Chris Claremont and the X-Men go together like peanut butter and jelly. Him writing an X-book again is about a sure thing as it can get. If you haven’t been reading Amazing X-Men, then you might not know that Nightcrawler is the latest comic book character to come back from the dead. I guess it is credit to the blue elf that it sure seems a lot longer than 4 years since his death. Nightcrawler was never really a favorite of mine, but I didn’t dislike him and it wasn’t until Amazing that I realized just how much I missed him.
With his new solo title, we see Kurt Wagner (Nightcrawler) back with the X-Men and in a battle with Wolverine in the danger room. Of course, Wolverine isn’t the same as he was before and Kurt soon realizes that a Logan without a healing factor is a quite different person. That’s not the only change ahead of him. The Jean Grey School for Higher Learning isn’t the same school that Nightcrawler is reminiscing about, in fact, it isn’t even the only mutant school anymore. He moves from reminiscing to a reunion that results in Kurt, of course, getting into a fight.
This first issue didn’t do a lot, but just worked us back into Nightcrawler’s life with very little effort. That both worked for and against the book. It was great to have the feeling of hanging with an old friend where no matter what has changed, when you get together things always seem like old times. The flip side is that it didn’t do a lot to get me excited. When you are a hundred issues into a book, then you can read stories like this and love them. With a new issue, I just felt like we needed a little more to get us hooked.
The thing that really impressed me was the art by Todd Nauck. It had a very classic look to it and, paired with Claremont’s writing, it really felt like I was reading an issue from years ago. None of that is a bad thing, it does work and should please the rabid Nightcrawler fans. I do think that it was a little early to give him a solo title after just coming back in Amazing, and would have probably liked to see this creative team on a proper X-book instead, but the Bamf! is back one way or the other.
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