X-Men Forever #5

[queenursula.insanejournal.com]

Comments

[midnightvoyager.insanejournal.com]

Oh my god, CHARLES, I'VE MISSED YOU SO MUCH AS A PROPERLY FLAWED YET GOOD MAN!

[punishermax.insanejournal.com]

I'm sorry but Charles has ALWAYS been an asshole. He's supposed to be their teacher yet he trains an army of kids to be his black ops force?

Plus, pretty much every member of the Illuminati was a dick.

[taggerung301.insanejournal.com]

motto

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

Charles logic in NOT telling them really was... no logic at all, was it?

How is it protecting them, not telling them a fact that's actually quite important to the future of their entire culture.

[greenmask.insanejournal.com]

Well, if he'd told them they might have decided they'd rather live than spend weekends punching Juggernaut or whoever. Or going into space to talk around Charles' old friend about i-forget-what. Or flipping about in the Danger Room.

I certainly wouldn't want to train my life away!

[midnightvoyager.insanejournal.com]

I think I can see where he's coming from. It's... hard to tell people that they're going to die. And if he could have fixed the problem before it became a massive problem, a group of youngish people would never have to know that they were going to die.

Not the BEST reasoning, but it's at least understandable in a human way.

[mullon.insanejournal.com]

"X-Men Forever"...Ohhhh, it's ironic.

[ashtoreth.insanejournal.com]

Forever until they die, I guess!

[kitty_tc_69.insanejournal.com]

Why does Storm look like she's 12?

[roily_rogue.insanejournal.com]

Because she is. Apparently, this is the real Storm and the grown-up is an impostor. I think.

[xdoop.insanejournal.com]

In Claremont's original run Storm was de-aged into a child by Nanny, before being re-aged after she was captured by the Genoshan forces. I'm guessing Claremont's going to reveal that Storm was never really re-aged, and the adult Storm is an impostor or something.

[goldenbrowngod.insanejournal.com]

I haven't been reading X-men forever and was wondering is that the x-babies version of Storm, Nightcrawler and Rouge or have they been deaged?

[roily_rogue.insanejournal.com]

Storm has. The rest is just Grummett laying the cute on a little thick.

[jlbarnett.insanejournal.com]

do they ever point out that a number of mutants would get themselves killed pretty quickly without training?

[timemonkey.insanejournal.com]

Not that the training seems to help much. How many of the X-Men, or X-related teams, haven't died at least once?

[(Anonymous)]

The idea that mutants have a shorter lifespan because their own powers eventually "burn them out" so to speak is actually a neat and logical idea on paper (although sort of a cross-between Todd MacFarlane's Spawn and JMS' Rising Stars). It also, potentially, makes Fabian Cortez the most dangerous mutant alive.

The problem is it doesn't really fit with what Claremont himself established in past continuity. One could reason Xavier was crippled by the Shadow King because Charles' own powers made him more susceptible to injury, but here states he doesn't know how it happened? And does he not remember Magneto was essentially given a whole new body after the Savage Land? And how does that even fit with someone like Wolverine, or Sabretooth, or heck, even Mystique--all of whom are supposed to have healing factors that prolong their lifespan? And I guess John Byrne's story about how Claremont didn't know Apocalypse is a mutant is also correct since, apparently, mutants cannot be immortal by definition. Same with Namor who I suppose because he's "half-Atlantian" somehow doesn't make him a mutant (even though technically it does as the whole Dark X-Men thing proves). And what about mutants who were well past their 60s like Destiny?

Guess this is what we call an example of Claremont saying "Since I made up the rules, I can bend them whenever and however I want to."

--stillanerd

[kaileighblue.insanejournal.com]

Actually I recall at some people it being mentioned that being a mutant actually prolonged their lives. I can't remember from where though. Maybe I'm just imagining it. Then again I don't know if it was decided before or after whenever this is supposed to be.

[xdoop.insanejournal.com]

Destiny's powers aren't physical; she can see the future, but that's it. So using her powers probably wouldn't burn her out.

all of whom are supposed to have healing factors that prolong their lifespan?

I'd assume their healing factors regenerate the damage their powers do to their bodies. The same goes for Apocalypse, who's also spent centuries in his hibernation chambers.

[timemonkey.insanejournal.com]

So, is this an alternate universe or something?

[xdoop.insanejournal.com]

Yes.

[halloweenjack.insanejournal.com]

Think of it as Chris Claremont's John Byrne's Doom Patrol (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom_Patrol#John_Byrne.27s_Doom_Patrol).

[erlgirl_9.insanejournal.com]

Wow, I really like this.

Finally, X-teams and Xavier that I don't hate on sight. I'm sick of all the backstabbing bullshit about Charles being an asshole. Sure, it's all plot-twisty and dark-frosted, but it really doesn't make for a good or enjoyable story. It's just kind of bleh.

The art here is really nice, I find.

[ashtoreth.insanejournal.com]

It's awesome and trainwreck both. I find the trainwreck part forgivable because, to me, this is the X-men. The 616 team I haven't found in character for years.

[foxhack.insanejournal.com]

So wait, if Claremont had stayed on the book, then ... this would've happened? o_O

[angelophile.insanejournal.com]

It's touch and go. Claremont's stated that some of the plot points he's picking up were ideas he had at the time

There's a good interview here:

http://www.padsandpanels.com/?p=2587

Of note: "The origins of characters that were established after I left are not necessarily the origins that we will encounter here" and "It’s not the specific issues I had planned, simply because they seem to have been yanked out of the pile over the course of the last 15 years and actually produced by other people" and "What has also happened is my rethinking of the concept from that point – my looking at the characters, my looking at the school, my looking at the world – has led to some surprising conclusions and revelations about the characters and their world that were not possible to explore when I was writing Uncanny or X-Men, simply because we had to deal with the practical reality of ongoing characters and an ongoing series. By Forever being unique, in that we’re not part of the traditional Marvel Universe, we have a freedom to present their lives and present the characters with challenges that the mainstream books can’t deal with, not the least of which is death."

So, the specific idea of mutants burning out does seem to be an idea that either he had in mind at the time but couldn't do because, essentially, he couldn't put a finite life on characters in an ongoing, or something new that occurred to him since. He has said that some of the plot points are from that period, a mix of stuff he intended to do, things he had the ideas for but couldn't do because they were restricted by the shared universe.

So, this wouldn't have happened. Other plot points in the book would. It's a blend of old ideas and new ideas, seemingly.

[jcbaggee.insanejournal.com]

It's kinda like when they adapt old cartoons into movies. You get really excited and nostalgic, then 10 minutes in you realize that what was cool when you were 8 is being done by some jackass who doesn't care about your childhood.

Maybe I'm in the minority, but this book's a wreck right now.

[angelophile.insanejournal.com]

Hmm. I feel the opposite way. Claremont here seems to be writing a book that's exactly as I remember it from that period - of course, the trouble is the heavy handed narration and dialogue is something I didn't mind as a kid and forgive as an adult in older issues because it's to be expected and nostalgia gives it a rosy glow. Writing in a style from the late 80s in 2009 feels dated now, but on the other hand, damn, this IS the X-men from my childhood. What comes across to me is not "some jackass who doesn't care" but someone who does care, but who hasn't really moved on.

So far I've found the title a blend of car-cash, can't-look-away discomfort and genuine enjoyment. It's absurd and silly and overblown and chaotic and barely makes any kind of sense and, dammit, really good fun.

[angelophile.insanejournal.com]

One thing that does occur to me is this is actually quite a clever device in terms of the book.

Because, it's picking up from a time when the X-men cast packed two books. Everyone's been wondering what's happened to Jubilee, Psylocke, Archangel, Forge, Banshee, Iceman, etc etc who were on the team at the time. This actually provides a legitimate excuse why some of these characters won't be around - if you know it decreased your life expectancy every time you used your powers, would you still want to be an X-man? There's characters like Bobby, who've walked away before to live normal lives, who now legitimately have a reason for wanting to call it quits.

In terms of a plot device serving the book, that's actually pretty smart.

[angelophile.insanejournal.com]

AND, come to think of it, a far more effective way of reducing the number of active mutants in the Marvel universe without magically depowering them all.