Uncanny X-Force 11, Wolverine 9

Uncanny X-Force 11
Humphries (w) and R. Pérez (a) and Rosenberg w/ J.D. Ramos (c)

Bishop and the demon bear are the only ones who haven't been captured by the Revenants and are doing what they can to get the team back. The issue comes from Bishop's perspective, then, as he relies on his training and wits to stage an attack on where the Revenants are holding Storm, Psylocke, and Puck. The Revenants still have their versions of Bishop's new teammates, now standing guard. When the demon bear and Bishop break in and manage to free Storm, Psylocke, and Puck, a fight breaks out, which is pretty quickly handled. Storm kills her own Revenant and Bishop lauds her for her strength; killing a Revenant is how you join his order so he makes her a member on the spot. Before she fully dies, though, the Storm Revenant tells Storm that Bishop is crazy and wrong, that he doesn't know them by their real name and that he thinks the Queen is from the future when Storm already knows her in the present. Bishop says this fight is just the beginning, that they have to go for the Revenant Queen. As he says it, Spiral appears, claiming to know where the Queen is and wanting a piece of the action.

I've never had a particularly deep connection to Bishop as a character which might be part of why I didn't really connect with this issue. It very much does rely on feeling something for Bishop, who frames a lot of the story in thoughts directed at his own Revenant, a promising man who he killed to join his order. There's real regret there in that he had to kill what seemed like a good man but also in his longing to have been that man and not whatever he is now. Otherwise, the characters kind of fall into the roles we've already seen with Psylocke overpowering her Revenant and Storm acting decisively as needed to kill her own while Puck continues to act as comic relief with just a twinge of something more. Spiral appearing begs some questions and hopefully those will be answered next time out. I'm still finding it a little hard to connect with this book as a whole and I can't quite put my finger on why. I'm hoping some things solidify as we see what seems to be much of the team finally working together in the coming issues.

Wolverine 9
Cornell (w) and A. Davis and M. Farmer (a) and Hollingsworth (c)

Wolverine is still killable, the virus is still out there, and Mystique has just broken into and out of the Jean Grey School. Wolverine has decided he can't do anything about the virus at this point, that it's better left in SHIELD's hands (though I'm sure we'll come back to it, you never just start a story and leave it, nor do you still cut back to a story that you're not coming back to), and that he needs to focus on Mystique and, of course, Sabretooth. His friends tell him that maybe now is the time to take a break and lay low but he refuses, eventually leaving to track his foes with a note Mystique left in his room. Kitty stows away on the jet, still trying to get him to turn around but, assuming that won't work, prepared to help him. The jet is shot down by Batroc the Leaper who is apparently working for Sabretooth. Sabretooth has put a hit on Wolverine while he's killable and it seems all manner of villain will be coming for him now. Wolverine tells Kitty to get the note out of the jet before it explodes while he takes care of Batroc. It's a good fight but Wolverine eventually bests Batroc after admitting that maybe he's gotten a little slower with his healing to fall back on. Batroc teleports away before they can finish him or get answers out of him. Wolverine allows Kitty to stay with him as Batroc didn't seem to expect her, meaning Sabretooth won't either. They leave to return to the place where Wolverine was born.

Regular readers of this blog will know that I absolutely love Batroc the Leaper. There's something truly great about the character, even since Brubaker brought him back as a legitimate foe, someone who was trained extremely well in savate and who moves with grace and precision. The goofiness is still there and the character is still better for it. They can't all be Red Skulls. I don't love this Batroc though, pretty much from his start shooting the jet down. Batroc has long been focused on honor, pretty rare for a mercenary. He has no problem killing people or defeating them in combat but he wants to do it when they have an equal chance of winning, where it just comes down to skill. For that matter, Sabretooth hiring out mercenaries to kill Wolverine seems wrong to; Sabretooth has always wanted Wolverine dead but there's no question he wants it done by his own hand. At least, Sabretooth putting a hit on him is what's assumed, that he's behind the Hand's bounty. Maybe he's not. Still, the issue moves about as deliberately as every other issue of this book has. It continues to be a bit of a slow series but I wouldn't be upset if they did just drop the virus thing altogether. That's where it's been slowest throughout the series.

Wolverine 8, Wolverine and the X-Men 34

Wolverine 8
Cornell (w) and A. Davis and M. Farmer (a) and Hollingsworth (c)

Wolverine is in Wakanda, being beat up by Black Panther, as he tries to figure out if Panther has been taken over by the virus. Wolverine's plan, somehow, is to try to make Panther angry because that will tell the strike team whether or not he's been taken over (??). This is his for real plan, one that backfires almost IMMEDIATELY because Panther ends up guessing the game and making Wolverine angry in like, two seconds flat, because that's not that hard to do. He's the best there is at what he does and what he does is get really angry really fast. Anyway, Panther's no dummy so he hasn't been taken over but he has to pretend everything's fine and under control so he has to let Wolverine's team sneak out his prisoner, the last person out there who can control viruses, the Host. There's some talk about Wolverine vulnerability making him overcompensate and some talk about Storm and Black Panther and that's pretty much EVERYTHING.

I have a sneaking suspicion that this Wolverine book is trying its darndest to win me over. Me specifically. Is that crazy? Yes. Almost definitely. But Wolverine just went to talk to Black Panther who's easily in my list of top five favorite heroes and who Wolverine doesn't interact with particularly often and the next issue's cover features Wolverine fighting Batroc ze Lepair (sorry, Batroc the Leaper, for non-French speaking readers) who I don't think Wolverine has EVER come across (if you know a time when they did cross PLEASE TELL ME) and who I absolutely love. I'm likely not alone in my love for these characters but really, they both rank SO HIGH for me. On the other hand, I'm still having some trouble processing this book (making Panther angry was the BEST PLAN HE COULD COME UP WITH? And he didn't think Panther would be able to get around that?) and I still find this book, well, just boring. I don't know what it is. Something about this writing just seems slow to me and I'm having trouble getting around that. Maybe it's Wolverine. There are some really great Wolverine stories out there but there are often two modes of Wolverine: introspective samurai or hacky-slashy anger man. Stories tend to run out on him after too many. That's why (despite this post) I think he's pretty well-suited for teams. He interacts interestingly with others and it pulls some of the drama off of him or gives him a different type of drama. Like I said, that's not always the case; there are plenty of great Wolverine stories out there. But I don't think he tends to flourish in his solo books (that said, really looking forward to Kieron Gillen's take on Wolverine Origins 2).

Wolverine and the X-Men 34
Aaron (w) and Bradshaw and Wong (a) and L. Martin (c)

The X-Men have found the Hellfire Academy and are attacking it with everything they've got (including their Krakoa and an incredibly powerful Bobby operating what seems to be a giant ice samurai). Meanwhile, in the school, the teachers (the ones who haven't left already) are trying to fight back and the students are aligning themselves in the fight with their chosen factions. Kade Kilgore has found himself practically abandoned by the other members of the Hellfire Club, who have already marked this situation as a waste of time and resources. The real blow to Kade, though, comes at the very end of the book, as no one helps him when Broo attacks and, after he gets free and deems his efforts actually a success, he finds himself about to be shot in the back by the other two males in the Hellfire Club.

I usually find myself not enjoying the full-out fight scene issues as much as the build-up issues (not always the case, a good fight scene issue is still pretty great and it's usually satisfying to see the end of a big arc) but that's not the case here. I've not been the biggest fan of this series, particularly of late, but a fight scene issue tends to pull focus away from weaker writing moments or weird character bits. That's not entirely what we find here, as there are still plenty of strange, not-for-me humor bits (a bit with Doop defeating Lady Mondo by showing her home videos he produces out of nowhere stands out). By and large, though, the book works better for me here because it's not focusing its time on the goofier things it's been doing lately and it feels less like a book trying to fit all audiences and more like one that knows its target. Not sure if that says good things about this series overall but it's at least nice to not be mad at an issue.