Random Happenstance

It wasn't the first annual I ever read--that was probably Star Wars Annual #1, co-incidentally also by Claremont--but X-Men Annual #6 was one of the first for me; which in hindsight is almost a shame, since it's better than just about any annual since? Great story, Sienkiewicz art, friggin' Dracula; the only misstep is it kills off a Tomb of Dracula character in such a way that I don't think she's ever come back. Just as a package, though, pound for pound, it's a great comic, in a way annuals would rarely be later. Like today's book! From 1993, X-Men Annual #2, "A Bluer Slice of Heaven" Written by Fabian Nicieza, pencils by Aron Wiesenfeld, inks by Al Milgrom, Bob Wiacek, and Keith Williams.

I had to look this up, since to compare this to X-Men Annual #6 again, that one was only 39 pages; I definitely would have said it was longer, as way more happens in it. This one's 64 pages, but the lead story is 45, then a 10-page throwaway Scott Lobdell/Ian Churchill Beast story. Although there were annuals chock-full of back-up features and pin-ups before--Amazing Spider-Man Annual #15 comes to mind, although the lead story is so good it carries it--for several years, starting maybe around X-Factor Annual #3 and the Evolutionary War crossover, it became exceedingly rare for an annual to make full use of it's page count, instead featuring a slightly longer lead-story, then shorter stuff of often varying quality. And we're nattering on about this, rather than getting into this issue's plot, since...? Most of the story is incremental steps of the larger ongoing plotline, and brief character bits. Or caricature: here's Scott and Jean being melodramatic about their relationship and the hardships of X-life, here's Beast in the lab grinding away, here's Gambit borderline sexually harassing. Beast does have a line about having to act all "morally perturbed and angst-ridden as everyone else" just to be taken seriously; he was just getting started on work on the Legacy Virus, and in a brief shot is drawn more lean than his usual broad-shouldered cartoon version. It probably isn't intentional, but it feels like a last goodbye to the old, fun Beast; you wouldn't be seeing him anytime soon. (Ah, I say that, but also feel like Joe Madureira maybe made him look fun, briefly.)

This also tries to set up a new villain, or at least antagonist: what he actually wants is supposed to be morally grey but instead just feels vague? It's Jonathan Chambers--no, not Chamber, this was Empyrean, who had some empathic emotion absorbing/redirecting powers. He was also setting up what he as much as calls a "leper colony" for mutants with the Legacy Virus, so he had the stricken Pyro there, along with the rest of the Brotherhood; who are reunited with estranged members Avalanche and the formerly Crimson Commando, now just Commando, saying he felt like the Crimson had been bled out of him on their last failed mission. (Although created in the 80's, CC had been a WWII hero, now cyborg'd up, not unlike Erik Larsen's Superpatriot.) There's a bit of a fight, but it's supposed to be open as to whether Empyrean is helping stricken mutants, or exploiting them; I think that would come down pretty solidly on the exploiting side later. Recurring government-man d-bag Henry Peter Gyrich makes an appearance, which I don't think was entirely common for the X-books? I'm used to him making things worse for the Avengers, and can't recall if he had any particular racism or was just always on the government's side.

Also, this was an early appearance of Kwannon, as Revanche, a name I never got: so, Betsy Braddock had got put in her (Japanese) body, while she got Betsy's British, purple haired one. Which, this issue, is revealed to have contracted the Legacy Virus. There's almost the germ of an idea, with Kwannon and Betsy playing off of each other; but it's ground to pulp in the mill of the X-Men soap opera long before anything really comes of it. She'd be back, much much later. The Legacy Virus plotline would run, usually in the background, from 1992 to Uncanny #390 in 2001: it was maybe intended as a metaphor for HIV/AIDS, but is somewhat muddled, since mutants could get it randomly.