Thoughts

As someone who first got into the comics in the late eighties, its tremendous fun to go back and read the issues that established certain aspects of the title that, by that time, were the status quo.

The very end of the last issue saw Storm lose her powers, a staple of the title when I first picked it up. And this double issue is an exploration of the consequences of that.

It also features some genuinely gorgeous Barry Windsor-Smith art – a one-off that they obviously decided they wanted to do again, (a sometimes-off?). The cover and the general reputation of this issue is that it is an understated character piece, a single issue love story between two people who can’t at this moment be together.

Which is a slightly odd repuation because while that is one (surprisingly small) element of the story – its an incredibly action packed storyline sitting alongside some gloriously epic visuals. Alongside the love story, the issue seems just as much preoccupied with exploring the visual fun of Forge’s fascinating HQ. The greatest top floor apartment in the world, fun of scale and surprising twists.

And alongside that Rogue gets a storyline that involves investigation and smashing things. Bliss.

It’s actually a pretty good thing that the issue has these features, because I do slightly struggle with the love story at the heart of this. Or at least it being billed as a love story. There isn’t really any chemistry between them, which I guess fits both their loner natures. But the story wants us to buy that Forge has fallen in love with Storm, and that Storm feels hideously betrayed by Forge with a revelation that was pretty obvious. It feels like we’re box ticking the stages in a melodrama here, rather than seeing an organic evolution of two characters interacting. Part of that, I think, is that we’ve only just met Forge while we know Storm all too well. This makes our investment in this all too one-sided.

That aside, though, it does leave things at an interesting place at the end. And has estabished a dynamic between the characters that is successfully mined as the title goes forward.

Fun Panel

Yes, yes Barry Windsor Smith does gorgeous undersated personal stuff. But he’s also brillaint at action and I do love the whole Rogue plot in this issue.