New Mutants #7

More space hijinks ensue in New Mutants #7, by writer Jonathan Hickman, artist Rod Reis, and letterer Travis Lanham. While so many Dawn Of X titles are dour and serious to a fault, this issue injects a lot of humor and fun into the whole thing. It’s a gem.

The New Mutants are able to beat the Death Commandos and take control of their ship. They make it to Chandrilar and Deathbird attacks Oracle. Gladiator believes that Deathbird is up to her old tricks, so the New Mutants and the Imperial Guard battle it out. Xandra stops the fight, demanding to know what’s going on. Deathbird explains Oracle’s role in the Death Commandos attack and Xandra punishes Oracle, who wanted Gladiator to remain on the throne since he deserved to rule and not take orders in her opinion, by making her stay an advisor to her and Deathbird. A Krakoan portal is planted at Cannonball and Smasher’s apartment. Sam tells Bobby he’s not going back to Earth and Bobby decides to stay on Chandrilar.

First off, Bobby’s recap page is pure gold. He pretty describes everything that happens after the last issue the space team was in and Mirage stops him and tells him he’s basically explaining and the entire issue of the book away. She then reveals to him the book’s shipping schedule and that there are issues he isn’t in and Bobby gets very mad. This is just so great. Hickman breaks the fourth wall brilliantly and it’s hilarious.

The next gag comes just as the New Mutants and the Imperial Guard are about to fight. Instead of a fight, the next page is basically a rules page for a dice game where readers can play to see what team wins. It’s just so great. Hickman throws out all the rules in this issue, probably because he knew that everything in this issue was kind of old hat. Readers know how all of this is going to shake out, so he decided to have fun with the whole thing. It works. Oh God, it works so well.

Rod Reis’s art kills it as usual. In this issue, his style gets reminiscent of Bill Sienkiewicz, who did some of the best New Mutants issues of the 80s and it looks great. Elsewhere in the book, he goes back to his style and it works well because it helps sell some of the gags on the page.

New Mutants #7 takes what could have been a by the numbers issue and stands the whole thing on its head in the best way possible. It’s plain to see how much fun Hickman is having writing this issue because it’s that much fun to read. Rod Reis’s art is great, referencing classic New Mutants stylings while still keeping it his own. This issue is a treat.

Grade: A