New Mutants (Vol. 1) #4

"Who's Scaring Stevie?"
Published June 1983
Writer: Chris Claremont
Penciller: Sal Buscema
Inker: Bob McLeod

What's Going On?
The team's dance teacher, Stevie Hunter, is receiving threatening phone calls.  The police can't do much about it, since that would give the New Mutants nothing to do this issue --- er, because the threats are not specific, I mean.  The New Mutants decide to help Stevie track down the caller and end his reign of terror.  The perpetrator turns out to be another one of Stevie's dance students, Peter Bristow; Peter suffers a lot of physical and mental abuse at home, and didn't know how to handle Stevie being nice to him.  So, there's that.

Sub-Plots, oh the Sub-Plots!
- Xavier makes a definite choice to not try and overpower the New Mutants with his personality, as he may have with the original X-Men.  Since he was a real dick in the first few years of X-Men comics (and pretty much in every major story after Brubaker's run, for that matter), that is a major character choice for him.

- Xavier apologizes to the team for being possessed by an evil alien and trying to kill them, thus marking the very last reference to the Brood saga in this series.  The New Mutants are surprisingly forgiving, by the way.

- Cannonball's still having difficulty making turns when he's "blastin'," but he finally manages his first turn in this issue.

Writing!
Well, Claremont uses his this issue to address child abuse; I guess that makes it an Issue issue.  As far as that goes, I've seen clumsier comics (usually in Spider-Man or Captain America), but this hasn't aged particularly well.  Nothing of any real consequence happens in this issue, which makes it feel like a fill-in spot, despite the contributions of Claremont and regular penciller Bob McLeod.  Oddly enough, Karma is a victim of physical and sexual abuse (as shown in issue #1), which would have made her a prime choice to act as the angry, scarred victim in this issue; while it would make for a far more interesting choice for her character, I suppose that's a lot of baggage to give a main character in the early 80s.

Art!
I have to admit, while this is the first New Mutants issue to not be pencilled by Bob McLeod, you have to have a good eye to notice.  Sal Buscema must have tailored his more angular style to fit the style of previous issues, but McLeod obviously put a lot of work into his inks here.  Just look at the facial expressions in this scene:

That does not look like Sal Buscema art.  That looks like Bob McLeod's work, pure and simple.

Retrospectively Amusing:
- Rahne is portrayed as having super-speed in this issue.  Not faster than the eye can see, but fast enough to throw and catch her own frisbee toss.  I don't know if that kind of speed is ever mentioned again.

- Roberto puts together a phone tapping device that both records phone calls and tracks the location of the caller.  Since Roberto has never displayed such talent before, the unlikeliness is explained away by having Xavier help him make it.  

- Continuing with the disturbing violence against women theme that has been established in this comic, here we have Rahne at the mercy of the abusive Peter:

I don't think that the victimization of the female New Mutants is intentional by any means, but it is interesting that the only "strong" female in this team is Dani, who is only considered tough because she has attitude.  Sooner or later, these gals will have to start being fully developed characters, capable of defending themselves.

- At the end of the issue, Xavier "edits" young Peter's mind to remove any memories of the New Mutants.  While I understand how convenient that is for the kids, it is morally questionable, at the very least.  What I love about this scene, though, is that it doesn't worry any of the New Mutants.  Xavier was just recently controlled by an evil alien, and none of them are worried about Xavier manipulating people's (particularly their own) minds?  Those are some trusting kids!

Everything 80s:
- Roberto proudly admits that he took his phone-tapping idea from an episode of Magnum, PI.  Either Chris Claremont really liked that show, or he liked to use it as an excuse to explain away silly plot devices.