Uncanny X-Force #1-4

Uncanny X-Force #1-4

Originally released in 2010

Written by Rick Remender

Art by Jerome Opena

With the movie Deadpool & Wolverine releasing today, I picked a team book that features both of them. X-Force serves as a black ops equivalent for the X-Men, doing jobs under the radar that the X-Men can't or won't do. 

The team consists of Angel (who serves as the team leader and, at this point, has Archangel as a separate personality), Psylocke (the mind of a white British woman named Betsy Braddock in the body of a Japanese assassin), Fantomex (a suave, morally ambiguous Frenchman with three minds and illusion powers), Deadpool, and Wolverine.  When Wolverine seems to have the most stable mental situation of the team, then that does not seem like a good sign.

The first mission that this team faces in this run is to go to the moon and kill Apocalypse, who's defended by his Last Horsemen. (A group of four powerful mutants who serve as his last line of defense) However, there's a complication - Apocalypse has been physically and mentally regressed into being a child, a development that X-Force is not aware of.

The Last Horsemen seem to be new characters, though between X-Force and Apocalypse getting focus, the Horsemen don't get much development. (Though they do get backstories that grant them varying degrees of sympathy - one is the bastard son of a king who just wanted recognition, but unknowingly spread disease using his mutant ability, while another is a spy for the racist Confederate states in the US Civil War, though as he doesn't talk, it's unclear if his racist attitudes remain over a century later)  Their powers, along with Fantomex's illusion powers that create scenarios where they believe that they've won, lead to some great (and disturbing) visuals.

Angel and Psylocke seem to get the bulk of the development here, with Fantomex being something of a mystery.  Unfortunately, Deadpool is heavily tranquilized shortly before they discover Apocalypse's situation, since the rest of the team wanted to shut him up.  I would have liked to see his reaction to discovering that Apocalypse was a kid - I feel like his reaction would be similar to Deadpool 2, where he'd refuse to let anyone kill Apocalypse no matter what he'd grow up to be capable of. (though for all I know, that gets covered next issue; I just stopped because it was the end of the storyline)

Jerome Opena's art is amazing as always, though the matching colour scheme for X-Force's outfits can make it a bit difficult to tell Fantomex and Deadpool apart depending on the angle. (as long as they're not talking; Deadpool's yellow speech bubbles remain intact)  It seems like an entertaining line-up, and Angel is more interesting here than other comics that I've seen him in. (with some of his actions, it's unclear how much of it is him and how much is his darker half taking over)

I liked how this series handled the idea that (much like Secret Wars later would) heroes sometimes need to do awful things to keep the world safe, though it becomes clear that there are lines that some members of X-Force absolutely will not cross, no matter how much it would benefit the world and/or mutantkind for them to do so.  Deadpool and Wolverine have teamed up a few times over the years, but I'm glad that I chose to read this series in particular.