- Writer: Matt Fraction
- Artist (Present Sequences): Mitch Breitweiser
- Artist (Past Sequences): Daniel Acuna
Synopsis:
Years ago, Sebastian Shaw invites Namor to become the White King of the inner circle of the Hellfire Club. Namor refuses but shows his liking of the then White Queen Emma Frost. He then leaves, with Sebastian seething at being humiliated and talked down to by his guest. As a plan B of sorts, he then sends Emma to seduce the Prince of Atlantis and urge him to join their group "no matter what cost".
Emma planned to have Namor come to her by contacting him telepathically and then attempted to drown herself by cuffing a metal ball and chain to her foot and jumping into the South Chine Sea. The ploy worked and he "rescued" her and took her into Atlantis.
Two weeks have passed since Frost's last meeting with Shaw. Fearing Frost betrayed him, he then instructs Donald Pierce - a mutant-hating cyborg villain - to send the Sentinels after Frost and Namor. The two survived the underwater attack and managed to track down the source of the Sentinels. Namor was angered while Frost was shocked when they realized that it was Shaw who commanded the Sentinels that attacked them.
Namor pummeled Shaw while Emma's memories of the recent events have been erased by Selene, Black Queen. Realizing he could not win this particular battle, Namor walked off, while Shaw pronounced that, being surrounded by loyal telepaths, he could not even get near him without him knowing.
Cut to the present: after the "unholy" meeting of Norman Osborn, Emma Frost and Namor talked and planned an alliance of their own within the unholy alliance with Osborn. The deal: Emma will psychically protect Namor while Namor will protect Emma and mutantkind when Osborn eventually comes after them. To earn his trust, she proposes to kill Sebastian Shaw, the one man Namor could never get his hands on. Frost also revealed that after fighting the Phoenix once, she had to rebuild her mind from the inside out, enabling her to remember the memories blocked out by Selene.
Emma entices Shaw to meet with her while Namor stays hidden to watch the events as tehy unfold. Telpathically, she convinced Shaw that he can neither see nor move. She also made it appear to Namor telepathically that she slashed off Shaw's head and presented it to him on a silver platter, as per the deal they made. With that, she secured Namor's allegiance and at the same time got rid of Shaw. After Namor departs, she contacted Cyclops telepathically to prepare the brig as she will be taking Shaw in.
My Review:
The Good. This retcon of the relationship that exists among the three main characters -- Emma Frost, Namor, and Sebastian Shaw -- is a good backgrounder for the upcoming events in the Dark Reign saga. It's interesting to know how the then White Queen will use her leverage -- both on the psychic and political arenas -- to be on top of the foodchain. She has always been a good and cunning addition to the X-Men roster. Now that she has proven that still has the White Queen guts to pull off that trick with Namor to win his support just shows how dark this upcoming Dark reign saga will be -- assuming she plays a big role in the saga -- and we certainly hope so.
The Bad. The present time and flashbacks are shown in parts and in sequence, jumping from the present to the flashback then back again to the present, without any signal or heading that this is now a flashback that happened years ago. It makes it difficult to follow the story first time you read it.
I'm also not a big fan of the art. Sorry.
Lastly, this X-Men comics focuses on only one X-Man. This may or may not sit well with everyone; most likely, if you're one of those Jean Grey supporters out there, you'd probably don't like this Emma Frost-focused annual.
The Verdict. This is a bit of a doozy. Art is forgivable, while the story is okay -- not great but okay. If it were a single issue, or a single story arc, it would have been fine. But since it is an Uncanny X-Men annual, I would have expected more from the other X-Men; an appearance of some of them would have been nice. So who should collect it? Definitely the Uncanny X-Men collector and Dark Reign saga collectors. However, if you don't like Emma Frost, you may want to stay away from this one.
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