Inglorious X-Force #5: Doesn’t Live Up to the Name

“Inglorious: adjective; not glorious: lacking fame or honor,” Merriam-Webster Dictionary. It’s a bold name to slap on a comic book. A name bold enough that the title sets its own bar. However, issue #5 fails to clear it. 

The title of the comic itself is a broken promise. Inglorious implies moral compromise, a lack of honor. Compare Inglorious X-Force to Uncanny X-Force by Rick Remender. In the latter series, X-Force grapples with the ramifications of killing a young Apocalypse for the greater good. Each member of the team, from Wolverine to Archangel, deals with the decision: Archangel, knowing the consequences of allowing Apocalypse to live, still can’t bring himself to kill the child. Only Fantomex can bring himself to kill the child, for which the team feels the weight of his actions, solemnly returning to Earth. No energy even resembling this appears in the book. There are no moral questions presented to the reader. The characters are not thrown into complex situations that warrant the name “Inglorious X-Force.”

Inglorious X-Force, as a series, faces another fundamental problem: it fails to live up to its concept. The overarching plotline is a futuristic murder mystery, where the victim is Kamala Khan, killed for becoming President of the United States. Ms. Marvel is a character that Marvel would not permanently kill off, especially in a series like this, and the comic never lets the reader forget that. The reader never experiences a future with an assassinated Kamala Khan, so the consequences of her death are never truly felt. Compare this to “Days of Future Past,” one of the greatest comics centered on the death of a single person. Nobody reading Uncanny X-Men comics in 1981 truly believed that the demise of the X-Men would be the status quo. However, Chris Claremont and John Byrne made readers live in that alternative future: readers witnessed the graves of the X-Men; readers watched Wolverine get vaporized; readers realized that Kitty Pryde was truly the last hope of a doomed planet; the consequences felt real. Inglorious X-Force focuses too much on the present, robbing itself of urgency. 

Issue #5 fails to make any of its characters feel particularly unique. With the exception of Archangel and Boom-Boom, nearly every character is relegated to their basic traits. Hellverine doesn’t possess the cunning or coldness that distinguishes him from Wolverine; Mister Sinister doesn’t feel like a grand manipulator. Across the past four issues, the comic attempts to develop some level of conflict between the characters: in particular, a rivalry between Hellverine and Archangel. However, when these two characters come into conflict, it’s resolved briefly: no consequences, no weight, no acknowledgement of the building tension. Furthermore, when Mister Sinister arrives, his history with these characters is seldom acknowledged. For a character that has experimented on two of these characters (Cable and Archangel) and tortured the father of a third one (Hellverine), the comic doesn’t tackle any of the personal dynamics this might’ve created. A fight that should have emotional depth is relegated to a beat-’em-up. That said, the dynamic between Archangel and Boom-Boom is the best part of the book. Their emotional scenes together carry the comic heavily. When the comic is quieter, Seeley’s writing talent really shines, highlighting the depth of Archangel’s character. 

Furthermore, the art in this issue is beautiful yet bland: competent without being compelling. The pages are dynamic and well-drawn, but the art never elevates the material. Comic books must be able to communicate emotion visually, and the art here rarely does that. During the emotional crux of the issue, the panels are zoomed out, preventing any subtle shifts in expression from being noticeable. Several panels look nearly identical, with small changes that feel like they take up space rather than develop the plot or characters. Strip all the text away from these panels, and the reader would find it difficult to describe the emotions of these characters. In a story that already struggles to build tension, the art does little to compensate.