ICYMI! X-Force #48: Pause, Reset, Rewind

The moment that every Beast fan has been eagerly anticipating for the past three years has come, and it’s happened exactly as everyone predicted: Hank’s been reset to his former Bouncing Blue self. Well, technically there are now two Hanks running around: one (presumably) good and the other as megalomaniacal as ever, but it’s pretty clear which one is going to be sticking around once the dust from this storyline has settled.

Percy’s execution was beautifully done. We got a nice, gut-punch of a moment in which (to borrow Cotton Hill’s name for his youngest son) Good Hank was able to see the monster that his future self becomes, and we got to witness X-Force’s mixed reactions to meeting this new (old) incarnation of their frenemy.

There were a few stumbles (you’re telling me that Sage wouldn’t have taken away Hank’s voice print access codes? Sage? The living computer security system? Ok, my dude. Whatever) but for the most part, the issue played out smoothly, if utterly predictably.

Robert Gill’s art was, appropriately, the star of the show. His action sequences are absolutely unmatched. The opening pages featuring EH (Evil Hank) breaking into the X-Force lab and systematically taking down his former cohorts was stunningly accomplished. Watching Gill grow as an artist has been one of the highlights of the Fall of X era. He balances quiet character moments with splashy (exceedingly violent) action sequences with a tremendous amount of skill.