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In New Mutants #24 the Quiet Council elects to restore one of the most tragic mutants on Krakoa, undoing one of the X-Men’s greatest failures.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for New Mutants #24, now on sale from Marvel Comics.
Throughout their history, the mutants of the Marvel Universe have always been defined by their struggle to survive in a world that fears and hates them for being different. Over the years, many mutants have been the victims of brutal hate crimes, and while the X-Men’s founding of the mutant nation Krakoa has created a sanctuary for their kind, many of the nation’s citizens still bear the physical and mental scars of their encounters with anti-mutant individuals and hate groups.
One of the most tragic examples of human violence against mutants is Martha Johansson, aka No-Girl. Reduced to a brain in a jar after being captured by the U-Men, No-Girl has always been viewed as a symbol of humanity’s cruelty, even after she proved herself to be a competent member of the X-Men. However, after years of being forced to exist as a sliver of her former self, the Quiet Council of Krakoa finally restored No-Girl’s body in New Mutants #24 (by Vita Ayala, Danilo Beyruth, Dan Brown, and VC’s Travis Lanham), and her rejuvenation came with a stunning admission from the island nation’s ruling body that confims the X-Men’s commitment to correcting past mistakes.
No-Girl first debuted in New X-Men #118 (by Grant Morrison, Ethan van Scriver, Prentiss Rollins, Scott Hanna, Sandu Florea, Hi-Fi Design, and Comicraft), where she was established as one of the many runaway mutant teenagers being targeted by the U-Men, an anti-mutant organization that sought to forcibly evolve humanity by implanting extracted mutant organs into human hosts. Like many of the U-Men’s victims, No-Girl was dissected, but her brain was preserved in a specially-designed containment unit to preserve her impressive psychic abilities. Kept in a trance-like state through constant injections of mind-altering drugs, the organization’s leader John Sublime wielded No-Girl as a weapon against the X-Men, but she was eventually freed by Cyclops and Emma Frost, who then enrolled her as a student at the Xavier Institute.
Thanks to upgrades made to her container by Quentin Quire, No-Girl was able to interact with the world around her again, but she never hid the fact that she missed having a body. While she did her best to maintain a positive attitude and proved herself to be a very talented member of the X-Men during the tumultuous years where the team was split between Utopia and the Jean Grey School, No-Girl understandably wanted to feel the many sensations that she couldn’t experience in her current state, often using her psychic abilities to temporarily inhabit her friend’s bodies to feel “alive” again.
After the founding of Krakoa, No-Girl became a member of the Lost Club, a group of young mutants being tutored by the New Mutants. Although No-Girl requested to be entered into the Krakoan Crucible so she could be resurrected with a new body, she was denied. Although they argued that it was wrong to battle someone in her condition, No-Girl speculated that the Quiet Council valued her more as a martyr for their anti-human propaganda than as a person. While it was never confirmed that this was the motive behind their decision, the Quiet Council has gone to great lengths to preserve Krakoa’s image as a bastion against humanity and its hatred of mutants, and No-Girl’s tragedy and continued suffering made her an excellent centerpiece. However, after the Lost Club helped the New Mutants defeat and redeem the Shadow King, the Quiet Council reversed their earlier decision and allowed No-Girl to be granted a new body.
Krakoa’s decision to give No-Girl a body helps undo one of the X-Men’s greatest failures. Even before the founding of their mutant nation, it was possible for them to provide No-Girl with a new body, with many of the team’s members being well-versed in both science and magic. Despite this, the team never even attempted to do this for the young mutant, and she was left to endure being trapped in a jar for years as a result. By now restoring No-Girl to her original form, the Quiet Council has undone one of the X-Men’s greatest failures, and their willingness to admit that the prolongment of her condition was the result of their poor judgment could mean that the governing body will begin addressing the personal grievances of other mutants who’ve endured severe physical injuries at the hands of both humans and their fellow mutants.
After being forced to live without a body for a large portion of her life, No-Girl has finally been given the chance to reclaim the life that was stolen from her by the U-Men. By giving No-Girl a second chance at life, the Quiet Council has finally undone one of the worst crimes against one of their numbers and proven that healing their kind matters more to them than holding a grudge against humanity.
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