Nightcrawler #1

This is the line that this issue leaves us with, and I think it's very suitable, considering that Claremont seems to have remained as stagnant as ever. Having not written comics in over ten years now, old fans of his work are clambering to pick up this issue and experience the X-Men of old through this narrative. And yet, considering all the work that the medium has done to move past this style of writing, I find myself really disliking this issue as a whole, becoming a huge let down for me within the first few pages.

I was skeptical when picking this up simply because Claremont was behind it, but with a name like Nightcrawler on the cover, I was hard pressed to not look into it. And, while I'm in the minority, I stand by my belief that this just isn't a well written book. Claremont cannot seem to trust his audience for five seconds without spelling out exactly what is happening on the page we're looking at. It doesn't make for natural dialogue, feeling very forced and out of sync; these aren't real people that Chris is writing, they're shadows of what characters are supposed to be. Nightcrawler's inner dialogue often reads as Claremont simply addressing the audience, painted in blue while wearing fake ears and a tail. Meanwhile, there are various references here that, while readers may or may not understand them, sort of alienates a large amount of the current audience. Many readers haven't necessarily been following comics since the '80's, and, while I'm familiar with the lore, I feel like I'm left with a disadvantage for not being born before the early 1990's. And, with one of the focal characters being entirely foreign to me, despite being versed in the X-Men lore, I immediately felt somewhat excluded from this issue.

The conflict itself is very mundane, what with Nightcrawler being alive again and no one seeming to get over it. This is a pretty bland set-up sequence that leaves me wanting a more challenging story, seeing as all this has been covered extensively in the Amazing X-Men. Something that also confused me was, despite the romantic tension between Storm and Nightcrawler in Amazing X-Men 3, and perhaps a little here, nothing ever really comes of it, as * MINOR SPOILER* Nightcrawler suddenly surprises one of his exes by showing up at her door after being dead for years. And how does she respond? Bieng mildly surprised and making-out with him. No feelings of abandonment or standing up for herself having moved on since Nightcrawler's disappearance; apparently, she's just been waiting around for a miracle to happen. And, while I understand wanting to return his life back to normal, there's no real lead-up to this; it feels like it comes out of nowhere, especially with the aforementioned Storm stuff. Otherwise, Chris seems to be setting something up with Wolverine, as he has stated openly that he will be a major player in this issue. And, while he's one of the few characters who seems to talk like he normally does, we seem to have to recap everything from his current series the moment we see him, feeling like a waste of a few pages. Wolverine is a pretty boring character in his own right, so I wasn't excited that he was to be present, and this just enforces that.

The art itself isn't anything special; don't get me wrong, it's pretty solid overall, but it feels a little too... clean, like there's not much style to it. It feels like a watered down version of what the Amazing X-Men has been doing. Honestly, this whole issue has, all things considered. I could go on for a while longer, but at this point, there really isn't much more to say. This issue let me down on so many levels, but, above all else, not having the trust of the author is what really disappointed me. Series like Moon Knight and Daredevil have some pretty deep stories without having to hold the audiences hand; why couldn't that happen here? Sadly, it looks like I'll be BAMFing away from this series in the future; here's to hoping the new author of Amazing X-Men can do the characters some justice.