Review by Frank Plowright

Sam Humphries on Uncanny X-Force hasn’t greatly convinced over two previous volumes, but there was hope of a quality uplift ending Torn and Frayed with the revelation of the villain behind the scenes. They provided a reason for what’s sometimes seemed random, and for Bishop’s presence. Humphries raises the bar by revealing early that only a telepath’s death can prevent the forthcoming end of the world. Who will it be?

Narrowing those options is cleverly handled by Humphries. He provides a reason X-Force can’t go hell for leather against the threat, and it’s well resolved. The problem is that a matter of Earth’s destruction is a massive, so can’t be wrapped up quickly, so while the start and end work, there’s a saggy middle. The art, though, hits the spot. Phil Briones switches between ornately decorated pages of flashbacks and prophecy (sample art) and good superhero action, and in that he’s backed up by Dalibor Talajić and Angel Unzueta.

Then the matter becomes complicated. In 2013, Marvel ran two X-Force titles, the team in Los Angeles written by Humphries, and another team led by Cable whose missions were written by Dennis Hopeless and drawn by Unzueta (sample art). A crossover between them ends both series.

The crux of the crossover is Hope Summers learning that Bishop is back in the present day, and renewing the bad blood between them, which extends to a battle between the two teams, and problems with Stryfe. While an occasional line of dialogue resonates, especially the snark of Dr. Nemesis, really understanding what’s going on involves knowing much about X-Men history, and alternate futures. If that sounds great, you might want to investigate further, but if not there’s always two chapters of art from the very promising Harvey Tolibao to contemplate. He’s great with action, layouts and detail. However, that might be best appreciated when these four chapters accompany other work by Hopeless and Unzueta in Cable and X-Force: Vendetta.

This is the best of Humphries on Uncanny X-Force, but much of that is down to his collaborators.