X-Men Annual #1 is the first annual in the X-Men line since 2023, this time brought to the page with a decidedly artist-focused team. Ryan Stegman, the former lead artist on the ongoing X-Men comic, writes this annual and supplies some pages of art as well. He is joined by the main artist, Steve Skroce, who handles the bulk of the art in this issue, and by Sanford Greene, who also contributes some pages and panels throughout. It is Stegman’s first writing job for Marvel Comics, and it is fitting that a comic featuring so much artistic talent focuses on art in storytelling and the human experience.
Annuals have changed in how they are used throughout the decades. Sometimes they featured their own interlocking stories alongside other annuals. Sometimes they served as finales for major story arcs. Nowadays, they are mostly diversions in the story; fun or character-focused escapades that contribute little to the overall story arc in the ongoing title but that provide character insight. X-Men Annual #1 strangely does not feature the titular team; instead, it focuses on Phoenix, with an assist from the Louisiana X-Men.
Creativity and Shortcuts to Power
The issue begins with Phoenix encountering the Uncanny X-Men, noticing a disturbance in reality, and a voice calling out. The team is soon beset by monsters that initially appear as sketched designs before fully occupying reality and becoming whole and fully colored. They are concepts that are being actualized, says Phoenix, and the X-Men are swift to battle the creatures.
It doesn’t take long for Phoenix to realize the source of the trouble; a mutant with vast power has kidnapped two artists and has hooked them to machines and forces them to draw for him. Using their creative abilities, this mutant, known as the Creationist, can turn their ideas into reality.
Phoenix learns that the Creationist, or Bobby, was once a student at Xavier School, who quickly lost faith in himself and left the school. Delving deeper reveals childhood trauma related to his mother denying both his mutant heritage and his artistic desires. A beautiful sequence ensues, with Phoenix and Wolverine entering the Creationist’s mindspace as drawings before emerging in his lair.
While Wolverine is quick to resort to violence, Phoenix takes the more peaceful approach, recognizing the man’s pain and unfulfilled potential and taps into it, seeking to help him. Through her encouragement for him to believe in himself and his own ideas, the conflict is resolved.
Ryan Stegman has written his own mini-series before, The Missionary for DSTLRY. But X-Men Annual #1 is the first comic that he has written for Marvel. Fittingly for an artist-turned-writer, the heart of the story focuses on the creative mind and includes subtle commentary on AI. The Creationist is a man who had unfulfilled artistic dreams, and now, unable to create his own art due to a lack of faith and belief in himself, resorts to stealing the work of other artists, whose work is put into his machine and regurgitated into monsters. But as Phoenix tells him, what Bobby needs is to trust himself. And it is his poorly drawn but sincere superhero drawing from his youth that saves the day. Human creativity, even when raw and unrefined, always prevails over machines that simply stitch together the work of others.
It’s a strong, resounding message, and a beautiful statement piece by an artist who has long admired X-Men comics starting in the days of Joe Madureira, and Disney animation. Ryan Stegman makes sure that his first Marvel Comics work as a writer showcases how human inspiration, human creativity, human-led art is vital.
The Best Art in X-Men (2024) Yet
Steve Skroce serves as the primary artist for this annual, drawing the bulk of the pages. Skroce’s work for Marvel in the ’90s and his Spider-Man won praise and attention, leading to a career in movie posters and designs, particularly for the Matrix series. His return to Marvel a few years ago was relatively low-key, focusing more on covers and a few short stories. X-Men Annual showcases his art in a bigger, bolder way than before, proving why Skroce was such a sought-after artist for so long.
Skroce’s work is beautiful in this issue, with his signature expressiveness in faces and body language on full display. His drawings of Phoenix are particularly beautiful, with a level of detail and a rendering of her new costume that may be the best yet.
Sanford Greene lends his talents to the issue as well, providing panels of action sequences between the monsters and the Uncanny X-Men. His sense of momentum is fueled by his somewhat looser, simpler pencils, but close up panels reveal his knack for detail too.
Ryan Stegman provides a few pages of art as well, drawing a beautiful sequence that sends the characters through the mindscape of the Creationist. The sketched look is lovely and bold, and fits into the story flawlessly.
Arthur Hesli provides the colors across the entire issue and deserves as much credit as any of the pencilers. Hesli is a color artist with a lush, deep palette for this comic that heightens the art. His work on Skroce’s pencils, in particular, is gorgeous, suiting the artist perfectly. The vivid use of colors during the fight sequences and the clever techniques in the sketched sequences are likewise brilliantly executed.
With three different pencilers working on this issue, it is easy for stylistic clashes to occur. But it is a testament to the story told and how it was presented, as well as to the skills of the pencilers and the color artist in question that this comic is seamless visually.
Verdict?
Ryan Stegman puts together an issue that highlights the creative power and potential of all people, and how it is always better to have faith in oneself and create with one’s own abilities rather than rely on shortcuts and stolen work. Steve Skroce, Sanford Greene, and Arthur Hesli provide art that complements the story perfectly and is the highest artistic point of any issue of Jed MacKay’s X-Men run so far.
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X-Men Annual #1
Ryan Stegman puts together an issue that highlights the creative power and potential of all people, and how it is always better to have faith in oneself and create with one’s own abilities rather than rely on shortcuts and stolen work. Steve Skroce, Sanford Greene, and Arthur Hesli provide art that complements the story perfectly and is the highest artistic point of any issue of Jed MacKay’s X-Men run so far.
