X-Men: Forever #1 - Review/Spoilers

[JB]

I seem to be in the minority here but I enjoyed this issue. It gave a lot of context to RoX and Dead X-Men even. I really like how Gillen writes Sinister, and I know he has been done to death but I'm still not sick of him, I probably have an immunity to over exposure of characters since Wolverine is by far my favorite character lol. I am excited to see what is going to happen with Jean, I know this issue left a lot of fans feeling let down but Gillen has been a solid writer during the whole Krakoa era imo so I have faith he will deliver. The art was top notch, I keep saying it, but we have been so lucky as X-Men fans since HoX/PoX in the art department, sure there were some low spots but that always happens, way more wins than losses.

I do have one question, who kicked Mother Righteous in the WHR? It looked like Sage but she's with X-Force.

Edit: This was the best use of Selene in a long, long time.

I enjoyed it as well. While the jumping timeline of the various series can be dizzying, as an issue itself it was great. This is the most I've liked Xavier in a long time.

[Nicoclaws]

At this point it feels like the gold posts keep moving bc thats what was expected of Immortal when she entered the picture and Jean keeps getting pushed back each time. She literally had nothing in this first issue. He actually gave her more to do when she was drooling in the final issue of immortal



For real. Jean Grey #4 dropped in Nov. 5 months later, she still hasn't done anythig. Yes Im ready for them to move that plot along.

The cover was Jean laying on the ground with blood in form of the phoenix. They never told it would be a jean-centric issue.

[Triniking1234]

The cover was Jean laying on the ground with blood in form of the phoenix. They never told it would be a jean-centric issue.

And the #2 cover has characters from Gillen's books and Dead X-Men which ties into Gillen's books and #3 has Nightcrawler, Destiny and Mystique on the cover. This was obviously just more Immortal.

[Bgred37]

Agree - this should have come out sooner or at least worked itself out through the ongoings. At best this feels like very poorly executed Rashomon.

For example, which betrayal is ahead as told in the different titles?

Elsewhere, Xavier is supposedly headed out to speak with (not neutralize or kill) Moira -- and Rachel won't like the real plan.

But in this issue, it sounds like a more foreboding mission is afoot.

Rachel's assumption is Xavier plans to resurrect the Phoenix (Jean). And Rachel won't like the real plan.

So.. what if Professor Xavier is a perennial jerk, planning to eliminate Moira and stop Phoenix, as we have known it, from resurrecting?

We can all prob agree, Moira as we now know her, is kind of insufferable. But making Jean/Phoenix some sort of collateral? That'd be something.

Agree on this. I feel like X-Men Forever cleared up MANY THINGS, but confused me one what the REAL or FAKE Plan is at this point. I guess we'll get some answers in Rise next week, cause Charle is about to confront Moira. Oddly, the Phoenix part is just mentioned now. For me, it seems logical that Professor X might go too far and want to create his own Dominion... maybe he will include Moira in that somehow? Assumption is that Jean will wreck whatever off landish, too far plans Xavier has at this point.

[Havok83]

The cover was Jean laying on the ground with blood in form of the phoenix. They never told it would be a jean-centric issue.

And the #2 cover has characters from Gillen's books and Dead X-Men which ties into Gillen's books and #3 has Nightcrawler, Destiny and Mystique on the cover. This was obviously just more Immortal.

yes but the expectation was that that first issue at least would focus on Jean. Im fin with it not being a Jean centric book but come on now. She literally got nothing besides 1 panel of her laying dead on the floor. This firs issue would have been more fit to have those other characters you mentioned than Jean

[danielsan52]

I wonder if we will see what happened between Stasis and Firestar in this series.

[Havok83]

I wonder if we will see what happened between Stasis and Firestar in this series.

I doubt it. That seems to be more of Duggan's thing and doesnt really tie into the bigger narrative that Gillen is telling

[Rev9]

Agree on this. I feel like X-Men Forever cleared up MANY THINGS, but confused me one what the REAL or FAKE Plan is at this point. I guess we'll get some answers in Rise next week, cause Charle is about to confront Moira. Oddly, the Phoenix part is just mentioned now. For me, it seems logical that Professor X might go too far and want to create his own Dominion... maybe he will include Moira in that somehow? Assumption is that Jean will wreck whatever off landish, too far plans Xavier has at this point.

My guess is raising the phoenix was the redacted 'option 3' below 1.stopping Enigma happening and 2.Interfering with Moira before her power activates.. on the data page in RoPX#2. It follows since Dominions fear the Phoenix (not another dominion) then failing to achieve 1 or 2, option 3 becomes the ace in the hole.

[IllusiveGorn]

I'm rereading Uncanny X-Men vol 2, this scene is now much more funny

[JB]

Gillen is a madman.

[Nicoclaws]

Gillen is a madman.

Did he reread his run and said "hey let's have fun with that haha I'm a genius" ?
PROBABLY !

[JB]

Did he reread his run and said "hey let's have fun with that haha I'm a genius" ?
PROBABLY !

Haha yeah most likely lol

[Agent Grayson]

Gillen's epic retcons get more and more impossible. He expects a lot from readers to believe including:

• THREE Sinisters were running around for centuries without causing any trouble, or encountering mutants actively
• Destiny birthed Nightcrawler, when she would have been at least 100+ years old when Nightcrawler was born. Or was Nightcrawler born in the early 1900s?
• Destiny knew about enigma, A.I., Krakoa, Moira, and everything in the 1800s and kept it a secret for centuries because she cut a deal with him
• Physical entities can exist in the White Hot Room like nothing
• Mother Righteous' exposition dump was a good use of three to four pages in a $5 comic.

Still, I did enjoy the mini "payoffs" in this issue, and appreciate Gillen's attempt at trying to connect the dots of this chaotic and haphazard ending to the Krakoan era.

EDIT: Also loved the art!

This. There have been so many retcons at this point that reading this issue felt like reading an issue of What If?, particularly when it comes to what Destiny is now supposed to have known for her entire publication history. The retcons all feel like attempts to give the story weight, but that just feels a bit lazy and empty to me - “Look how important this is, our characters have known about it secretly for centuries! Just ignore the fact that you only found that out two pages ago and it doesn’t really line up with any of their history, it’s so important!”

The fact it’s almost impossible to piece together a reading order for this event doesn’t help. I spend most of every issue of Fall of X trying to figure out what’s already happened.

Hopefully the exposition and retcons are done now and we can just get on with the story. Gillen is a good enough writer to pull off a satisfying ending, but it’s an uphill battle right now.

[DarkMagnus]

I'm rereading Uncanny X-Men vol 2, this scene is now much more funny

OMEGA LOL thinking that Enigma always has been

[MythicalChicken]

The fact it’s almost impossible to piece together a reading order for this event doesn’t help. I spend most of every issue of Fall of X trying to figure out what’s already happened.

Hopefully the exposition and retcons are done now and we can just get on with the story. Gillen is a good enough writer to pull off a satisfying ending, but it’s an uphill battle right now.

I really do think a good 80 percent of the problem everyone had with fall of x has to do with delaying publishing this. I went Ah Ha! when Gillen mentioned it was originally supposed to appear months ago. Because it makes everything else make so much more sense (but I didn't think it was in that much disarray before, honestly).

As for Destiny, it makes sense to me, more than anything other character, that she has important secrets layered on top of each other.