X-Men Forever #s 6 to 10: A Review

Writer: Chris Claremont; Pencils: Paul Smith, Steve Scott & Peter Vale; Inks: Terry Austin, Al Vey & Gary Martin; Covers: Tom Grummett

Rating 4 out of 5 stars

X-Men Forever issue #s 6 to 10 comprise the second story arc of the series. Well, actually, it really is a three-part story bookended by a prologue and epilogue.

Issue #6 deals with the aftermath of the previous arc, with the X-Men reacting to Professor Xavier's deception concerning the true nature of mutants, the reappearance of adolescent Storm, and the presence of long-time enemy Sabretooth in the mansion. The issue opens with a humorous variation on the now-traditional, iconic X-Men baseball game. The scene had me laughing aloud. And we also find out that Sabretooth eats his Wheaty O's cereal with beer. I guess he figures milk is for wusses.

There is a bit with the damaged Danger Room going berserk and trying to kill the X-Men, but the cause is left unexplained. Hopefully Claremont will reveal the reason at some point. After all, we still don't know who shot down the X-Men's jet in issue #1. Then again, Claremont is the master of the long-simmering subplot.

With #s 7 to 9, the X-Men and Nick Fury are off to the Andes Mountains in South America, to investigate the destruction of first a tank column and then a SHIELD taskforce by an unknown foe. Now, anyone who read the preview story in X-Men Forever Alpha will no doubt have guessed it was the Sentinels before too long. So it's not much of a mystery for the audience, just the book's cast.

Most of #7 is given over to a World War II flashback showing the first meeting between Nick Fury and Wolverine, as we see the Howling Commandos teaming up with Logan to destroy a Nazi special weapons factory. At first, this seems superfluous, other than to reflect that Wolverine just died a few issues ago, and Fury is reminiscing about him. But then we learn the identity of the weapons factory's head scientist, who Wolverine kills: Dietrich Trask. Long-time readers will recognize that last name.

The connection between Dietrich Trask and the Sentinels is made explicit over the next two issues, wherein we learn that Dietrich is indeed the father of Dr. Bolivar Trask, the man who invented the Sentinels. For those who enjoy seeing dodgy 1960s comic book plotting get rationalized, this provides a convenient explanation for how Trask, an anthropologist of all things, was able to create an army of giant mutant-hunting robots: he utilized technology developed by his Nazi rocket scientist father. That sort of thing happened often enough in the read world, with the Americans and the Soviets racing to snatch up the Third Reich's scientific geniuses to develop weaponry and spacecraft during the Cold War. Wernher von Braun is just the most prominent example.

It's actually quite appropriate for Claremont to set up indirect Nazi roots for the Sentinels. Within the Marvel universe, the Sentinels are instantly identifiable as symbols of bigotry and blind intolerance. When confronted in issue #8 by Bolivar's daughter Zigreid Trask, who is hell-bent on continuing the family legacy, Nick Fury somberly comments "So we come full circle. Your grandfather's science sparked the technology needed to build something that could detect people who were different. Hunt them and kill them. A whole new Holocaust."

(As an aside, Claremont seems to be giving Nick Fury the best lines of dialogue in this series.)

While the X-Men learn there is a new generation of Sentinels on the loose, and that they have been manufactured by the Consortium (the shadowy group of villains introduced in the previous arc), it is an incomplete victory. The X-Men destroy the group of basic, traditional Sentinels they encounter, but they are left in the dark as to the nature of the more advanced models that were being developed, and are now on the loose. And Ziggy Trask manages to escape. So the X-Men and Fury head home not exactly having lost, but with pieces of an incomplete puzzle.

The epilogue, in #10, is the funeral for Wolverine. A large cast of Marvel stalwarts show up to pay their respects, and Cyclops delivers an eulogy that sums up Logan perfectly. "He had a dream, a goal, a purpose in his life. He knew it was probably doomed, that no matter how hard he tried he couldn't overcome the animal in his nature. But that never stopped him from trying." That encapsulates the difference between Wolverine and his father Sabretooth. Logan constantly sought to overcome his savagery, whereas Sabretooth eagerly embraces his brutal, viscous side. It is no accident that the above segment of the eulogy appears in the same panel showing a brooding Sabretooth, sitting alone in the shadows of the mansion thinking who-knows-what dark thoughts.

Speaking of Sabretooth, it is somewhat surprising that the X-Men are giving him the run of the mansion. We're told in #8 that the X-Men have put an ankle bracelet on him to keep track of his whereabouts, and in #10 the SHIELD agents stationed with the X-Men are said to be keeping Sabretooth under observation. There's even a disagreement between Cyclops and Xavier, with the former wishing their "guest" was given a prison cell instead of a bedroom. But, still, I'm surprised Nick Fury is okay with this situation. Sabretooth is a brutal mass-murderer. Really, he is much, much too dangerous to be given even limited freedom. And you would think that there'd be a few law enforcement agencies that would want to take him into custody. Offhand, I recall "The Assassin Nation Plot" storyline from The Amazing Spider-Man, which had the Red Skull hiring Sabretooth to assassinate the Symkarian prime minister as part of a plan to cause a war with the United States. You'd think Silver Sable would want to get her hands on Sabretooth to bring him to trial, if not outright kill him.

The whole situation with Sabretooth is the only problematic aspect of Claremont's writing in these five issues. Unfortunately, it's pretty blatant. I guess we'll have to see where he's going with this. But if I was a member of the X-Men, I'd be sleeping none too easily knowing a psychopathic killer was living under the same roof.

The artwork on the middle three issues is pencilled by Steve Scott and inked by Al Vey, with an assist from Peter Vale and Gary Martin in #9. All in all, the Scott/Vey artwork is quite good. The best segment would be the World War II flashback in #7, which is action-packed yet also serious and gritty, which definitely suits the subject matter. I wasn't as enamoured with the scenes set in the present day, which were a bit on the generic side. But they did draw the Sentinels as quite menacing & ominous figures. And I enjoyed the tense verbal showdown between Nick Fury and Ziggy Trask in the shadowy laboratory of the abandoned Consortium facility.

It was the art on the bookend issues, #s 6 and 10, that was a real treat: pencils by Paul Smith, inks by Terry Austin. Smith had a short but memorable run on Uncanny X-Men back in the mid-1980s that is still talked about to this day. As for Austin, he is without a doubt one of the best inkers/embellishers in the comic book business. I am an unabashed fan of his work. As far as his X-Men connection goes, Austin inked John Byrne's pencils on Uncanny X-Men in the late 1970s and early 80s, during what is considered by many to be one of the quintessential periods of the series. Austin also inked the "director's cut" segments of Classic X-Men which were pencilled by Kieron Dwyer early in his career.

It's great to see Terry Austin working with Chris Claremont again, and inking Paul Smith's pencils. The finished art is fantastic. The baseball game scene from #6 was a hoot, and the funeral in #10 a somber, emotional affair. Oddly enough, looking at some other comments on the Internet, a number of people seemed to think that Smith's art wasn't as good as his original X-Men work. Well, that was, what, almost a quarter century ago? Of course it's going to look different. If Smith current art looked exactly like it did 25 years ago, that'd be a problem, because it'd mean he hadn't grown & developed as an artist. Besides, those old issues were inked by Bob Wiacek. Smith inked by Austin is obviously going to look different than inked by Wiacek. Whatever the case, I thought Smith & Austin made a great team, and I'd enjoy seeing them on this series again.

Oh, yes, on a personal note, it's great to see that the creative team remembered that Ben Grimm, the Thing, is Jewish, and that Smith & Austin drew the character with a yarmulke while attending Wolverine's funeral.

All in all, aside from the Sabretooth subplot, I enjoyed these five issues. X-Men Forever is currently my favorite ongoing series from Marvel. If Chris Claremont keeps up this quality of writing, I'll be along for the ride. Hopefully the book lives up to it's title and is around, if not forever, than at least for a long time.