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A Comic Book Reading Order Guide For Beginners & Fans

new mutants

(Re)Read Hickman’s X-Men: “Renewal,” New Mutants #1

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A Primer for 2019’s New Mutants by Jonathan Hickman (#1-2, 5 & 7)

One of the best things about the current New Mutants series is that Rod Reis has been its semi-regular artist with 10 of 20 issues so far. Another is that this is the first ongoing title featuring the original New Mutants since 2012! Such a crime.

Unfortunately this fourth New Mutants series was hampered early on by the odd sequencing of its first two story arcs, one by Hickman, starring the original New Mutants, the other by Ed Brisson with art by Flaviano, spotlighting a motley crew led by the much later New Mutants addition Boom-Boom (better known from her X-Force days) and Armor from Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men.

Related:

Hickman X-Men Reading Order

Krakin’ Krakoa!

More in this series!

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Wolfsbane (Rahne Sinclair) Reading Order!

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Inside of you, there are two wolves. One loves Rahne Sinclair, and the other has always wanted to learn more about her comics history. This guide is meant for these two wolves and for anyone else who seeks to know more about everyone’s favorite hairy mutant whose name starts with a W. [Read more…] about Wolfsbane (Rahne Sinclair) Reading Order!

The End is in the Beginning & Yet You Go On | New Mutants Omnibus Review

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Legendary X-Men writer Chris Claremont has a real knack for murdering heroes. From The Phoenix Saga to Muir Island, he knows how to time and execute major cataclysms only to use the resulting vacuum as a space for new characters to step in. And that’s exactly how the New Mutants team begins. It’s right there in the title: “The X-Men have seemingly been killed by The Brood, so here are some New Mutants.“

But anyone can just wipe out characters. What makes Claremont so special is that he never replaced anything. Again, it’s in the title: this isn’t just “more X-Men.” And in so many ways, this series truly was/is something new… even as it says “goodbye.” [Read more…] about The End is in the Beginning & Yet You Go On | New Mutants Omnibus Review

Krakin’ Krakoa #53: How Zeb Wells’ New Mutants Leads to 2020 Inferno 2.0

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The Zeb Wells written run on New Mutants (the 2009 to 2011 volume) is definitely an underrated gem of the era, bringing the Xavier School students of the 1980’s Chris Claremont X-Men into the 2010’s as fully formed young adults, graduating to X-Men status.

Through connections to X-Men history and lore, Wells and company weave in developments for Legion, Inferno, and the realm of Limbo, all concepts and characters that have plenty of resonance in the X-Men comics of 2020.

Today I’ll Answer:

  • What makes Wells run on New Mutants special
  • How do the comics tie into the Dawn of X, especially the Wells written Hellions
  • How the conclusion of the run ties into a wild theory I have about the threat of a demonic cosmic Hell facing mutantkind!

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Underrated Gems: Zeb Wells’ Fall and Rise of the New Mutants

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NOTE: The end of this piece WILL spoil HELLIONS #1, so if that matters to you, please bookmark this and enjoy later!

My selection for largely unheralded (pun intended) comic story of the recent decade is a timely and strategic choice. Back in the early 1980s, when the X-Men were busy fighting the Brood in space and Carol Danvers (Captain Marvel of MCU fame had heavy history with our merry mutants back in the day) was busy becoming Binary, an eventual member of the Starjammers, Professor Charles Xavier thought they were dead. Because of this, he founded a class of…well…New Mutants. This would be long-time writer Chris Claremont’s second ongoing series (Ed. Note: Art by Bob Mcleod!). He handed the keys over to Louise Simonson roughly halfway through the book’s 100-issue run. Near the end, artist Rob Liefeld took over writing the book, introducing characters like Cable, Domino and Deadpool that are X-Men mainstays (and movie stars!) to this day. [Read more…] about Underrated Gems: Zeb Wells’ Fall and Rise of the New Mutants