Thursday 15 August 2013

X-Men Re-read: New X-Men: Childhood's End v1

comic musings

The Great X-Men Re-read

New X-Men: Childhood's End v1

Collects: New X-Men #20-23
Writer(s): Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost
Penciller(s): Mark Brooks

The students of Xavier's Institute in the wake of House of M.

Quick Synopsis
Childhood's End (New X-Men #20-23)
We pick up right in the middle of the Decimation seeing first hand the effects of M-day from the House of M story and how it affects the mutants currently enrolled in Xavier's school.

Some refuse to believe what has happened, others such as Wither believe that their power has gone and as he touches Laurie (Wallflower) on her arm her arm wastes away as it turns out he is one that has retained his power.

Other fallout from M-Day includes Emma Frost firing Moonstar as a teacher now that she is depowered.

Jay Guthrie (Icarus) introduced in the She Lies With Angels story-line in Uncanny X-Men #437-441 and previously in this book pre-House of M when it was called New X-Men: Academy X shows up with his wings forcibly amputated, echoing Warren's (Archangel / Angel) fate during the Mutant Massacre story-line, it is not revealed how this happened.

William Stryker (familiar to viewers of the X-Men 2 and Wolverine: Origins films and readers of the seminal God Loves, Man Kills story) appears on TV at various moments, essentially rallying for genocide to finish the mutants off.

Only 27 of the 182 students enrolled retain their powers. Emma Frost disbands all the former training squads (Hellions, New Mutants, etc..) and has a Danger Room exercise to select a team of New X-Men from the remaining students.

These are:

  • Dust
  • Elixir 
  • Hellion 
  • Mercury
  • Rockslide
  • Surge (leader)
  • X-23

42 of the depowered students are bused off back to their homes at the end of this collection. The final scene is the bus blowing up.

Best Bit
Wither thinking he had been cured and finding out in the worst way that he hadn't.

Final Words
Gone are the days of the jovial New Mutants and Generation X teen hi-jinx. I think this book already has the highest body count of an X-title with the 42 on the bus, plus assorted others who died during the decimation.

Intense
9 / 10

No comments:

Post a Comment