Time for the Krakoan Era is running out, but the X-Men still have a pesky God outside of time and space to take care of. X-Men: Forever #1, written by Kieron Gillen, drawn by Luca Maresca, colored by Federico Blee, and letterred by Clayton Cowles, is closely tied to the events happening in Rise of the Powers of X and Dead X-Men, in which Xavier is trying to prevent the original Nathaniel Essex from ever becoming an omniscient Dominion calling itself Enigma. This is the much more cerebral and timey-wimey half of the mutants’ ongoing conflicts, but Gillen is giving this story the time and pacing it needs to remain clear and, just as important, impactful.
The steady hand of his storytelling is apparent from the beginning as we get a lengthy flashback centered around Destiny in 1899, grasping full awareness of Essex’s godhood and how hopeless it is, at least at that time, to stop it. This scene achieves a lot that a story like this needs to succeed. It shows us Enigma as something tangible that characters can see and interact with; a cosmic head in the sky with glowing eyes that is the coolest visual Maresca gives us in the issue. It also answers the question of how a God who would know every action you are ever going to take could possibly be battled. Enigma isn’t 100% certain of the rules of his new godhood, and doesn’t want to risk it never happening by making too many changes.
The main thrust of the issue is centered around a scrambling Mother Righteous trying to recover after realizing that Enigma had beaten her to the Dominion punch. She’s first attacked by her fellow Essex clones, Orbis and Stasis, and then shown up on the magical front by Selene. Gillen has always had a skill with making near-Immortal beings interesting, so this is a great group of characters for him to play around with. Righteous ends up in the hands of Xavier, and with her connection to the majority of mutants stuck in the White Hot Room, the chess pieces are being put into place to try and knock the immortal King Enigma off the board.
It’s an inspired move to have Xavier’s plan be the one thing all X-fans have been dreading since the beginning of the Krakoan Age; that this will all end with some sort of timeline reset and none of this Era will ever have occurred in comics canon. This most certainly means that Xavier will fail (again) and that another solution to the Enigma problem will present itself. I’m guessing Jean and the White Hot Room will be a major factor, especially since she gets the iconic cover of this first issue while being mortally wounded in the actual story. It also wouldn’t be surprising if all four Essex clones aren’t being kept in play so that they can take part in an ironic vengeance against their creator.
Ever since Hickman began this story with House of X/Powers of X, it was clear that Mister Sinister would be part of Krakoa’s undoing. But it’s fascinating to see the scale of those machinations, and how every step of the way has led to this. The Krakoan Era has not been perfect, but it has been a truly original take on these characters and the world around them. The wrap-up to these storylines has also not been perfect so far, but Gillen’s part in it at least seems to promise an epic conclusion, and hopefully one that will affect the X-Men going forward.