Psychic Horror Fills X-Force #19

In a perfect world, X-Force wouldn’t be necessary. And in a perfect world, an angry Kid Omega would be able to internally reflect on his shortcomings and grow as a person without having to confront a murderous and deranged version of himself harnessed by Xeno. It’s okay, we’re not mad. Can X-Force put a stop to this monster and will Kid Omega learn to be a better person? Find out in X-Force #19 brought to us by Benjamin Percy, Garry Brown, Guru-eFX and Joe Caramanga.

Ari Bard: Leave it to Kid Omega to need help handling the manifestation of his inner demons, am I right ?

Kenneth Laster: Ain’t nothing wrong with getting a little help from your friends, the former Phoenix and clone of her frienimie and your current lover and one of a five-in-one brain. At least that’s what my dad told me.

I’m My Own Worst Enemy (and I’m RIPPED)

AB: And many of those are all the same person! What a world we live in. To kick things off we have Kid Omega in the depths of his own mind exploring what appears to be a manifestation of Xeno’s laboratory when he is suddenly ambushed by a much larger and more muscular Frankensteined version of himself, as well as other grotesque creations. They really throw the book at Kid Omega, opting for telepathic sticks and stone as well as words, wouldn’t you say?

KL: Yes indeed! I have to say Garry Brown is hit or miss for me on these issues but the psychic horror is really in his strong suit. The sketchiness of the linework and playing with scale really work with the gritty nightmare vibe of this early scene and the psychic rumble later on in the issue. Maybe less so on scenes taking place on this plane of reality, but while I’m certain Brown’s artwork isn’t going to be everyone’s cup of tea here, when it works it works.

I also really enjoyed Percy’s prose for Quire’s self doubt and self sabotage in this one. I haven’t been as hot on this arc but I think it’s really clicking for me in this issue, primarily because it feels like the longest we’ve spent on a single, somewhat contained story in this title for awhile and I think that the focus is paying off. Particularly in keeping focus with Quire’s many deaths (which resonates interestingly with Way of X) really brings the ending of the story full circle in a satisfying way. Conclusions are something I’ve been frustrated by in X-Force so I’m glad this issue had one that was somewhat satisfying. What were your thoughts Ari?

AB: It’s quite interesting because while I’ve been very happy with a lot that this arc had to offer, this issue fell quite flat for me. I agree with you that the psychic horror is the best part of Garry Brown’s art, but the problem is that many of the actual X-Force characters appear so distorted in certain panels that the contrast didn’t really hit me as a reader. Many of his facial expressions do not land the way the need to and add enough dissonance to take me out of the story.

Percy’s writing was fine but also a little worrying. Conclusions are nice, but not when they ring hollow, and I’m afraid that Percy’s words felt empty for most of this issue. If this arc proves to be a new beginning for Quentin Quire and we continue to see smaller and repeated steps towards growth in future issues, I’ll be happy. Unfortunately, knowing the trend of weekly comics, writers often feel the need to redeem or change behavior that’s existed across years of comics and dozens of issues all in a single arc, and it feels like that might be what’s going on here. I’m worried that we’re supposed to feel that Quentin Quire is born anew when he really isn’t. He may have recognized some changes he needs to make in his attitude and his behavior, but he’s barely taken the steps to actually make them. All he’s really gained is an ability to better recognize and grapple with his emotions and some fancy new telepathic tricks. Speaking of which…

Ass Kicking in the Astral Plane

KL: Like we said earlier, Quire isn’t doing all this alone. We get Jean Grey returning to the team in a semi-official-kind of leadership moment. And she teaches the youths on the ins and outs of astral plane action. What did you think of a little bit of schooling finding its way into X-Force?

AB: I thought it was interesting. I do like seeing Jean in the mentor capacity and I think Percy writes her in that role fairly well. There is one line about not teaching the “old Quentin” something but deciding to give it a shot in the present that really speaks to the central problem I have with this issue, which is that there isn’t a whole lot of demonstrable difference between the two right now. Quentin has taken the first step in a long process and it bothered me that Jean was so willing to look past a lot right away.

KL: I agree with you on the Quentin growth feeling hollow and I felt that way last issue where it’s still Quentin but less snarky aka less fun. I appreciate Jean calling this out this issue but it does leave the character in a funky place dynamic wise. While I think Quire killing the worst part of himself, being his self doubt (and literally the weird monster clone), is a decent story beat which doesn’t necessarily change his whole character but like you said is a first step that makes for a solid close to this specific story–I do think it’s a weird corner to have the comic relief start believing in himself.

But hey! We’re supposed to be talking about the astral plane. I really like how it’s depicted here! I’m not incredibly familiar with all the different interpretations of it but much like the psychic shotgun, I thought “tightening out minds into fists” was an interesting take on making the psychic into physical. Or at least an excuse to explain some Freddy Kreuger esque shenanigans. I also really enjoyed the visual of connected doors being people’s mind and getting a little callback to Scott’s psychic infidelity. What were your thoughts on the mental mechanisms of the mind?

AB: There was a lot that I liked in theory, but this is where Garry Brown’s art needed to do some heavy lifting and dropped the ball instead. The layouts simply did not reflect the very cool mansion hallway metaphor that Percy was presenting as a foundation here, and the primarily black background made the astral plane look a little boring and undercut a lot of the power and potential on display here. We are not seeing nearly enough of the mentorship going on here for me to feel absorbed into this moment, so while I appreciate the limited imagery we did see, I do not think it was enough. There was a lot that had to be packed into a short few pages including teaching Kid Omega how to execute these techniques while also conveying when and why they should be done and the responsibility around them. Perhaps it’s just another victim of the constraints of monthly comics, but this scene needed more room to breathe.

Gene Theft Xeno

AB: After learning some more telepathic tricks, the hunt for Xeno, the masterminds behind all this mutant power hijacking, is on! Marvel Girl and Domino hunt for their hideout in reality thanks to some astute observational skills from Kid Omega while Quentin and Phoebe hunt for them on the astral plane. What did you think of this strategy?

KL: I really like it in concept, I only wish we got more of it. Five pages of a twenty page comic isn’t insubstantial but I have to admit it went by really quickly for me despite such build up. It was really nice to see the expanded members of X-Force pop up in this scene. Domino and Jean teaming up was great and I enjoyed the callback to Domino’s edited memory of her time in one of those facilities and getting a little revenge there. I will never ever ever look down on an appearance by Black Tom (Is he ever officially on the team? Is he just here?). Even a psychic zombie of himself. I think that scene was effectively done and sold the “battle on two fronts” type deal but dang it really felt too quick. What say you?

AB: I definitely agree. This was another scene that did not get enough room to breathe. We get a full data page of Kid Omega talking about a strange sense of competition, and it is extremely weird. I wish we could have seen a bit more here, because I feel like Domino’s hunt for her doppleganger got a much larger portion of an issue. It’s clear that Percy has not forgotten many of the threads he has set up for the future, and that’s a good thing, As far as the action goes, it’s alright? It felt a lot like watching shaky-cam action footage in that I felt like we never saw enough of a scene and it didn’t last very long.