X-MEN FOREVER 2 #12 - January 2011

Fire -- from the Sky!

Credits:  Chris Claremont (writer), Rodney Buchemi (pencils), Greg Adams (inks), Wilfredo Quintana (colors), Tom Orzechowski (letters)

Summary:  The X-Men fly to Genosha, while Ghost Panther patrols the streets of Hammer Bay.  At the UN, Everett Ross warns of Wakanda’s plans to annex Genosha.  Ghost Panther’s Hammer Bay base is attacked by Perfect Storm and her royal guard, who are searching for ‘Ro.  The X-Men arrive and join the fight.  During the battle, Ghost Panther unleashes a bolt of lightning that charges ‘Ro’s powers.  Perfect Storm is forced to retreat, but she swears she’ll return. Ghost Panther unmasks to reveal to ‘Ro her true identity - a living energy representation of Storm.

Continuity Notes:  

• The living energy incarnation of Storm has her ‘80s mohawk.
• Havok and Polaris have apparently joined the X-Men now.  With the addition of Mystique and Sabretooth, that leaves the lineup at around eleven characters.
• The opening scene’s narration claims that Archangel is from Chicago, which is a ridiculous continuity error.  It’s been established for decades now that Archangel was born and raised on Long Island.  Archangel is also keeping his true appearance in disguise even at his own business; not only is his flesh white but his wings are also concealed in the office.  Given that Archangel has been an “out” mutant since the ‘70s, this is nonsensical.
• ‘Ro is stunned to see Morlocks living with Ghost Panther in Genosha, even though she encountered the same characters last issue after waking up in Genosha.

Review:  Essentially, the entire issue is a build-up to that final page reveal, which unsurprisingly means we’re in for more filler.  And bad continuity, not just with Archangel’s Handbook entry but with the details of the previous issue as well.  There are a few good ideas in here, such as Archangel funding what Claremont calls a “revolution” in Genosha because he feels partially responsible for what his former friend Cameron Hodge did there, but the inconsistent pace of this title has gotten extremely annoying.  I’m assuming the pacing of this Genosha arc is particularly odd since the next issue has to be an issue-long origin story for ‘Ro and Perfect Storm, but as I’ve said before, Claremont has more than enough plates left spinning.  There’s no real reason for the pacing of this book to suddenly screech to a halt when the issue has plenty of room to check in on any number of open subplots.  I will say that this is Rodney Buchemi’s best issue so far, as he produces a pretty impressive fight scene with the three incarnations of Storm.  I’ve never known what exactly to make of Buchemi’s art; he’s never been bad per se, but his style usually seems too subdued for superhero fare and his faces could use some work.  In addition to the Storm(s) fight, he constructs a pretty dramatic splash page of the X-Men arriving in Genosha this issue, which gives some hint of his potential as an artist.  He’s still nowhere near Tom Grummett’s league, however, and it’s frustrating that someone closer to that caliber was never hired to replace him.

X-MEN FOREVER 2 #11 - January 2011

The Gathering Storm

Credits:  Chris Claremont (writer), Rodney Buchemi (pencils), Greg Adams (inks), Wilfredo Quintana (colors), Tom Orzechowski (letters)

Summary:  The Ghost Panther attacks the plane taking the captive ‘Ro from Japan to Wakanda.  ‘Ro awakens in the Genoshan underground.  Lockheed, who has secretly followed her the entire time, is there.  Callisto and the Ghost Panther explain to ‘Ro that’s she’s needed to stop Perfect Storm.  Meanwhile, the X-Men meet inside the Starjammer in Summers Cove.  Shadowcat reveals that she traveled to Japan to find Wolverine’s clone.  Using the Starjammer’s technology, Havok tracks ‘Ro to Genosha.

Continuity Notes:

• The narrative captions refer to Ghost Panther as a “he” -- which is a cheat given future revelations.
• Havok says that he’s still officially a Genoshan magistrate, which will enable the X-Men to search Genosha for ‘Ro.  Whether or not Havok and Polaris are supposed to be members of X-Factor in this reality is never clear.

Creative Differences: Apparently, the originally solicited cover for this issue was scrapped and used in issue #13.

Review:  The glacial pacing has returned, even though the title is only a few issues away from cancellation.  Almost half of the issue is devoted to getting ‘Ro from Japan to Genosha, all to learn that she’s to play an unrevealed role in the next issue.  The opening fight scene with Ghost Panther runs a little long, but that’s somewhat forgivable considering Claremont’s using this opportunity to sell the ruse that Ghost Panther is somehow a resurrected Black Panther.  But the pages wasted on ‘Ro being shackled for no reason by the Morlocks in Genosha, and then escaping and sneaking around their base, are inexcusable.  Ghost Panther, Callisto, and the Morlocks are on ‘Ro’s side.  That’s made clear in the opening scene, then repeated explicitly by Callisto after ‘Ro is “caught.”  There’s no reason for her to be shackled, other than to kill a few more pages before the issue’s over.

And the pages that aren’t devoted to ‘Ro consist of the various cast members talking about ‘Ro.  Numerous pages in the story are spent on Perfect Storm in Wakanda and the X-Men in Alaska discussing events we’ve already seen, developing theories, and then making plans for the future.  The most grating scene has Mariko condescendingly mocking Perfect Storm for losing ‘Ro, since Claremont has somehow decided that Mariko should now have the White Queen’s speech pattern.  Even if Claremont intended this to be a possessed, brainwashed, or evil doppelganger version of Mariko, this wouldn't be any less annoying, since the title has already seen so many “evil” versions of established characters suddenly appear.

The only genuine human interaction in the issue comes from Shadowcat’s revelation to the team that Sinister made a Wolverine clone, and even that seems needlessly melodramatic.  (Surely the X-Men are used to the concept of cloning by now.)  It’s not as if Claremont hasn’t already set up around eighty other plots in this title so far; maybe a few of them could’ve received this attention instead?

X-MEN FOREVER 2 #5 - October 2010

Dead Reckoning!

Credits:  Chris Claremont (writer), Rodney Buchemi (pencils), Greg Adams (inks), Wilfredo Quintana (colors), Tom Orzechowski (letters)

Summary:  Shadowcat rescues ‘Ro from Masque, while Cyclops and Gambit fight Masque’s influence on their bodies.  Daisy forces the Morlocks to listen to her, explaining that the X-Men are not their enemies.  Masque restores Cyclops and Gambit’s faces and a truce is reached.  Suddenly, SHIELD agents enter to investigate the mutant activity.  The Morlocks attack, allowing the X-Men to escape.  Masque’s team is soon rescued by Callisto, who leads her own band of Morlocks.  She sends the captive SHIELD agents to Archangel.  Via communicator, Callisto reveals to her mysterious partner, the Ghost Panther, that the X-Men are alive.  Meanwhile, Nightcrawler convinces the X-Men to accept Mystique.  Moira requests a study of Mystique’s DNA, believing she might hold the key to curing Burnout.  In Alaska, Robyn Hanover stays with the Summers while waiting for a storm to pass.

Continuity Notes:  

• A narrative caption gives ‘Ro’s age as “eleven and change.”  ‘Ro also has no memories of Callisto or the Morlocks, another example of her not remembering things that she should know.
• Callisto is back to wearing an eye patch, and her model looks are now gone.  I know that Scott Lobdell provided the mainstream continuity’s explanation for how this happened during the intolerable “Last Morlock Story,” but Claremont hasn’t given the details for Forever’s continuity yet.
• Apparently, Masque can actually control a person’s body after he alters his or her face, since he can order Gambit and Cyclops to kill ‘Ro.  This is an aspect of Masque’s powers I don’t remember at all.
• Sabretooth reveals that Sinister cloned him years ago and that he never participated in the Mutant Massacre.
• After Mystique sees a brief manifestation of the Phoenix Force while Jean Grey is interrogating her, she wonders how she can use it to her advantage.

Review:  The leisurely pace of the earlier issues is gone, which helps the series feel closer to what the audience normally associates with a Chris Claremont story.  The execution is still uneven, though.  The issue opens with more mind control, which ultimately adds nothing to the story except fodder for Claremont’s critics, and ends with the dubious concept that the Morlocks can be trusted to take care of the SHIELD agents that have seen the X-Men alive.  It’s only sheer luck that Callisto arrives and takes command from Masque, who would’ve surely killed them if his group won the fight.  And even more luck that Callisto is somehow affiliated with Archangel, and this mysterious Ghost Panther (who doesn’t seem to be associated with Archangel, since Ghost Panther didn’t know the X-Men are alive, even though Archangel already knew.)  There’s also a faintly ridiculous scene that has Nightcrawler giving an emotional speech and magically changing the X-Men’s mind about taking in Mystique, something they seemed adamantly opposed to doing just a few pages earlier.  This scene would’ve surely been helped by an artist with better acting skills than Rodney Buchemi, but even the best artists would’ve been hard pressed to sell such an abrupt turnaround.  There is a decent idea in here -- Mystique has seen those closest to her die and wants a second chance with her children, a plea the compassionate Nightcrawler can’t deny -- but the execution is too rushed to work.

There’s another significant moment that’s dropped in amongst the chaos -- Sabretooth’s revelation that he isn’t the Marauders’ Sabretooth.  I can understand why Claremont feels that this is a necessary move if he wants Sabretooth as a regular cast member, but even if we accept that this is the “real” Sabretooth that’s never met the X-Men before, that doesn't eliminate all of the problems.  The “real” Sabretooth is the same one who murdered and possibly raped Silver Fox.  He killed the innocent woman Wolverine met in a bar in Classic X-Men #10’s back-up story.  He tried to kill his own son every year on his birthday.  Even this Sabretooth is already too far gone for a believable redemption arc.  Every scene with him lately just feels like an effort to remake Sabretooth into Wolverine, which raises the question of why Wolverine was killed off in the first place.

X-MEN FOREVER 2 #4 - September 2010

Stolen Lives!

Credits:  Chris Claremont (writer), Rodney Buchemi (pencils), Greg Adams (inks), Wilfredo Quintana (colors), Tom Orzechowski (letters)

Summary:  Mystique returns home with the X-Men, but Fury refuses to accept her until she’s been interrogated and psi-scanned by Jean Grey.  Simultaneously, Daisy discovers Sabretooth and Moira have been kidnapped.  The X-Men track them to the Morlock Tunnels, where Masque is demanding Moira use Sabretooth’s healing factor to create a cure for Burnout.  During the X-Men’s rescue attempt, Cyclops and Gambit are distracted by ‘Ro, who disobeyed orders and followed the team.  Masque grabs them and disfigures their faces.  Meanwhile, Jean unsuccessfully attempts to scan Mystique.  

Continuity Notes:  

• Masque claims that the Morlocks first learned of Burnout during the Mutant Massacre, when their older members burned their bodies out defending the group.
• The original, skinny incarnation of Caliban is drawn as a background Morlock.  I’m assuming Rodney Buchemi simply used the wrong reference and Chris Claremont isn’t tossing out Caliban’s appearances in the Simonson/Simonson X-Factor run.
• The X-Men’s jet is referred to as the Raptor now, instead of the Blackbird.
• Mystique reveals to Fury that she fought alongside him in 1942 with Logan and Seraph in her male form.

Review:  The first three issues of this run benefited greatly from Tom Grummett's art, but it's now time for him to make one of his periodic disappearances.  Rodney Buchemi returns as guest artist, and if you're someone who enjoyed that period in the early '00s when the X-Men suddenly took on the appearance of the actors playing them in the movies, maybe you'll enjoy Buchemi's work.  I can't say for certain that he's photo-referencing all of the cast, but it's hard to deny that brief flash of Wolverine isn't "inspired" in some way by the movies.  Personally, it's not what I want to see in this book, but I can't say Buchemi's work is genuinely bad.  He does have basic storytelling skills, I just don't feel as if he brings any real style to the book.  It's the kind of art Bill Jemas loved, but it feels too sterile for my tastes.

Just last issue, we were lead to believe that the X-Men’s mansion was somehow floating in a ghost dimension, totally invisible and intangible to the outside world.  Now, we learn that even the smelly Morlocks can just walk in and kidnap whomever they want.  Cyclops does acknowledge that it’s surprising they could pass the "tesseract wall," but acknowledging a plot problem and addressing it aren’t the same thing.  Surely there was some other way to bring the Morlocks into the story, assuming there’s a real need for them at all.  I do like the callbacks to that bizarre bi-weekly Uncanny X-Men storyline that had Masque horribly disfiguring Jean and Banshee while Forge has elaborate Vietnam flashbacks, though.

The title’s latest retcon has Masque claiming that the Morlocks have known about Burnout since the Mutant Massacre storyline, which on one level is a reasonable way to tie existing continuity into the plot and ingratiate it within the reality of the book, but alternately just feels kind of cheap.  Not as cheap as the revelation that Mystique also engaged in WWII adventures with Nick Fury and Wolverine, along with Seraph of all people.  Of course she did.  At the very least this book seems to be following some sense of internal logic, since Fury isn’t willing to just open his arms and take Mystique in, which seems to be the X-Men’s m.o. when dealing with established criminals.  I do wish more effort was placed on explaining why Fury’s now a cast member of this book, however.  I understand that the X-Men are his allies against the Consortium, and he can’t trust SHIELD at this point (again), but his decision to fake his death and essentially dedicate his life to the X-Men has been glossed over.  He hypothetically has good reasons for doing so, but there’s been no attempt to dramatize his decision, and everyone in the cast just acts as if it’s perfectly normal for Fury to be a de facto X-Man now.

X-MEN FOREVER #23 - July 2010

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night (Part 3)

Credits:  Chris Claremont (writer), Rodney Buchemi (pencils), Greg Adams (inks), Sotocolor’s A. Street (colors), Tom Orzechowski (letters)

Summary:  Jean gives Beast a kiss goodbye and reunites with the X-Men.  They leave the space station before it explodes, but are attacked again by Ziggy Trask and her Neo-Sentinels in space.  Meanwhile, Tony Stark recovers and shoots Amelia Trask in the chest.  He telecommutes with Nick Fury and Beast, giving them information needed to stop the Neo-Sentinels and the Plague-X generator.  Cyclops blasts Ziggy into the station as it explodes.  The Neo-Sentinels are defeated, but the team receives word that both Beast and Tony died in the explosion.

Continuity Notes:  Tony Stark is revealed as Nick Fury’s mole within the Consortium.

Review:  We are now very firmly into What If…? territory.  Not only is Beast killed, less than a year after Wolverine’s death, but Tony Stark is rather casually whacked as well.  There’s absolutely no pretense that this is what would’ve happened if Claremont had continued his original X-Men run, but even judging the story on its own merits, it’s hard to deny that this is rushed and lacking the appropriate sense of drama.  Some of the blame lies in the art, which is almost lifeless, but the story also doesn’t seem to be taking these massive events very seriously either.  All of the poetry and baroque prose you might expect from a Claremont death story has been replaced with rather matter-of-fact dialogue exchanges.  There’s no deeper sentiment than Jean and Beast exchanging a blunt “I love you” shortly before his death.  Jean has a very brief monologue that has her questioning why she’s unable to save the men she loves, but other than this one panel, she seems fairly emotionless throughout the issue.  Perhaps I’m biased because I always felt the Jean/Beast romance was a bad idea, but at no point in the issue did I get the sense that I’m reading some great tragedy.

Not only does the issue fail as a goodbye to Beast, but you also have to wonder what on earth Tony Stark has been doing in this story.  No part of his involvement holds up to any scrutiny:  Why did he wait so long to act against the Consortium?  Why was Nick Fury unable to do anything against the Consortium, even with Tony acting as his mole?  Why did Fury keep Tony’s identity a secret, even when he knew the X-Men were wasting time investigating Tony’s connection to the Consortium?  Another annoyance is the casual way heroes are killing of villains this issue, with both Tony Stark and Cyclops offing the Trasks with no moral dilemma whatsoever.  There was a “heroes don’t kill” speech as recently as last issue, as I recall, and now that’s been forgotten like it’s nothing.  I’m not adamantly opposed to ever having the heroes kill (and I seem to recall both Trasks miraculously pulling through), but the story needs to build up the proper stakes to justify it.  Claremont’s obviously trying to craft a story with the ultimate stakes, but the sense of drama never properly develops.  Again, it feels as if you’re reading a random issue of What If…? and you’re stuck in one of those “And then…everyone died!” montages.

The Shape of Things to Come

Credits:  Chris Claremont (writer), Fernando Blanco (art), Sotocolor (colors), Tom Orzechowski (letters)

Summary:  The Warskrulls lead a successful attack against a Shi’ar base. The Shi’ar investigate and discover that the Warskrulls gained access to their files because Xavier did not secure the datanets he studied.  A Shi’ar admiral declares that Xavier will pay.

Review:  This back-up is a prelude to the upcoming Giant Size X-Men Forever special, which will serve as yet another vehicle for writing Xavier out of the book.  There’s not enough of a plot here to pass a real judgment, but it’s refreshing to see Claremont back away from modern decompressed storytelling and actually use five pages to his advantage.  The pacing here is much closer to what you’d expect from a traditional Claremont story.  Fernando Blanco’s art is a noticeable improvement over the pencils and inks in the main story, evoking a slightly darker Clayton Henry, making me wonder why he didn’t do more work for this series.

X-MEN FOREVER #21 - June 2010

A Plague on Both Your Houses! - Into That Good Night (Part 1)

Credits:  Chris Claremont (writer), Rodney Buchemi (pencils), Greg Adams (inks), Wilfredo Quintana (colors), Tom Orzechowski (letters)

Summary:  Amelia Trask locates her daughter Ziggy in the Andes, discovering that Ziggy is now armored, leading a class of Neo-Sentinels.  Elsewhere, Daisy watches over the recuperating Sabretooth, while the X-Men investigate Tony Stark’s possible involvement with the Consortium.  Shadowcat discovers his father, Howard Stark, was friends with Bolivar Trask, creator of the Sentinels.  Later, Nick Fury conveys rumors of a “Plague-X” that will destroy all mutants.  Beast deduces that the Consortium has developed a giant gun that will fire from an orbital platform.  The blast will inflict Burnout on all mutants.  On the platform, Tony Stark is stunned when Amelia and Ziggy Trask arrive.

Continuity Notes:  

• The Consortium’s study of Fabian Cortez’s power is what has allowed them to develop a gun that can accelerate Burnout.
• Beast theorizes that Rogue’s contact with Fabian Cortez in issue #1 disrupted her powers, leading to her power swap with Nightcrawler in #16.
• The Neo-Sentinels are much closer to human size than a standard Sentinel.  Amelia says that they’re the solution to the final hurdle in the Consortium’s plan -- a way to defend their base from the X-Men.

Miscellaneous Note:  The title of this arc is a reference to the Dylan Thomas poem.

Review:  At some point, a decision was made for X-Men Forever to run in “seasons.”  The end of the first year of the book would be the end of the first volume, paving the way for a new number one for X-Men Forever 2.  I’m not sure how long that plan was in the works, but it’s obvious now that Claremont’s setting the stage for some sort of conclusion in issue #24.  The multitude of subplots has been pushed to the background as the team finally makes real progress investigating the Consortium, and by extension, Burnout.  While the cover might lead you to believe the X-Men actually have some sort of adventure this issue, their time is instead spent researching in their library or absorbing Beast’s exposition in his lab.  The only action comes on the second page, when Ziggy Trask inexplicably has her Neo-Sentinels attack a squad of Consortium agents.  Visually, the issue is criminally dull.  Guest artist Rodney Buchemi isn’t necessarily terrible, his only real flaw would seem to be his tendency to draw very drab female faces, but there’s only so much any artist can do with this material.

At the very least, the pacing continues to pick up.  There are fewer mysteries being introduced and more of an effort to clarify some of the insanity seen in the previous issues.  The Rogue/Nightcrawler power swap finally has some justification, even though it all boils down to the same casual explanation given for Kitty’s claw -- Fabian Cortez did it.  Tony Stark is shown to be uncomfortable around other Consortium members, and even plotting a total coup when he briefly thinks Amelia Trask has vanished in the Andes.  Claremont’s not confirming yet that Tony is innocent, but he’s already planting the seeds for the reveal.  (By the way, I wonder now if introducing Howard Stark into the plot was an intentional tie-in with Iron Man 2, which has been promoted heavily in almost every ad for the past few issues, or just a coincidence.)  The Beast, as a fellow Avenger and friend of Tony’s, questions how to reconcile Jean’s mental scan of Cortez’s final thoughts with his own past with Tony.  This could’ve been an excellent opportunity for some Claremontian introspection and melodrama, but instead it’s all very clinical.  Claremont’s truly in the mode of Getting the Job Done, so virtually the entire issue is dedicated to advancing the Consortium plot.

And now that we finally know what the Consortium’s plan is, there is a sense that many of those early hints are being paid off.  Claremont’s oddly detailed about every aspect of the Consortium’s plan this issue, with the exception of how exactly Cortez’s power can be translated into a laser blast.  A glaring omission, I would say.  I wonder now if this was a detail he was planning to work out later but never had the opportunity to, so he has to fudge it now.  Regardless, the basic idea makes a certain amount of comic book sense.  Fabian Cortez can accelerate a mutant’s power to the point that it kills him.  The Consortium wants all mutants dead, so they studied Cortez and discovered a way to mimic his powers.  Rather than reaching each mutant individually, they’re going to shoot a beam at the Earth and let the Earth’s rotation take care of the rest.  This still doesn’t answer the question of why so many mutants of different ages suddenly developed Burnout in the opening issues, but the main scheme feels consistent with the hints Claremont’s been dropping.  

The book’s not totally through with bizarre plot developments, though, as Claremont introduces a potential romance between Dum Dum Dugan’s granddaughter and Sabretooth this issue.  Even if you accept the premise that the “real” Sabretooth has rarely appeared in this continuity, does anyone want to read a romantic subplot featuring him?