The various Ultimate titles reintroduced annuals last year, and evidently Marvel see them as a success.  Not only do we have another range of Ultimate annuals this year, but they've started showing up for a handful of other Marvel titles as well.

The reason why Marvel got rid of annuals in the first place (and replaced them with extra issues of the regular titles) was because sales had dropped off quite badly.  That, in turn, was because most of the annuals were just unabashed filler.  There's a slight degree of that this year as well - did the world really need Ultimates Annual #2?  But on Ultimate X-Men, Robert Kirkman is obviously determined to make his story count.

It's a very strange story, and I'm still not quite sure what to make of it.  Dazzler finally wakes up from her coma (and seems in remarkably perky mood, considering), only for Nightcrawler to promptly teleport her away, claiming that the X-Men are under attack.  Then he keeps her in a cave for a while and tries to make friends, until the X-Men work out what's going on and come to sort things out.

Normally these stories end with some sort of mind control angle, but no.  Ultimate Nightcrawler is just mental.  There's a vague attempt to link it to the abuse he suffered when he was working for Weapon X, but the link isn't immediately obvious.

Of course, there's no rule that characters in the Ultimate books have to stay close to the templates.  Just look at Dazzler herself, who has some superficial points in common with the original, but is basically a different person.  Still, even by those standards, this is a remarkably odd take on Kurt.  It deserves some credit for writing a mentally ill character who is genuinely more disturbed than psychotic, but it's also miles away from the traditional cheerful swashbuckler, and makes this version of the character downright creepy.

In a way, that seems a terrible shame, because the mainstream character was long since bludgeoned into angst-ridden pointlessness.  Ultimate Nightcrawler provides an opportunity to go back to basics and revisit something that the original has lost.  To be honest, that's the take I'd rather have seen.  But then again, it doesn't really fit will with the origin established by Mark Millar, which was as brutally cynical as you'd expect from him, and I suppose a strong case can be made for this approach as a legitimate attempt to engage with the character as established.

It's certainly an unexpected but somewhat logical direction, which Kirkman has set up effectively with months of subplots.  It's the sort of twist that ought to prove effective.  I have a nagging doubt about the central premise - could Xavier really have failed to notice that one of his team was mentally ill? - but really, I think my resistance comes from wanting to see the character go in a different direction, for reasons that have more to do with nostalgia than story logic.

Salvador Larroca's guest art is as consistent as we've come to expect from him, striking the right balance between dynamism and character.  He's a good fit for Robert Kirkman's writing, and clearly enjoys doing some good old-fashioned storytelling full of melodramatic emotion.

There's also a slightly pointless 2-page back-up strip which explains the running gag about Xavier's cat being called Mystique.  Unfortunately, the explanation is dull enough that we were better off without it.  And we have an unfortunate and surprising scheduling glitch - Xavier and Wolverine spend several pages discussing the conclusion of the Magician arc in some detail, even though it isn't out for several weeks.  (It's not even running late - it's just not out yet.)

Still, all told, this has to rate as a successful issue.  It does pull off an unexpected new direction for a main character while making perfect sense with what's gone before.  It's not really the direction I'd have preferred to see, but I suppose that's my problem.

 Rating: B+

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