Amazing X-Men #1 pg 16 (McGuinness pencil, Vines ink, Aaron script) - Beast, Firestar, BAMFs, and a . . . portal!

From THE QUEST FOR NIGHTCRAWLER pt 1 comes this page from Amazing X-Men #1 (2014), pencils by Ed McGuinness, inks by Dexter Vines and story by Jason Aaron.

This complimentary page goes well with the DPS from the same issue (pgs 2-3), with the return of the X-Men’s heart and soul, Nightcrawler, after he was away from comics for nearly 3 1/2 years (when he died saving Hope Summers in the Second Coming, X-Force #26, also see that pg 19 for more details). This page features Beast and Firestar on the hunt for BAMFs living in the schools walls. Beast (Hank McCoy) has had enough and wants to murder all these cute little creatures that remind him of his long gone fuzzy blue elf friend, Nightcrawler. The BAMFs have been stealing from various people, but have gone too far by taking Beast’s coffee maker, aka Eleanor. Firestar (Angelica Jones) has just arrived to be a new teacher at the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning. Beast sees her and urgently asks for her aid to help eradicate these pests, the BAMFs. Soon after they go into the walls they find the missing treasures, but also find something much more important, a portal. This portal is the gateway to “Somewhere Beyond the Realm of the Flesh” (since Nightcrawler is Catholic, I always assumed this to be Heaven or a transitory spot on way to Heaven).

Aaron’s dialogue and the panel flow on this page with some really great inky and expressive art (by McGuinness and Vines) is a lot of fun. Lots of art panels to enjoy on the page, like the top panel with the almost Scooby Doo profile character lineup posturing as they hunt for BAMFs. The middle splashy panel with a great compositions of cute BAMFs running towards the reader, with a great low angle on Beast as he finds his Eleanor and Firestar composed nicely in BG lighting up this scene with her fire power. Then the final beat in bottom panel of both Beast and Firestar realizing what they really found, a portal/gateway, not knowing where it leads, other than maybe this is where the blue BAMFs have been coming from. This portal ultimately leads to Nightcrawler’s return to the 616, but not without the cost of his soul.