Unbagging New Mutants #45

New Mutants, Vol. 1

#45

Release: Nov 1986

Cover: Nov 1986

Creators

Writer	Chris Claremont
Cover Penciller	Barry Windsor-Smith
Cover Inker	Barry Windsor-Smith
Penciller	Jackson ‘Butch’ Guice
Inker	Kyle Baker
Colorist	Glynis Oliver
Letterer	L. Lois Buhalis, Tom Orzechowski
Editor	Ann Nocenti
Editor in Chief	Jim Shooter

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I hate hiding what we truly are.

[This post contains discussion of suicide]

As is often the case for Unbagging posts, this one was inspired by some conversation on Bluesky, this time with writer Kurt Busiek.

The topic of discussion was about how mutants in the Marvel Universe are used as metaphors for marginalized people in the real world and in particular some of the ways they are not, at least very often.

I think Marvel should do more with stories involving people who are thought to be mutants but aren’t, or people who are mutants but claim to have been hit by cosmic rays; there’s a lot to do with that kind of story that’d be more distinctive and compelling than just having X-mutants destroy property while fighting non-X-mutants (or sometimes other X-mutants).

https://bsky.app/profile/kurtbusiek.bsky.social/post/3lcj7b7gwmo2u

It reminded me of this story from one of the few issues of New Mutants that I still have, one that’s been burned into my memory ever since I first read it, and not just because it was the issue with the special 25th anniversary border cover.

This story takes place during the period when Magneto – under the guise of Michael Xavier – had taken over the school while Professor X was off in space with his alien girlfriend. (Comics!)

As part of his attempts to follow the path of peaceful coexistence between humans and mutants laid out for him by his frenemy, Magneto established a professional relationship with the principal of the high school in nearby Salem Center, giving his mutant – though that part is a secret – private school students the opportunity to get to spend time with human public school students.

Towards that end, the New Mutants, along with Kitty Pryde, who is the same age as the New Mutants but is a full member of the X-Men, are attending the Salem Center High Spring Mixer.

Some of them are having a better time than others.

Dani Moonstar isn’t having a particularly good time either, eventually deciding that she just wants to go home to the mansion.

After all, the young Cheyenne woman grew up mostly alone in the mountains, far from the madding crowd, where her only friends were the animals with whom she shared a rapport.

Beyond that, after a recent adventure in Asgard, Dani had gained the power of a Valkyrie (Comics!!) – along with a flying horse – which can cause issues for her when she’s around others.

So, thinking that there’s no one who will be able to see, she summons her horse to bring her home, though things end on an especially sour note as she’s about to leave…

…and her departure does not go unnoticed.

The young boy – a mutant with the ability to create light sculptures – who witnessed her departure is a new student at Salem Center High named Larry Bodine.

The principal and Magneto stumble upon Larry hanging out in the parking lot. The principal sympathizes with how difficult it must be for Larry to adjust to his new environment but tells him he can’t hide forever, and prods him to go back inside.

As the three of them make their way back to the gymnasium they encounter a sullen Kitty, whom the principal asks to share a dance with Larry.

Being a nice girl, Kitty agrees.

Despite his awkwardness – and his fear that he’s blowing it – Kitty takes a liking to Larry. When he heads over to get them some punch he finds some other students spiking it while sharing in some light anti-mutant bigotry, Spotting him, the kids decide to engage in some bullying of Larry to ensure he won’t tattle on them.

Though they have no way of knowing it and don’t actually believe it themselves, they accuse Larry of being a “mutie” just to be mean, and decide to take their little joke even further.

For those who are unfamiliar, at this time the original founding X-Men had formed a group called X-Factor. They put forth a public persona as “mutant hunters,” but in reality, the mutants they “captured” were taken in, cared for, and taught how to use their abilities.

The dance continues, Kitty gets a bit tipsy from the spiked punch and finds herself liking Larry more and more, and as the dance comes to an end the kids decide to continue the party at their favorite hangout, inviting Larry to join them.

However, when Larry retrieves his jacket he finds a threatening note written on an X-Factor flier.

Though he’s terrified that he’s been discovered, Larry’s cares soon melt away as he makes time with Kitty. The New Mutants watch the two of them and discuss the issues that face them as mutants as they try to integrate with regular humans like – as far as they know – Larry.

Once the whole group is gathered together, Larry starts to wonder what his next move should be. Would Kitty be impressed if he made her a light sculpture? Or would she and her friends be horrified? (Just as they have no idea that Larry is a mutant, Larry has no idea that they are.)

And that’s when, in an attempt to fit in, he blows it.

The kids all bail on Larry, with Kitty letting him know how disappointed she is in him and in herself for thinking that he was a nice guy.

As the New Mutants walk away and Larry sits and thinks about how he screwed things up, Rahne is the sole member of the group who looks back at Larry, as it’s clear to her that there’s something more going on.

Larry goes home to an empty house – while this comic is New Mutants and not the later Generation X, Larry is part of Generation X, so his parents have left him alone to go on an important trip – and decides to drown his sorrows.

That doesn’t work out so well, so he just decides to go to bed.

In his room, which he keeps locked to hide his secret, he contemplates his most recent sculpture and attempts to make a sculpture of Kitty and thinks about calling her before dismissing the idea and the sculpture. His thoughts soon turn to his fear of X-Factor.

While it’s not X-Factor, someone is watching him- it’s Rahne (AKA Wolfsbane) in her werewolf form, and she is excited to learn that her suspicions were correct: Larry is special. She’s excited to run home and tell the others.

After she leaves, however, Larry gets a disturbing phone call.

In the morning we head to the Xavier School where the young mutants are enjoying a rambunctious morning and Rahne bursts in proclaiming that she has wonderful news.

Before she can share it, Magneto comes in with some news of his own.

The kids each take the news in different ways, explaining their perspectives while they workout in the Danger Room.

Illyana, for example, spent most of her childhood in Limbo, tormented by demons and having her soul sliced up into different pieces (Comics!!!), so she shrugs it off as no big deal.

Amara, who is from a colony of the Roman Empire that was hidden in the Amazon rainforest for centuries (Comics!!!!) feels that there’s nothing inherently dishonorable about taking your own life if you have no other options, but her time with the New Mutants has taught her that the worst thing you can do is give in to despair.

Kitty, meanwhile, is wracked with guilt and has gone to Larry’s house to see if there’s something there, some clue as to why he did it, and to learn who Larry really was.

Her mutant ability allows her to walk through walls, so she steps into Larry’s room and is stunned by the sight of his last remaining sculpture.

Eventually, she finds the X-Factor flier and a note that Larry wrote on the back.

They’re coming to get me! Where can I go? What can I do? What’s the point if I can’t create? Why do they hate me what have I done?! I’m alone. Nothing left. No way out. I’m sorry.

As Kitty reads it, Rahne shows up and tries to console her, letting her know that what Larry did wasn’t her fault. Converting to her transitional werewolf state – Rahne can fully turn into a wolf or can assume a humanoid werewolf form – she catches the scent of the kids who left the flier and silently vows to make them pay, even as she howls in sorrow and rage.

Outside, Larry’s parents return home, confronted by the strange sound that mirrors their own feelings about the loss of their son.

At the local mall, the kids who tormented Larry are gathered, and they, too, are processing Larry’s death in different ways, with some feeling guilty and others being unconcerned, especially given that it seems they were right about him being a mutant.

Rahne, meanwhile, is lurking in the shadows, ready to rip them to pieces.

Fortunately, her friends show up and while they all understand her need to do something, they convince her that this isn’t the way, even as Kitty seems to stumble upon what she thinks might be the way.

The next day Kitty is going to speak during a memorial assembly for Larry at the high school, and she is weighing the possibility of admitting that she, like Larry, is a mutant.

Everyone lets her know that they will go along with whatever she decides, even if that means revealing their secrets to the world as well.

Kitty talks a lot about labels and slurs – and this is Kitty Pryde in a comic in the ’80s so she actually says most of them – and about how each of is more than that.

Ultimately, she decides not to reveal the “truth” about who she is, to accept the label that has been placed on her.

So.

This is very much a “Very Special Episode” issue, but it’s also a good one, and like I said, it’s stuck with me.

Given the diverse make up of the team – for ’80s – the New Mutants were an ideal team for telling stories about marginalize people both metaphorically and directly.

I think it’s a great example of what Busiek was talking about, as it addresses the uncertainty aspect of the fear and hatred of mutants, which parallels the way bigotry often works in the real world. You might not know if someone is gay or trans. You might think someone is part of one group even though they aren’t and end up targeting someone who isn’t even one of the people you hate.

The kids at the school didn’t know that Larry was a mutant. They didn’t care. They just enjoyed watching him squirm.

I was 14 when I read this, so about the same age as the kids in it, and I have to say that this was an instance in which mutants as metaphors really managed to click for me. As dense as I could be, and despite not actually knowing anyone who was gay – or rather, despite not knowing that I knew anyone who was gay* – I immediately understood how, minus the powers and the mutant-hunting group aspects, this could very easily be a story about a young gay man.

It’s a powerful story, and while it’s full of Claremontisms and is more than a little heavy-handed – especially with Kitty’s insistence on blurting out the N-word at every opportunity – it worked well enough for a rural teen who knew a lot about the world from reading books but had very little life experience to actually get it.

The best issues of New Mutants tended to not be very action-packed, and this one was no exception. It did feel at times like Kitty was intruding on the “X-Babies,” with whom her relationship wasn’t always the friendliest, but that was kind of appropriate for the story being told as it cast her as a bit of an outsider just like Larry.

I particularly liked this period with Magneto in the role of headmaster, working to find a new way forward while still having to contend with his past.

Guice’s artwork was also very appealing to me at this point, though there was something off about the printing during his run on New Mutants that made it look kind of blurry and it always seemed like it wasn’t really being given a proper showing.

It was a common issue with Marvel books of this era; I believe they were using plastic printing plates at the time. Color registration was always off in several titles.

That said, because it was brought to mind I just wanted to take a look at this comic that has stuck in my mind – and managed to stay in my collection – for closing in on forty years, especially given that it has just as much to teach all of us today as it did a 14-year-old in 1986.

*At the time, I was fairly certain that my oldest brother was gay, but I wouldn’t actually know until decades later.

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