As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.

NEW MUTANTS: LETHAL LEGION #3
“Old Wounds, Old Weapons”
Writer: Charlie Jane Anders
Penciller: Enid Balám
Inker: Elisabetta D’Amico
Colourist: Matt Milla
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Sarah Brunstad

COVER / PAGE 1. Count Nefaria stands over the defeated cast.

PAGES 2-3. Karma, Mirage and Galura arrive at Count Nefaria’s mansion.

“Well, this is where Cerebro said we’d find those kids.” Last issue, Dani and Xuân were looking for Cerebella and Scout, and learned that they’d gone off-island with Escapade. Evidently they really don’t trust the trio’s judgment, since for all they know, they might have just gone to visit home.

“Do you ever miss it Karma? Being a billionaire?” Karma inherited the Hatchi Corporation upon the death of Susan Hatchi in Astonishing X-Men vol 3 #56 (2012). She claims here to have given it all away “long ago … before Krakoa”. In fact, although it was only mentioned intermittently in later years, it featured prominently in the miniseries New Mutants: Dead Souls, and she was still rich during the Matthew Rosenberg run (see Uncanny X-Men vol 5 #18), which is immediately before Krakoa. Admittedly, it hasn’t been mentioned during the Krakoan era, which at the very least suggested that she had handed the running of the business off to somebody else.

“Give them back!” A drunken Escapade accidentally stole Scout’s claws at the end of the previous issue.

PAGES 4-5. Escapade and Cerebella find a mysterious thing.

Cerebella attracted the attention of Nefaria’s guards last issue, but the glowing thing in the box is new. It’s identified later in the issue as a piece of tech belonging to Uranos.

This reads very much like the story is pairing Cerebella and Escapade, and setting up Rahne as the new partner for Morgan.

“I sobered up as soon as I, uh, borrowed Scout’s powers.” Because of the healing factor. It generally worked for Wolverine unless he drank to really absurd excess.

PAGE 6. Recap and credits.

PAGE 7. Galura rescues Scout. 

PAGE 8. Mirage tries to talk to Count Nefaria.

Clearly, even when she’s trying to be diplomatic, she doesn’t think much of this guy. (She must know that Thunderbird died fighting him… but it’s not like that Nefaria himself contributed much to that.)

Rahne and Morgan had just tamed the dragon at the end of the previous issue.

PAGES 9-12. Count Nefaria sets his men on the mutants, while Rahne and Morgan make their own way to Yonkers.

Nefaria isn’t normally an anti-mutant villain, but he is a kind of all-purpose aristocratic reactionary, so sure, why not.

“The first power I ever had was to bring people’s nightmares to life.” This is indeed how Mirage’s powers worked in the very early days of New Mutants vol 1.

“No! I reject it! Age will never sap my vitality!” Nefaria seemingly died of old age – brought on by his attempts to give himself super powers – in Iron Man #116 (1978), though he was later resurrected as an energy being.

“Had I my full ionic might, you would already be dead.” Why doesn’t he have his “full ionic might”? I don’t think he’s mentioned this before – though if he really was at full power, Scout (without her healing factor) wouldn’t have lasted long at all. He tells us again on page 16 that his power is “dwindling away”. The mysterious thing in Cerebella’s case probably has something to do with it.

“I swear I tried to turn off the autoplaying J Jonah Jameson video.” This robot looks to be a version of the Mark V Spider-Slayer from Amazing Spider-Man vol 1 #166. Um, except that one wasn’t actually made by Spencer Smythe – it was built by Marla Madison at Jonah’s request. Maybe he was working from an unfinished Smythe design.

“What was up with those tunnels? With the scorch marks?” Rahne reacted to the scorch marks last issue, and explains it here for Morgan’s benefit.

PAGES 13-14. Escapade and Cerebella face Unicorn.

As I pointed out before, Unicorn and Volga Belle are the two relatively credible members of this Lethal Legion, and they’ve been held in reserve to the end.

Unicorn didn’t appear to snap instantly during the Iron Man storyline referenced here, but he spent the rest of that arc acting as Korvac’s henchman, and it’s his first appearance since Korvac’s defeat. Apparently he’s concluded that everything is meaningless on the cosmic scale so he might as well indulge himself.

PAGE 15. Data page – an unsent draft email from Escapade to Cerebella.

“I just heard that you’re coming with us to take down that U-Men installation we found.” In issue #1.

“And maybe this will help give you closure or something?” Because the U-Men (or at least, their leader John Sublime) tortured Cerebella and turned her into a disembodied brain.

I think the details about Escapade’s parents are new, though the various “Lil Shela and Morgan” flashback strips have given an indication of their back stories.

Eudora Welty (1909-2001) was an award-winning writer from Mississippi. I’m not familiar with her work, to be honest.

PAGES 16-18. The New Mutants escape with the case.

“Is Morgan … mad at me?” Morgan was insistent last issue that Shela would never do a heist without him.

“Ugh. Not again.” Poor Skullbuster has the unique distinction of being the only villain in the Marvel Universe to have lost a fight to rookie Escapade twice.

PAGES 19-20. Everyone drives home.

“We used to sneak out all the time too, Dani.” They did, in the first volume of New Mutants, mostly because there wouldn’t have been much of a book otherwise. Dani is somewhat underplaying the sort of things they did, but it’s fair to say they didn’t rob anyone.

The King Egg was indeed stolen by the New Mutants in New Mutants #1-2 of the Krakoan era, though that was mainly Wolfsbane acting on impulse – they didn’t actually set out to get it.

“One of Uranos’ from when he attacked us.” Uranos attacked Arakko during A.X.E.: Judgment Day, not Krakoa. Presumably by “us” Cerebella means mutants in general. It’s not immediately obvious why this is so unstable as to “tear the whole island apart” – or rather, the upcoming data page explains fairly clear how it could do that, but it’s not obvious how Cerebella knows.

PAGE 21. A data page about the origin of the “Weird Engine”, evidently the thing that Cerebella has just obtained. This is all new stuff. The “Zra gestalt entity” sounds an awful lot like a Dominion, but that’s most likely just coincidence.

PAGES 22-24. The new Lethal Legion attack.

“Doctor Doom fought Nefaria once, and he drained all of Nefaria’s power.” In Fantastic Four (2014) #5. Nefaria gets aged in that one too, when he loses his power.

The Lethal Legion winds up with the relatively credible line-up of Skullbuster, Unicorn, Volga Belle and Moonstone, formerly a member of the Thunderbolts and another relative powerhouse.

PAGE 25. Trailers.