X-Force #25
Wolverine indulges in a new hobby as Kid Omega, and Phoebe reach a new point in their lives in X-Force #25, by writer Benjamin Percy, artist Robert Gill, colorist GURU-eFX, and letterer Joe Caramagna. At first, this issue feels kind of strange, but as it goes on, Percy makes the whole thing make more sense.
There are two plotlines in this one. One is Wolverine using a special surfboard created by Forge to surf Dead Mutant Point, and the other involves Kid Omega and Phoebe Cuckoo. Wolverine wipes out and is rescued by a mysterious group of surfers while Kid Omega and Phoebe visit the Bower to look in on the babies. Wolverine and Pike, the surfer girl who rescued him, talk all night while Kid Omega gets a late-night astral visit from Phoebe. In the Bower, something completely unexpected happens.
So, right off the bat, it just feels kind of weird for Wolverine to be surfing. Percy is usually very good at getting Wolverine right, and one thing that doesn’t really mix is Wolverine and water. It’s the one thing that’s dangerous to him, as his adamantium skeleton makes it hard for him to swim, and drowning is a surefire way to kill him. From there, the mysterious rescue feels even fishier. The whole plot feels out of place until the end of the issue when an info page tells why Wolverine was surfing Dead Mutant Point. It’s a great Eureka moment.
Right when Kid Omega shows up to pick up Phoebe for their date, there’s a sense of doom. The way Percy and Gill make that happen is great. It’s like going on the last date with someone and just knowing something bad is going to happen. The way Percy plays Phoebe is perfect. She’s not an ice queen, and there’s a sense that she doesn’t want what’s about to happen. This is excellent emotional writing, and it helps these scenes a lot.
Gill’s art is pretty good throughout. If readers ever wanted to know what Wolverine looked like on a surfboard, he does a good job of letting readers know. As usual, GURU-eFX is this book’s hidden weapon. His colors are so lush and do wonders for the art, making it pop in ways that another colorist wouldn’t be able to. He’s given X-Force’s art a continuity that it wouldn’t have otherwise had with so many artists working on it.
X-Force #25 seems like it shouldn’t work at all, but Percy and company nail it again. Percy and Gill work very well together in this comic, and the sense of foreboding that they give readers with the beginning of the date scene is so great. X-Force continues to be one of the highlights of the X-Men line.
