Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Uncanny X-Force #17

With how terrible Point One #1 turned out, THIS is the title I should have named this week's Pick of the Litter, and as such should have been the first comic I read. Oh well, at least I can read it now. The past several issues of this series have been amazing, here's hoping Rick Remender keeps up the superb work here.

Uncanny X-Force #17:

Summary: We kick this issue off with Archangel and Psylocke, who was transformed into Archangel's own personal Death last issue, sharing a kiss. From there the scene shifts to Wolverine, who is trying to battle the Age of Apocalypse version of Iceman... And not doing a very good job of it. Wolvie knows that he needs to reach the World to stop Genocide and kill Archangel, but alas, Iceman is preparing to deliver the deathblow to Wolvie. Luckily for Wolvie(and Marvel Comics!) Fantomex returns to the battle with some reinforcements, the Amazing X-Men from the AOA. AOA Nightcrawler teleports to Genocide, takes him away from Dark Beast and teleports Genocide to Archangel and Psylocke. From there, AOA Nightcrawler opens Genocide's helmet, unleashing his fiery blasts onto the surprised Archangel before teleporting away with Psylocke. AOA Nightcrawler brings Psylocke to Fantomex, where Fantomex tells the angry Psylocke that he only wanted to talk to her... Back with Archangel, he is obviously angered by this turn of events, and after he gets Genocide's helmet back in place, he decides to bring the Life Seed to the World personally. Nightcrawler teleports Wolvie and three of his Amazing X-Men teammates to Archangel, but the quintet are unable to stop Archangel, as he slices through them and tells AOA Iceman to keep the meddlers away while he headed to the World. AOA Sunfire ends up getting caught by AOA Iceman, but AOA Nightcrawler is able to teleport himself, AOA Sabretooth and Wolvie directly in front of Archangel, at which time they all crash to the earth below. Meanwhile, Fantomex is trying to get through to Psylocke, but apparently fails as Psylocke slashes his throat with a hidden blade. However, upon watching Fantomex fall to the ground, Psylocke realizes something was wrong and we end up taking a trip into her mind, back to her first meeting with Archangel at the Hellfire Club. While reliving Psylocke's earliest memory of the man she loves, AOA Jean Grey enters her mind and points out that the Death persona was hiding in her twin brother, Captain Britain. Jean manages to cage the Death persona, leaving Psylocke free of it's influence and able to return to the real world, where she finds Fantomex alive and well due to, you guessed it, his misdirection abilities! Back with Wolvie and company, Archangel begins to tear the trio of heroes apart, until AOA Jean arrives on the scene. However, the Phoenix entity inside of AOA Jean agrees with Archangel's plans of death and rebirth, and takes Jean out of the battle itself(!). Wolverine manages to tackle Archangel while he was taunting Jean and prepares to deliver the killing blow, but finds himself unable to kill his friend and teammate. That proves to be a massive mistake as Archangel downs Wolvie with a massive energy blast. From there, Archangel makes quick work of AOA Nightcrawler and Sabretooth and flies up towards the World to deliver the Life Seed and put an end to humanity. Upon entering the World, Archangel finds Psylocke and Fantomex standing before him, the last obstacle before Archangel's final victory.

Thoughts: What can I say? Once again, Remender gave us one hell of a roller-coaster ride. The dialogue was incredibly strong(I loved the banter between Wolvie and AOA Sabretooth), and the story has climaxed perfectly, with Archangel facing down Psylocke, the woman he loves, in order to accomplish his goal as Apocalypse... Add some awesome fight scenes showing just how UBER-powerful Archangel has become, and you have yourself a fantastic comic book. If I had one complaint it would be that Death Psylocke was defeated too easily, but I guess between Fantomex's misdirection and Jean Grey's awesome powers, she didn't really have much of a chance... Still, I would have loved to see Death Psylocke get to do more before she was “fixed”. So yes, I loved this issue. The next issue is the eighth and final part of the Dark Angel Saga, and I really don't see myself NOT thoroughly enjoying it... I mean if Remender writes the conclusion half as good as he's written the rest of this tale, this story should be a personal favorite of mine for years to come.

Score: 9 out of 10.Okay, I have to say it, Apocalypse-Archangel? He's pretty awesome.

18 comments:

  1. After reading this I am all the more excited to not only see how this plays out but also how AoA Kurt joins X-Force, how Logan will take having an alternate Kurt around, and how he will play into future story lines.

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  2. Wow, this was Amazing, I didnt see the Pheonix betrayal coming!!!
    It was like, yeah Jean is going to clean the floor with his Pheonix Force, But turns out that not!!

    The only thing that was odd to my is that the AOA X-Men have his own issues at home to take care off.
    to come here and fight for another universe.

    I have faith that Remender will do something good with the AOA characters in the next arc.

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  3. Exactly, Megaman. It seems like we'll be getting the AOA Nightcrawler in Archangel's place on this team, and you're definitely not the only one curious about how AOA Nightcrawler is going to wind up in the 616 for good... Like Alien pointed out, the AOA X-Men have problems of their own at home, I find it hard to believe that Kurt would simply wash his hands of his troubles in the AOA to remain in the 616. Maybe he has some sort of major role in Archangel's defeat(death?) and since he killed a member of X-Force he feels he should remain behind in his place? But yeah, I can't wait to see how Remender works Kurt into this series.

    That really is a great point, Alien... So Fantomex goes to the AOA and tells the Amazing X-Men, "Hey guys, we have trouble in my home dimension, wanna help?" and they agree to leave? Like you said, with Apocalypse/Weapon X and the hell that is their world, I'm kind of shocked that they'd go... Maybe they felt that Dark Beast and/or AOA Iceman was their responsibility since he originally came from their world and as such wanted to take him out? Maybe it was because it was the Life Seed from their world that was causing all of the trouble? IDK, but it was def odd that they just up and left like that.

    "I have faith that Remender will do something good with the AOA characters in the next arc." I couldn't agree more, mi amigo.

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  4. I think that you are right with the responsibility of the Amazing X-men over Iceman and Dark Beast.

    Question here, AOA x-universe was the main Marvel universe in the 90 or always was an alternate universe.

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  5. Hmm, that's a harder question to answer than you'd think, Alien... Basically Prof. X's son went back in time and accidentally killed the Prof, which dramatically changed the world and led to Apocalypse taking over most of the planet. Then Bishop managed to fix things by heading back in time to the moment before Prof X's son killed him and killed Prof. X's son. So it WAS the main X-Men dimension for about four months, but when reality was fixed it became an alternate dimension... Man, that was confusing... Let's just say that it was the main X universe for about 4 months in the 90's. That makes a bit more sense! :D

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  6. totally clear thanks man..
    that you explain me is barely what I remembered from the 90 animated series =) but maybe I m wrong.

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  7. There was an AOA episode of the animated series?! And I've never seen it?!? I MUST find that!! I never knew... I'll be headed to Youtube now. :D

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  8. Here is a list with all the episodies

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_X-Men_(TV_series)_episodes

    the ones involving Apocalypse are
    10, 20-21, 35, 63-65,

    But now I think that I was remembering the "Days of Futere Past" episodes

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  9. I actually read a synopsis of the AOA Animated Series episodes and yeah, it was WAY different than that in the comics. Fitzroy was definitely not involved at all!

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  11. The Wolverine and the X-men cartoon was going to do the whole second season as the AOA but it was cancelled.

    Check out Cyclops

    The 90s cartoon was more "Days of Future Past" and I think it was only one episode.

    IIRC, originally when they went to stop Xavier's death it was pretty much suppose to destroy the AOA world (AOA being a warped 616, but still 616) but I think they retconned it with that one-shot in 2005. Now it is an alternate dimension.

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  12. Wow, doing an entire season in the AOA would have been kind of awesome to fans in the know, but probably confusing as hell to kids who were watching!

    Exactly. The AOA was supposed to be a warped version of the 616, but when reality "righted" it became a divergent reality. I always saw it differently though... The way I see it is that the 616 couldn't be affected by Legion's actions in the past, because the MOMENT he went back in time and altered something(in this case killing the Prof) he created a divergent reality(Earth-295 I think). I usually think back to the Council of Kangs business with regards to Marvel's other dimensions, where there were an insane amount of Kangs running around because every time Kang would time travel he'd create another slightly altered reality, with another Kang. But really, who knows! I guess it depends on the writer...

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  13. I think there is an alternate universe for each Historyline "corrected" in some way
    Im sure that exist a universe for Morrison's "here comes tomorrow"

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  14. Yup, I'm POSITIVE that Morrison's last New X arc has it's own Earth-#. If an alternate world has been shown in a Marvel comic(including What If's), it usually gets it's own Earth-#. Which I've always liked since every decision should lead to a different possibility, and as such there should be an infinite amount of alternate dimensions. That's why I never understood why DC limited themselves with only 52 alternate dimensions...

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  15. Yep, with a little help from wikipedia i know this now.

    The Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe: Alternate Universes has given the numerical designation of Earth-15104 to the Here Comes Tomorrow timeline.

    You know that I generally defend Morrisson but this fixation with number 52 that DC has. Sounds much like him, like some kind of mystical thing.
    they are limiting themselves with that.

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  16. Yeah, I don't get why DC is so obsessed with only having 52 realities... Besides how oddly arbitrary that number is, it really doesn't make sense. I've always liked Elseworlds/What If tales, and saying, "We only have 52 dimensions, period, the end." annoys me because it halts any creative Elseworlds type tales from being told.

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  17. I'm not sure if that number of universes prevails after flashpoint
    We only know that there is New Earth,
    Earth One (Superman,upcoming Batman Earth One), And Earth 2 (upcoming Justice Society)

    So I guess that we will had to wait until Morrison's multiversity to know how many universes are in DC now.

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  18. Mmm, good point, Alien. Maybe they did get away from that 52 universes business. I kind of doubt it, but maybe DC'll end up with an infinite number of alternate realities now.

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