New Mutants #19
The New Mutants attend the Hellfire Gala as a new tragedy strikes their students in New Mutants #19, by writer Vita Ayala, artist Alex Lins, colorist Matt Milla, and letterer Travis Lanham. Ayala strikes gold again, using the Hellfire Gala to focus on the team's relationships and moving their plots forward.
This entire issue is basically the members of the New Mutants talking to each other about what has been going on in their lives lately- Mirage apologizes to Wolfsbane for not accompanying her to X-Factor, and the conversation doesn't go well. Wolverine keeps asking the members of the New Mutants where Gabby is, and a human artist hits on Magik and Karma, which causes Magik to react in the most Magik way possible that doesn't involve her killing him for kicks. Warpath notices Warlock shadowing everyone, and they talk about what he's been going through with Doug spending all of his time with his wife, Bei. After the party, the adult members of the team help Warpath out of his outfit together as a team while the young mutants make a grisly discovery.
For their entire existence, the New Mutants have been as much a family as they were a team, and this issue really plays into that. Ayala really plays with the older members of the team as family members, and it works brilliantly. Take Mirage and Wolfsbane, for example. Their conversation gets contentious, but it ends with the two of them making amends to an extent, even though Wolfsbane and her problem aren't solved yet. It's exactly how family would treat each other. It just expands from there, the theme of family running throughout the book, even Wolverine looking for Gabby.
The Hellfire Gala is a great place for this kind of issue. It's been a while since the main cast was together in this book- there's always so many things pulling them in so many directions. The Hellfire Gala gives them some quiet time where they can reconnect, like family members who haven't seen each other in a long time. Ayala captures this feeling perfectly, and it makes for great reading. On top of that, they still find a way to include the Shadow King plot, adding yet another wrinkle to the whole thing.
Lins' art is a change of pace from Reis's, and it's honestly welcome. His style is more concrete than Reis's more abstract art, and it works a lot better for this issue, one that needs a lot of detail to get the emotions across. However, it still resembles Reis's art in a way that makes the stylistic change not so jarring. A big part of this is the way Milla colors the pages. The art is different, but it feels like there's a continuity between the two styles.
New Mutants #19 is a great read. Ayala uses the team as family concept to iron out differences and get the team on the same page again and still finds time to play into the plot that they've been building throughout their run. Lins' artworks very well for the issue, and it would honestly be nice if he stayed- he and Milla are a great team. All in all, this comic effectively uses the Hellfire Gala setting to take a breath and recharge the team's batteries.