Well the movie is out and bad...apparently I might see it later, so let's talk about one of the most important X-men books in terms of themes the franchise would carry on and it's first true spin off, this is the New Mutants.

The new Mutants was the first book to spin off from Chris Claremont's legendary X-men run and well is very important book despite it's name not being used as much as say X-force(well get to it) or X-factor, still this book is important in terms of how X-men would be handled.

Now I did an entire thing on the "mutant metaphor" which people boil down to racism which yes, but this book would really bring the second most important dynamic to it. Puberty metaphors. Joking aside this was the book that made the standard teen X-men book a thing.

Now I'm not saying that this X-men book didn't deal with that aspect, it's still an X-book, but it did focus on that dynamic with all the kids being young and awkward. Hell there powers were very unique for the time. But let's talk about how it came about.

X-men at the time became Marvel's biggest book and they wanted to expand, looking for a different angle and maybe a kind of return to the roots why not make them teens again? The X-men at the time were all adults so why not bring that and have that be the spin-off selling point.

Kitty Pryde was also a HUGELY popular X-men character at the time, and I mean it, so having a team of Kitty's is kind of a good idea, she is even in the book a whole bunch but isn't a regular still. With that in mind who is the team?

First we have Cannonball who might be one of the best lowkey X-men characters for somehow always kind of being around and for being on as Many teams as Wolverine, jokes aside nice kid who has some terrible taste in romantic partners.

Wolfsbane one of the most consistent X-characters she has been used the most out of all the new mutants, and also has been a writer whipping boy because she's Catholic and a werewolf....she has issues.

A lot of people say Storm has not been as good when Chris left, I would say this applies to Moonstar more so then any other character while major in the original stories she fell out of use hard but she was an amazing character who writers..just never used that much.

Sunspot one of the more happy go lucky New Mutants he is in the modern more famous for his uh skin color inconsistencies by later creators. Still a great character all around who would later gain a complex evil future self, and play with the idea of him becoming evil.

Karma....is there. She was never used well in the original comics and kind of diapered for long stretches. While not bad she just was never a writer favorite. Kind of sad honestly and she got put through the wringer.

Magic is the sister of longtime X-men Colossus and is...look she's a demon sorceress with a magic spell sword, just go with it, she could be her own thread but she always struggles with being evil and her time in hell.

Next up is Magma who is also kind of not as interesting but she has a cool look. He most major use in other media was the X-men legends game where they made her Kitty Pryde in all but name.

Next we have Doug and Warlock two of the most unique X-men in terms of powers and character, Doug can understand any language and Warlock is an alien mutant who does not want to fight his dad. But well get to him a bit more.

Now let's talk about why this book was a good one, I hate when movies color perception of good books and why this team of x-men stuck out. Let it me put it this way, if the spin off was this high quality you can see why the X-men took off.

For one it's artists are pretty amazing from Bob Mcleod, bill sienkiewicz, Brett Blevins, and of course Rob Liefeld, this is a stacked book in terms of artistic talent and people who would go on to make waves in the industry.

So if you want to see a comic where you can see the industry change right before you this is one to look at. It gives you a taste of how comics art really did start to change in this era and more surreal art could actually be mainstream superhero work.

A lot of people try to sum up superhero comics as well looking like this, like no offense to Jim Lee at all here but comic art really could look different in superhero books and New Mutants is a testament to that. Still let's talk about the good arcs.

the first good guy Magneto arc where he became the kids teacher a shocking story but a well told one even with them having to make him evil again. This was one of the first comics to explore a more complex caring Magneto and is why some fans don't like..other versions.

The introduction of Professor X's son Legion one of the most dangerous X-men characters of all time and would go on to have his own tv show based on his Amazing comic it's worth it if your a fan to look at his first killer story.

and of course the one I'm going to talk about the Demon Bear arc, this three issue story is kind of the Dark Phoenix saga for the New Mutants and made the book EXTREMELY popular for a time, Bill's artwork in this and Moon Knight helped make him a name.

This horror laden comic arc is the basis for the movie and while the movie look all right, I have to admit there is something so lost without the amazing art in this comic, it would be expensive but I would prefer an animated version, Bill's art is just so good.

The comic does decline though, and there is a change you see New Mutants is famous for one other reason and unfortunately Newer fans might know it, it's the book that made Rob Liefeld popular and one of the first era transition books.

Rob is a punching bag joke but I'm going to defend his work on New Mutants, the book was not in a good state at the time and maybe a kick was needed but old school fans do have issue with how there favs were sidelined, hell I do myself, but this comic did introduce Cable.

Cable is one of the most era defining characters and while I think it's fair to have issue with him he does have influence and is memorable. Cable was created by Rob for this book but and his other characters while not always great became mainstay in X-men.

like Deadpool...were going to move on now.

But still because of Rob's influence he transitioned the team into one of the best sellers of the 90's X-force introducing concepts of trading card extra's and polybags to the industry. Okay jokes aside this was a big deal book.

and for what it's worth people also forget the later era of the original X-force run where the New Mutants characters came back into focus again, if your a fan look up the John Francis Moore era to see the New Mutants together again for the first time.

Now with that said despite the rep the original 100 issue run plus annuals and specials hold up, you not only see many AMAZING creators, but you get an X-men run that many have tried to make again...but not always sticks around. Still some of these are great...except Young X-men.

X-men Evolution is also kind of a stealth adaption if that makes sense, it's themes lining up more with this comic than other ones. While it has everything from the X-men comics it's takes are very New Mutants then Uncanny.

Still the reason I'm doing this is I hope you actually check it out, from Demon Bears, to inspiring some of the best X-men content New Mutants does stick with me and what it spawned was some of the Best X-men related characters, I hope the movie doesn't kill it's rep.