Kiden needs to be killed for the mutants to time jump and Apocalypse is really pissed. Look out!
X-FORCE #16
Publisher: Marvel
Writers: Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost
Artist: Clayton Crain
Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit
Cover A: Kaare Andrews
Variant Cover: Clayton Crain
Epilogue Script: Duane Swierczynski
Epilogue Illustration: Ariel Olivetti
Summary: “MESSIAH WAR” The MESSIAH WAR’s final battle has begun, but both Wolverine and Cable know the horrible truth…they simply cannot win. Stryfe is too powerful and Bishop’s plan to kill Hope has destroyed the future of mutantkind. Their only chance of survival lies in a threat deadlier than anything they face now. The end is here. Part 7 (of 7) .
Review: Thank goodness Messiah War is over because now I can wait for the trade and reread it hoping it makes sense. When I read Messiah Complex and Cable: Messiah War Volume One in trade, everything was coherent since the collections pulled from several crossover titles. By only reading X-Force, a reader is left confused and disappointed. It’s a clear indication of poor storytelling when a reader has to use internet resources to look up who characters are that play pivotal roles in an issue. The problems and criticisms of this conclusion need to be specifically addressed.
Time Travel - this has been a key component to the story simply by inclusion of Cable and Bishop. I was was doing okay in following the jumps but until this conclusion, I had no idea there were detrimental effects to the mutant team of X-Force who have been doing their own time jumping courtesy of Beast’s gadgets. Apparently their super powered bodies can’t handle the shift for more than 33.5 hours. With their gadgets being hampered by an unknown force (shockingly revealed in this issue), the X-Force members are literally falling apart. Immediately when the gadget problem is resolved through a tense and too quick scene with Domino and X-23, Vanisher turns his dial and zaps out of there leaving behind his team who are facing Apocalypse, Bishop, and Stryfe in a free for all.
Bad Guys - Let’s see if I can name all of them: Apocalyse, Bishop, Stryfe, and Death. There is a miraculous transformation when Death reverts back to Archangel form and comes up with a brilliant loophole which once again saves Hope from the evil clutches of Apocalypse who wanted to use her body as his host. If Apocalypse is supposedly as bad ass as one would believe and we just witnessed his “resurrection” through his puppet Archangel/Death of the Four Horsemen, then why does Apocalypse imply that he needs another body? By the way, for having super powers, these folks have some terrible aim.
The daddy issues between Apocalypse and Stryfe are inappropriately amusing. The outcome between the two of them made sense but was lacking. It simply didn’t feel as important as it should and the writing should have magnified the thought processes of two evil beings of this caliber.
Hope - Just how stupid is the Messiah? I can understand that she’d see Stryfe and believe him to be her father figure Nathan “Cable” Summers but once the real Cable enters the room, Hope still seems to cling to Stryfe.
Art - For the most part I’ve been enjoying the art of the series with finding only a few things here and there that I didn’t care for. However, there’s something very different about Bishop, Stryfe and Cable in this issue. Both of them look so much younger than last month’s issue. I realize there’s a lot of time travel but from one issue to the next within the same scene, readers expect there to be some consistency in the look of the characters. Clayton Crain will be giving up some of the responsibility now that this war is over. He’ll stay on as Inker while bringing Mike Choi in as Penciler and Sonia Oback as Colorist. There was also one problem with the lettering. The issue is narrated by Apocalypse and those thought balloons are shown as black with white letters; when Apocalypse actually speaks, it would have been better to continue with that style instead of having his word balloons look like everyone else’s.
In the end, readers still are not given a clear resolution wrapped up in a pretty bow for why Hope is so important. All readers know is that Bishop says she’s responsible for destruction. Besides that, there are glints that she might be the Phoenix. For how quickly she’s aged through the annoying time travel uses, there’s no character development in the most important character of the story.
June 30th, 2009 at 8:56 am
Eep. Sounds like this thing might be more trouble than it’s worth.
July 1st, 2009 at 11:08 pm
I have to check this comic out now. Great review!
July 2nd, 2009 at 9:04 am
I love how your review made one person think the shouldn’t buy this and the other one wants to.