X-Men Annual #4 (1980): Nightcrawler's InfernoCreative Team: Chris Claremont, writer; John Romita Jr, artist; Bob McLeod, artist; Tom Orzechowski, letterer; Glynis Wein, colorist; Louise Jones, editor; Jim Shooter, editor-in-chief
Starting Line Up: Storm, Angel(DNA), Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Colossus, Kitty Pryde
Guest Star: Dr. Strange
Synopsis: It's Nightcrawler's 21st birthday. The X-Men are throwing him a surprise party. One of the presents he recieves is crystal figure of himself. The figurine explodes and a black smoke envelops him. He drops, not breathing. Xavier and Storm rush him to the infirmary. After hours of waiting, they announce he is no longer living. Dr. Strange arrives at the mansion on the request of Prof. Xavier to investigate. Nightcrawler isn't DEAD, he's just not alive because his soul has been taken from the body. Strange senses a vengeful pressence, yet not an evil one. He is attacked by a powerful sorceress named Margali. She pulls Strange and the X-Men minus Xavier and Kitty into... well somewhere else.
The X-Men and Strange awaken to find themselves, along with Nightcrawler, outside the gates of Hell as described by Dante Alighieri in The Divine Comedy. They enter and arrive on the shores of the River Acheron. Charon ferries them across to meet King Minos, the judge of Hell. He appears as a ritzy sleazebag. He judges Nightcrawler for his sins and with his tail, hurls him into the pits of Hell. Storm goes right after him. She catches him as he passes the second circle of Hell (where the lustful as punished with unrelenting winds). While Nightcrawler escapes and teleports back to Minos' court, Storm is attacked by harpies. She knocked out and falls into the pits herself. Strange and the X-Men go after her. The descened into the third circle (where gluttons are punished with unrelenting, cold rain). They are attacked by Cerberus, the three headed hound of Hell. Wolverine easily defeats him and the hound runs. Dr. Strange believes they are doing too well in a fight against Hell. They make their way through the four circle (where the avaricious are punished by pushing boulders for eternity) and the fifth circle (where the wrathful violently battle each other). Dr. Strange finally asks Nightcrawler why Margali wants him to suffer in Hell. He explains long ago he killed her first born son, much to the surprise of the rest of the team. Then they arrive at the sixth circle, the city of Dis (where the heretics burn for eternity). The city is surrouned by a great wall of flame with an army of demons on top throwing spears. They try to take on the army, but are repelled. They find a great iron gate in the wall of flames. Colossus uses all of his strength to open it. The demon army backs away in fear. Apparently only one being (whether its God or Satan is never said) can open the gate.
The X-Men and Strange somehow skip the 7th circle and end up at the 8th, the Malabolge (where all forms of fraud are punished: panderers, seducers, flatterers, simonists, diviners, con-arists, hypocrites, and thieves). Wolverine assumes Storm must be here since she was thief as a child in Cairo. He jumps into the appropriate bolgia to look for her. The rest of the group go looking for him, but instead they find Storm. Or what looks like Storm. She's hideous and twisted by evil. Strange explains of of the serpent demons must have taken control of her body. Wolverine returns with a serpent he claims has Storm's scent. The serpent bites the body, and Storm is returned to normal. The X-Men descend into the 9th circle of Hell, Cocytus (where the traitors are punished by being eaten for eternity by Satan himself). Cocytus is an extreme cold, barren wasteland. Nightcrawler becomes trapped under a sheet of ice that only Colossus can break him out of. Satan appears, but Dr. Stange instantly recognises him as false. This false Satan turns out to be Margali. She wishes to know how the rest of the X-Men and Strange arrived here. Margali's daughter, Jimaine, appears and says she led the X-Men here. And Nightcrawler seems to know her. Margali strikes her down. Dr. Strange then steps in and the two sorcerers engage in a mystic battle until Nightcrawler stops them, willing to accept his fate. Strange decides to look into Nightcrawler's soul and find the truth. We find the abandoned infant Nightcrawler was raised by the gypsy sorceress, Margali Szardos, along with her two children, Stefan and Jimaine. Jimaine was Nightcrawler's best friend, but he started to turn evil. He made 'Crawler promise if he ever lost his good self, that Kurt would kill him. Eventually that day came when Stefan became a murderer. Nightcrawler was merely trying to subdue him when Stefan's neck was snapped by accident. Nightcrawler did live up to his promise, though. He was on his way to tell Margali when he was attacked by villagers. This is when Xavier steps in and offers him a spot on the X-Men way back in GS X-Men #1. Margali transports everyone back to the mansion and forgives Nightcrawler. Then she disappears. Nightcrawler is reunited with Jimaine, but it turns out she was Amanda Sefton, Nightcrawler's girlfriend, all along. She was trying to get the truth from him. Everyone celebrates.
Yeah, but is it good? I've said it before and I'll say it again. The X-Men do not belong in stories of magicks and sorcery and any other mystical crap. They are supposed to fight evil mutants, anti mutants, and occasionally go on a trip through the stars with the Shi'Ar. But if this story has to exist, this is the place for it. In an annual. It still feels like a waste of an annual, especially when the regular issue released that much (#138) has to suffer because of it. The story itself wasn't too bad for the most part. I've read far worse annuals. If you like Dante and all his nutty writting, this will either make you happy because it's totally based on it, or pissed off because of inaccuracies. It was nice to see Nightcrawler get some more back story and Colossus to be used as a strong character again after months of all-Phoenix all the time. Nightcrawler's killing of his "brother" is an interesting idea, but it never goes anywhere. Nighcrawler is going to be given a more religious side in the coming issues (Colossus even tells Nightcrawler if believe in his God means the existance of this Hell, he's glad he was raised an Atheist). But this event is never used as a catalyst for it. It would have been interested if Nightcrawler became a devout Christian to atone for his sin of killing. The ending is one of the worst I've ever read then. To quote Homer: "Well, isn't everything all wrapped up in a neat little package then." But I mean the sarcasm. Nightcrawler's old girlfrined (who we've never heard of before) is really his current girlfriend (who we barely see) in disguise. That's stupid and nobody cares. To make it worse, now they have a supporting characters with the power of magicks and they just pop up unwelcomed from time to time. One question I will raise is: Where's Angel? You're probably thinking "Well he's not an X-Men, so he probably left after the funeral." But as we find out next regular issue, he has rejoined the team. But he's not here. Maybe he went home in between to tell his girlfriend he's rejoining the X-Men. But he left on Nightcrawler's birthday. That's a prick thing to do.
Significata: Margali introduced. Nightcrawler's backstory is given. Amanda Sefton releaved to be Jimaine (but will continue to be called Amanda) and has mystical powers. Storm revealed as new leader of the X-Men now that Cyclops is gone. Kitty still feels freaked out by Nightcrawler's appearance.
