Ultimate X-Men Annual #2

Written by Robert Kirkman

Pencils & Cover by Salvador Larroca

Additional Pencils by Lenil Yu

 

The last of the Annuals are here and looking back on all four of them I can confidently say that this year was a major disappointment. This Annual certainly meets my harped on requirement (put forth by none less than Joe Q. mind you) that the Annuals ‘matter.’ The book also can’t be faulted for a lack of quality or emotion, it’s just the plot ideas I have problems with.

 

This Annual is centered on one plot thread Kirkman has been stoking the fires of since he joined the book—Dazzler’s coma. Well, she wakes up and (surprise, surprise) finds herself staring face to face with Nightcrawler, who’s taken a very introverted turn of late. Feeling betrayed by his closest friend (Colossus, who’s come out of the closet) and in need of some romantic attention (all the available women have been taken over the past year) Nightcrawler has developed an unhealthy infatuation with Alison.

 

The story is about the two of them and neither come out of the book better off than they left it. For Nightcrawler, he’s shown to be more like Wolverine—he was more of a willing participant in the Weapon X program than previously thought. Of course that makes more than a modicum of sense since he’s got teleportation powers and could leave any time he wanted (Love that alliteration?).

 

His introversion and infatuation cross a dangerous line when his emotional and social anguish bring him to kidnap Alison, feeding her some story about the X-Men being in hiding. You’d think that a psychic and supposedly parental figure like Xavier would have seen all the signs that Kirkman put in the story about Nightcrawler’s problems, but alas we wouldn’t have an Annual if he did right? The X-Men catch on to Nightcrawler’s little ploy and confront him to save Alison. A battle ensues that showcases the power a teleporter can have.

 

All good so far. Then Kirkman screws it all up with a series of out-of-character moments and the return of a pet peeve of mine I had thought lost. The X-Men win out of course but not before Rogue loses her Gambit-induced powers and regains her old absorbing ones. I felt like beating my head against the wall.

 

For one, Gambit is now truly dead. When Vaughan killed him in the last Annual, every Gambit fan sighed in collective relief to find Rogue had gained his powers because of the magic of the Cyttorak Crystal. Now, only a year later, Kirkman comes in to ruin it all. He’s gone folks and he was barely even here.

 

Second, Rogue’s original powers of absorption are so sketchy and so abused, especially in the 616 Universe, that I rejoiced with all my heart when I saw she had lost them. Rogue having Gambit powers was new and exciting, but now we can look forward to nothing but more of the same beat-to-death stories about Rogue and her inability to touch anyone. I’ve read that story to death and it goes nowhere. It is a source of constant drama that puts the character so firmly in the tragic role that she becomes a never ending source of sorrow and little else. It limits the character, on the emotional level, to such a degree that her suffering is played out ad nauseam.

 

Then we have Alison leave the team after her kidnaper isn’t killed by the X-Men. Dazzler never displayed such attitudes before, and while her claims that she just wants to be a rock star does give her some real motivation for leaving, it doesn’t make any sense to have her literally shouting for Nightcrawler’s head. To top it all off, we are left with Nightcrawler taking Alison’s place as the character in sick bay for the seeable future.

 

There are still plenty of great moments in there, like when Cyclops is teleported high in the air and tries to shoot his eye-blast down to help stop his fall (which never works). Or Colossus’ eventual outburst at Nightcrawler as he gets fed up with his bigotry and immaturity. But I can hardly say any of this was worth it for ruining one character and abusing another (Alison).

 

Larroca’s art starts off looking the best it has since the first X-Treme X-Men days, the wonder a real coloring job can do huh? But he starts to get sloppy and rushed towards the middle. Full of bad anatomy and sketchy faces, Larroca definitely doesn’t get any points for consistency. Lenil Yu is the artist on the two page back-up strip that reveals that ‘yes’ Mystique is a real character and ‘no’ the cat isn’t her. She was in love with Xavier when he was dating Emma and didn’t take it too well, so what does Xavier do? Name his cat after her. What a lady’s man.

 

Rating - 6