A newly revealed cover for the upcoming New Mutants #32 shows a group of young mutant X-Men fighting against a terrible human-supremacist group, including the mutant Cerebella whose tragic origin as “No-Girl” is directly tied in with the history of the evil U-Men.
The U-Men were first introduced in Grant Morrison’s critically acclaimed 2001 series New X-Men. They are a “post-human” military group led by Dr. John Sublime who believe they belong to a “Third Species,” by harvesting the organs and bodies of mutants and surgically grafting them onto their own bodies to gain their abilities. The U-Men have popped up several times since their debut in 2001, but one the most egregious crimes they committed was destroying the body of the young mutant Martha Johansson, capturing her brain in a jar and using her for her telepathic mutant abilities.
After being rescued by the X-Men, Martha was cruelly named “No-Girl” by her mutant peers and became a major part of Xorn’s “Special Class” during New X-Men, bonding especially with the mutant Ernst. New Mutants #24 – written by Viya Ayala with art by Danilo Beyruth – saw Martha finally reborn with a new body, one that she designed herself, created through the Resurrection Protocols by the Five. Martha completed her rebirth by adopting the mutant codename Cerebella. Ayala told a truly beautiful story of Martha finally reclaiming her physical form and identity, while also calling out the cruel and callous way she had been treated by the X-Men for years, with leader Storm acknowledging the harm they had caused to the young woman. Now though, in a newly released cover for New Mutants #32 – written by Charlie Jane Anders with art by Alberto Jimenez Alburquerque – Cerebella is going to be forced to confront her horrific history with the U-Men head on, as she and other New Mutants are captured by the fanatical group. Check out the cover below as well as the full synopsis of the issue:
THE U-MEN HAVE THE NEW MUTANTS IN THEIR CLUTCHES!
The U-Men, a fanatical organization of humans hell-bent on becoming the physically superior species by stealing mutants’ power, have captured Escapade and the New Mutants. Now imprisoned on their base, Shela must use her burgeoning yet unpredictable powers to help her new friends escape. But Cerebella has a traumatic history with the U-Men, and it’ll take more than a power swap to free her from that legacy.
The gorgeous cover, illustrated by Rafael La Torre, depicts Wolfsbane and Cerebella alongside the newly introduced transgender mutants Escapade and Morgan Red, and Leo (an awesome queer character created by Vita Ayala during the Age of X-Man who has had very little page time on Earth-616). While Cerebella finally has her body and agency back, she clearly still has a lot of trauma from the horrific kidnapping and abuse at the hands of the U-Men. It will be fascinating and heart-wrenching to see how she finds continued liberation from her tormentors in what will surely be a powerful issue of an already emotional series. It is incredibly exciting that Charlie Jane Anders, the creator of Escapade and Morgan Red, is writing this three-issue arc of New Mutants because so much of Cerebella’s story in New Mutants can be seen as a trans allegory, and it is also meaningful to place Wolfsbane on an all queer/queer-coded team because Rahne has historically been painted as a lesbian but never officially come out on page.
While Anders’ arc on New Mutants is going to focus on Escapade joining the mutants of Krakoa, La Torre’s cover shows that Cerebella is also going to have a starring role in the plot, and hopefully she will finally be able to get revenge on the horrific organization known as the U-Men, or at least continue her journey of liberation and identity formation without her traumatic legacy weighing so heavy.
New Mutants #32 debuts on November 30th, 2022.
