The New Mutants (1983) #98 Comic Book Review

The New Mutants #98 is probably one of the weirdest comics I have ever read. It's from 1991 and contains the first appearances of Deadpool, Domino, and Gideon. I'm not really a fan of Deadpool. At least not the Deadpool that we've had since 1999 when Christopher Priest took over the ongoing series from Joe Kelly. The Deadpool that appears in this issue though is a smartass, but he's not off the wall goofy and non-sensical. Honestly, that's how I like him. He's not as crass for the sake of being crass. If that makes any sense.

The rest of the issue is pretty straight forward. There's a guy named Gideon who is some sort of rich dude (he's on the front cover next to Deadpool and Domino) who's apparently an immortal Mutant. Aside from being introduced in this issue, he has absolutely nothing to do with the story and is just kind of there. Unlike Domino and Deadpool, who actually interact with what's left of the New Mutants, led by Cable. And by what's left, I mean the four characters, Boom Boom, Rictor, Cannonball, and Sunspot, who appear in this issue and are members of the New Mutants. In fact Cannonball and Sunspot are the only members of the original New Mutants team who are still on the team at the time this issue was originally published. Everyone else had been written out when Rob Liefeld came on the book as co-writer with Louise Simonson.

Most of the issue is taken up by Cable training with Cannonball in the Danger Room at the X-Mansion and then Deadpool's fight with Cable. Which is a pretty awesome looking fight. That's it really. That's all this issue is. A training session and a slugfest between Deadpool and Cable, the first of many between the two characters. In other words there isn't really a story to talk about here. Though at the end Domino and Cable start looking at Mutants to recruit into the New Mutants so they can rebuild the team.

The artwork in this issue is absolutely horrible. For years I've heard about how bad Rob Liefeld's artwork is, but I've never had the opportunity to experience it for myself. Until I got this issue and read it for the first time a month ago. Liefeld puts the characters into poses that are more appropriate for Spider-Man and apparently has no concept of backgrounds or even the fact that people aren't just suspended in mid-air all the time. Or any time for that matter. Yeah, you'd have to see it to believe it. Also why does everyone have pointy feet and really skinny legs?

Overall, I can't really recommend you read this issue, except to see Deadpool's first appearance, because Gideon doesn't do anything, and Domino takes out Deadpool before he can kill Cable. And I suppose if you're a completist and are trying to collect all of the original The New Mutants series in single issues, then obviously you need this issue. It's also cheaper to get the Facsimile Edition, which I have, than an original 1991 copy of The New Mutants #98.

Rating: I didn't used to rate the things I was reviewing on the old blog, but I'm going to start doing so. I'm using the star system and it will be out of 10. There isn't a whole lot to this issue though the novelty of having the first appearance of Deadpool makes it worth it so I'm going to give this issue 3.5/10 stars.

https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/New_Mutants_Vol_1_98