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X-Force #27 Review

Details: Published on Thursday, 27 May 2010 00:29; Written by Kevin; Hits: 4397

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While Second Coming started off strong the last three chapters of this X-Men crossover have been very disappointing. It has been disappointing how things have slowed down as it has made the story boring after the fast paced start where a lot was going on. The last issue I enjoyed was X-Force #26 that had the death of Nightcrawler that was handled very well by the team on this title. Now X-Force #27 is tackling Chapter 9 of this crossever and I expect Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost to deliver another strong issue like they did in the Second Coming one-shot and X-Force #26. Hit the jump to check out my review for X-Force #27.

Creative Team

Writers: Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost

Artist: Mike Choi

Colorist: Sonia Oback

Story Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10

Art Rating: 9 Night Girls out of 10

Overall Rating: 8.5 Night Girls out of 10

Review

Finally Second Coming starts picking things up. After three weak chapters Second Coming is back to what I expected from this event: the X-Men facing extinction in a fast paced story where every minute counts.

As I said in my opening, the problem with the last three chapters in Second Coming is that it slowed the event down. Sure things were going on for both sides in this war but the pacing was not the same. What made the first six parts, including the Second Coming one-shot, fun was that things were going that made it feel like the X-Men were facing a desperate race against time. The last three chapters have not had that same level of desperation.

But leave it Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost to be the ones to pick things up. As I said before, out of all the X-writers Kyle and Yost are the writers that understand and write the best version of the X-Men. From top to bottom these two know how to write the X-Men. Each character in this issue had their own voice and the reader can tell what kind of role each character has within the X-Men and the relationship various X-Men members have with one another through the dialogue Kyle and Yost write.

And what I loved most about this issue is that Kyle and Yost had complete trust in Mike Choi and Sonia Oback’s ability to allow them to tell the story. For the first 9 pages of this issue there is absolutely no dialogue as Choi and Oback are allowed to tell the story through their art. And I will talk about the art later but I just got to say that they knock it out of the park with the big fight scene as well as the whole issue.

It is so rare in the modern era comics that writers allow their artist to tell the story. Most writers like to explain as much as possible in their story through their writing. Writers love to hear the sound of their own voice so much that they almost eliminate the artist from the equation of the comic. For this reason it makes Kyle and Yost choice to allow their artist to tell the story that much more noticeable. It is a great choice from a story stand point. It made the battle feel much more epic because by choosing not to put any dialogue into these first 9 pages the reader can tell that this battle is all about business and survival for the X-Men as they battled Bastion’s army of Sentinels.

Also the battle helped put the threat Bastion and his force pose to the X-Men much more threatening than they were before this issue. Before Bastion and his forces felt like nothing more than a nuisance to the X-Men even when he put the big bubble dome over San Francisco. But now with all of Bastion’s plans coming together we see how much of a threat he really is to the X-Men. It helped to make his dialogue with his subordinates after the battle came to a stop much more chilling with how he is crippling the X-Men’s forces.

I really liked the meeting in the war room with all the major X-Men discussing what their next move should be. The meeting had a faster pace to it because at any moment Bastion’s forces can attack the X-Men again and the X-Men were still trapped in the red energy dome. Also with so many X-Men injured this is really testing all of the X-Men as we see that it really is getting to a lot of them emotionally.

And the one person that is being tested the most is Scott. With everyone looking to Scott you can see from the dialogue and the artwork that Scott is barely holding everything together. Even though Scott is still sounds confident in what he is telling everyone there is starting to be some doubt coming from Scott’s voice. The scene once the X-Force team went into the future with Scott telling Emma that he just sent the X-Force on a suicide mission reinforces this as there is both a sign of desperation and sadness in the decision he just made in the suicide mission he sent his son and the X-Force on.

The only problem I had with this issue was that Yost and Kyle brought in Storm to have a problem with the X-Force just like Beast does. It feels a bit out of place with the story especially since Storm hasn’t been around during the story.

Still I did like that while we did have this roundtable discussion with the X-Men in the war room that they balanced it out by showing us the injured X-Men in the medical area. It made the meeting much stronger as we got to see how the X-Men’s forces have been cut. I especially liked X-23 by Hellion’s bedside as X-23 has had it rough with all the life and death missions she has been on with the X-Force. She finally showed how much all of these battles have had an effect on her.

My favorite scene in the issue was the two page scene between Cable and Hope. I have really liked the father/daughter relationship between the two characters that I have seen developed throughout Second Coming. It made the goodbye between both of them very touching as it might be the last time Hope sees Cable who she has seen as her father. I liked that we through the few words Cable said to Hope that we got to see how much he really cared for her as a daughter. It was a very strong scene and made the last panel with Hope listening in on Scott’s words to Emma about the suicide mission he sent Cable and X-Force a great way to end the issue.

Now as I said I absolutely loved Mike Choi and Sonia Oback’s artwork in this issue. With the 9 page battle were Choi and Oback were allowed to tell the story with their artwork they knocked this issue out of the park. It is just amazing seeing how much detail they are able to pack into an issue as there were points in the issue where I just stared at the images, especially in the beginning. Even without dialogue you can get a good sense what each member of the X-Men in battle were thinking through the facial expression on each one of them.I also liked the added touch of Scott showing some stubble to show the amount of stress he has been under as it shows that he hasn’t gotten much sleep since all of this started.

And Choi draws some great woman. They look hot without being looking like pinup girls. Just look at Choi’s Emma, Rogue, and Storm. They all look sexy while still looking like powerful characters. Also Choi’s Hope actually looks like she is a teenager which if you look at other artist version of Hope in the other X-Men titles she looks like she is almost 20. It is good to see Hope looking her age.

The only reason I did not give the art a 10 was because of the two pages before the final page with all of Bastion’s Sentinels coming out of the dome’s core again to attack the X-Men looked rushed. It did not have that same polished detail that the rest of the issue had. It is a minor complain for an otherwise beautiful looking issue.

Overall: X-Force #27 was a great read. After three disappointing chapters Second Coming picks up the pace again as the X-Men face extinction. If you have been reading Second Coming so far you will enjoy this issue by Kyle, Yost, Choi, and Oback. It really delivers on what you expect from this X-Men crossover. Here is hoping that now that we are entering the last few chapters that the X-writers can keep things up.