X-MEN FOREVER #4 - September 2009

 

Strike-Back!

Credits:  Chris Claremont (writer), Tom Grummett (pencils), Cory Hamscher (inks), Tom Orzechowski (letters), Wilfredo Quintana (colors)

Summary:  Storm escapes through the Morlock Tunnels.  Jean rejoins the X-Men to search for her, while Xavier, Beast, and Nick Fury monitor the mission from the mansion.  Cyclops convinces Sabretooth to join their search.  Beast detects two similar energy patterns, so Rogue, Nightcrawler, and Gambit are sent to investigate the second reading.  Storm escapes the X-Men, but soon finds herself confronted by agents of the Consortium who have been sent to kill her.  Meanwhile, Rogue’s team discovers an adolescent Storm on the Brooklyn Bridge.

Continuity Notes:  

• Shadowcat is still wearing her classic Excalibur outfit in the issue, regardless of what the cover shows us.
• The adolescent version of Storm debuted in Uncanny X-Men #253.  The origin later given was that Nanny regressed her to childhood after “rescuing” her from the X-Men.
• The Consortium will play a large role in this series as it progresses.  Essentially, they’re an anti-mutant conspiracy.
• Jean reemerges with a new costume, even though her “tattered” costume from the first issue was drawn as normal in the past two chapters.  The triangle shape over her chest is sometimes drawn as a Phoenix symbol and sometimes not.  The model is never consistent.
• Beast theorizes that Shadowcat now has Wolverine’s claw because she phased through Wolverine’s body while Fabian Cortez was using his powers on Wolverine.  The combination of powers caused an “overload of the physiologic and mutagenic processes…”
• Rogue claims that her encounter with Fabian Cortez has silenced the residual voices she hears in her head after absorbing someone’s persona.

Review:  Hooray, I get to complain about Kitty’s claw again.  Thankfully not dragging this out, Claremont presents the justification for how exactly Kitty has an adamantium claw bonded to her skeleton now, via the Beast, who’s rarely wrong about anything so this must be the real answer.  The explanation hinges on the reader believing that Fabian Cortez’s powers work essentially as magic, warping a mutant’s powers into whatever the story needs them to be.  I was perfectly okay with Claremont expounding upon Cortez’s powers earlier in the series, since the character was largely a mystery in his initial appearances and it is plausible that Cortez is capable of more than what we saw in those three issues.  But the idea that he could amplify Kitty’s powers to the point that she’s absorbed a part of Wolverine’s skeleton, and apparently part of his personality, just stretches credibility too far.  I’m willing to give up some of my bias on how Cortez’s powers work, but I refuse to believe he can perform magic, nor am I willing to forget that Weapon X established the adamantium bonding process as insanely complicated, even within the fantastic world of the Marvel Universe.  Making this more annoying is Claremont going out of his way to remind us that Wolverine’s supposed to be in pain every time he pops his claws.  So, Kitty’s now just as tough as Wolverine?  And I guess she somehow picked up a portion of his healing factor, too?  Honestly, this is such a horrendous idea I’m shocked it made it to print.  

Don’t let the above rant lead you to believe that I’m opposed to insane plot twists, though.  I love adolescent Storm (wait, that doesn’t sound right…) and I’m thrilled Claremont actually revived her for this series.  This is partially nostalgia, as Storm was de-aged during my first year of X-fandom and I have great memories of the stories from this era.  More importantly, I just love the Marvel Universe’s plausible lunacy that allows a major character to “die,” reemerge as a pre-teen, and then carry on in adventures for a year-plus before the readers are ever told how it happened.  That final bit is the most important element, presenting a credible explanation within a reasonable time after you’ve introduced the crazy idea.  The mystery of why Storm isn’t dead, and why she’s now a kid, was just a part of the chaotic fun of Uncanny X-Men during that era.  I don’t think there are necessarily more stories to be told about Storm as an adolescent, but the mystery surrounding how she’s returned is a great hook for future stories in this series.

So, one good plot twist, one bad.  The rest of the issue goes through the paces fairly well, allowing Storm to escape while setting Sabretooth up as a potential ally to the team.  Claremont gives Cyclops a few nice moments in the issue, as he’s able to handle Sabretooth without resorting to another fight, and get him on the team’s side when they need him.  Cyclops is also given a brief moment to react to last issue’s big revelation, and while it doesn’t make the Jean/Wolverine romance more palatable, it does allow Cyclops to maintain some dignity and remain sympathetic.  There is a sense in the series that no one but Jean understands where this is coming from, which works because that’s probably the point of view of most of the audience, although I still find the elevation of what was once flirting to some great romance just annoying.

Grummett handles the action and character interactions very well, and as I’ve said several times by now, I think his X-Men look essentially perfect.  I would rank Grummett’s X-Men in these issues up there with Cockrum, Byrne, or Davis any day.  Unfortunately, the misguided attempts to redesign the team have already begun, so there isn’t a lot of time to enjoy their “real” looks.