NYX #1

Recap
THIS IS NYX! This isn't a book about X-Men. This is a book about mutants living past the end of their world and into a new beginning. This is MS. MARVEL embracing her mutant life in the neon streets of the Lower East Side. This is ANOLE trying to keep his head above water. This is WOLVERINE in the shadows of Bushwick, protecting her own. This is PRODIGY writing history as it happens — and SOPHIE CUCKOO finding her own way. The news reports are bleak. The streets feel dangerous. There's something lurking underground. Evil coming from every direction. But they're determined to make it. This is mutant community. This is mutant pride. This is NYX.
Review
The third chapter of the post Krakoan era has dropped, and this book is focused on a group of post adolescent mutants who are trying to make it in a post Krakoan world, and they do that by going to ESU! You know, the place where little known superhero Peter Parker attended college. Maybe you’ve heard of him. Meet freshmen Kamala Khan, Sophie Cuckoo, and their professor of mutant studies, David Alleyne, aka Prodigy, as they try to make what happened make sense! Jackson Lanning, Collin Kelly and artist Francesco Mortarino are here to bring the next phase of these young mutants’ lives.
The story starts with Kamala making her commute to college like only Kamala can. She’s embiggening her way to campus, as she leaves several panels worth of exposition as a voicemail to her best friend Bruno who’s backpacking his way across Europe. Once she gets there, she bumps into Sophie Cuckoo, who’s also a new student at ESU. After a colorful introduction, the two become fast friends, and they attend the first class taught by New X-Men fame, Prodigy. Sophie and David have a different take on what the Krakoan diaspora was, and the effects it will have on human culture in this post Krakoan world. It’s an interesting sociological experiment that could explore some unique topics involving ideologies, international politics, etc., but I don’t see that happening because we had four and a half years to do so with the regular X-Men titles, but nothing ever quite managed to reach that level of intellectual discourse or depth.
On top of everything we’ve got brewing on campus, there’s a whole world of other business out there. The girls link up with Anole, who’s a bartender at a popular nightspot for the students, as well as other locals. A fight starts, thanks to some mutantphobe, which echoes what we see almost daily. Dehumanizing the mutant “refugees”, as we see with conservative pundits and activists, constantly attacking those defined as “other” through social media, reaching like minded bigots, preaching how their presence is poisoning the blood of America. It’s not a subtle metaphor, but again, the attacks on migrants, the LGBTQ+, women, and people of color on a daily basis, so their hyperbolic rhetoric can be seen in the colorful pages of the comic. Of course there’s always the faction that look to harm their oppressors, and we see it at the end of the issue, where we see Empath, the Krakoan, and the rest of the Cuckoos as the series antagonists, and it’s leaving me intrigued. Empath has been depicted as one of the most vilest mutants ever created, so Lanzing and Kelly have a lot of potential here.
Francesco Mortarino is on art here, and he gives us a very strong first issue. The kids look young, and expressive, the action isn’t stiff, but the quieter moments are the standouts here. I’m still not sold on Kamala’s transformation to a mutant because of MCU synergy, but that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy her here. I’m a big Inhumans fan, and balked at the unnecessary vitriol that was launched at the Inhumans when Marvel decided to “focus” on the Inhumans, rather than the mutant community. Which is simply a false assumption. There were several mutant books being published at this time. Far more than any Inhuman titles, they were just the focus of the hate campaign. Seeing the friendship between Kamala and Sophie develop visually is just as interesting part of the comic as the action scenes, and that’s the hallmark of a good storyteller.
Final Thoughts
Chalked up as a back to basics era, this book looks to try something different from the original. Focusing on new addition to the mutant umbrella of characters, Kamala, than virtually unknown characters like Kiden Nixon feels like a safe choice, but lacks the rawness and teeth that the original series had. Bringing Laura back to the series that introduced her to the comic universe felt like she was brought on to tie into the original, but she’s basically a completely different character from the one we saw then.
NYX #1: Uptown girls, they’ve been living in their uptown world
- Writing - 7.5/107.5/10
- Storyline - 7.5/107.5/10
- Art - 7.5/107.5/10
- Color - 8/108/10
- Cover Art - 8/108/10