It's the only Annual I own for this book. It's hard to pinpoint when it's set, because the X-Men are living in the school, but Havok is there, and he didn't join until after they'd packed up and ran to Muir Island, and Storm was off to look for Forge not long after Havok's arrival.
But whatever, the team - plus Captain Britain and Meggan, who are there to visit Psylocke - are captured by some incredibly powerful goober named "Horde", who demands they steal the "Crystal of Ultimate Vision" from the "Citadel of Light and Shadow", or else he'll destroy the Earth.
Once inside, they find that the danger of the citadel is that it offers each person their fondest desire, to draw them away from the prize. And so the team is picked off, one by one. Rogue merrily rushes into a Gone with the Wind fantasy. Dazzler embraces being a homeless person, because it's safer to never try. Ouch. Havok, I'm not sure exactly. His body is there, but his mind may have been transported into a star. Davis and Neary make it look good, this enormous, prismatic maze, interrupted by whatever the X-Men happen to be seeing. I think the panels get narrower - either vertically or horizontally - as each one is gradually ensnared.
(Also feels very Claremont for Storm's fondest desire to apparently be to run around with Yukio in Tokyo. Just two gals bein' pals, right?)
It ultimately comes down to Wolverine, who has not spent the issue covering himself in glory. He got blotto up there because this is what would be the anniversary of his marriage to Mariko. You know, if Mastermind hadn't messed with her head and made her call it off. Still find that both a dick move and a really stupid move by Wyngarde. Good idea, fuck with the guy who stabs people even when he isn't pissed off. When Horde showed up, Logan rushed out in a bathrobe, nearly stabbed Dazzler by accident, and gone facepalmed and thrown down the hall into Dazzler and Havok by Horde like a chump. But there's always another chance to make good.
One thing I don't understand is why Horde even needed the X-Men, since he eventually shows up right as they reach the crystal. I guess to distract the Citadel, keep it from attacking him. Although it was able to get Meggan and Captain Britain in one go, so I don't know why it couldn't grab Horde and say, Longshot, simultaneously.
(I also don't know why Oliver colors Brian Braddock like he's Adam Warlock. Looks like the guy went nuts with Spray-On Tan.)
The end of the issue reveals the Citadel is a test, and if you fail, your species is doomed to be frozen in its current evolutionary state. And we see both a Kree and Skrull represented there, and the fact they were deadlocked genetically definitely got used in stories later on, by other writers. Don't know if they just picked up what Claremont set down, or if this was something a few writers coordinated on.
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