I was never an Emma Frost fan until Grant Morrison’s New X-Men run.  I thought he found a character that was far more inetresting than she had ever been shown to be and made her flawed, complex and fascinating.  I was somewhat taken aback when she appeared to turn to the dark side again in the Dark Reign one shot, but I should have known there was far more to it than that.  This annual nails her character again, and the negotiations with Namor were perfectly Emma-esque and she certainly seems to still be on the side of the angels.

I’m a big fan of Fraction’s X-Men.  Back in the 90s I followed the x-titles devotedly until I grew despondent with the constant introduction of new characters and story threads only for nothing to be resolved.  Fraction seems to subscribe to the school of pared down collections of characters and storylines, focussing things into a far more satisfying read.  This is an appropriate use of the annual, fleshing out one of those said characters nicely.

As for the art, I actually liked it.  I’m not always an Acuna fan but he seemed to fit the Hellfire Club flashbacks.  I liked Breitweiser even more believe it or not.  He seems a little chameleonic as an artist in fact, and here he seems to channel a style possibly reminiscent of someone like John Paul Leon.