It's been three months since I last reviewed an issue of New Mutants.  This book is in a bit of a mess.

Basically, this second storyline was originally going to involve a suicide plot.  But the new management at Marvel decided that that wasn't sufficiently kiddie-friendly, so they spiked the storyline and had the entire thing rewritten.  (That despite the fact that this is a PSR rated book, by the way, which isn't even Marvel's lowest age rating.)

So we now have a storyline resuming, with a drastically revised part 2, three months after the last part, with painfully obvious rush job art.  And by that I mean that the art is both obviously a rush job, and really painful.  The pages end up split between Carlo Barberi and Khary Randolph, with three inkers contributing.  The clash of styles is glaringly apparent, and Randolph's pages go way over the top into melodrama, which really doesn't suit the tone of the book.

What actually happens, then?  Well, David decides that he'll stay at Xavier's even though Harvard won't accept their students, for reasons which frankly don't make a great deal of sense.  (They don't have a problem with mutants generally, but they won't take them from Xavier's school?  Why?)  An assortment of parents visit the school for Parents' Week, and some of the kids start gravitating towards Emma Frost as a more appealing mentor.  Oh, and Northstar guest stars, in a pleasant reminder that he actually exists.

It's all perfectly readable, and the group dynamics are starting to come along pleasantly enough.  It still feels a little earthbound, though - it's got plenty of good ideas but no great ones, and quite honestly I find it doesn't make much of an impression on me.  I want to like it, and I can't think of a particularly good reason why I don't, but somehow it just never clicks.

Rating: B-

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