The new-look Firestar gets the spotlight in the X-Men Annual 2022

This year's X-Men Annual #1 will hit shelves in December, and its spotlight will be on the fan-voted newest member of the X-Men: Firestar.

Written by Steve Fox and drawn by Andrea Di Vito, X-Men Annual #1 will explore Firestar's past, including her struggles with her own mutant nature. Until she was elected to the X-Men in last summer's Hellfire Gala #1, Firestar wasn't even ready to fully embrace Krakoa as a safe space for all mutantkind.

However, her tumultuous relationship with her particular mutation hasn't done anything to mar her record as a hero, which may be why she was the X-Men fandom's choice for who should join the core team.

Alongside Firestar, the current X-Men roster includes Cyclops, Jean Grey, Synch, Forge, Havok, Magik, and Iceman. During the Hellfire Gala, Tony Stark AKA Iron Man tried to convince Firestar to use her new role as a way to spy for the Avengers, which could potentially play a part in the X-Men Annual.

Firestar is among the most famous comic book characters that didn't debut in comic books. She first appeared along with fellow X-Man Iceman as part of the core cast of the 1981 Saturday morning animated series Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, before being introduced to comic books later and going on to notable tenures in the original New Warriors and the Avengers. 

As usual, the 2022 X-Men Annual #1 will be an oversized one-shot issue with 40 pages. You can see the main cover art by Stefano Caselli here, and Marvel will announce at least one variant cover at a later date.

X-Men Annual #1 will be available on December 21. See Marvel's full December solicitations here at Newsarama.

Check out all the new X-Men comics and collections from Marvel in 2022 and beyond.