Don't call them X-babies!

October 13, 2017 11:12 AM

A trailer for The New Mutants has creeped outta the shadows. Bear with it, there's a different feel to it, the breakdown is here, with plenty of potential spoilers. What are The New Mutants? Only one of the best comic books you've probably never read.
posted by Brandon Blatcher (54 comments total)

Ok, I guess? Weird to go with the horror movie feel. I could see it if they're going all in with the Demon Bear, but I don't get the haunted sanitarium shtick. It's also really strange not to show any powers in the trailer. And where is the wise, patronizing, machiavellian mentor?
posted by signal at 11:20 AM on October 13, 2017 [1 favorite]

New Mutants was my favorite superhero comic as a kid, and favorite comic overall save for Larry Hama's GI Joe. And it's funny to me that looking at them many years later as an adult, I realized they were the two titles I read that put forward the most diverse and inclusive casts of protagonists. (GI Joe wasn't very diverse by the numbers of characters, but when you look at who got the most "screen time" you see a very different story.) Also, once you accounted for the costumes and comicyness of it all, those titles were also the most...sober.

I didn't realize how really freakin' dark New Mutants was until years later, too. Normally I don't go for "dark." It's not my thing. With the New Mutants, I didn't care, 'cause I was so invested in all of them. And even now, I totally don't dig horror movies at all, but I'll go see this one because fuck yeah New Mutants.

I'm only a little disappointed here in that they didn't cast a black actor as Roberto. The actor is actually Brazilian, which is important and good, but it's still frustrating. Especially because in recent years creators at Marvel have been whitewashing Roberto.

But overall? Totally stoked for this film. Really glad to see a superhero team that has only one white dude on the team, and with every hint that this focuses on Dani and her story, and... yeah. This one made me care. A LOT.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 11:23 AM on October 13, 2017 [3 favorites]

I HATED, HATED, HATED,HATED, this trailer.

there are enough stupid horror franchises in the world.

don't turn X-men into one. I hope this movie bombs and bombs hard.
posted by lalochezia at 11:24 AM on October 13, 2017 [2 favorites]

Dammit, I want Claremont/Simonson New Mutants. Teenage hijinks, crushes, feeling like a dork, creating an extended family. And fighting Demon Bears. I don't what this is but it looks like they wanted to make a horror movie and just shoehorned the New Mutants into it.
posted by signal at 11:24 AM on October 13, 2017 [3 favorites]

Didn't Legion just do the asylum thing and pull it off? Not sure that's going to happen twice.
posted by Artw at 11:25 AM on October 13, 2017 [2 favorites]

Regarding the Demon Bear: here's the awesome Xplain the X-Men podcast for the Demon Bear saga. Don't forget to open up a second browser tab for the accompanying visual guide.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 11:26 AM on October 13, 2017 [2 favorites]

The only thing I can think of I'd like less than this is if they made a Liefeld New Mutants movie. The budget for pouches alone would sink the production. Unless they did all the pouches in CGI. Plus some sort of lens effect for tiny feet.
posted by signal at 11:26 AM on October 13, 2017 [7 favorites]

Artw: "Didn't Legion just do the asylum thing and pull it off?"

Yes, plus Legion is all about asylums.
New Mutants are boarding school kids with powers.
posted by signal at 11:27 AM on October 13, 2017 [3 favorites]

I am whelmed.
posted by Fizz at 11:28 AM on October 13, 2017 [3 favorites]

New Mutants are boarding school kids who include a girl with a traumatic and abusive fire-and-brimstone Protestant upbringing and a girl who is a literal demon queen sorceress. They fight demon bears. They faced teen suicide. They died (some of them repeatedly) and had a dark path out of the subsequent trauma.

I'm super sick of grimdark and awful and I'd love a brighter movie, but if you want to do a "superheroes + other genre" film, a New Mutants horror flick is totally appropriate. And yeah, I'd maybe rather see a New Mutants teen romp, but we've already got a couple "teen romp + superhero" movies so it's not like New Mutants would stand out there.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 11:31 AM on October 13, 2017 [14 favorites]

I can see how this could end up failing spectacularly, but I am glad they are doing more than just another "how the gang gets together!" story with The New Mutants. I admire what 20th Century Fox is doing with the X-men properties. Sure, you have The Gifted (although I've only seen the first episode) but Legion and Logan and even Deadpool are showing that you can take "superheroes" and do more character-driven stories rather than just a huge plot-driven "save the world!" sort of thing.

(Granted, they still haven't figured out The Fantastic Four.)

Marvel felt like they were doing some of that with the Netflix shows (and Agent Carter. I miss you, Agent Carter!), but I feel like they've backed off of that recently. And you know, gave us Inhumans.
posted by darksong at 11:40 AM on October 13, 2017 [4 favorites]

Hard pass. The hardest of all hard passes.

I've got no time for horror movies, and the sort of visual aesthetics that are going on here - let's call it 'average contemporary North American horror production' - practically scream that this is going to be a pretty bog-standard movie. Which is a shame, because the source material was one of the comics of that period that still looks amazing.

I mean, really? You saw this image, and you thought, yeah, what this film needs to be scary is the ol' 'latex people voguing in a wall' special effect. Thank god they decided not to use any of the 1980s styling, that would have been ridiculous, just impossible. Oh.
posted by The River Ivel at 11:45 AM on October 13, 2017 [3 favorites]

I'm super sick of grimdark and awful and I'd love a brighter movie, but if you want to do a "superheroes + other genre" film, a New Mutants horror flick is totally appropriate.

This is me too, except I really don't have a problem with dark, I have a problem with cynical, which is what I think we often mean when we make the grimdark criticism. Man of Steel and BvS weren't bad because they were dark, they were bad because they were cynical (and stupid) as hell. They didn't understand anything about their heroes other than that they're powerful, which is so badass, you guys.

Superhero movies tend to lag a couple of decades behind comics in terms of the risks they're willing to take and the kinds of stories they want to tell. I didn't grow up on New Mutants and so I don't have a strong feeling about it, so it's easier for me to say this, but I'd much rather they try and fail at stuff like this than give us yet another X-Men First Class or whatever.

This one may be a huge failure. I hope it isn't. But movie studios are incredibly conservative and formulaic, and I'd rather encourage them trying to hang it out there a little, even if it is in a relatively safe way like this. I'd rather wait for bad reviews before I declare everyone involved dead to me.
posted by middleclasstool at 11:51 AM on October 13, 2017 [2 favorites]

I;d like a New Mutants that touches heavy stuff without being rendered in generic GrimDark, TBH.
posted by Artw at 11:53 AM on October 13, 2017 [3 favorites]

I'm curious who this trailer is aimed at. Supposedly the film is based on very well done comic arc, The Demon Bear Saga, but bears no resemblance to it. Which is a shame, because the first opening page of that comic completely set's up and sells the story.

Hopefully future trailers for the movie will be better, even if the story isn't Demon Bear related.

But it totally should be the Demon Bear story.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 11:55 AM on October 13, 2017

I've got no time for horror movies, and the sort of visual aesthetics that are going on here - let's call it 'average contemporary North American horror production' - practically scream that this is going to be a pretty bog-standard movie.

Well, heck. I've got all the time in the world for horror movies. What I don't have time for is another bog-standard superhero movie. The only ones I've seen in recent years have been Deadpool and Logan, because they looked like something unusual; I dropped out of the MCU after The Incredible Hulk and haven't seen a single one of the Snyderverse DCU flicks. But a mutant horror movie? Sure, I'll put it on my to-watch list.
posted by Faint of Butt at 11:55 AM on October 13, 2017 [1 favorite]

Here's what I want: Treatment by Claremont, script by Simonson, storyboards and production design by Sienkiewicz, and actually put 'Demon Bear' in the title.
posted by signal at 11:58 AM on October 13, 2017 [4 favorites]

I'm bored to death with cape movies so I was initially intrigued that this looks like it's going for a horror take... but given they way the trailer went I'm guessing it's going to nu horror with lots of silly jump cuts instead of real scares and tension. We ain't gonna get The (Scarlet) VVitch.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 11:59 AM on October 13, 2017 [1 favorite]

I know most people here probably know this too, but it bears mentioning that the people who make the trailers are not the same people who make the movies, and there have been many instances of wildly different experiences between the two. I certainly was one of those who shrugged at another round of Stretchy Wall Monsters, but I'm hoping that standard horror tropes were what the trailer people were looking to amplify, and that the movie will be rather more than that. We'll see.
posted by middleclasstool at 12:08 PM on October 13, 2017

I'm looking forward to seeing this.

If nothing else it has Alice Braga who's been absolutely fantastic as Teresa Mendoza in Queen of the South.
posted by Hairy Lobster at 12:09 PM on October 13, 2017

Man of Steel and BvS weren't bad because they were dark, they were bad because they were cynical (and stupid) as hell. They didn't understand anything about their heroes other than that they're powerful, which is so badass, you guys.

Which is what made Wonder Woman stand out so much in that universe. We had a heroine who was filled with energy and joy and delight at where she was and the power she had at her finger-tips. Watching Diana smile as she discovered the larger world is the part of the movie I most enjoyed.

This joy and humor is also built into Marvel. Its' not always perfect but they're much better at presenting a universe that contains both light and dark. DCU is just too grim for my tastes.
posted by Fizz at 12:16 PM on October 13, 2017 [1 favorite]

Claremont-era New Mutants was the comic book that got me hooked for a few years (this crazy-ass issue was my gateway drug, then I started buying as many back issues as I could find). I lost interest around issue #50 or so, but wow, the Sienkiewicz run...
posted by The Card Cheat at 12:25 PM on October 13, 2017 [2 favorites]

Meh. Warlock but no Cypher. (pass)
White Berto (pass)
White Dr. Reyes (pass)

Pass all around, not thrilled with this.
posted by FritoKAL at 12:31 PM on October 13, 2017 [2 favorites]

Ya know, they could've just re-released Mutant Girls Squad and been done with it.
posted by prinado at 1:00 PM on October 13, 2017

Sure, I read all the posts here trying to crush my excitement for this movie but it won't work. I'm nigh-invulnerable while blastin'!
posted by haileris23 at 1:15 PM on October 13, 2017 [3 favorites]

Only New Mutants video I need. (okay, Berto's still not black but everything else is correct)

New Mutants ft: Dazzler and Lila Cheney
posted by FritoKAL at 1:18 PM on October 13, 2017 [2 favorites]

And you know, gave us Inhumans.

Hey, you know, according to ABC's latest commercials for it, three or four randos on twitter though Inhumans was really great.
posted by Naberius at 1:18 PM on October 13, 2017 [2 favorites]

I dunno. As much as I loved Bill Sienkiewicz's art during his NM run, I was starting to sour on Claremont by the time that the book kicked off, and NM was a prime example of his tendency to give his female characters these incredibly baroque and complicated and especially traumatic backstories, compared to the male characters who usually didn't have it nearly so bad, so I'm not committed to fidelity to the comics. I feel like this is probably at least partially of a piece with the origin of X-23 and the other X-babies in Logan, but even if they do go full institutional horror, it still isn't the most disturbing thing that Maisie Williams has been in.
posted by Halloween Jack at 1:21 PM on October 13, 2017 [2 favorites]

Enh, but I am 100% OK with Maisie Williams as Wolfsbane.
posted by xthlc at 1:22 PM on October 13, 2017 [1 favorite]

I am whelmed.

But how gruntled are you?
posted by Segundus at 1:27 PM on October 13, 2017 [1 favorite]

Saw on twitter the possibility a lot of footage is still in post-production, leading to a more jump-cut horror vibe than the full movie.

That is my only ray of hope in this.

It still looks like it's a "getting the gang together" story where at least one person is learning mutants exist and they might be one. Yet it looks like the sort of horror movie where characters are just interchangeable archetypes.
posted by politikitty at 1:28 PM on October 13, 2017 [1 favorite]

In related news, I hear Prof. Xavier is a jerk.
posted by praemunire at 2:10 PM on October 13, 2017 [13 favorites]

Honestly, from #18-50, New Mutants was basically on fire with greatness. There was Legion, the Shadow king,, the trip to Asgard, they got killed by the Beyonder, the resurrected, then had to deal with trauma of THAT, with the help of a trying to be good Magneto., then there were two great back to back issues of little action, but great character development. The suicide issue was fantastic.

The Claremont left and it feel apart.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 2:27 PM on October 13, 2017 [2 favorites]

Claremont Era New Mutants is glorious.

And yeah, he never gave those poor kids a break.
posted by Artw at 2:42 PM on October 13, 2017 [1 favorite]

Wow, that was terrible. I tried to count the trailer cliches but gave up halfway through.
posted by octothorpe at 3:57 PM on October 13, 2017 [2 favorites]

This looks like a Crackle original film
posted by kittens for breakfast at 4:02 PM on October 13, 2017 [3 favorites]

It's dark and horror-tinged, because the New Mutants are dark and horror tinged. Dani and Ilyana and Warlock and Rahne - these are good kids taken on a bad, bad journey all their lives. Their stories are heartbreaking and jaw-dropping.

But you know? That sure looked like Cannonball in the hat. And that was for certain a glimpse of Magma, the indomitable daughter of Nova Roma! And Sunspot is there, all arrogance and swagger and fierce, unyielding loyalty! And at some point, maybe not in this film, I hope beyond hope, Doug will meet Warlock, as it would be glorious. I mean, GotG cross-dimensional glorious, Claremont on cocaine glorious. Mojo at his worst glorious!
posted by Slap*Happy at 4:48 PM on October 13, 2017 [2 favorites]

startibg of New Mutants without Doug seems pretty wrong.
posted by Artw at 4:52 PM on October 13, 2017 [1 favorite]

What, no Xi'an Coy Mahn? Bad Karma!
posted by SPrintF at 4:58 PM on October 13, 2017 [5 favorites]

Wow.
posted by Artw at 4:59 PM on October 13, 2017

Karma made me forget she was a founding member. Xi'an has that power. As a refugee from violence, she is awesome, and firmly in the "tinged with horror" crew.
posted by Slap*Happy at 5:22 PM on October 13, 2017

Wonder Woman stand out so much in that universe. We had a heroine who was filled with energy and joy

The only good part in BvS was when WW gets thrown through the air by doomsday and you can see her grinning like she's having fun. Gadot having such a cool understanding of WW even in the midst of all that grimdark is really something and makes me hope there's more of that in Justice League.
posted by M Edward at 5:29 PM on October 13, 2017 [2 favorites]

Eh, I'll wait and see what the reviews say.
Now, a "Fallen Angles" movie, or better yet a miniseries, set in the 1980s? *That* would get me excited.
posted by ethical_caligula at 5:58 PM on October 13, 2017

brb, off to dig through my comics and find my New Mutants collection.
posted by mogget at 6:29 PM on October 13, 2017 [2 favorites]

Someday I'll get over my complete lack of knowledge of modern teens and write that New Mutants style team book...
posted by Artw at 7:02 PM on October 13, 2017 [1 favorite]

This got hate on reddit too, but imagine consider this:

A lot of people complain about spoilers in trailers. How many times have you heard "Imagine how great it would be to see T2 without knowing Arnold is a good guy going in?" Now you have a trailer that looks like a basic horror movie. Imagine going to this not knowing anything about the New Mutants and all of a sudden the pretty blond girl being stalked be a giant demon bear teleports away, the hick from Kentucky turns into a human cannonball, and the meek Scottish girl turns into a werewolf?

Now, I have no doubt the full-trailer will ruin the surprise, but the casting is top-notch and I am more than willing to give it a chance. Then again, I have been a giant New Mutants fan since I picked up issue 33 off the newsstand and the Demon Bear is one of my favorite arcs.

So I guess what I'm saying is all you haters can kiss my fanboy butt.
posted by entropicamericana at 7:16 PM on October 13, 2017 [1 favorite]

I very much doubt we are doing Demon Bear, or at least any meaningful version of it.
posted by Artw at 7:18 PM on October 13, 2017

One of my few sideways claims to fame is that a local Tampa comic book store that I used to live at frequent, The Fandom Zone, makes an appearance in the background of one of the early Bob McLeod books.

Edit: Found the image!

Bob, along with Pat Broderick and a few other artists used to stop by the store and hang out and it got us into the book, so to speak.

I ran into Bob at a recent Indianapolis ComicCon where I was invited to speak, and of course, he did not remember me. I have not run into Pat Broderick, and I have been told that's a blessing.
posted by Major Matt Mason Dixon at 5:19 AM on October 14, 2017

I don’t follow the paper comics any more, because of time & money, but back in the early 80’s i started collecting again for a while, & while I don’t know the current New Mutants from Jack, I’ve got the first 25 or so in a box in the garage. It was the Bill Seinkewitz art that initially caught my eye— his issues are glorious, but I enjoyed the arc & it stuck with me better than anything else I bought at the time.

I suppose my teenage son will be dragging me to see this, so I’ll go in with an open mind.
posted by Devils Rancher at 6:51 AM on October 14, 2017

As a lifetime member of the Society for the Preservation of Irregular Verbs, I must demand, insist, beg, entreat:

crept
posted by slappy_pinchbottom at 2:00 PM on October 14, 2017 [1 favorite]

New Mutants is a planned trilogy of films that will each explore a different kind of horror movie.
posted by middleclasstool at 7:46 PM on October 16, 2017

This is terrible.
posted by uberchet at 9:58 AM on October 17, 2017

Are they going to do one with a spooky doll?
posted by Artw at 11:42 AM on October 17, 2017 [1 favorite]

yes, starring Sean Bean as Arcade

(spoiler: he dies)
posted by entropicamericana at 1:15 PM on October 17, 2017 [2 favorites]