All right, yes, I admit it, I bought five copies of X-Force #1 (yes, to get all the—ugh—trading cards), but I did it reluctantly damnit. For me the beginning of the Liefield era was actually the end of the Simonson (Louise) era. The proliferation of all those one eyed heroes with their teeny legs and their odd pouch-fetishes was in fact the death knell of a 100 issue soap opera centered around the adventures of the wannabe X-Men, the unfortunately-named New Mutants, or News I suppose. Oh glory days: the arrogant pout of Sunspot; the evil Sym cigar; the warlock friend-speak; the never-ending mourning over poor, poor Doug (killed so young, and cursed with such a crappy power)—all gone, buried far beneath a crowd of variant covers and a lone jeans commercial that, I cannot recall but do so hope, included some sort of pouch endorsement.

Ah, but like all the heroes in all the comics, this particular soap opera apparently did not die; instead, it was merely resting in a cocoon under the ocean waiting for Zeb Wells to separate Jean Gray from Phoenix, or Simonson from Liefield if you will, and resurrect our multi-accented troupe of nouveau mutates and their ever-angsty adventures. Which is a wonderful thing, but only if done wonderfully. We merely have to look over to Claremont’s retro-porn X-Men Forever to see that digging up old ideas left for years to rot can result in a product that, well, kind of stinks.

After three issues of the new New Mutants, it’s safe to declare that Wells has in fact pulled off some fairly classic fanboy fusion. By combining modern story telling with dated, well-loved concepts Wells, assisted ably by Neves pencils, is putting out a pretty damn good comic. New Mutants 3 continues the tale of the forgotten villain Legion (who? Oh right, with the hair!) , a schizophrenic mutant who is absorbing the personalities and powers of those around them, and in turn using those powers and personalities to fight our new-News. As with Simonson’s run, new New Mutants features great character moment (Magik’s kick-ass sword play at the end stands out) coupled some decent action. Unlike Claremont’s X-Men Now and Forever, the issue is not bolted to the past with 80’s style exposition and references; instead it reads just fine for those new readers who didn’t sob softly as they turned the Scattershot scattered page of early X-Force on its side. As such, I’d recommend the new-News to both the old and young fan alike. Don’t get me wrong it’s not perfect; it needs to be a little more creative, and the story telling needs to be tightened. No, it’s not quite yet up to the level of say Cornell’s MI13, but in 20 years when they tap Wells to revive that dead-too-soon series, I’m definitely picking it up. The New MI13. I am so there.