X-Factor Giant-Sized Annual #2
The sole cover blurb reads “Guest Starring: the Inhumans!” This is usually a selling point for me. I like the Inhumans, but with their inability to maintain an ongoing series they make the perfect guest-stars. If “The Man in the Moon”, written by Jo Duffy and drawn by Tom Grindberg, had been made during another era of Marvel comics Stan would have included an additional cover blurb. It would have read something along the lines of “…and a blink and you’ll miss it cameo by Power Pack!”
In short: a lovesick and mind-controlled Quicksilver kidnaps Franklin Richards. Quicksilver does so on the orders of Maximus the Mad who wants to destroy—the moon? The city of Attilan? Black Bolt? Honestly, the story is a little drawn out and muddled. I like my giant-sized annuals to pack a little more punch than this.
Grindberg is doing a really good Neal Adams impression here, but I can’t help imagining more and better scenes of the Inhumans’ alien city done in his later (and even more jaw-dropping) retro sci-fi style. Kirby creatures by way of Frazetta would have been something to see. Isn’t that why you write the secret city of the Inhumans into a story? So the artist can draw lots of weird freaks?
Various moments in the story illustrate the shortcomings in Busiek’s method for bringing back Jean Grey. The biggest problem is that keeping the real Jean in suspended animation, while the Phoenix ran around pretending to be her, invalidated most of the best moments of the Cyclops/Jean Grey romance. None of those moments actually happened, because Scott was shacked up with an alien imposter the whole time!
Quicksilver doesn’t come off looking too great either, especially for a story that was possibly meant to explain some of his erratic behavior and partially rehabilitate his image. A reluctant villain and yet never truly likable enough to be a popular hero, Quicksilver is the sort of potentially complex character I like reading. He’s just never had his moment to shine.
Unless you are a Grindberg fan or an X-Factor completist, I think you can safely skip this one.
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