X-Force #6: Attack Of The Evil Teenage Clone-Twin!

As I intimated in the summary, this issue was mainly a character piece focused on exploring Stryfe’s part in the recent X-Force shenanigans and his motivations for equipping a small Eastern European country with far-future weaponry. In short: his future battle with future-Nate isn’t going all that well (from his admittedly evil perspective) and he’s desperately seeking to expand his army. It also had the additional benefit of explaining what, exactly, happened to Rachel. It’s not a spoiler to say that she winds up a tool of Stryfe, because the cover for issue seven has been released and there she is, crouched over the prone body of Nate, in a fun visual reversal of the pietá.

There isn’t a tremendous amount to say about this issue. In terms of writing and structure it is a perfect (and I mean that) mirror-image for the one which came before. The thematic beats of that issue are reflected here — reversed. We see the world remaking itself. We watch Stryfe discover Cable’s ruined safe-house. We watch Nate’s oddly Freudian girlfriend (seriously, why does she look so much like Hope?) die again on roughly the same pages. It’s really very well done. I particularly enjoyed the glimpses we had into Stryfe’s deep well of adolescent insecurity.

But while this issue fills in some necessary blanks in the narrative, and while its execution was deeply satisfying in terms of technique, it doesn’t really take us anywhere new. It’s background, memory: it doesn’t push the story forward.

However, I must say that I really enjoyed this issue. And the inclusion of Rachel really raises the emotional stakes — though anyone with eyes can see that she’s probably going to wind up joining X-Force. And well she should. The team will be better for it, and it’s been a long time since she’s been written competently.

As for the art: I liked it. Couceiro’s line-work is less defined, less personal, than Dylan Burnett’s, but it was very effective and it’s appropriate that these two issues we’re done by the same hand.

All in all, it was a satisfying issue, that sets up the next phase of the story in a way that whets the appetite for more.

Review by Bethany W Pope