Published October 1983
Writer: Chris Claremont
Penciller: Sal Buscema
Inker: Bob McLeod
What's Going On?
The team continues its Brazilian vacation with Nina DaCosta, exploring an uncharted tributary of the Amazon River. During one of their shore excursions, they encounter a group of aggressive female Native Brazilians and decide to capture one. When Nina tries to interrogate the captured girl, Amara, she gets a lot of conflicting information; the girl does not appear to speak any recognizable language, some of her weapons are from far away lands, and one of them is surprisingly modern. Meanwhile, Sebastian Shaw and Emmanuel DaCosta have a crew member on the boat that has been charged with ruining the expedition. He does this by knocking out the New Mutants, Amara, and Nina; he apparently kills the rest of the crew and steers the boat down a waterfall. After the boat crashes, the New Mutants all make it to shore, but Roberto's mother is missing. Amara also survived, but it turns out that she was not really an indigenous person; she was a white blonde that was disguised as a Native.
Sub-Plots, oh the Sub-Plots!
- Cannonball has learned how to make turns while blasting. It apparently happened off-panel between issue 5 (when he last lamented his skills) and now. So much for that sub-plot. I don't think it ever really comes up again.
- Speaking of the team's continuing development, Psyche has developed the ability to project specific thoughts instead of just someone's fears. Here, she uses Rahne's memory of snow to cool her down.
- Professor Xavier is still teaching Team America?!? I am 99% certain this is the last time this is mentioned in any X-book.
- Professor Xavier continues to encourage the team to assume that Karma is dead.
- Rahne is still sensitive about people's reaction to her mutant power. She pours her heart out to Amara, assuming that she does not understand English. When she learns otherwise, she is pretty upset.
Writing!
The poor writing continues with this issue. Even ignoring the bizarre choice to have Sam and Dani capture Amara, or the completely illogical decisions made by Shaw's saboteur, this is an issue that ends with the Roman Legion showing up in the middle of the Amazonian rain forest. There is no payoff on Earth that will make this ridiculous moment worthwhile.
Art!
The saving grace of the art in this issue is, once again, Bob McLeod's inks. The action isn't too impressive in this issue, but there are some solid character moments.
Retrospectively Amusing:
- So this issue's action hinges on the choice to kidnap a Native Brazilian that was minding her own business, until Cannonball and Psyche ran into her. Sure, they fought, but she was basically defending herself. It's an odd choice for teenagers to make, but it's even weirder that none of the adults on the ship are shocked or tell them this is a terrible idea.
- Emmanuel DaCosta has a super-villanesque hidden map behind a wall in his home. I love that this revelation receives zero comments from Sebastian Shaw.
- Sebastian Shaw's operative that is trying to ruin the expedition makes some bizarre choices. First, he knowingly risks Psyche's life by attracting piranhas to the boat while she was swimming. Then, he sticks up for the New Mutants when the rest of the crew considers mutiny when they realize there are mutants on their boat. After that, he tries to beat information (what information?) out of Amara. Later, he causes the shipwreck and murders some of the crew members...but not everyone.
Worth Noting:
- As far as I can tell, this is Team America's last appearance for a while. According to the Marvel Wikia, they next pop up in The Thing #27, almost two years after this issue.
- This is the first appearance of Amara, AKA Magma, AKA the girl who was apparently wearing body paint and hair dye to pass herself off as a Native Brazilian.
- It looks like Rahne will fall victim to the ongoing "beat the women easily" trend in this title, but she recovers nicely:
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