Giant-Size X-Men: Nightcrawler has almost nothing to do specifically with Nightcrawler, but not to worry! It’s still very good.
Written by the X-Master himself, Jonathan Hickman, Nightcrawler leads a small team into the ruins of the X-Mansion. Yes, the X-Mansion is still in shambles (when isn’t it?), but there is something strange about their humble home. Nightcrawler, Magik, Cypher and Eye Boy catch glimpses of deceased or missing teammates from their past. Strangely enough, Nightcrawler catches glimpse of Rachel Summers in her hound uniform and chases after her for answers. Meanwhile, Cypher is sucked into a portal where he discovers that the alien race of Sidri have nested inside the X-Mansion.
This ride we are taken on is a wild one. Alan Davis uses abstract illustrations to paint us a picture that is disorienting both for the readers, and for the characters experiencing this moment of delirium. There a few particular panels of Rachel trying to explain what is happening with the memories in her mind. It’s trippy as hell and we don’t fully understand what is going on until they make their final reveal (and the answer seems so obvious once you know).
Seeing Cypher and Warlock work together to communicate and come to an agreement with the Sidri is also very cool. Cypher is often mocked as one of the weaker X-Men because his mutant ability is to speak any language, but in this comic Jonathan Hickman manages to make the duo cool as hell. It was also nice to see Magik interact with both Cypher and Warlock in the same manner their relationships had been to each other in the original run of The New Mutants.
The emotional stakes are very low in this comic book, but it’s clear that this particular one-shot was designed to be fun for the readers and not part of an over-arching story line. Ironically, though, considering the title of the book, the story mainly focuses on Cypher and Warlock.
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