This week for Friday Rec, I’m going to share with you a book I only recently started reading, but quickly poured over back issues and caught up in a matter of days. I was watching our video podcast with David and Brandon, 4 Color News and Brews (plug plug!) and Brandon plugged a book very near and dear to his heart. I wasn’t reading that book, either. Based on the love he gave that green butthole, I picked it up; and you know what? I LOVED IT.
The book is based on an idea that went wrong before. Cyclops created a version of X-Force to take out mutant threats as they happened. This went spectacularly wrong, caused a big mess, and caused the Utopian X-Force to disband. It proved to be wildly unpopular, as everyone hated Scott Summers and one of his best friends died. However, Wolverine, the field leader of this team, realized that a force like this was necessary in the end. There needed to be things done that would protect mutantkind that the X-Men should never dirty their hands with, so he started a privately bankrolled team.
What was their first mission you ask? Why, taking out the reincarnated Apocalypse of course. The Apocalypse arc has been the catalyst for everything that has come later in the book. The current arc, The Dark Angel Saga, isn’t a flashback to the awesomely bad Jessica Alba television show, but the rise of another evil that could be just as bad as En Sabah Nur ever was, if not worse.
The awesome thing about this book (besides EVERYTHING), is that while it’s incredibly easy to read without having to read anything else in the X-Line, it rewards a working knowledge of the franchise, with intelligent callbacks to Psylocke’s time on The Exiles as well as references to other times in history of the X-Family that make you think “Yeah! I remember that! That was awesome!” However, you’re in no way required to know any of this. In fact, the references are presented in a way to there that unimportant to the story being told.
In addition, I’ve never been quiet about my distaste for books that star either Wolverine or Deadpool. In fact, I try to avoid them as best I can, as they tend to be simply grabs for money with no concern for quality. Remender however, writes the best Wolverine and Deadpool I’ve read in ages. Wolverine is as honorable but determined as Deadpool is insane and darkly funny (seriously, you’ll simultaneously laugh and groan at just about everything the Merc with a Mouth says). But beyond that, the interactions between the characters move organically between each other. Psylocke, who happens to be one of my favorite X-Men, is one of the strongest women in the Marvel Universe, and here, Remender makes a point of proving it. She’s sexy, but not in a disrespectful way, but more so in the fact she’s a powerful character who happens to be a woman. Furthermore, the character development that the other characters Fantomex and Archangel have undertaken in the past 17 issues (1-5, 5.1, and 5-16) is astounding. Jean-Pierre has gone from reluctant participant to de facto leader and the arc for Warren Worthington is among the most tragic and frightening in comics today. Plus, any writer that can make Deathlok a viable character that can be used liberally deserves a medal.
Aside from Remender’s fantastic scripts, his collaborators on art have been just as good to fit with the quality of what’s being penned. The photorealistic art on Opeña’s part as well as the girt that comes along with it make for some terrifying visuals (there’s a scene that’s too good to mention here, but is also quite gruesome…let’s just say Deadpool is a…giving individual) that with a lesser artist would have looked cheesy and all together unsatisfying. Instead, you grimace and enjoy what you’re being fed. The same applies to the other artists, like Rafael Albuquerque and Esad Ribic’s art works beautifully with the stories they’re telling. Another key to Remender’s critical success is his ability to write stories that can elevate the art; which in turn elevates the writing. It’s a beautiful thing.
Remender was a writer of whose work I was largely unaware, so I was never drawn to the book originally. However, considering how amazing this book has been so far, the names that have worked on this book have entered into the “must buy” territory in my pull. Bravo.
