Giant Size X-Men: Nightcrawler

[Woozie]

Lay out the four pages for us.

Page 1:
The Team enter through the gate remarking about the odd mutant signature they took note of.
Kurt requests Eyeboy to do a scan.
Eyeboy notes that while he can't pick up any singlular person, he does see movement all around them
Lockheed goes wild
Kurt goes to calm him down, but is then sees something

Page 2
Panel 6: Confronted by the illusion (That everybody sees and not just Kurt)
Panel 7: They try to dogpile Illusion rachel, but she dodges out of the way
Panel 8: Run after her down the hall way
Panel 9: Second attempt, this time they succeed
Panel 10: Illusion fades and the sidri scatter

Page 3
Doug goes through the wall
Doug confronted with the alien tech
Illyana follows immediately after him (rather than just fucking around and not)
Kurt and Eyeboy fight off the sidri alone
They're pushed into the area where Lady Mastermind is being stored

Page 4
Warlock reveal
Doug requests Magik keeps it a secret
Warlock interfaces with the tech
Cut back to Nightcrawler and Eyeboy fighting
Magik and Doug appear
Fight disolves

Page 5
Whoops lady mastermind all along
Leave

Give it a leeway wind of about 3 or so pages so somewhere between 4 and 8.


edit: And that's not even me Claremounting it.

[ericng]

More like Giant Size Cypher

If Cypher were the only New Mutant starring then I would agree but you have three New Mutants here.

Granted that it reminds us of Excalibur with inclusion of Nightcrawler, Lockheed and 'illusion' Rachel which are what Alan Davis drew.

[JB]

Their is absolutely nothing anyone could say that wouldn't make me think this wasn't a waste of paper.. That's two lackluster giant sized issues in a role, and it was more about Doug than Kurt.

It now seems the GS issues are for planting seeds for later (Warlock, Sidri in the mansion, Lady M.). Though I think the art in this one was nice and Jean/Emma was gorgeous.

[ericng]

Biggest issue with this issue is that it's decompressed to all hell.

Yeah, agree.

Hickman should have explained why the Sidri decided to migrate to X-Men mansion and to Earth and also why Warlock had to hide inside Cypher's arm.

That would have made the story more interesting.

[PetPigeon]

They pretty much already said these Giant-Size issues are mainly to be artist show cases with a small story. The art here was beautiful and I really enjoyed it.

[Cerridwen]

Yet another "mind controlled Rachel." Sort of.

[scouse mouse]

I love Lady Mastermind and I'm gutted my comic shop is closed in the UK so I cant pick this up. But wasnt Regan already on Krakoa? They made a point of showing her next to Sinister when all the former villains arrived. Or had she left, and then couldn't get back?

[Slicknickshady]

It is a beautiful book! The art is dynamite.

[Su_Whisterfield]

Drat, while I was writing my synopsis, I was gazumped.
Well, you can have it anyway.

The book starts in the abandoned Westchester mansion which is overgrown with Krakoan vegetation.
The team come through the gate to investigate why the gate is picking up multiple hits of life forms trying to access it.
Most of the hits were non-mutant, so blocked by the gate, but at least one was a mutant.

Kurt, Illyana, Doug and Trevor have been sent to investigate.

They’re pretty sure something is there, but can’t find anything.
Lockheed goes on the rampage and is restrained by Kurt.
There’s the ghostly figure of Thunderbird and Rachel hanging about.
Kurt gives chase after Rachel.
They catch her but she’s distant and distracted.

Doug, meanwhile, Touches Something He Shouldn’t and we’ll come back to him in a minute.

Rachel’s lucid enough to talk to, she says she thinks she’s dreaming, dreaming of travelling the galaxy, hunting. Her body discorperates into lots of itty bitty little Sidri Hunters.
“Oh no,” say Kurt (which is, very Kurt, most people would have said $¥€€>$<).

Back to Doug. He’s found the Sidri nest and a repurposed anti-matter drive.

Kurt, ’Yana, Lockheed and Trev take on the swarm of Sidri while unbeknownst to the team, Doug opens up a line of communication with the Sidri.

Kurt and ‘Yanna have a cute discussion over who’s going to find Doug, she hates to pull rank on him... but in a combat situation, as a Captain, she out-ranks him. But this is Kurt, who runs teams by saying ‘Please’ so it’s not an issue, she goes after Doug while Kurt and Trevor try to keep the swarm of bugs at bay.

Illyana finds Doug communicating with the Sidri. Along with Warlock! Who’s fully separate and independent, and remembers her, but he’s a secret for now. He returns to Doug’s arm.

The Sidri stop fighting and Douglock and Illyana rejoin the team.

Denouement.
Doug has made peace with the Sidri in exchange for them being allowed to stay on the Westchester estate. Also, the Sidri would very much like the team to remove their mutant infestation; Lady Mastermind.
She was trying to reach the Krakoa gate when she stumbled into the nest.
She’s been cocooned by the Sidri but clearly her powers were still active and effecting both the Sidri and the mutant team, creating the apparitions and illusions.
They revive her and lead her home.
Doug is worried that giving the Mansion over to the Sidri, but they have agreed to allowed mutants access to the Krakoa gate.
They escort Lady Mastermind home.

Roll credits.

Analysis.
This was a bit of a curates egg.
Some cracking character beats, between Kurt and Illyana, Doug and Illyana, and best of all, Kurt and Lockheed.
Seeing Warlock independent again was a treat.

Some juicy future plot points, Doug and Warlock for a start. The Sidri and their repurposed anti-matter drive which isn’t explored but is clearly Important.

Art was serviceable, I’ve seen better from Alan but I’ve seen worse. Some nice large, lush splash pages.

It felt very nostalgic, very 80s.

Not much suspense, if you know your X-Men history, the Sidri are on the cover. Not sure why Thunderbird manifested, does he have a history with Lady Mastermind I’m not aware of? Rachel is a bit more understandable, it was Excalibur Rachel, so close to Kurt, Kitty would have been much spookier as she has history with both the team and the Sidri.

I think what let it down for me was that it wasn’t really a Nightcrawler story, he’s in no way crucial to the plot and it didn’t advance his story on Krakoa at all. I’m itching to know how our Elf is getting on with Krakoa and all the changes in his life and his friends and family, his beliefs and whole worldview has been turned upside down and this felt like a missed opportunity.

[Havok83]

I love Lady Mastermind and I'm gutted my comic shop is closed in the UK so I cant pick this up. But wasnt Regan already on Krakoa? They made a point of showing her next to Sinister when all the former villains arrived. Or had she left, and then couldn't get back?

She was on Krakoa but she left and got caught

[pandafarmer]

This should have been a New Mutants issue. Kurt didn't need to be in this at all. Even Eye Boy was more "important" than he was. That being said, it's nice to have these dangling threads moving forward (the Warlock mystery).

"Giant Sized Cypher" just didn't have as nice a ring to it I guess...

[JB]

I love Lady Mastermind and I'm gutted my comic shop is closed in the UK so I cant pick this up. But wasnt Regan already on Krakoa? They made a point of showing her next to Sinister when all the former villains arrived. Or had she left, and then couldn't get back?

For you, friend.

[Pallas]

It was flat, but fun to read. I really liked Yana and Doug, they saved the whole thing by their mere presence. The story is a bit dull but at least we got a Warlock back. 6/10 overall.

[Glio]

I love how her face is like "What is this nerd doing so close to me?".

[Kurolegacy]

Well this is certainly going to be awkward the day that the X-Men end up needing to use the mansion again. But I guess they’ll cross that bridge when they get to it.