Ian Edginton takes over as full writer from Warren Ellis with this penultimate storyline, and boy does the title move into some weird places. I will give Edginton props for actually trying to DO something here - some of the characters have some personality, an interesting story starts emerging, and there are efforts made to connect past stories to a larger
conspiracy. It becomes such a convoluted mess by the end that I can't help but feel Edginton isn't playing a joke on readers. It's a hugely flawed story, but it's never uninteresting, and I'll give credit to Edginton for adding some depth to this title.The story starts off with a somewhat simple premise - the Russian government is checking in on sleeper agents planted across the US during the Cold War. These agents had been testing upon to release secondary mutantagenic traits locked within them. In the intervening decades, they have had children, and the KGB is here to recall them. From this straightforward idea, the story spirals off - X-Force is recruited by Nick Fury to find the true person behind this, Niles Roman, who murdered Pete Wisdom. When the team finds him, Roman proceeds to delivers a long speech portraying himself as the victim of a vast conspiracy that ties into all of X-Force's recent cases. When a mysterious figure at an unidentified facility decides all involved have learned too much, a switch is flipped and a bomb goes off on our protagonists. The end.
I think it's the unexpected nature of this story that really got me. It starts off fairly simple, as the collection of the mutated children plays out with a touch of strangeness to it. It's the type of plot at home in this revamped title, and the cryptic scenes of spontaneous mutations and violent dea
ths work well. Jorge Lucas' artwork is much different in the first two chapters than the last two - he draws meticulous detail into the mutated humans, and also brings that detail to the settings - rooms and cityscapes look grimy and filthy. It's very effective, and his style drastically shifts in the final two chapters. There's also some effort made with the characters. Proudstar and Bedlam are ciphers as usual, but Sam and Tabitha get a decent scene to reflect on recent events and find comfort with each other. It hasn't felt like human characters have been in these stories, so these softer scenes are appreciated. And, to Edginton's credit, the story has a nice plot twist, when the team learn Valentina, Pete Wisdom's friend from the first arc, is closer to this conflict than they expected. These are hardly perfect comics, but the first two chapters have potential.Things take a massive shift as the story continues. The mutated children story is essentially dropped. It's still there, but only as
background for the team to find Niles Roman. There's extended nonsense about Proudstar being injured and needing a cure - time-wasting to get us through part 3, and it's noticeable time-wasting. And SHIELD shows up so that Nick Fury can set the team's sights on Niles Roman, the man who killed their leader. The final issue is in large part a bloated battle scene, with the team invading Roman's headquarters, and a number of silent, or nearly wordless, pages. It's not great stuff, but at least it's a quick read. As mentioned, Lucas' art takes a big swerve in the final two issues. He goes for a massive Kirby homage. Gone is much of the detail, replaced with very heavy lines, and faces, expressions, page layouts, action scenes, and body language cribbed right from Kirby. That said, it doesn't look bad. It certainly livens up some weak comics and it's endearing to see how faithful Lucas is in every panel to Kirby's style. In the end, the team find Roman, who proceeds to explain that he is the victim of a massive conspiracy involving aliens, a piece of moon rock that landed on Earth (and seems to be connected to Domino's back problems from the previous story), and anti-mutant scientific experiments. The bio-engine from the first story is connected to the KGB experiments from this story. Roman also explains how various governments have sought his death for thirty years, resulting in him hiding out. In the end, an unseen female decides all involved have heard too much and Valentina, revealed to be a robot, explodes, seemingly killing them all. I can't help but feel Edginton is playing a joke here - riffing on the 'evil villain reveals his plans in a speech' idea or even the notion that everything has to come together and fit into a nice whole. The speech Roman delivers is equal parts preposterous and well-planned out. It does provide a nice coherent narrative, but also goes off the deep end into complete madness. It's endearing to think such a wider-reaching conspiracy is playing out in this little, ignored book. Hey, if the readers don't find this book important, at least the writer should.
If somewhere were to write off the end of this troubled little story as completely stupid and insulting to the audience, I wouldn't blame them. I can't help but enjoy that Edginton tried something here, though. This book was lifeless in its first two arcs, and there is an energy and unique quality to this story, despite its faults and choppy focus. If Edginton had been allowed this free reign before, who knows what could have resulted. After this, the Counter X period of X-Force wraps up with a two-part story, and I'm actually interested in seeing what comes of that.
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