X-Men Legacy #300: "ForgetMeNot"

[superboyprime]

X-Men Legacy has had a weird history. It started as basically a book starring Charles Xavier. Then, it turned into a book starring Rogue. Then finally it was a book starring Xavier's son Legion.

So, naturally, the grand issue #300, the series finale, gives us a story... that's not about any of them.

An intruder at the Jean Grey School is caught and trapped be the living security system.







The X-Man's name is ForgetMeNot. He's actually been an X-Man for the past six years, only nobody remembers him because his powers automatically cause people to forget him when their attention's away.









He finds the two helping out with cleanup after a hurricane.











The issue's 30 pages long, so this is within the 1/3 limit.

Comments

[quatoria]

Why the fuck do the x-men have an unattended security system that will, without orders or intervention, literally kill people? Oh, right. This is wolverine's team. Nevermind.

[espanolbot]

*siiiiigh* Unlike Scott, who had a deathsquad even before he became a federal fugitive after attempting to take over the world.

[obsidianwolf]

Yes black ops death squads are bad but there's plenty of blame to go around with X-force regardless of where you come down on the Scott VS Logan stupidity Marvel has been pushing lately.

Having a security system that tears people apart on it's own though is a whole new level of incompetence. I mean what's to stop some dumb kids getting torn to apart because of a dare? I mean this poor girl would have been killed if Forgetmenot wasn't there. I mean the marvel human race is willing to try to commit genocide on mutants for nearly any reason. Imagine their reaction if some poor person got fragged by the school's security system.

[protogarrett]

I really, REALLY liked this issue and am now a fan of ForgetMeNot.

Though the one plot hole is you think Xavier would have taken more time to set that Alarm Clock in more people's heads or leave notes telling the others to remember the guy.

[dr_archeville]

Or that there'd be, y'know, security footage of the guy.

[obsidianwolf]

I'm really conflicted about this. I mean Forgetmenot is a great character that really resonates but then you get thinking about things and they don't make sense. So his power affects everything including presumably security footage, any notes written down and anything else that would let folks know he existed. Which then raises the question of how Xavier's psychic alarm wasn't included and why if folks can remember him during their interactions whynone of these threats he dealt with simply pasted him while he was touching them and things since otherwise he's apparently a normal human and it isn't like his team mates would notice he was in trouble.

And I won't give my thoughts on Wolverine's so called school having a lethal security system. It would be shocking if there was ever a title that didn't keep bringing home the impossibly deep pool of hypocrisy that he swims around in constantly.

[filthysize]

I imagine that having an enemy completely forget you exist the moment you move out of their view would be a pretty useful superpower in combat, actually.

[md84]

Huh, so this guy is basically a mutant with the same power as the Silence from Doctor Who.

The more I think about it, the more insanely powerful this guy seems. It's probably for the best that he's not in the mainstream comics. Then again, if he were, we'd never know.

[quatoria]

It is somewhat sadly ironic. As a villain, he'd live like a king, and be unstoppable. As a hero, his life is a constant stream of misery, until he dies, alone and forgotten, even by the girl he gives his life for.

[crinos]

I like to think that he's an Sidereal exalted.

[icon_uk]

Piers Anthony also wrote an entire book "Mute", about a guy in a galaxy replete with mutants (humand and animals; a hermit crab with precognition and a teleporting chickens were involved) with the uncontrollable ability to not be remembered, and goes into things like how often he nearlty starved growing up.

[cainofdreaming]

He and Mary Zero should compare their notes about sucky superpowers. Only he wouldn't hear anything she said and she wouldn't remember anything from him.

[silicondream]

GOLD

[icon_uk]

I was thinking more Cipher, the mutant with the power to not be noticed, meets the mutant with the power to not be remembered.

Date night would be a hoot anda half, in a sad sort of a way.

[beyondthefringe]

There was a comment thread on House to Astonish that suggested he was actually a by-product of Legion's self-retcon. So he didn't exist until after Legion wiped himself from everyone's histories.

Except that Forgetmenot existed during the whole Age of X alternate history storyline, as per one of the stories in this issue, so...

I'm also inclined to think that maybe he's just really delusional and telling stories. Like, he really does have this power, but he was never an X-Man, just a random guy who makes things up to try and create a sense of self-worth.

It really is an odd narrative choice, to create this character who was supposedly there in the margins and backgrounds all this time. Part of me hopes we'll see him again, part of me hopes we don't.

[tugrul]

Wow. That moment that Xavier dies and him standing behind Storm. Right in the feels. I had to keep from crying.

Funny how Xavier being killed in a dumb overhyped megacrossover had no impact on me before.

Oh yeah. Cyclops was right. Yeah, I plugged it.

[silicone_soul]

So this is a retread of Glyph's story from the Ballad of Halo Jones.

I like to think that the creators read that one, but forgot.

[big_daddy_d]

Wow this is.. tragic, yet I like ForgetMeNot. He's pretty strong because personally, I couldn't handle living a life like that. I honestly wouldn't. Also I am really glad he's not a villain, usually a type like that are villains and hell would take full advantage of what he has.

[leoboiko]

If he create things, do they stick in people's memories? I wonder what happens if he writes books or messages, with an alias. I could probably live with being a mystery writer that no one ever sees (remembers)…

Or would the powers extend to things he make, too? Like, people read his book and then instantly forget it? This would raise interesting questions: is everything he creates imbued with magical phlenobotium? Could something remove the forget-me-essence from the books, but not from him?

[icon_uk]

So Xavier died, and that means he doesn't want to ask Emma or Rachel in case they die too? Make the most of what you have whilst you have it guy, they might die anyway, and you'd be no better off.

As others have noted an interesting power, but one that doesn't bear too much investigation, especially when you have to ponder how abstractly his power might operate.

1) Leave notes for people. Write them letters. A letter is a neutral object, and the fact the guy who wrote it is forgettable shouldn't matter. (I read novels (and comics) full of people who never even existed).

2) Facebook - An electronic neutral party. A PC should be immune to his powers (It's too stupid to be able to forget that specifically) and he should be able communicate via messages. A facebook account does not (AFAIK) carry mutant powers online.

A mutant you could be fighting alongside, but only know it because he tweets you every ten minutes could be fun.

[wizardru]

Yeah, it's a poetic story and well written. It just doesn't bear too much introspection, because then it kind of falls apart somewhat. Best not to think on it too much and enjoy it for what it is.

For example: if no one remembers him that often, how do they explain him having a room and doing things at the school...and how do they account for the lost time spent talking with him? Yeah, you could say they mentally blur it a little, but if they do it ALL THE TIME, in the X-men world where beings like the Black King and Mastermind exist, they would find a way to investigate it for reasons that should be obvious.

[silverzeo]

Really wish I can go a day without being reminded how I feel like that friends don't care about me... or at least the ones I do stuff for...

[arbre_rieur]

Ouch. We've all been there, buddy. Hang in there.

[crabby_lioness]

Okay, I'm crying.

[salad_barbarian]

Also the simple answer to me about how his powers work is that he's a low level reality warper.