Uncanny X-Force #15

Jeez, is it just me or does it seem that every week I'm picking up a new issue of Uncanny X-Force... I mean it's a really good series and all, and I'm enjoying the current storyline, but I wouldn't be adverse to this series just coming out once a month, especially since it's one of Marvel's $4 books... Oh well, here's X-Force. Again.

Uncanny X-Force #15:

Summary: Having taken possession of the World and the Life Seed, as well as decimating a town, Archangel(who has seemingly become Apocalypse... Kind of) and his band of goons begin the second act of their master plan. By combining the Life Seed with the World in the barren land that used to be the destroyed town, Archangel(thanks to the genius of Dark Beast) manages to create life. Using the time machinery contained in the World, he is able to fast forward evolution a few hundred million years to the point where the life forms he had created had developed into a primitive society. Meanwhile, Psylocke has managed to escape from Pestilence in Archangel's hidden city, but ends up being recaptured by the AOA version of Blob... Wait, what's he doing there? Fantomex, Deadpool and Deathlok, the last members of X-Force standing, head to the strange little land Archangel created by homing onto the World's energies and are immediately confronted by Archangel and a few of his goons. Fantomex tries to take Archangel on his own, but proves unable to defeat him, although he does manage to injure Archangel. Genocide tags in to defend his master, while Archangel and Dark Beast retreat momentarily. Deadpool and Deathlok(well, mainly Deathlok) end up killing Death and capturing Famine. By the time Fantomex has managed to escape from Genocide, Deathlok has tortured the location of Archangel's hidden city out of Famine. As for Archangel, with Death dead, he knows he needs a new heir(as every Apocalypse needs a Death), and heads to the Sleeping Celestial to get a new Death Seed. The Celestial provides Archangel with his Death Seed, which leads to Dark Beast inquiring as to who Archangel was going to choose as his new Death. Archangel says the choice is simple, and this issue ends with a look at the still captive Psylocke.

Thoughts: This was a pretty confusing comic book... Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought Archangel's plan was to try to restart the X-gene that the Scarlet Witch mangled after House of M. Instead he's turned a town in Montana into a weird little jungle full of life created by the Life Seed and the World's technology. I guess he figures if mutants or powerful life forms were to develop from the life he had created in Montana, he could use the same process to reseed the entire planet in the same way. Still, that seems like it'll be a pretty difficult/impossible task. Interestingly, Wolverine didn't appear in this comic AT ALL! How about that!? Nope, for X-Force we mainly followed Fantomex, which was fine by me as Wolverine does tend to be just a bit overexposed nowadays... And by “just a bit” I mean he's EVERYWHERE!!! So I was glad to see this comic go one issue minus the Ol' Canucklehead. The bottom line here was that this was an okay issue, but a step back from the past few really strong issues. As Archangel's plans become more convoluted, I find my interest in this storyline waning a bit. Hopefully we get a bit less techno-babble and more good storytelling next issue(which knowing this series will be coming out next week...)

Score: 6 out of 10.Dark Beast correcting Genocide did make me laugh out loud...