I love the X-Men, but even I can admit their continuity is a bit of a tangle sometimes. It started with mutant maestro Chris Claremont, who wrote a sprawling superheroic soap opera over 17 years (and continues to add to it years later.) In that same vein, the Krakoan Age would build out a series of books that often impacted each other – especially if one writer took on multiple books. X-Men Forever #2 continues this trend, for better and a little worse.
While Kieron Gillen is doing a fairly good job of tying together all the loose threads from his work on Immortal X-Men and other books across the Krakoan Era, his script also relies on events that happened in Dead X-Men and Rise of the Powers of the X. The latter’s understandable since Gillen also wrote it, but the former might leave readers who haven’t read that series feeling a bit left out. Despite that, Gillen’s character work remains on point, particularly the Destiny/Sinister interactions and Exodus reassuring a young mutant that Krakoa will live on.
Marvel
It’s the lineage of the Phoenix that takes center stage, though. Gillen spotlights Jean Grey, her daughter Rachel and the self-proclaimed “mutant messiah” Hope Summers; each one of these women has a connection to the Phoenix, and by issue’s end they’ve come to a decision regarding it. The Phoenix has been a double edged sword because while it’s a huge part of X-Men mythology it also tends to be a crutch writers have leaned on – thankfully that isn’t the case with Gillen, as he sets the stage for a new version of the Phoenix.
If nothing else, X-Men Forever #2 looks gorgeous thanks to Luca Maresca’s artwork. Continuing with the themes of death and rebirth, Maresca illustrates a sequence where Mother Righteous begins to melt down…which leads into a sequence where Sinister is reborn via the X-Men’s resurrection protocols. Similarly, the Phoenix Force starts out as a massive conflagration before reshaping itself into the familiar shape of a firebird. Federico Blee’s colors paint a grand picture, showering pages in glowing golden light or the embers of cosmic fire.
X-Men Forever #2 lets its character depth and great artwork do the heavy lifting, which helps it overcome some tangled continuity. Hopefully, the creative team continues that journey as the Krakoan Age races to its end.
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