Shadow and Flame with Magik

Writer Simon Spurrier

Penciler Tan Eng Huat

Inker Craig Yeung

Colorist Jose Villarrubia

Letterer VC’s Joe Sabino

So I bought this issue due to X-Men Legacy 300’s ForgetMeNot being in it.  I really liked that character and I was worried we were never going to see him again.  Then we got him in this issue.  I decided I was going to collect every appearance of the guy.  There’s something about a character who only will ever make two appearances that I like that to say that I own every appearance of.

I like that ForgetMeNot got the cover treatment.

I forgot how great of a writer Spurrier is and I am surprised that I missed Huat’s style.

In the previous issue, X-Force has caught onto the fact that there is a villain out there who is tracking all mutants.

The Team of X-Force is – Cable, Psylocke, Marrow, Fantomex, MeMe and Doctor Nemesis.  I have also missed Doctor Nemesis!

SHIELD Hellicarrier Pericles.  Scuttled, Stripped, Deserted, Upcycled.  Now the X-Force HQ.  The issue opens with X-Force chasing ForgetMeNot.  He hides behind a wall and the team instantly forgets why they were running as hard as they were.  In what will be a terrific and funny running gag, they want a coffee break.

We see the back of ForgetMeNot’s head, and he has a giant scar on the back of his head.  The scar / old skin, is from how he must have gotten free of the security fly paper system that the Jean Grey School has.  X-Force is watching a video of Doctor Nemesis made of himself, instructing them to locate the mutant who you forget once you can’t see him.  Imagine the Silence from Doctor Who but its only one guy and he’s a nice guy.  I like how video Doctor Nemesis anticipated Marrow was going to speak up.  Marrow is in super rough shape.  She wasn’t in great shape when she was part of the 35th Anniversary Team along with Kitty and Kurt but now she is even farther gone.  Present Doctor Nemesis saw a note to watch this video and now they are.  They were able to figure out that they have an invisible man problem due to the usage of toilet paper.  ForgetMeNot is listening to all of this, so he hears that they are looking for him.

Video Doctor Nemesis flatters present Doctor Nemesis, I love this guy so much!  Doctor Nemesis mentions that they have watched the video six times now.

Cable gives direction to the team.  Fantomex hears breathing in the ventilation duct, which is where ForgetMeNot is.  ForgetMeNot finds a whole in the wall and hides behind it.  The team forgets what they are doing and wants a coffee break.

The cleaning robots spot ForgetMeNot, they remember him.  They tease him a little.

X-Force watches the video again, and Cable directs the team the exact same way again.  Psylocke and Cable are a pair.  They lose ForgetMeNot and instantly want a coffee break.

Fantomex finds ForgetMeNot and threatens to kill him.  ForgetMeNot runs away but bumps into Cable.  ForgetMeNot gets Cable’s gun and threatens to kill Cable but Fantomex beats him to it.

I’ve checked and ForgetMeNot isn’t in issue nine or eleven, so I’m not sure how he got onto the Hellicarrier or why he doesn’t want to be seen.

Doctor Nemesis shows up, he drunk an experimental hypercofee so now he is cosmically sober, he is the antidrunk.  But he comes off as drunk.  He still isn’t immune to ForgetMeNot’s power.

ForgetMeNot is found by the cleaning robots.  They are invisible too, so that’s how they see him and remember him.  They explain to him that everyone on X-Force is a tad crazy.  Turns out, Psylocke is having sex with Cable’s clones, not all of them, just the odd number ones.  So she’s had sex with two of the three men on the team.  If anyone is keeping track.

The cleaning machines tell ForgetMeNot where the teleporter is.  It is right next to where Doctor Nemesis is taking a nap.  ForgettMeNot sees their objectives on the screen.  Apparently the villain they are after, is tracking every mutant.  X-Force thought if they can find a mutant who is invisible to all tracking, they could use that mutant to become visible, have the villain track the mutant, have the mutant turn invisible and follow the bug back to the villain’s headquaters.

ForgetMeNot agrees to do it.  He puts the suppressor on, so now he is visible.  He cracks a joke about how, “this is the least climatic creative-use of super-powers I’ve ever been involved with.”  So the bug bites ForgetMeNot.  We see the villain has located the new mutant.  He reminds me of Arnim Zola but in a gimp costume.  So there’s that.

Doctor Nemesis puts a tracker on the bug.  ForgetMeNot takes off the suppressor but the bug is able to still track him.  So now there is a hiccup in the plan.  Fantomex knocks out Doctor Nemesis.  He also reveals he could also see ForgetMeNot, which is pretty messed up.  To make matters worst, Fantomex solves the problem they face.  The bug won’t go back home until what it is spying on is dead.  So Fantomex straight up shots dead ForgetMeNot.  Poor guy only got to make two appearances!  If he makes a third, please let me know.

Issue ends with Fantomex telling an awakening Doctor Nemesis that they are now able to locate the villain.

The really messed up thing is that the cleaning robots are just going to dispose of ForgetMeNot’s body and no one is going to remember him except for Doctor Nemesis and Xavier, whenever he returns.