Review: New Mutants: Dead Souls #1

It seems with all of the X teams rolling out these days that there wouldn“t be enough mutants to fill out one more. But you“d be wrong, although not by much. When Xi“an Coy Mahn, former New Mutant and current CEO of the Hatchi corporation, looks for a team to handle corporate protection and cleanup, she finds all the people she really wants are already on a team.

While it may not be a business“ first choice for a team, as a reader we are given a really fun group of mutants. While none of these mutants are by any stretch of the imagination new, they will get the job done. Magik, teleporter and on-again off-again Queen of Limbo, leads Rictor, Boom-Boom, Strong Guy, and Wolfsbane to a small Alabama town being overrun by zombies.

The team is sent in to rescue people at a Hatchi Relief Center following a storm. At first they don“t know that the town is zombie infested. When the townspeople call them monsters they think they have run into another group of mutant haters rather than people afraid of literal monsters. They manage to straighten the confusion out and take out some of the zombies, but need to get everyone back to the relief center before everyone is completely overwhelmed.

Matthew Rosenberg (Secret Warriors, 12 Reasons to Die, Phoenix Resurrection) clearly has a love for these characters and allows them to be their argumentative, sarcastic selves but also shows that they are all comfortable with their powers and who they are. These mutants may not be new anymore but they remain fresh. It is great to seem them as the focus of a team, instead of the occasional hangers-on at one of the X-headquarters.

Similarly Adam Gorham (The Violent, Rocket, Dead Drop) is a great fit as an artist for this title. He has shown on Jughead the Hunger, (which, if you aren“t reading, why not?) that he can visually balance horror, action and humor without the panels undercutting each other. His style is clearly his own, but has slight nods to Bill Sienkiewicz, which helps with both the New Mutants themselves and the horror elements.

I don“t know why Karma thinks her company needs mutant protection from the supernatural, but we should all be glad that she does. It strikes me that for all the times big businesses in the Marvel Universe hire on squads of mutants to protect their assets and project their brand, it usually causes them more trouble than the team is worth. Let“s hope that Xi“an has better luck than most.

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

Writer: Mathew Rosenberg
Artist: Adam Gorham
Colorist: Michael Garland
Cover Artists: Ryan Stegman & Michael Gorham

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Andy Hall

Sent from the future by our Robot Ape overlords to preserve the timeline. Reading and writing about comics until the revolution comes. All hail the Orangutan Android Solar King!