As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.

NEW MUTANTS vol 4 #29
“Fights and Feelings”
Writer: Danny Lore
Artist: Guillermo Sanna
Colourist: Dan Brown
Letterer & production: Travis Lanham
Editor: Sarah Brunstad

COVER / PAGE 1. Warpath and Akihiro (as we’re calling him in this story) fight, with a looming villain in the background. The cover strapline is not what happens in the story, though it is Akihiro’s perspective at the start of the story.

This issue has a guest creative team, which means it’s what we used to call a fill-in issue back in the day.

PAGES 2-4. Akihiro attacks Warpath.

Akihiro is normally referred to as Daken, but his real name Akihiro is used throughout this issue, including on the recap page. Over in this week’s Marauders, he seems to be dumping the Daken name.

Akihiro is upset that his younger sister Scout is missing, and blames the New Mutants for reasons we’ll get to. Quite why that leads him to attack Warpath without explaining himself isn’t clear, nor is it really behaviour that’s consistent with the way he’s written in his home book Marauders. (Strictly speaking, Scout is a clone of X-23, who in turn is the lab-grown genetic daughter of Akihiro’s father Wolverine. But he and Scout – and X-23 – have treated each other as family for years now.)

This is presumably meant to be Warpath’s home in Krakoa, but it’s drawn with none of the usual Krakoan design features and looks more like a New York apartment. I’m assuming that’s a breakdown of communications with the artist.

PAGE 5. Recap and credits.

PAGES 6-11. Warpath and Akihiro follow Gabby’s trail to an Orchis facility.

Akihiro’s argument seems to be that the New Mutants have put Scout in harm’s way by encouraging the Krakoan teens to go on missions, or something. The New Mutants do have a responsibility for running training for the Krakoan teens, but I’m struggling to think of anything that would really count as encouraging them to go into danger on their own. Granted, Akihiro is meant to be deflecting blame for his own feelings of guilt at the way he was ignoring Scout earlier in the series, but it’s too weak an argument to work even on that level.

Orchis are presented here as preppers for a mutant-led end-times, which is not really their schtick – they’re mainly about using science to prevent a mutant takeover. But we’ve been told that Orchis was assembled as an alliance of various groups, so let’s assume that this particular base is some sort of prepper outfit which got absorbed into Orchis at some stage.

PAGE 12. Data page. An internal Orchis memo about the facility being closed down for thinly disguised budgetary reasons.

PAGES 13-19. Warpath and Akihiro fight their way through the remaining staff and learn that Gabby has already left.

“When John was resurrected, I didn’t see him until after the ritual.” Warpath’s older brother John Proudstar (Thunderbird) was resurrected in X-Men: Trial of Magneto #5 and was reunited with Warpath in issue #24.

“The ways I’d failed him…” Warpath was a teenager when John died (in 1975’s X-Men #95) and had nothing to do with that at all. His initial motivation was to avenge John’s death, which he never really did, and that’s probably what he’s referring to here.

“She knew there was something rotten about the Shadow King…” This was a lengthy storyline running from roughly issues #15-24. The salient thing is that, as a minor plot point, Scout did keep looking to Akihiro for support during that arc, and he was persistently too busy (usually with his girlfriend Aurora) to spend time with her. That’s why he’s feeling guilty. In the context of the original arc, it was more a device to explain why he wasn’t in the plot.

PAGES 20-23. Akihiro and Scout are reunited.

Akihiro is apparently very keen to believe that all is well after all, since Scout’s explanation is blatant nonsense for the reasons Warpath identifies.

PAGE 24. Data page: Scout writes to Akihiro to reassure him. Let’s assume that Scout doesn’t realise quite how agitated he was at the start of the issue, hence her claim that his clinginess wouldn’t be obvious to others. (Or maybe that’s what she wants him to think she thinks…)

PAGE 25. Trailers.