Continuing the theme, we have Uncanny X-Men Annual #1, once again co-credited to Chris Claremont and Tony Bedard. 

This is a lead-in to the "wedding of the century", as Marvel insist on calling it. Yes, I know it's hype, but there comes a point where you're making claims so violently at odds with the reality of what you're promoting that it just makes the whole thing sound even sillier.

Regular readers will probably have noticed that I'm not a huge fan of this idea.  Storm and Black Panther as a couple isn't such a bad idea.  But rushing them into a wedding on the strength of a back-up strip from 1980 and a guest appearance in an issue of Black Panther five years ago simply isn't psychologically plausible on any level, considering that both characters had lengthy relationships with other people, and they never, ever mention one another.  The Storm miniseries works because it doesn't have to justify the current wedding.  But the wedding itself is an idea so ludicrous that no amount of good writing can save it. (And if the writing was that good, it wouldn't be doing such a stupid story in the first place.)  Give it a couple of years of build-up and I could buy it.  Have the Panther show up, propose, and get an acceptance the next issue... no.  Come off it.  That's just idiocy.

This story nominally tries to justify Storm's decision to accept.  In reality, it's more of a closure issue to write out Storm, and wisely places its emphasis on those aspects.  If anything, the writers seem more interested in her relationship with Forge and Jean Grey, or the question of why Storm has never previously tried to track down her family.  A token effort is made to set up the marriage, but quite honestly, I don't think the writers of this story believe in it any more than I do, and I think they're trying to duck it and write about something more promising instead.  Much of what they have to say about those other subjects is quite interesting, to be fair.

By the way, this story is supposed to take place while Storm is deciding whether to accept the Black Panther's proposal.  To put it mildly, it's less than obvious where in Reginald Hudlin's story she finds the time to race off to Kenya.  Is it really that hard to make these stories fit together?  For heaven's sake, you're supposed to read these ones together.  Even the most continuity-hostile editor still believes that mutual consistency applies there, surely?

It's a moderately interesting story where not a great deal really happens, a few interesting thoughts about Storm's character are voiced, and the wedding clumps its way across the page every now and then.  If the aim is to sell the wedding then it certainly doesn't succeed, but I suspect the real aim is just to give the X-Men a proper goodbye to one of their main characters, and it works a little better on that level.

Rating: B

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