The New Mutants #11 (1984) pages 2-3: Selene enslaves Dani

These two pages establish Selene, who had been introduced in the previous issue as a Roman priestess with a penchant for throwing virgins into volcanoes. Here, we discover that she is an ancient witch (later said to be a mutant) who fuels her powers by draining the life force of others. She animates the cave into giant rock creatures who bear Amara Aquilla down into the magma pool.

Chris Claremont was clearly having a good time throwing the New Mutants into a Robert E. Howard scenario, and Dani Moonstar has been cast in the role of Red Sonja -- chainmail bikini and all. Selene gives Dani a moment of orgasmic ecstasy intended to enslave her. This scene repeated that same month (cover date January 1984) in X-Men/Micronauts #4, with evil Xavier as the psychic pleasure-giver.

Sal Buscema used blue pencil to lay out this issue, and close examination reveals all sorts of production details. Sal drew Selene's dress with just a small notch in the collar, but inker Tom Mandrake transformed it into the plunging neckline seen here. Both Sal and Tom gave Selene giant clawed hands in panel one on page 3, but Tom shrank them to normal size when she de-ages on panel 5. I don’t believe we see Selene as a crone much when using her powers in the future.

For publication, the swirls of ecstasy around Dani's head in panel 6 were rendered separately on a fragile vellum overlay which has since been lost, but Sal's light pencil version remains. The red surprint for Amara’s fiery form has been lost as well. Coarse-textured Duotone board was affixed to page 2 panel 3 for Amara's rocky pillar, and to panel 6 for the shadows beneath Dani's body and Selene's heel.

This page was discussed in my YouTube interview on Ruben Da Collector's channel on October 12, 2025.