By Jason Aaron, Ed McGuinness, Cameron Stuart & Dexter Vines (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-591-8
Amidst all the constant existential angst and apocalyptic Stürm und Drang of the average X-Men saga over the years, there was still the occasional moment of lighter-hearted, boldly dashing, fun-filled exuberant derring-do – and it generally gravitated towards or sprang from the general vicinity of German swashbuckler Kurt Wagner: Nightcrawler.
However even he eventually succumbed to the bleak tone of the times and, after increasingly dark dire deeds, he died in the X-Event Second Coming.
Now after the team’s dalliances with doppelgangers and alternate Earth iterations, the original and genuine article has returned for the first story-arc of new ongoing title Amazing X-Men. Collecting the first six issues (cover-dated January-May 2014), this metaphysical merry-go-round of magic and mutant mayhem by Jason Aaron & Ed McGuiness (aided and abetted by Cameron Stewart and Dexter Vines) opens in Heaven, where the devout, deceased Christian mutant is strangely listless and ill-at-ease.
He perks up, however, when a quartet of demon pirates invade the Promised Land looking for souls to shanghai, and gives the invaders the sound thrashing they so richly deserve. The situation suddenly becomes seriously serious when his father appears.
Demon mutant Azazel had maintained his connection to Earth for millennia by mating with human women, but Kurt had always been the most disappointing of his progeny. Now the moribund mutant realises he would do anything to thwart his sinister sire’s schemes – including foregoing forever his hard-earned eternal rest…
On Earth The Jean Grey School for Higher Learning is “welcoming†its newest teacher. Angelica Jones (AKA Firestar) is already nervous about her job and terrified to be in the “Big Leagues†amongst the X-Men, but her first day too soon takes a giant step into pure weirdness when the Beast blazes by her, chasing teleporting imps – known as “Bamfs†– who have been stealing his technology. Now, by purloining his coffeemaker, they have finally gone too far…
Caught up in the chase, she is astonished to discover the little blue packrats have constructed a bizarre glowing portal in the basement. When Iceman, Angel, Northstar, Rachel Grey, Wolverine and Storm join her, the Beast and the Bamfs, they are all attacked by malicious red Bamfs and sucked through the gateway into the afterlife where Azazel is attempting to conquer the eternal realms in flying pirate galleons…
The journey has divided the team. Transported to the golden fields of Elysium, Wolverine and Northstar are soon boldly battling Azazel’s demonic buccaneers but Storm, Iceman and Firestar are having the devil’s own time surviving the very Pit of Hell they have materialised in…
The war in heaven is starting to go badly until the sprit of Charles Xavier turns up to offer some sage advice, sending Wolverine plunging from Paradise to find and save Nightcrawler, who is set on stopping his devilish daddy at any cost…
The Beast has meanwhile landed on Azazel’s flagship, far beyond the Realm of the Flesh, and found himself severely overmatched against the hellish hordes aboard. He looks to be doomed, as is Storm who has “escaped†onto another of the perfidious black freighters, but when the situation is at its most dire, in a crack of brimstone sound and fury, Nightcrawler arrives, sword swinging…
With Wolverine and Northstar now trapped in a frozen perdition whilst Firestar and Iceman languish in the Inferno, Kurt leads the missions to rescue them all and, whilst revealing the incredible truth about the perpetually proliferating Bamfs, finally takes the fight to his fiendish father.
The struggle takes everybody back to Earth but, by defeating the demon-lord and manifesting once more on the physical plane, has Nightcrawler forever lost his place in Heaven and locked the lethal, lascivious Lord of Lies in the land of the living?
Peppered with telling and trenchant flashbacks showing why Wagner was so beloved by his fellow X-Men, the dauntless drama concludes with ‘All in the Family’ (illustrated by Cameron Stewart) which sees the majority of the surviving X-Men – now split into warring ideological camps – turn up at Kurt’s Welcome Home party to pay their respects.
The only one missing is Nightcrawler himself, occupied as he is with confronting his malign mother (evil mutant Mystique) and subsequently spectacularly failing to prevent her breaking recently incarcerated Daddy Dearest out of super-villain jail…
This bright and breezy tale of light-hearted triumph and tragedy comes with a legion of covers-&-variants (15 actually) by McGuinness & Vines, Milo Manara, Moore, Kevin Nowlan, Dale Keown, Skottie Young and Salvador Larroca, and is one of the most enjoyable X-epics of recent years: a boundless buccaneering romp trading angst for boundless action and nihilistic gloom for thrills and frolics.
™ & © 2013, 2014 Marvel & Subs. Licensed by Marvel Characters B.V. through Panini S.p.A. All rights reserved. A British Edition published by Panini Publishing, a division of Panini UK, Ltd.