New Mutants (Vol. 1) #5

"Heroes"
Published July 1983
Writer: Chris Claremont
Penciller: Sal Buscema
Inker: Bob McLeod
Cover: Armando Gil

What's Going On?
The New Mutants go on a trip to the town fair with Stevie Hunter, which has typical fair stuff: cotton candy, a Ferris wheel, target practice, airplane rides (?), and a peep show (?!?!).  At the fair, the kids watch Team America perform sweet-ass dirt bike stunts for the crowd.  Unfortunately, the show is interrupted by armed thugs that attack Team America, because that is the sort of thing that happens to stunt bike riders.  Not being ones to sit out a fight, the New Mutants do what they can to even the odds; they do pretty well, until the Silver Samurai steps in and kicks ass.

All this trouble leads to the appearance of the mysterious Dark Rider --- exactly as the bad guys have planned.  The Silver Samurai destroys the Dark Rider's motorcycle and captures the Rider, who turns out to be...Danielle Moonstar?!?  When Dani awakens, she finds herself in the clutches of the Silver Samurai and his evil mistress, Viper.  Apparently, Viper wants the Dark Rider and Team America to steal something for her, and if Dani can't do it, Viper will use her as a hostage to force Team America to do the deed.  Professor Xavier helps convince Team America to help Viper, as it will buy time for the X-Men to arrive and rescue Dani.  The members of Team America are mutants whose abilities are unusual; when around each other, the team are a "projecting gestalt," which possesses someone and gives them the sum talents and abilities of Team America --- the Dark Rider, in other words.  Team America are untrained, though, and their projecting gestalt possesses innocent bystanders, like Dani.  Since Team America is a dangerous loose cannon, Xavier opts to give them a crash training course in controlling their mutant power.  Meanwhile, the New Mutants decide to take their own actions to save Dani.

Sub-Plots, oh the Sub-Plots!
- Professor Xavier is still having trouble walking.  Lilandra suggests that the pain is not psychosomatic, but the idea dies there.  While Xavier is in pain, he loses his psychic powers, which means that he is not in psychic contact with the New Mutants at the fair.

Above: Xavier the pirate

That's a nice picture of Jean Grey on the wall.  I wonder where Thunderbird's picture is?

- Cannonball is frustrated with his difficulty learning to turn.  Sure, he made a successful turn last issue.  No, turning had nothing to do with the Silver Samurai beating him up in this issue.  That's just how Sam feels.  Deal with it.

Writing!
This is truly awful stuff.  It's bad enough that the New Mutants are relegated to spectator status in this issue, but to play second fiddle to Team America?  That's rough.  If you are unfamiliar with Team America, join the club.  If you're curious as to their origins, click here.  Otherwise, suffice to say that they were a toy line that Marvel was under contract to make a comic book about.  If nothing else, this issue makes two things clear.  The first is that the New Mutants was selling pretty well; normally, guest stars this early in a series would be featured prominently on the cover, to draw fans to the new title.  Instead, Team America is given the "backdoor pilot" treatment, as New Mutants fans were given an introduction to the stunt-riding group (and why bother?  The Team America comic was cancelled earlier in 1983).  The second thing made crystal clear by the inclusion of Team America is that Chris Claremont had absolutely no direction in mind when this series started.  After the initial Xavier-recruits-mutants-because-he's-possessed-by-an-alien arc wrapped, we had last issue's Very Special abuse story and now the beginning of a two-part Team America crossover!?!  It's bizarre to see this series floundering with its writing and art, especially since its sister title, Uncanny, was doing so well at the same time.


The logic in this plot is also baffling.  Viper wants to capture the Dark Rider to steal a MacGuffin.  When that fails, she just blackmails Team America to steal it.  Since her pitch to Team America is essentially "I have a hostage that I won't identify and won't give proof exists --- do my bidding," it seems like there is a wasted step there.  The end of the issue is worse.  There are two missions: save Dani and help Team America steal the MacGuffin.  Xavier choosing to train Team America instead of working to free Dani, who is in deadly danger, goes against the past year of character development; after months of mourning the X-Men, he has a new team that he wants to keep out of danger (like when he wouldn't let the X-Men borrow Wolfsbane).  Now, he is willing to spend time training a group on a time-wasting mission instead of saving one of his students?  That might have worked when he was possessed by the Brood, but not now.  Also, the entire reason Team America is going through with their mission is because they need to buy time to summon the X-Men to save Dani.  Where are the X-Men?  That is never mentioned, oddly enough.  Naturally, the New Mutants --- who did not do well against the Silver Samurai --- are going to take matters into their own hands and try to rescue Dani on their own.  After all, waiting for help might mean waiting too long and Dani may get hurt.  Xavier seems to be aware of their plan, though, and doesn't confront them about it.  Seriously, fuck this issue.

The few character moments in this issue aren't any better than the big picture.  Dani is, once again, pretty worthless in this issue.  Karma gets to be this month's example of a female character being helpless against any physical force.  Sunspot hero worships Wolf on Team America because...why the hell not?  Someone has to try and convince readers that Team America is worth talking about.  Karma does step up and lead the team at the end of the issue, so at least that's a positive development.  Still, this was wretched writing.

Art!
The art is not a whole lot better than the writing.  This is Bob McLeod's last interior work on the monthly New Mutants title (he would later do some covers and an annual), and you can tell that he did not turn in his best work.  Check out this panel from the beginning of the issue:

McLeod's softer, more expressive inking is clearly on display here.  Toward the end of the issue, though, his inking became less expressive and more like tracing:

Both panels were drawn by Sal Buscema and inked by Bob McLeod, but it is obvious that less time was spent on the second half of the issue.  I'm generally not a fan of Buscema's work, but seeing what McLeod did with Buscema's pencils (at least in part of the issue) impresses the hell out of me.  I normally don't give a second thought to inkers, unless they are extremely expressive, but McLeod did a great job here...for part of an issue.

Retrospectively Amusing:
- This is the second issue of The New Mutants that Tom Corsi has appeared in.  He doesn't really need to appear in either issue, but what's weird about this appearance is that the only characters in the extended X-Family that have a history with him are Wolverine and Carol Danvers...and yet, we haven't even been shown that they know he's alive!

- When the Silver Samurai is fighting off the New Mutants and Team America, his prowess is ridiculously overstated.  Not only does he throw a shuriken at a gun to make it explode with near-lethal force (which makes that gun seem poorly designed, to say the least), but he does something no one has ever done to Cannonball.  He swats Cannonball, mid-blast, and this actually diverts Sam's path; until now, he has been like a runaway train when blasting.  Not only does he change Cannonball's direction (something Cannonball has trouble doing on his own), but Sam is knocked unconscious --- despite being invulnerable when he uses his powers.  So...either the Silver Samurai is a total bad-ass, or Cannonball is written inconsistently. 

- Team America seems astonished to discover that they are mutants...even though they learned that in their own series.

- Team America is a group of mutants who, together, can make one superhero.  They're like a dirt bike version of Captain Planet!

Worth Noting:
- The Silver Samurai got his teleportation ring from John Belushi in an issue of Marvel Team-Up.  In case you were wondering.

Everything 80s:
Here's a photo of the Team America toy line:

For a closer examination of the ridiculous Team America story, click here.