Get his wallet!

So I recently had my more-or-less annual "Why the hell do I still live here" fit and am maybe coming out of it. Especially on a day like today where it's too hot to do much, but I can go for a bike ride, pick up a dozen cheap comics and a Blizzard, and call it good. And a fun book to start with there: from 1986, the New Mutants #43, "Getting Even!" Written by Chris Claremont, pencils by Steve Purcell, inks by Whilce Portacio. Cover by Barry Windsor-Smith!

What could get me to buy a New Mutants book, since I've never really warmed up to them? Well, the cover is sweet, with the entire team seemingly ready to beat down Empath of the Hellions. Even Doug looks like he's gonna throw those hands; nobody likes that guy. But, I hadn't realized this had art from Steve Purcell of Sam & Max fame! This month, Bobby returns to the team, and is quickly steamed up for revenge on Empath, for torturing their friends: Tom Friedlander and Sharon Corsi, who we've seen before, and were still "red Indians," which is less a limitation of comic-book coloring than tradition at this point. While some of the team wonder from the start where this is going to go off the rails, Magik is all-in: drag that sucker to hell, er, Limbo, and start the torture!

The kids already have their mind-games in place ahead of Empath's moves, but somewhat surprisingly, his team opts to come to his rescue. Well, it's not that surprising: they had a pretty solid moral center in James Proudstar, who was then Thunderbird but would join X-Force as Warpath. Doug and some of the others figure out they don't want to sink to Empath's level, and give him back to the Hellions, where James makes it clear where the line's going to be for him going forward...although, I don't think he'd be around Empath long enough to enforce it, and that punk remains a dick pretty much to this day...? Yep.

Also this issue: yet another U.S. Postal Service Statement of Ownership, Management, and Circulation: Total No. Copies Printed (net press run): Average no. of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 477,295. Single issue nearest to filing date: 390,784.