I tricky one. The first issue was very nice, imo. But issue 2 marked a huge dip in quality. This issue improves and moves things back up, but it still has its flaws.

The biggest flaw is the story really feels like filler. Nothing really seems to be happening, and it seems the series is filler with wheels spinning until the next book Dead Ends, which seems to hint these hunts are all for not. Also, the complaints on Creed's characterization are still seen here a bit. The last chapter depicted him as an utter coward. When he founds out about the Zombies, he freaks and starts trying to run and leave everyone. However, in Mary Shelley Overdrive, Creed faced Zombie soldiers and was not the least scared. He wasted no time ripping through them. So his crapping on himself in issue two wasn't consistent or flattering. This chapter fixed that a bit. We still see a bit of uncharacteristically fragile Sabretooth, but it moves forward to him fighting his way through the Zombies with Deathstrike & Daken. Speaking on the latter, he does uncover some secrets, and seems to find the answer to their non-working healing factor, which will most likely come in handy in the final issue.

Something I did find very nice about the issue were 2 zombies that have very personal connections to Deathstrike & Creed, and neither can believe what they're seeing. And the relationships of these zombies involves relationships we have;t seen brought up in ages, especially on Sabretooth's end.It was also nice to see the little moment between Creed & Daken. They're the ones mocking & wanting to tear into each other in chapter one. But this chapter has them working together, with Daken even calling for Creed's help, and Creed actually giving it. When Daken is cut down, Creed saves him and tries to carry him to safety. It's nothing big, but considering the characters, it's almost a touching moment.

So this issue was nothing groundbreaking. But it was entertaining enough, while toning down the flaws from the last issue.
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The art wasn't the best for this series, and was bad enough for my taste to take away numerous points.

Also, the writing is still all over the place. Again, one min. this is a gray group of character willing to get dirty to protect mutant-kind. But the next, like all of this chapter, they're a bunch of mercs broadcasting their antics live so more people will know of, and possibly wanna employ them.

I stand by my wonderful review of chapter 18. But the last 2 chapters have dipped in quality again. more

A considered improvement in quality. Like said before, there was finally some actual character work happening here. Sabretooth has mostly been the comedy relief character who acts idiotic & gets beaten up. But this chapter has him reflecting on his recently reckless behavior & realizing he's much better than he's been showing. Warpath is the closest thing to a hero on this team, and he's finally had enough with the mercenary ways of Deathstrike, Domino, and Sabretooth. To him, they seem more concerned with paydays than helping others, so he separates himself to help the Omega Red's victims. Domino & Yuriko however thought it best to find Sabretooth.

Finally, this feels like a real story. more

On decent notes. Domino's characterization was better. We didn't get the ditsy party girl. We. imo, got a decent balance of a fun Domino, who also can be serious. Yuriko clarifies that she's a cyborg. Great, since she was lumped in with mutants in the first arc & Taylor's ANW. It's also good Pak made an attempt to acknowledge what this team does. They're the hunting unit in charge of dealing with threats. Kitty has them as an official team, and lent them some wings for the black ops missions. Still holes there, but good some effort was made to answer why this team still exists.

Now for the bad. There's timeline issues. Since chapter 16, we time-skipped a good bit. Domino is in her new solo outfit & Logan has all of his injuries from his solo series. However, Logan says his injuries are from the monsters during his birthday fight with Creed. If he's not lying, then the continuity is off. Logan was perfectly fine after that fight. Then there's Domino's solo series. In the first chapter, Warpath is included in her group of ex boyfriends. but they're clearly still together in this.

Finally, Creed's characterization is still bad. There's the opening scene where he's appointed leader. Warpath doesn't condone the choice & Creed starts yelling at Warpath to drop and give him 20. He comes off like a 5-year-old playing soldier. His later telling of a "Yo mama" jokes really cements how little Pak understands this character, and how far he goes in depicting him suffering from arrested development. The ending drives this home further, but I won't spoil.


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I gotta say the series doesn't do any of the character justice. Aside from Logan, none of the characters are used that often, and it's sad the book all of them have been in the longest in recent years, happens to be this. Pak seems to care more about making the characters "hip & funny" for kids, rather than writing them like they're supposed to be taken seriously. This chapter is no different. The sitcom dialogue is horrible, there's many issues with the timeline. Finally, once again, Pak shows his lack of research on the characters. He writes them as inexperienced in areas where we've seen them in the past. Namely Sabretooth, not knowing Omega Red at the beginning of the chapter, and acting like he's never been in charge before. Both of which are huge contradictions. Creed fought & defeated Omega Red in X-Factor and he's supposed to be the Invisible King Crime Lord of Asian -in addition to ruling Madripoor with Mystique. I'll stop here as far as pointing out the flaws. This chapter is another example of how Pak has not done anything different with these characters since he got all of them one year ago. None are given any depth, and all of them have been pretty ooc in their depiction. Sabretooth is just the most infamous example because he's been the comedy relief since the book started. So he gets the worst of everything. more