The Good
I like that this book is trying to give the New Mutants a bit of an Americana vibe to it; seeing Magma trying to get a job and the rest of the crew moving into their new pad is a refreshing break from all the mutant drama.
Blink's introduction has been a bit hazy, but it isn't to the point where I'm not enjoying her precense. Her purpose in this issue is to introduce the coming enemies/conflicts; she does a good job of this, but I don't want her to become the sole focus of the book. I like the characters we have now, and as with X-Man's introduction a couple weeks back, I don't want them overshadowed.
Also, a rock and roll (possibly evil mutant) metal band? That's always a good premise.
The Bad
If there's any complaints I can make about this issue, it's that it's a little on the bland side. I understand that there's a lot of setup at play here, but there's also a lot of "small talk" dialog that doesn't really go anywhere.
The Verdict
But they point is, those "aren't going anywhere" strings are going to tie up sometime, and right now, Abnett is just laying down the foundations for the stories to come. However, this means that we run into a bit of a Chekhov's Gun conundrum: a whole bunch of guns have been mentioned and none of them have been fired..
I can tell that this arc will be best consumed in a trade format from that one fact. It's going to be a slow build — one that will hopefully be rewarding. I have no reason to believe it won't be a good payoff, so this book gets an above-average grade from me.
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