Writer: Chris Claremont
Art: Bill Sienkiewicz, Chris Sotomayor, VC’s Clayton Cowles, and Bob McLeod
Price: $4.99
Release Date: September 25th, 2019
When Warlock experiences a nightmare, he begins going haywire, and it’s up to his friends to save him in this week’s NEW MUTANTS WAR CHILDREN #1 by Chris Claremont and Bill Sienkiewicz. But as Warlock grows more delirious, these New Mutants should actually worry about saving themselves. Let’s jump into this comic to see some of our favorites like Magik, Wolfsbane, Cannonball, Cypher, and Mirage fight through this never told story from Claremont and Sienkiewicz.
Fans, this issue was overly intense, powerful, and wildly complicated, especially to a foreign reader of the New Mutants like myself. However, the standout elements of the issue are some of the most fascinating aspects of Jonathan Hickman’s HOUSE OF X and POWERS OF X run, which are Cypher and Warlock. These two are the centerpiece of the issue and are the most tantalizing ingredients of the team in which Claremont makes the driving focus of the comic.
Claremont concentrates on the family dynamic between the New Mutants and emphasizes the cohesion between the characters. Any outside reader can see the devotion Claremont has for the characters on every page, as well as the passion for his creation. However, the biggest problem this reviewer had with the issue was Sienkiewicz’s darker, more gritty tone throughout the comic making it difficult to decipher and analyze between characters, scenes, and plot points. This analyst appreciated the objective of the darker tone but this made many panels more disjointed and difficult to interpret.
Overall, this issue was a tremendous snapshot of the squad and revealed the rapport each of the members had with one another. The comic was a great place to jump in for a fresh introduction to the team while possibly provoking the interest of new readers. Additionally, this issue pays homage to the classic crew and provides older fans with a little something they haven’t seen in years. Moreover, the story flowed well but was perplexing to follow throughout some of the grittier panels slowing down the read and often times sending this reviewer out of the narrative.
FINAL THOUGHTS
For those rejoining X-Men during Hickman’s ”relaunch”, this tale gives X-enthusiasts a taste of the New Mutants while allowing them to take a test drive on the characters in the process. New readers will depart with plenty of questions and hopefully will have their curiosity in these ”new” characters sparked. Older fans of Chris Claremont’s NEW MUTANTS run will fall head over heels for this one-shot that probably felt like old times. Either way, this reviewer recommends picking this issue up, especially if you’ve had a recent resurgence in the mutant landscape of the Marvel Universe.