{"id":6215,"date":"2021-01-28T20:52:01","date_gmt":"2021-01-28T20:52:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=6215"},"modified":"2021-01-28T20:52:01","modified_gmt":"2021-01-28T20:52:01","slug":"new-mutants-15-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=6215","title":{"rendered":"New Mutants #15 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

NEW MUTANTS vol 4 #15<\/strong>
“The Kids Ain’t Alright”<\/strong>
by Vita Ayala & Rod Reis<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

COVER \/ PAGE 1.<\/strong> The New Mutants are pursued by… well, Cosmar from the look of it. Nothing like this happens in the issue. Interesting that Scout is shown alongside the team, though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 2-3.<\/strong> Magik asks about the destruction of the Fort.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Akademos Habitat <\/strong>is the area where the younger mutants are meant to live; this is the first time we’ve heard about the Fort<\/strong>, which has evidently been set on fire by other teenage mutants. This is the kind of vandalism that the New Mutants were referring in their memo to Professor X in the previous issue, the one that landed them with their mentor role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Fauna<\/strong> is a minor background mutant who’s cropped up in various issues in the Krakoan era. He’s the one with green skin and hair. It’s the first time we’ve actually seen him in New Mutants<\/em>, though in issue #1 he was credited with producing the Krakoan coffee bean. Seems random, but there you are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Curse<\/strong> is the kid with red skin and spikes, another recurring background character from the Krakoan era who hasn’t previously appeared in New Mutants<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other four are unnamed, but they’re the followers of Exodus who we saw listening to his tale about Magneto in X-Men<\/em> #11. The one who looks a bit like Kid Omega is presumably an imitator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The laws of Krakoa.<\/strong> The laws of Krakoa include protecting the land and treating it as sacred; Magik treats that as extending to anything that destroys emanations of Krakoa. She seems to agree that, but for that technicality, wrecking other people’s homes (whether or not viewed as private property) would not be against any Krakoan law in and of itself, though she does insist that it would be morally unacceptable conduct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 4.<\/strong> Recap and credits. The title is a play on “The Kids Are Alright” by the Who<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 5-7.<\/strong> Anole, Cosmar, Rain Boy and No-Girl train<\/em> under the Shadow King.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We saw these four as a group last issue, already under the influence of the Shadow King. Even though Farouk was hiding out in a cave last issue, he seems to be openly on the island, given the way he behaves in later scenes – he can be seen in the Lagoon for Cypher’s wedding reception. That would seem remarkably tolerant even by Krakoan standards, though. Or is he concealing himself?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Crucible.<\/strong> As seen in various issues of other titles, this is meant to be a ritual in which depowered mutants get themselves killed in ceremonial combat, so that they can then be resurrected with their powers intact. It’s meant to deter the depowered mutants from committing suicide en masse in order to get their powers back. Cosmar is not a depowered mutant, but – as we see later on – she wants to get resurrected so that she can restore her normal appearance. According to Cosmar, her appearance is not part of <\/em> her mutation, but something her mutation did to her <\/em>because she couldn’t control it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s not immediately clear why the Shadow King is encouraging this, but presumably he’s hoping to manipulate the fight once it gets going. Being “ready” for the Crucible presumably just means being able to put up a respectable fight, because the aim of the exercise is not to win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 8.<\/strong> Scout visits the Boneyard.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the headquarters of <\/em>X-Factor Investigations. The romantic tension between Aurora and Daken is an X-Factor<\/em> subplot, as is Prodigy’s body farm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scout presumably wants to hang out with Daken because he’s family. Her elder sister Laura – strictly, her clonal mother – is missing because she’s tied up in the Children of the Vault storyline over in X-Men<\/em>. Wolverine is presumably too busy. Daken is… related to her, at least. In line with his depiction in X-Factor<\/em>, Daken is perfectly civil towards her, and seems to acknowledge some familial duty to make time for her, but he wants to get on with speaking to Aurora.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 9-12.<\/strong> Training time in the Wild Hunt.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From left to right in the top panel on page 9 (some of them are only identifiable by comparing with later stories): <\/p>\n\n\n\n