New Mutants #23 - What lurks in the shadows

[Dante Milton]

It was a good climax to Farouk's story. I love the way Ayala writes most of these characters, but I'm not sold on how they have written Magik so far. The art was stunning.

[pkingdom]

It was very very good art for a meh story. It basically threw out the entire debate and turned into a standard superhero brawl. And it ended with one of my most hated tropes that X-men stories love: blame the entire seemingly complicated mess on vague evil outside threat.

A part of me wondered why they didn't just stab Farouk when they found him passed out with the others and just didn't bother with the Astral Plane invasion.

[Kingdom X]

It was very very good art for a meh story. It basically threw out the entire debate and turned into a standard superhero brawl. And it ended with one of my most hated tropes that X-men stories love: blame the entire seemingly complicated mess on vague evil outside threat.

A part of me wondered why they didn't just stab Farouk when they found him passed out with the others and just didn't bother with the Astral Plane invasion.

I think that’s a bit of an oversimplification. The whole point was that Farouk was once a young boy who got manipulated in the same that these kids did and that Farouk had to take accountability and separate himself from the shadow king identity to break the cycle.

[Saithor]

I'm hoping the fact that No-Girl has a design by the current artist means that she will get a body soon, it's pretty strange that she doesn't have one, all things considered with the resurrection protocols.

[Grunty]

I'm hoping the fact that No-Girl has a design by the current artist means that she will get a body soon, it's pretty strange that she doesn't have one, all things considered with the resurrection protocols.

As i like to point out. They don't even need the death and cloning back to life method for that. They can terraform a freaking (near) lifeless dustball. Restoring a floating brain's body without killing her should be like changing a tire

Especialy with all the super powers and technology at their disposale at the moment (or even in the past). The entire idea of solving such things via DEATH of the original incarnation of a person is overblown and undermines the supposed ability of these characters to solve problems in a reasonable manner.

[pkingdom]

I think that’s a bit of an oversimplification. The whole point was that Farouk was once a young boy who got manipulated in the same that these kids did and that Farouk had to take accountability and separate himself from the shadow king identity to break the cycle.

Fair enough. I was a bit confused reading it if it was supposed to actually be the Shadow King or some kind of Persona-esque cognition plaguing Farouk.

[Wolverine12]

Solid issue, the art really was amazing. It was bittersweet because I like the Shadow King as a villain but his redemption/accountability was done very well.

[Frobisher]

Fair enough. I was a bit confused reading it if it was supposed to actually be the Shadow King or some kind of Persona-esque cognition plaguing Farouk.

I think the Shadow King is gone, but Amahl is like the elephant with the rope around its ankle. He's still acting as the Shadow King would because he's conditioned to by his trauma. Addressing trauma by externalizing it is a recurring theme of the book.

Also, I really like how dense a read these have been - almost a bit too much so with the data pages, but still an improvement on the usual post-Bendis all-surface-no-feeling books that coalesce into a melange of splash pages and one-liners.

[Spiderfan001]

Honestly, I found the issue pretty boring. After a while, I was just sort of skimming because it was just so much crammed into it. I'm just so ready for this arc to be over, I don't care about the fights and exposition. The fusion was super cool, though.

I kept thinking the "scenes" were just pages they didn't have time to create because of issues behind the scenes, because they were crucial and didn't need to be presented in that format. The meeting with the Lost Club and New Mutants was especially bad, since without the visuals to back them up, it felt like all the characters spoke the same way. They felt generically millennial, is that makes sense? The New Mutants chat during the Hellfire Gala was a bit like that, but at least each character was able to display a strong personality and had a unique voice.

The Krakoan at the end reads "WHAT IS DESERVED."

Cosigned

I picked this up but haven't been feeling New Mutants for a while now.I loved Hix-Nu Mutants but this ain't for me.Not bad just boring

The art made it worth it though, if anyone is aware of the show Utopia(the original UK one) and they have a manuscript which is like a comic and the art feels very similar to it and both are gorgeous

[ericng]

This issue has a lot of things going on but it was also confusing.

They should have wrapped this storyline in 2-3 issues instead of dragging to so many boring issues. At least this issue wasn't boring and more significant than the previous issues of the same arc.

This arc actually started from issue #14 with a short pause from issue #18 (Karma's brother) & 19 (Hellfire gala) with around 9 issues in this arc.

The next issue #24 will conclude Amahl's story and not this issue.

Let's hope we get shorter arcs and more interesting stories in the future.

[Kurolegacy]

It looks like someone finally remembered Rahne’s secondary mutation from X-Men Blue.

[ericng]

It looks like someone finally remembered Rahne’s secondary mutation from X-Men Blue.

It's good that Rahne's secondary mutation is displayed in this issue.

Let's hope the writer also remember the secondary mutations of Karma and Doug.

Karma's secondary mutations were telepathy and ability to deflect psychic attack.

Doug has more abilities during Zeb Wells' run. Hopefully, Doug will return to the New Mutants in a new arc.

[Saithor]

Depends on what happens in Inferno and after, he’s pretty central to anything dealing with Krakoa itself at this point.

I am greatly enjoying this arc, more than Hickman’s, but I am biased because I did dislike how Hickman essentially reset all the devolopment Sunspot had under Al Ewing’s pen.

[RamaBird]

I feel like Hickman definitely let Sunspot fans down. I could've accepted him ignoring Al Ewing if he himself had developed him but he only used him for comedy. Sunspot should've def been a leader on the main X-Men team.

[ZephyrSurf]

I feel like people focusing on the argument last issue, kinda an example of missing the forest for the trees.

These last 12 issues have been about isolation, trauma, the juxaposition of revenge vs leniency. What it means to forgive but not to forget, and what makes you you.

How krakoa should move forward IS important, but to try and frame it like the end all be able... just feels like an incredibly surface level reading of this arc.