Chris Claremont Anniversary Special #1 - Marvel Comics

CHRIS CLAREMONT ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL No. 1, January 2021

Perhaps best known by comic collectors everywhere for his unprecedented writing spell on “Uncanny X-Men” from 1975–1991, there can surely be little argument that if any “Marvel Comics” contributor deserved a fiftieth anniversary special to celebrate their “enormous impact” on the New York City-based publisher’s long-running success, it is Chris Claremont. But whilst this thirty-two page periodical undeniably contains a plethora of “characters created and defined by the pen of” the British-born American author, the publication’s rather choppy plot makes it debatably easy to see just why such a well-meaning commemorative work was only the eighty-eighth best-selling title in January 2021 - at least according to the Direct Market distributors for that month.

To begin with, Dani Moonstar’s “mission across time and space for an incredible psychic showdown against the Shadow King” isn’t all that obvious until some way through the narrative. Up until this point, the Eagle Award-winner’s storyline seems to just lurch from antagonist to antagonist as Mirage initially appears to face the fiery fury of Dark Phoenix, followed by the utterly bizarre villainous super-team of Mister Fantastic, Doctor Doom and the Sub-Mariner. Admittedly, all of these foes are later shown to have been manipulated by Amahl Farouk, but it isn’t until a watery image of the “multiversal manifestation” is finally pencilled in a panel that is becomes clear this mismatch from various realities is being stage-managed; “I so love it when my victim’s fight. Their souls become much yummier. Wonder who’ll die first?”  

However, Just because any perusing bibliophile now knows that Professor X's nemesis is behind Moonstar's subsequent encounters doesn't help provide them with any particular rhyme or reason for specifically occurring. A thoroughly ferocious fist-fight between Binary and a possessed Rogue is probably the best of the bunch, with Claremont's unusually blood-thirsty incarnation of Anna Marie disconcertingly appearing all-too keen to dispatch Carol Danvers with an energy blast through the chest. Yet, despite being dynamically drawn, even this action-packed sequence becomes head-scratchingly surreal when it appears to have been simply a holodeck simulation concluded by the sudden appearance of Corsair and the rest of his Starjammers.

Perhaps this comic’s biggest let down though comes with its ending, which abruptly follows the lone New Mutants’ ultimately successful fight against an utterly sadistic Gambit. Having been beaten to tears by the Shadow King, and then subsequently saved by ‘Ro Munroe, Dani is depicted triumphantly flying away into the night’s sky on Brightwind only to then be shown aiming an arrow at Hela's head in the very next panel. This jolting transition apparently marks the point where the Goddess of Death becomes convinced Moonstar was good enough to become a Valkyrie, and bemusingly congratulates the understandably angry youth for passing “thy test.”

The regular cover art of "CHRIS CLAREMONT ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL" #1 by Salvador Larroca