I’m a huge fan of Marvel Comics, especially the X-Men. But even the best companies sometimes make bad editorial decisions. Unfortunately, this week’s release of Immortal X-Men Vol. 5: X-Men Forever only emphasizes some very questionable decisions. So, why am I giving this trade paperback collection a favorable rating? Well, I’m amazed at what Kieron Gillen, Luca Maresca and the rest of the creative team did with the less-than-ideal situation the higher-ups gave them.
First questionable decision: Marvel rushed the end of the Krakoan era. And most of the creators had obviously been setting things up for a longer run – none more so than Gillen in his Immortal X-Men book.
Courtesy of Marvel
Next, the X-editors decided to end all of the ongoing series with the start of Fall of the House of X and Rise of the Powers of X. (Well, except for Benjamin Percy’s Wolverine and X-Force, which seemed to do their own thing throughout this Krakoa-concluding event – another weird decision.)
Consequently, the four issues collected in this trade paperback are not Immortal X-Men #19-22, but rather X-Men Forever #1-4 – even though they’re obviously a part of Gillen’s conclusion to Immortal X-Men. This collection even starts off by explaining the opening scene of Immortal X-Men #1. The connection is so obvious, the editors just decided to call this collection Immortal X-Men Vol. 5. So, why change the title to X-Men Forever in the first place? (I know, I know: “issue #1” sells better than “issue #19”.)
As if that weren’t enough, Gillen was actually concluding the main story set up in Immortal X-Men in the Rise of the Powers of X mini-series. Unfortunately, Marvel only gave Gillen five issues for that massive event storyline and those five issues obviously didn’t provide enough space to cover everything Gillen wanted to tell. Accordingly, X-Men Forever serves as a tie-in series to Rise of the Powers of X, contextualizing and expanding on that story by giving us all of the scenes and information that didn’t fit into the main book.
(Oh, that also applies to the miniseries Dead X-Men – which also ties directly into Rise of the Powers of X and X-Men Forever. I’m guessing Gillen also wanted to write that mini-series, but didn’t have the time for it. It feels like he must have outlined what needed to happen in Dead X-Men and then passed the story to Steve Foxe – which, unfortunately, didn’t turn out all that well.)
Anyway, I suppose you could read and mostly understand Rise of the Powers of X without reading this collection. But the story is much more complete and much richer when you read both together. So, why did Marvel wait until December to release this collection of X-Men Forever, when they hurried out the collected edition of Fall of the House of X/Rise of the Powers of X back in August? Whose horrible idea was that?
Courtesy of Marvel
Alright, I think I’m done ranting about the bad editorial decisions surrounding Immortal X-Men Vol. 5: X-Men Forever. Let me break down the issues and describe just how writer Kieron Gillen and artist Luca Maresca turned the difficult situation into a very good mini-series.
X-Men Forever #1 basically connects the dots between the last issue of Immortal X-Men (#18) and everything going on with Xavier’s crew in Rise of the Powers of X #1 and #2. We get caught up on almost every important character from Immortal X-Men. This means a lot of things are going on at once and some points are only summarized. Sometimes Gillen is just closing potential plot-holes in one panel or one line of dialogue, because there isn’t enough space for more.
The amazing thing is how Gillen and Maresca manage to make everything flow fairly well. Furthermore, the plots all remain refreshingly character driven – even obtaining a surprisingly complete if somewhat rushed story arc.
Luca Maresca’s art also fits well with the rest of the Immortal X-Men series, looking very much like Lucas Werneck’s style in the first issue. But – whereas Werneck’s art sometimes looked a little too digitally spliced together – Maresca’s drawings look more natural. Unfortunately, especially in this issue, he draws all female characters with the same body type – namely with unrealistic Barbie-like proportions, but with even bigger breasts. As issue #1 centers on Destiny, Mystique and Mother Righteous, the unrealistic female figures were a little too hard to overlook.
Courtesy of Marvel
Issue #2 then fills in everything needed to understand Rise of the Powers of X #4 (and some of #3) – which is a lot, because the final pages of Rise of the Powers of X #4 felt like cut up parts of longer scenes, loosely edited together. Gillen provided just enough text that you could kind of figure out what was going on. But you really have to read X-Men Forever #2 to get the whole picture.
Of course, we again get to read plenty of exposition summarizing points that just don’t fit otherwise. But, Gillen and Maresca once again make everything flow and connect really well. And in this issue, the main plot really starts to form – specifically, the plan to resurrect the Phoenix and just how Jean and Hope are connected to this cosmic force.
As the miniseries moves along, Maresca’s art starts to show signs of the time constraints, but I actually think it makes the images better. He obviously draws less background detail, but this allows the panels to focus on what’s really important. The more minimalistic approach reminded me of the style that makes artists like Chris Samnee so good. Overall, I was pleased with the art in this collection.
Courtesy of Marvel
Which brings us to the final two issues. X-Men Forever #3-4 show us everything important that happens between the end of Rise of the Powers of X #4 and the beginning of Rise of the Powers of X #5, centering on two main plotlines.
The first follows Mystique, Destiny and Nightcrawler on a quest to get Professor X to remove mental blocks he placed in the women’s minds years ago. It’s actually the conclusion of a plot first started by Si Spurrier in X-Men Blue: Origins.
There’s a lot of plot armor in this storyline – things happening the way they do, because there wasn’t any other choice. For example, the three characters break into the Orchis prison in which Xavier is being held, because that’s where he is at this point in the larger event. Then they leave Charles there without doing anything else, because that’s where he needs to be and their interaction with him can’t change anything going on in the main event.
I personally think this plotline could’ve been left out of X-Men Forever and told somewhere else in order to give more space for the main story involving the Phoenix. But it was an open plot-thread that Gillen obviously wanted to finish up. So, here it is, plot armor and all.
Courtesy of Marvel
As I said, the main storyline of X-Men Forever involves the plan to kill and resurrect the Phoenix Force. As a big fan of the Phoenix mythos, this was by far my favorite part of the mini-series. But I don’t want to give away too much.
Gillen uses this story to brilliantly retcon Hope Summers’ origin in a way that makes so much sense. It enriches both Hope and Jean Grey as characters and explains in a clever and meaningful way, just why both women are intrinsically connected to the Phoenix. Furthermore, Gillen ingeniously utilizes paradox to create a feeling of mystery and wonder perfectly appropriate for an unfathomable cosmic force like the Phoenix.
If that weren’t enough, the resurrection of the Phoenix is the most critical tie-in to Rise of the Powers of X. But – because X-Men Forever was always essentially a tie-in – it ends with a cliff-hanger. You have to read Rise of the Powers of X #5 for the real conclusion to the story Kieron Gillen started in Immortal X-Men.
In conclusion, in the four issues collected in Immortal X-Men Vol. 5: X-Men Forever, Kieron Gillen furiously wraps up as many open plot-threads as possible – either the ones left over from his abruptly ended Immortal X-Men series, or the ones that didn’t fit into the five issues of Rise of the Powers of X. Accordingly, the story is packed about as full as one could possibly imagine. And it doesn’t stand on its own at all – but has to be read together with Rise of the Powers of X. Still, amazingly, Gillen and artist Luca Maresca actually manage to make everything work well – with plots that flow despite their flaws and a story that proves essential to understanding the main event. Furthermore, the additions to the characters and origins of Hope Summers, Jean Grey and the Phoenix Force are so good, I hope they remain canon forever.
But Marvel editorial should’ve called these issues Immortal X-Men #19-22 instead of X-Men Forever #1-4. And this collection should’ve released at the same time as the collected Rise of the Powers of X, instead of now – four months later.
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