Uncanny X-Force #14

Maybe it’s the sun I got this weekend or the residual glowing feeling from the Stevie Nicks concert I went to this weekend, but this issue was excellent!   I was honestly starting to feel like the entire Archangel/Apocalypse storyline was getting played out, yet again, but this installment really brought it back!  

It’s one thing for Apocalypse to take on a new host, as we’ve seen him do in the past, but usually that new host just becomes a new Apocalypse.   Not this time folks!!   This isn’t just some NEW Apocalypse in a different body.   “Archangel” has become his own entity within Warren’s body and he has his own ideas on how to bring Apocalypse’s dream to fruition.   The first thing we saw was his shower Ozymandias with more praise in a single page then we ever saw Apocalypse give him in the years since his introduction.   So much so that Ozzy almost didn’t know how to react to being giving proper respect for his position.   Not to mention his obvious disdain for “honorifics” is a clear clash of ideologies with his creator.   Archangel’s insistence that he and Dark Beast, and presumably all of Apocalypse’s former followers, are “brothers in this work” and his desire for only their honest opinions is something that we rarely see in ANY megalomaniacal villain.

And Hello there, Holocaust….oops I mean Genocide!   This, I thought, was a great twist!   When we first saw Genocide’s image on the last page of issue 13, I was like “Oh wow!  Holocaust is back, that’s awesome!”   But no…this is better.   First of all, it was amazing to see Famine again.   After X-cutioner’s Song back in the 90’s, she and War (Abraham Kieros) simply disappeared only to be replaced by a slew of Horsemen from all around the Marvel Universe (i.e. Hulk, Polaris, Gambit, Sunfire, Gazer, Wolverine, Ahab, and Deathbird).   So when Archangel walked into a room (cell?) and spoke to Autumn so gently about her son, it was a big shock!   Upon meeting her son, I can’t help but wonder if this is the 616 version of Holocaust (who until now was rumored to be 198 member, Feverpitch) or just someone with similar powers…I am definitely hopeful that this is the real Holocaust though.    I am hoping we see more of Autumn because the 4 panels we saw of her were her most interesting and exciting panels since Fall of the Mutants.

Now it wouldn’t be one of MY reviews if I didn’t have some sort of complaint right?   Getting back to Abraham Kieros…where the hell is he??   I know that Apocalypse took his powers (leaving his paralyzed again) but I also know that Warren found him in Wolverine #147 and healed him which leaves a perfect opening for him to come back now under Archangel’s control.   And my other complaint is the secret hidden underground hideout…did someone read this week’s issue of Secret Avengers??   It’s basically the same set up, up to and including the round “secret” elevator into the ground leading to the huge underground city.

Overall, Uncanny X-Force is getting better and better!   I was really upset when they renumbered it with a brand new team, and I haven’t liked the way they’ve been pushing out issues so quickly, but the “Dark Angel Saga” has been fantastic!   I am very scrutinizing of anything titled the “Dark ­­­­____ Saga" but this series and its main antagonist have truly earned the “Dark” title.   I only hope that Warren Worthington survives at the end…since he is conspicuously missing from any X-men: ReGenesis promos…