Writing: Fabian Nicieza
Art: Liam Sharp
What Went Down: We open on the classic Cyclops and Jean Grey make-out spread, with a feather falling in front of them for some reason. In case you didn’t know, Scott and Jean have spent the last ten years, from their perspectives, living and raising Scott’s son Nathan, who later becomes Cable, in the future in their own four issue mini-series. Now they’re back in their own time, in their own bodies, and wondering what became of Nathan.
Nick Fury is watching the two newlyweds and explains that they were discovered unconscious with no brain activity, and they have been unconscious for only two hours. Fury then explains that he needs their help with a disturbed mutant named Sunset Grace who has opened up a portal to a crazy dimension right above the beach of St. Barts. Apparently this portal could potentially swallow the entire planet. So there’s no time to get help from any other heroes, plus Grace asked specifically for Scott and Jean.
Despite the impending doom of the planet, Cyclops, Jean, and Fury take the time to hike to the SHIELD base camp. Jean gets sucked into the interdimensional fissure, so Cyclops gets all emotional and follows her. Inside the weird dimension Cyclops quickly finds Jean, who has found some missing unconscious SHIELD agents. Using their powers they send the agents back through the rift and search through the wacky dimension to find Sunset Grace.
Grace, who apparently met Charles Xavier in the past, is happy to meet two of Xavier’s students. She explains why she opened up this uncontrollable portal. When Jean and Scott’s minds were sent into the future, Grace sensed it, and it unlocked her long forgotten powers…somehow.
She then explains the origins of her powers, which she discovered when she was a teenager. As a thirteen-year-old she was able to go into her own personal dimension that she called NeverNever Land, and she could create whatever she wanted within. As she got older she married and forgot about her magic world powers. One night she was driving home with her husband and son. It was raining, they crashed, Grace flew out, and as the car was rolling off a cliff Grace accidentally used her powers to suck her family into her fantasy dimension.
She was never able to reopen it and became catatonic until Professor X helped her with his powers. Still, she was never able to reopen the portal until the day she met Scott and Jean. Jean draws a parallel between Grace losing her family and Scott and Jean having to leave Nathan in the future. Jean uses her powers to help Grace come to terms with the loss of her family, and Grace is able to use her powers to recreate her husband and son within the dimension. Cyclops and Jean are sent out of the dimension, the portal closes, and Scott and Jean ponder how Grace is now able to live in a perfect world with a family even if it isn’t necessarily real.
How It Was: This is another one-off story before the big crossover. Once again it’s low on action and kind of different from the norm. However this one also has the problem of being very dull as well. We’re dealing with a Scott and Jean story, so it is chock full of endless conversations through their psychic rapport where they tell each other how important they are to each other and encourage each other and tell each other not to despair. It really gets annoying to read after a while. Most of this issue is really just to catch up readers (like me) that didn’t bother to read The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix mini-series. I know that I’ve stated before that Cyclops is my favorite character, but stories with him and Jean Grey can sometimes border on tedium.
Also it doesn’t help that Sunset Grace isn’t very interesting as a character or a concept. As you can tell by all the exposition I had to write up in the synopsis, Grace is a very convoluted character that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. She can make a fantasy world, but the fake world might engulf the real world, but that never happened when she was younger, plus she’s sad about losing her family, and she knows Xavier. The ending in particular just comes out of nowhere and isn’t really fulfilling. Nick Fury also makes an underwhelming appearance as a story device to deliver all the exposition necessary to set up the plot of the story for the X-Men and to explain how their mini-series ties in with present continuity.
The real reason to buy this issue is the guest art by Liam Sharp, which is gorgeous. All of the backgrounds, from the beaches of St. Barts to the forest that the heroes hike through, look lush and detailed. The characters are nicely depicted and work very well. And most importantly the NeverNever Land world is the perfect mix of familiar with “that’s not quite right” to make for a very visually appealing environment. It kind of reminds me of a fantasy world from a video game like Mario or Sonic. Everything is very bright and cheerful, but definitely has a sense that it isn’t quite right either even if it sure is nice to look at. Of course Sharp also takes some liberties with Cyclops and Jean Grey’s costumes, as you can see from the cover, which don’t look quite right and never appear again. I guess that was just the best that SHIELD could supply them with at the time.
Honestly, this is a pretty boring issue. Unlike the Colossus issue, this story doesn’t really further or expand the character of Cyclops or Jean Grey in any substantial way. The conflict of the story never feels imperative, and it really just wraps itself up without any significant input from Scott or Jean. But it sure is pretty to look at.
D+
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