X-Men Manifest Destiny Nightcrawler One Shot

I see they switched the title for this book from 'Nightcrawler: Quitting Time,' which was how it was originally solicited.

One thing was really great about this book. We got to see the swashbuckling, fun-loving, womanising Nightcrawler of old, instead of the tired old 'Kurt the almost priest' angle so many writers seem to opt for. We haven't really seen that side of his character since the end of the original Excalibur series.

Unfortunately, that was pretty much the ONLY thing great about it. Seriously, every pseudo-European cliché was thrown into this one, from Angry German Villagers to Gypsy curses. Why, oh why, Marvel seem unable to portray the entire German people in such a tired and uneducated way is beyond me.

This story doesn't even work in a nostalgic way, harking back to the 70s stories Claremont wrote. It's just a bad story. Not even a guest appearance from Mephisto helps.

And I LOVE Mephisto.

The art is passable but pretty much everything else is enough to make you want to avoid this one like The Plague. Wonder if they'll feature THAT in the next Marvel European tale...? Meh.