Posted in: Comics, Marvel Comics, Review | Tagged: Dawn Of X, marvel, x-men, X-ual Healing - The Weekly X-Men Recap Column

Exploitive Capitalism Breeds Decent Villains in New Mutants #4 [X-ual Healing]

Six X-books hit stores last week: New Mutants #4, X-Force #4, Marauders #4, Excalibur #4, Fallen Angels #4, and one surprise book no one was expecting. As a Christmas present to myself, and since I've written over 3,000 words about them collectively (but get paid per article, not per word), I'm going to publish each recap as an individual article, and then reveal the Wolverine's Weiner X-Pick of the Week at the end. Will X-ual Healing continue that way into the new year? Maybe. Maybe not. They'll collectively get more clicks this way though.

In any case, if you don't feel like waiting for each article, just wait until the end of the day and read the finale. Now, let's get on with the show…

Sworn to sell comics for Marvel executives who feared and hated the fact that Fox owned their movie rights, The Uncanny X-Men suffered great indignities, but thanks to a corporate merger and a line-wide relaunch, the X-Men can finally get back to doing what they do best: being objectively the best franchise in all of comics.

What Happened in New Mutants #4?

NEW MUTANTS #4 DX
OCT190909
(W) Ed Brisson (A) Marco Failla (CA) Rod Reis
When Armor and her team set off to bring their friends home to Krakoa, they thought it'd be an easy sell and a quick trip. Then everything went sideways, and now they're in serious trouble-looks like it's time to call in the cavalry. But will that be enough to turn the tide?
In Shops: Dec 18, 2019
SRP: $3.99

In Krakoa, Boom Boom is on a bender, getting wasted on True North Whisky and joining in the constant mutant Coachella that's happening on Krakoa, when she bumps into Pixie who informs her that Armor, Glob, Maxime, and Manon haven't returned since Boom Boom gave the location of Beak and Angel Salvatore three days ago. Of course, we know that's because Beak and Angel's Nebraska farm was invaded by armed gang members demanding mutant drugs. There, they're being held in a basement while their leader takes Armor upstairs to deliver a list of demands and some exposition. The gang is from Costa Perdita, a country that has been a victim of pollution from "rich white Americans" that poisoned its people, then taken advantage of by pharmaceutical companies that developed a cure to the disease they created. But in case you thought this was an altruistic mission, the leader doesn't want his government to take the deal with Xavier to recognize Krakoa in exchange for free access to mutant drugs because then he won't be able to make a profit from them. Armor must go to Krakoa and return with someone who can negotiate to get them drugs. Back in the day, when we needed some drugs, we would just page our dealer on his beeper. How times have changed.

In an interlude, Boom Boom visits Sage on Krakoa looking for info on Armor and the others. The next day, she heads through a gate for Nebraska. At the farm, Armor has agreed with the gang's terms. We also find out that the way they found the farm was through an internet site called DOX that keeps tracks of mutants in public. They published a photo of Beak, Angel, and their kids at a supermarket. In the basement, Angel tricks their guards into removing her power dampening collar by saying she and her kids can't eat at all unless she can use her power to spit on the food and make it digestible. Instead, she spits on Manon's collar, and Manon possesses one of the guards with her visions, convincing him the other guard banged his wife and killed his parents. The guards shoot each other. Outside, the rest of the gang is not happy with Armor, but Boom Boom arrives and blows up a truck, annoyed she was left out of an adventure. She's still drinking.

Was it any good?

New Mutants is making a good case for being one of if not the best Dawn of X book. The younger mutant characters have a lot less baggage than the older ones, which makes simple stories like this one feel fresher than, for example, the umpteenth version of X-Force (not that X-Force is bad). The backstory given to the bad guys this issue is appreciated as well. Instead of being yet another anti-mutant militia group, these guys have a more interesting motivation, partially justified due to the exploitive capitalism that victimized their country but becoming the exploiters themselves looking to make a profit off the situation. Drunk Boom Boom could be compared to Drunk Kate Pryde over in Marauders, but Kate has previously had it together for a long time and is just going through some stuff, while Boom Boom has always kind of been a mess. All in all, New Mutants is paced well, doesn't feel too much like a retread of past, better X-Men stories, and features a great cast.

Keep checking back as we recap all of last week's X-Men books today, and pick the best at the end for the Wolverine's Weiner X-Pick of the Week.

Read more X-ual Healing here:

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