“Igubu Lika-Anansi”
Creative Staff:
Story: Geoffrey Thorne
Art: Marcus To
Colors: Erick Arciniega
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna
What They Say:
WARFARE IN WAKANDA! FORGE leads X-FORCE in their new, custom BLACKBIRD to the next world fracture in WAKANDA. But as the ground literally changes under their feet, the team will have to stop…the BLACK PANTHER?! That can’t be right, can it?! And what secret is bubbling under the surface that just might tear the X-Force team asunder? The new X-FORCE ongoing hits its stride in this issue – don’t miss jumping on early!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
A new X-Force launch drew me in to check out the start of the series and this book looks to be doing something familiar as we’ve seen over the years with a select group trying to solve all the big critical issues of the world within a single issue or so. This run comes from writer Geoffrey Thorne and they manage fairly well here while not going into the weeds or even the edge of the forest to explain any recent events for new readers. Marcus To tackles the art side with Eric Arciniega on the color design and it’s a pretty straightforward book that’s not overly detailed. It lays out the scenes well, flows well, and the designs are generally pretty good without being too stylized. It’s more a journeyman approach than the last time I read an X-Force book which was all style over substance, so I can appreciate it.
The nature of the book is pretty clear quickly after the first issue, though I’m glad they moved past Deadpool even quicker. With this issue, the Analog has confirmed a new event happening in Wakanda and that’s a dangerous place to go with how protective they are. So much so that the jet is pretty much blown up within minutes of arriving in Wakandan air space, which makes for some rough landings for everyone considering their different abilities. And poor Surge, having just joined as well. Amusingly, the book focuses largely on Sage and Forge as everyone else has been changed both in look and personality to people from a thousand years ago or more thanks to a particular device that one of the local tough guys has acquired and activated. That brings us back to some classic changes from just after Forge was first introduced in Uncanny X-Men but also the time Loki did something similar with an Alpha Flight crossover.
This all serves as a shorthand so that we can get Sage and Forge to figure out how to stop the event but also free their friends at the same time. Forge actually just runs off because he has other issues to deal with because of the jet being downed and needing its equipment, and that leaves Sage as the main focal point. The idea, in abstract, is to get us to know her better but there’s not a lot of character material here but rather an exploration fo how her powers work and why she and Forge with their mutation are fairly immune to the change event going on. It’s decent and you do get a better handle on Sage if you’re new to her like I am, but I still don’t know anything about her. It’s fun to watch the others from the group that have been altered by the event and how Sage frees Surge in order to bring it to a close and how she struggles with it until she can reach Forge. All the Wakandan stuff is like and the tension at the end, while understandable, is just frustrating because of everything that literally just happened.
In Summary:
I’m still not hugely sold on X-Force because it’s mirroring so many other books Marvel has done the last few years with either one-off missions or a couple of two-parter stories for more serious events. There’s nothing wrong with it but it’s just familiar and worn at this point. The characters are fine but it takes time to build the relationship dynamic, which the book isn’t focusing on that much yet. We get small nods to it but it’s going to be more about the action and events than that, so it’ll likely always feel weaker because of it. The script is solid and the event itself is amusing, combined with solid artwork makes for a good reed that may be largely unmemorable afterward.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Marvel Comics
Release Date: August 28th, 2024
MSRP: $4.99
