{"id":8188,"date":"2022-08-19T23:00:08","date_gmt":"2022-08-19T22:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=8188"},"modified":"2022-08-19T23:00:08","modified_gmt":"2022-08-19T22:00:08","slug":"new-mutants-28-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=8188","title":{"rendered":"New Mutants #28 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/a>NEW MUTANTS vol 4 #28<\/strong>
\n“The Labors of Magik, Book Four: The Queen is Dead, Long Live the Queen”<\/strong>
\nWriter: Vita Ayala<\/strong>
\nMain story art & colours: Rod Reis<\/strong>
\nFlashback art: Jan Duursema<\/strong>
\nFlashback colours: Ruth Redmon<\/strong>
\nLetterer: Travis Lanham<\/strong>
\nDesign: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen<\/strong>
\nEditor: Sarah Brunstad<\/strong><\/p>\n

COVER \/ PAGE 1:<\/strong> Magik in chains before Madelyne Pryor as the new Queen of Limbo. Not especially connected to anything that happens in the issue, though if you squint a bit I suppose you could see it as representing their respective attitudes to reigning Limbo.<\/p>\n

PAGE 2.<\/strong>\u00a0Magik tries making her Soulsword.<\/em><\/p>\n

That’s Magik’s castle, as last seen in issue #25.<\/p>\n

Since rescuing her own younger self last issue, Magik and co have apparently been hiding out in a cave while she tries to recreate the Soulsword. Of course, symbols blurring with reality is a standard trope of magical stories, but Magik seems to literally believe that the key to regaining control of Limbo is to summon up the Soulsword again. Since the sword represents her soul, Magik seems to recognise that restoring the Soulsword is just the outward manifestation of restoring her soul – but it’s not clear what she’s actually been doing over the last week or so restore her soul.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Thanks to @Barrowwight on Twitter, I’m able to inform you that that weird thing Magik summons up as her last effort is completely real. It’s a Vespa 150 TAP, a French anti-tank scooter from the late 1950s. The basic idea was that it was light enough to be dropped by parachute, and paratroopers could use it to carry a bigger gun around. You were supposed to mount the gun on a proper tripod before actually firing it, but if you really wanted to just charge at a tank while shooting blindly, then apparently that was an option.<\/p>\n

PAGE 3.<\/strong>\u00a0Madelyne argues for action.<\/em><\/p>\n

And Magik agrees with her. This is one of those pages where we gloss over the boring plot bits, as the cast assure us that since the last issue they’ve been carrying out recon missions and have learned that there’s “some force behind S’ym’s sudden increase in power”. Quite\u00a0why<\/em> Magik decides that tonight is the night, after weeks of waiting, is a bit obscure. Perhaps she’s decided that finishing the ritual is the only way to restore her soul (and in a sense it is), but she doesn’t really explain why.<\/p>\n

PAGE 4.<\/strong>\u00a0Madelyne justifies herself as ruler of Limbo.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Maybe your contract will keep Krakoa safe in terms of attack…”<\/strong> We saw Madelyne and Illyana discuss the contract in issue #25, at which point Magik insisted that “I thought through my terms. No one is in danger.” In issue #26, Illyana also told us that it was “in the contract” that Madelyne can’t use Magik to take revenge on “everyone who ever slighted [her]”. In this issue, however, the contract is rather more specific and only prevents Madelyne from attacking Krakoa. Of course, Madelyne is the villain in the upcoming “Dark Web” storyline, which makes all the stuff here about why we should trust in her ability to reform read a bit oddly.<\/p>\n

“Until I woke up in that disgusting egg…”<\/strong> Madelyne is referring to her resurrection, off panel in\u00a0Hellions<\/em> #18.<\/p>\n

“My mind had never been without my maker’s infernal fingerprints stamped across it.”<\/strong> Mister Sinister, who gave Madelyne a fake back story and sent her out into the world as part of his obsession at the time with the Summers family bloodline.<\/p>\n

“And the plans of all the men who thought they had rights to me…”<\/strong> This is less obvious, since nobody else has tried to exploit her in the way that Sinister did. Madelyne seems to be referring to Scott and Alex, and the way she was treated as a supporting character in their lives.<\/p>\n

“Illyana said that it takes being touched by darkness to be able to survive here…”<\/strong> In issue #25.<\/p>\n

PAGE 5.<\/strong>\u00a0Illyana and Madelyne complete their ritual.<\/em><\/p>\n

Colossus<\/strong> gets to endorse Madelyne’s potential for resurrection, apparently as the straightforward long-time hero, though that’s an odd role for him to play given his current mind control arc. Of course, presumably Chronicler can’t influence him here.<\/p>\n

PAGE 6.<\/strong> Storybook page. We’ll see later that the villain behind S’ym is more or less literally Illyana’s shadow.<\/p>\n

PAGE 7.<\/strong> Recap and credits.<\/p>\n

PAGES 8-11.<\/strong>\u00a0The quartet fight their way to the real villain.<\/em><\/p>\n

“If you know the enemy and know yourself…”<\/strong> is the first of a series of Sun Tzu quotes in this issue. Quite why alt-Illyana is so keen to quote Sun Tzu, I’m not so sure, but the particular quotes in this scene are all obviously plays on the idea that our Illyana hasn’t come to terms with herself, and the alternate versoin has.<\/p>\n

Queen Illyana Rasputina<\/strong> is explained further on the next data page. She’s carrying the magic club that she extracted from S’ym at the start of issue #25. In that scene, she was making a deal with S’ym for him to become ruler of Limbo, in which seems like a direct parallel of Magik’s ritual with Madelyne in this issue.<\/p>\n

PAGE 12.<\/strong> Data page (with nice use of red). This is Magik’s history up to a point, but then it diverges. The basic idea is that Queen Illyana is the Magik of a timeline (or at least a notional timeline) in which Illyana embraced ruling Limbo instead of running from it back to Earth. Taking the entries in turn:<\/p>\n