Writer: Chris Claremont. Artist: Sal Buscema.

There is some overlap with New Mutants Epic Collection and New Mutants Classic Vol. 2, so I thought I would review the issues in-between instead of having to repeat myself if I reviewed the trades like normal.

Amara officially joins the New Mutants in New Mutants #13. Amara is having trouble controlling her powers and adjusting to lie in the Twentieth Century, but her fellow New Mutants are there to help. Meanwhile, a Sentinel test goes awry and the culprits are revealed to be Kitty Pryde and her new friend Doug Ramsey.

As much as I like Kitty Pryde, I still can't get over how much of a cow she always was to the New Mutants, calling them 'X-Babies' and such. Of course, being one of Claremont's pet characters meant she never got called out on it. She kicked up such a stink when Professor Xavier assigned her to join the New Mutants because they are nearer her age than the adult X-Men that he had no choice but to change his mind. I wouldn't be surprised if he changed his mind just to get some peace and quiet and to stop Kitty whining.

In #14, the new Mutants decide to throw Professor Xavier a party. Illyana tags along with them and the New Mutants discover that it is her birthday. Back at the mansion, the demon S'ym attacks Professor Xavier. Illyana and the New Mutants arrive home and find the mansion deserted. Illyana splits off from the New Mutants and goes ins earch of professor Xavier herself, where she is attacked by S'ym. Meanwhile, we find out that Doug Ramsey has been accepted into Emma Frost's Massachusetts Academy.

In Uncanny X-Men #180, Kitty Pryde convinced the X-Men to let her go with Doug to the Massachusetts Academy to investigate and ended up getting captured by the White Queen. In New Mutants #15, Illyana projects her astral form to seek out her roommate. Illyana alerts the rest of the New Mutants to the fact that Kitty has been captured and the White Queen will mentally force her to join the school if she doesn't do so voluntarily. Illyana tried to get help from the Avengers and the Fantastic Four, but they had just been whisked away to take part in the Secret Wars crossover just like the X-Men.

The New Mutants arrive at the Massachusetts Academy in #16, but it turns out that the White Queen has been expecting them. The New Mutants must do battle with the White Queen's students, the Hellions. Unfortunately, the New Mutants are defeated and Illyana teleports herself and Dani away.

It's a pity that the Hellions didn't really amount to anything. They had a few more appearances and seemed more like friendly rivals than actual enemies. Most of them seemed pretty nice. Apart from Empath, that is. He never seemed like anything other than a total creep. Most of the Hellions would end up getting killed off when the new X-Men creative team needed a body count to show how mean Trevor Fitzroy was.

After healing up in Limbo in #17, Illyana teleports back to the Massachusetts to try and rescue the other New Mutants. The Hellions have an apparent change of heart and agree to let the New Mutants go if Cannonball wins a duel with the Hellion Jetstream.

I have to wonder what would have happened if Catseye accepted Rahne's offer to join the New Mutants. Maybe her feline side would have come in useful when nobody's favourite character Birdbrain showed up. Catseye probably would have chased him off (preferably into oncoming traffic). That would mean that the New Mutants wouldn't have to travel to the island with all those mutated animals and Doug wouldn't have ended up taking a bullet for Rahne. Now there's an interesting What If story...

My rating: 3.5 stars