Collecting New Mutants #86-94 and New Mutants Annual #5 by Louise Simonson and Rob Liefeld.

The collections begins with a tie-in to the big Acts of Vengeance crossover in New Mutants #86. While the rest of the New Mutants are off in Asgard, Rusty and Skids are left on Earth and are arrested by Freedom Force. The pair break out when they discover that one of their fellow prisoners is the Vulture, who breaks out himself when the Tinkerer sends him a copy of his old flying suit. The mysterious figure who has been manipulating all the other supervillains appears to the Tinkerer and hires him to make a new suit for the Vulture. In return the Vulture is to go after Speedball, but he has no interest in doing that. Instead the Vulture sets out to free the supervillain Nitro.

This issue probably wasn't one of the more memorable parts of Acts of Vengeance. It doesn't stick in the memory as much as Thor fighting the Juggernaut or Magneto leaving the Red Skull to die in an abandoned bunker. Hell, you could skip this issue entirely and it wouldn't matter one bit. It didn't help that the issue featured Rusty and Skids, two of the New Mutants' hangers on. The main New Mutants were still in Asgard trying to find their way home. They're rapidly becoming a subplot in their own comic, something that would only get worse when Cable came along.

In New Mutants #87, a villainous team by the name of the Mutant Liberation Front attacks a government facility. The mysterious Cable arrives too late to stop them. The MLF claim that they want the release of the wrongly-imprisoned Rusty and Skids. Meanwhile, the New Mutants bid Dani Moonstar farewell and begin their journey home, but they accidentally take a shortcut through the dimension of the Mindless Ones.

Before the new Mutants were zapped off into Asgard there was a sub-plot about the United States government taking the babies that were captured during the Inferno crossover and Freedom Force covering it up. Rusty and Skids were the only New Mutants left on Earth so it came down to them to reveal the cover up. Louise Simonson seemed to try to keep up the cover up sub-plot, but it seemed like Rob Liefeld was more interested in flooding the book with his rad new characters.

We take a break from the regular issues as New Mutants Annual #5 ties-in to the Atlantis Attacks story line running through Marvel's 1989 annuals. The Deviant Ghaur frames the New Mutants for the theft of the Horn of Doom, an Atlantean artefact that can summon monsters. Namorita and a group of Atlantean mutants known as S.U.R.F. attack the New Mutants, seeking to return the Horn of Doom.

I have on read bits and pieces of the Atlantis Attacks crossover, so really I am coming in to the middle of the story. As far as I have been able to discover, this chapter of the crossover doesn't really bring much to the overall story. There is also a continuity goof as Atlantis is destroyed when the magical horn awakens a monster. However, Atlantis would end up getting destroyed again in a later chapter of the crossover. It seems like the whole crossover was poorly thought out and not much collaboration went on between the various different creative teams. The New Mutant chapter of the crossover is a sort of sequel to New Mutants #76, in which the New Mutants find the Horn of Doom and accidentally release a sea monster. They have to team-up with Namor to stop the monster. I would forgive you if you skipped this part of the Atlantis Attacks crossover entirely and read that issue instead.

Normal service resumes in New Mutants #88. Freedom Force captured Cable at the end of New Mutants #87 and he begins to think that he will need help with the Mutant Liberation Front. Meanwhile, the New Mutants are onbard X-Factor's sentient Ship and find out that Rusty and Skids have been captured by Freedom Force. They also discover what the MLF have been up to.

Cable is supposed to be this mysterious stranger, but everybody seems to know him. well, the U.S. government is aware of him at least. We later find out that Moira MacTaggart and Wolverine also have prior history with Cable as well. We don't actually get to find out just what sort of history they have with each other though. Not for some time at least. Also, I usually quite like how Liefeld draws the Blob but in this issue he is drawn with a teeny-tiny head that is just a bit distracting.

Cable escaped from prison in New Mutants #88 and is still on the run in New Mutants #89. He has to deal with Freedom Force, who are in hot pursuit. Meanwhile, Moira MacTaggart has come to take Wolfsbane home. The rest of the New Mutants decide to head out to get Rahne a goodbye present and run into Cable being chased by Freedom Force.

Well, it has been four issues but we finally get around to the New Mutants meeting Cable. I liked the scenes with Sam, Roberto and Tabitha getting Rahne a going away present. I thought it was some nice character interactions in-between all the rad action. I just wish there could have been more, but I guess character stuff isn't Liefeld's strong point.

In issue New Mutants #90, we find out that Sabretooth is still in the sewers hunting down the remaining Morlocks. Caliban is also there, hunting Sabretooth for revenge for his part in the Morlock Massacre. Meanwhile, Cable convinces Moira MacTaggart to let Wolfsbane remain with the New Mutants and they travel to the remains of Professor Xavier's mansion (Having been destroyed during the Inferno crossover). The story continues in New Mutants #91 as Rictor gets into an arguement with Cable and storms off to the Morlock tunnels to prove himself. Cable and the other New Mutants head after Rictor in case he gets himself into trouble.

When we next see the New Mutants, Cable has already taken charge. X-Factor had taken them in as their wards, but I guess they gave Cable permission to take charge off-panel. The Marauders couldn't have been very good at their job of killing all the Morlock as there are still survivors in this issue. How many other surviving Morlock groups is there any way? There is the group that Callisto took to Muir Island for healing and Masque's splinter group. it would turn out that there are so many surviving Morlocks that the X-Men writers were able to kill off another bunch of them. I forget the precise details, but it was something to do with Colossus' insane brother flooding the Morlock tunnels.

New Mutants #92 is a filler issue, by Dwight Zimmerman and Bob Hall (with a framing device by Alan Kupperberg). During a training session with Cable, Wolfsbane recounts a previous adventure in which the New Mutants visited a carnival near Cannonball's home town and find out the whole place is swarming with Skrulls.

I am always happy to see a story with the Skrulls in, they're my favourite Marvel aliens. They're much more interesting to me than the boring old kree or the self-righteous Shi'Ar. The art was a pleasant change from Liefeld's giant men with teeny-tiny feet as well.

Louise Simonson and Rob Liefeld are back for New Mutants #93 and 94. Cable and the New Mutants travel to Madripoor on the trail of the MLF. The team encounters the Japanese hero Sunfire who is on the trail of a new drug called Sleet. Crime lord General Coy (who just so happens to be the uncle of the former New Mutant Karma) is working with Stryfe, who sends the MLF to deal with the meddling New Mutants. Of course, this being Madripoor, it's only a matter of time before Wolverine gets involved.

There are three new members of the MLF in these two issues, Sumo, Dragoness and Kamikaze. I guess Liefeld just picked three words that looked vaguely Japanese when he created them. At least Kamikaze and Dragoness are somewhat unique. When I first saw Sumo I thought the Blob had been given a Japanese makeover. I don't remember if these guys had many appearances later on. I only remember Kamikaze and Dragoness appearing once more, during the X-Cutioner's song crossover and even then Kamikaze would end up getting killed by blundering into Archangel's razor-sharp wings. I guess his name is pretty accurate in that case.

I also have an older version of the Cable and the New Mutants trade, but that cuts out most of the Asgard stuff and the sub-plot about the New Mutants encountering the Mindless Ones. It completely skips the fill-in issue with the Skrull carnival, but I don't think that was too big a loss.

I suppose I would be expected to say something about Rob Liefeld's art. His art style is certainly... controversial. Many more people have gone into more detail about just why Liefeld divides people, but I wouldn't have anything new to say about his art. The only thing I have to say about Liefeld's art is that it has always been a guilty pleasure of mine. I know I shouldn't like Liefeld's art, but it's just so rad and EXTREME!! I can't turn away. That being said, I always liked the way he drew Warlock.

I loved Chris Claremont's writing in the older issues of New Mutants, so it would have taken a lot for Louise Simonson's writing to live up to Claremont's work in my opinion. A lot of controversial events occurred during her tenure (the death of Cypher and the whole load of nonsense with Birdbrain in particular), but research indicates that those choices might have been forced on her by editorial so I can't judge her too harshly. Say what you will about Louise Simonson's run on New Mutants, but at least her writing is better than what Rob Liefeld did when he re-branded the team into X-Force. He was always introducing these rad new characters with mysterious backgrounds and could never be bothered to get around to explaining about them. It was usually left to later writers to flesh out the backstories of all the rad new guys that Liefeld shovelled into the story.

My rating: 3 stars.