New Mutants Classic - Volume 2: v. 2 [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

FINALLY!!!! That's all I could say at first. FINALLY, they're starting to reprint the old New Mutants comics, and on better paper than the essentials and in color to boot! The New Mutants was the beginning of the X-Franchise-for awhile, it was the only other X-Book up there with the always-stellar Uncanny X-Men, before X-Factor, Excalibur, and all the others came around. Best of all, this is written by Chris Claremont, the best writer X-Men has ever had and the art calloboration of Bob Layton and Sal Buscema delivers the mutants better than either did on thier own. You get Buscema's unique style, but his harsh slightly puppet-like art is made softer and more expressive with Layton inking!

Praise for the look aside, let's get down to the stories themselves. This book, as with any X-related book, starts with a bang and keeps at it all throughout. It starts off with the Mutants flying down to the Amazon with Sunspot's mother (don't worry, parents rarely go on missions) on a geological expidition, but through one thing and another end up in a city that seems to be ripped right from the times of ancient Rome! The characters really get their personalities fleshed out in this storyline, especially Dani and Sunspot. The story also introduces Magma, a core New Mutants member for years to come, and Selene. I didn't really get Selene reading Essential X-Men Vol. 5, so it's good to see her beginning and why Amara hates her so much. Let's face it, if someone tried to kill you by throwing you into a lava pool, you'd be a little ticked off, right?

After the New Rome storyline concludes (it goes until issue 12) we get stuff about Magma getting settled in at the school, Kitty Pryde (WHOO!) resolving her conflict with the New Mutants, and the first appearances of Douglas Ramsey. This is where the New Mutants really began to tie in with the X-Men, and thankfully, many plot threads that either didn't make sense or weren't resolved in Essential X-Men's 4 and and the beginning of 5 finally come together. We see how Magik joined the team and more of Stevie Hunter than we ever saw in Uncanny X-Men. Rahne is my absolutely favorite New Mutant character-a girl who's having enough trouble with real life problems, and now she's horrified to learn she likes being a wolf more than a girl. I especially like the conversation between her and Cannonball in issue 15.

Speaking of issue 15, we finally, after five years, get the three-issue result of what happened to Kitty Pryde and Doug Ramsey after the White Queen made her confrontation to them at the end of X-Men 180. It was SOOOO lame not getting that story in Essential 5, and it's awesome to finally read it in it's entirety in this book. Suffice it to say, you won't be disappointed!

This was a great book, and no self-respecting X-Men fan wouldn't go pick this up. The one (ONE, and that's great for a graphic novel) downside to this book is that we see many references to Marvel Team-Up Annual #6, and something that happened to Wolfsbane and Sunspot in it. Dialogue pretty much tells us what happened, but it's not quite the same as actually reading the comic book. That aside, this book was perfect, and the cliffhanger at the end has me waiting in anticipation for Vol. 3 and the Demon Bear Saga! Keep cool!

It's great to see legendary X-Men scribe Chris Claremont's original run on New Mutants collected in TPB form, and New Mutants Classic Vol. 2 is no exception. There are monumental moments aplenty in the X-mythos to be found here, including the debut of young mutant Doug Ramsey, new team member Magma, and the New Mutants taking on Selene to boot. There's familiar faces aplenty, including Kitty Pryde, Emma "The White Queen" Frost, and even future member and longtime X-Force member Warpath and his team of Hellions. What makes this TPB so good is that this displays Claremont in the prime of his writing career when he could pump out compelling and dramatic storylines that kept you guessing and wondering what would happen next. The artwork, featuring great work from industry legend Sal Buscema, is excellent as well. All in all, this second collected volume of Chris Claremont's run on New Mutants is just as wonderful as you remember it to be back then, and this TPB is definitely worth picking up for that fact alone.

The first volume of "New Mutants Classic" had five young mutants assembled under the tutelage of Professor Charles Xavier, go on a couple of adventures, and, in the finale, lose one of their number; the resolution to that story would not come for some time, but writer Chris Claremont wastes no time in adding to the cast, and greatly broadening the scope of the series.

The previous volume ended with the remaining four (Dani, Rahne, Sam, Roberto) going on what would become a multi-issue trip to the Amazon, where they make the unlikely find of a lost city of Ancient Romans and Incas living under a Republican government (which is threatened by a monarchist senator); alone, the four must navigate the turbulent politics of the city, find an ally in the daughter of one senator, Amara Aquilla (codenamed Magma), and survive their first encounter with the recurring villainess Selene, a mutant psychic vampire. Coming home, another castmember is added, in the form of Illyana Rasputin/Magik, the younger sister of the X-Man Colossus, a mutant magician, and the New Mutants become acquainted with her concealed, horrible past in the demonic realm of Limbo. Afterwards, the New Mutants and junior X-(Wo)Man Shadowcat (who had earlier condescendingly called the group the "X-babies") must team-up to battle the X-Men's recurring nemeses, the Hellfire Club, and, in particular, the White Queen, Emma Frost. This closing story arc also includes the first appearance in the series of the New Mutants' opposite numbers at Frost's Massachusetts Academy, the Hellions, including future X-Man Warpath (then called Thunderbird). This run of stories ends on something of a cliffhanger, promising big story developments and the arrival of acclaimed artist Bill Sienkiewicz.

Chris Claremont is a widely derided writer these days, having atrophied as a writer over the decades, losing the originality in years of repetitive stories and failing to keep up with changes in writing style. However, here he is at the top of his game, producing enjoyable adventure stories while at the same time expertly juggling his cast, giving insight into their feelings and motivations, and, as best as anyone has ever done, capturing the potential of the mutant allegory: the kids are gifted with incredible powers, which, particularly in the cases of newcomers Illyana and Amara, also come with considerable risks, and they must learn to control their power. Professor Xavier, nowadays often characterized as a manipulator, is perfectly characterized here; "Xavier's Dream" is never more real in the pages of these stories. The artist for this volume is reliable Marvel penciller Sal Buscema, unfortunately sandwiched between McLeod and Sienkiewicz, two more famous artists; nevertheless, his contributions to the New Mutants are worthy.

This series is recommend to fans of Marvel's mutants in arguably their finest era.