New Mutants #14 Recap and Review (Spoilers)

[Glio]

The thing: The characters would probably want to but that removes diversity and makes them less interesting. Imagine what Daredevil comics would be like if Matt Murdock were cured. And Matt Murdock is not a great example because his radar already puts him well above any blind man but anyway.

I have a friend who is in a wheelchair and he is a little upset when they make Xavier walk because he is practically the only representation of someone like him that there is in Marvel. He is very happy that Whiz Kid is important now, it makes him feel that people like him can also be valid. I don't care much about the excuses within the story that they make for the Wiz Kid to continue to use a chair as long as there is still a character that my friend likes so much.

I'm sure there are people out there with prosthetic legs who enjoy having a badass mutant like Karma with a prosthetic.

[Devaishwarya]

Oh, I wasn’t talking about the crucible.. that’s horrific. I’m talking about someone who “just happens to die” lol... If you bring me back, bring my leg I lost as well is all I’m saying. People that are deaf or blind.. I can’t speak for them, but I’d bet most would love to have those senses they never had and had to struggle since they didn’t have them.

In the real world perhaps this is true for some...but for many others who have learnt to excel in spite of their disabilities and are proud of who they are...not so much. And consider in the fictional X-world...a mutant's disability is usually in addition to and does not hinder their other power(s) or define who they are...that's hardly ever the case, in the real world.

[kevlon]

Namorita is a time anomaly who was brought back from the past by the Sphinx in Nova (Rich) 2007 series, issue 32. In the end of that story line, Rich held on to her when he and Darkhawk reentered the "true" reality. So again, Nita is basically from an alternate timeline where she disappeared, which would completely change her reality's history. Unfortunately, Namorita hasn't been used much if any since then. None of Namor stories use her or her mother much. To my knowledge, she was last seen in the FF latest series' 1st story line, where every member who was ever part of the FF fought the embodiment of entropy. She supposed to be in the latest New Warriors with Firestar, but who knows what's going on with that. I think it's cancelled. And I doubt she would ever be used in the X-Men.

Although she's a clone, she does have some genetic differences from her 'mother'. i.e. her Kymaera phase. But I don't think this alternate version has gone through that. In fact, she may not even know she's a clone of Namora. And she had a complete different life experience from Namora as well. So I don't see why she wouldn't be resurrected.
All that to say, I think Honey Badger (I like this name better than Scout), Laura, and the Cuckoos (2 were already brought back) would all qualify.
And if Maddie wasn't so hellbent of killing everyone, she might have, too.

Plus Nita wasn't born in a test tube. She was born by her mother and has lived her life as a daughter with her own independent life. Can you imagine the diplomatic mess it would create with Atlantis if the X-Men refused to resurrect her?

[ZephyrSurf]

The thing: The characters would probably want to but that removes diversity and makes them less interesting. Imagine what Daredevil comics would be like if Matt Murdock were cured. And Matt Murdock is not a great example because his radar already puts him well above any blind man but anyway.

I have a friend who is in a wheelchair and he is a little upset when they make Xavier walk because he is practically the only representation of someone like him that there is in Marvel. He is very happy that Whiz Kid is important now, it makes him feel that people like him can also be valid. I don't care much about the excuses within the story that they make for the Wiz Kid to continue to use a chair as long as there is still a character that my friend likes so much.

I'm sure there are people out there with prosthetic legs who enjoy having a badass mutant like Karma with a prosthetic.

This right here is it. The optics of just healing every disability is fucking killer on a fictional company that prides itself on mirroring the real world. Cause joe down the street aint getting his arms back and treating the return of faculties like a triviality is a serious slap in a lot of handicapped people's face.

[ermac]

That was one of my favorite issues of the Hickman era.

I love how Gabby gave voice to the readers. And the art, as always, is outstanding.

[Grunty]

This right here is it. The optics of just healing every disability is fucking killer on a fictional company that prides itself on mirroring the real world. Cause joe down the street aint getting his arms back and treating the return of faculties like a triviality is a serious slap in a lot of handicapped people's face.

In the real world perhaps this is true for some...but for many others who have learnt to excel in spite of their disabilities and are proud of who they are...not so much. And consider in the fictional X-world...a mutant's disability is usually in addition to and does not hinder their other power(s) or define who they are...that's hardly ever the case, in the real world.

I know it's a can of worms, but the weird thing about the whole subject of mutants with physical or mental disabilities as representation for people living with them in real life, is that considering how the mutants have long been used as variable metaphorical stand ins for the struggles of various minority and ethnic groups, a depowered mutant is technicaly also a metaphorical representation of someone with acquired disabilities.

They are people who by some factor lost something that was part of their physical or mental state of "normal", making them less "able" and more "damaged" than they had been before which changes their life to having to struggle with missing this ability. For them getting repowered would be akin to someone recieving a treatment or cure that makes them "full" again. However for them to be shown living and overcomming the struggle is also akin to people comming to accept and live with their disabilities.

Though this somewhat conflicts with some mutants also having powers that actualy make them a metaphor for people with born in disabilities too. For them getting depowered could be akin to people recieving a treatment which "frees" them of their disabilities. Getting repowered meanwhile could stand in for their disabilities returning, which they then once again have to live with.

So mutants even without real life disabilities, can allready stand in for two forms of metaphorical disabilities by what kind of powers they have and if they lost or retained them. Which actualy puts the crucible solution for depowered mutant in a horrible place one way or another since it basicly involves someone killing themself (via assisted sucide) and then depending on a functional system of "rebirth" via cloned bodies and digital memory download.

And since mutants are allready willing to go through that to become "able" again in their own eyes and those of their fellow mutants, it raises the question why anyone in this "we are better than anything human" mutant "society would be interested in retaining their "normal" phyiscal or mental disabilities, looking at the lengths they are allready willing to go for being "healthy" with their powers again?

Especialy since they have all the powers and technology at hand to fix any of these disabilities without requiring the crucible for it. They can clone full bodies into exact replicas of those who died, creating a new arm or leg, reconnecting damaged spinal connections or fixing some "wiring" in the brain should be the least of their worries considering all the pridefull superiority they proclaim to have now. Yet some characters will retain them because it otherwise means sending the wrong message about disabilities in real life.

Overall it's a sign that the mutant metaphor has too many eggs in one basket. It involves ethnic identity, cultural identity, sexual identity, body identity and disabilities. One way or another these will always clash, you will always find some form of unfortunate implication and it seems the best way is to just roll with it as they come (if they aren't downright offensive or otherwise negatively presented to the point where it's unaccaptable) and not think or at least debate too much about on it.

[NexusTenebrare]

Just read this issue.
Positive: Anole got used as more than wallpaper.
Negative: He's once again stripped of any of his personality, skill and experience and is instead presented as random immature X-teen.
This turned out to be such a let down. Even Aaron whose WatXM I absolutely hated did better things with Anole and he barely used him in that run at all.

[Havok83]

Just read this issue.
Positive: Anole got used as more than wallpaper.
Negative: He's once again stripped of any of his personality, skill and experience and is instead presented as random immature X-teen.
This turned out to be such a let down. Even Aaron whose WatXM I absolutely hated did better things with Anole and he barely used him in that run at all.

Well the issue wasnt about Anole, nor is he a main cast member of this title. I think you should have adjusted your expectations

[NexusTenebrare]

Well the issue wasnt about Anole, nor is he a main cast member of this title. I think you should have adjusted your expectations

The issue doesn't have to be about him nor does he need to be a main cast member for him to be used respectfully. Ayala did him a huge disservice, regressing him once again.

[Jwyatt]

Farouk and Karma being in the same book whets my appetite for *that* reunion. If Farouk turns out to just be another childhood victim of the Shadow King entity, that could be interesting.

Poor Anole. He gets aged up and regressed like a yo-yo. He's a kid! He's running Angel's company! He's a kid again! Indra, who was the youngest and smaller than Anole is now six foot and buff, and Victor still looks like a scrawny twelve year old.

And poor Gabby. As soon as this clone-thing gets explored and resolved, she's gonna join Mondo and Chamber, I fear, in the 'not-really-a-New-Mutant' character ghetto.

I want to know if Jonathan the Actual Wolverine is okay.

[9th.]

Just read this issue.
Positive: Anole got used as more than wallpaper.
Negative: He's once again stripped of any of his personality, skill and experience and is instead presented as random immature X-teen.
This turned out to be such a let down. Even Aaron whose WatXM I absolutely hated did better things with Anole and he barely used him in that run at all.

This sums up my thoughts on it, I'm kinda tired of seeing his generation in the training stage like they haven't been through it all already.