New Mutants gets new writer post-X of Swords

Vita Ayala will take over as writer of Marvel's 'Dawn of X' era X-Men title New Mutants starting with New Mutants #14 in December, the publisher has announced.

Launched by co-writers Ed Brisson and Jonathan Hickman in 2019 following the relaunch of the X-Men line with the House of X and Powers of X limited series, Hickman departed after the series' first arc, with Brisson remaining on as the series' sole writer.

Ayala will begin their run in December for a story that follows up on threads from the upcoming line wide X-Men crossover 'X of Swords.' Artist Rod Reis, who has worked on the series since its launch, will remain on New Mutants alongside Ayala.

"On the edge of mutant society, the younger generation of X-Men cut loose in the Wild Hunt—going big, blowing things up, and combining powers to see who gets crowned king of the mountain!" reads the story's official description.

"In the aftermath of X of Swords, a mysterious threat has taken root on Krakoa. This ancient enemy is powerful, hungry, and all too familiar to the New Mutants, and it'll take X-Men from all generations to stop it," it continues. "Join Magik, Dani Moonstar, Karma, Warpath, Wolfsbane, Warlock, Scout, and more of your favorites in an unpredictable series that will explore uncharted territory of the new mutant status quo that kicked off in Jonathan Hickman's groundbreaking House of X!"

New Mutants will be Ayala's second ongoing X-Men title, though it actually arrives first, as starting in January they'll also be writing the long-awaited Children of the Atom, which focuses on the newest generation mutant of heroes.

"The New Mutants (as a group of characters, and as a book) are the center of the Venn diagram of things that I love, and I am honored and stoked as all get out to be able to follow Jonathan [Hickman] and Ed [Brisson] on the title," Ayala states in the announcement. "The New Mutants are perfectly situated to start digging into some of the weird and dangerous stuff that lies just under the surface of the new Krakoan nation, to go poking at things that bite back, so expect them to be getting into all sorts of trouble… *ominous laugh*"

Check out where the New Mutants rank out our look at the greatest X-Men teams of all time.

I've been Newsarama's resident Marvel Comics expert and general comic book historian since 2011, and now I'm the Entertainment Writer at GamesRadar+. I've also been the on-site reporter at most major comic conventions such as Comic-Con International: San Diego, New York Comic Con, and C2E2. Outside of comic journalism, I am the artist of many weird pictures, and the guitarist of many heavy riffs. (They/Them)