Comic Book Wednesdays 7/15/09- Issue #15 (Death and Despair, yeah!)

This book has actually been surprisingly fun. I don’t really want Claremont on the mainstream X-men books any more, for the reasons you and others have mentioned (although even in his emaciated stated he’d be better than many of the writers who have been on the titles in recent years, unfortunately including Matt Fraction). But X-men Forever works much better than I expected, largely because it actually feels like a comic from that era, rather than like the X-men books Claremont has more recently written.

I’m a bit worried he’s going to turn it into “X-men The End” and just throw in as many shocking events as possible at a pace far beyond what actually could have occurred in a normal book, but I guess he also had to use the early issues to try to entice people to hang around with some dramatic events.

I actually love the idea of an X-men book that’s written more like a creator-owned franchise, which allows the author to evolve the characters and develop the drama at his discretion - without worrying about other titles or company marketing issues - and Claremont is certainly better equipped to write that X-men title than anyone. And hell, back in 1991, I was really bummed that he was booted from the book and loved hearing of his plans that would sadly never see publication (until they were coopted by Mark Millar and Alan Davis).

If this book had arrived in 2000 or earlier, it would have been a dream come true - as it is, it’s a lot harder to take it seriously, but it’s still fun cotton candy for longtime readers and fans of his. There’s so many awful books being published that seem far more pointless than this one.

Desslock, I will try a few issues, but if I hate it, you will have to live with the fact that I read a book because of you and disliked it for the rest of your life!