X-Men Annual, Uncanny X-Men Annual

X-Men Annual 2

The Legacy Virus hits Revanche and Pyro, and the X-Men fight Freedom Force for some reason.  It’s very meh, an easy cut. Two art notes:

It looks like Gambit's knee gets completely blown apart.

This is somehow Ian Churchill's art.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: No

Rating: Didn’t suck

Uncanny X-Men Annual 17

This surprised me.  I expected this to be as disposable as X-Men Annual 2, but it had a couple of things going for it.  First off, the Jason Pearson art has aged a lot better than I remember.  It’s actually pretty good.

Love how he draws this impact.

Sweet Storm silhouette.

Here too.

Second, the ending with Mastermind is surprisingly poignant.  His meager attempt to redeem the crummy life he led ends up being enough, and like Jean, I can’t begrudge him his final, small victory.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Nice

Uncanny X-Men Annual 18

This got worse with age.  The Ian Churchill art isn’t as polished I remember (though it’s a massive improvement over his work on X-Men Annual 2 a year before), but I still like how he draws Shadowcat here.  (It’s the only reason I’m keeping this.)

I would have liked to see her use those nunchucks in other issues. 

The writing by Glenn Herdling doesn’t impress.  Aside from the tired “body and soul” chestnut (I should keep track of every time that’s used in an X-Men comic), his Caliban’s grammar is far too polished.  And where’s Caliban getting all these restraint technology from?

The manacles are already a stretch...

...But ceiling mounted high-tech encasement?  Really?

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: No

Rating: Fine