X-Force is hurrying toward its ending and threatening to repeat its cycles from the last couple of years along the way, and it shows by the end of this issue. Read Full Review

Certainly not a bad issue, but not the strongest from this series, either. Percy's story had its strong points, but I just couldn't really get into Picciotto's art here. It wasn't the worst or anything, but it just looked a bit too rough for me in certain spots. I'm glad to see that Robert Gill is returning in the next issue, and I hope that Beast's return means the level of quality for this series is rising back up, even if there isn't much longer to go.

There are big plot developments going on here, and those intrigue me. The team welcomes a lot of new faces and gropes toward a new mission; this is promising groundwork that could produce compelling stories in the future.

I'm less enthused about the character interactions, though. This issue has several heart-to-heart conversations, and they sabotage each other by all sounding pretty much the same.

I'm also underwhelmed by the art. The polish and action are pretty good, but the character designs are rough. The faces are hard to distinguish; far too often, I had to rely on costumes or dialogue cues to identify specific characters.

So I'm being snippy about the WAY the story is told in this issue. I still see a lot of merit in the story itself, though, and I'm eager to see where it goes.
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Art: 3.5/5
Story: 3.5/5
Total: 7/10

Wolverine and Kid Omega are officially back with X-Force, and the first order of business is for them to return to taking up a vast majority of page time in this issue at the expense of the rest of the cast. In Wolverine's case, a majority of his character beats could have been better served being written in his own book where they could have been fleshed out and written better, as he comes off as very rude, hypocritical and generally out or character. And the plot with Quentin recovering the use of his powers through the power of love falls incredibly flat, and his arrogant, condensending attitude towards the rest of the cast doesn't help his case.

When the story is not focused on Percy's favorites, there's good world-building going on. Sage and Black Tom make a great team constructing X-Force's refuge appropriately named the Greenhouse, and while their diologue is pretty much just regulated to setting up the team's status quo for the next few issues, it does it well. There's also a cute scene with Laura reuniting with some surprise guests and Colossus and Domino having a constructive talk that gives us a little insight into what those respective characters are thinking and feeling right now.

Overall, the issue does what it sets out to do, setting the team up for the next story arc. It's biggest flaw is focusing too much on characters we are overly familiar with by now and not with the rest of the cast who desperately need more page time to flesh them out. more