Rise of the Powers of X #4: Now and Forever

Gillen is writing at the top of his game. The pacing of this story is worth the price of admission all by itself. It’s rare for a writer to be able to keep so many balls in the air, and rarer still for each of these juggled characters to have enough to do to be interesting, but he’s managed it. 

This story splits it’s focus between Xavier as he murders his conscience (alongside possibly millions of humans) in order to play his games with the AI, Rachel Summers as she works to help her mother, Rasputin confronting Sinister, and the entire remaining Krakoan mutants as they plot to return to Earth as calvary. 

A lesser writer would have spelled all this out in word-bubble infodumps, but Gillen primarily relies on the golden rule of ‘Show, don’t tell’. We catch jagged, ugly glimpses of what Orchis is forcing Xavier to do. Mentions of ‘cognitive drain’ applied to world leaders, and of course the nuclear codes. We get a tender kiss, placed upon a feverish forehead. We watch blooming flowers burst as they are transformed into interdimensional portals. 

And all of it, every panel, every page, is rendered by Silva with astonishing beauty and terrible lucidity. This is an agonizing book, and it is agonizing because it is so very beautiful. Silva’s line art combines with David Curriel’s bloody hues to create some truly unforgettable pages.