Marvel released the variant cover to New Mutants #15 by Arthur Adams. For those who like to chase variant covers, here’s one more for you!
New Mutant #15 arrives July 21, 2010, with a cover price of $2.99.
Stephen Schleicher
Stephen Schleicher began his career writing for the Digital Media Online community of sites, including Digital Producer and Creative Mac covering all aspects of the digital content creation industry. He then moved on to consumer technology, and began the Coolness Roundup podcast. A writing fool, Stephen has freelanced for Sci-Fi Channel's Technology Blog, and Gizmodo. Still longing for the good ol' days, Stephen launched Major Spoilers in July 2006, because he is a glutton for punishment. You can follow him on Twitter @MajorSpoilers and tell him your darkest secrets...
14 Comments
I always love Adams’s work, especially his rendition of female faces.
Thank you for posting a picture of my absolute favorite comic book character.
Love this pic! Art Adams on any kind of New Mutants is like coming home for me.
I agree.
Of course, that pic is dated April of ’06. So I don’t guess it’s the cover to Issue 15?
Art Adams’s work on that New Mutants Special years ago when they went to Asgard? – So great.
It might be sad, but I don’t really care for the picture of the girl, but I’m digging the background two color thing. The background looks relatively new and the picture looks kinda like it was drawn, well mind you, back in the 90s. That’s just me, and sadly I don’t really know who that girl is in the picture, unless it’s Illyana Rasputin (i think she has a soul sword or something).
Yes, that is Illyana Rasputin. What is sad is that this fascinating character isn’t better known to even casual comic readers. It’s not your fault. She deserves a better spotlight besides her usual “Oh no, I’ve been kidnapped and taken to Limbo again!” deal.
What would also do a lot of good would be to have a little more cross pollination of some of the non-Wolverine X-characters. The X-Men titles haven’t really drawn me in over the years and they’re what got me into comics, that and Spider-Man, and I just have had no interest to read. I think I’d like her, because I like younger characters. The newer X-men (Rockslide, Pixie and whomever else) looked fairly interesting, but they seemed to get poor reviews from people I heard talking about them.
Yes, that is Illyana Rasputin. What is sad is that this fascinating character isn’t better known to even casual comic readers. It’s not your fault. She deserves a better spotlight besides her usual “Oh no, I’ve been kidnapped and taken to Limbo again!” deal.
Actually, her deal tends to be “Oh, no, I’m dead again!”
That would be my other complaint. Somehow, a character I consider to be one one of the most interesting in all of comicdom gets relegated to being nothing but an overused plot hook in her own stories.
Illyana should not be kidnapped. She should not be dead (this week). She should not be stuck wearing the old uniform so she seems as relevant as wallpaper.
She deserves to be front and center of an arc that explores the troubled psyche of this young woman and provides us with hair-raising horror-action while she does it. Anything else is wasting her potential.
Art Adams could do a great job at least giving us the softer, more human illustrations of Illyana. I haven’t seen his work in a horror genre.
That would be my other complaint. Somehow, a character I consider to be one one of the most interesting in all of comicdom gets relegated to being nothing but an overused plot hook in her own stories.
She’s had one limited series, but spent the rest of her career as a supporting character in X-books. As far as that goes, I think she’s actually doing okay. Remember Maggott? Thunderbird III? Gambit?
Can somebody tell me what makes her so interesting? I’m honestly asking, because I wish she’d go away and stay there. All I get out of her is “moody euro-witchqueen-thing”. I’ve not kept up with every single X-book ever, but I like to think I’ve kept my toes in the water and all I find Illy doing is… being Piotr’s Achilles’ heel.
I think Illyana stands on her own separate from Peter. At first, yes, was just a plot hook and a connection to an established character to stir that drama.
But she has been through so much in her own right that she has developed far beyond just being Colossus’s baby sister. Yes, he still has that weakness for her but that shows his deep connection to family and that is not a bad or unrealistic thing.
Illyana is the epitome of the “little girl with innocence lost” story. She lived the first half of her life in a simple, impoverished setting where she developed the same love for family and simple pleasures that Peter often shows.
But the second half of her life was spent in Hell (no hyperbole there). Her innocence was taken from her literally and figuratively as she was schooled in the black arts.
She saw friends betray her, friends murdered, and all the while she was sinking deeper into what she feared she would become.
It is not some emo thing. It is a tragic story of how an innocent child becomes the person they find themselves to be one day because of the terrible environment in which they were raised. Such a person spends the rest of their life trying to undo that damage but it never really leaves you.
Instead, you learn how to not let it define you. You learn how to persevere and do your best to become the person you want to be now that you have the perspective only experience can bring.
Illyana tries to do that every day. But, unlike humans, she has the added burden and difficulty of knowing her soul truly is corrupt; that she is dark and evil even beyond her upbringing.
How does one live with that and the consequences it brings to everyone you love? I don’t know but Illyana’s story helps us explore that concept.
So, in brief, that is what makes her so interesting (to me, at least).
But why should Illyana be a supporting character? She has more than proven her ability and has been a member of the X-family for a long time.
The X-books are full of characters; more than they need. Many are relegated to little more than background filler.
I see no reason Illyana should be in that position. She has a tighter connection to the X-Men than any of the other background characters because of her family link to Colossus and her friendship with Kitty. She was also a main enemy of Emma Frost during the time of the Hellions.
I can easily see Illyana as a main member of the team. I mean, what did Hisako do that was so great she ended up on the main team but Illyana can’t after all this time?
What does it take for someone to get a promotion?
From what I’ve seen, I think it takes that character being a favorite of the writer. That’s why certain characters will get developed and another gets no love. I don’t even know who Hisako is, so yeah, I haven’t been following X-Men for years.
I would suppose that’s true. Any writer must have characters they prefer.
I guess there’s nothing I can do until a good writer comes along who wants to give Illyana a proper story arc and, hopefully, a permanent move into the mainstream.