The situation may be dire, but Marvel's New Mutants #4 cannot resist taking time to poke a little fun at Boom-Boom -and her many identities - while she starts poking into Armor’s absence from Krakoa. In the wake of the last issue’s uninvited (and extremely dangerous) guests, Beak and Angel – not to mention their darling children and original rescue party – are in serious need of a helping hand. Boom-Boom could be just the gal for the job... but she might need to check her name tag first.
New Mutants #3 saw Armor looking into mutants who had not yet made it to Krakoa’s shores and coming up with a few names to start with - Beak and Angel Salvadore - thanks to the X-Force’s living database, Sage. Armor ended up leaving with her team – Glob, Maxime, and Manon – to deliver Beak and Angel a personal invitation to join them in paradise. Nebraska, however, had a little more in store for the team than anyone expected.
Several days later, Boom-Boom unintentionally follows in Armor’s footsteps straight to Sage's doorstep to track down some mutants of her own – mostly so she can get a much anticipated thank-you from Armor. Even though she needs Sage’s help, Boom-Boom cannot resist cracking a joke about Sage’s job “taking attendance”– even going so far as to suggest a new (and hardly flattering) codename. Not about to suffer any fools, Sage fires back on the subject of Boom-Boom’s fluid codename situation. Unsurprisingly, Sage has the receipts to back her burn up.
The list of Boom-Boom’s identities is dizzying, and Sage has probably one of the only minds on Krakoa that can keep them all straight. Name changes have not been scarce in this new age for X-Men – with new aliases springing up from the likes of Apocalypse to Goldballs. However, Boom-Boom has them all beat by a long shot in terms of sheer quantity when it comes to reinventing her identity. In addition to her current alias, she has gone by Meltdown, Firecracker, Doctor Madame McSplode, Time Bomb, and Boomer (sadly, Brisson skipped a near perfect opportunity for an "OK, Boomer" joke this issue). Sage may have a fair point when she compares Boom-Boom's aliases to underwear.
On the topic of fairness though, Boom-Boom has had some arguably good excuses for all those new names. Time Bomb was her first crack at a code name - which grants her some leeway. Boomer was part of the New Mutant's team-wide name change to the X-Force - and who could resist that? And Meltdown came about in the wake of Sabretooth's brutal attack on her - the trauma of which did significantly changed her identity. As for Doctor Madame McSplode - which is the only alias Boom-Boom protests - that name could even be attributed to a momentary lapse in judgement caused by road-rage in Cable and X-Force #11.
In light of X-Men’s huge revamp, this could be the perfect time for a of a new addition to Boom-Boom’s list of aliases. Or maybe just the perfect chance to solidify the codename she currently has. It certainly seems to be the one that has stuck around – for now. Before Boom-Boom can get into a real identity crisis, however, she has some business to take care of in Nebraska. Whatever she’s called, Armor and the gang might need to add “only hope” to Boom-Boom's list of names.
- New Mutants #4
- Writer: Ed Brisson
- Artist: Marco Failla
- Cover Artist: Rod Reis
- Armor Leads The New Mutants Home!
- When Armor and her team set off to bring their friends home to Krakoa, they thought it'd be an easy sell and a quick trip. Then everything went sideways, and now they're in serious trouble—looks like it's time to call in the cavalry. But will that be enough to turn the tide?
New Mutants #4 is available December 18th, 2019 at your local comic shop, or direct from Marvel Comics.