gradually deepens the relationships between these demented and/or broken weirdos. Greycrow in particular has benefited from this as he demonstrated a fraternal warmth towards Wild Child, a respectful comradery with Havok, and a slow-simmering romantic chemistry with Psylocke. The broader question of the series is “can these people change and be rehabilitated?” and the ongoing story of Greycrow suggest that he can be if he continues to forge real connections rather than maintain an icy loner lifestyle that allowed him to see other people’s lives as useless and disposable.

Havok’s role in the series is to essentially be the “straight man” among the lunatics, but Wells does a good job of making it clear that he’s just as broken as the rest. In the Gala issue we are reminded that any status Havok has is due to him being Cyclops’ brother, and that authority figures like Xavier and Magneto seem to view him as a pathetic figure they must be superficially kind to as a favor to Cyclops. This feeds into the character’s delusion that he doesn’t belong amongst the Hellions, but also fuels the years of sudden volcanic anger and bad choices sparked by rampant insecurity that’s put him in this position.

A Losing Battle

“X of Swords Chapter 17”
X-Force #14
Written by Benjamin Percy and Gerry Duggan
Art by Joshua Cassara
Color art by Guru-eFX

“X of Swords Chapter 18”
Hellions #6
Written by Zeb Wells
Art by Carmen Carnero
Color art by David Curiel

“X of Swords Chapter 19”
Cable #7
Written by Gerry Duggan
Art by Phil Noto

• The last seven pages of X-Force #14 is, as far as I’m concerned, the best Storm story published in over 30 years. The plot echoes a few classic motifs – she’s stripped of her powers and is forced to rely on her wits and fighting skills in a duel – but the weight of it feels different, like we’re seeing something new in her that reinforces important elements that have been there all along. Storm and Death, who had an odd sort of courtship dance earlier in the story, are forced to duel in Sevalith, a realm of vampires. Death is courteous but condescending, and even in a powerless and inebriated state Storm takes advantage of his arrogance and reflects his death gaze back on him before stabbing him in the heart. She leaves him bleeding out, and invites the vampires of Sevalith to feast on his blood. This move sums up the Storm of 2020 – as brutal as she is regal, and a woman who has now conquered literal and figurative death twice in the past three months of publishing. 

It’s worth noting Storm has a history with vampires, Dracula in particular, and that Death is an ancient Egyptian man who dresses as Anubis, which connects to her childhood in Cairo. Storm’s sword Skybreaker – the sacred blade which she stole from Black Panther in the first act – is established as a conduit that can convert small amounts of energy back as larger amounts, which explains how she could reflect Death’s death gaze back on him in such a devastating way. The sword is also explained as a weapon passed down through Wakanda through generations to protect the fledgling nation. And of course, that purpose carries over here, but in defense of Krakoa. 

• The two issues of Hellions in X of Swords are essentially a side quest that can easily be read out of context, particularly as the issues do more to advance the plot of that series than that of the crossover. As we see in this issue, the group’s mission as established last month is not only a total failure, but nothing but a ruse for Mister Sinister to collect the genetic materials of mutants in Arakko. And of course that’s what he’d do! It’s his whole deal. But the plot hits a snag as Sinister meets his opposite number – Tarn the Uncaring, a mutant from Amenth who can warp the mutations of others and has become a deranged cross between an artist and a cult leader. His horrific creations the Locus Vile tear through the Hellions with ease, and before Sinister can make it back to Krakoa with his genetic data, Tarn does…something…to his body. It should be interesting to see what happens to this Sinister body, which we already know is a duplicate. 

We will surely be seeing Tarn and the Locus Vile again in this series – you definitely don’t go out of your way to create characters this disturbing unless you plan on making the most of a crew that’s a dark mirror of your exceedingly warped and broken cast of protagonists. I like that Tarn and Sinister have the same sort of cavaliar god complex, but the difference between them essentially comes down to art/religion vs science. Wells’ text page describing the Locus Vile is excellent in selling the characters’ unnerving premises, from Sick Bird’s fascination with invading the “sacred cord” of the spine to truly “know” her prey to the unexplained but clearly dire consequences of what happens when Amino Fetus eats. 

• The duel between Gorgon and The White Sword in Cable #6 is another instant classic fight scene, as one of the great Captains of Krakoa dies with honor after slaughtering over a dozen of the ancient mutant’s slave warriors, which evens the score in Saturnyne’s contest after several issues of the X-Men getting demolished by the Arakki. Phil Noto sells the drama of this scene very well with clean, uncluttered pages that convey Gorgon’s exceptional grace as a warrior.

Gorgon was introduced as a Wolverine villain by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr in the 2000s, and since then has mainly appeared in two of Jonathan Hickman’s more obscure Marvel works, Secret Warriors and Avengers World. Up until very recently he was played as vicious criminal genius affiliated with The Hand, Hydra, and HAMMER. Aside from X-Men #4, in which we see him act as a bodyguard for Xavier, Magneto, and Apocalypse, X of Swords is his first big moment as a protagonist in an X-Men story. This scene does two major things for the character – it gives him a set piece that proves his nobility, bravery, and extraordinary fighting skills, and it hits a reset button that allows him to be resurrected without the baggage of his worst deeds. I imagine that when we meet the new Gorgon, with his old self overwritten by a composite of his many selves throughout the multiverse, we’ll be meeting someone who isn’t far off from the man we see in this issue. 

• Nanny, Orphan Maker, and Wild Child also die in Otherworld, which essentially means that Zeb Wells gets an opportunity to define those characters going forward on his terms. This should be fascinating for Nanny and the Orphan Maker, who were already very undeveloped and enigmatic characters. Will they even be able to recognize one another on the other side? 

Edit: I’ve been corrected in the comments that they actually died in Arakko/Amenth, so presumably the Otherworld death scramble effect won’t apply to them. This makes sense given that Wells has established a Nanny subplot in previous issues and he probably wouldn’t just throw that away.

• Some very good funny bits in these issues, from the silliness of some of the competitions to the reveal that Pogg Ur-Pogg is just a little troll hiding inside a big alligator monster, and the bit where Cable explains to his very confused parents that he was just beaten by “Doug’s large wife.” 

Subterfuge

“X of Swords” Chapter 6
Hellions #6
Written by Zeb Wells
Art by Carmen Carnero 
Color art by David Curiel

“X of Swords” Chapter 7
Written by Ed Brisson
Art by Rod Reis

“X of Swords” Chapter 8
Written by Gerry Duggan
Art by Phil Noto

• This set of X of Swords chapters restore some of the plot momentum that had slowed for the digressions into Wolverine and Storm solo stories last week. Thankfully the writing staff appreciates that there’s a hard limit on how many “quest for sword” plots that could be included without derailing the story entirely, and so this week we get a digression introducing a new plot thread centered on Mister Sinister and spend some time with designated swordbearers of Krakoa who already have their blades – Cypher, Magik, and Cable. 

• It was unclear what role the Hellions would play in this story, but Zeb Wells offers up a clever curveball: Mister Sinister offers the services of his Hellions to go to Otherworld and seek to sabotage the Arraki swordbearers, forcing them into forfeit and thus preventing any Krakoan from permanently dying in Saturnyne’s tournament. Exodus forces Sinister to lead the mission, largely out of his barely concealed contempt for the man. Wells plays it all as dark comedy, particularly as the vain and peevish Sinister brings his ragtag group of maniacs to Otherworld and only manages to make it through Avalon thanks to the artificial charms of Empath, who only agrees to cooperating if he’s permitted to make Greycrow his “pet.” Their mission seems doomed to fail if just by the narrative logic of the story, so this plot thread is more a question of what the result of their intervention might actually be. 

Carmen Carnero’s art on this issue is quite good, and a step up from her previous work on Miles Morales and Captain Marvel – a bit less “Marvel house style,” a bit closer to the aesthetics of Pepe Larraz and R.B. Silva. She clearly had a lot of fun drawing Sinister in particular, and does a fine job of conveying his grandiose bitchiness. 

• Ed Brisson’s final issue of New Mutants is focused entirely on the plight of Cypher, who has been drafted into the tournament despite having minimal experience or natural aptitude for combat. Cypher has mixed emotions – he’s scared that he will die, he wants to prove himself, he’s trying to figure out why Saturnyne chose him, he feels he must do it to spare any other mutant’s life. Everyone else, most especially Krakoa itself, is actively trying to get Cypher out of the tournament altogether since his presence is crucial as he is the only one who can communicate with Krakoa. Brisson acknowledges Cypher’s anxiety but emphasizes his nobility and selflessness – he’s an unambiguously good guy, and even if he’s overcompensating he’s still quite brave. 

Cypher’s foil in this story is his old friend Magik, who does her best to teach him how to fight though she has very low hopes for his potential of surviving in combat against any of the Arraki swordbearers. Cypher and Magik have a history of being played for contrast. They’re total opposites in most respects – a sweet gentle boy and a warrior sorceress raised in a literal hell – but they are both outsiders in terms of their perspective on everyone else. Magik leans into the “tough love” approach to giving him a crash course in combat techniques, but she can’t fully obscure her concern for him and fear that he will not make it. The tenderness comes through, particularly in Rod Reis’ thoughtful body language and facial expressions. 

• Exodus shows up again in New Mutants, this time to intimidate Cypher into following through with his plan to murder him on Krakoa to be resurrected later, with him stepping in as a replacement in the tournament. Krakoa and Warlock intervene, and Exodus leaves with the offer standing. It’s a good plot beat for Cypher’s story in this issue, but between this and the scene in which he forces Sinister into going to Otherworld, it’s more interesting to me as part of Exodus’ ongoing development. Exodus is essentially an unyielding zealot, but thus far he’s mostly been presented as a voice of reason in Quiet Council scenes and serves as a swing vote in a lot of situations. He’s got honor and good intentions, but he’s also ruthless and seems to have far better political instincts than most members of the Council. He’s willing to use the rules to undermine his enemies, as with Sinister, but also understands he must slowly gain favor with the other blocs. I can see him gradually become the Mitch McConnell of the Quiet Council. 

• The Cable issue shifts focus back to the S.W.O.R.D subplot from the ending of Creation, in which Cable, Cyclops, and Jean Grey discover that the crew of The Peak have been massacred. Even at the end of this issue it’s still very unclear how this plot thread connects to Saturnyne and the Tournament, though the introduction of the destructive hordes of aliens called the Vescora suggests that part of her endgame may be manipulating the X-Men into unleashing these creatures on the Arraki. (And maybe they’re from the Hothive?) That’s as good as I’ve got for speculation, but I appreciate there being this wild card element in the mix. This chapter isn’t quite as entertaining or moving as the Hellions or New Mutants chapters, but there’s some good horror and action beats in the plot and Phil Noto’s art is quite good and evocative. 

Nothing People

“Let Them Be Snakes,” “Blood Work,”
“Nothing People,” “Love Bleeds”
Hellions #1-4
Written by Zeb Wells
Art by Stephen Segovia
Color art by David Curiel

The premise of Hellions is basically DC’s Suicide Squad but on Krakoa – a crew of violent antisocial misfits being forced into service of their government, in this case on the premise of giving purpose and therepeutic treatment to these people who’d otherwise be a drain on their society. This is an intriguing way of getting deep into irredeemable sociopaths like Greycrow and Empath, or looking for some explanation to the madness of the deeply strange Nanny and the Orphan-Maker. The complication in the series is the inclusion of Havok as the “straight man” in the mix – a guy who’s ordinarily a straight-laced X-Man but has a history of unhinged violence and sinister behavior even if that’s induced by outside forces as in the unfinished aftermath of his “inversion” at the end of Rick Remender’s Axis event. The story provides a context for honestly exploring what years of inconsistent writing, shunting drastically between classic heroism and mind-warped psychosis, would actually do the psyche of a man.

Zeb Wells, who wrote a brief but excellent run on New Mutants in the late 2000s, is a welcome return to the X-fold. He’s very good with understated nuance in character writing, high-stakes plotting, and mining and interpreting the subtext of continuity (particularly from the late ‘80s) in ways that don’t actually necessitate having read the source material. But it certainly helps, particularly in the case of this first arc in which the Hellions are sent to destroy one of Mister Sinister’s clone farms and discover that his most famous clone Madelyne “The Goblin Queen” Pryor is there turning the remnants of Marauders clones into zombies. Pryor is a very complicated figure, but Wells boils her story down to one simple, emotionally resonant idea: Even if she’s dismissed by everyone as an insane clone of Jean Grey who messed up their lives, she is still very much a person in her own right. She’s the woman dismissed as a “crazy bitch,” driven mad by other people refusing her personhood, particularly when she’s been wronged and all that’s been erased. Havok, who once fell in love with Pryor, is one of the few people to actually see her as a true person, but he’s also the one most susceptible to her cruel manipulations as we see in a series of scenes rooted in erotic femdom horror. No one can see this woman clearly.

Wells’ other narrative anchor is exploring Psylocke, who is no longer Betsy Braddock but fully Kwannon, the Asian psychic ninja whose body she had possessed through decades of publishing. Wells’ Kwannon retains the essence of Psylocke as she existed for many years – intense, sullen, ruthless – with the implication that Betsy’s presence in this form was strongly influenced by the suppressed Kwannon persona or at least the memories carried by her body. She’s presented as essentially the Hellions’ chaperone on behalf of Mister Sinister, but given her history as an assassin for The Hand, there’s a lot of doubt cast on her motives for agreeing to this. A text page, presented as a case review from the perspective of an unnamed character that I presume to be Nightcrawler given some contextual clues, foregrounds this by speculating at what point Psylocke fully asserts herself as the master of this group rather than Sinister, and trying to remind the other Krakoans that this is not in fact their friend Betsy that they love and trust. 

The major strength of Wells’ Hellions is that it’s a book eager to explore a lot of characters – or characterizations – that would otherwise be swept under the rug. This is true both in-story and in a metatextual sense, and he’s good at addressing the latter without getting in the way of the emotional reality of the former. I’m looking forward to where he goes with this.