Eli’s Plot Twist – X-Force #15 review

Poor X-Force #15 is all filler, an issue full of the visual equivalent of a villainous monologue. It is really sad that, with demonstrably talented writers and artists working together, this issue is stuck in a place holding rut. I suspect that this is a result of forcing the arc into an over extended issue spread, and that the writers were only following orders, but who can say? If this issue never happened, the story could still be easily told, and that cuts way back on the quality of the issue.

What happens this time around is pretty much what happened last time around, Cable and X-Force try to breach Stryfe’s Citadel while he defeats repeated attacks on his person by Bishop and Warpath, each character pursuing a different agenda for child mutant Hope. Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost are fine comic writers, and they have a firm grip on the mechanics of hero villain face offs, but you can only squeeze so much out of a situation. With the story going nowhere, I was able to come up with a pretty good theory on Hope’s identity.

When last we left Stryfe, he had disassembled Bishop’s gun and implanted the pieces into Bishop’s arm. This looked supremely painful, but now he shows no signs of the wounds, and goes through his character arc all over again. We found out last issue that Bishop is indeed willing to kill the child, we don’t have to see it again for Stryfe’s benefit. We saw Bishop’s attack repelled easily by Stryfe, but a similar sequence is repeated. Warpath escapes his shackles and attacks, but we all know the fate of supporting characters taking on the main villain.

Cable shows up, and a brotherly tit for tat ensues, demonstrating Nathan Summer’s latent psychic abilities at work. It’s always fun to see Cable firing some impossible gun, or Wolverine taking a chunk out of somebody, but there is really no tension at all. That’s what it all boils down to; it’s clear early on that this issue isn’t going anywhere, so the violence doesn’t really hang over the characters’ heads, and any question about life and death disappears. I know you can’t kill main characters every issue, but the previous chapter felt dark and grim, and I was hoping for more of that here.

This is chapter five of Messiah War, an event that had real potential. It is going to have to pick up the damn pace though, and in a hurry, if it wants to finish with a bang. I really doubt they would kill Stryfe for such a small scale narrative, but one can always hope. The connection between Stryfe, Cable, and Hope make me very suspicious of another clone, (Cough, Phoenix, Cough) perhaps of a very Cyclops and Jean Grey nature. Only time will tell, but I’ll wager I’ve hit the nail on the head this time around.

Clayton Crain is still delivering great painterly visuals, and the style keeps switching up in pleasant and unexpected ways. Last time around there was a very impressionistic style, light playing on lots of interesting surfaces and effects. This issue gives us a near manga style hyper visualization, well suited for the near constant fighting. I really enjoyed how well Crain was able to use the anime play book and combine it with his previous work, and his design of Apocalypse is pretty epic. This book disappoints; the art does not.