X-Men Forever 2 #1

I gotta say I did not know what to expect from issue one of this new volume. You get something a little different,some a little the same and some completely unexpected.

The story seems to pick up a scant few hours after the end of Giant Size X-Men Forever, with the team preparing something on the front lawn of the school, when The Avengers arrive, demanding the complete surrender of all the X-Men.

And in typically Marvel cliche, a fight breaks out and during this fight, Thor accidentally nukes 'Ro with a thunder strike, leaving her singed and unconscious on the ground. The Avengers call an immediate end to the fight to tend to 'Ro, who is actually a projection made by Jean which is unknown to The Avengers. During the confusion The X-Men have retreated back to Mansion which suddenly and unexpectedly blows up.

End of Issue....

Seriously though, I did not see that coming and that has been the biggest shock so far in the 27 issues released to date. Nice one Mr Claremont. Killing Tony Stark was pretty big too.

I know I will get asked this, so I will comment on it here: No, jumping on with XMF2 #1 is not by any means a good idea. Way too much as happen so far and other then the opening re-cap page, there is nothing tell you what has happened before. You get mentions of some past arcs but only as means of setting up future story-lines.

Other then the preview pages that have been shown the issue is pretty much 90% fight, with a couple of pages to side story dealing with SHIELD and Trask. There is also a page which I nearly forgot about, that as the return of everyone's favourite mutant geneticist; Mr. Sinister.

Overall I enjoyed the book, ripped through it like a maniac, and I can't wait to go back and read it again before the day is through.