Issue(s): New Mutants #76
Cover Date: Jun 86
Title: "Splash!"
Credits:
Louise Simonson - Writer
Rich Buckler - Penciler
Tom Palmer - Inker
Daryl Edelman - Assistant Editor
Bob Harras - Editor

Review/plot:
This a silly story providing a little adventure for the New Mutants while setting up their new status quo. The New Mutants aren't sure what to do with themselves now that Xavier's school is destroyed and Magneto has gone evil. They nearly decide to call their parents and go home (notice also the comments about Brightwind)...

...Warlock decides to take them back to X-Factor's ship instead. Meanwhile, since the X-Terminator kids have been prevented from going back to school, Ship has agreed to allow them to go on an "educational" scuba diving mission. And while they are at sea, they find an old horn.

When they blow the horn, it summons a giant squid.

And the squid attacks Ship. It's at that point that the New Mutants arrive and begin to help out.

And then the Sub-Mariner shows up as well.

Now the problem with this story is that it's said that this is the same horn that was used in Fantastic Four #4.

That's a problem because that horn seems to summon Giganto the whale-man specifically, and Giganto has been summoned at least two more times and at least one of them with a horn that looks exactly like this one (Fantastic Four #219). We can come up with explanations: Namor doesn't actually say the last time it was used was FF #4 and the footnote could just be referring to its first use, or Namor's just confused about which horn this is, or there are multiple horns. But it's annoying to see this type of thing. Surely someone somewhere could have told Louise Simonson that the horn had been used since FF #4.

It gets weirder when the Sub-Mariner says this giant squid is "similar" to the creature the FF blew up with a bomb (Giganto).

Anyway, Namor helps the kids blow up the squid (apparently that's ok). Later, X-Factor get home and the X-Terminators ask if they can keep the New Mutants?

I'm a little surprised to not see a little more of the script devoted to this meeting at the end. X-Factor's decision to take on these kids looks like something they discussed already, but i would have liked to have actually seen that. And i'd like to see the New Mutants' reaction to meeting the original X-Men in person. It's true that even Cyclops wasn't active with the X-Men for much of the period since the New Mutants were formed. But he's been around (and they were at his and Maddie's wedding, right?). And there's a variety of possible reactions. Awe or reverence at meeting the "First Class" of X-Men? Or maybe suspicion after all the things that the X-Men and Magneto might have said about their X-Factor venture.

Rich Buckler is given a "pencils" credit for this issue but Tom Palmer gets "Finishes", so it's possible Buckler really did Breakdowns. Either way, their art doesn't mesh as well here as it did on Avengers #302-303. And yet suddenly in the middle of this was a very recognizable Namor; for a second i thought i was back to reading my Buscema/Palmer Avengers.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - New Mutants move in with X-Factor

Chronological Placement Considerations: This takes place after X-Factor #40 and is said to be two or three days since the New Mutants last slept. According to the end blurb, the New Mutants next appear in X-Factor #41.

References:

• For most of this issue, X-Factor are away returning Jean's parents after X-Factor #40.
  
• The claim is that this is the same horn as the one in Fantastic Four #4.
  
• The destruction of Xavier's school was shown in Uncanny X-Men #243 and X-Factor #39.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

For what it's worth, Marvel Saga #3 describes the horn (called the Horn of Proteus) as such:

"Far beneath the sea, Namor finds the means of his vengeance: the mystical Horn of Proteus, with which he can command monsters of the deep whose existence humanity does not even suspect."

This came out in 1986 so I might cut Louise some slack here since it seems someone (Peter Sanderson?) had already altered the horn's purpose as being specific for Giganto. Doesn't explain Namor's ridiculous comparison of the two creatures, though.

Yeah, it's one thing for Captain America not to recognize the New Mutants. But Scott should know who they all are. He met them all when he returned from space in #167. They were at his wedding. He went to rescue them from Asgard and returned with them to Paris and was then around at least for a little bit at the mansion. And he was around when Illyana was a child before she was aged. Certainly there should be more acknowledgement of that.

Namor isn't listed in the characters appearing list ;)

He is listed as Sub-Mariner.

my bad, sorry!