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In New Mutants, Warpath just took down a classic Marvel alien villain that’s almost destroyed entire teams of X-Men in the past.
WARNING: This article contains spoilers for New Mutants #21, now available from Marvel.
The newest era of the X-Men has been all about mutants asserting themselves as a united community against all who would oppress them. Because of this movement, different mutants have been getting the spotlight lately and have used those opportunities to prove that they’re just as powerful as Marvel’s most famous mutants. X-Force’s Warpath is one of these mutants. After showing that he might be the last hope for Xavier’s dream of a mutant utopia, he’s now shown himself to be stronger than anybody realized by laying waste to one of the X-Men’s deadliest threats: the Brood.
In New Mutants #21 by Vita Ayala, Rod Reis, VC’s Travis Lanham & Joe Caramagna, Warpath and the New Mutants were sent to the Moon to partake in a “community betterment project” at the Summer House. While relocating a group of brightly colored space slugs, one of the students happened upon a swarm of Brood. Thinking that they would be safe because of their truce with the beastly aliens, Warpath was calm until one of the slashed him across the chest.
The students managed to fight off a few of them before Monica was hurt, which drove Warpath to go on a rampage against the insectoid aliens. The enraged Warpath easily made his way through them, ripping all of them limb from limb until there were none left. When former X-Man and current Brood monarch Broo arrived, Warpath dragged him aside to question why they were attacked. Broo answered that their attackers were rogue warriors. He added that there was nothing to worry about since the New Mutants killed them. Distrustful, Warpath surmised he would bring the event to the attention of the Quiet Council and told Broo to compel the hive to move to the edges of space.
Created by Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum, the Brood first appeared in 1982’s Uncanny X-Men #155. A race of parasitic insectoids, they are reportedly the universe’s first natural predators. They aren’t just savage monsters, they actively enjoy inflicting pain on others and were created to do two things: consume resources and reproduce. When they were first introduced, they partnered with the Shi’ar Deathbird to take over the X-Men and Carol Danvers as hosts. While the Xenomorph-esque aliens managed to take over most of the X-Men, Wolverine’s healing powers purged them from his system before they permanently infected him. Afterward, Wolverine was almost forced to kill his team members because they were infected before Carol Danvers was able to defeat the Brood and cure the X-Men after becoming the Binary.
Meanwhile, Warpath also created by Chris Claremont alongside Sal Buscema, first debuted in 1984’s New Mutants #16. While he initially served as an antagonist working against the X-Men, Warpath eventually came around and joined the New Mutants as it transitioned into X-Force, the team Warpath is most associated with. Warpath’s mutant powers greatly enhanced all of his physical abilities to superhuman levels, allowing him to go toe-to-toe with the likes of Juggernaut and resist most physical attacks. Similarly, his senses are heightened to the level of Wolverine. True to his name, Warpath’s abilities allow him to face down most physical threats with ease, a fact that his performance here makes abundantly clear.
Given how badly their first encounter with the Brood went, it would be easy to think that the New Mutants were going to be slaughtered. But thanks to Warpath’s immense strength, he was able to defeat them with ease. It’s important to note, that he was calm until one of his students was harmed. That’s when his true rage came out. Much like his one-time mentor Emma Frost, that shows how much he’s willing to do to take care of the next generation of mutants. While Warpath has been in plenty of scraps, moments like this reinforce him as one of the X-Men’s best warriors.
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