X-Men Forever #1: Bleeding Out

Writer Kieron Gillen has a tremendous gift for balancing some rather intense character development with the brutal machinations of plot. In this instance, the characters who are receiving the brunt of this development are Destiny and Xavier — both of whom seem bound and determined to betray the things they love most in the name of saving them.

Seriously, the number of times that Xavier spits out the phrase, “I can live with it” is astonishing. This is a man with nothing left but moral compromise. All of his compatriots (save two) are avowed villains — people who have dedicated themselves to everything that he claims to hate. He has betrayed Doug (again) in a frankly horrific way. Seriously, once this penny drops, I guarantee that you’ll feel nauseous. He is in the middle of betraying Rachel. He is manipulating Rasputin, forcing her to work with the monster who enslaved her for a full thousand years. He is playing with the lives of every last mutant in existence.

And, yes. He can live with it.

And, far worse, if he succeeds, he will be absolutely forgiven.

As for Destiny, well, every manipulative coward is eventually found out. And now her wife has found the book containing all her secrets. The fuse has been lit, and the spark is creeping down the wire to the keg. Something tells me that the wedding issue is going to be explosive indeed.

As per usual, when Gillen is concerned, there were lots of little nods to the world outside of the story. It was brilliant and painful to see Mystique hiring a pair of (also gay) beards to enable her to date her wife in public in 1890’s England. The male Essex clones’ deep seated misogyny was infuriating and also perfectly in key. Selene’s knowledge of magical linguistic loopholes was both in character and absolutely fantastic.

Luca Maresca’s line work was absolutely fantastic. The level of detail that he packed into each panel was absolutely astonishing. Federico Blee can do absolutely no wrong with his colors. He’s an especially deft hand with clothing shadows and bright smears and gouts of blood.