Uncanny X-Force vol. 1: The Apocalypse Solution

I probably would’ve enjoyed this more had I not read Paul O’Brien’s review of it several months back.  Yeah.  He advertised major spoilers for it, but I went and read it anyway, so it’s my bad.  The issue here is that the ending is essentially a calculated anticlimax that takes a sharp left turn into nihilism and leaves it to the reader to pick up the pieces.  Normally I’d say that’s a good thing, but in this case I was left scratching my head at this twist, much like Deadpool was on the final page.

Ending aside, it’s a solidly constructed team book with sharp writing by Rick Remender and beautifully detailed art from Jerome Opena.  I never bothered picking up the previous iteration of “X-Force” (which is handily summarized in the back of this volume) as it sounded like it took itself too seriously.  That’s not really a problem here with a team made up of Wolverine, Archangel, Psylocke, Deadpool and Fantomex whose inaugural mission has them heading to the moon to take out Apocalypse who has been reborn as a child.  He has a new set of horsemen as well and the back-and-forth battle of brawn and brains between the two teams makes for some satisfyingly old-school action.  Maybe not as good as its hype and word-of-mouth would imply, but still fun and worth a read for X-fans.