"Flying Down to Rio!"
Published September 1983
Writer: Chris Claremont
Penciller: Sal Buscema
Inker: Bob McLeod
What's Going On?
After last issue's final page explosion, the dust has settled and the New Mutants are all okay. Except for Karma, who has disappeared and is presumed dead; it's been a few days since the explosion and there is still no trace of her, which certainly doesn't bode well. Sunspot's mother, Nina DaCosta, arrives at the scene to console her son and to invite the entire team to Rio de Janeiro, to accompany her on an archaeological expedition. Because nothing takes your mind off the recently deceased like uncovering the remains of the long-deceased. The team leaves for Brazil and witnesses the marital discord between Sunspot's cold, capitalistic father, Emmanuel DaCosta, and the environmentalist/liberal attitude of Nina. She takes the kids out to see the sights of Carnival, but Nina is kidnapped by members of the Hellfire Club while the team is shopping. The team works together to fight off the basic Hellfire goons and Axe, a hired thug who wields a large (you guessed it!) axe, and they manage to save Nina DaCosta.
Sub-Plots, oh the Sub-Plots!
- Professor Xavier confides in the X-Men that he is confident that Karma is alive because his psychic link to her would have sensed something as catastrophic as death. However, he cannot psychically detect her. He senses the residue of a "malefic psychic entity" that he fears has played a part in her disappearance.
- Axe and the Hellfire goons were working on behalf of Sebastian Shaw and Emmanuel DaCosta. Emmanuel does not want Nina's expedition to succeed, so the kidnapping was Shaw's attempt to help Emmanuel and curry favor with him. Since this plan failed, Emmanuel has already taken steps to sabotage the expedition; he seems unconcerned with the lives of his wife and child.
Writing!
Wow. Just...wow. I didn't thing Chris Claremont's writing could get less logical than the last few issues, but this issue is very impressive in that regard. The team, who are all mourning, are all able to dismiss their melancholy by dancing with bikini-clad Carnivale-goers? Sure, why not? Xavier believes that Karma is alive, but implies to the New Mutants that she is dead? Why wouldn't he? Emmanuel DaCosta is a prime target for Sebastian Shaw to turn into a Hellfire Club inner-circle member because his son is a powerful mutant; naturally, Shaw is perfectly fine with Emmanuel possibly risking the life of his son in an effort to stymie his liberal wife.
My biggest surprise when rereading this was the fact that Claremont doesn't take this opportunity to have the characters reflect on how dangerous super-heroing can be.
This is yet another issue of The New Mutants where Claremont clearly doesn't care. The character progression is minimal, the removal of a main cast member (and the apparent team leader, to boot)
was surprisingly casual, and the villain was hilariously shallow. The change of location promised to be interesting, but amidst the rest of the crap in this plot, it just feels forced. I keep hoping for more well-developed plots and characters, but issues like this make that seem like a remote possibility.
Art!
After last issue's ugly inking, Bob McLeod returns to smooth out Sal Buscema's angular pencils. It's not the prettiest work you'll see --- Buscema wouldn't know subtlety if it bit him on the ass --- but the facial expressions in most scenes are actually pretty good. Considering how ridiculous the story is here, that is pretty remarkable.
Retrospectively Amusing:
- Xavier is confident that Karma is alive, but leads the New Mutants to believe that she is dead. Why? Because he thinks that a powerful villain is involved in her disappearance and doesn't want the New Mutants nearby if the villain decides to strike again. So, this is essentially the same set-up as last issue, where a teammate was in the clutches of a deadly villain that Xavier assumed was out of their league --- only this time, Xavier is nipping the situation in the bud by lying to the kids so they don't attempt a rescue. Tough, but I suppose this might be a job for the X-Men. Too bad they're helping the New Mutants look for Karma's remains, instead of trying to track down the villain. All in all, Xavier is admitting that a baddie captured Karma and isn't trying to find her.
- Storm laments the missing Wolverine, whose tracking abilities would have proved handy in tracking Karma. Sure, Wolfsbane can track, but Wolverine is a more experienced tracker, so the decision is made to not try to track Karma at all. That makes (zero) sense. Note: this comes after Storm requested Wolfsbane help out the X-Men with her tracking abilities in Uncanny X-Men #169. Yes, both issues were written by Chris Claremont.
- The editor's note explaining why Wolverine is not around refers to his limited series, which ended nine months before this issue was published. In Uncanny X-Men #172, the editors indicated that Wolverine's wedding drama occurred after the events in this issue, so I'm thinking that was just a well-meaning mistake on the part of editorial.
- Like the Silver Samurai did a few issues ago, Axe is able to deflect Cannonball's flight path by swatting him. Sam is seeming less like a "cannonball" and more like a "baseball" lately.
- Axe. Wow. Between the stupidly simple name, the fact that he doesn't actually hurt anyone with his trademark weapon, the phonetically-spelled "black" dialogue, and his ill-defined abilities (he's a mutant that has the power to...purchase an axe?), this is just a terrible character that tries to capitalize on the popularity of Mr. T and absolutely fails.
- As the above scene shows, we have yet another issue where a female character is easily dispatched by a physical attack. Dani manages to beat up a Hellfire Club goon later, but getting knocked off her feet by a backhand slap is pretty bad.
- I LOVE the fact the Hellfire Club thugs are afraid of ghosts. I especially love the fact that these ostensibly hardened soldiers (I'm assuming the Hellfire Club would only hire the best) know about the local ghost stories in Brazil. That seems likely.
- Remember how warm and supportive Emmanuel DaCosta seemed in Marvel Graphic Novel #4? Yeah...so much for that, I guess.
- At the end of the issue, Emmanuel DaCosta and Sebastian Shaw are discussing the kidnapping attempt and Emmanuel states that the plan's failure was not persuading him to join the Hellfire Club. Back in New Mutants #2, Shaw stated that DaCosta was a member of the Hellfire Club --- he just wasn't a part of the secret Inner Circle. So let's just assume that, in this issue, Emmanuel is referring to joining the Inner Circle. The entire point in getting Emmanuel to join the Inner Circle was for Shaw to have more influence on Roberto, so that he would eventually join forces with the Hellfire Club. And yet, Shaw, a ruthless businessman, appears to be ambivalent for the safety of this potential asset. When Emmanuel implies that his wife and child may be hurt or killed, Shaw doesn't seem to care --- so, he's recruiting Emmanuel to get to Roberto, but doesn't care if Roberto lives or dies. Got it. That makes sense.
Worth Noting:
- This issue marks the first appearances of Axe and Nina DaCosta.
- Karma is officially no longer on the team, as of this issue. Let's see how often she is mentioned by the team while she is gone.
Everything 80s:
- We have another Magnum PI reference in this issue! It's pretty useless, but it's there!
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