X-MEN FOREVER #5

Review by: flapjaxx

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Size: pages
Price: 3.99

Wow.

It’s a shame THIS wasn’t the issue that Ron could spotlight by making the PoTW, because it’s the best issue of the series so far by a mile. Not that I’ve minded the first four issues, but issue five far surpasses them. With this final chapter of the first storyline Claremont succeeds in making X-Men Forever more than a fun joke. Don’t get me wrong, WTF-moments are still to be found in this issue…but by issue’s end? Those last few scenes? The big reveal about the secret truth of mutant kind? Yeah, it STARTS off as a WTF but then it becomes quite a bit more. What Claremont starts to say in this issue is actually sort of profound. Really. The paradigm-shift idea that he brings to the fore by issue’s end…it might really be the most noteworthy twist in any X-Men comic since, I dunno, something or other in Morrison’s run (hate it or love it). And the rationale for this reveal–Claremont actually makes it make sense, tying it in to what had been going on in the X-titles in the early ’90s, with Magneto losing his powers and with Xavier lost in space for so long.

I reallly like where this is going. X-Men Forever remains an entertaining book, a book to laugh at and a book to geek out over, but…with this issue we can honestly say that there are aspects of it that are quite GOOD and unique, all in a non-laughable way.

Fury says of Xavier: “Yes, the man who had the Dream is FLAWED [but] The Dream itself . . . that’s still GOOD”.* And that pretty much shits all over current X-continuity, where Xavier has been treated almost as a pariah so Cyclops’ merry band of race-card-playing sexpots can pretend that all mutants should look and act like vapid Hollywood stars and starlets, and take a really holier-than-thou, insufferably righteous attitude in the process. Maybe that’s a bit harsh on my part (I actually LIKE Uncanny, I really do! And no I’m not in favor of Prop X!), but it’s clear that, for all his faults, it’s Claremont who knows how to bring the soul out of these characters and this mythos, even if his dialoguing skills are a bit dated or whatever.

As Fury redeems Xavier, perhaps X-Men Forever will also redeem Chris Claremont and, by extension, the ground-breaking saga about the potential genetic future of humanity that he started to script so many years ago. As some of us always suspected, the Big Bad of mutantkind was really the Shadow King, who can be shown to represent the dark side of genetically advanced intelligence perhaps better than any other comic villain. Hopefully Claremont will indeed nail the ending he wanted to give us the first time around, when he originally intended to step down with Uncanny #300. Hopefully he will show us what those great mythic avatars of mutantkind will do when brought into direct conflict, and how Charles Xavier will (probably) sacrifice himself, like Phoenix did before him, for the good of everyone.

*By the way, MLK plagiarized his seminary thesis, and I guess he also wasn’t perfectly faithful to his wife or something. The point is, all great leaders have flaws, and those flaws actually make them more human, in my opinion, without sullying the good they have done or the causes they fought for. If Charles Xavier were a perfect moral standard…wow would he be a boring, unbelievable character.

Story: 5 - Excellent
Art: 3 - Good

Comments

  1. I agree with your review 100%, Flapjaxx. Amazing issue.

  2. The good old days of Claremont X-Men are back. Awesome stuff.

  3. Yes, yes, and yes.  I don’t like posting anything spoilery when I do my reviews, since I mostly do them Tuesday nights, but you hit every conversation point I’ve had with customers.  With the exception of your MLK point, which is very well articulated.  Awesome review.

  4. X-Men Forever has been WAY more fun than any of the other current X-Men Titles

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