REVIEW: Uncanny X-Force: The Apocalypse Solution

In complete contrast to the other purchase which arrived from Amazon – Uncanny X-Men: The Birth of Generation Hope – the opening in the Uncanny X-Force books, The Apocalypse Solution doesn’t need me to have at my fingertips the entire last three years of X-books to understand what is happening.

Uncanny X-Force #1–4 and material from Wolverine: Road to Hell
Writer: Rick Remender
Artists: Leonardo Manco and Jerome Opena
Colours: Chris Sotomayor and Dean White
Cover: Esad Ribic
Editor: Axel Alonso
Publisher: Marvel

In complete contrast to the other purchase which arrived from Amazon – Uncanny X-Men: The Birth of Generation Hope – the opening in the Uncanny X-Force books, The Apocalypse Solution doesn’t need me to have at my fingertips the entire last three years of X-books to understand what is happening.

Also, a kid gets shot. So I’m pretty happy.

I LIKE FANTOMEX

I listen to iFanboy a lot, which is pretty much the sole reason I know anything about the current day X-Men at all. As such, I heard that, apparently, people don’t like Fantomex. Or they didn’t. Or don’t Something.

Why?

He’s a great character! In fact, all of X-Force are great characters. I love the relationship between Logan and … everybody, and they’re actually making good use of Deadpool, which I honestly didn’t think was possible at this late stage in the game. Warren and Betsy are great too, a great relationship building there that, we can only assume, will end with one killing/trying to kill the other, and make its way into its own premiere edition TPB.

But Fantomex has to be my favourite. He’s new, for me, and he represents a more realistic type of mutant in this modern day and age, which, in this very realistic, gritty and death-filled book, makes a great deal of sense alongside killers like Warren, Logan and Wade (I’m not sure about Betsy).

YOU’VE LOST ME

The only issues I had with this book were the art, and even then, they were small (especially when compared to my issues with The Birth of Generation Hope). Sometimes I couldn’t quite follow where the story was leading me, and I had to jump back to previous panels and try and analyse them in light of what comes later. That makes for slow reading, but also sloppy drawing, and made me sad.

What didn’t make me sad was the wonderful way in which the characters were drawn. Betsy wasn’t competing with Emma Frost for bust size, and everybody looked like they were either homo-sapien or homo-superior, which is to say, they looked human. That helps, I’ve found.

IN THE END: BUY IT

This is a great jumping on point. It actually is. I was surprised. I was expecting to be left wallowing in a decade of X-Men continuity before I could continue reading. But I wasn’t. The preliminaries were all brought out on the page very easily. Apocalypse bad. X-Force gray. And when there were references to X-Men Second Coming, they weren’t shoved down my throat, nor were they crucial to the current story; they were thrown in as sentences and scenes which only enhanced what was already perfectly clear.

In the end, the story is exciting, and the art just a point down from beautiful. 4 out of 5.