New Mutants 85 - Acts of Vengeance

"Acts of Vengeance" continues to be an unwanted nuisance in this issue, which otherwise concludes the Asgard war storyline, but there is at least some awareness that there will be more less familiar than usual readers with captions on the first three pages quickly summarising what's going on and introducing all the key players in a two-page battle spread.

New Mutants #85

Writer: Louise Simonson
Penciler: Geoff Isherwood
Inker: Bret Blevins
Letterer: Joe Rosen
Colourist: Glynis Oliver
Editor: Bob Harras
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

Back on Earth the plot continues at snail's pace as the Vulture throws off Rusty Collins and flies away to release Nitro the exploding man. Rusty in turn frees Skids. It's a quick scene but spreading it over multiple issues just makes it stand out how much this has been forced upon the wider story and Louise Simonson is doing the bare minimum. It's also unfortunate that there's another fill-in artist this time, Geoff Isherwood, and he draws the Vulture in his conventional flight suit rather than the prison uniform and modified wings seen last issue. This is building up for the next issue, but being such an afterthought in the series is continuing to be annoying given the way it's drawn people in.

The conclusion to the story in Asgard is mostly an action piece as just about everyone battles against Hela's army of giants, trolls, dwarves, dark elves and dark Valkyries, including Moonstar possessed by a cursed sword. Whilst everyone else is fighting Moonstar seeks to assassinate Odin and the New Mutants have to stop her, trying both words and physical force. There's a poignancy as Wolfsbane confronts her, trying to appeal to her true self but getting nowhere and it takes Eitri, a dwarf-lord, to expose the vulnerability of the sword, leaving Cannonball facing how to put an end to it all.

This issue is a step up from the previous one as it actually makes some attempt to explain the situation in Asgard and as the concluding part of a storyline there's a real sense of closure to it. But it's still first and foremost an issue of its own series resenting the imposition of a crossover and only giving away a few pages to slowly advance a subplot. It would probably have been better all-round if neither this nor the last issue had carried the "Acts of Vengeance" banner and so not exposed them as one of the weakest contributions to the whole arc.

New Mutants #85 has been reprinted in:

• Acts of Vengeance Crossover Omnibus (2011)
• New Mutants Epic Collection: Curse of the Valkyries (2018)