So what is Comically Serious? Well aside from a delightful oxymoron, this is my column for all things pop culture. I have a background in film, theatre and just as a consumer of as much strange art that I can find. For this inaugural column lets talk about The New Mutants.

This is probably a movie you’ve heard of, forgot about and then remembered again that it was coming out. The New Mutants, a horror film utilizing characters from the Marvel comic of the same name has been delayed several times, from having the date pushed back to not conflict with the releases of Deadpool 2 and Dark Phoenix, then the Disney acquisition of 21st Century Fox pushed the film back further and finally, the release date was pushed back again by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The film is finally upon us, expected to be released August 28 barring any further delays. Will it be worth the wait? Only time will tell, but in the meantime let’s go over some of the history of the group.

One of many spin-offs for the X-Men, The New Mutants comic was a team composed of younger characters in a sort of 2.0 from the original concept of the first team of X-Men, leaning into some of the “being mutant as allegory for puberty and adolescence” that the original possessed but also spiraled into the more bizarre aspect of comics, again, not too dissimilar from the way X-men could be a strong allegory for the Civil Rights Movement before they started going to space, dealing with time travel shenanigans and lost worlds full of dinosaurs (comics are that special kind of strange).

The team as far as the movie is concerned is made up of the following:

Rahne Sinclair aka Wolfsbane, a Scottish girl with the power of a lycanthrope which allows her to become either a werewolf or a full blown wolf.

Illyana Rasputin aka Magik, a Russian mutant and the younger sister of X-man Colossus. Her powers at first were based around teleportation which then evolved into sorcery since apparently alongside eye beams and weather control, sorcery is something evolution can do in the Marvel universe.

Sam Guthrie aka Cannonball, an American mutant who has the power to propel himself at high speeds while remaining unharmed thanks to secondary superpowers of a personal forcefield.

Danielle Monster aka Mirage, a Northern Cheyenne mutant with the powers to create empathic illusions.

Roberto da Costa aka Sunspot, a Brazilian mutant who can absorb and channel solar power.

So the big question is: why is this a horror movie? The comics went to some very weird places and the idea to use these characters and this material really is inspired. There have always been a few categories of how these mutant powers choose to manifest themselves, sometimes its the Spider-man method of “Wow! These powers are neat!” And the ones that would inspire more horror. Ne To use the X-Men as an example, Rogue’s ability to absorb powers and memories of others is shown to be a very painful experience to the person Mut it is used on. Wolverine’s power set borders on Cronenberg-esque body horror with bony claws emerging from his fists and those examples don’t include the mutants that get bizarre changes to their bodies. So its easy to see why a character like Wolfsbane would be suitable for horror, given she is a werewolf.

There is also the matter of something like this not having been done in a long while. Blade was one of the first successful modern comic book movies and since its material focuses on vampires the horror aspect was a given, similarly, but less successful were the Ghost Rider and Spawn films that used demonic imagery as a motif, but were goofier than their covers may suggest.

And then there is the central antagonist for this film that was revealed to be the Demon Bear, which is exactly what it sounds like it is. A bear shaped entity with demonic powers and origins that is tied deeply into Mirage’s backstory. This does indeed imply the movie to be dipping more into comic book elements the previous X-Men movies shied away from to instead focus almost entirely on only s the mutant angle.

This will no doubt be an interesting movie nonetheless, if for no other reason than to finally see it. Will it live up to the hype? We’ll see, but undoubtedly with Disney’s acquisition of Fox, any potential sequel is up in the air unless the forces that be at Marvel have plans to integrate this film and these characters into the MCU the same way they are supposedly doing with Deadpool. Only time will tell.

Do you have a topic you’d like to see covered? A film you think needs a review or more attention? E-mail them to me at calley@poncacitynews.com.