Warning: The following contains spoilers for New Mutants #9, by Jonathan Hickman, Flaviano, Mike del Mundo and Marcos Martin, on sale now.
Ever since the X-Men declared mutant sovereignty on Krakoa, every mutant in the world is now free to travel to the island nation and call it home. The planet is littered with Krakoan portals that lead directly to the island. Mutants only have to walk through it to take their place in the promised paradise of Krakoa. However, certain countries don't recognize Krakoa's authority, and they are blocking access to the portals. While the goal of the nation is to free all mutants from the hate and fear of humanity, some mutants are still, unfortunately, oppressed.
Such is the case with a young mutant we meet in New Mutants #9 -- a 13-year-old Russian girl named Natashia "Tashi" Repina. Tashi has just gotten her mutant powers and they already prove to be incredibly dangerous. In fact, this new reality-warping mutant could end up being as powerful as the Scarlet Witch, if not more.
In the latest issue of New Mutants, the titular team of superheroes travels to Carnelia, which has closed off access to its local Krakoan portal. There, they find the world's newest mutant is actually holed up in an abandoned building, surrounded by armed soldiers. However, these soldiers are too frightened of their target to actually go after her. Despite their anti-mutant sentiment, their hesitation is justified. As it turns out, Tashi has incredibly powerful abilities that allow her to manipulate and alter reality. Over the course of the issue, we see that she can change her own physiology, create plant-based life and other new living creatures, some of which are incredibly terrifying. And all of this can be contained in a bubble reality that is hers to control.
When the mutants come face-to-face with Tashi in the abandoned building, she is floating in the middle of her bubble, along with various other things she has created, from objects to plants and creatures. Then, when she is confronted by the New Mutants who try to calm her down, Tashi unleashes her powers, distorting her form even more and attacking them with tentacles and altering them directly. Effortlessly, she takes out Karma, Chamber and Magma, which leads Cypher to turn to some unlikely allies.
Tashi is just starting to test her powers, which means that she could grow to become even more powerful. Her abilities to manipulate reality already make her a dangerous new addition to the Marvel Universe, one akin to the Scarlet Witch. In fact, Wanda Maximoff also has powers that affect reality and she has often shown what a danger she can be on a large scale -- after all, she once erased nearly all mutants from the world in House of M.
There is still a lot that we don't know about Tashi's powers, but it's clear that they have the potential to affect all reality on a devastating scale. She was able to take out three powerful New Mutants without even trying, and there's no telling who she could hurt next. And since she's more of a young mutant struggling with her powers than a full-on villain, the New Mutants may very well end up bringing her back to Krakoa, which could add another young powerhouse to the X-Men's ranks.