Spoilers for New Mutants #15 ahead!
As the X-Men, and the mutant-kind in general, continue to build their homeland on the island of Krakoa, new and unique customs and traditions will be born, and in New Mutants #15, readers get to see one of them. The issue, written by Vita Ayala and with art by Rod Reis, is available in stores now and on all digital comics platforms.
Since the relaunch of the X-Men, spearheaded by Jonathan Hickman, most of Earth’s mutants have made their home on the island of Krakoa, a paradise where mutants can live without fear of being hunted and killed. Another perk of being a mutant living on Krakoa is immortality thanks to the island’s Resurrection Protocols. Another variant of this exists on Krakoa, called The Crucible. Many mutants lost their powers on M-Day, when Scarlet Witch de-powered a significant portion of Earth’s mutants, and the Crucible offers them the chance to get their powers back. The catch was you had to be willing to die in combat at the hands of Apocalypse, but if you went through with it, you were reborn with your powers returned. Recently, Apocalypse went into exile in another dimension, leaving the administration of the Crucible to other mutants. In Marauders #17, Callisto, who lost her powers on M-Day, asked her long-time adversary to fight her in the Crucible, so that she could die and be reborn with her powers. Storm eventually agreed to do so, and in the process may have given birth to a new custom on Krakoa.
New Mutants #15 picks up this thread. Cosmar, a mutant whose powers recently activated, asks Dani Moonstar to fight and kill her in the Crucible. Cosmar, whose mutation made her physically deformed, wants to die and be reborn looking as she did before. Dani is flattered, but informs Cosmar she is perfect as is, and the Crucible was only to give de-powered mutants their abilities back. This is not what Cosmar wants to hear, and storms out.
When Cosmar first asks Dani to fight in the Crucible, Anole, one of Cosmar’s teammates, declares to the crowd “you heard it here first” and began hyping up the competition that ultimately never happened. Anole made it out to be a grand and noble event, and in the eyes of Krakoa’s citizens, it is - it represents a new beginning. Finding the perfect person to kill you will seem horrifying to outsiders, but as mutants continue to develop their own identity on Krakoa, more customs like this will become common.
Over the last two years, the nation of Krakoa has become a haven for mutants. Free from the prejudices of humans, the X-Men can now have a place to call their own, and the further they isolate themselves from humanity, more and more unique traditions will spring up, and fans can see them now in New Mutants #15.