Review by Frank Plowright

The Academy X iteration of New X-Men is under the guidance of collaborating writers Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir, who’ve chosen to spotlight a dozen mutants in training, spread over two teams, plus mentors and the occasional primary X-Men. In Choosing Sides they provided a slick introduction that managed to give the essence of all primary cast members while also setting up relationships and adversaries in an entertaining teen drama. Kicking off with the title story, they introduce a malevolent ghostly presence. While it has an effect, it’s also a means of drawing out differences among the cast, and these are dramatically exploited.

Once again, it takes three artists to deal with two stories. Carlo Pagulayan completes the title story after Michael Ryan (sample art left) draws the first two chapters, but the styles match well, both artists being clear storytellers and willing to put the effort into populating the panels. Pagulayan’s people are a little more stylised, but Paco Medina takes that further with his cartooning over the final two chapters (sample art right). He draws a great stumpy Wolverine with massive feet and a notably grumpy Cyclops, but doesn’t exaggerate as much when it comes to the primary cast.

Medina draws a clever two-part story focussing on David Alleyne, Prodigy, whose mutant ability enables him to acquire the knowledge of anyone in his immediate vicinity. The limitation is that it’s only temporary, but apparently this is due to a form of mental block. What would Prodigy be like without limitations? DeFilippis and Weir construct a clever extrapolation building to a horrific cliffhanger at the halfway point. It’s also a glimpse at the possible futures of the main cast.

While the cast experience crises, this is another fun teen drama overall, with the series continuing in X-Posed. Alternatively almost all the series is also available as New X-Men: Academy X – The Complete Collection.