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Is It Good? Uncanny X-Force Vol. 2 #5 Review

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Is It Good? Uncanny X-Force Vol. 2 #5 Review

Team books are all about the casting. Which is one reason X-Men fans get so annoyed when every mutant team has Wolverine on it. There’s enough mutants to have completely unique teams thank you very much! It seems Psylocke and Storm are the only carryover characters in Uncanny X-Force with the rest unique characters to the book. That said, how does the team jell and more importantly is it good?


Uncanny X-Force Vol. 2 #5 (Marvel Comics)


Is It Good? Uncanny X-Force Vol. 2 #5 Review

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If you’re a big fan of Bishop you’ve come to the right place. The last story arc ended with readers finding out Bishop was possessed by some kind of bear demon. He was the villain of sorts and justified the team up of Puck, Psylocke, Storm and Spiral. This issue is all about Bishop as Psylocke and Storm check out his memories and figure out what happened to him.

Is It Good? Uncanny X-Force Vol. 2 #5 Review
Dude, your dream stag mount needs bigger legs. Also he’s kind of small for you. Just sayin.

Unfortunately for this issue I really couldn’t care less about what has happened to Bishop. I don’t think the problem resides solely on my dislike for Bishop either, but the way writer Sam Humphries plots this issue. Using the “inside the mind” convention we have a physical-ish Storm and Psylocke basically walking through expository heavy memories. It’s not done in much of an interesting way and it’s so far out there it’s hard to fathom.

Bishop was sent to the “68th century” to die. And he does. Then he becomes a hunter of spirit beings called revenants. I might need to brush up on my Marvel history, but none of this seems familiar. Is Humphries creating an entirely new future? It doesn’t really matter, because it’s so heavy on explanation it’s not very interesting. Plus, I thought this was a team book? Why are we delving so deeply into one single character?

Is It Good? Uncanny X-Force Vol. 2 #5 Review
Snore…

Adrian Alphona and Dexter Soy are the artists on this book. I’m not 100% certain, but I think Soy is the artist doing the dreamscape stuff which is marvelous. The weight his odd symbolic looking puzzle pieces give to the dreamscape is interesting and original. In one page we see what the memory looked like, and then how it looks like in the dreamscape,

Is It Good? Uncanny X-Force Vol. 2 #5 Review

When we do eventually cut away to Puck there isn’t much going on and I’m not sure I even care anyway.

Alphona adds a moody sort of feel to the real world side of the story, but doesn’t get much of a chance to draw. He does deliver a super slick panel with Pslocke’s steam-punk car, but maybe he’ll get more to do next issue.

Is It Good? Uncanny X-Force Vol. 2 #5 Review
Mommy mommy look! Demon bear! Ohhhhhh!

Is It Good? Uncanny X-Force Vol. 2 #5 Review 5.0

Is It Good? Uncanny X-Force Vol. 2 #5 ReviewIs It Good? Uncanny X-Force Vol. 2 #5 ReviewIs It Good? Uncanny X-Force Vol. 2 #5 ReviewIs It Good? Uncanny X-Force Vol. 2 #5 ReviewIs It Good? Uncanny X-Force Vol. 2 #5 ReviewIs It Good? Uncanny X-Force Vol. 2 #5 ReviewIs It Good? Uncanny X-Force Vol. 2 #5 ReviewIs It Good? Uncanny X-Force Vol. 2 #5 ReviewIs It Good? Uncanny X-Force Vol. 2 #5 ReviewIs It Good? Uncanny X-Force Vol. 2 #5 Review
  • Cool art
  • Exposition heavy drivel
  • I thought this was a team book

The problem with this issue is it feels more akin to a one shot special devoted to where Bishop has been than a team book called X-Force. The dreamscape stuff is cool, but it’s used in such a heavy handed way to explain Bishop (and retcon a ton of stuff I might add) that you’ll e bored to tears.

Is It Good?

No. Somebody save this series because I’m ready to take a nap.

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