"We are going to get into so... much. Trouble."
—Sunspot
The fourth volume of the New Mutants series, and the first ongoing since 2012. This series launched as part of the Dawn of X initiative, and the first arc was written by Jonathan Hickman and Ed Brisson, with art by Rod Reis. After the first arc ended, Brisson took over as sole writer and then, with issue #14, Vita Ayala took over as writer until #30, at which point Charlie Jane Anders replaced her.
The most classic members of the team consisting of Magik, Sunspot, Wolfsbane, Karma, Mirage, Cypher (merged with Warlock) and Boom-Boom reunite along with four newcomers in the form of Chamber, Mondo, Glob and Armor. Their first missions takes them to space alongside the Starjammers, where they seek out a missing member, Cannonball, to share the good news.
Beginning with the switch in writers with issue #14, the series began to focus on the efforts of the New Mutants to provide training and guidance to the younger generations of Krakoa as they explored what it meant to be a mutant in this new age. Magik, Mirage, Wolfsbane, and Karma were joined by Warpath and Warlock in this mission, while the young generation of mutants were represented by the "Lost Club" of Gabby Kinney, Anole, Cosmar, No-Girl, and Rain Boy.
The first issue was released November 6, 2019. The series ended with #33 (released December 28, 2022) but was followed by New Mutants: Lethal Legion, a Sequel Series also written by Anders.
Collected editions
- Volume 1 by Jonathan Hickman — collects issues #1-2, 5, 7.
- Volume 1 by Ed Brisson — collects issues #3-4, 6, 8-12.
- Volume 1 by Vita Ayala — collects issues #14-18
- Volume 2 by Vita Ayala — collects issues #19-24
- Volume 3 by Vita Ayala — collects issues #25-28
New Mutants (2019) provides the following tropes:
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: The Starjammers' Wanted Poster lists their crimes as going from "Assault" to "Spitting" and then back to "Murder," before finally ending on "Assault [Pheromonal]." It also lists the bounties they have on their heads, including Cr'reee, Ch'od's ferret-like pet, who is worth only 500 space credits.
- Ball of Light Transformation: Xandra demonstrates one for Rahne. She's a little nonplussed but tells her it's cool, even though Deathbird assures her she lied.
- Blatant Lies: Illyana attempts to deflect Roberto's desire to try some of the coffee she has by claiming that the transparent jug is empty.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Issue 7 has Sunspot directly refer to the series' release schedule and its creative process of switching between the Hickman and Brisson stories, also mentioning that Hickman skipped an issue because he fell behind.
- Brick Joke: When they get to the Shi'ar station Benevolence, Sunspot mentions he knows a "very reputable space lawyer." At the end of the first issue, after they are all captured by Shi'ar guards, he mentions it again and we see who it is: Murd Blurdock.
- Call-Back: "The Labors of Magik" arc is packed full of huge Call-Backs to the Magik limited series from 1984.
- The Captain: Appointed as one of four battlefield captains, as shown in the notes of House of X #6, Magik assertively assumes command when she determines the team's situation has reached the point that it can be categorized as a "battle".Magik: All right— get moving. Do a job.
- Continuity Nod:
- In the first issue, the Starjammers stop at the "ass end" of the Shi'ar space empire, the space station Benevolence. However, this isn't the first time readers have heard that name: during Powers of X, Benevolence was one of the last sanctuaries for mutants ninety years in the future.
- Cypher is experimenting with Mondo in communicating with Krakoa and ends up seeing that Krakoa can seize control of his body. Later he puts a gate flower in Mondo's abdomen. This alludes to a potential future where Krakoa apparently assumes control of Cypher's body as the new Famine, and can open gates in his torso.
- In the eighth issue, Boom-Boom mentions that Beast and Wolverine stole her team's name. She's referring to the mutant CIA they started over in X-Force.
- Issue #15 finally addresses Tier, Wolfsbane's son, and whether or not he will be resurrected. It turns out that since the Five don't have proof that he's dead, he's not even in the queue to be resurrected.
- There are several nods to Age of X-Man, mostly through Scout - understandably, as she went through a particularly unpleasant experience there.
- Issue #24 has Madelyne Pryor and Havok seated at the Green Lagoon's bar. Just after Pryor was resurrected in Hellions #18, Havok proposed that they go for drinks.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: Corsair miscalculates when he attempts to get the New Mutants to stay on the Starjammer with claims that the Benevolence is under the control of a highly oppressive religious sect that'll likely imprison them for any inadvertent sin. That and stir craziness makes them jump at the first chance to leave as soon as the Starjammer crew leaves.
- Easily Forgiven: Despite Oracle conspiring to kill Deathbird (who had been chosen by Gladiator to serve as Xandra's advisor) using the Death Commandos, Xandra doesn't punish her any further than forcing her to serve alongside the woman she tried to kill.
- False Utopia: Scout name-checks the trope in passing when referring to her experiences in Age of X-Man as "Nate Grey's false utopia."
- Fate Worse than Death: In the seventh issue, Karma and Cypher interrogate Sega of the Shi'ar Hyperguard and threaten to turn him from a gaseous being into a solid one. The mere thought horrifies him.
- Flat Character: Most of the space-faring team in their first arc get one personality trait, if that. Magik is defined by being violent. Mondo and Chamber are lazy. Wolfsbane and Karma don't even get that and are just nondescript.
- Freudian Excuse: In issue #14, it's revealed that Amahl Farouk, the Shadow King, started off as a happy young telepath trying to help his father. It's after his father died that he attracted the attention of an extradimensional entity called "the Shadow" which was able to possess him bit by bit.
- Gender-Equal Ensemble: Magik, Karma, Mirage, Wolfsbane, Boom-Boom and Armor being the girls and Sunspot, Cypher, Chamber and Mondo as the guys. Notably, the latter two members are new, and it's not hard to imagine them being added in part to balance them out.
- After Cypher takes some time away from the team to be with his new wife Bei, Warpath returns to the team in issue 14 after being far from prominent.
- Genre Shift: New Mutants often favored spooky and mystical adventures over the sci-fi/soap opera stuff of the main X-Men. This is the first comic that sees the team on a space adventure complete with them teaming up with the Starjammers. In the past, the X-Men were far more likely to go on a journey to space than the New Mutants.
- Hard-Drinking Party Girl: Boom-Boom gets very drunk during a Krakoa party, and doesn't even stop when going on a mission.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Gladiator deciding to hand over mentoring of the young, impressionable queen of an intergalactic empire to Deathbird. The woman who repeatedly has tried to violently seize control over the Shi'ar empire from her sister.
- Hostile Terraforming: The Krakoan portal flower Cypher brought onto the Starjammer interacts with the active gate already on the ship and alters the atmosphere in their greenhouse. Ch'od is very upset by this because he has a very finicky plant delicacy from his homeworld that's dying from the change to its environment.
- Hypocrite: The owner of a site that doxxes mutants refuses responsibility for the harm people commit with the information he provides. When Magik, Dani and Glob update his systems so that his personal information is given out with each update, he treats it like a threat to his life.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: At the end of the first issue, after the New Mutants have all been captured by Shi'ar guards and Sunspot has been kicked off of the Starjammers' ship, he looks to turn to the reader and say, "Is this where I save the day? It feels like it. Doesn't it?" The next page shows, however, that he was probably talking to the other New Mutants.
- Loophole Abuse: Krakoa laws forbid mutants from killing humans. When the Shi'ar Death Commandoes arrive to the ship the New Mutants happen to be at, Magik asks them if any of them is human, and when they answer on the negative, she proceeds to kill them.
- Multinational Team:
- The reformed original New Mutants and their additions have: Magik (Russian), Sunspot (Brazilian), Wolfsbane (Scottish), Karma (Vietnamese), Mirage (Native American), Cypher (American), Chamber (British) and Mondo (Samoan).
- The younger, Earth-based team consists of: Armor (Japanese), Glob (American), Boom-Boom (American), Magma (Roman-Brazilian) and Maxime and Manon (French).
- Must Have Caffeine: A mutant has cultivated a new strain of coffee on Krakoa and everyone loves it, claiming it tastes like it was made with sincerity and innocence. Illyana takes an entire jug for her own and even threatens to cut Roberto for asking for some. The only one who doesn't want any is Mondo who saw, and smelled, how it was made.
- Magik needs her morning coffee so much she now chugs a jar.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
- Robert taking everyone on an impromptu space mission is commented on in other titles as leaving them shorthanded; particularly one teleporter and oh, just the only mutant in the world capable of communicating with Krakoa. So when problems arise with it, they're left in the dark as to the source and only have a spontaneous space trip as reason why.
- Maxime and Manon use their powers to make one of the cartel thugs keeping them hostage turn on his friend, shooting him. This alerts the rest as to what happened and a fight breaks out, which gets Beak's parents killed and would've likely killed Armor if Boom-Boom hadn't arrived. Glob even mentions that they could've just had the guy release them.
- People Puppets: Cypher has Mondo take on Krakoa's composition to test if he can commune with it in some way. He can't, but Krakoa can seize control of his body and speak through him. For its part Krakoa considers it a very bad thing and stops it as soon as possible.
- Retcanon: Rahne's much younger appearance and her hair make her look a lot like Maisie Williams, who portrays her in the film The New Mutants.
- Retraux: The cover art looks very retro, and wouldn't look out of place in the '80s when the comic series first debuted. Even the logo, while updated from the original, is only made to look more '80s rather than a modernization.
- Slap-Slap-Kiss: This is how Roberto describes his flirting with Deathbird went. She punched him, then kissed him, then punched him again.
- Space Pirates: The New Mutants hitch a ride with the Starjammers to Shi'ar space. Of course, the Starjammers are pirates and end up stopping to steal something, which doesn't help the New Mutants when they get caught in the middle.
- Sword Fight: Magik has one with Raza in order to pass the time. She ends up cutting his metal arm off.
- True Companions: The story started because Roberto saw how much fun everyone was having together and began to miss Sam. It didn't take much for him to convince everyone to hitch a ride to Shi'ar space to invite him back.
- Unreliable Narrator: Sunspot for the space issues is prone to embellishing to make himself look good.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Amahl Farouk, who is now largely free of the Shadow King's influence, likes Krakoa, but does not believe that it will last forever, and is convinced that its children must be trained and "hardened" to survive without it. When Gabby confronts him and tells him to stay away from her friends, Farouk commends her loyalty to her friends, right before killing her while telling her that she will not stop him from "bettering" them. When the original New Mutants confront him, he traps them in a nightmare illusion where they're killed by all their greatest enemies repeatedly to try an indoctrinate them to his way of thinking. It's Karma, of all people, who understands that his actions are ultimately born of fear for everyone's safety.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Part of Gabby’s story in this title is her fate as the idea of clones rights on Krakoa is stupidly vague. When Gabby is killed, a group decide to try and revive her no matter what, only to run into the Five. As it turns out, they had believed that the law meant “no creating two active people” and that Cerebro treated people like Gabby, Madelyne Pryor and Evan Sabahnur as individuals, thus they request the laws be changed and Gabby is resurrected.
