SUPERMAN: THE MAN OF STEEL #26 - October 1993

Blast Off!

Credits:  Louise Simonson (writer), Jon Bogdanove (penciler), Dennis Janke (inker), Albert de Guzman (letterer), Glenn Whitmore (colorist)

Summary:  Superman faces Mongul while Steel attempts to stop the blast that will send Earth out of orbit.  Inside the engine room, Steel is attacked by mechanical objects that have been possessed by Cyborg Superman.  The Cyborg’s boasts enable Steel to realize that he needs to stop the transformer engine that creates the magnetic fields within the fusion reactor.  He destroys the engine, but the kryptonite power source remains.  Meanwhile, Mongul discovers Supergirl’s presence and knocks her unconscious.  He soon gains the upper hand against Superman.

Irrelevant Continuity:  

• Green Lantern makes a one-panel cameo, as he flies towards Earth and realizes that Coast City is gone.  Eradicator also arrives in a one-panel scene.
• The designs of Superman’s guns and his gun belt don’t match the previous chapters.
• Mongul wants to destroy the Earth, now that Superboy’s actions have prevented Earth from properly going into orbit and becoming the new War World.
• Steel unmasks and reveals his secret identity to Superman, who remembers rescuing him months earlier.
• Steel’s thoughts reveal his mother named him after the folk hero John Henry.
• Louise Simonson apparently didn’t know that “Man of Steel” has already been renamed Steel at this point, since there’s another scene that has Superman coming up with the name.

Review:  Oh, wonderful.  More fun in Engine City.  Judged on its own merits, this isn’t necessarily a bad chapter.  Jon Bogdanove’s Steel remains an imposing presence throughout the issue, and his designs for the makeshift Cyborg Superman bodies are imaginatively weird.  Steel’s lengthy fight scene with the cyborg is also livened up by Simonson’s dialogue, which emphasizes Steel’s intelligence and gives him an opportunity to think his way through a problem.  (Something we haven’t seen the heroes do in a while during this arc.)  And then there’s…not much else.  A few subplot pages of Lois and the utterly charmless Jeb Friedman, a couple of scenes to establish other characters arriving at Engine City, and a few pages of Superman and Mongul in a fistfight.  Like the previous chapters, much of the issue is dedicated to checking in on characters or getting them into place for the finale, but very few of these scenes are interesting in their own right.  If this didn’t feel like the fiftieth story I’ve read during this Engine City battle, it wouldn’t bother me so much.  Reading it within the context of the collected edition, it’s another chapter that barely accomplishes anything and just causes the story to drag.

X-FACTOR FOREVER #5 - September 2010

Collateral Damage

Credits:  Louise Simonson (writer), Dan Panosian & Eric Nguyen (art), Dave Sharpe (letterer), Jim Charalampidis (colorist)

Summary:  Apocalypse interrupts X-Factor’s battle with Mr. Sinister.  After using Sinister’s technology, he’s convinced Christopher isn’t Sinister’s creation.  He gives the infant to Cyclops and tells him to present Christopher to the Celestials.  X-Factor leaves inside Ship, while Apocalypse and Caliban stay behind to face Sinister’s army.  Sinister’s base explodes, killing everyone inside.  X-Factor arrives in Manhattan and gives Christopher to the Celestials, who judge him favorably.  Unexpectedly, the Celestials teleport away to Genosha.  After reading Apocalypse’s journal, recently unearthed by Ship, X-Factor realizes that the Celestials will destroy Genosha, as they eliminated Lemuria years earlier.  The Celestials eradicate Genosha and then teleport away.  With Ship’s help, X-Factor rescues hundreds of Genoshan citizens.

“Huh?” Moment:  The Celestials’ positive judgment is represented by a literal “thumbs up.”

Review:  I realize that everything is written for the trade these days, but there are two major plot points in the main story that make no sense unless you’ve read every chapter of the miniseries so far.  Just to be clear, the Celestials judge Christopher worthy (he’s a “talisman” according to Apocalypse) because he’s the first viable offspring of mutants created with no outside interference.  Next, the Celestials destroy Genosha due to Sinister’s genetic manipulation of its populace, a practice that offends the Celestials.  (Strongly, it would seem.)  If you’ve read every issue leading up to the finale, you can infer these points, but it’s surprising that Simonson doesn’t spell them out in greater detail.  

Ultimately, Apocalypse gets to play the role of hero, even though Cyclops is quick to point out that he always has an angle and most likely isn’t dead, nor was Apocalypse purely altruistic in the first place.  X-Factor Forever turns to be a fairly interesting Apocalypse story, and even though I’m still apathetic towards the Celestials, I have to say that providing Apocalypse with a more coherent motive is a step in the right direction.  Simply establishing that he’s obsessed with “survival of the fittest” but never really saying why has always done the villain a disservice.  

As I’ve mentioned earlier, I think Simonson’s character subplots were the true highlight of her run, so I’m a bit disappointed that supporting cast members like Opal were shunted offstage so quickly.  I don’t know if there was an alternate way to structure the story, but I wish Simonson could’ve found a better balance between the fight scenes and the character moments.  While I’m also speaking in hypotheticals, I’ll mention again how disappointing it is that Dan Panosian couldn’t pencil the entire issue.  He only shows up for seven pages this issue, which is especially frustrating considering that this is an out-of-continuity miniseries.  Was there no way for Marvel to wait on Panosian to pencil the entire book?  Why not wait until the series is finished before soliciting it?

The Apocalypse Journal V

Credits:  Louise Simonson (writer), Aluir Almancino (penciler), Terry Austin (inker), Dave Sharpe (letterer), Dan Jackson (colorist)

Summary:  Fearing that mutants cannot reproduce, Apocalypse creates his Four Horsemen to give mutantkind an edge.  When the Celestials unexpectedly call upon Ship to leave Earth, Apocalypse fears that their judgment is coming centuries ahead of schedule.  He leaves X-Factor his journal, telling them that the future is in their hands.

Continuity Note:  The Celestials called Ship away from Earth in X-Factor’s “Judgment Day” storyline.

Review:  While the earlier chapters provided an alternate origin for Apocalypse, the final “Apocalypse Journal” consists of recaps of late ‘80s X-continuity.  Not really a story so much as a brief summary of other stories.  Now that we’ve reached the final issue, I’ll mention something that’s bugged since these back-ups began.  As Apocalypse says this issue, he’s “force-grown” the development of mutants and now fears the Celestials’ judgment for creating a non-viable offshoot of humanity.  I’ve yet to read anything in this serial that indicates how Apocalypse is responsible for “fostering” mutantkind.  I haven’t gotten the sense that he knows how to mingle human DNA and breed mutants, only that he’s been taking care of the strong humans.  Maybe this is what Simonson meant by “strong” all along -- humans with the genetic potential for mutantcy within them.  As I’ve read it, however, Apocalypse took a liking to physically strong humans and kept them as his own tribe.  When other mutants appeared centuries later after the dawn of the Nuclear Age, Apocalypse was pleased, but he wasn’t directly responsible.  Now, maybe Simonson also meant that Apocalypse pushed humans towards developing that technology (he does mention breakthroughs in technology as one motivation for fostering war for centuries), but it’s not explicitly said during this serial.  It’s possible I just haven’t been reading in-between the lines and other readers picked up on points I considered too vague.  Regardless, for a serial dedicated to the origin of Apocalypse and an elucidation of his philosophy, I would’ve preferred more concrete answers.

X-FACTOR FOREVER #4 - August 2010

Pawns

Credits:  Louise Simonson (writer), Dan Panosian & Eric Nguyen (art), Dave Sharpe (letterer), Jim Charalampidis (colorist)

Summary:  Caliban speaks to X-Factor, offering some insight into Apocalypse’s motives.  He lures the team to Mr. Sinister’s hideout inside a decommissioned nuclear silo in Nebraska.  While Sinister and his cloned army are distracted by X-Factor, Apocalypse enters with Christopher.  Cyclops briefly burns his powers out fighting Sinister, but Marvel Girl encourages him to keep fighting and reaffirms that she loves him.

Continuity Notes:  

• According to Caliban (who’s received this info from Apocalypse), mutants are unable to create viable offspring.  The few examples of healthy mutant offspring all involve magic or science, such as Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch.  As for Legion, Caliban dismisses him as insane and now comatose.  Legion was actually quite active at this point in continuity, which is set before “The Muir Island Saga.”
• Caliban cites the way Marvel Girl’s powers repel Christopher’s as evidence that she is his biological mother.  The fact that Cyclops isn’t repelled by Christopher’s forcefield leads Caliban to believe that Christopher was genetically manipulated by Sinister. The idea that the mutant powers of relatives repel each other is news to me; based on Cyclops and Havok, I thought mutant relatives were immune to each other’s powers, which isn’t quite the same thing.
• Sinister’s cloned army includes a brown-haired Cable and a white-haired Wolverine.  Marvel Girl’s powers bounce off Cable; Sinister says this proves that Cable is Nathan (Christopher) all grown up.

Review:  Okay, more fight scenes, and more monologues intended to convince the reader that mutants can’t make babies, even though we’ve seen mutants make some babies before.  (Well, I guess we haven’t actually seen it, outside of a MAX book.)  To be fair to Simonson, it seems as if she’s already anticipated the readers’ counterarguments and is explaining away the exceptions to the rule pretty quickly.  (Claremont waited several issues before acknowledging the exceptions to Burnout, which is one of the reasons I had a difficult time buying into the premise initially.)  Since most of this exposition is delivered by Caliban, I had to pause and remind myself that Simonson’s Caliban wasn’t childlike and was pretty far removed from Jeph Loeb’s reinvention of the character.  His speech pattern does seem to have been toned down in order to deliver this info dump, however, and it’s hard not to notice that two issues in a row have consisted of characters making broad statements about mutantkind in the midst of fight scenes.  The only real emotion in the story is at the very end, when Jean spontaneously declares her love for Cyclops and inspires him to keep fighting.  The sentiment is nice, but the timing is questionable.  This all occurs in the middle of a fight scene, but judging by the staging, it would seem Sinister and his flunkies are just big softies since they stop the fight in order to give the lovebirds their space.  Ideally, this miniseries could’ve been structured in a way that enabled Scott and Jean to resolve their relationship issues over the course of more than one page.

Regarding the addition of Mr. Sinister, I confess that I had a bit of a fanboy moment this issue.  Sinister’s motivation for wiping out the Morlocks and other random mutants was never properly explained during the ‘80s.  While rereading the original “Mutant Massacre” issues a few weeks ago, I noticed that the only motive given in the actual storyline comes from the X-Men speculating that the Marauders want to “rule the world” and are eliminating mutants who might be in their way.  That’s rather lame, and I imagine it was only thrown in because Claremont just wanted to kill off the Morlocks and was going to come up with a story justification for it later.  This issue, Simonson has Sinister declare that his work will leave Earth “in human hands…where it belongs.”  Was this an idea Claremont and Simonson kicked around in the ‘80s?  Sinister is an anti-mutant human, one who uses mutant clones to wipe out the mutant population?  It might sound ridiculous now, but it does read as consistent with the way the Marauders were originally portrayed.  Whenever the Forever books come across as honest continuations of the old stories, that’s when they’re the most entertaining.

The Apocalypse Journal IV

Credits:  Louise Simonson (writer), Aluir Almancino (penciler), Terry Austin (inker), Dave Sharpe (letterer), Dan Jackson (colorist)

Summary:  Sinister grows impatient with Apocalypse’s slow, furtive attempts to advance evolution.  While Apocalypse is distracted, Sinister advances his own studies.  On the island of Genosha, he breeds more mutants and develops a way to enslave them.  Apocalypse realizes that Sinister resents his power and views mutants as a threat to humanity.  He imagines a future where Sinister’s actions threaten mutantkind.  

Review:  Apparently, Simonson introduced Sinister to use him as a foil for Apocalypse, the one who inspires him to ensure that mutants will rise above humans.  I don’t have a real problem with this, since I have to accept within the main story that Sinister is an anti-mutant bigot in the timeline Simonson’s created.  Ideally, Simonson’s Sinister would overlap more neatly with Claremont’s original plans for the character, but I recognize that’s a trivial thing to care about.  Simonson has also worked in an explanation for why Genosha had so many mutants, and it’s a rather painless one as far as continuity implants go.  (Plus, it’s a plot problem that I don’t recall anyone addressing in the past.)  Is any of this alternate continuity better than what we received in the mainstream universe?  Probably not, but there are moments that make you feel as if you’re getting the “real” origin of Apocalypse.  

X-FACTOR FOREVER #3 - July 2010

Unexpected Host

Credits:  Louise Simonson (writer), Dan Panosian & Eric Nguyen (art), Dave Sharpe (letterer), Jim Charalampidis (colorist)

Summary:  Various heroes appear in Manhattan and rescue civilians from the flood created by Arishem the Judge’s arrival.  X-Factor returns to Ship and discovers Caliban and Apocalypse inside.  Apocalypse reveals that Ship has sent a census of mutantkind to the Celestials and that their judgment is at hand.  He grabs Christopher away from Cyclops and flies away.

Continuity Notes:  

• The various heroes that appear in the opening don’t exactly match their 1991 counterparts.  Iron Man and Thor have the wrong looks, for example, and Hulk is in his childlike “Hulk smash!” persona.  Medusa is also in Manhattan, for some reason.
• During his battle with X-Factor, Apocalypse explains that he’s encouraged the growth of mutants for centuries, in the hopes that all humanity will be deemed worthy by the Celestials.  (“Humanity” defined as neither Eternal nor Deviant.)
• Apocalypse is now claiming that no mutant has ever reproduced.  (Last issue, his theory was that no two mutants have created children together.)  Apocalypse fears that mutants' inability to procreate will cause the Celestials to judge against them.

Review:  It’s an all-action chapter, with a lengthy monologue by Apocalypse covering much of the fight scene.  This kind of economical storytelling was common during Simonson’s days at Marvel, and it suits this particular chapter pretty well.  The story doesn’t stop to dwell on the implications, but Simonson gives the reader enough information to begin to perceive Apocalypse’s previous actions in a different light.  He’s megalomaniacal, yes, but if his ultimate goal all along was to spare humanity the Celestials’ judgment, then he’s not such a one-note villain after all.  It’s hard to reconcile this idea with how the audience perceives Apocalypse today, but it’s worth remembering that Simonson’s Apocalypse didn’t have such a grandiose speech pattern (dramatized so well in the ‘90s animated series), and that she never portrayed him as the genocidal warlord seen in the “Age of Apocalypse.”  Her Apocalypse was more cryptic, and arguably, more human than the later interpretations.

The action this issue is mainly handled by Eric Nguyen, who seems to have improved since the previous chapter.  His art is reminiscent of Whilce Portacio’s more recent work, and while it’s occasionally stiff, there’s some personality here.  (Colorist Jim Charalampidis also deserves a lot of credit for the moody atmosphere he creates during the team’s fight in the dark against Caliban and Apocalypse.)  Most of Dan Panosian’s pages are in the opening, which gives him an opportunity to draw a variety of Marvel superheroes.  It’s like browsing through a really nice DeviantArt gallery for a few pages, which is fine by me.

The Apocalypse Journal III

Credits:  Louise Simonson (writer), Aluir Almancino (penciler), Terry Austin (inker), Dave Sharpe (letterer), Dan Jackson (colorist)

Summary:  Apocalypse continues to foster war, hoping that it will force humanity to grow stronger.  Growing lonely, he takes in the surviving ancestor of a family he admired in Atlantis.  Apocalypse experiments on the young man, Nathaniel Essex, slowing his aging and giving him the ability to change his form.

Review:  For reasons I don’t quite understand, the origin of Apocalypse is interrupted so that Mr. Sinister can waltz onstage.  Why exactly Simonson felt the need to incorporate Sinister into the story is a mystery to me.  The centuries-long connection between Apocalypse and Sinister is an invention of the Bob Harras-driven '90s, isn’t it?  I’ve never imagined her original plans for Apocalypse involved Sinister at all.  Regardless, Sinister is here to receive his third published origin in a Marvel comic.  And that’s only counting the ones I’m aware of.  Didn’t Earth X establish that Sinister was actually Colossus?  

Simonson’s origin leans a bit closer to the “official” origin revealed by Peter Milligan in the Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix miniseries.  Sinister is Nathaniel Essex, a human from Victorian England taken in by Apocalypse, as opposed to Claremont’s interpretation of a (presumably American) mutant scientist who cannot age.  Simonson tries to leave room for the hints dropped during “Inferno” to work, regarding Nathan as Cyclops’ childhood friend/bully, but the art botches the job.  Aluir Almancino’s interpretation of Nathan looks around twenty when we meet him in Victorian England, so it’s hard to imagine him passing for an eleven-year-old in an American orphanage decades later.  (In my ideal fanboy world, Almancino would’ve been given reference on Nathan’s appearance in those Classic X-Men back-ups before penciling the story.) Ultimately, it’s hard to justify this diversion, unless you happen to think Sinister is essential to Apocalypse’s backstory.

X-FACTOR FOREVER #2 - June 2010

Diversion

Credits:  Louise Simonson (writer), Dan Panosian & Eric Nguyen (art), Dave Sharpe (letterer), Jim Charalampidis (colorist)

Summary:  Apocalypse implants Cameron Hodge’s head into Master Mold’s remains to create Master Meld.  He teleports it into Manhattan, where X-Factor attends the birthday party for Charlotte’s son, Tim.  X-Factor defends the city from Master Meld while Apocalypse and Caliban break into Ship and search his database.  Master Meld is finally defeated when Iceman freezes Hodge’s head, but the team is in for another shock when a Celestial appears in the sky.

Continuity Notes:  

• Cyclops ignites Tim’s birthday candles with his optic blasts, which is something he shouldn’t be able to do since his powers don’t generate heat.  (This mistake appears sporadically. Cyclops once melted a SHIELD agent's gun on a Captain America cover.)  Simonson does have someone point out that these are trick candles, but that doesn’t exactly cover for the mistake.
• Apocalypse asks Caliban if any of the Morlocks gave birth to a mutant child.  He says it never happened, which supports Apocalypse’s theory that two mutants can’t create another mutant.  What about Nathan Christopher?  Apocalypse says that since his mother was a clone of a mutant, her genes could’ve been manipulated.
• Baby Nathan (or Christopher, or Nathan Christopher) uses his long-forgotten ability to create a forcefield bubble when Master Meld attacks.  Marvel Girl’s telekinetic powers always repel his forcefield, for reasons no one quite understands.

Review:  The biggest disappointment this issue is discovering that Dan Panosian is missing for much of the page count.  Even though the inking style is fairly consistent, Eric Nguyen’s art is clearly not compatible with Panosian’s cartooning.  Nguyen’s work is in the vaguely realistic, modern day Photoshop style, while Panosian is obviously going for something else.  (Looking at Nguyen's DeviantArt page, he's certainly capable of going in a cartoony direction, so I'm not sure why this style was chosen.) I have no idea how many pages Panosian can finish a month, or what his deadline was, but it’s a shame that even with a back-up, he still isn’t penciling the entirety of the main story.

Speaking of which, Simonson uses the fight scene as a diversion (it’s right there in the title) while Apocalypse searches Ship’s database and provides some hints for the future.  Much like Claremont’s work in X-Men Forever, Simonson is using her series to make rather sweeping statements about the overall status of mutantkind.  Her premise is that mutants can’t reproduce, which is of some concern to Apocalypse, for reasons we’ll discover later.  I tend to dislike this kind of over-generalization; it’s like the writer is just begging the reader to punch as many holes as possible in the premise.  I will say that Simonson is easing into the premise and not overselling it, so I’m willing to see where this goes.  So far, the miniseries really does feel like a continuation of the original X-Factor run; there’s enough goodwill generated to give her the benefit of the doubt.

The Apocalypse Journal II

Credits:  Louise Simonson (writer), Aluir Almancino (penciler), Terry Austin (inker), Dave Sharpe (letterer), Dan Jackson (colorist)

Summary:  Apocalypse gains some control over Ship and travels around the Earth.  He gathers a group of humans he deems fit and takes them to the island of Atlantis, which is eventually invaded by the Deviants.  Apocalypse pits the Deviants against each other in retaliation, and begins to understand the value of evolution.

Review:  I’ve never read the original Eternals series, but I’m assuming this is Louise Simonson’s attempt to retcon Apocalypse “behind the scenes” of Kirby’s origin stories.  On a certain level, this is a defensible choice, since Ship always had a connection to the Celestials and Simonson exploited this fact in previous X-Factor stories.  So I have to acknowledge the decision to tie Apocalypse in with Eternals continuity isn’t totally arbitrary.  My personal bias as a reader hasn’t changed, however.  I’m not invested in the Eternals and Deviants, and when I discover facts like Apocalypse was the founder of Atlantis, I have no real response outside of “Uh, surrre….”  At least these info dumps are left as backup stories, and they are mercifully short.

X-FACTOR FOREVER #1 - May 2010

Family

Credits:  Louise Simonson (writer), Dan Panosian (art), Dave Sharpe (letterer), Jim Charalampidis (colorist)

Summary:  While Cyclops and Marvel Girl take care of Christopher, Iceman and Opal have breakfast with her foster parents, Beast picks up Trish Tilby and her adopted daughter from the airport, and Archangel gives Charlotte Jones’ son a ride to school.  Sabretooth stalks Archangel, but is caught by surprise by Caliban, who kills him in retaliation for the Morlock Massacre.  Apocalypse then teleports Caliban to his secret base and gives him orders to retrieve Cameron Hodge’s dismembered head in Genosha.  Apocalypse is preparing a distraction so that he can invade Ship and learn what information it is sending to the Celestials.  Unbeknownst to the team, a Celestial craft is heading towards Earth.

Continuity Notes:  

• X-Factor Forever picks up after X-Factor #64, Louise Simonson’s final issue.  It doesn’t represent mainstream Marvel continuity or X-Men Forever continuity.
• X-Factor has new costumes, which would seem to be a prerequisite for the Forever titles.  Iceman’s full face and hair are also visible while he’s in ice form, which doesn’t match his design from the era the book is continuing.
• Marvel Girl and Cyclops still have relationship issues, now that she’s acquired the memories of the Phoenix and Madelyne Pryor.
• Cyclops’ son is referred to as “Christopher” throughout the miniseries, instead of Nathan.  This is consistent with Louise Simonson’s X-Factor run, which always had Cyclops call him Christopher.  Cyclops’ ex-wife Madelyne only called Christopher “Nathan” to provoke Cyclops and stir up memories of his childhood bully (Mr. Sinister).
• Ship is experiencing technical glitches, picking up on a subplot from Simonson’s final issues.  The resolution in the mainstream continuity is that Hard Drive from the Dark Riders invaded Ship’s circuitry.

Review:  There seemed to be enough faith within Marvel in X-Men Forever at this point to justify this spinoff, which is honestly a bit of a surprise.  I’m not sure if the existing audience is overly familiar with the Louise Simonson run on X-Factor, but it will always have some historical significance as the debut of Apocalypse.  Simonson uses Apocalypse and his mysterious connection to the Celestials as the starting point for the miniseries, which seems like a credible way to incorporate a high-profile villain with the stated goal of tying up loose ends from her original run.  

One loose end tied up fairly quickly is the death of Sabretooth.  Simonson’s initial run got a decent amount of mileage out of Caliban’s hatred of Sabretooth, and now that I think about it, I guess there wasn’t much of a resolution back in the early ‘90s.  Sabretooth’s death is about as satisfying as the one Simonson gave him in New Mutants #75, which leads me to believe that she’s writing him as a disposable clone.  After gaining vengeance for the Morlocks, Caliban is then sent to Genosha to retrieve what’s left of Cameron Hodge following “The X-Tinction Agenda.”  Just writing the summary for this issue made me realize how utterly ridiculous X-Factor could be during these days, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  I didn’t follow X-Factor on a monthly basis as a kid, but I was a sporadic reader and it often struck me as a fairly odd book.

The majority of this issue focuses on the interpersonal subplots from the Simonson days, which were always the more memorable aspects of her run, in my opinion.  You get a sense that Simonson genuinely likes these characters and is enjoying the chance to visit them again, which is exactly the feeling the Forever titles should evoke.  Most of the cast is in a pretty good mood:  Beast has forgiven Trish Tilby for reporting he once considered anti-mutant, Opal has forgiven her family for hiding the true identity of her mother, and Archangel is rather blasé about Charlotte’s mother-in-law’s objections to her dating a man with demon wings.  (Simonson also establishes for no obvious reason that Trish has adopted Priya, an underprivileged girl from India.  I wouldn’t think twice about this had it appeared during her regular run on the book, but it seems like an odd addition during a finite miniseries.)  The only real angst comes from Cyclops and Marvel Girl, who are still dealing with long forgotten relationship issues from 1991.  This was during the days when Jean rejected Cyclops’ proposal and their relationship was in doubt.  So in doubt that Claremont and Simonson even briefly teased Forge as a romantic rival for Cyclops.  Is it okay to forget this ever happened?

The real star of the issue is artist Dan Panosian, who now leans more towards an expressionist style similar to Dave Johnson’s quirky, angular look.  It’s literally impossible to think that this is the same Dan Panosian from the ‘90s who thought merging Rob Liefeld and Terry Austin was a good idea.  Not only does Panosian draw attractive, expressive cartoony faces, but his backgrounds are fantastic.  Whether it’s a New York apartment building or the shadowy background of Apocalypse’s lair, every locale in the comic is uniquely gritty and cartoony and just fun to pore over.  It’s a shame that he wasn’t asked to alternate on X-Men Forever with Tom Grummett, because I think he could’ve done a fantastic job on that series.

The Apocalypse Journal

Credits:  Louise Simonson (writer), Aluir Almancino (penciler), Terry Austin (inker), Dave Sharpe (letterer), Dan Jackson (colorist)

Summary:  20,000 years ago in central Asia, a young Apocalypse is forced out of his tribe when his mutant powers emerge.  He eventually discovers a Celestial monitoring device and spends thousands of years studying its contents.  He learns of the Celestial’s attempts to study evolution, with humans acting as the control group between Eternals and Deviants.  Apocalypse ponders if he could also influence human destiny.

Continuity Notes:  The Celestial monitoring device Apocalypse discovers is Ship, of course.

Review:  “The Apocalypse Journal” is a backup serial that runs throughout the miniseries, detailing Simonson’s vision of Apocalypse’s origin and providing some insight into his motives.  The art is provided by Aluir Almancino, who has a style similar to Jack Kirby, which I suppose is appropriate given the subject matter.  My major objection to the first chapter is the fact that Simonson has chosen to ignore Apocalypse’s time as a slave in ancient Egypt, which is actually one of the few things we know about Apocalypse from her run on X-Factor.  She doesn’t directly contradict the idea, it’s possible he lived as a slave during his years wandering before he discovered Ship, but it seems like an obvious omission given that this is a mini aimed at the hardcore fans who remember the original X-Factor days.  (Terry Kavanagh did briefly acknowledge Apocalypse’s time as a slave during the “official” origin story, The Rise of Apocalypse, even if it did come across as an afterthought).  The rest of the story is mainly dedicated to recapping old Eternals continuity, and to be honest, I’ve never been a fan of attempts to incorporate the X-books into the more cosmic aspects of the Marvel Universe.  The X-books are more of a soap opera than an exploration of the origins of the universe, so providing cosmic foundations for the characters always seemed like an odd decision in my eyes.