New Mutants #4
Armor and company try to survive in New Mutants #4, by writer Ed Brisson, artist Marco Failla, colorist Carlos Lopez, and letterer Travis Lanham. As their captors try and starve them into submission, back on Krakoa, Boom Boom starts to worry about them and prepares to take action.
At Krakoa, Boom Boom dances and drinks, not really knowing what else to do with herself. After drinking a bit too much, Pixie takes her home, and Boom Boom starts to wonder where Armor and Glob are and why they've been gone so long. In Nebraska, the leader of the group who took them explains to Armor the history of his country and how it was screwed over by a pharmaceutical company and how he took revenge. He tells her that he'll feed them if she brings someone from Krakoa to negotiate with him. Armor tells him just to make sure his government takes the deal with Krakoa, but he doesn't want the deal- it would hurt his profit margins. Back on Krakoa, Boom Boom goes to Sage to find out where Armor and Glob have gone, but Sage doesn't know, nor does she think it's weird that they've been gone so long. Back on the farm, Armor and company are getting more hungry and desperate. On Krakoa, Boom Boom finds out where they've went and goes after them. Armor agrees to the terms, and everyone gets fed. Angel convinces one of the guards to take off her inhibitor collar, since she and her children eat like flies, needing to dissolve their food with their acid. She uses her acid spit to free Maxine and Manon, and they use their mental powers to get the guards to kill each other. Armor hears the gunshots and thinks that the guards are shooting the kids, screaming that the deal is off… when Boom Boom shows up and blows up the kidnappers' vehicle.
Brisson uses the real-life greed of the pharmaceutical industry to great effect on this issue, making it the reasoning behind the kidnapping. The leader of the kidnapping tells a story about how his country was used and abused by a pharmaceutical company, one that could have easily gotten readers on his side… if he didn't blast it all away by saying he wasn't interested in his country taking the deal that Krakoa laid out for it because it would hurt his profit margin. Human greed is always a strong force, even among those who have been victimized by it. Brisson sets the whole thing up rather well.
Beyond that, there's a lot of little character work in this issue that stands out. Take Boom Boom for instance. In the last installment, she was shown to be aimless and a little hurt that her old friends in the New Mutants left her behind. This issue, she's rarely shown without a bottle of alcohol in hand. Her drinking really reflects her mental state. While at first, it seems like maybe she's just having fun, as she appears more and more with the bottle in hand, it tells readers something about what's going on in her head and how much the idyllic life of Krakoa is wearing on her. Likewise, Maxine and Manon could have done anything to the guards with their mental powers. However, instead, get them to kill each other because of what the guards had done to them. This vicious streak is presented but not commented on, something that readers that have to pick up on their own.
The art by Marco Failla is serviceable, but nothing special. There are a few places where it gets a little sketchy, and his linework is rather indistinct. It's not really bad, it's just a little weak.
New Mutants #4 builds on the last issue rather well. Brisson uses human greed as a prime motivator in this one, and it works very well. On top of that, he does some subtle character work, which shines a light on several of the characters. Marco Failla's art is okay, but it suffers in a few places. It will be interesting to see how things play out in the next issue. Can a drunken Boom Boom save the day or will she make an escape already in progress even worse? Brisson knows how to bait readers into coming back.
Grade: B
