Uncanny X-Force #5 Review


X-Force has succeeded and failed at their first mission. They captured Spiral, but thanks to intervention from a possessed Bishop they lost Ginny, the girl that was accompanying the villanous ninja. With Ginny gone, what is X-Force’s next move?

Here is the summary from Marvel:

Guest-penciler ADRIAN ALPHONA (co-creator of RUNAWAYS) joins UXF! Psylocke digs deep into Bishop’s head and what she finds will shock you! One of the biggest X-Villains of the past 20 years threatens the Uncanny X-Force!

Psylocke & Storm dive into Bishop’s mind to find out just what the hell happened to him. The traverse his fractured mindscape as they try to solve the mystery, meanwhile their bodies are being guarded on the outside by Puck while he also has to keep watch of the now tied up Spiral. As they dig deeper, they find just where Bishop has been since they last saw him, as well as the beings possessing both him and Ginny. Putting them into conflict with an “old friend”.

Sam Humphries finally starts to answer the questions that have been plaguing readers since issue 2. We get a look at just what Bishop was doing after he failed to kill Hope & Cable, and the result is a bit…odd to say the least, but it’s not bad. The scenes with Spiral & Puck are entertaining, with Puck lamenting about being bored and Spiral convincing him to grab the Jagermeister she has on her so they can drink together. Suffice to say she gets free, but Puck manages to still be quite agile for a drunk dwarf.

Ron Garney’s is replaced by two different artists this issue: Adrian Alphona (co-creator of Runaways & did a couple inserts in previous issues of this series) doing the mindscape scenes, while Dexter Soy (having most recently done Captain Marvel) illustrating the scenes in the real world. Alphona’s pencils really show just how messed up, yet intricate Bishop’s mind has become. The thing looks like something from an MC Esher painting with all the labyrinth play going on. Dexter Soy’s parts of the book are also done very well so no complaints there.

While better than last issue, “Uncanny X-Force #5” is still behind in way of excitement. We are introduced to the force possessing Ginny, but have no means of motive yet. Also the Fantomex bits seem a bit shuffled and out of place as they don’t appear in the issue until the end. The art however is still pretty good.

3.5/5

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