SCI-FI SUNDAY: Guest librarian reviews hard-hitting New Mutants: Dead Souls #1

Rick Grimes and the crew from Alexandria can’t compete with Magik and her line up in New Mutants: Dead Souls #1.

“Zombies like on the Walking Dead…I heard they were making comics now, too.” — New Mutants: Dead Souls #1

(LIBRARIAN’S NOTE: This review was written by guest blogger David Conine. David is a freelance writer and the content editor at Comic-Watch.)


In the first issue of New Mutants: Dead Souls #1, writer Matthew Rosenberg and artist Adam Gorham do not disappoint. They deliver a blazing introduction to the series, with a character-driven supernatural tale that keeps things fresh from page one to the final penel!

Readers may not get what they expected, though. Much like Tom Taylor’s X-Men: Red introduced a flavor of X-men that readers haven’t seen
in some time, Rosenberg raises the bar yet again with the New Mutants characters in Dead
Souls.


As our story begins, the New Mutants hit the ground running under the direction of Magik: field team leader, mutant teleporter, witch, and sometimes Demon Queen of Limbo. The group is investigating supernatural phenomenon in a small Alabama town devastated after a hurricane. It seems the dead are refusing to stay dead.


Rounding out the new field team are Strong Guy, Rictor, Tabitha (AKA Boom-Boom) and Wolfsbane. 


They’ve offered their uncanny abilities as humanitarian aid to those who are being disturbed by the things lurking in the creepier corners of the Marvel universe. The group and their outing is funded by the HATCHI Corporation, which is run by former New Mutant Karma (X’ian Coy Manh). She’s assisted by David Alleyne, formerly known as the mutant Prodigy. While Alleyne is no longer a mutant, he’s still freakishly smart. He helps Karma determine where and when the new team is needed.

In Alabama, these new New Mutants face off against a horde of zombies, and we get to see that this group isn’t Professor Xavier’s “little league” team any more. Rosenberg and Gorham shine, an incredible creative team, using their skills in unison. It’s clear through the writing and the art that all these characters have experienced spiritual trials, tribulations and loss, creating some very intriguing dynamics.

Illyana Rasputin and her New Mutants are ready to kick some serious Zombie butt.

Here, Rosenberg isn’t afraid to speak through the voice of the characters, lending more depth to each of them and making the story far more than words on a page. It seems there is an intense amount of mystery among the team and extreme contradictions exist. For example, Magik tells Rictor they’re not X-Men anymore and she tells a survivor of the initial zombie attack that the members of the group aren’t superheroes. Yet when the dead arrive, Magik doesn’t hesitate to pull the team together and do what she calls “the big super-hero thing.”