By Kevin McVicker
Of all the mutants to pick, I’m going to start with the one whose resurrection storyline put a bitter taste in my mouth for an entire series, although short lived and otherwise well done: the death and resurrection of the mutant technophile Forge.
The story of Forge’s death started in an altogether different storyline. During the Messiah Complex storyline, Forge was sent on a mission by Cyclops where he was attacked, shot, and critically wounded by Bishop. At this point Forge’s behavior became erratic and paranoid.
Later, in the Astonishing X-Men story line Ghost Box by Warren Ellis, the X-Men are led to a temple in the mountains where crazy old man Forge lived. He was trying to stop interdimensional beings from taking over the Earth, but he tried to sacrifice the X-Men in the process. By the end of this encounter, the invasion has been stopped, but the temple is about to explode thanks to the Ghost Box. Ororo offers Forge the chance to come back with them, but he screams about their relationship and how she rejected him. As the X-Men escape Forge is still inside the temple as it is destroyed in a blast of energy.
Forge was dead, or as most sites put it “seemingly” dead.
This is because at the start of Dennis Hopeless’ Cable and X-Force run, Cable apparently cures Forge of the craziness so Forge can save Cable. That’s a great story except for that fact that Forge’s resurrection is basically that he didn’t really die. It is never explained how he got away or survived the blast in the temple, rather that entire storyline has been ignored. This is possibly the worse way to bring a character back, especially from a fairly well written death.
Maybe we are supposed to believe that the Forge who died was a Forge from an alternate timeline? That’s not the worse way to bring a character back, but instead the writer chose to ignore previous continuity for the purposes of his own story.
That is the life, death, and life again of Forge.
