Although they don’t look that much older than when they first debuted, Marvel will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the original New Mutants #1 in issue #30 of the current series, which comes out in September.
The oversized issue will include a collection of shorter stories starring “classic and new characters alike,” and will feature the work of Vita Ayala, Alex Lins, Jason Loo, Emma Kubert, Alyssa Wong and more. Wong, actually, will write a new Deadpool story for the comic, as Deadpool made his first appearance in New Mutants #98.
The New Mutants were co-created by Chris Claremont and Bob McLeod back in 1982, and they debuted in an original graphic novel that was released in September of that year. The first issue of their ongoing series followed a couple months later and lasted 100 issues before morphing into X-Force during the 1990s. Marvel has revived the title and concept a few times since then, including the current title, which features several of the original members with newer characters.
McLeod returns to his creation to draw a variant cover for New Mutants #30.
“So many fans have come up to me at conventions and told me what a huge impact the New Mutants had on them in their teen years, and how relatable they were in all of their diversity. Native Americans, African Americans, Kentuckians, all finally seeing themselves represented in the comics. It’s been very humbling,” McLeod told Marvel.com. “Our New Mutants have gone through so many changes over the decades that I often didn’t recognize them as the same characters we created. So I was very pleased to get the chance to come full circle and do a variant cover homage to their very first published appearance on the cover of Amazing Heroes #16. I hope fans continue to enjoy them for another 40 years!”
Here’s the variant cover McLeod drew:
And here’s that Amazing Heroes cover he referenced:
Update: Marvel has announced that Rob Liefeld, who drew the original New Mutants series toward the end of its run before it transformed in X-Force, has also done a variant cover for this issue:
Hey Marvel: how about adding Bill Sienkiewicz and Bret Blevins, too?