Uncanny X-Force vol. 6: Final Execution, Book I
The last time “Uncanny X-Force” did a story that spanned two collected volumes, it was “The Dark Angel Saga.” That was the rare superhero epic that was as good as its hype, so the “Final Execution” storyline has a lot to live up to in that regard along with the fact that it represents writer Rick Remender’s swan song on the title. Fortunately for him, I think holding this story or just about any recent superhero story to those standards is pretty unrealistic. Even better is that the first half of this story is entertaining enough to be enjoyed on its own terms and makes me anticipate the arrival of the conclusion in paperback (in July).
After their adventures in “Otherworld,” the team finds itself at a bit of a crossroads. While Deadpool is investigating a sophisticated hired-assassin operation Psylocke, a.k.a. Betsy Braddock, and Fantomex, a.k.a. LePew (according to Logan), both announce that they’re leaving the team. In light of having to destroy Archangel and her role in telepathically killing her brother Jaime, Betsy feels that she can’t continue to be a part of a team where murder is viewed as a necessity. Fantomex ostensibly quits because there’s no more money to be had now that Angel’s financial holdings are on ice, but this also comes after a one-night-stand with Betsy where he wanted to pursue a relationship and she told him that he had no personality for her to have any attachment to.
So with the team dramatically weakened and its members all going in several different directions, it would appear that this is the worst time for a new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants to appear on the scene. Including the likes of Sabretooth, Mystique, The Shadow King, Blob and The Skinless Man, they’re out to undo one of the team’s most notable successes and get young Evan to assume his role as the Heir to Apocalypse. While that may be the plan that drives the plot, the book’s real focus is on how the team views murder as a necessity to what they do. Wolverine sums it up best early on when he reflects on, during a fight scene of course, how killing is what he does best and how it comes to define him as a character. To that end, leading X-Force as a team designed to do just that comes off as the natural end of things. Or as he puts it, “An alcoholics anonymous meeting with mandatory drinking contest.”
What separates X-Force from the Brotherhood is that they view it as a necessary evil to maintaining the greater good and towards keeping the hands of people better than them clean. The killing impulse is also viewed as something that should be struggled against, particularly in Psylocke’s case throughout the series as we’re shown again here that in her conflicts with Archangel and Jaime, she had no choice in the matter. That said, we’re shown the ultimate outcome of their line of thinking after the team winds up in a future where their thinking won out after they had to put a reborn Apocalypse down. X-Force then went on to establish a fascist utopia under “Magistrate Braddock” where potential killers are pre-emptively disposed of.
While dystopian alternate futures are a dime-a-dozen in “X-Men” continuity, this one stands out. That’s mainly because everyone in the timeline is so matter-of-fact about their disagreements with their younger selves. After all, the time travelers had to have agreed with their older selves or else they wouldn’t be there to exist in the first place. These future scenes also reinforce the fact that this is Psylocke’s story more than anyone else’s as she witnesses what their killing has ultimately wrought and tries to do something about that. In the process, we get a great scene between her and a future Frank Castle as he tries to save her… by pulling a gun on her. As she notes, “Violence as first instinct — hard habit to break… I get it.” Remender is raising some interesting questions about the methods the team employs and it looks like the outcome of the story is going to hinge upon whether or not he can find a way to find some justification for them in the end.
Actually, let me rephrase that. It’s going to hinge upon whether or not Remender can find some “interesting” justification for them in the end. Though the team may be made up of murderers they still remain likeable and interesting individuals because they either continue to struggle against killing just because they feel like it or feel genuine remorse for their actions. Wolverine has a body count in the thousands by now, but we still like him because they were all either faceless nobodies who were dumb enough to pull a weapon on him or unrepentant murderers whom the world is better off without. Same goes for Deadpool, though he brings genuine comedy to the mix here. His “turn that frown upside down” moment with Castle is a genius moment that I can’t believe no one had thought to do before. Fantomex also has some moments of surprising selflessness in this volume that underline his feelings for Betsy in dramatic fashion. As I said above, this is Psylocke’s story and not only does she kick it into motion, she also gets its most dramatic moments. To say more would be spoileriffic.
Though I did like what I read here, it’s not without some issues. They mainly have to deal with the motivations of the Brotherhood as I can’t really imagine any of them being nihilistic enough to think that restoring Apocalypse is a good idea. Given his “survival of the fittest” mindeset, how do they know he won’t just kill them all once he’s back in power? There’s also their beef with X-Force “pre-emptively killing their foes” which is more semantics than anything else. Everyone the team has tangled with has done something to warrant such extreme sanction in the past so it strikes me as odd that they’d take issue with finally being tracked down and put under the knife. Still, they are bad guys by admission so I can’t be surprised by that mindset. Then there are (thankfully only) a couple of moments where either the bad guys fail to finish off a hero (Wolverine) or the good guys don’t actually kill the bad one when they have a chance (Fantomex vs. the Shadow King). It’s a staple of the genre, I know, but it still feels sloppy here.
We also have three artists providing the art for this collection. Mike McKone starts things off with some clean work that occasionally suffers from his willingness to cut-and-past characters from panel-to-panel. Phil Noto handles the next two issues and does a good job of selling the drama of the team’s breakdown, particularly in over-the-top moments like the Skinless Man’s showdown with Fantomex. The final two issues, showcasing the future timeline, feature the art of Julian Totino Tedesco whose style is a bit more exaggerated and sketchier than either McKone or Noto. It makes for a bit of stylistic clash here and I can imagine that his work won’t be to most everyone’s tastes, but I thought it worked well enough for a dystopian future setting.
That the good guys will triumph in the end here is not in doubt. Whether or not they’ll be able to achieve a decisive victory rather than a pyrrhic one is the question and it all hinges upon whether or not there exists a reason that can justify all of the killing that X-Force does. Given the way that Remender has developed the team so far, I’m fairly convinced that even if he can’t deliver an answer that will be good for the team it will certainly make for compelling reading for the rest of us.