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.