Dani Moonstar brings in a therapist to analyze her team, but some are apprehensive about the fact that he's not a mutant. How will an outsider fare on Utopia?
The Good
God, I loved this issue. Having Moonstar bringing in a therapist in order to "set straight" the New Mutants worked really well as a "cooling down" issue between the fight with Sugar Man and the coming conflict with Schism. I'm a bit fan of getting into heroes' heads, and this issue did that amazingly.
Scott schooling Emma on why a non-mutant therapist might be a good idea was an amazing sequence; I could tell why Emma would be annoyed, but hearing Scott saying "Please don't say he's 'not one of us' because we know how positive that philosophy can be." was just great punctuation. It's almost like that page was meant to shut up readers that might be thinking the same thing.
Tough love is a great thing to see in comics, as we're used to our heroes being (somewhat) confident in how they carry themselves. Seeing Gus Grim analyze Cannonball and Karma was great, because there are facets of their personality that we needed out in the open; I never would have thought that Karma could be selfish or that Cannonball could be afraid otherwise.
Having Danger have routines set in place by Doctor Strange was friggin' awesome. I wonder how much he charges for a consult?
Seeing Dani try to explain the complicated nature of X-Man's existence, only to see Gus Grim say "I have no experience with any of that!" made me laugh. Sometimes we forget about how fantastical comics are.
While I've hated the depowerment of X-Man in the past, I think his interaction with Hope is a good thing, and it took an analysis by Grim in order to sell it. Hope seeing Nate as a younger version of her "father" really makes me want to see continued interaction between the both of them.
The Bad
I wasn't really a fan of the art, as it just didn't seem to evoke the inner qualities of the characters. Cannonball didn't feel like Cannonball; in this issue, he was just a blond kid with a crew cut.
The Magik storyline just seemed to be a complete 180 from what we've seen from her lately. Having her say that she wants a life and for her teammates to trust her was just a little out of line with the cold, emotionless "get the job done" character that's been established since the team came back from Limbo.
The Verdict
This is a great issue because it manages to give us some character development and recap a number of storylines at the same time. This is a great jumping off point for people who want to pick up the book, and who want to be ready for the crazyness in the coming months. If the art was a little better, I would've given this five stars, easily.
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