Im loving the body politic points being raised here. This dissatisfaction of the kids is beginning to be a familiar refrain in this title and it has a lot of potential, I just hope it doesnt become too belabored. But Im really keen to find out what Shadow King is playing at. Keep it coming gang, this is one of my favorite X-titles of late. Read Full Review

Rod Reis' art makes every page come to life with a beautiful gloss. Ayala's writing continues to shine, capturing the voices of all these characters quite well. Read Full Review

New Mutants reads in a fractured fashion; issue #17 focuses on a journey to Otherworld, but diverts its attention to multiple detours with each lasting only 2 to 3 pages. These detours have only the faintest connections within the issue, which often makes them read like check-ins on the level of plot. Read Full Review

Overall this series is hitting some bumps in the road. Trying to tell two completely different stories at the same time is really hurting the book. This issue really suffered for those reasons. If it wasn't for the exceptional art, I probably would have dropped this series already. Read Full Review

Some awkward pacing knocks this issue down half a point, but otherwise, Ayala and Reis are still the best creative team among the many X-Books currently being published.

I enjoy this book so much! It is juggling a lot but doesn't drop too much along the way. Ayala and Reis are great together.

Xi'an and Dani bring their Otherworld rescue mission to a (slightly) surprising conclusion. The Shadow King's lost children move forward in their mind-swapping shenanigans in ways that are both heartwarming and ominous. I really like the way this title's plot threads are developing, and the character work is terrific. My antipathy to the art just gets stronger, though; I'm convinced Rod Reis is putting style over substance and -- though the results look pretty in a "discount Sienkiewicz" way -- it's ultimately hurting the storytelling.

There’s a lot going on here but I mostly liked it.

Mirage and Karma's adventure in Otherworld was fun, a wild fantasy adventure reminiscent of the classic Asgardian Wars. My critique is that it felt rushed rather than rich. The main reason here is obvious: New Mutants has been infiltrated by all these X-Kids who need their own book. If it they were prominent X-Kids from the Academy X area, there may be more appeal, but plenty of focus is on characters like Rain Boy and Cosmar.

Wolfsbane's struggle with Tier is also compelling, but on the whole, this is disjointed. The makings of a great fantasy romp in Otherworld are there, but the effort is weakened by the younger mutants' using of page space.

This wasn't bad but it was very overstuffed. Whereas last issue handled all the plots well, this issue felt messy.