Marvel's Forgiven, a superheroic team of vampires is back in March's X-Men: Unforgiven #1, the second of three 2023 one-shots written by Tim Seeley and illustrated by Sid Kotian starring the bloodsucking squad.
Spider-Man: Unforgiven #1 goes on sale March 1 with a cover by Kyle Hotz and a variant cover by Nic Klein. X-Men: Unforgiven follows up just a few weeks later on March 28 also with a cover by Hotz (seen here), and this one appropriately welcomes the mutant and former vampire Jubilee to the team.
The core Forgiven team are Raizo Kodo, Visigoth, Inka, Nighteyes, Ghost Blade, and Quickshot, and were created by Victor Gischler and Ryan Stegman for 2011's Fear Itself: Hulk vs. Dracula. The team has only had a handful of appearances since.
In X-Men: Unforgiven #1, "Beaten, broken and bruised after the destruction of Spider-Man: Unforgiven, the Forgiven desperately need a break…but, of course, there ain't no rest for the wicked.
"Body parts have mysteriously started washing up on the coast of Maine…and these extraneous organs call for help from the extraordinary X-Men!"
According to Marvel's description, with former bloodsucker Jubilee in the mix, "the team is risking more than they know…"
The Unforgiven series, which will wrap up with an Avengers one-shot, has the team confront former Sorceress Supreme Salomé, who is determined to return with a devious plan to turn all vampires into uber-powerful and violent creatures. This will force The Forgiven to reject their own natures while also fighting crime, wrestling with what morality means when they don't technically have souls.
The trilogy poses the question: Where do vampires belong in the Marvel Universe?
"I love Marvel superheroes, no doubt, but I've got a special obsession with Marvel's horror heroes," said writer Tim Seeley in the original announcement of the series. "Unforgiven gives that creepy, sexy, weird underbelly a chance to shine as a horrific conspiracy unites a crew of vampires with Spider-Man, the X-Men, and Captain America, and shows us the stark differences (and surprisingly similarities) of those who are gifted with the ability to fight evil, and those who have to carry evil's curse.
"By the end of this epic event, we'll have toured a lot of dark corners of the Marvel Universe, and reminded readers that monsters are at its shrunken black heart!"
Perhaps this vampire epic will be one of the best Spider-Man stories or best X-Men stories ever.
