Who misses Marvel’s summer annuals? I’ll give you a hint: this guy does. New Mutants Annual #7 bridges the gap of the team’s transition from being the New Mutants to X-Force. And it sports this cool Mike Mignola cover.
The main feature sets up a crossover with the New Warriors, and there is another serialized story about the evil mutants turned government operatives in Freedom Force.
But the best part of this is the last short story by writer Judy Bogdanove and artist Jon Bogdanove (I’m assuming they are married).
It features the young mutants Artie, Leech and Wiz from the X-Terminators going on an adventure of their own and unintentionally causing a ruckus as they fly around town in a flying saucer. It ends with them finding a new friend in a grandmotherly old woman. The whole scene is really touching with Leech mistaking her for his deceased mother. That said, the story is a lot of fun and really is the highlight of the annual. It reminds me of something out of Spielberg’s Amazing Stories television series.
Since it is an annual, there is also the obligatory pin up pages (by Rob Liefeld and Art Thibert) and a pretty cool organizational chart of the team which you can view here.
Ridiculously Awesome 
New Mutants Annual # 7 has been reprinted last year in Essential X – Factor Vol. 5 TPB: luckily I had bought that volume, so I read the issue you reviewed.
I agree that the backup story was the best part New Mutants Annual # 7 (perhaps the best part of the whole Essential volume). It was full of hilarious and touching moments.
The scene I enjoyed most was the first meeting between Leech and the old woman: both of them screamed as if they had seen a ghost – and maybe the old woman would have preferred that, instead of bumping into an “alien”. : )