X-Men: Forever #1 - Review/Spoilers

[NewMutant]

Editorial really dropped the ball on publication/distribution on the end of Krakoa. There are some great beats but its unnecessarily confusing, and feels rushed and slow all at the time. This was a great issue, but it clearly should have been Immortal and clearly should have came out 2 months ago.

[lefthanded]

Editorial really dropped the ball on publication/distribution on the end of Krakoa. There are some great beats but its unnecessarily confusing, and feels rushed and slow all at the time. This was a great issue, but it clearly should have been Immortal and clearly should have came out 2 months ago.

I agree - there was so much runway for Editorial to have set up Rise/Fall to build up story points and flow smoothly. Immortal wasted time on Colossus and having Doug claim that the QC should dissolve, when those issues could have been used elsewhere. The whole Forge/CoTV storylines could have been excised (Synch and Talon's story would have to be established elsewhere), and instead been spent building up the Rise/Fall better. Why hasn't Forge appeared yet, as his whole sketchy partnership with Xavier seems like it would be extremely easy to adapt in Rise.

X-men Forever feels like deleted scenes from Rise of Powers of X, except they purposefully excised essentially bits of information from Powers just so it could be in Forever. Kind of feels like Games as a Live Service model - release something that is 50% of what it should be, and then expect that the reader is happy to get an 'additional' 50% that they should have gotten in teh first place.

[Tank]

This was decent and should have come out at the same time as the other series. But wake me up when Jean actually does something…

[MythicalChicken]

And now we know why Mystique was trying to kick Destiny's ass on that one cover. Really can't say I blame her either.

I just feel better that it was actually supposed to come out months before.

[Kingdom X]

I agree - there was so much runway for Editorial to have set up Rise/Fall to build up story points and flow smoothly. Immortal wasted time on Colossus and having Doug claim that the QC should dissolve, when those issues could have been used elsewhere. The whole Forge/CoTV storylines could have been excised (Synch and Talon's story would have to be established elsewhere), and instead been spent building up the Rise/Fall better. Why hasn't Forge appeared yet, as his whole sketchy partnership with Xavier seems like it would be extremely easy to adapt in Rise.

X-men Forever feels like deleted scenes from Rise of Powers of X, except they purposefully excised essentially bits of information from Powers just so it could be in Forever. Kind of feels like Games as a Live Service model - release something that is 50% of what it should be, and then expect that the reader is happy to get an 'additional' 50% that they should have gotten in teh first place.

I believe Forge made a couple appearances in Iron Man.

[HomoSuperior]

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.

[HomoSuperior]

If Marvel wants to make some real money, they should include a behind the scenes look in a trade -- explaining how all the plans changed during the era and clearing up the weird inconsistencies.

I'm left with the nagging sense that Moira and Destiny's intended roles were somehow swapped at some point.

Still can't get my head around why Moira felt betrayed to the point of becoming a terminator and joining Orchis.

Still can't get my head around Trial of Magneto and Magneto's mopey self-exile. Nothing can stop the master of magnetism -- except mean tweets!

Still can't get my head around Mother Righteous being a Sinister clone -- she's Rebecca, not Essex as others have pointed out.

Oh well, there were some nice beats (as others have said).

[The Twilight Mexican]

If Marvel wants to make some real money, they should include a behind the scenes look in a trade -- explaining how all the plans changed during the era and clearing up the weird inconsistencies.

But with the behind-the-scenes pages distributed randomly in the trade printings, and only one page per trade.

[Uncanny X-Man]

This was a really strong issue - I loved how Gillen came full circle with the beginnings of Immortal X-Men and also essentially wrote a Rise of the Powers of X #0. I'm very ready for the JeanPhoenix plot to move forward but damn these looks into the past are also so much fun.

[davetvs]

I really liked the issue but agree with everyone else that the order feels very off, especially after having read Dead X-Men. I'm always glad to get more of Destiny and Mystique's backstory and I'm looking forward to Gillen exploring Jean/Phoenix.

[HomoSuperior]

But with the behind-the-scenes pages distributed randomly in the trade printings, and only one page per trade.

I see what you did there. LOL.

[ermac]

Not even Gillen can salvage this mess...

[H-E-D]

I wonder why this needed to come out in March and if this still would have been Immortal if Gillen's original idea was kept. The timeline bouncing around isn't a good look for the books IMO.

Marvel has certain monthly quotas for how many comics they publish each month. They come from the sales department and the editors have to accommodate them.

[Hi-Fi]

I'll be happy if I never see Sinister, Mother Righteous and Rasputin again.

[Til]

I wonder why this needed to come out in March and if this still would have been Immortal if Gillen's original idea was kept. The timeline bouncing around isn't a good look for the books IMO.

The timeline is completely FUBAR. X-Force takes place before Wolverine, which takes place before FotHoX. X-Men takes place both before and during FotHoX because Duggan somehow lost the plot in his own damn books. Invincible Iron Man, which absolutely is an X-book for most of this volume, is concurrent with FotHoX. RotPoX is concurrent with FotHoX. Dead X-Men happens during certain issues of RotPoX. X-Men Forever is both before and during RotPoX. Resurrection of Magneto is either before or during FotHoX. Maybe both. Cable is either before or during FotHoX, it's hard to tell since it's completely unrelated to anything else that's happening in the X-books.

The whole thing is a mess. It's really a shame this is how the Krakoa Era is ending.

As for this issue itself, I liked it a lot. Immortal was my favorite X-book, and X-Men Forever is Immortal in all but name. I was very happy to see the storylines from Immortal continue, and I thought the art was great. This and RotPoX are what I'm still excited about.