X-men Supreme Bios Update - Dazzler

I know I have more comics to review, but I wanted to post a quick update on X-men Supreme. As readers may recall, I posted my latest issue and it introduced Alison Blaire aka Dazzler to this fanfiction series. However, there was only so much of her story I could tell in one short issue. The rest of her life story and character breakdown could not be worked in. As such, I've updated the bios page and given her a full bio that explains where she came from and how she ended up in the events of X-men Supreme.

X-men Supreme Bios - Dazzler

She's a fan favorite character and I plan on using her again down the line. But she's not the only new character that will be showing up in X-men Supreme! The next few issues will introduce some more familiar faces to this fanfiction series and they will bring about some major changes. You'll see! In the meantime I'll keep posting comic reviews. I've got the new issue of Hellbound in and that's the next comic I plan on reviewing. Thanks again to all those who follow X-men Supreme! Your support is deeply appreciated. Excelsior!

Jack

Brightest Day #4 Review - Subtle Awesome

When it comes to the new era of DC comics, the gold standard of awesome is more often than not dictated by the pen of Geoff Johns. Blackest Night was a historic achievement for which readers are still having multiple nerdgasms over and Brightest Day is basically turning it into a three way by continuing the staggering momentum that had been previously established. The last issue was a return to form in many ways. Before then the story had been slowing down a bit and by a bit I mean within the context of a story that involved mass resurrections and some of the most epic battles this side of the multiverse. It kept Brightest day up to par with the most ridged standards of awesome so issue 4 has a lot to live up to. Can it measure up? Can it summon the super human strength of an Olympian to leap over the impossibly high bar? The answer isn't a simple yes or no, but that's where some explanations are needed and maybe a few curse words to boot. I'll do my best.

The beginning of the issue continues with the surprise and ball-bustingly awesome end of the previous issue. Here, Hawkman and Hawkgirl found the thief that had been stealing the bones of their reincarnated selves. With them he constructed a gateway that only someone on enough LSD and cocaine to kill Sigmund Freud wouldn't find amazing. Now going through a mysterious gateway is nerve racking enough, even for a superhero. Going through a gateway made of bones from your past selves? Now that's something that can and probably should make your brain leak out of your ears. Hawkman and Hawkgirl understandably hesitate, but being the heroes they are they go into it and the trip isn't all that pleasant either. Along the way they get a glimpse of all their past lives and how they all violently ended. It makes for a pretty awesome shot as well as a great image to look at when you're stoned. A page like this could keep a pothead entertained for days.


They do make it through in one piece (although it's not clear how much therapy they're going to need by the end of this), but where they end up is overwhelming in some ways and underwhelming in others. For one, they're definitely not on Earth anymore. They're not anywhere familiar either. They're on a planet that looks like a cross between Tatooine from Star Wars and Pandora from Avatar. Their target is nowhere in sight, but they are back on his trail and going to extraordinary lengths to reach him. It would have been great to see a classic hot pursuit, but unfortunately the scene ends. It's not necessarily a cliffhanger, but it is still awesome enough to want be satisfying.


The next part picks up with Boston Brand, who has taken center stage for much of this series. He's alive again after being Deadman for quite some time and he's still not adjusting well. Seriously, how do you go from being the walking dead to being a regular, shitting guy? He already got some action when he faced off against the anti-Monitor in the last issue. Whatever fight ensued it isn't shown, which is kind of a drag because that was shaping up to be a great fight. Instead he just ends up in the room of a sleeping attractive woman. It's basically the kind of scenarios that horror movies and porno movies are made from (not that there's anything wrong with that).


That woman, however, is not a teenage babysitter humping her boyfriend. She's Dove, the more peaceful side to the Hawk and Dove avatars. She's understandably confused because she still knows Boston Brand as Deadman. Imagine her surprise when he shows up alive and in her bedroom? At the very least she can take comfort in the fact that this has no necrophilia undertones. However, she isn't the only one to notice Boston's entrance. Her better half, Hawk, picks up on his presence fast because it's hard to be subtle when you wake a beautiful woman up from a peaceful sleep. It makes for an entertaining and awkward moment that's both awesome and funny.


Hawk, being the reasonable guy that he is, welcomes Boston by trying to beat the shit out of him. It's the kind of moment that would probably make Brand still wish he was dead. However, he does get Hawk to stand down so he can explain himself. His concern is the white lantern ring he's wearing. This thing has basically been the driving force of this series and for whatever reason it let him to the anti-Monitor and to Dove's bedroom (as if a ring needs to lead a man to a beautiful woman's bedroom). He's as confused as Hawk and Dove, but Hawk comes up with an idea and drags Boston along. It's an ominous shift for a guy not known for being reasonable and it adds some intrigue.

That intrigue carries over to the next scene, which picks up with the Aquaman plot. Sadly, Aquaman is nowhere in sight this time. After his moment with Mera in the last issue, he's MIA and the oceans aren't liking it. Lakes are disappearing and dead bodies are washing up on rocks. It follows the whole death theme that seems to be clinging to Aquaman.


However, at this point the plot becomes a bit confusing. I'm not talking Lost style confusing. I'm talking more random shit that doesn't seem to fit. While these death events are being investigated, Mera appears to lead an attack by Atlantean forces. For anyone who has been following this series they'll find themselves thinking "Huh? Where the fuck did this come from?" If it's supposed to be a subtle hint, it's not very well done and seems horribly out of place and poorly fleshed out. For a Geoff Johns comic, that's like a Unicorn fucking a dragon.


It's almost a good thing that this scene cuts off because the next few parts take the story back down to Earth so-to-speak. Johns takes the story to a place that will probably bring tears to the eyes of anyone with fond college memories...a frat house keg party. Even in the world of DC and superheroes, there's always a place for college age decadence. If the movie Animal House has taught the world anything, it's that everything is made better with a kegger. But it's not completely random like the Aquaman plot. It's revisiting Ronnie (aka the first Firestorm), who looks like he's not in the spirit of the party. If anything it looks like he's skipped a step and gone straight to the hangover. Excuse me while I wipe away my tears from such fond memories.


Now when it comes to being drunk and hung over, it doesn't take much to make it worse. Anyone who has been hammered before knows that even a creaky floor board can be the equivalent of having root canal done with a jackhammer. So Ronnie is understandably in bad shape when a ghost from Blackest Night shows up. Keep in mind Ronnie still has part of the Firestorm matrix and while the other half currently hates his guts, that doesn't mean the part that died in Blackest Night can't come back to haunt him. It's an eerie and very cool scene, one that will make anyone with drinking experience feel that much better when they think their drunken stupor can't get any worse. Because no matter how drunk you are, at least you don't have a ghost that happens to contain the other part of the Firestorm matrix looming over you. That's worse than 10,000 hangovers plus crack withdrawal.


This is another scene that could have been a big spectacle that would have filled this comic with the awesome we've all come to expect from Geoff Johns and Brightest Day. Sadly, it cuts off at yet another cliffhanger that really wasn't a cliffhanger. It was basically a prelude and it seems to reflect a pattern in this book. All the moments are just these preludes to something better instead of being plots unto themselves. It's only half-awesome in that sense and it does sort of feel like you're being teased as a reader. It's like that super hot stripper that pretends to give you a lap dance, but at the last minute runs off to the bathroom while you sit hanging with a boner that is in serious need of stimulation. Yeah, it's that uncomfortable.

At the very least not every plotline is like that in this book. The Boston Brand plot with Hawk and Dove ends on a real cliffhanger for once because the final scene does pick up from what the first one established. Hawk leads Boston to the grave site of his brother, Donald Hall. His way of testing the power of the white lantern ring is simple...use it to bring back his brother. If Brand was able to resurrect a dead bird and come back from being Deadman, then why not a human? It's a morbid and macabre request, one that may have crossed the minds of those following the Boston Brand plot from Brightest Day #0. The issue ends with Brand in a strange position. He wants to understand this power, but Hawk isn't making it easy for him. It's the kind of conflict that makes a reader develop Restless Leg Syndrome in waiting to see what happens next. It doesn't make up for all the weaker plots in the book, but it sure does help end it on a strong note and set up a base of awesome for the next issue.


Going back to the original question of whether or not this book measures up to the standards of Geoff Johns and Brightest day, the answer should be more clear now. It does measure up, but not completely. It does have some shortcomings that keep it from being as awesome as the issues that preceded it. There isn't enough action and too many plots are cut off before they can become interesting. Johns really does seem to want to create some suspense here, but the suspense isn't all that suspenseful and even somewhat of a drag at times. The choppy plot of the Aquaman story and the complete omission of the Martian Manhunter story don't help, but the Boston Brand story and that of the Hawks certainly does. There a certain balance to it all and at the very least it keeps the reader wanting to check out the next issue.

All in all, Brightest Day #4 gets a 4 out of 5. It's a great setup and has the potential to really build on some great plots. But as an individual comic, it just doesn't raise to the occasion as it's predecessors have done. It's still the gold standard of DC comics and it a must have for any self-respecting DC fan. Geoff Johns isn't perfect, but he comes pretty darn close most of the time and he's got plenty of room to still blow the readers away. I'm still picking up parts of my brain off the floor from Blackest Night so I hope he'll have something else ready because my head is ripe for more awesome and Brightest Day is more than equipped to deliver it.

X-men Second Coming: New Mutants #14 - Struggling Towards Awesome

Time is running out for Second Coming. The big crossover Marvel is hyping up more than a Mike Tyson fight is nearing it's end. But while the series started so strong, it's been faltering as of late and it's running out of room to recover. The last issue, Uncanny X-men #525, was a disappointment in a number of ways. Matt Fraction has been good at stories, but characterization has not been his strong suite. To say his subtlety is shaky would be like saying rectal cancer is no more serious than a hang nail. Usually, Zeb Wells is able to pick up the slack with New Mutants. He did so last time with flying colors in New Mutants #13. Did he do the same with New Mutants #14? Yes and no, but that's where I need to give a full review because if I explained it here I would be shitting all over myself before I got to the toilet.

The transition from Uncanny to New Mutants was fairly smooth. In the last issue Cyclops was confronted by Charles Xavier, who is finally making some contributions to the crossover (even if it is 10 issues late). To counter the incoming hoards of Nimrod sentinels, he's enlisting the help of his omega level yet slightly (and by slightly I mean batshit crazy) unstable son, David. Desperate times call for desperate measures, but this walks the fine line between desperate and stupid. Legion hasn't done much of anything for years and all of the sudden he's thrust into the action? It's tantamount to Michael Jackson coming back from the dead as a black man.


But Legion is just part of the story. At this point in the fight the X-men aren't relying on battle tested veterans anymore to get the job done. With an army of Nimrod sentinels attacking, Cyclops enlists the entire population of Utopia. He basically gives a Mel Gibson style speech that would make William Wallace in Braveheart proud, stating that everyone is now part of the X-men and they have to use whatever power they have to fight back. Most of the mutants look at him in the same way a cow looks at an oncoming train. But he gets the message across and the fight continues.


But Cyclops isn't the only one giving a speech. Hope (you know, the girl who this whole damn crossover is supposed to be centered on?) finally shows up for the first time since the first pages of Uncanny X-men #525 and this time she's packing a big fucking gun. It makes it painfully clear she's been raised by Cable yet it's still a little unsettling that a 17-year-old girl is packing that much heat. Most 17-year-olds are barely responsible enough to drive, but Hope carries herself in a way that is far more mature than what Matt Fraction did. While he made her look like a total brat, Zeb Wells gives her balls of adamantium. Rogue was supposed to protect her and keep her out of the fight now that she hates Cyclops. But no good messiah is left on the sideline. That would be like benching Peyton Manning for Ryan Leaf in the Super Bowl. So she gets Rogue to come along with her.

It's a wonderful scene, but there's one problem and it's the same damn problem that Uncanny had. This is the last fucking page Hope appears on! She's even on the damn cover this time with Rogue and all she does is make her speech and that's it. She's never seen again for the rest of the comic. It's some piss poor planning that I would expect of Matt Fraction, but not Zeb Wells. He's supposed to be picking up the slack and now he's got butterfingers.


At least from here the story gets back to the action. The next scene shows the New Mutants taking on a hoard of Nimrod sentinels in a tunnel. Mercury, Boom Boom, Avalanche, and Roberto are all trying to hold their own. But they still aren't shaking the whole New Mutants role because they're getting their asses handed to them. To continue with the football metaphors they're like rookies thrust into a big game and the Nimrod's are the 2007 New England Patriots.


But the New Mutants aren't the only ones getting their asses handed to them in a neatly wrapped package. Even the X-men's heavy hitters are getting pummeled like a BP's corporate image. It is here where the power of the Nimrod Sentinels is really shown. They have the ability to adapt to whoever and whatever it is they're fighting. Just like Bastion, they use tactical skill to overcome their enemies. That's a far cry from the usual throw-a-shit-ton-of-force-at-the-problem-and-hope-for-the-best method. They're so effective that they break Colossus's freakin' arm! That's not a misprint. The Nimrods actually wound one of the X-men's strongest characters. It's an awesome scene that shows just how fucked the X-men really are.


The action isn't just unfolding in the present either. There's still a battle going on in the future with X-Force. Cable, Wolverine, and the rest of the team that Cyclops sent are looking to attack Mastermold, who is sending the Nimrod Sentinels into the past through a time portal. Some classic Days of Futures Past elements show up here such as hounds, which look about as miserable as the rest of the X-men are in the present. In this time Bastion and humanity has already won and that's like starting a fight with both arms chopped off for X-Force. It doesn't take long for them to get attacked so they try to be proactive.


It's at this point where Cypher, who if readers will recall acted like a total pussy in the last issue of X-Force, starts to show his worth. A lot of these attacks are machine driven. They really can't be anything else because apparently that's what defeated the X-men and mutants everywhere. As it just so happens Cypher can talk to machines and he gets them to help out. It's unclear if he hacked them or just flirted with a female machine and got it to do him a favor. It makes for one of the few genuinely funny moments in a story that has been filled with so much gloom and doom you need a bucket of prozac at your side at all times.


Things quickly get serious again while X-Force is busy. The fight with the X-men on the Golden Gate bridge is still going strong and the X-men are losing badly. People are getting hurt, mutants are suffering, and the Nimrod Sentinels are essentially laughing like Scott Fargus in "A Christmas Story." It seems as good a time as any for the tide to turn and that's where Legion makes his big entrance.

Under the coaxing and careful control (which of course implies it's a disaster waiting to happen) of Professor Xavier, Legion joins the X-men on the bridge and starts manifesting powers and personalities faster than Nimrod can adapt. It leads to some pretty badass moments from a guy who's about as likable as OJ Simpson. It still has the benefit of working and Zeb Wells does a good job of portraying David's abilities while Xavier has to walk that fine line. It seems at the very least that it buys the X-men some badly needed time for X-Force to work.


Back with X-Force, they begin the assault on Mastermold and Cypher is the key. He has to convince these machines to help him and not Bastion. That's a pretty hard sell and it leaves the rest of X-Force high and dry to face the full onslaught of the Days of Futures Past timeline. This is probably the most compelling part of the book besides the Legion story, showing how Cypher is making his value known by interacting with Mastermold. It's not done in a vacuum. Wells does make it a point to give Mastermold a bit of a personality and Cypher has to appeal to that personality. It's a struggle that is left on a cliffhanger and sets up for what hopes to be the final push to link the future with the present.


As fun as this scene is, Wells quickly goes back to lesser fight scenes and that feels like a mistake. It's very much one of the weak points of this issue. The good scenes are too short and the bad scenes are drawn out. It may just be that old illusion as a kid where a trip to the water park was over too soon and a morning at church felt like having to swim naked across the Pacific Ocean, but it's painfully apparent here and it's the first time it's happened in a Zeb Wells issue of this crossover. He's a much better writer than this and some of these scenes could easily be cut for some more screen time with X-Force, Hope, or even the New Mutants (since this is a New Mutants book after all). But that's not what happens.

The only upside is that on the final pages he sets up a juicy end for Mike Carey to pick up on with X-men Legacy. In the last part Beast is under attack in the infirmary by incoming Nimrods and Magneto is still with him. It's only the second time Magneto has shown up since he's been bedridden in wake of the events of Uncanny X-men 522. He hasn't done much, but here he basically gives the finger to doctors orders and rises up to attack. It's not exactly heroic. It's more the I'm-sick-of-this-bullshit-and-I-want-to-bust-some-heads type attitude. It's not flattering, but it looks unbearably awesome.


Despite this strong finish, New Mutants #14 still has a lot of shortcomings that aren't easy to overlook. The most glaring issue isn't so much the choppy scenes and the lack of salience between them. It's more so that this book is called New Mutants and there are about as much New Mutants in this book as there is brilliance in George W. Bush's speeches. It completely breaks with the tradition that every book has followed in Second Coming. Even though the titles of the books change, it's still easy to tell which is Uncanny and which is X-men Legacy. They do stand out in their own right. Here, that wasn't the case. This could have just as easily been labeled Uncanny or X-men Legacy and it wouldn't have felt out of place. That's just poor representation and a glaring fault that Zeb Wells should be above.

Never-the-less, he still manages to throw in enough awesome parts to make the book work. It is an improvement over Uncanny X-men #525, but only in the same way diarrhea is slightly less sick than barfing up chunks of lung into a toilet. It does a good job of setting up the next part and hopefully this is where things will start to come together. Second Coming has been on a large scale since the beginning, but it's dangerously close to dragging this out because aside from the fighting not much has happened. There hasn't been any major revelation about Bastion or the future. There hasn't been a major sacrifice or death. And there is still no explanation about Hope, who she is, and how she'll undo M-Day. The X-writers are running out of time and if answers don't start coming soon, then the epic nature of this crossover will start to take a hit.

New Mutants #14 (even though it's still a stretch to call it a New Mutants book) gets a 3.5 out of 5. At the very least it leaves the next part ready for an awesome rise in the very capable hands of Mike Carey. If anyone can get the momentum back in this crossover, it's him. Nuff said.

X-men Supreme Issue 13: Bedazzeled is LIVE

The wait is over Dazzler fans! The new issue of X-men Supreme is ready and as the title suggests, a certain musical mutant named Alison Blaire takes center stage. I know it's been a while since I introduced a new character in this fanfiction series. It's a fragile balancing act between bringing new ones in and developing the ones that are already there. I like to think I'm making an effort to walk that line for now. Characters like Dazzler will have their place in the scope of this story and so will the others I plan to introduce.

X-men Supreme Issue 13: Bedazzeled

I hope this issue adds the Dazzler fans to what hope is a growing number of X-men Supreme followers. My website has recently passed 1500 hits and for what I've done so far, that's astonishing! There's still plenty more to come though and I hope to make that number climb. So all you X-men fans, Marvel fans, or just general fanficton fans should stay tuned because the best is yet to come! Thanks as always for those who have taken the time to provide feedback to my fanfiction series and for all those who haven't yet, please find the time to do so if possible. Until then, I have plenty more comic reviews to get through from this past week and plenty more material to work with on X-men Supreme. Enjoy!

Jack

X-Factor Forever #4 Review - Awesome in Any Era

Usually, I'm not one for nostalgia. When people reflect about how great things were in the past I tend to roll my eye and fight the urge to point out the past always seems better because the damn present involves so much more work. So when these X-men Forever titles have come out, I've been just as cynical. Not that I don't have a fondness for the past, but when I read Chris Claremont's X-men Forever I actually felt for the first time the editors were important because if this was the direction he was going to take then the comics I've known and loved would have been fucked like a five dollar whore long ago. Then Louise Simonson came along with X-Factor Forever, taking the concept Chris Claremont established and running with it to the very peak of Mount Awesome.

X-Factor Forever has been a blast from the very first issue and X-Factor Forever #4 doesn't just continue that tradition. It raises and overshoots the bar into the exosphere, telling an awesome story while doing justice to these awesome characters. Simonson proves once and for all that she knows these characters and every other writer of this and other eras can suck it. There's no lull in the awesome from the very beginning. At the end of the last issue Apocalypse showed up and stole Scott's son, Nathan Christopher Summers, while they were battling a Celestial. As if that wasn't bad enough, another Celestial showed up and looks to have a hard on for exacting a heavy judgment on Earth. Think every crazy death cult only with god like powers and you'll get a feel for how bad that is.


Apocalypse, being the sneaky bastard he is, teleported away before X-Factor could even try and wrestle Nathan from him. But this isn't your normal made-for-TV movie style kidnapping. Apocalypse does state there is a purpose behind this. In fact, he seems to imply this child is the key to saving the mutant race. It's a different take on a guy who usually has a ten foot hard-on for destruction, but in a good way.


To add yet another twist to the plot he doesn't even take his right-hand man, Caliban, along for the ride. He just leaves him with X-Factor, who are understandably pissed. Now normally when this happen it's the bad guy just trying to save his own skin. It's a classic way to make the big villain look like an even bigger douche bag than he already is. Leaving his loyal henchmen behind? You really can't get much more douchy than that. At first it seems this way because X-Factor are about as hospitable to Caliban as North Korea is to the rest of the world.


But there's a reason for it and surprisingly, the reason is pretty darn interesting. Caliban may be a minion, but he's not the mindless type. He does have some sense of what's going on and he demonstrates this by asking some profound questions. Why is it that so few mutants have healthy children? Why is it that most of the mutants that are born are either barren, require some extra help, or are utterly fucked up? He mentions mutants like Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, who had a powerful witch for a mother. He also mentions David Heller, Xavier's son, who's as nutty as a fruitcake and twice as ugly. The one that sticks out most is Madelyn Pryor, Jean Grey's clone who bore a healthy Nathan Summers. This is the one X-Factor is most familiar with and the one that leads them to some answers.

Now at this point readers who followed Chris Claremont's X-men Forever series will get a sense of "Wait...haven't we seen this shit before?" It's true. Chris Claremont originally came up with a very novel and powerful concept in his series. Mutants as a species have a serious flaw. They burn out in a sense and rarely live past their twenties. It's radical idea that really sets the story apart, but Louise Simonson takes it several steps further. In her world mutants don't necessarily burn out. They just have a hard time making viable offspring. And a number of those that do occur require the aid of cosmic forces or an off-his-rocker mad scientist type. It's that last notion that leads X-Factor to go after the only guy they have more reason to disembowel than Apocalypse, and that's Mr. Sinister.


The real kicker is that when they arrive at his base they find out he's been a busy little mad scientist. In the X-Factor series prior to this one, Sinister made his mark on the X-books by creating Madelyn Pryor from Jean Grey's DNA. Following the philosophy of "if it's worth doing it's worth overdoing" he didn't stop there. He made a whole army of clones. He made clones of every shape, size, and age. Now all of X-Factor get the same mindfuck Jean Grey had when she found out about Madelyn. If the looks on their faces are any indication, their eyes are ready to shoot out of their sockets.


This fucked up setting provides the perfect setting for pasty faced Sinister to make his big entrance and fuck them up even more for good measure. He adds to the fucking that he's been acquiring genetic material for these clones for some time now. Apparently, he doesn't have too many hobbies and nobody showed him the joys of internet porn. He used this material to not just make clones, but make entirely viable mutants with their own personalities and identities intact. The man didn't go for the traditional zombie army. He went for full fledged duplicates and even threw in some variations.


To make him seem just a bit less like a mad scientist and a hell of a lot more like a control freak, he goes onto explain that he's not doing this just for kicks. He believes he has the key to immortality. He can forge any mutant with any variation he wants. He shows a clone of Angel without his Apocalypse treatment. He shows Storm in her classic mohawk version. He even shows a blond haired Wolverine with bone claws. It sounds pretty lame, but Sinny makes it work. To him this is his answer to the poor mutant birth rate. His clones aren't just for show. They are meant to propagate the mutant species. It's sort of like fixing a problem by taking a shit ton of LSD and mushrooms and giving a lot of advanced alien technology to a guy with a messiah complex who took the same drugs. It makes for a pretty mind-blowing revelation.

But Sinister is just part of the equation. Apocalypse is still heading up this crazy plan and for now Sinister is just the distraction. Granted, this distraction is tantamount to throwing weapons grade plutonium at a charging terrorist group, but he makes it work. Using Sinister's own madness against him, Apocalypse sneaks in to learn about the secrets to Nathan's biology. For whatever reason, this kid that still shits his own pants is the key. Not too comforting when there are space gods looking to destroy damn near everything just because someone took one too many extracurricular in the field of mutant menacing biology.


As distractions come, though, this one should be patented and sold to Johnson and Johnson. Sinister goes one further than boasting about his clone army. He unleashes it on X-Factor. It's a strange way for other famous X-men faces to show up, but it makes for an awesome fight scene that puts X-Factor up against some unexpected and very rough competition. For an issue that's heavy on mind-blowing revelations, it's a nice turn.


The fight goes downhill fast. X-Factor is outnumbered and outgunned by powers they're all too familiar with and Sinister can't stop boasting like he has the biggest dick in the room. It earns him a healthy blast from Cyclops, which doesn't stop him but has to be pretty damn satisfying. But there is still a shit ton of obstacles ahead of them at the X-leader pretty much burns himself out trying to fight it. Here, Simonson adds yet another layer of icing on top of a cake that has plenty of awesome to spare. Jean Grey comes to him and shares a loving moment that is plenty worthy of the longest tenured X-men couple in the history of X-men. It's a moment many romantics will squeal with joy over because it brings together a lot of the romantic issues that go back even before X-Factor Forever takes place. Jean seemed to be struggling from the beginning with memories of Madelyn and the Phoenix still fresh in her mind. But here she's not struggling anymore. She shoves all that aside as any tough-nosed woman who survived life and death would and shows Scott she loves him. And with him, they're going to bitch slap Sinister and Apocalypse to death and get to their son. It's a sweet moment that fans of Cyclops and Jean Grey have been denied for far too long.


Now this would have been an awesome place to end the comic, but Simonson just can't seem to resist throwing more awesome into the mix. As with every issue thus far, the next part of the Apocalypse background story shows up and this time it's Sinister who takes center stage. In this it is shown how Sinister was to Apocalypse what Anakin Skywalker was to Obi Wan Kanobi had Obi Wan gotten his Force training from Darth Maul. He showed Sinister everything there was to know about mutant DNA, but Sinister wasn't content with the little stuff. He wanted to manipulate mutants on a larger scale, one Apocalypse didn't want him to. Like a three-year-old kicking and screaming at the supermarket, Sinister did it anyways and a lot of it ended up affecting the past, present, and future of mutants in a big way. It not only shows Sinister in a new more badass form. It shows that Apocalypse isn't the only one who can shine unexpectedly in X-Factor Forever.


So between this and the rest of the supremely awesome story, this is a great place to end it right? Well Simonson still isn't satisfied. She has to throw one last bit of awesome that for once vindicates nostalgia. She includes yet another letters-to-the-editor page and wouldn't you know it? My letter got published again! It's like a trifecta of pure X-men awesome.


Between the mind-blowing story, the kick-ass bonuses, and spot on characterization that ties past and present continuity together there really isn't a whole lot to criticize about this issue. Very few comics outside Blackest Night caliber ever attain this status and Louise Simonson does it masterfully. Even though there is a long list of X-men comics sucking up the competition, this one stands out as by far the most awesome. For that reason X-Factor Forever #4 gets a perfect 5 out of 5 and all the accolades a self-respecting X-men fan can dish out.

The only tragedy here is that this is just a mini. This comic has some of the best characterizations of any X-men comic and a damn nice plot to boot yet it only has one issue left. I suppose this is a case of amazing quality over quantity and for what it is, X-Factor Forever works wonderfully. Still, it leaves many readers wishing that Simonson would stay on and turn this into an ongoing or that another mini of this nature would continue. Something like this is needed to balance out the bullshit the other X-men comics have been throwing out, even if they have gotten better in recent years. It's a great series and that makes the last issue all the more precious. X-Factor Forever kicks every kind of ass in comics and it's definitely a series for the ages. Nuff said!