NYX
iswas a new
Marvel PSR+ comic series that debuted on October 10th, 2003. This new
X-Men series is based on
mutant kids from the lower end of the economic spectrum, living in
New York city and who aren't likely to have the opportunity of attending
Professor Xavier's school.
Rather than run down the entire plot, here’s the setup from the first issue: The main character, Kiden, witnessed the murder of her Dad, a New York city cop, when she was young (6-7ish). Dad was still in uniform, so it seems to me it might be a random cop killing, but since it happened at a local place where he knew the owner and felt comfortable, perhaps he was personally targeted? I'm sure they'll explore this later.
Now Kiden’s 16 and into the
rave and
drug scene. She’s your typical (at least for my family) bad tempered teenage girl.
She steals,
she lies,
she dresses a bit trashy. And she’s loyal and protective of her friends.
In this issue she stands up for herself and defends her friend Kara against junior thug Hector and his "hermanas". At the end of the issue Kara and Kiden are jumped after class and just as they’re losing the fight, Kiden shouts "Stop It!" and the whole scene freezes in
pale pink/purple pastel colours.
Kiden gets out from under Hector and almost too easily accepts the fact that everything around her has frozen in time. When she moves to Hector and touches his arm with her fingertip there’s a loud snap as his arm breaks. Then the scene unfreezes and the issue is at an end.
So it looks like Kiden’s power (or one of) is the ability to stop time, or something like that. This is kind of a cool power, but it's been done before and probably all the benefits and caveats of using the power had been explored by the likes of
The Twilight Zone alone.
The art is as good as you’d expect from Marvel. The colours are realistic and the lighting and shadows are done well. My only complaint is that in some panels the characters aren’t quite
anatomically correct or
well proportioned, but I’d probably say that about most comic books (and would I like them if they were too realistic looking anyway?). I’ll definitely pick up the next issue.
The Marvel PSR+ rating is for drug use and violence and seems like an appropriate rating.