X-Men Legacy #300 – “ForgetMeNot”
Marvel has long viewed numbers as less a counting system and more a promotional opportunity, and here we have a prime example of that – a comic labelled as X-Men Legacy #300, devoted to celebrating ninety-three fabulous issues of X-Men Legacy.
Bizarre as it may seem today, the series that became X-Men Legacy started off back in 1991 as X-Men vol 2, spent many years as the flagship of the line, and changes its name to New X-Men for a while in order to play host to the Grant Morrison run. But then it became X-Men Legacy, which was essentially a vehicle for solo series to be branded under the X-Men name.
That’s about all that links the three runs that appeared under the Legacy banner – Professor X, Rogue, and Legion. But nonetheless, this epilogue issue is seemingly intended to serve as an epilogue to all three. Or at least, that seems to have been the original idea. So all three writers – Mike Carey, Christos Gage, and Si Spurrier – return to collaborate on the final story. And they’re joined by three artists who worked on the different incarnations of the book – Tan Eng Huat, Steve Kurth, and Rafa Sandoval.
But there really isn’t any common story to be told with these characters, besides which Professor X and Legion are both dead. So is Rogue, if you believe Uncanny Avengers, but the last issue of that series ended with the destruction of planet Earth, so it’s pretty obviously heading towards a cosmic reboot. That leaves the creators in the downright odd position of writing a farewell to three barely related comics about three separate characters, none of whom is available to appear in it.
Wisely, their solution is not to bother. In plot terms, this story is standalone – there’s a flashback to “Age of X”, and we check in on Christos Gage’s subplot about Mimic and Weapon Omega, but that’s pretty much it.
Instead, the story involves a depressed girl trying to break into the school (her back story is glaringly based on the Vanderbilt rape case), getting caught by the security systems, and ending up with a new lease of life after getting the life story of the X-Man who comes to disentangle her – a guy we’ve never seen before who identifies himself as ForgetMeNot.
ForgetMeNot has the unfortunate mutant power to be completely forgotten when you stop looking at him. He’s been on the team for six years now. The conceit is that he’s been in loads of stories, you’ve just forgotten he was there. So have the rest of the X-Men, because his power works on them too. Which means he leads a shadowy existence in the school, continually having to explain to people who he is and how he got into the room.
It’s the sort of thing designed to wind up continuity purists. And it has to be said that even on its own terms it doesn’t really make sense. The story claims that Xavier was the only person who could remember him, because he could use his powers to set up permanent reminders in his own mind. That makes Xavier’s death a big deal for him. But it so obviously begs the question of why Xavier set up similar reminders for other people, or why other telepaths aren’t doing the same thing now, or even why the school doesn’t have loads of signs pinned to the walls saying “Hey, remember this guy”, that you kind of have to chuck a lot of goodwill at it, in order for it to work.
But despite that, I think Spurrier – and it reads very much like his basic story, with the other two contributing flashbacks linked to their own runs – just about gets away with it here. Partly that’s because it’s a cute enough idea to earn it, but mainly it’s because it’s necessary for the story’s point, which is that the overlooked guy on the margins has to come to terms with the fact that his contribution will never be remembered or appreciated, and must learn to be satisfied with his own knowledge that he did something worthwhile with his life. No, it doesn’t logically work, but it only needs to carry you with it for long enough to make its point.
What does any of this have to do with X-Men Legacy? Pretty much nothing, in any literal sense. But the central theme – that the value of your achievements does not depend on being remembered – plainly resonates with the self-cancelling end of Si Spurrier’s Legion arc, making more explicit the case that unavoidably got a bit rushed in the previous issue. Perversely, the fact that this story will plainly never be mentioned again becomes, for a change, a point in its favour; its characters (who we will never see again either) are changed by their experience, which is all the story needs in order to work. If it aspired to any wider continuity implications, it would be betraying its own point.
Pointing to any real connection with the Carey and Gage runs is trickier, to put it mildly, and this is where the attempt to link back to the two earlier runs that happened to share the same arbitrary title starts to feel a bit forced. The early Carey stories, in particular, were downright obsessed with continuity; this story is practically the direct opposite of that.
But the callbacks to the two earlier runs don’t do it any harm, and if you’re willing to roll with the premise, it’s a good story on its own terms. Knowledge of anything that came before is not required – in fact, it’s barely even relevant.
I haven’t read this yet — I only buy trades, although I have no idea where this one will end up as it’s not solicited in Legacy Vol 4 — but when I read the preview pages, I was a bit confused by ForgetMeNot. Isn’t he essentially the same premise as Cipher, who appeared in Young X-Men and has never appeared again although she’s listed in the school’s roster in Wolverine and the X-Men? Why not just use her?
Maybe they’ve forgotten about her, together with the whole of [i]Young X-Men[/i] ? (I know I have…)
Also, I got the impression that ForgetMeNot might be Legion’s new existence after his self-obliteration (with most of his narration being something of a white lie), but I may be completely off base on this one.
I haven’t read this but I’m in the middle of the Bedard arc on Rogue that features Blindspot, a member of Mystique’s brotherhood with the same power.
ForgetMeNot has the unfortunate mutant power to be completely forgotten when you stop looking at him.
So, he’s either Triumph from the Priest JLA era or the Silence from the Matt Smith Doctor Who.
I think Triumph was a bit more like the Sentry since he was supposed to be a major JL player retconned to its origin. But people who met him in the modern age did not forget him; that was during his heyday in Justice League Task Force. (Yes, I bought that. It wasn’t bad.)
But yeah, as I read Paul’s critique, the Silence came up to my mind very quickly.
I loved this issue. Perfect ending. ForgetMeNot functions on some level as the reader/fanatic,(as a witness) but also resonates deeply with Legion. (Maybe he only appeared after Legion canceled himself? I only say that based on some throw away lines during the Age of X story.) But each of the three narratives makes different versions of the same point. “Doing something that matters,” regardless of recognition. “It’s about changing [the world] for the better in any little way you can.” “The way the world sees you isn’t nearly so important as how you see it.” All seems to me a good recapitulation of the core of the x-books, and what we may get out of superhero books in general, as readers.
JD, I think that’s very much a possibility.
I was thinking that the Mike Carey portion would seem positively indecipherable if you weren’t,t familiar with the original material. Having read Carey,s run, I couldn’t say for sure.
I like ForgetMeNot as a character, but would like to see a story done with the character outside of superheroes, as a mutant with that power living an everyday life. It’d have room for comedy and tragedy.
I thought the character looked somewhat like Legion, but I doubt it was really deliberate.
The idea was that Legion would always live on in Blindspot’s mind, so it wouldn’t make sense to talk about how only Xavier could remember ForgetMeNot.
The sense I got was that the reason ForgetMeNot didn’t get any of the other telepaths to set up reminders was that after Xavier’s death, he had a crisis of faith and didn’t see the point in bothering anymore. Not that that really explains why Xavier wouldn’t have seen to it beforehand.
We can add Agent X’s Mary Zero to the list of mutants who have (had, in her case) similar powers.
Are Mimic and Omega a couple? There’s nothing explicitly said here, and I’m too lazy to dig out my X-Men Legacy issues, but I got a very couple-y vibe here.
Was the Glyph from Alan Moore’s Halo Jones the first of the millions of comic characters who’ve had this power? Or was there someone earlier who I’ve forgotten about? 🙂
There’s a young readers novel called “Wolverine: Worst Day Ever” that stars a kid at the Xavier school with pretty much the same power as the guy in this issue, too.
@Rob: Cipher recently appeared (for about two pages) in X-men. She even had dialogue.
OK, so y’all have established that it’s an unoriginal power. But you have to admit it works as an allegory for Spurrier’s run on Legacy.
Cipher was the one who came to my mind straight away (as well as the Silence).
Having Legion’s whole history at this point re-written to be the character everyone forgot, who also carries on from this point in the same way, strikes me as being a neater outcome than him just mostly never having existed. Not saying I think that is what’s been done here, but that it should have been. Especially with the one following straight after the other.
If they’d been going by comics actually labelled as plain ‘X-Men’ from 1991 onwards, they could have made Wood’s issue…2? be X-Men #250 (207 + 41 or 42 that started with Curse of the Mutants). Then this issue could have made it to Legacy #100.
I really want to see Mike Careys entire run collected in those new ‘Epic collection’ books. I missed a lot of his trades when they were printed (I refused, somewhat stupidly, at the time to buy trades of only four issues or so feeling they didn’t offer enough value), and then a bunch fell out of print… And since all the crossovers are still in print, it’s not like huge swaths of ‘plot’ will be missing.
I quite like the idea of ForgetMeNot as Legion, especially considering his relationship with Xavier, and his complicated reaction to his death. Really excellent issue. Brodie, you might be able to find those stories digitally (via pirate channels, or otherwise). The Rogue era was really enjoyable. I may have to give it a reread soon.
Oh I know I could go and get torrents, and I do for a lot series, if no decently sized trades are available. But sometimes, I just want to spend a day flipping pages in a single volume, rather tapping on my tablet screen or constantly heading to the bookshelf.
It’s a really weird combination of laziness and wanting to be engrossed in a long term story for, well, long term. If that makes any sense.
Liked this story.
But I’m confused as to how Age of X ever happened if Legion erased himself from existence?
Was (New) X-Men ever the flagship outside the Jim Lee and Morrison runs?
Not really. Uncanny was usually the bigger seller and the plot-driver.
At the time of Decimation, for example, wasn’t Adjectiveless effectively the core book, with Uncanny played “X-Men…IN SPACE!!!” and Astonishing in hiatus?
@Brian — At the time of Decimation, Astonishing was still nominally the flagship, though it was so slow coming out it was hard to tell. Adjectiveless was meandering through Peter Milligan’s run, and nobody could credibly argue that was the flagship, even though it was the title that was most firmly ensconced in continuity. And yes, I believe Brubaker was off playing space-opera in Uncanny at the time.