X-Men Annual #1: Art 101

Jean Grey has returned to Earth, but her reunion with her friends is short-lived when a strange presence is detected in New Orleans. What ensues is a battle that will take the X-Men to the limits of time, space, and imagination. 

With the ever-increasing mass of AI slop draining aquifers and poisoning underprivileged communities, it can sometimes feel that the true struggle of creating art, that being the satisfaction of learning to create it with your own hands, is starting to become lost in the scores of people wanting things done quickly and without personal hassle. It’s a sentiment I can understand, but will never agree with. Art is nothing without the drive and HUMAN effort used to create it. Whether that be a stick person drawn out of boredom during a tedious school lecture, or the Mona Lisa. That might not have been the intention of this story to make a case for the creation of art, but its what I got out of it. The Creationist, the villain of this story, is relatable in that he has a desire to create art but doesn’t possess the necessary skills to make it come to life, which is made all the more frustrating by the fact that his mutant gift is the ability to create anything he can imagine and draw, even vaguely. In concept it’s not an original ability, but his personal limitations keep it from being completely OP. This is why he targeted the X-Men. He was a former student at the Xavier School who left (before one of the many times the school was destroyed) because no one taught him how to properly use his gift. He’s not the most nuanced villain, but he’s fine for what the story needs and his backstory is moving enough to at least garner a bit of sympathy. 

While widely known for his art, Ryan Stegman steps into the writer’s chair for this annual and does a fairly solid job on this somewhat personal story. The story flows well enough and the conflict is dire, but mostly every X-Men save Jean is little more than window dressing for the big monster fights. Even Logan, who goes with Jean to track down the Creationist is mostly just here to point claws, loosely flirt with Jean, and threaten murder. All Wolverine staples for sure, but there isn’t much else to him here. I wouldn’t be shocked if this story was originally intended for the recently ended Phoenix solo series, or at the very least the Uncanny X-Men book that actually stars these characters. The X-Men team that normally star in this book (Cyclops’ Alaska squad to be specific) aren’t seen or referenced at all here. I’m digressing. There are some bits of humor here as well in the form of Stegman himself and superstar artist Sanford Greene who are the two artists that Creationist kidnaps in order to channel his abilities. 

Speaking of Greene, he and Stegman are joined by Steve Skroce (who seemingly escaped the Creationist’s clutches) on art for this book, and their styles mesh remarkably well. There are a few pages when Jean and Logan are tracking down Creationist that are visually stellar, rendering the pair as sketches as the backgrounds around them are fully colored and shaded. A cool visual contrast that Jean states makes them ideas rather than characters in that moment, which is a fun bit of meta commentary. The fight against the monsters is fun as well, with the resolution coming when Creationist makes a superhero who appears to be an amalgamation of two heroes that are crossing over later this year.