Ultimate X-men Annual # 2 Review
AUTHOR: ROBERT KIRKMAN
ARTIST: SALVADOR LARROCA
COLORED BY: JASON KEITH
COVER: SALVADOR LARROCA
I really can't believe that after a few years of being absent from the market, Annuals have made it back to the slimy (you don't want to know what I was doing at the time) hands of collectors. I was never a big fan of them to begin with, well unless Arthur Adams was drawing it, then that is a completely different ball game. For years the annuals just became a place for new blood to break in to the business and the stories never impacted the actual continuity of the book.
Last year the first Ultimate X-men annual was released and it was pretty damn good. It was a one-shot touching story about Gambit and Rogue on the road and fighting the Juggernaut. It ended with the big surprising death of Gambit and Rogue absorbing his powers and personality permanently. This year, however Kirkman really doesn't use the one-shot story that effects continuity in the long run formula. For some reason the story is a direct follow up to the Magic storyline going on in the recent arc of Ultimate X-men, except we haven't read the fucking finale yet, so it may spoil some things.
Nightcrawler has some flashbacks about his Weapon X days and some assassination he was part of. I don't know if Kirkman is trying to make us believe that Nightcrawler is just weapon ready to kick in at any minute or what? Because I don't think he needed that fucking flashback to makes us believe that is what he is trying to do. As Dazzler wakes up from her coma Nightcrawler greets her and takes her away from the hospital and his teammates are forced to confront him. During all this Rogue is talking to Xavier about the shift in her powers and we get an overly long fight and Rogue's developments that just seemed too convenient.
This year's annual came out of left field because Nightcrawler although a bit of a prick has never shown any signs of being a threat to the team. Nightcrawler has never exhibited these kinds of personalities. If you ask me Kirkman is destroying the character of Nightcrawler before we even got to see his true personality develop. Don't get me started on the two page origin of Professor X's cat Mystique. It really doesn't make much sense and kills the interest and secret behind the name which to me was always the cat's charm and now I just don't give a damn.
I wish I could say the art really saved this book from a bad rating, but the colors really took a toll on Salvador's artwork. They are bland and lifeless to say the least, I believe if Keith would have toned it down a bit, it might have worked. But Larroca is always easy to follow from panel to panel, which for some reason I can't say about Leinil Francis Yu, who draws the origin of Mystique. His art was hard to read and follow, which sometimes works to his advantage during fantastic over-the-top action sequences, but not on a story of a cat. I hate to see stories like this come from the regular writer on the book, because so far he hasn't shown any weaknesses on the monthly. D+
I seriously considered getting this book mainly due to Kirkman and well the cover. Probably a good thing I didn't get the annual though.
Well, I'm disappointed... I thought the Nightcrawler character would have done something interesting - I really dig the blue elf ! I don't know why Kirkman wanted so much to destroy him... :-(
I think you're being less than fair.
Kirkman isn't destroying Nightcrawler, he's making him interesting. The last page with Rogue had me very intrigued. Nightcrawler had done absolutely nothing in the way of characterization since the "return to Weapon X" arc.
Yeah, there was a spoiler in there, but nothing in the magical arc is what it seems, so we'll have to wait until the next issue.
The Xavier's cat part wasn't really about the cat.
No history of the cat could have satisfied fan expectation. The little story is about Mystique (the mutant, not the cat) being a scary "woman scorned" and Emma Frost being a bitch.
IGN gave it a must read and I agree.
I don't think I would have mind the issue as much if it was a part of the ongoing series like a nice wrap up issue. I still think Nightcrawler being a douchebag homophobe I can take, but a traitor that just comes out of left field. As far as the cat, they should have just left it alone, some things never need origins. The monthly I consider a must read, but this? not really.