Hey, everyone… Here is my third review. Next up is the second issue of ‘X-Men Forever’. Hope you enjoy it.

X-Men Forever #2
(preview | thread)
Writer: Chris Claremont
Penciler: Tom Grummett
Inker: C. Hamscher

SPOILERS BELOW…

Note: Wolverine only appears as a skeleton this issue.

RECAP: The issue opens with police seeing a flash in the park. They investigate and find a burning skeleton that looks suspiciously like Wolverine.

We jump to Xavier’s mansion where everyone has been knocked out by a blast. Storm arrives to a quiet house with no lights and finds the X-Men passed out on the floor. Only Xavier is awake and he is groggy. He explains that Jean was able to divert the blast to the power grid. Still it was strong enough to knock them out. The others slowly wake up except for Jean.

Scott tries to carry her to Medbay as Gambit comes in carrying an unconscious Rogue. They got hit as well. Xavier tries to scan Jean’s mind but cannot get through. Hank looks at Jean while the rest debate what to do. Hank offers to call the Avengers but Fury is already contacting S.H.I.E.L.D.

He learns about the body they found in the park which is now under S.H.I.E.L.D. control.  One of the soldiers is being pestered by a girl but she disappears before she can be questioned.

Fury seems to sense something in the hall as he goes to inform the X-Men about the body. Storm is down in the basement trying to get the power started but she is jumped by Sabretooth who tries to kill her

He slashes her but she blows him into the Danger Room where she has room to maneuver. The other X-Men jump in and attack but Storm is going nuts and wants revenge. The X-Men do not do very well against the savage, attacking individually instead of as a team. But Storm fights back and pins him to the wall before nearly fatally blasting him with lightning. The strike does not kill him, however, but blinds him.

MY TAKE: Not much happens in this issue, but we get several new plot threads and potential story lines to follow up on. The base plot is simple recovery from the blast last issue and an attack of the mansion by Sabretooth.

But there are several new questions that come up. The biggest one for me is, is that Wolverine’s body at all? We are clearly shown a broken claw and it comes up in discussion twice. Since adamantium is supposed to be unbreakable, what happened?

Next is of course what is going on with Storm. Although her thoughts seem normal her speech and actions are anything but. Add the scene with Rogue last issue and it is starting to look like maybe there is a lot more going on then we have seen.

As for the story, it is fine if you do not mind Claremont’s wordiness and rather cheesy dialogue and I do not. We see Sabretooth coming to get revenge for ‘the boy’ although we do not know how he found out Wolverine’s death, that Storm supposedly killed him or how he got to the mansion so fast. It is obvious that Claremont intends to pursue the father son connection with Creed and Logan.

I am still not sold on the addition of Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. to the series. The X-Men have always handled their own problems and now a single attack has them running for help to Fury or the Avengers? They have fought cosmic powers and gods before,  so I do not know where this sudden lack of self-confidence is coming from.

The characters feel right, naturally, since Claremont knows them well. All except for Storm who is obviously not meant to be. I am a little bothered by how blatantly things are being hammered into us by the story. Storm is very over the top here, so much so that there must be something wrong with her. Nothing else works. I would like it to be a little less plain. Same with Wolverine’s claws. We could see it in the picture so it did not have to be mentioned repeatedly.

I am still not completely sold on the series but there seems to be plenty of ideas and story to go for a long run. Each issue he is dropping little plot threads and hints and I have missed that sort of storytelling. I just hope that the writing and the characters do it justice.

In the end this was a good if not amazing issue. We are still very early in the setup process for the series but there is a lot of potential good here and just enough problems to make me worried. Hopefully the good will win out in the end.

Thanks for reading my review for Wolverine Files. I will be keeping to this format for the most part but please keep the comments coming and I will see everyone again next time.