MUTIES #3

By: Tony Whitt
Review Date: Saturday, April 13, 2002

When Marvel titles leave their heroes behind and focus on the effects of extraordinary events on an ordinary world, they produce something truly different. MUTIES is perhaps the title that does this most impressively-in only three issues, its anthology-based approach to showing the lives of mutant "non-heroes" has resulted in some of the most poignant stories this company has ever told.

This month's story is no exception. In "Arrested Development," a thirteen year-old from Uganda named Riek discovers that the world slows down around him, but only when he slows his own heartbeat. It's a talent that comes in handy when his schoolteacher is killed and he and his classmates are kidnapped by rebels to serve in their army, especially when it comes to simply surviving-and to killing. Riek realizes that he could use his abilities to save himself, his friends-not to mention the girls, whom the rebels make a habit of raping. But if he does so, he must do the one thing he's good at, the one thing he doesn't want to do: kill.

Bollers' script is an astounding piece of work, and perhaps the incongruous faux NEW YORKER cover might make a few non-comics fans pick this issue up and see just what an impressive medium for storytelling comics can be. I criticized the recent first issue of MARVEL KNIGHTS DOUBLE SHOT for making violence seem "cool" without providing examples of how the specter of violence should truly be handled. MUTIES #3 provides that example. Riek is just an average Ugandan teenager, but for him, "average" means being surrounded by the possibility of violence on a daily basis, and in the end he has no choice but to fight back or watch those around him be savaged or be killed. It's an object lesson in what true heroism is: not having abilities that allow you to use force with impunity or to enjoy your power over someone else, but having the courage to make the choice to do something you deeply don't want to do, in order to have a positive effect on the world around you. Riek's mutant ability to slow his heart and thus slow the world around him, and the killings he uses that ability for, are secondary to this story-the goal of this story is to focus on the choice he makes.


Dean Haspiel's rough-hewn artwork is perfectly suited to that goal. It may be politically incorrect to call this art "primitive" or "tribal" given its geographical setting, but there's really no other way to describe it. The cover should probably have been a mock-up of NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC instead of THE NEW YORKER, as Haspiel's artistic style is more reminiscent of the former's documentary approach than the latter's intellectually distant diction. It's an earthy, visceral style, and it makes the ending of this particular issue that much more painful.

Marvel's got a winner with this series, and with any luck a combination of poor sales and reader apathy won't do to MUTIES what it's done with virtually every other stereotype-challenging "experimental" series Marvel has ever attempted. MUTIES should go on just as long as Bollers and equally-talented writers have stories to tell about mutants in the Marvel universe, and just as long as there are phenomenally talented artists like Haspiel to make those stories come alive.