PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION:

Moonstar, Karma, Magma, and Wolfsbane - the former X-Men-in-training who helped define a generation - are back. But what happens when these "New Mutants" find out Professor Xavier's up-and-coming students think of them as the "Old Mutants?" Former students become the teachers as the old guard is asked back to help prepare the next generation of New X-Men.

(official New Mutants website)


AUTHORS' COMMENTS:

[Nunzio] I loved this book, really I did. I loved creating the kids, I loved how the issues came out. But it was a nightmare that still shapes how we deal with the big superhero publishers, though we try not to let it.

This first arc of New Mutants was one of the longest, most drawn out writing processes we've ever had to deal with. We were first offered a shot at the book on the strength of Marvel's reaction to SKINWALKER. They wanted a book to relaunch the old New Mutants as teachers to a new batch of students at the Xavier Institute. We think they picked us because Danielle Moonstar was one of the characters they wanted to highlight, and we'd worked with a strong female Native American lead before in Skinwalker. We filled the tiniest niche in comics - writers who wrote female native american characters. But, hey, it got us a shot pitching the book. We came up with a basic cast of new kids (Christina will talk more about how we came up with the kids) and had a general flow in mind. We created a new villain, tied him in to one of our kids, and devised a six issue arc that introduced all the new kids, brought back all the old teachers, then had them all face off against Sean Garrison, an emotion-manipulating villain who would offer each character their heart's desire. This was approved, and we were hired. Then came the hard part.

The first issue of the series underwent about 5 major rewrites. I'm not talking about simple revisions, but instead about tossing the whole script and starting again. Our first draft brought Dani, Shan and a powerless Rahne back to the school to look in on injured Amara, thus assembling all our old characters. Visiting the school, they met all the new students except Surge, who was encountered briefly in the subways of NY by Dani before she got to Salem Center. We had established all the characters and even put the threat of Garrison in place. But Marvel said we moved too quickly. Bill Jemas, in particular, wanted us to take the time to establish the new kids. So we stripped away all the old characters but Dani, and focused on her return and her meeting the new kids. No go. Too many kids in one issue. So we had Dani meet Sofia and bring her to the school, ending with them meeting the new kids, who we'd get to know in the subsequent issues. Nope. Too much. No school at all in issue one. Then our Sofia-only issue narrated by Dani as she discovered and rescued this girl was nixed. No voiceover, no focus on Dani. Just an intro to Sofia, with Dani arriving at the end.

Once that was finally approved, we pitched an issue two with all the other kids being met at the school, Dani calling together her old friends when she finds an injured Amara at the school, and everything we had set up by the end of our first draft of issue one being set up by the end of issue two. Nope. They wanted one issue per kid. We argued that having each issue be 'kid with problem, Dani arrives, Dani brings them to school' would get repetitive. We argued that the book needed a villain for people to buy it as an X-book. Both arguments were shot down.

So we plotted an arc that was just one recruitment after another. It was five issues, one for each kid, with a final issue devoted to a villain (Donald Pierce) battling the kids - ending with the setup of Garrison as the villain for arc two. But then, four issues into our run, we were told the book needed more conflict - as if we hadn't been the ones pushing for exactly that! We were told to shake things up with issues 5 & 6, and put some more conflict among the kids. We brought Pierce forward by one issue, and made our last recruit work for him. The entire last two issues were completely redone, and centered on a major fight scene. The setup of Garrison was cut and pushed back (along with Amara and Rahne) to our second arc.

And that arc would prove to be an even bigger plotting nightmare than this one.

[Christina] Nunzio's laid out the many headaches involved with plotting New Mutants so I'll talk about the fun part. Marvel came to us and said "we want to relaunch New Mutants with some of the old characters and a handful of new generation students. They're yours to create. Go." That's like giving us the keys to the candy shop. We were
being invited to play in the X universe and create characters that could leave their mark on it as well.

We were driving up to Sacramento that weekend for a comic book signing and we had a good six hours to fill so Nunzio and I just started brainstorming. What sorts of teenagers did we want in our book? So we talked about character types. The shy girl. The brainy kid. The nature loving free spirit. And then we talked about what powers would best represent these personality traits. It's probably
a backwards way to go about it to most superhero fans or creators. When discussing superheroes, you almost always start with the powers. But Nunzio and I have always written from character and so that's how we approached it. What if there was a shy girl who didn't know how to talk to people and make friends? But then she discovers she has the ability to make people like her. What does that mean for her? If she makes a friend, is it real? Or is it just her power at work? And suddenly we had Laurie Collins. Or the kid who is an A student, over achiever type who loves to learn. Suddenly he discovers that his power makes him know things instantly. And now he wonders if this makes him a cheater or if anything that he knows is truly genuine. That was David Alleyne. Kevin was interesting because he was initially meant to have a much smaller role. But Marvel liked him and the story we had for him really worked. Here's a kid who wants nothing more than to be a superhero and do good things but his power is a death touch. Does that mean he's destined to be a villain?

So no matter what else was going on with editorial and mandates from above, we were pretty happy to have been given the chance to create a new generation of X-Men and to see them last for as long as they have. Though some have fared better than others...