New Mutants #23: Shadows and Mirrors

[superboyprime]

"I wanted to know if the kids were all right. Who's driving this thing? We're used to the X-Men essentially training kids to be child soldiers, but that's not the case anymore. They're on paradise. What would kids do on paradise? They would get into trouble, I think." - Vita Ayala

Comments

[lordultimus]

"Krakoa means lifting everyone to a better way of life."

Except for the humans that will go extinct in a few decades, sucks for them

[mindsweeper]

But the humans who are alive and born will live out their lives. They’re not going to be artificially wiped out, just decline as fewer humans and more Mutants are born.

Parents used to want their children to exceed them but that doesn’t seem to be true for MU humans. Instead, they want to x-terminate their own kids if they are x-ceptional.

[deh_tommy]

Wait, what?

[cyberghostface]

I'm assuming they mean 'humans eventually evolving into mutants'.

[lordultimus]

HoX/PoX established that humans only have a few decades before mutants outnumber humans, after which humans will die out.

[tinygaylaura]

Sounds good to me

And when they say everyone they mean mutantkind. If humanity wants to lift themselves up to a better way of life they should probably get off their lazy asses and do it themselves

[mesmiranda]

This entire comment chain below* is why I don't like commenting on scans_daily anymore.

* the original comment

[salad_barbarian]

You're not alone.

[deh_tommy]

I’m sorry, I have no excuse.

[lilacsigil]

I am loving the Sienciewicz-influenced art on this.

[onsokumaru]

I must say, it's nice that Fahrouk is not a nice guy, but is not evil for the sake of being evil either. This is the last character I expected to get some nuance.
The dialogues, on the other side, are heavier than even Claremont's. I may start a drinking game counting how many times somebody says "we deserve" or "you deserve" in their pep talk.

[shakalooloo]

I think his appearance on the Legion tv show (where he was certainly a lot less pure evil) has rubbed off a little on his comicbook version.

[tinygaylaura]

Also this isn't the Shadow King in control here but Farouk himself back in control of his body for the first time since he was a child

[donnblake]

I mean, I guess the idea that Farouk was going to come out of centuries of possession by the Shadow King without some scars was a long shot. His development continues to interest me.

[deh_tommy]

Regarding the sixth page here: thank freaking gosh people in-universe finally say it! This is what’s been bothering me for so long, and for once that DOESN’T come from someone who is evil, bigoted, mistaken or proved to be wrong! That’s a shame so few other titles actually take this idea on board and instead unironically opt more for Farouk’s self-destructive line of thinking, because what the New Mutants here are saying sadly rings a little hollow with almost every other book taken into account (even this one before Vita Ayala came along).

[blues32]

The New Mutants here are spouting utter delusions. "Above predator and prey"? They seem to think they've evolved past gods.

[tinygaylaura]

That's not a delusion, that's a fact

[alliterator]

Why wouldn't they be above predator and prey? They don't have to kill to eat anymore. They don't have to even make money to eat.

[blues32]

Which works fine on a sentient island, but what happens when they're no longer on it? Some mutants get stuck in the rainforest. What do you think they do for food? They haven't evolved past it, they just gained the means to circumvent it temporarily.

[deh_tommy]

How so? That’s no less delusional than old Star Trek. If they’re so superior like they claim to be, that falls to them to prove it and not succumb to the same old human bullcrap.

[blues32]

Which they constantly fail to do. We just need to look at the bickering of the Quiet Counsel to see that. Sinister with his constant crimes against nature which he happily confesses is done most times for the hell of it rather than to actually learn anything. Magneto and Xavier constantly baiting Mystqiue with promises to bring back her wife when we all know that no matter what, the pair would never do it. Emma and Shaw engaging in the same cutthroat business tactics we despise corporations for doing.

Oh, and let's not forget the whole Onslaught poisoning the minds of every resurrected mutant. A being born of the rage and pain of two people, being passed down to the children. Tainting them. If Nightcrawler hadn't picked up on it, it would still be going on.

And the Crucible! Dear lord, the Crucible. They can gussy it up any way they like, but in the end it's gladiatorial combat with a crowd cheering it on. And for what? To prove the depowered mutants deserve to NOT be depowered anymore? Then they deny people like that one girl who, when her powers activated, horrifically twisted herself into a form she despises. How is she different than anyone else who feels their body is wrong? Instead told to embrace her uniqueness. She doesn't want to! Imagine someone gets mauled by a bear and then told to embrace their disfigurement.

[tinygaylaura]

I really love the artwork effect with the cracking "glass" in the psychic realm and the eyes peeering through as we see Farouk become less and less stable and sane throughout this encounter

Feels like a visual cue for the way that the Shadow King's influence in his mind is still warping his actions even when he starts out with good intentions like wanting mutantkind to be safe

[zachbeacon]

Weird to see a man in a fez calling Apocalypse "weak".

That's some real armchair supervilliany from a guy best known for being young Storm's Fagin.

[blues32]

Except he wasn't. He's the body the guy who was Storm's Fagin was using at the time. Honestly, we know next to nothing about this guy.

[zachbeacon]

To quote my favorite philosopher...

"Okay. But That's Worse. You, You Do Get How That's Worse, Right?"