Welcome back to another mutant filled extravaganza in The All New Uncanny X-Piles! We’re down a man this week because he’s another Canadian without a working healing factor so Infinite Speech and The Comic Book Clergyman look at the progression of Wolverine’s last days and see what X-Force is up to!
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X-Force #9
Writer: Simon Spurrier
Artist: Rock-He Kim
This arc wraps up with a high body count, a few lies, and one character’s sacrifice. However, through all of this we have to sit through MI13 and X-Force trading blows while Dr. Nemesis tries to get the teams to talk it out instead. Spurrier makes sure that some of the dialogue is very sharp though it tends to mostly be when Dr. Nemesis is interacting with someone. Aside from the plot being moved along by others a lot of what happens just falls a bit short. Like how Fantomex spends most of the time hitting on Megan while Marrow is on a psychotic tear. The Meme/Hope situation is still unresolved but it’s nice that Spurrier has used this to open her eyes and see the faults in her father. This might knock him down a few pegs in her eyes but it can also humanize him for her benefit.
Kim’s artwork is a bit uneven for me but this issue is one of the visually stronger ones that I’ve seen. The fights are crazy and frantic but there’s a nice flow to everything so it’s not confusing. When a certain character begins to display a new power and the page gets all psychedelic it’s a really cool effect that helps change things up. However there is a panel where Cable loses his bionic arm during the frenzied battle but a few panels later it’s as good as new. Things like this are a bit frustrating and disrupt the storytelling when there’s no explanation. Did Fantomex have a spare? Does he keep an extra bionic arm in his many pouches? We won’t find out in this issue if you’re wondering.
Overall X-Force #9 is an okay issue at best. The revelation at the end puts the heroes no closer to finding their target but Spurrier has set them on another course. Hopefully it’s a bit more exciting and we don’t get any more lost/fixed limbs without an explanation. – IS
Rating: 4/10
Death of Wolverine #2
Writer: Charles Soule
Artist: Steve McNiven
My only complaint about Marvel these days is that they don’t seem to keep track of continuity across books. With characters appearing in so many different stories, it is truly a nightmare to keep track of. However, despite how good this issue was, there were a couple of things that just didn’t jive with the rest of the Marvel Universe.
First, this issue takes place in Madripoor. Mystique recently bought Madripoor from Viper, yet somehow Viper still appears to be in control. Logan mentions that Mystique is in charge, yet Viper is clearly still in charge. In fact, she has Mystique’s partner-in-crime, Sabretooth on a leash, which doesn’t quite make sense. A little exposition could have tied those loose ends together, but here it just doesn’t make sense.
The other glaring misstep is that Deathstrike shows up and is clearly not reflective of the changes that took place in Brian Wood’s X-Men series where her mind was shared in the body of a Mexican woman. Granted, that story is best left forgotten and perhaps they’re just passing over it, but it was enough to take me out of the story.
Besides those things, this issue was great. Logan with a beard is awesome! Having him track down whoever has a hit put out on him is a fun status quo. The fight between Sabretooth and Wolverine was brutal like always and even though it is way over done, if you’re doing the “death” story you have to include a fight between these two.
McNiven’s art is truly remarkable. His level of detail, along with great dynamic panels, is really fun to see. There is one page that was confusing, and that was the painted flashback of previous Wolverine/Sabretooth fights. It seemed out of place.
This story is rolling along at a good pace. I’m hopeful that Soule and McNiven will stick the landing. -JJ
Rating: 7/10
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What did you think about this week’s X-books? Let us know below! You can check out more X-Piles right here!
infinitespeech@comicattack.net – @InfiniteSpeech
jeff@comicattack.net – @FrJeffJackson
spidermangeek@comicattack.net – @SpidermanGeek
