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.

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. 

Into The Storm

“Into the Storm” / “The World” / “Disintegration” 
Giant Size X-Men: Jean Grey & Emma Frost, Giant Size X-Men: Fantomex, and Giant Size X-Men: Storm
Written by Jonathan Hickman with Russell Dauterman (Jean/Emma)
Art by Russell Dauterman (Jean/Emma, Storm) and Rod Reis (Fantomex)
Color art by Matthew Wilson (Jean/Emma, Storm) 

The Giant Size X-Men specials were initially sold as stand-alone one-shots, but as it turns out three of the five issues are, in fact, a coherent story arc that appears to advance the slow-burning Children of the Vault subplot. These three issues amount to 90 pages of story, but the plot isn’t particularly dense: Storm gets sick following getting zapped in her attack on the Vault in X-Men #5, Jean Grey and Emma Frost discover that she’s got a “machine virus” and will die within a month, Monet figures out that she can be saved in The World, and Fantomex brings Storm, Monet, and Cypher to The World to eventually extract the virus from Storm’s body. 

The first issue of this arc is essentially a tribute/cover version of Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s famous “quiet issue” of New X-Men in which Jean and Emma perform a similar “psychic rescue” with Charles Xavier, and as such it’s more of a showcase for Russell Dauterman’s considerable skills as an artist. The Fantomex issue is also a blatant Grant Morrison tribute, with several scenes involving Fantomex quoted directly from New X-Men issues. This is all very nice and well-executed, but feels a little odd in the context of Jonathan Hickman’s larger project on the X-Men, which before this point had excised the “hey, remember this?” nostalgic references that had piled up quite a bit in recent years and fully metastasized in Mark Guggenheim’s vile X-Men Gold run. And true, those nostalgic nods were almost always to Chris Claremont comics, but the spirit is still the same. Also, the “hey, I’ve already read this” feeling makes these issues seem more slight than they actually are. 

The Fantomex issue illustrated by Rod Reis is quite good. The plot depicts scenes from Fantomex’s life in which he brings different groups of people into The World, the artificial environment with accelerated time where he was created and raised. There’s an implication of unreliable narrative, that there’s only so much we should believe about what we’re seeing from the perspective of a man who is a living lie from a fake world – a “living contrivance, a product… a hall of mirrors with no end” as Psylocke puts it in Rick Remender’s Uncanny X-Force. But as much as the truth of it all is ambiguous, we see how Fantomex’s awareness of this weighs on his actual soul. 

The big reveal of this issue is that Fantomex and Ultimaton – both products of A.I.M. and Weapon Plus’ project of developing mutant-hunting super soldiers in The World – are essentially identical twins raised with as much variance as possible. Fantomex was discarded as a baby, and the other gradually evolved into the Ultimaton we see in Morrison and Chris Bachalo’s “Assault On Weapon Plus” story. Each time Fantomex returns to The World he encounters Ultimaton at different stages of his development, always asking him if he would like to leave with him. Ultimaton always declines, and as time goes on sees Fantomex as an abstraction – “some primal direction of man, some primal direction of me.” The issue leaves off with Fantomex bringing Storm, Monet, and Cypher to The World, and the plot thread concludes in the Storm issue with Fantomex deciding to remain in The World with his ersatz brother. To be continued, of course, but there’s a nice emotional charge to this beat – Fantomex embracing the only sort of family he has, and giving up something of himself to help or guide this warped reflection of himself. 

The Storm issue covers interesting ground. It’s a story about Storm fighting for her life, though in the first few pages Emma Frost points out how “overly dramatic” this is given that they have the means to immediately resurrect her. The point of the story is that Storm is a person who would fight for survival regardless – she refuses to surrender to anything, she will always try to find a way to overcome obstacles. Storm is also quite dramatic. It’s part of her charm. 

The mechanics of the plot of this issue are driven largely by Monet and Cypher, who are clearly two of Hickman’s favorite characters. The story serves as a reminder that part of Monet’s impressive set of powers is advanced intelligence, and her genius is ultimately what saves Storm. Monet largely serves a plot function here, but her presence in this story, as well as in House of X and Empyre: X-Men amount to Hickman making a case for her as an essential X-Men heavy hitter from here on out after years of the character being sidelined as a result of relative obscurity. 

Cypher is more of an observer and interpreter in the plot, just as he was in the Nightcrawler special. At the end of the issue we see the machine virus entirely removed from Storm’s body and held in a containment field to prevent it from rapidly evolving in the artificially accelerated time of The World. In the epilogue we see that Cypher recognizes that the machine virus is sentient and conscious. This is left as a ticking time bomb, as the possibility of an artificial intelligence developed in the artificial time of The Vault attaining “evolutionary critical mass” in the slightly different artificial time of The World can become an existential threat to mutants down the line. 

We’ll be returning to this machine virus thing at some point, but it’s hard to say which ongoing plot this beat connects to – is this going to remain a part of the Vault thread? Or maybe, since there’s a direct tie from A.I.M. to Orchis, this is part of how their Sentinels evolve to a Nimrod state? It could just as well be part of the Phalanx subplot. Just as with the mysterious tower built for Emma Frost in the Magneto special, it feels like it could be quite a while before we find out the actual significance of this issue to the macro plot. 

These specials were designed as showcases for artists, and as can be expected, these issues give a lot of room for Russell Dauterman and Rod Reis to flex. They’re both quite good but I prefer the loose, gestural qualities of Reis’ art to the extremely tight and slick lines of Dauterman. The latter’s work is beautiful and dynamic but a bit too stiff at times, and while he can draw very nuanced facial expressions, there are many panels where the faces seem oddly blank and vacant. Dauterman is called on to draw abstract environments in both of his issues, and while they work well on his terms, they seem rather cold and static compared to Reis’ more surreal and dreamlike drawings within The World. It’s an intriguing contrast of styles, with Reis more connected to cartooning while Dauterman’s aesthetics are more rooted in animation. 

Endangered Birds

“Space Jail” / “Endangered Birds” / “Spoilers”
New Mutants #2, 5, and 7
Written by Jonathan Hickman
Art by Rod Reis

I already wrote about the start of Jonathan Hickman and Rod Reis’ mini-run on New Mutants back in November, but am now circling back to cover the subsequent three issues which have been published in a loose alternating pattern with a parallel story by regular series creators Ed Brisson, Flaviano, and Marco Failla. I’ll get to that stuff a bit later on once they’ve had a bit more time on the book. Given how tonally fresh and visually exciting the Hickman/Reis issues have been, the other issues have mostly felt like drab fill-ins in context and I’d like to get a better feel for what Brisson does on his own terms here. 

It was very wise of Hickman to lean so heavily on humor and self-awareness in this New Mutants arc, not just in terms of varying the tone of the overall X-Men line, but to flex some elements of his style that can get lost in his reputation as Mr. Epic Worldbuilder. The sitcom-ish tone also serves the characters well, at least in that each of them gets to be reintroduced as the essence of themselves as originally defined by Chris Claremont. A lot of baggage is being shed here in the interest of resetting this part of the franchise, and I’m all for it. In most cases this does nothing to go against how the characters have been written over the past few decades, but it’s very noticeable in the case of Wolfsbane, who seems to have regressed to a gentle naïf after about 30 years of stories in which she is traumatized and hardened. Maybe this is a hint that Xavier et al are omitting certain traumas from some people who are resurrected, or maybe it’s just Hickman bringing Wolfsbane back to what made her such a lovable and relatable character in the 1980s and it’s not something to overthink. Given the tone of this arc, the indication seems to be more the latter scenario. 

The focus of this arc is very much on Sunspot, who is obviously one of Hickman’s favorite characters and is now set up to be a central figure in all Shi’ar plot going forward. I’m quite pleased with this development as I adore Hickman’s version of Sunspot and also the way Sunspot’s narration makes a lot of Shi’ar plot I typically find rather dull and overly complicated quite fun and vibrant. I have a near lifelong history of disliking Shi’ar stories, but this one was a joy to read and I now feel invested in what happens with the Shi’ar empire and how it will intersect with the X-Men’s plans in the future. Even as a fan of Hickman going into this, I was skeptical about whether he could make me care about this aspect of things, but here we are. 

Some notes: 

• The “fuck or fight” scene with Magik in issue #5 is very funny, but also notable as one of the few times I can remember Magik being played as an overtly sexual person. She’s often sexualized in illustration, but despite frequently being played as a subtextual girlfriend of Kitty Pryde, she’s never had a real romantic or sexual plot. (I might be forgetting something, but I don’t think so? I know she had a few flirty lines in Brian Bendis’ run.) 

• The use of the Shi’ar Death Commandos from the Claremont/Chris Bachalo run in the 2000s continues Hickman’s reverential use of characters designed by Bachalo. 

• The text page replacing what could have been “seventeen glorious pages” of action in issue #7 with a tabletop game is both hilarious and formally inventive. A reminder that we’ve only scratched the surface of what can be done with the text pages! 

• This arc is a real star turn of Rod Reis, who impresses on every page with his distinctive approach to color and design, and mastery over gestural drawing and facial expressions. Thankfully he’s sticking with Hickman for a Fantomex special in the near future, and will hopefully continue to work with him through the duration of his X-Men tenure. Or maybe an Image book together? They have remarkable chemistry; it feels like they’ve only just begun their collaboration. 

• Cypher has been walking around with what appears to be Warlock as his left arm all through this arc and in House of X/Powers of X, but this has not been addressed in the text. I wonder when Hickman plans on getting into that, as it’s obviously significant.

The Sextant

“The Sextant”
New Mutants #1
Written by Jonathan Hickman and Ed Brisson
Art by Rod Reis

There isn’t anything disappointing about Jonathan Hickman and Rod Reis’ revival of New Mutants besides the fact that Hickman will be not be sticking around beyond the first arc, which is setting up elements of space opera plot that will blossom into something bigger for the X-Men line at some point in the future. Hickman explained in a podcast interview for SKTCHD that aside from his regular work on the primary X-Men comic, he’ll be doing brief runs on other series to tell bits of stories that are crucial to his macro-plot. This is a cool idea, but if you’re invested in the core classic New Mutants cast – Sunspot, Magik, Mirage, Wolfsbane, Cypher, Karma, Cannonball – it’s bittersweet to have a writer nail the essence of these beloved but often under-written characters and then bail so quickly. These issues are going to have to be savored. 

Ed Brisson, the only X-Men writer to carry over from the pre-Hickman era, is ostensibly the co-writer of this issue, and will be the sole author of the series once Hickman wraps the opening space adventure. Brisson can be pretty good, but I don’t really notice any traces of his voice or aesthetics in this issue.  The tone and script is about as Hickman-y as it gets, albeit on the more light and funny end of his spectrum. A lot of the issue is devoted to establishing ideas about where the New Mutants – and the other younger characters like the cast of Generation X and the students that populated the X-books of the 2000s – fit into the grander scheme of mutant society as the first generation of mutants plentiful enough to develop actual community, setting up plot for the Shi’ar story, and elaborating on the mechanics of Krakoa and its miraculous fauna. It’s a comic book that’s heavy on ideas, but still mostly is focused on the joy of getting to spend time with these revitalized characters. The characters are having a reunion of sorts in-story, but the more important reunion is the audience and the characters. It feels like hanging out with old friends. 

The issue is packed full of wonderful character beats and genuinely witty dialogue, to the point that it feels more like a hang-out sitcom than a standard action-driven superhero comic. Hickman has fully internalized the voices of the characters as established by Chris Claremont in the 1980s, and the smallest bits of plot are enough to set the conversational dynamics in motion. Hickman lets the characters conform to their archetypes – Sunspot is vain and egotistical but extremely warm and generous, Mirage is tough as nails but very thoughtful, Magik is intense and scary – but he allows for shading and growth. This is particularly noticeable in Wolfsbane, who retains some of her classic naif qualities but is more mature and has distanced herself from her fundamentalist upbringing while still seeming idealistic and spiritual. 

The star of the show is Sunspot, which should come as no surprise to anyone who read Hickman’s use of the character in Avengers. I think it’s safe to say that no one has ever loved Sunspot the way Hickman does, but in writing him, he’s certainly won many people over on the character’s charms. A lot of Sunspot’s personality could come across as grating but Hickman has a great feel for the nuances of his ego, and makes it clear that he’s a very pure and decent guy. The more arrogant elements of his character are quite cute because they aren’t fully delusional, and are the words of someone who has the raw confidence to be openly proud of his achievements. When he says a line like “I’m an amazing hero and that’s why people love me,” it just makes you go, “damn, Sunspot IS an amazing hero and that’s why I love him.” The joke isn’t that he’s not self-aware, but that he somehow lives life without much anxiety and zero imposter syndrome. What must that be like? 

Rod Reis’ art in this comic is top-notch. The fundamentals are all strong – nuanced facial expressions and physicality, storytelling, compelling backgrounds – but there’s also a level of stylishness that sets his work apart. Reis, who started as a color artist, colors his own work and it seems clear that he’s thinking about color as a compositional element on the most basic structural level of his pages. The current X-Men is blessed with a lot of top quality color artists but what Reis accomplishes here is probably the most effective at conveying the somewhat alien beauty of Krakoa and signals a sense of “you are looking at something fresh and new” that backs up the more radical moves of the storytelling. This isn’t so much the case for other new X-Men titles like Marauders and Excalibur, where the artists Matteo Lolli and Marcus To deliver quality draftsmanship that nevertheless looks a bit too ordinary and “house style” for comics that are otherwise quite ambitious and forward-looking. Those books look fine, but New Mutants looks like the future.