Writer: Ed Brisson
Art: Flaviano, Carlos Lopez, VC’s Travis Lanham, Rod Reis, and Tom Muller
Price: $3.99
Release Date: December 11th, 2019
While the original New Mutants are off in space, the rest of the youth of Krakoa begin to make the future what they want it to be in this week’s NEW MUTANTS #3 by Ed Brisson. Well, let’s jump into this week’s installment and see what Armor’s outreach party looks like as she seeks out young mutants who have chosen not to come to Krakoa. Hopefully, these young mutants have a good reason for not coming to Krakoa. Let’s find out!
Ed Brisson interrupts your regularly scheduled program to give readers a sidebar of what’s happening on Krakoa from the perspective of Glob and Armor, which just so happen to be two young mutants themselves… dare I say “new” mutants. What readers will discover in this week’s issue of NEW MUTANTS is that the story itself is fine but it’s simply unnecessary at this time and extremely uneventful. Brisson leaves a space opera to tell us a story about a family of mutants that didn’t come to Krakoa. And, as touching as Brisson’s tale was at many junctures, this story really dampened my excitement for the series of all… especially the next issue.
Readers, when we last left our NEW MUTANTS team in space, they were going to hunt down an evil Shi’ar Queen. Doesn’t that sound &$@$ awesome?! Now, Brisson jumps in and begins a story in… Nebraska. This reviewer was simply taken back as to how this creative team would pump the breaks on that storyline to tell this “corny” tale (see what I did there). Furthermore, this week’s installment lacked excitement, action, and the humor that the prior two issues contained. Anyone who has been reading to date would notice that the writing team encompassed both Jonathan Hickman and Ed Brisson. However, Brisson was the only one given credit this week. Hmmm. My point is that readers and fans of the series so far will be severely surprised in a shift in writing tone that has left the series with Hickman no longer in the byline.
Not only has the writing, direction, and tone of the series changed, but so has the art. Flaviano and Carlos Lopez have a drastically different attitude with their artistic style than the prior two issues. However, that doesn’t make it bad by any stretch of the imagination. Their style is crisper and is so much brighter than the previous two issues. Flaviano and Lopez have a style that appears more glossy and polished which this reviewer thoroughly enjoys. Personally, this reader rather adored the sharply animated design and line structure that was very familiar to the style of the HOX/POX series that this reviewer fell in love with. Therefore, as changes go on for the issue, the art and illustrations weren’t necessarily better or worse than the prior two issues. This critic quite enjoyed the introductory style as well. However, the art team offered a great change of pace that this reviewer will welcome in the future.
That said, this story was a change of pace that was not as welcoming. As a new reader to the NEW MUTANTS, the characters just started to grow on me. This X-fan finally felt as though he was learning some characteristics about the main team and how they blended together so well. Now, to open the issue and find out that fans are literally ripped away from an epic space opera to tell this incredibly boring one is simply off-putting, to say the least. This issue was exceedingly disappointing compared to what readers have received within the initial two issues. And, this narrative isn’t done. There is at least one more issue related to it! The only question that continues to come to mind is why. Why place this story into the series after only two issues? Why throw this change up now? This critic went from excitement for the series to dread for at least the next issue.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Readers will not get the NEW MUTANTS they were expecting. They will get an out of place, slow-moving, boring tale about lesser-known ”new” mutants with very little action and very little development to the overall narrative of the series. This issue is so out there, that the reader may be able to skip this issue and the next one so they can dive right back into the main NEW MUTANTS space opera again. Brisson offers up a tale that’s simply not dynamic enough and feels like it’s trying to do what MARAUDERS is also doing on a smaller scale. My hope is that Hickman simply needed a break for an issue or two and comes back to continue the original amazing tale. This series was one of my personal favorites of the DoX titles. Hopefully, it can quickly return to the core team and get back on track before it’s too late. Keep your fingers crossed.