Thoughts

At the end of the last issue, we left Nightcrawler under attack and a month on the comic delivers with another fun slugfest as the German mutant, aided by Wolverine, Snowbird, Vindicator and Shamen take on the Savage Wendigo.

Last issue was all character-based build-up, with Wolverine returning to Canada, Nightcrawler joining him in a budding bromance, and them interacting and resolving his outstanding issues with Alpha Flight. All that while building up the story of a terrible threat – a savage, cursed beast that feasts on human flesh.

This issue, by contrast, is all action. The Wendigo arrives and the heroes have to take it down. Its a fun fight, and yet again Nightcrawler is playing a major part. Having pointed out how surprised I was by how little actual screentime (paneltime?) he was getting in the comic as I did this blog, I’m being more than compensated now.

That he’s with Wolverine when this happens is no accident. Nightcrawler is being defined as a character by contrasting him with his fellow X-man. Both heroes take on the Monster in this issue. Nightcrawler’s tussle is all internal monologue, the character struggling with doubts and strategies as he tries to evade his attacker and find a solution. Wolverine by contrast simply goes for the Wendigo, with caption box narration explaining what’s going on. The dialogue between the two also emphasises the difference. Wolverine is a Killer, Nightcrawler questions whether this can ever be justified.

His Christianity has been mentioned before in the title, but this is the first time that his morality and personality have lain at the heart of an issue. Indeed, we’re really seeing Nightcrawler in his well-known form becoming realised in these two issues.

Fun Panel

There’s loads of great action panels in this – but this is a great one.

Any Googling

It’s a cliffhanger for Alpha Flight at the end of the issue. It really feels like its setting up a spin-off as if the plans are in the works for an immediate comic. In the end Alpha Flight doesn’t get launched till 1983, with John Byrne as writer/penciller. Such a gap means they probably didn’t have any immediate plans. Or if they did they didn’t quite work out.

Mutant Mailbag Mayhem

The reprints of the letters page have now started including the Mighty Marvel Checklist. A little snapshot into where all the other titles were at the time. I used to love reading these at the back of the title, even if the issues maybe couldn’t quite live up to the blurb. I mean “Death-Duel with the Shadowqueen”? Dr Strange 44 sounds awesome.