God Loves, Dudes Rock In X-Force #25

An Inferno rages on…in another title. While Colossus is roped into the machinations of the Quiet Council, relationships fizzle, romances begin, and waves get ridden. All this and a baby heist in X-Force #25 by Benjamin Percy, Robert Gill and Guru-eFX, and Joe Caramanga.

Kenneth Laster: I’m not going to lie–I did not realize that the last issue of this book leads directly into Inferno #2 so I was LOST for a minute this issue. But once lost, I was found–specifically on Logan’s adamantium surf board.

Ari Bard: It is an extremely shiny and entertaining bit that happens to take up approximately 50 percent of the issue. Time to let the waves take us out to sea and dive right in!

Snikt Break

Ari: Of all the mutants on Krakoa, who’d have thought that Logan would be the surfer? And I mean the surfer because apparently he’s the only one who travels to a certain alcove to catch some waves, at least until Pike shows up. What’d you think about Wolverine’s hobby and his sick new shiny board?

Kenneth: I was absolutely in awe of how earnest Logan was about this surfboard. I don’t know the exact definition of “dudes rock” but from what I gather it seems like camp for straight people.

And I think by that definition, Logan waxing poetic about the thrill of surfing on an adamantium board with knives sticking out is “dudes rock”. It’s the type of fun stuff that you get in comics and that’s fine but talk about tonal whiplash from the last few issues that tied into Inferno and even more wild that this might be one of the last issues of this current run of the book. When taking all that into consideration this feels like it belongs in a Free Comic Book Day special at a crossroads for the series. It’s fun and a decently good time but it feels like you’re running late to a funeral with a friend and your bud sits down to crack a beer and chill out. This is how we’re spending this time? Ok. ok.

Ari: Your description is fairly accurate and this does appear to be Percy’s “dudes rock” moment that shines a spotlight on the great outdoors and the always handsome, rugged, and troubled Logan. This is a light activity that, as you said, feels like something you might see in a Free Comic Book Day special, but after the events of last issue with Colossus and even with Beast and Black Tom, it feels rather shallow to be spending what appears to be the penultimate issue of the run on something like this.

Kenneth: I guess most of the book could be considered “dudes rock” to an extent but it is still baffling how little of the cast gets to participate in the hijinks. Black Tom drops a funny line off page at the end but I think he’s the perfect character to get in on the surfing hijinks. Domino or Sage have barely had anything to do for the past few issues and even Quentin and Phoebe’s plot is near completely divorced from the A-Plot. It’s just a silly little time with the character who already has a full solo book and mini series lined up by the same author which is a really disappointing way to use this issue.

Astral Plane Break Up

Kenneth: This issue isn’t all surfboards and sick stunts unfortunately, the 14th hottest (honestly maybe lower) couple on Krakoa have called it quits and I just know the Queoebe shippers out there are devastated.

Ari: Just for the record, it’s pronounced the same as Quibi. While I can’t say this surprised me a whole bunch, it still irritates me all the same.

If we look back on the journey of this relationship, we see that over the course of a relative small number of issues, Quentin struggles with repeatedly dying and his inner demons, meets Phoebe who appears to see through all that and helps Quentin find a version of himself he’s comfortable with and then breaks up with him. They have a few panels worth of fun times together but this never became a real relationship and Quentin never experience serious or meaningful character growth.

Kenneth: This definitely was one of my “I’m sure Percy’s going to end somewhere interesting with this” thoughts proven false. The best word I can use for this conclusion is “disappointing”. I’m not upset by where this relationship ended but it does feel like sort of a waste. Quentin’s growth really amounts to a new costume and him not becoming a running gag of death but I think Percy lacks the thoughtfulness of characters in this team book versus Vita Ayala in a similar title juggling a lot of characters and threads.

Throughout we’ve never felt growth stick or be meaningful and I think that shows here again. We get verbal references to the “Old Quentin” but there’s no thought on who the new one is really. It’s a weird place to leave the character and I can’t imagine he’s not going to regress to the brat he was prior to this title next time he appears. On the grounds of the actual break up, it’s so fast and so simple that it really does just read as a reshuffling of chess pieces. I always thought it was weird that these two Cuckoo relationships with Teen Cable and Quire happened around the same time and it felt like a kind of teen male fantasy of dating twins or something but I was really surprised at what the relationship Duggan wrote in Cable turned out to be. I feel like there was a lot more potential to be explored here, if not by Percy but wherever these two show up next, but it feels like this brief relationship is going to go the way of Quire and Gwenpool. Pairings that make you say “Oh remember when those characters dated? Weird.”

Ari: I wholeheartedly agree. I could see this relationship ending as something being forced due to the Cuckoos being used as pawns by Emma now that she knows all of the secrets relates to Inferno, but great writers can make necessary moves like this without making their characters seem like chess pieces, and that’s all most of X-Force’s cast seems to be. Percy took a bunch of toys out of the box in order to find Logan, Beast and Colossus and pretty much just set the others aside.

Baby Heist Bonanza

Ari: The theme of the X-books right now seems to be babies, and it turns out that Wolverine’s new surfer buddies weren’t just looking to hang ten, bro. It appears we have a Point Break style heist on our hands. Who knows who’s behind this adorable but dastardly plot. The next generation of mutants is in serious danger!

Kenneth: Look I can’t be mad at Point Break baby heist–but maybe we are getting ahead of ourselves. Logan, yet again, falls in love with someone who will fuck him over almost immediately. I guess you could say he got…washed away…by his love of Pike and the surf.

As antagonists there’s not a ton to these guys–Only Pike gets a name or lines outside of a faceless surfer. There’s not a ton to say about here–it’s a clear con Logan walks into. The actual heist is just a small bit at the end but I feel like this issue is more fun to describe in a sentence than it was to read. Logan riding an adamantium surfboard being conned by a Point Break baby heist but in actuality it’s played too close to the chest to be really entertaining. The art does a good job of selling it but I can’t help but wonder what a more non-traditional art style would have added to the story. Gill’s a very straightforward artist which works if the story is something to be played straight but I feel like that level of playfulness is missing which could have added a bit more to this plot. Do you have any insights into the baby heist Ari?

Ari: I will admit, as far as page real estate goes it’s an unexpected choice.I suppose the future of Krakoa and mutantdom is a prize target for many out there. As for Pike, I think you described all we got to see pretty well, but I’ve notice that Percy has a pattern of introducing female characters with no personality traits of their own to coerce some of the male characters into certain situations in this run, and I do not like it.

Kenneth: This book really has been “Dudes Rock” to the detriment of women. Domino and Sage sidelined, Phoebe just there to support Quentin and leave, and last issue with the just blatant fridging of Kayla. It’s far from the worst treatment of women in a X-book but these storytelling impulses are definitely not the best for those characters. I guess we’ll see how things wrap up in the next issue?

Ari: I’d go as far as to say it’s the worst treatment of women in an X-books since this relaunch and I don’t see anything Percy can do in the next issue to salvage this.