Uncanny Spider-Man: Fall of X

New York City may be Spider-Man’s home turf, but there’s a new wall-crawler in town these days!  Or rather, a creepy-crawler since doesn’t actually crawl up walls, but teleport (BAMF!) up and through them as he pleases.  Yes, Nightcrawler has now adopted a superhero persona while all of mutanity is on the run from Orchis.  Not only has it allowed him to do some good while everyone else is hiding from the anti-mutant science organization, but it has also allowed him to run from his own problems as well.  Which are determined to find him at any cost as seen when a certain shape-shifting refugee shows up screaming about those who have taken her baby away.

“Uncanny Spider-Man” comes to us from writer Simon Spurrier, who has been chronicling Nightcrawler’s path through the Krakoan Era in “Way of X” and “Legion of X.”  This represents the end of his time with the character, and it’s a very solid wrap-up.  You know, assuming that you’ve read everything up to this point. While I’ve enjoyed Spurrier’s other titles, they’ve also had to devote a lot of time to the high concepts and other characters he’s wanted to explore in and around Krakoa.  This time, though, it’s all about the Furry Blue Elf himself and the story is all the better for it.

It also helps that despite the darker undertones of the setup, this miniseries offers up a lot of fun.  Kurt struggles admirably to live up to Peter’s standard, particularly with the one-liners, but manages to acquit himself as a proper superhero when his mind is on it.  He also strikes up a surprisingly charming relationship with Silver Sable, whose mercenary group is brought on by Orchis to track the mutant down.  It’s all enough to make you want to see more of this Uncanny Spider-Man.

Except that the real point of this is that Kurt is running away from his responsibilities as a mutant and to himself as well.  His “conscience,” represented as a little glowing bamf, is quick to point this out while offering properly cutting commentary on his efforts to do so.  This could’ve been annoying, save for the fact that it’s necessary for the character and the story.  Fun as it is to see Nightcrawler embrace the fun in this dire situation, it wouldn’t be true to him if he ran away from it all.  Still, after everything he’s endured over the past few years, it’s understandable to see him want to escape from it all as he tries to do here.

Spurrier turns all of the character’s issues into a proper story, while finding room  to further retcon his origin as well.  You see, this collection also contains the one-shot “X-Men Origins:  Blue” which does something I’m surprised has taken this long to do:  Kick “The Draco” out of continuity.  That was one of the most infamous stories from the much-maligned Chuck Austen run of “Uncanny X-Men” where Nightcrawler’s father was revealed to have been Azazel, a demon who was trying to spawn as many teleporters as he could in order to escape from his interdimensional prison.  It’s a story that everyone has tried to politely ignore over the years, but Spurrier buckles down and does the hard work of saying it doesn’t matter anymore.

I say “hard work” because there’s a lot of fancy footwork on display as the writer tries to square how the previously established bits of Nightcrawler’s origin square with the events of “The Draco.”  So there’s a lot of exposition in “Blue” telling the reader about stuff that happened and you can really feel the storytelling gears creak as the writer does this.  It does all make sense in the end, and it was smart of Spurrier to hinge the story on Nightcrawler and Mystique coming to terms here.  In fact, the shape-shifting mutant terrorist comes off more sympathetic here than anyone else has made her appear in years.

So good work to the writer on that, and on Marcus To and Wilton Santos for providing capable art that sells everything the story is aiming for.  Lee Garbett provides the art for the majority of this volume, with Javier Pina and Simone Buofantino pitching in for Issue #3.  Garbett is good with the action, and more importantly, with the character work as well.  He really does make us believe that Nightcrawler and Silver Sable work great together.  Though the man’s art can seem sparse in places, it still feels appropriate to this story that’s as driven by character as it is by action.

“Uncanny Spider-Man” was Spurrier’s last contribution to the Krakoan Era of “X-Men” comics, and it’s good to see him go out on a high note.  He gives Nightcrawler a fittingly heroic sendoff while leaving him in better shape than when he started writing the character.  It’s also the writer’s farewell to the Marvel Universe for now, so let’s hope that he’ll be back eventually… or that his stint on DC’s “The Flash” leads to wider success for his superhero and creator-owned projects.  Because even if he can get too clever about his high concepts or spelling out his feelings regarding the superhero genre, the man deserves it as he’s shown again here.