New Mutants #23
The New Mutants and their students face down the Shadow King in New Mutants #23, by writer Vita Ayala, artist Rod Reis, and letterer Travis Lanham. This issue slays. In a world where the quality of many X-Men books keeps falling, this book keeps getting better.
The Lost Club- Cosmar, Rain Boy, Scout, Anole, and No-Girl- enter Shadow King’s mind. Working together, they’re able to get through to the New Mutants, and things get crazy from there. As the group breaks through Shadow King’s defenses, they have an unexpected ally the whole time, and in the end… well, that would be telling.
New Mutants is a continual high watermark for the X-Men titles. Ayala has been telling the best stories for a while now, and it’s shaped into something special. This issue is an especially great example of that. Ayala pulls out all the stops and pushes the throttle past the red line, serving up everything. There is action, drama, all-new mutant power fusions, and some of the best info pages in the X-books in a long time. While every book uses them to supplement the storytelling, Ayala makes them a part of the story in this issue, giving crucial plot points with them that moves things forward.
Honestly, there are not enough good things that can be said about this issue. Ayala is in rare form here, killing it with every page. They’ve found a way to balance all the story elements, so there’s just enough of everything and makes it all exciting. Every little thing about this issue is perfect, and it does something that is very hard to do- makes the Shadow King interesting. The character has always been sort of a one-note villain, but in this story so far, Ayala has taken him and made him into something he’s never been before. It all comes back to their first issue, and this story actually makes what comes next for Amahl Farouk seem more fascinating than ever.
The script is half the battle in a comic, and Rod Reis kills it. From trippy mindscapes to MC Escher-like compositions, the art in this book is next level. This is possibly the best art that Reis has ever turned in at any time in his career. Everything that Ayala needs to make the story work is there, and it looks gorgeous.
New Mutants #23 is a revelation. It’s such a fantastic comic from start to finish. It feels weighty in the best possible way. Everything about it is incredible. It feels like Ayala and Reis have leveled up with this one. It’s that good, and it needs to be seen to be believed.