Review: Uncanny X-Force #30 - While you were away

Issue 30 of Uncanny X-Force sees Rick Remender taking a slight breather from the main story arc to bring a small tale which focuses on the other side of the battle.

Following on from the events last seen in issue 27, the newly reformed Brotherhood of Evil Mutants (Well, Daken, Sabretooth and Shadow King anyway) have taken Apocolypse clone Evan on the worst road trip ever as they attempt to breed distrust in him of Wolverine and Fantomex and attempt to bring out his dark side and allow him to return to his rightful place. This involves mind games from Shadow King, attacks on innocent people by Sabretooth and revelations by Daken.

With the exception of a brief scene involving Fantomex (where he, quite literally, is part of the furntiure) there is absolutely no focus on x-force. in this issue. Remender instead decides to provide an interlude to main story to allow the book to catch its breath and see the other side of the equation. This is a bold move which, i feel, pays off beautifully as Remender shows us the Brotherhood's main intentions regarding Evan, making their previous action all the more legitimate. Also, many revelations are revealed to Evan as to his upbringing and where he come from, which, while series readers like me will already know, its nevre-racking to see Evan learn it too and see just how he reacts to this new info.

These reactions are enhanced by issue artist Dave Williams. Williams' work is well suited to this story, much like Noto's stuff enhanced the future based story last time round. Williams gives the issue a very light, optimistic feel which suits the landscape the action is happening in, if not the actual situations taking place. Of course, this would most likely not be the case without inker Sean White, who doesn't recieve enough credit for his role on this book, as he continues to colour the books perfectly, constantly knowing what each panel requires to make it great.

In truth, this issue is interesting look at the villains of the piece that, while by no means feels necessary to the overall story, is a reminder as to why these guys need to be stopped. The issue with a nice cliffhanger that implies the end of this story for the Apocolypse clone could go either way, it's just a shame for me that I will have to wait another 2 weeks to see what happens next.