This series just keeps getting better with each passing issue, and the reason is clear: its unpredictability. Every time I think I have the plot direction pegged, Quesada blows sch pre-conceived notions away. Mind you, the freshness of the storytelling and disregard for the conventional mutant origin plot is only the tip of the iceberg here. Middleton gets top billing in the credits inside this issue, and it's easy to see why. His soft, ghostly artwork somehow manages to convey the harsh and gritty reality of the urban environment from which the series derives its name. While New Mutants is leading Marvel's mutants to familiar places and circumstances, NYX is taking a far more cynical and grounded approach, earning itself a great deal more in the way of credibility.
Kiden watches over Cameron, her onetime teacher whose life fell apart after a violent incident at school months before. Kiden feels responsible for her teacher's losses and depression, and she's desperately seeking atonement... as well as someone in whom she can confide. Meanwhile, in a seedy motel in another part of New York, a beautiful young girl steps out of herself for a short time so she can ply her trade as one of the many prostitutes who do their best to survive. But this girl... she's special, catering to a niche clientele with unusual tastes, at the behest of her abusive and possessive pimp.
Middleton gets to tackle some even darker subject matter here, and his artwork takes on a darker tone as a result. The scenes featuring the tragic life of an emotionally terminal young prostitute are heart-wrenching. Again, sexuality comes into play, but Middleton makes the unidentified young woman seem something like a pure, innocent flower that's being abused, tainted against her will. The artist enhances her tragedy by instilling a deadness in her eyes. We don't see fear, but rather, it's distance in those eyes. Middleton also does an excellent job of the emotions that play key roles in the Kiden/Cameron sequences, and he differentiates nicely between the teen runaway and the shattered adult whom she's latched onto for support. Middleton and "Beaulieu" make excellent use of colors here as well. I love the subtle glow that comes and goes from the prostitute's face, representing the blinking light of the cheesy neon sign in front of the hotel.
It's the prostitute's story that really grabs my attention this time around and makes it clear that this isn't just about a teenage girl's typical struggle to deal with her emerging powers. This book is about life in a harsh place, and Quesada clearly plans to explore that notion from more than one or two perspectives. The prostitute serves as a glimpse of Kiden's future if her downward spiral continues, and there's an ugliness to those scenes that ring true.
The Kiden/Cameron interaction is done incredibly well. I love the instant connection that's made in the hospital upon the latter character's awakening, and that serves as the perfect setup for the perceived betrayal one feels toward the other later on in the book. NYX isn't a mutant book or a super-hero story. It's about people -- women, really, up to this point -- whose lives have been turned upside down by violence and violation, and not the action-oriented, glorified vision of violence that one often finds in the pages of mainstream comics.
