New Mutants #6 wraps up the first trade paperback.  I was going to say that it concludes the first storyline, but that's not really accurate.  There hasn't been an overreaching plot to these issues.  Rather, it's been a series of stories designed to get the cast together.

Much as we've come to expect, this is another issue which does the job perfectly adequately without ever managing to set the world alight.  The cast is dutifully assembled, a loose end is left dangling in order to stop everything from seeming too neat and convenient, and some subplots about the relationship between the characters are established.  As usual, New Mutants does exactly what it says on the tin.

And yet somehow it seems to completely slip off everyone's radar.  About the only time it crops up in my e-mail is when people wonder how the title is going to be affected by the destruction of the school over in New X-Men.  Since that hasn't even been tangentially referred to in this title, this means that - at least judging from the people who e-mail me - people are more interested in how the title will be affected by a different book entirely than in anything which has actually been published in New Mutants itself.

This seems dreadfully harsh, because it's not a bad comic.  At worst, it's average.  Usually, it's above that.  But there's something about it that lacks charisma.  In theory it does all the right things, yet in practice it just doesn't stick in the mind.  Perhaps it's the new characters, who haven't really come across as particularly disinctive.  Halfway through this issue, I found myself going back to the recap page in order to check David Alleyne's name - and he's been around for two months now.  Somehow, it just goes straight through and leaves no permanent impression.

Which is frustrating, because there's plenty of decent material in this title.  Admittedly, this particular issue suffers from some very rushed-looking and awkward art, especially in the opening fight scene.  But then, it's a short notice fill-in job following Keron Grant's departure, so there are mitigating circumstances. 

That point aside, though, there's nothing fundamentally wrong with this issue, or indeed anything we've seen.  It just feels a bit muted.  It's all a bit... beige.  It lacks spark.  But that's all it really lacks.  The structure is there; the characters are decent concepts in theory, but don't quite leap off the page.

The title isn't really working, but there's no reason in principle why it shouldn't.  It needs tweaked, and the characters need to come to life more.  It's heading in the right direction in the way that Dani's written; but the newer characters, who dominate the book, aren't working in the same way. 

I want to like the book, because it's very close to working.  But it's not quite there.

Rating: C+

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