New Mutant: Academy X #4 Review

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Reviewer: James Hatton
Story Title: Field Day Choosing Sides (Part 4 of 6)

Written by: Nunzio DeFilippis & Christina Weir
Breakdowns by: Staz Johnson
Finished by: Scott Koblish
Colored by: Pete Pantazis & Tom Chu
Lettered by: Dave Sharpe
Cover Art by: Randy Green
Editor: Mike Marts

Everything old is new again, or so they say. So we have to suffer through X-Force again, with X-Statix leaving. We get Jim Lee on Batman and Variant covers. The first minute I see a holofoil cover I’m going to scream bloody murder.

One book that’s come out of this revitalization of everything old, not to mention all things ‘X’, is New Mutants. Which in my review of issue 1, I said it was trying to be Generation X and failing. Well, it’s still not as good as that initial run of Gen X, but it’s starting to hold it’s own a bit.

Story

The two teams, New Mutants and Hellions, were last seen having a contest to see who could find a mysterious object. It was set with the idea that all of the teams are off practicing their X-skills against each other. Then again, they really have only briefly mentioned the other teams, so who knows if other kids even GO to the school.

I will say that some of the characters, individually, are starting to grow on me. Wither, a poor little mopey gloomcookie with a deathtouch, is a fair recreation of some poor sweater wearing emo kid. I would be impressed if they take the characters to more serious levels and had one of them be a cutter and try and be socially active instead of in their happy little superhero bubble.

There is amazing potential in the grandscale cast that this book could concievably have. I’m fine with them taking their time in introducing characters slowly and letting their relationships solidify.

All of this AND the teachers are snarky at each other. It’s like watching Boston Public!

Art!

The cover is fun. It’s actually better than the interior art. Which is bad, because the cover isn’t that amazing. It’s fun. It’s got that light bubbly feel, but it also shows some definate action, and I would be intrigued at least by Wind Dancer.

The artists are listed as ‘Breakdown & Finishes’ by Staz Johnson and Scott Koblish. I don’t know exactly what those terms mean, but I can make the assumption that it translates to “Do a decent pencil job” and “overink the shit out of it”.

Overall!

I am an arc’er, as I know many other folks here at Nexus are. I give every book it’s one arc grace period. Unless it rips through my eyes, tears through my face and makes me want to find the writer and impale him upon my keyboard of wrath, I’m going to stick through the arc. Academy hasn’t sold me yet with two issues left, but there is one thing that has been said about this book that has kept me on.

The simple idea that I may not like these characters, but there is a whole other story going on with the other teams and students. I might stick just to see who shows up and where.