{"id":9200,"date":"2023-06-23T23:29:13","date_gmt":"2023-06-23T22:29:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=9200"},"modified":"2023-06-23T23:29:13","modified_gmt":"2023-06-23T22:29:13","slug":"new-mutants-lethal-legion-4-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=9200","title":{"rendered":"New Mutants: Lethal Legion #4 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/a>NEW MUTANTS: LETHAL LEGION #4<\/strong>
\n“When I Was A Lad”<\/strong>
\nWriter: Charlie Jane Anders<\/strong>
\nPenciler: Enid Bal\u00e1m<\/strong>
\nInker: Elisabetta D’Amico<\/strong>
\nColourist: Matt Milla<\/strong>
\nLetterer: Travis Lanham<\/strong>
\nDesign: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen<\/strong>
\nEditor: Sarah Brunstad<\/strong><\/p>\n

COVER \/ PAGE 1.<\/strong> The New Mutants face off against Nefaria and his Lethal Legion.<\/p>\n

PAGES 2-5. <\/strong>The New Mutants fail to escape and make their stand.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Voluptuous Cherry Orchard<\/strong> is not real, as far as I can tell. But residents of Westchester County who are looking for cherry blossom next spring can find a list of recommended locations here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Moonstone.<\/strong> Escapade describes her as “the chaotic-neutral version of Captain Marvel”, admittedly with some uncertainty. Traditionally, I wouldn’t really describe her as chaotic – she’s a meticulous planner and manipulator, if anything – though “neutral” may be fair enough when looking at her career in the round. Karla is more interested in her own personal comfort than in power or wealth as ends in themselves. She\u00a0is<\/em>, however, comparably powerful to Captain Marvel, and served as the Captain Marvel stand-in in a version of the Dark Avengers. As Carol’s standing has risen over the last few years, Moonstone maybe gets some spillover credibility boost as a result.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

At any rate, Moonstone is certainly plenty chaotic in this issue. She seems to view herself as a hired gun who is entirely above this and is going to beat up these D-listers and go home. As pointed out later in the story, she certainly didn’t show up to audition<\/em> for the Lethal Legion – she’s evidently the best muscle Nefaria could call in at short notice. (We saw him call her last issue, saying that “I shall meet your price after all.”)<\/p>\n

Probably the best way to view her behaviour here is that since she has no wider agenda to pursue, and doesn’t perceive herself as being under threat, she simply doesn’t care<\/em> about any of this.<\/p>\n

I’m not sure why she accuses Skullbuster of stealing her look – they’re only\u00a0vaguely<\/em> similar in appearance, adn the two characters have no history together.<\/p>\n

PAGE 6.<\/strong> Recap and credits. The title is the title of the song that Moonstone sings later in the issue.<\/p>\n

PAGE 7. <\/strong>The New Mutants retreat into the woods.<\/em><\/p>\n

“I already saw [Xu\u00e2n] die once.”<\/strong> In the Crucible in\u00a0New Mutants<\/em> #18.<\/p>\n

“He had a wall of heads!”<\/strong> Scout did indeed find and photograph this wall on page 19 of issue #2 and, yes, the fact that he had a monster head identical to the one in the tunnels was prominent. It still seems to be pure coincidence that Wolfsbane and Morgan stumbled across the other monster, though.<\/p>\n

Escapade<\/strong> is belatedly starting to figure out that she’s alienated Morgan but doesn’t appear to fully understand why. She’s a bit slow on the uptake, since the whole plot is that she’s gone off and done Their Thing with someone else. (And Morgan’s had to help bail her out.)<\/p>\n

PAGE 8.<\/strong> Data page – a parody advert for some people who have released monsters into the sewers for bad guys to hunt. One suspects Anders is not a fan of hunting. The other two semi-satisfied customers are Kraven the Hunter (presumably the current version of the legendary Spider-Man villain, who’s a clone) and Klaw (who doesn’t seem to have done much in years, perhaps because he’s a Black Panther villain who’s been left behind by the contemporary themes of that book).<\/p>\n

PAGE 9.<\/strong> The New Mutants take refuge in a carpet mill.<\/em><\/p>\n

The thing in the box was identified in the previous issue as\u00a0the Weird Engine<\/strong>, the “last surviving artifact from the devastating Palindrome War”. It’s apparently capable of unravelling the fabric of reality itself.<\/p>\n

PAGES 10-11. <\/strong>Galura and Cerebella.<\/em><\/p>\n

We find a moment in the fight scene to pick up on the idea that Cerebella signed on for this because it seemed like a romp, and she realises it’s all gone rather badly wrong. Galura outright suggests that Cerebella is trying to imitate Escapade. I like the gag of having Nefaria show up to basically agree with the point, and\u00a0basically be right<\/em>, but in such an unsympathetic tone that he kicks Cerebella back into focussing on the A-plot.<\/p>\n

PAGES 12-13.<\/strong> Morgan and Escapade.<\/em><\/p>\n

“We got evicted. You weren’t there.”<\/strong> Morgan told Rahne about this in issue #1. Escapade really hasn’t been paying much attention to him if she managed to miss that. Morgan is understandably not impressed by what he sees as some belated attempts to win him back round.<\/p>\n

“Our gaming club died. They put our support group on pause.”<\/strong> Again, Morgan mentioned both of these things to Rahne in issue #1.<\/p>\n

“I lost track of time! I don’t even know what time zone Krakoa is in!”<\/strong> There is no earthly way that all the things Morgan mentions could have happened in a short enough time for this to be a decent excuse.<\/p>\n

“You’ll never understand, because you refuse to go there.”<\/strong> This, on the other hand, is a better point – Morgan has made a conscious choice not to follow Escapade to Krakoa and is resentful of the fact that she’s chosen to go in a different direction. He could have made more of an effort to keep in touch with her himself.<\/p>\n

“As soon as you didn’t have to worry any more about causing my death…”<\/strong> This is the main plot of the first Escapade arc, following on from a prophecy in Escapade’s\u00a0Marvel Voices<\/em> debut. Morgan is being unfair in suggesting that she only stuck around because of that prophecy – they were together for\u00a0years<\/em> before that.<\/p>\n

PAGES 13-16. <\/strong>The fight continues.<\/em><\/p>\n

“You should have listened when that scientist warned you.”<\/strong> I don’t think we’ve seen this – Karma appears to pick it up while controlling Nefaria, which isn’t how her powers normally work. But he’s an energy being, so maybe he’s weird.<\/p>\n

Moonstone’s song\u00a0<\/strong>is “When I Was A Lad” from\u00a0HMS Pinafore<\/em>, the 1878 comic opera by Gilbert & Sullivan. Or some selected lines from it, at any rate.<\/p>\n