X-Men Annual #8 (1984): The Adventures of Lockheed the Space Dragon and His Pet Girl Kitty

Creative Team: Chris Claremont, writer; Steve Leiahola, artist; Jo Duffy, original idea; Glynis Wein, colorist; Tom Orzechowski, letterer; Ann Nocenti, editor; Jim Shooter, editor-in-chief

Starting Line Up: Storm, Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Colossus, Sprite, Rogue, Rachel

Guest Stars: all the New Mutants

In New Mutants Annual #1: The New Mutants attend Lila Cheney's concert; Lila is attacked by an alien, and teleports her and Cannonball to her Dyson sphere; Lila, who is trying to steal Earth, is double-crossed; the New Mutants rescue them; Lila composes a love song for Cannonball.

Synopsis: I'll keep this one brief. The X-Men and the New Mutants are having a campout in the yard behind the mansion. Wolverine tells an ancient samurai story. Magik then tells a space opera tale starring Kitty and Lockheed and the other X-Men, with the villains being the White Queen and Sebastian Shaw. I won't go in to detail about it. During the course of the story, Magik creates an alagory of Storm having to cope with losing her powers and Kitty forgiving Colossus for breaking her heart. Storm decides to leave the X-Men for a while and return to Africa. Kitty finally has a talk with Colossus and forgives him.

Yeah, but is it good? I hope no one was expecting me to tell the fairytale in detail. I realise I gave a synopsis of Kitty's Fairytale from a few years before (this is essentially a sequel to that), but that story was good. This one not so much. Plus is was a Hell of a lot longer. I usually never comment on the art, but the art in this one is atrocious. I suspect they wanted a cartoony feel for a fairytale story. Could hot have the realworld bookends have been done by a better artist? Oh well. At least this junk is contained to the annuals and not put in the regular issues. Although next year would feature not only a real story, but one actually referenced in the regular issues for once. As for when this story takes place, my guess is right after Kitty and Wolverine return from Japan in a few months.

Significata: Storm decides to leave the X-Men. Kitty forgives Colossus. Double sized annual sold for $1.00.  ¶ 7:40 PM