Our past has a way of haunting us, even if that past may not be what it seems.
Amazing X-Men Annual #1 wastes little time getting things in gear. Monty Nero weaves a tale that hits close to home for Storm. We get to see how the pains of past indiscretions can haunt a person throughout their life, even if those past mistakes aren’t everything they seem to be. As this is a Storm central story, she gets a bulk of the action as well as the only character development. It’s always a pleasure to see Storm rocking the classic mohawk that I remember her having when I was a youth.
The story revolves around a new mutant/inhuman player that pops up in Africa with vendetta against Storm that has been festering within him for a number of years. Marvel in all their wisdom is seemingly pushing and downplaying mutants as a whole of late. The introduction of these new Inhumans seems to be relegating the mutant population into the background. I’ve heard it said that Marvel is trying to downplay the X-Men because of internal issues with FOX over having a near lifetime right to the movie licences, but who knows. To me it seems as if mutants, the X-Men in particular, aren’t getting the proper push from Marvel even as thie books continue to sell well.
That being said, Meruda, the baddie in this tale does offer an impressive challenge, not only for Storm, but for the rest of the X-Men on hand. Channeling some sort of magic, he is able to conjure up demons and has a limited control over the weather. While his introduction gives the reader a fair sense of dread with his actions, that dread is somewhat tempered when we finally see him. He isn’t necessarily a bad character, it’s just that his face looks like a cross between a pig and a brick wall. His proportions are just all over the place with one of his hands looking like that of a baby and the other the size of a briefcase. This s strange, because throughout the rest of the book he looks fine, and the overall artwork is great, so it’s strange that an art hiccup comes so soon while reading.
Anyways, Storm ends up in a battle to save some of her family members all the while trying to find out who this mystery person is and how her knows her. Like I said, this is a fine story, but one that screams for a multi issue arc. If Meruda was just some one-off baddie with only the slightest connection to one of the X-Men, then I would have been fine with this. The problem is that the writer clearly wants something deeper here. A lot is done to tie Meruda directly into a traumatic event in Storm’s past and in doing so making him a more dangerous threat. With an arc we could have seen how Storm’s past emotionally wreaks havoc on her and on her relationship within the team. Unfortunately, we are just left wanting a more fleshed out story in the end.
That being said the action set-pieces within the book are superb. Panels flow well and the contrasting use of color helps both Storm and Meruda pop while going at it. While the X-Men are engulfed in their own little action bits trying to help Storm’s family, they aren’t the focus and never take up that much page time. Amazing X-Men Annual #1 is a fun book that offers a lot of fun and frantic action, while giving some much appreciated character development to one of the X-Men mainstays.
The writing is solid, but you are going to wish this was an actual run and not a throwaway annual that holds little to no repercussion for the future. Likewise, the art is well done, although strangely, the shot of Meruda at the books outset and the shot of Storm at its end are very weak. How a book can pull of such great action art and manage to not understand human anatomy when a character is posing is odd.
If you are a fan of Amazing X-Men then you are to want to give this one a read, and if you are a Storm fan then this is a must have.
Amazing X-Men Annual #1
STORY BY: Monty Nero
ART BY: Salvador Larroca
COLORS BY: Sonia Oback
COVER BY: Salvador Larroca
PUBLISHER: Marvel Comics
COVER PRICE: $4.99
RELEASE DATE: June 4th, 2014
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