New Mutants #28 Harsh therapy
With it being shipping day today, I probably should wax lyrical about any issue ones released today, such as Robert Kirkman and Rob Liefeld’s Infinite #1. I mean, this is Robert Kirkman, creator of Invincible and the Walking Dead, what’s not to like?
I confess I am not a fan of Liefeld’s art, and what I have read of the plot in advance interviews with the writer, I see very little to differentiate it from say Stan Lee’s The Traveller or various other time travel stories I have read. I pray Mr Kirkman will surprise me.
Should I write about the fact that Flashpoint has its penultimate issue today? My only reaction here is thank god it is coming to an end. Roll on the reboot! Other than the Secret Seven (which in itself is worth suffering the entire event), and the World Of Flashpoint which concludes today, I’m finding the entire event to be as disappointing as I feared it would be.
So my thoughts turn to last week, and my two love affairs that have finally joined together: the New Mutants and the pair of Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning. (No, I don’t know them personally, but I have made it plain I love their writing, they strike me as a sane Grant Morrison. No offence intended, Grant. Sir.)
Cast your mind back to the days of the first run of Suicide Squad, by the esteemed John Ostrander. Every year or so, there would be one issue where Belle Reve’s resident psychiatrist Simon La Grieve would deliver his analysis on the current team members. These issues were always a change of pace from the action (and plot) driven storylines that encompassed them, and proved to be even more satisfying than the (above) standard issues.
In a blast of nostalgia, that is what we saw in last weeks New Mutants #28, which you must grab today if you missed it. Dani invites a cognitive therapist known for his abrupt approach to interview every member of the team. Dani states on the first page she wants Gus Grim to be ‘bloody’, and his observations were indeed cutting. You know those comments that you say in the heat of anger that are so very hurtful? Because they are so very insightful, if bias? The ones you can never take back no matter how hard you try?
This was an issue full of those. I didn’t know whether to cheer him on, or be offended on behalf of characters that I grew up alongside. It was about time a few comments were said, others helped me view recent events in a whole new light. If you’ve ever liked the world of the ‘X’, then get find this issue.
