Okay, this is a little... difficult to wrap one's head around. Chris Claremont is returning to the X-Men in a new title called X-Men Forever. It picks up where X-Men #3, Claremont's "official last" issue left off. That is, the X-Men unlimited series #3 issue from, like, 1991 or so. In this world, or universe, or whatever, the X-Men are as Claremont and Lee left them nearly 20 years ago. So whatever is happening in the other X-titles currently - and that's a lot, judging from all the Magik stuff that's been going down lately, etc. - has never happened in this incarnation of the team... I don't think. Or it will happen later. Or it is happening in another universe or multiverse. Or they are Skrulls.Prior to the new "landmark, collector's item" X-Men Forever #1 comes X-Men Forever Alpha #1, collecting the first three issues by Claremont and Lee from back when even I was a kid (more or less), just so anyone under 30 still reading X-Men can "catch-up."
You know, they really are just funnybooks, but if nothing that happens in them actually matters, then why bother? Back in The Day, Storm once lost her powers. That was a really big thing and led to some truly classic comic books - I still re-read some of those issues now, when I want to experience comic books the way I remember them. These days, it really wouldn't be such a big deal, because Storm would have her powers in the other titles in which she appears, and/or we already know it doesn't matter because the Storm without her powers is a Skrull...
There's a better analogy for younger readers: I didn't keep up with who was a Skrull and who wasn't, but just think of whomever the "biggest reveal" was. It was pretty shocking, right? You probably really enjoyed finding that out and it explained all sorts of things and so on, and the ramifications of that reveal are still sweeping through several other titles you're reading, right?
Okay, that never happened. Well, it did, but in another multi-uni-verse, and to another incarnation of that character who was actually from the future.
Of course, comic books are soap operas, but at some point, it just loses all meaning.
© C Harris Lynn, 2009
2 comments:
Maybe Professor X made a deal with Mephisto (who was actually a Skrull) and erased the last twenty years of continuity. So now there should be about a billion mutants still running around, but most of them are Srulls and the rest crossed over from the House of M universe. In any case the Marvel Mutant-verse will be changing FOREVER (forever being roughly equal to six months, which would be about two hours in comic book time).
They aren't even trying anymore, are they?
Post a Comment