December 1986
"Bloody Sunday"
Writer: Chris Claremont
Artist: Jackson Guice
Inker: Kyle Baker
Rating: 7.0/10.0
New Mutants gives a moment of respite from the action packed issues of Uncanny 211 and X-Factor 10. It focuses on the X-Men's return to the mansion after the bloody battle. There are several problems with it, but it still gives a decent story and focuses more on the horrific aftermath as the casualties are counted and keep piling up.
It starts with Lockheed's monstrous roar that echoes throughout the mansion. The New Mutants investigate and find a hole burned in one of the doors leading down to the Morlock caverns. Cannonball heads down quickly and Mirage heads outside, hoping to find another way down. As she leaves the mansion, she turns back to see one of her Valkyrie visions of death looming over the entire mansion.
Elsewhere, Illyana teleports away, figuring she would need a doctor and grabs Moira McTaggart from Muir Island (right out of the shower, no less). They are stuck in Limbo momentarily as Illyana accidentally shifted in time and watch as the events unfold. The doors blast open back at home and the X-Men stumble through followed by a horde of Morlocks. Illyana teleports Moira to the hangar and sees her best friend, Kitty, who is a living ghost at this point, unable to solidify. The X-Men take a quick moment to explain the horror they have seen and then everyone, including the New Mutants, spring into action, trying to transform the Hangar into an infirmary capable of handling the huge load of injured and dying.
Each New Mutant deal with the horror in their own way. Sunspot, however, is careless, in part because his strength derives from the sun and his power is weakening. He is scolded by Magneto when he almost breaks a life support module and he is sent to "time out". Meanwhile, one of the injured Morlocks, Sunder, begins to throw the doctors off as they discuss amputation. Karma attempts to subdue him but his anger is too much to handle. Psylocke takes over, mentally calming the Morlock.
Cannonball finds Mirage huddled in a corner. Her death vision won't turn off and she is terrified by the implications. In the kitchen, Rahne prepares sandwiches for the survivors and Sunspot decides to help himself to a little bit. Rahne smacks his hand and he loses his temper, destroying the table and ruining the sandwiches. Cannonball and Mirage intervene and they scold the younger mutants for fighting when people are in genuine need of help.
Meanwhile, Karma is worried about her brother and sister after the Marauder attack, however a phone call doesn't help as there is no answer. Illyana shows up and agrees to teleport her to her siblings' apartment. Doug sees everything and informs both Cannonball and Mirage. Considering the de facto state of war the mutants are at, Mirage decides to follow. Illyana and Karma show up and turn on the lights only to set off a trap which explodes the apartment.
The New Mutants head into the tunnels, but instead of changing into a jet, Warlock only changes into a car, stating it is the only method available. Some time later, the mutants arrive in New York, horrified and upset over the carnage they saw in the tunnels. Before they can really process anything, they notice the fire department at their destination. Illyana and Karma stumble out of nearby door, both winded, but otherwise unharmed. Mirage starts giving out orders, but before she can even complete anything, Warlock panics and hurries them back into the tunnels. Suddenly, he dissolves into a puddle and before anybody knows it, Warlock's father, Magus, shows up. Luckily, Illyana is faster and she quickly teleports all away. Magus swears to chase them no matter where it leads.
This wasn't the best issue, but it wasn't the worse by far. The art is above average. Most of Jackson Guice's work I enjoy. The biggest issues I have are the continuity SNAFU's between Uncanny 211 and this issue. Since both were written by Claremont I can't really understand it. Magik had been with the X-Men when they first ventured into the tunnels, but in this issue, she is completely unaware of what is going on. In 211, she had returned with a handful of Morlocks and Nightcrawler, but in this issue, Nightcrawler is being dragged by the X-Men when they burst into the mansion. It's only some minor continuity errors, but it's always been what stuck most about this issue. I also would have preferred that this issue focused entirely on the Mutant Massacre cross-over, but it instead starts a 5 issue arc involving the confrontation with Magus, Warlock's daddy. I think that was adding a bit much and it could have easily been done starting with the next issue.
However, I really liked the reactions of the New Mutants to the massacre. Cannonball and Karma had both seen this sort of death before and they still had issues dealing with it. Mirage was paralyzed by her recent Valkyrie ability with so much death surrounding them. And Sunspot, Cypher, and Wolfsbane all reacted by lashing out. It's hard to remember that most of the Mutants are young teens and not adults, like the X-Men. Claremont does a good job showing how they deal with such tragedy.
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