THE PHOENIX RESURRECTION: AFTERMATH #1 – January 1996

Credits:  Ian Edginton & Dan Abnett (writers), Pino Rinaldi, Jeff Lafferty, John Cleary, & John Royle (pencilers), Phillip Moy, Jeff Whiting, Dennis Jensen, Leonard Kirk, Steve Moncuse, Bob Almond, & Tom Wegrzyn (inkers), Vickie Williams (letters), Mike Tuccinard & Malibu (colors)

Summary:  Rose awakes inside a hospital and soon realizes she’s traveled decades into the future.  Her room is attacked by a Progeny alien.  Rose stops the assault and is reunited with her father, who she learns is a robot “dragoon” created by Hawke, a leader in the Progeny resistance.  Hawke explains that she was created with spliced DNA from “Ultra genetic material” and “the morphogenic DNA of captured Progeny warriors.”  She was sent as an infant to the twentieth century, with robots as her guardians.  On the fated day the Phoenix appeared, Hawke knew her powers would be triggered.  Upset with this revelation, she leaves the hospital and wanders through the streets.  She meets a community of survivors and is greeted by their leader, Mother Courage.  Courage gives Rose an emblem to remember her by, shortly before the Progeny attack again.  She mimics the Progeny’s powers and defends the camp.  Rose returns to her father and apologizes, then offers to join the rebellion.  She joins a group of Ultras in attacking the Progeny’s orbital armada, but soon discovers that the Progeny are only following their instinct to survive.  Reluctantly, she follows Hawke’s plan and decimates the space station.  Later, she questions if she can find a home in the future.

Continuity Notes:  

• The Progeny, according to a footnote, first appeared in Malibu’s Exiles #4, collecting flora and fauna and studying Ultra DNA.
• Rose’s powers enable her to automatically speak alien languages.
• Using information she’s gleaned, Rose reveals that a member of the resistance, Amber Hunt, is a traitor.  Amber Hunt is an Exiles member who has been possessed by a seemingly cosmic entity called, well, The Entity over the course of the previous decades.  The Entity is responsible for her changing sides.
• The Progeny are killed in the end with a synthesized form of the theta virus, the virus that created the Ultras.  Their  living mothership seems to have a connection to the one seen in the previous issues of Phoenix Resurrection.

I Love the ‘90s:  Rose was sent as infant to the late 1970s so that she would come into contact with the Phoenix as a seventeen-year-old in 1996.

“Huh?” Moments:  The script refers to the Progeny’s death ray as red, but it’s colored neon green throughout the issue.  Also, the claim that this story is only set fifty years in the future is absurd, given that the planet is unrecognizable and English has mutated into a new form.

Review:  This is the starring debut of Rose Autumn, soon to be known as Foxfire.  The early marketing for this series heavily implied that Rose was the newest Phoenix avatar, linking Malibu’s Ultraverse even closer to the Marvel Universe.  I’ve discovered now that this was…less than honest.  I always thought it odd that Marvel practically ignored any of these attempts to integrate Marvel and Malibu, with the only mention of Firefox coming in the two-page Malibu hype pieces that briefly ran in Marvel’s books.  The Bullpen Bulletins didn’t care.  The actual X-books never mentioned this character.  Yet, it certainly looked as if Foxfire was the brand-new Phoenix!  That had to be a big deal!  

Rose’s origin is revealed this issue, and we discover that Rose merely has the ability to mimic the powers of those close to her.  She can easily take the form of the cyber-roach aliens seen this issue, just as she transformed into a very Phoenix-y avatar of light in her previous appearance.  That doesn’t mean she is the Phoenix, though.  Phoenix had a role in her origin, but the series itself has no ties to X-continuity.  Rose’s first solo story does incorporate ideas similar to the ones seen in ‘90s X-titles, however.  The anti-Progeny rebels are almost identical to the forgettable grunts Cable assembled in the future as the Clan Chosen, and the mysterious Mother Courage bears a striking similarity to Mother Askani of the Askani Clan.  What’s next?  The Burglars Guild and Murderers Guild, hiding out in the remains of future New Orleans?

The story itself is fairly standard dystopian, post-alien invasion sci-fi.  Rose comes across as a decent protagonist, when compared to the usual portrayal of teenage girls in superhero comics, and after the first couple of pages the cheesecake is mercifully toned down.  (Rose fights her opening fight scene in a hospital gown, so you can imagine how that goes.)  Everything that surrounds Rose, however, is either predictably cliché or just too dumb to be taken seriously.  All of the robot dad stuff is laughable, and there’s really nothing here to set this dystopian future apart from any of the million others.  There are also far too many characters and plot elements that add up to nothing, such as the introduction of “Earth Forces President” Glorianna Mundi, and all of the Amber Hunt/Entity material.  If you’re invested in existing Malibu continuity, maybe there’s something there, but I don’t think it stands up on its own.  The ending is surprisingly dark, with Rose making a connection with the aliens just as she’s given the order to exterminate them.  She questions how she can now live with “the blood of millions on my hands,” which is an unexpectedly deep hook for a ‘90s book starring a teen girl hero.  (The idea of a heroine living with an alien genocide on her conscious is another link to the Phoenix, of course.)

Like the previous Phoenix books, this is a jam issue, and it’s the worst one yet.  The art ranges from a passable Tom Grummett impression to a bad McFarlane impression to a sad Liefeld impression, and then the faux-graffiti art kicks in.  Do you remember books like Creed, which tried to incorporate then-trendy graffiti styles into comics?  This issue abruptly turns into one of them, with Rose morphing into a misshapen freak with gigantic forehead, sloping brow, and disturbingly wide eyes.  The actual texture of the inks is kind of nice, almost evoking Richard Corben’s work, but the abrupt change in character models is ridiculous.  I have no idea what anyone was thinking, releasing three biweekly, double-sized jam comics in a row, but the results are predictably chaotic.

THE PHOENIX RESURRECTION: REVELATIONS #1 – December 1995

Credits:  Ian Edginton & Dan Abnett (writers), Kevin West, John Royle, Randy Green, & Rick Leonardi (pencilers), Tom Wegrzyn, Phillip Moy, Rick Ketcham, & Jeff Whiting (inkers), Vickie Williams & Patrick Owsley (letters), Mike Tuccinard, Rob Alvord, & Malibu (colors)

Summary:  Rex Mundi, the “first among Ultras,” summons another team of metahumans to attack the Phoenix-possessed Amber Hunt.  The Exiles arrive to defend Amber, leading to a confrontation with Ultraforce and the X-Men.  Close by, Rose Autumn and her father watch the fight through their apartment window.  A stray blast buries her father under rubble, and Rose uses strength she didn’t know she had to rescue him.  She’s also shocked to discover her father has a cybernetic chest.  Rose suddenly conjures energy and becomes a virtual duplicate of Amber/Phoenix.  Rose’s powers burn out after one blast, but it’s enough to harm Amber.  The Phoenix Force leaves Amber and unexpectedly divides itself in two.  Amber reveals that the Phoenix split in two in order to find Rex Mundi and his female clone Regina.  The mothership requires both to leave Earth, where it will then travel to the sun to be reunited with its missing parts.  The heroes travel to the Bermuda Triangle and attack the mothership, freeing Rex and Regina.  Amber Hunt and an Ultra named Gate create a portal that sends the Phoenix Force billions of years into the past.  In a burst of energy, the Phoenix Force returns to the present day, recreating events that lead to the mothership discovering it.  On Earth, the heroes say their goodbyes and Gateway teleports the X-Men back home.

Continuity Notes:  A group of unnamed, unidentified characters joins Rose’s cyber-chested dad and teleports her away.  Rose becomes a major character in the Ultraverse later on.  At least, that was the plan…

I Love the ‘90s:  During the wrap-up, Jubilee drops an “As if!” after describing how Rex Mundi disappeared.  I’ll wager that the writers don’t understand how that slang is supposed to be used.

“Huh?” Moment:  Much of this issue makes little sense.  Gateway piloting the hi-tech hovercraft that arrives to take the heroes home at the end is probably my favorite ridiculous moment, though.

Gimmicks:  Alright, every issue of this miniseries is a #1!  That means they’ll all be worth money one day!

Review:  Ah, this is the unreadable train wreck I was expecting last issue.  I guess I should start at the beginning.  Amber/Phoenix floats in the sky while her “telepresence” travels to the Bermuda Triangle and absorbs the mothership’s insane plan.  It involves using the Phoenix Force to “drive the Earth into the sun” in order to reunite the ship with its parts that are somehow still existing within the heart of the sun.  The real goal of this gibberish is to up the ante in the fight and do a montage of volcanoes erupting across the globe, because the stakes always have to involve either the entire planet or all existence in these cross-continuity crossovers.  

Meanwhile, numerous fight scenes are breaking out.  If the goal of this crossover was to introduce Marvel fans to the Ultraverse characters, no one seems to have told the creators this issue, since hero after hero is popping up everywhere, fighting each other for reasons I can’t grasp.  For example, the enigmatic Rex Mundi summons a group of heroes to fight the Phoenix, and they’re soon opposed by another group of heroes (or maybe they’re villains) that are given no name or motivation.  The two groups fight while the X-Men and Ultraforce look on, and then Juggernaut and the Exiles arrive, along with Night Man, Mantra, and surely some other characters I’ve already forgotten.  Clearly, not all of these characters can serve a plot function, but it would seem to be Storytelling 101 to at the very least introduce them and provide some motivation for their actions.  Honestly, I thought some of these characters were parodies when they first appeared.  One group would seem to be an outright mockery of the Wildstorm designs of the era, while other heroes could easily pass as a caricature of the ‘90s Milestone heroes.  Yet, the story plays these fashion disasters straight, so I’m assuming the reader is supposed to as well.

The nonsense continues.  Rose Autumn, inexplicably, needs to be introduced again.  (Let’s forget that she was supposed to be in the hospital last issue.)  She appears just long enough to develop super-strength, discover her father is some manner of cyborg, and then turn into an alternate version of the Phoenix.  Sure, why not.  Then, after she collapses (the second time she’s done this in her two appearances), yet another group of mysterious strangers in gaudy outfits arrives to take her away.  Boy, with an introduction this good, you know Rose is bound to become the hot new Bad Girl of 1996!

The plot then veers into the weeds of Ultraverse continuity, with Rex Mundi and his clone/lover Regina (yup) now playing an integral role.  Rex Mundi, based on the exposition shoved into this issue, is the earliest of the Ultras, and he has extra-special Ultra stuff inside him that the mothership needs.  Rex has created a female clone of himself as a lover (and named her after a Waffle House waitress, apparently), which the story uses to now justify the existence of two Phoenixes, because heaven knows this issue isn’t impenetrable enough.  The heroes enjoy a quickie trip to where the mothership crash-landed millions of years ago, which is naturally the Bermuda Triangle (See?  That explains everything!), and more pointless fights happen.  The Beast questions if it’s okay to destroy the ship if it means Rex and Regina also die, but everyone tells him to just shut up and go along with the plot.  Rex and Regina turn out to be okay, the mothership loses power, and the united heroes are somehow able to physically drive the Phoenix Force into a space portal.

The ending is more gibberish.  The Phoenix is sent billions of years into the past, it doesn’t appreciate the trip, so it uses its infinite cosmic powers to return to the present.  Powers that couldn’t resist forgotten Malibu characters like Topaz just a few pages earlier, mind you.  That leads to a repeat of a scene from the previous issue, the one that had the mothership discovering the Phoenix, which started this entire fiasco in the first place.  So, has a time loop been completed, setting everything right in the world…or is the whole point to show that the heroes’ victory has been a hollow one?  Since when was this story about time travel, anyway?  What’s the point, outside of scaring me with the prospect of a sequel?  It’s bad enough to know that this event has one more chapter to go, and a spinoff series after that…

THE PHOENIX RESURRECTION #0 – March 1996

Red Shift

Credits:  Ian Edginton (writer), J. Royle, Paul Pelletier, C. Wojtkiewicz, Randy Green, B. Murray, & Rob Haynes (pencilers), P. Moy, S. Moncuse, Mark Farmer, Terry Austin, G. Martin (inkers), P. Owsley & V. Williams (letterers), Rob Alvord & Malibu (colors)

Summary:  Barriers between the Ultraverse and Marvel Universe weaken.  Prime spots Gateway in a crowd and is annoyed that he isn’t cheering with the rest of Prime’s fans.  When he flies over to confront Gateway, Prime discovers only a painting of the Phoenix in the dirt.  Night Man looks into a puddle and sees inside Damion Hellstrom’s home.  Whizzer of the Squadron Supreme contacts the Beast (when other heroes won’t answer) and discusses the rise in dimensional anomalies.  Mantra, in her civilian identity, is briefly visited by Gateway.  A member of the Exiles worries that she might again become the vessel for a cosmic force.  Rune falls through a dimensional rift and briefly stands outside of the X-Men’s mansion.  Ultraforce accidentally sends a villain into the Marvel Universe, where he briefly encounters Spider-Man and Thor.  

Continuity Notes:  

• This Malibu/Marvel crossover represents continuity circa late 1995, which means Spider-Man is Ben Reilly and Wolverine has bone claws -- but also a nose, since he hasn’t gone fully “feral” yet.  
• Due to previous attempts to incorporate Marvel characters into Malibu’s Ultraverse, Black Knight is a member of Ultraforce and the Exiles team has Juggernaut, Reaper, and Sienna Blaze as members.
• Based on a flashback in the Exiles chapter of this story, the Malibu miniseries Break-Thru has already teased the arrival of the Phoenix Force in the Ultraverse.

Review:  In 1995-1996, publishers were legally required to have a zero issue.  Don’t question it.  The Phoenix Resurrection #0 is a one-shot published after the conclusion of the miniseries.  It’s a reprint of a series of back-up teasers that ran in Malibu’s superhero comics for a month, followed by a new story starring Jubilee.  Five pages of new Jubilee content cost you $1.95 in the early days of 1996; surely this was the golden age of X-completist gouging.

I doubt you’ll find an Ultraverse fan today who looks back with any nostalgia on the Marvel crossover days.  Marvel seemed to have an attitude that teaming their heroes with the Ultraverse characters would somehow legitimize the Ultras, but Marvel fans never seemed to care and Malibu fans always resented the intrusion.  Had this stunt been pulled four years earlier, it’s possible that diehard Marvel Zombies would’ve bought the hype and embraced characters like Rune and Prime with open arms.  By 1996, everyone was just burned out on these stunts.  If the Ultraverse characters had any shot at all of surviving the Marvel takeover, they probably should’ve been incorporated into the actual Marvel Universe.  Running two superhero universes simultaneously has historically not ended well, with the younger universe always paying the price.  Ending the Ultraverse and giving three or four of the heroes their own titles in the Marvel Universe, and actually treating them as authentic heroes within the Marvel Universe, was probably the best bet for getting Marvel fans to pay attention.  That’s assuming that the higher-ups at Marvel really wanted the Malibu characters to succeed, of course.  For years, the fan press reported that Marvel bought Malibu for its computer coloring department.  Now, we know that Malibu was purchased mainly to prevent DC from buying the company and taking a larger percentage of the marketplace.  Supposedly, Marvel didn’t even discover Malibu had a full-time computer coloring department until after the deal was finalized.

It’s hard to judge any of these shorts as stories, since every one is a brief scene that teases the idea of the Marvel Universe and the Ultraverse colliding.  Some of these shorts are more fun than I was expecting.  The Night Man piece has him inadvertently gaining access to Hellstorm’s bedroom, while he’s entertaining a “silver-tongued devil.”  The Whizzer back-up is about as interesting as a dry “two worlds are colliding” exposition piece can be.  (And notice that the major companies still can’t let go of the Conflicting Continuities Converge concept.)  I do feel sorry for Siren, though, whoever she is.  She isn’t even the star of her own back-up; Whizzer takes her place, in a short that doesn’t feature any Ultraverse characters.  Some of the pieces are borderline incomprehensible, such as the Ultraforce back-up, but overall the shorts set up the Phoenix event rather painlessly.  The art is the mixed bag I would expect any mid-‘90s superhero jam comic to be, with Paul Pelletier and Mark Farmer turning in the strongest piece, while B. Murray delivers a job worthy of Extreme Studios.  (Is this the Brian Murray who worked on Supreme?)  The cover also exhibits some of Bryan Hitch’s strengths and weaknesses during this era.  It’s a dynamic drawing, and the figures are well-constructed.  Those faces, though…why do Wolverine and Prime both have freakishly deformed left eyes?!

Generation X - Red Shift

Credits:  Ian Edginton (plot), Dan Abnett (script), Robert Stotz (penciler), Steve Moncuse (inker), Edd fear (letterer), Moose Baumann (colorist)

Summary:  Jubilee reflects in her school’s terrarium, questioning why Gateway included her in the group of mutants sent to defend the Ultraverse.  She discovers an emblem shaped like the Phoenix and wonders if it has any significance.  Nearby, Gateway smiles.

Review:  So, in the same comic, we get the prologues and an epilogue, which makes the reading order slightly annoying for anyone following this event with the zero issue first.  Calling this a “story” is a bit generous, with the narrative only offering the vaguest hint that Jubilee’s found something that might be important someday.  It isn’t, of course, since the Ultraverse characters were dismissed by Marvel not long after this event concluded.  Also, including new material in a reprint special is always a questionable move in my opinion.  If there are any Jubilee completists out there today, hopefully you can find this in a quarter box somewhere.

WOLVERINE: EVILUTION - September 1994

Credits: Ann Nocenti (writer), Mark Texeira (layouts), John Royle (penciler), Philip Moy & Andrew Pepoy (inkers), Dave Sharpe (letters), Monica Bennett (colors)

Summary: A vision sends Wolverine to Prescott, a nearby town with a controversial nuclear plant. He meets Red Waterfall, an Indian who refuses to sell land near the plant; land the plant needs to comply with federal regulations. Meanwhile, a teen named Jimmy starts a group called the Devos, youths determined to fight the technological age. Their rituals attract an ancient spirit, one that calls for a female sacrifice. Boom Boom is kidnapped and brought to the plant to be sacrificed. A young follower brings Jimmy the Spear of Destiny, recently stolen from Germany, which he plans to use on Boom Boom. Wolverine and Red Waterfall rescue her and confiscate the Spear. When the ancient spirit emerges, Wolverine uses the Spear to drive it away. The town returns to normal, and the plant is soon closed.

Continuity Notes:

• This story is set before Wolverine lost his adamantium skeleton in X-Men #25.
• The idea that Boom Boom regularly visits a small town north of Salem Center creates a few continuity problems. As a member of X-Force, she wasn’t living in Salem Center until X-Force moved in with the X-Men, which was after Wolverine lost his adamantium. It’s possible the story is set during the early days of X-Force, when the team lived in the Adirondack Mountains; however, X-Force were known fugitives at the time, which is hard to reconcile with Boom Boom casually walking through town and hanging out with teenagers.

Production Notes: This is a forty-eight page prestige format one-shot. The price is $5.95.

Creative Differences: Numerous lettering corrections in this one. Some are obviously done to add exposition, but others have no apparent significance.

Approved By The Comics Code Authority: Even though the prestige format books weren’t submitted for Code approval, Marvel’s reluctance to show blood probably explains why the chickens sacrificed by the Devos leave green blood behind.

I Love the '90s: Red Waterfall predicted trouble “in the 1990s, the anniversary years.” Also, the owner of the nuclear plant says the jobs it creates will help during the recession, although the early ‘90s recession was long over by 1994.

Review: An Ann Nocenti/ Mark Texeira Wolverine story? This has been on my “Must Track Down Someday” list for years, so of course I picked up a copy when I saw one in the discount bins. Unfortunately, Texeira only provided layouts, leaving the pencils to John Royle, an artist that would’ve been considered a midlevel talent at Wildstorm in 1993. And the story…well, I have no idea what happened here. It’s not hard to guess that this sat around in a drawer for years before publication, but sometimes the narrative is so choppy I wonder if it began life as a Marvel Comics Presents serial and was later cut down to forty-eight pages. For clarity’s sake, I’ll try to run down the rough spots in ye ol’ bullet points format:

· First of all, I’m half-convinced that Boom Boom was originally intended to be Jubilee. She’s repeatedly referred to as a “girl who wishes she were a boy,” which doesn’t fit Boom Boom, but does match Jubilee’s original appearances (remember when she was a tomboy?). Her powers are also described as firecrackers, which is the standard definition of Jubilee’s powers.

· Even if the female lead was always supposed to be Boom Boom, just using that version of her name dates the story. She’s been “Boomer” since the early days of X-Force. This couldn’t be fixed?

· The leader of the Devos, Jimmy, is revealed as the son of the nuclear plant owner about halfway through the story. There’s an obvious conflict between the two, but it doesn’t amount to much of anything. The only real confrontation between them is so rushed you have to wonder why it was even included; the story (as published) could work just as well without Jimmy’s father at all.

· By the way, aren’t nuclear plants public utilities? Could a lone individual even own one?

· The scenes of a ten-year-old boy casually stealing the Spear of Destiny from a museum are just mind-boggling.

· The theme of the story involves technology outlasting the men who create it, which has Nocenti connecting Wolverine’s metal skeleton with the ecological consequences of nuclear power. Just when you think she’s going for a blanket rejection of technology, though, she has Red Waterfall give Wolverine a speech about the futility of fighting destiny, and even has him speculate that it was inevitable that the white men would defeat the natives. Therefore, white men now control technology, even if it will poison the earth. It’s all a part of a great test, and perhaps nothing should be done about it. That’s certainly a strange turn for the story take; even stranger is the conclusion, which has the nuclear plant inexplicably shut down, and Red Waterfall happily planting herbs in his garden. So what was the point of his speech? Was there a dramatic reversal that got left on the cutting room floor? Like the rest of the story, I’m left wondering what on earth happened to this book.

EXCALIBUR ANNUAL #2 – 1994

The Interpretation of Dreams

Credits: Richard Ashford (writer), John Royle (penciler), Moy/Anderson/Carani (inkers), Janice Chiang (letterer), Ariane (colorist)

Summary

Britanic has a vision of fighting a battle with his brother, Jaime Braddock, in the year 2040. Their sister Psylocke uses her psychic powers to enter Jaime’s comatose mind. Britanic joins her as they tour Jaime’s memories. They watch as Jaime grows to resent having to care for his younger siblings, and the close bond they share with each other. When they try to help, Jaime resists their intrusion into his mind. After mentally confronting both of his siblings, Jaime creates a false childhood memory of joining them inside their secret hiding place. When Psylocke tries to tell him that they have a chance to reconcile, he wakes up and fights against her in reality. Britanic attacks, and the two stare into each other’s eyes for the first time in years. Jaime goes back into his coma. As the twins leave, Jaime dreams of playing with his siblings inside their hiding place.

Continuity Note

How exactly Jaime Braddock ended up in a coma and in custody isn’t explained. He was last seen escaping the Braddock’s mansion with Saty-Yr-9 in Excalibur #56.

Review

I didn’t have high hopes for an annual story during Excalibur’s awkward post-Davis era, but this is worse than I expected. The premise isn’t a bad one, as previous writers have told quite a few interesting stories about the Braddocks’ childhood. The idea that Jaime resented his younger siblings is a nice human emotion to ground the story in, but nothing else about this story works. Why does Britanic have visions of fighting a battle with his brother in the future? Who knows. By the time the story’s over, it seems like even the writer has forgotten about it. Why is Psylocke performing some type of dangerous psychic invasion on her brother, which she acknowledges isn’t really a function of her powers, when they could ask Professor Xavier or Phoenix for help? It’s a pretty glaring omission, especially when you consider all of the work Marvel was doing at the time to connect the X-Men characters to Exclaibur. The actual events of the story are a confused mess, not helped at all by the stiff, clumsy artwork. There should be a lot of emotional weight in a story about a dysfunctional sibling relationship, but there’s nothing in here to make you care about any of the characters involved. It’s a weak effort that just fails on every level.

Black Queen Rising

Credits: Eric Fein (writer), Daerick Gross (penciler), Candelario/Austin/Wiacek/Anderson (inkers), Janice Chiang (letterer), Monica Bennett (colorist)

Summary

Selene sends a summons out to Amanda Sefton, threatening to kill everyone on the plane where she’s working if she doesn’t help her. Amanda agrees, and teleports to the mysterious mansion where Selene’s being held. Selene is still trapped inside Fitzroy’s spooling chamber, which is continuously ripping her body apart and stitching it together again. When Amanda frees her, Selene tries to shove Amanda in her place, but is stopped when Nightcrawler suddenly teleports in. Selene throws Nightcrawler into the device, explaining that someone must take her place, or else the spooling chamber will self-destruct and destroy the entire mansion. Amanda uses her powers to blast Selene outside of the building and frees Nightcrawler. He tries to teleport away, but the building’s power dampener won’t let him use his powers. Amanda encourages him to combine powers with her and they escape. Selene escapes into the night, realizing that she left the chamber before she was fully reassembled, causing her legs to bleed continuously.

Approved By The Comics Code Authority

In the final page of the story, Selene’s legs are covered in blood from her excessive wounds. Considering her outfit, it looks like a drawing from some sort of fetish magazine.

Continuity Note

Selene was trapped inside Fitzroy’s spooling chamber ever since Uncanny X-Men #301.

Review

I guess Marvel wanted a story that freed Selene up again, so they put it in an Excalibur annual with some pages to fill. Selene has no specific reason to select Amanda Sefton to free her; a fact the story keeps reminding us of by pointing out repeatedly that they’ve never even met. The fight between Selene and Amanda isn’t engaging at all, and Nightcrawler’s sudden rescue makes no sense. Nightcrawler says that he found Amanda after getting her “coordinates” from the plane’s crew, yet Amanda teleported away to find Selene. How could they know specifically where she went? Does anyone even know that Amanda’s a sorceress? I like some of the artwork, but it’s extremely inconsistent, which is probably due to the four inkers the story required. How does a sixteen-page story end up with four inkers?

A Change of Worlds

Credits: Kim Yale (writer), Jaye Gardner (plot assist), Hannibal King & Yancy Labat (pencilers), Minor/Champagne/Caranni (inkers), Dave Sharpe (letterer), Chris Matthys (colorist)

Summary

Kitty receives a collection of old floppy discs that contain Doug Ramsey’s journals. She tells Douglock to read them, but he doesn’t recognize any of the memories. Nightcrawler encourages Kitty to accept Douglock for who he is, and not who she wants him to be.

Review

It’s the strongest story in the annual, even though it’s going over material that the monthly book has already covered. The first person narration by Doug Ramsey on the discs is nicely done, and it serves as a good introduction to the character. Some of the dialogue is unnatural and the art is once again inconsistent, but the story mostly accomplishes what it set out to do.