Rating: ***

This is Marvel’s 2nd attempt to resurrect the old “New Mutants title which ran for 100 issues from the mid-80s to the early 90s. Like many comic readers, I was a big fan of this series. Although New Mutants had been canceled, it really just transformed into the new series “X-Force” with Cable at the helm along side some of the old characters and some new ones. Sometime later, Marvel published a forgettable three issue mini-series in 1997 that reunited the original members. However, in 2002, Marvel began a new monthly titled which would have some of the old New Mutant characters training new recruits. This title was very good and I collected it, but it was short lived and like it’s predecessor, it transformed into another title called “New X-Men”.

So I was surprised to see a few months back in Previews that Marvel was going to bring back the original New Mutants once again in their own book. I’m not complaining. As I said I loved that book and the characters and it’s nice to see them all back as the plain old New Mutants. So does this book hold up along side the previous series? I say so far yes.

As I said in my review of “Wolverine: Weapon X” #1, I have not been keeping up with the goings on of the X-Universe. I was a HUGE X-men fan and sometime ago, I just lost interest. I didn’t like the stories nor did I care for the direction of the characters particularly the pairing of Emma Frost and Scott Summers. Because of the Wolverine movie, I’ve become nostalgic for the old days of when I picked up every X-book Marvel published and decided to check out “Wolverine: Weapon X”. I wasn’t impressed by that book, but I think I’m going to stick around for “New Mutants”.

The story in this first issue focuses on former New Mutant members Xi’an Coy Manh aka Karma and Dani Moonstar formerly Mirage going missing in Colorado. There was a mutant problem there and Scott Summers sent them over to investigate. While Karma and Dani are in trouble, we see over at the new X-Men headquarters in California, that Magik has returned. I didn’t read the story of her return which came out not too long ago, so I don’t know what has happened. I’ll read about it on Wikipedia later. Thank God for Wikipedia. Not to sound old, but in my day if you missed out on some comics and wanted to catch up you had two choices: a) you bought all of the back issues or b) you asked your friend what the hell happen. Some people still do this today, but most just check out Wikipedia or some message board.

Magik pops up on the campus of the headquarters and the former New X-men/Young X-men members Anole and Rockslide are not too happy to see her. I guess some bad stuff went down between them in the story where she returned and they’re ready to kick her butt. Cannonball (Sam Guthrie) and Sunspot (Roberto de Costa) break things up. Magik is weak and collapses in Sunspot’s arms and says that Karma and Moonstar are almost dead.

Eventually Sam, Roberto, Magik, and Magma another former New Mutant make there way to Colorado to investigate the situation and soon discover that their old enemy Legion has returned. Legion is Professor Xavier’s son and made his first appearance in the pages of “New Mutants” #25. He’s most famous for going back in time and accidentally killing his own father which resulted in my favorite X-men cross-over storyline the “Age of Apocalypse”. 

I wasn’t crazy about the art which was illustrated by Diogenes Neves, but writer Zeb Wells sets up a good story here that has me interested enough to want to come back for the next issue.  It’s cool seeing these old characters all grown up and together again.  It’s like the original Teen Titans getting back together as the Titans only with a better story.  So I recomend picking this up if you liked the old series.  Nice work, Marvel!