Sworded Out

“Sworded Out”
X-Men #16
Written by Jonathan Hickman
Art by Phil Noto

• The end of this issue introduces a new structural conceit for the X-Men – Cyclops and Jean Grey will be the leaders, and the rest of the members will be voted in by the citizens of Krakoa. The concept is basically an inversion of a tradition from the Legion of Super Heroes – rather than the leaders be voted in, it’s the actual membership of the team. It looks like we won’t see how this plays out for a little while as the new team will be revealed at the Hellfire Gala, but it does seem like an idea that is going to backfire on Cyclops and Jean in some way. But in any case, it’s very pointedly different from the complete lack of democracy that went into the creation of the Quiet Council, and everyone involved is going into this new iteration of the X-Men with some understanding that the Council and the X-Men will come into conflict at some point. 

• This issue also establishes the new status quo of Arakko, which is now on Earth as a result of Apocalypse’s bargain with Saturnyne at the end of X of Swords. Arakko – as a sentient body of land, and as a people – refuses to merge with Krakoa. Isca the Unbeaten is revealed to be one of the leaders of Arakko, and though she sits as part of a governing body, her power to never lose essentially makes her the de facto ruler of the nation as she always gets her way. She meets with Xavier and Magneto and peacefully but bluntly explains that the people of Arakko are hardened by centuries of war and will not be able to shake that off any time soon. 

Phil Noto’s art on this very talky scene is carried in large part by his very thoughtful coloring in which Xavier and Magneto wear their black and white clothing on a cool green background while Isca is surrounded by red and brown foliage that matches the earth tones of her armor. Noto also does a good job of conveying how gentle and effete Xavier is, framing him as small and distant in the frame as he clutches a Krakoan flower. I think this choice may have had a lot to do with how much dialogue he has in those panels, but it’s very effective in contrast with the tight shots of Isca that make her appear strong, confident, and unflappable. 

• The most important bit of news on the Arakko front is buried somewhat in the issue, as Cypher reminds the Quiet Council that there’s roughly twenty times as many Arakki mutants as there are Krakoan mutants. The immediate implication of this is that this would be quite bad for Krakoa should the two nations come into conflict, but the bigger problem is more obviously what is going to happen once the rest of the Earth finds out that a nation of several million battle-hardened mutants from a hell world now reside on the planet with them. I suspect that once this news gets to Orchis it will lead to the activation of Nimrod and the deployment of the machines being built in Sentinel City on Mercury, and this will go very, very badly for the mutants of Arakko. I suspect that one way or another only a massive tragedy on Arakko and the heroic intervention of the X-Men will unite the Krakoans and Arakki. 

• I do hope we get to see some Arakki mutants venture out into Earth and decide they like it a lot better than the nightmare they were trapped in. Seems reasonable, right? Surely some nature will beat out nurture here. 

A Losing Battle

“X of Swords Chapter 17”
X-Force #14
Written by Benjamin Percy and Gerry Duggan
Art by Joshua Cassara
Color art by Guru-eFX

“X of Swords Chapter 18”
Hellions #6
Written by Zeb Wells
Art by Carmen Carnero
Color art by David Curiel

“X of Swords Chapter 19”
Cable #7
Written by Gerry Duggan
Art by Phil Noto

• The last seven pages of X-Force #14 is, as far as I’m concerned, the best Storm story published in over 30 years. The plot echoes a few classic motifs – she’s stripped of her powers and is forced to rely on her wits and fighting skills in a duel – but the weight of it feels different, like we’re seeing something new in her that reinforces important elements that have been there all along. Storm and Death, who had an odd sort of courtship dance earlier in the story, are forced to duel in Sevalith, a realm of vampires. Death is courteous but condescending, and even in a powerless and inebriated state Storm takes advantage of his arrogance and reflects his death gaze back on him before stabbing him in the heart. She leaves him bleeding out, and invites the vampires of Sevalith to feast on his blood. This move sums up the Storm of 2020 – as brutal as she is regal, and a woman who has now conquered literal and figurative death twice in the past three months of publishing. 

It’s worth noting Storm has a history with vampires, Dracula in particular, and that Death is an ancient Egyptian man who dresses as Anubis, which connects to her childhood in Cairo. Storm’s sword Skybreaker – the sacred blade which she stole from Black Panther in the first act – is established as a conduit that can convert small amounts of energy back as larger amounts, which explains how she could reflect Death’s death gaze back on him in such a devastating way. The sword is also explained as a weapon passed down through Wakanda through generations to protect the fledgling nation. And of course, that purpose carries over here, but in defense of Krakoa. 

• The two issues of Hellions in X of Swords are essentially a side quest that can easily be read out of context, particularly as the issues do more to advance the plot of that series than that of the crossover. As we see in this issue, the group’s mission as established last month is not only a total failure, but nothing but a ruse for Mister Sinister to collect the genetic materials of mutants in Arakko. And of course that’s what he’d do! It’s his whole deal. But the plot hits a snag as Sinister meets his opposite number – Tarn the Uncaring, a mutant from Amenth who can warp the mutations of others and has become a deranged cross between an artist and a cult leader. His horrific creations the Locus Vile tear through the Hellions with ease, and before Sinister can make it back to Krakoa with his genetic data, Tarn does…something…to his body. It should be interesting to see what happens to this Sinister body, which we already know is a duplicate. 

We will surely be seeing Tarn and the Locus Vile again in this series – you definitely don’t go out of your way to create characters this disturbing unless you plan on making the most of a crew that’s a dark mirror of your exceedingly warped and broken cast of protagonists. I like that Tarn and Sinister have the same sort of cavaliar god complex, but the difference between them essentially comes down to art/religion vs science. Wells’ text page describing the Locus Vile is excellent in selling the characters’ unnerving premises, from Sick Bird’s fascination with invading the “sacred cord” of the spine to truly “know” her prey to the unexplained but clearly dire consequences of what happens when Amino Fetus eats. 

• The duel between Gorgon and The White Sword in Cable #6 is another instant classic fight scene, as one of the great Captains of Krakoa dies with honor after slaughtering over a dozen of the ancient mutant’s slave warriors, which evens the score in Saturnyne’s contest after several issues of the X-Men getting demolished by the Arakki. Phil Noto sells the drama of this scene very well with clean, uncluttered pages that convey Gorgon’s exceptional grace as a warrior.

Gorgon was introduced as a Wolverine villain by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr in the 2000s, and since then has mainly appeared in two of Jonathan Hickman’s more obscure Marvel works, Secret Warriors and Avengers World. Up until very recently he was played as vicious criminal genius affiliated with The Hand, Hydra, and HAMMER. Aside from X-Men #4, in which we see him act as a bodyguard for Xavier, Magneto, and Apocalypse, X of Swords is his first big moment as a protagonist in an X-Men story. This scene does two major things for the character – it gives him a set piece that proves his nobility, bravery, and extraordinary fighting skills, and it hits a reset button that allows him to be resurrected without the baggage of his worst deeds. I imagine that when we meet the new Gorgon, with his old self overwritten by a composite of his many selves throughout the multiverse, we’ll be meeting someone who isn’t far off from the man we see in this issue. 

• Nanny, Orphan Maker, and Wild Child also die in Otherworld, which essentially means that Zeb Wells gets an opportunity to define those characters going forward on his terms. This should be fascinating for Nanny and the Orphan Maker, who were already very undeveloped and enigmatic characters. Will they even be able to recognize one another on the other side? 

Edit: I’ve been corrected in the comments that they actually died in Arakko/Amenth, so presumably the Otherworld death scramble effect won’t apply to them. This makes sense given that Wells has established a Nanny subplot in previous issues and he probably wouldn’t just throw that away.

• Some very good funny bits in these issues, from the silliness of some of the competitions to the reveal that Pogg Ur-Pogg is just a little troll hiding inside a big alligator monster, and the bit where Cable explains to his very confused parents that he was just beaten by “Doug’s large wife.” 

For Your Life

“X of Swords: Chapter 14”
Marauders #15
Written by Gerry Duggan and Benjamin Percy
Art by Stefano Caselli
Color art by Edgar Delgado

“X of Swords: Chapter 15”
Excalibur #14
Written by Tini Howard 
Art by Phil Noto

“X of Swords: Chapter 16”
Wolverine #7
Written by Benjamin Percy and Gerry Duggan
Art by Joshua Cassara
Color art by Guru-eFX

And now the story gets a little weird! But of course, “weird” is a human word…

• Marauders picks up on last week’s cliffhanger in the most jarring way possible, zooming ahead to the aftermath of Wolverine murdering Saturnyne – the inevitable conquest of Krakoa and the rest of Earth by the forces of Arakko and Amenth. But of course Saturnyne is seemingly omnipotent in her realm, and so she’s only just messing with Wolverine and showing him the actual stakes of the situation. This all supports the notion that it’s in Saturnyne’s interest to defeat the Arakkii and flush the influence of Amenth out of Otherworld lest they inevitably conquer the rest of her domain, but Saturnyne’s actions over the course of three issues complicate matters further by capriciously rigging the contests against the Krakoan swordbearers in increasingly absurd ways. She’s playing a game, but it’s hard to tell exactly what it is. 

• Marauders #15 continues on from last week’s issue in further developing the characters from Arakko at the banquet before the contest. The White Sword’s tension with the family of Apocalypse and Genesis is highlighted by his utter disgust for War attempting to poison her opponents at the parley, while Redroot and Death ponder the ways living in a far less horrific world has made the X-Men “weak and soft.” It’s remarkable how familiar these characters and their milieu have become over the past few weeks – it’s all so rich that it would be a shame to see some of them go at the end of this story. 

• We get our first glimpse of Death’s mutant power as he murders a servant with a glare at the banquet. This scene is handled very well by Stefano Caselli, who paces it very nicely and conveys how effortless and meaningless this gesture is for Death. It’s interesting that this power is only a minor variation on that of Gorgon, who also hides his eyes to hold back his own version of a death gaze. (And of course this carries over to Cyclops, though he’s not in this story.) 

• Isca the Unbeaten is further developed in both Marauders and Excalibur, in both cases suggesting that she’s a decent person who feels inclined to spare her opponents the inevitability of her victory. It’s increasingly obvious Isca is going to be hanging around the X-Men for a while after this, and I welcome it. She has so much potential, and the concept and design of her is so strong.

• Excalibur #14 begins the contest phase of the storyline and immediately upends all expectations by giving us an abrupt anticlimax in the duel of Betsy Braddock and Isca and then a forced marriage rather than a battle. Betsy’s apparent death in her fight with Isca is strange and abstract, and also unrelated to any power we know Isca to possess besides that she wins any battle she’s in, so it seems very likely whatever happened to her is the intervention of Saturnyne’s magic or perhaps her brother Jamie’s reality-warping power. 

• The forced marriage of Cypher and Bei the Blood Moon is a wild curveball, but makes sense if Saturnyne’s true goal is to weed out the Amenthi influence on the Arakkii and get the Krakoans and Arrakkii on the same page – i.e., purging Amenth from Otherworld. This sequence is a lot of fun, and I love that Bei is able to “speak” in a way that is intuitively comprehensible to everyone else but is by technicality indecipherable to him as a result of his power. So of course he’s fascinated by Bei, and though Bei’s thoughts on the matter are opaque she seems pretty enthusiastic about marrying – and violently protecting – this cute little golden-hearted dork. But still, as amusing as it is for this tall warrior woman to embrace the notion of marrying him, it’s hard to grasp why given the limited information we have about her life. 

• The Wolverine issue pushes the absurdity of Saturnyne’s competition to another level, first by making Magik’s battle against the monstrous Pogg Ur-Pogg an arm wrestling match she cannot possibly win, and then by having Wolverine kill Summoner in the surreal realm of Blightspoke and having the point go to Arakko because they were told it was a fight to the death and Summoner was the one to die. Then Wolverine is roped into another duel as a result of the agreement he made with Solem off-panel earlier in the story, and when Wolverine defeats War in battle, the point also goes to Arakko. Saturnyne is plainly rigging the contest against Krakoa… but why exactly? It makes sense for her to want to mess with Wolverine and Betsy specifically, but what is she actually up to? I suppose we’ll get that reveal next week. 

Subterfuge

“X of Swords” Chapter 6
Hellions #6
Written by Zeb Wells
Art by Carmen Carnero 
Color art by David Curiel

“X of Swords” Chapter 7
Written by Ed Brisson
Art by Rod Reis

“X of Swords” Chapter 8
Written by Gerry Duggan
Art by Phil Noto

• This set of X of Swords chapters restore some of the plot momentum that had slowed for the digressions into Wolverine and Storm solo stories last week. Thankfully the writing staff appreciates that there’s a hard limit on how many “quest for sword” plots that could be included without derailing the story entirely, and so this week we get a digression introducing a new plot thread centered on Mister Sinister and spend some time with designated swordbearers of Krakoa who already have their blades – Cypher, Magik, and Cable. 

• It was unclear what role the Hellions would play in this story, but Zeb Wells offers up a clever curveball: Mister Sinister offers the services of his Hellions to go to Otherworld and seek to sabotage the Arraki swordbearers, forcing them into forfeit and thus preventing any Krakoan from permanently dying in Saturnyne’s tournament. Exodus forces Sinister to lead the mission, largely out of his barely concealed contempt for the man. Wells plays it all as dark comedy, particularly as the vain and peevish Sinister brings his ragtag group of maniacs to Otherworld and only manages to make it through Avalon thanks to the artificial charms of Empath, who only agrees to cooperating if he’s permitted to make Greycrow his “pet.” Their mission seems doomed to fail if just by the narrative logic of the story, so this plot thread is more a question of what the result of their intervention might actually be. 

Carmen Carnero’s art on this issue is quite good, and a step up from her previous work on Miles Morales and Captain Marvel – a bit less “Marvel house style,” a bit closer to the aesthetics of Pepe Larraz and R.B. Silva. She clearly had a lot of fun drawing Sinister in particular, and does a fine job of conveying his grandiose bitchiness. 

• Ed Brisson’s final issue of New Mutants is focused entirely on the plight of Cypher, who has been drafted into the tournament despite having minimal experience or natural aptitude for combat. Cypher has mixed emotions – he’s scared that he will die, he wants to prove himself, he’s trying to figure out why Saturnyne chose him, he feels he must do it to spare any other mutant’s life. Everyone else, most especially Krakoa itself, is actively trying to get Cypher out of the tournament altogether since his presence is crucial as he is the only one who can communicate with Krakoa. Brisson acknowledges Cypher’s anxiety but emphasizes his nobility and selflessness – he’s an unambiguously good guy, and even if he’s overcompensating he’s still quite brave. 

Cypher’s foil in this story is his old friend Magik, who does her best to teach him how to fight though she has very low hopes for his potential of surviving in combat against any of the Arraki swordbearers. Cypher and Magik have a history of being played for contrast. They’re total opposites in most respects – a sweet gentle boy and a warrior sorceress raised in a literal hell – but they are both outsiders in terms of their perspective on everyone else. Magik leans into the “tough love” approach to giving him a crash course in combat techniques, but she can’t fully obscure her concern for him and fear that he will not make it. The tenderness comes through, particularly in Rod Reis’ thoughtful body language and facial expressions. 

• Exodus shows up again in New Mutants, this time to intimidate Cypher into following through with his plan to murder him on Krakoa to be resurrected later, with him stepping in as a replacement in the tournament. Krakoa and Warlock intervene, and Exodus leaves with the offer standing. It’s a good plot beat for Cypher’s story in this issue, but between this and the scene in which he forces Sinister into going to Otherworld, it’s more interesting to me as part of Exodus’ ongoing development. Exodus is essentially an unyielding zealot, but thus far he’s mostly been presented as a voice of reason in Quiet Council scenes and serves as a swing vote in a lot of situations. He’s got honor and good intentions, but he’s also ruthless and seems to have far better political instincts than most members of the Council. He’s willing to use the rules to undermine his enemies, as with Sinister, but also understands he must slowly gain favor with the other blocs. I can see him gradually become the Mitch McConnell of the Quiet Council. 

• The Cable issue shifts focus back to the S.W.O.R.D subplot from the ending of Creation, in which Cable, Cyclops, and Jean Grey discover that the crew of The Peak have been massacred. Even at the end of this issue it’s still very unclear how this plot thread connects to Saturnyne and the Tournament, though the introduction of the destructive hordes of aliens called the Vescora suggests that part of her endgame may be manipulating the X-Men into unleashing these creatures on the Arraki. (And maybe they’re from the Hothive?) That’s as good as I’ve got for speculation, but I appreciate there being this wild card element in the mix. This chapter isn’t quite as entertaining or moving as the Hellions or New Mutants chapters, but there’s some good horror and action beats in the plot and Phil Noto’s art is quite good and evocative. 

X-Book Mini-Reviews: Marauders, Cable, Wolverine, X-Men + Fantastic Four

Marauders #8-12
Written by Gerry Duggan
Art by Stefano Caselli (8, 10, 11)  and Matteo Lolli (9, 12)
Color art by Edgar Delgado

Gerry Duggan was just beginning to hit his stride where I left off with this series and with these issues he’s fully in the zone. The magic of this book is in how deftly he balances his exploration of the new Krakoa status quo and a firm grasp of characterization and character history. He does excellent work in restoring Callisto to her Claremont-era greatness as a queer punk anti-hero with a strict code of honor, and pulls off a minor miracle in reinventing Jason Aaron’s absolutely horrible kid Hellfire Club as a legitimate threat under the name Verendi. I love the way he writes the fraught character dynamics of his central cast of Storm, Emma Frost, and Kate Pryde with all the nuance of years of publishing without requiring a reader to have actually read any of those comics. And bless him, he’s even doing his best to acknowledge years of Kate being written as a bisexual woman, though it doesn’t seem as though he’s allowed to state this in the text.

These issues keep up a strong Claremontian momentum even with a significant break in the publishing schedule as a result of the pandemic, though the issue in which Kate is finally resurrected is oddly anticlimactic given how much the question of whether or not she even could be resurrected is positioned as a major plot point. But Kate’s actual return in issue #12 makes up for this bum note – Duggan and Matto Lolli present her with a renewed swagger, and set up the next phase of the plot so enticingly that it actually feels disappointing we have to move away from this story for three issues to get through X of Swords. 

Cable #1-4
Written by Gerry Duggan
Art by Phil Noto

Whereas Duggan’s Marauders is centered on political intrigue and the nuanced relationship of its trio of leading women, his Cable solo book is positioned as more of a light-hearted wish fulfillment story for boys. Duggan is working with the teenage version of Cable established by Ed Brisson in Extermination – a young man who’s killed the older version of himself we’ve known for decades for the crime of not being good enough at his job. On a macro level, Duggan’s story is about this boy gradually and inevitably becoming the old man, but in these issues it’s mostly just presenting Cable as an adventurer and establishing his five-way romance with the entire Stepford Cuckoos hive-mind. This is clever – the Cuckoos are established as clone/daughters of Emma Frost, and Cable is the time-lost child of Cyclops and a clone of Jean Grey, so it’s a play on their dynamic while also just depicting Cable as this ultra-stud. (We also see that Armor has a crush on him – mutant ladies sure love a Summers man.) 

Phil Noto’s art is typically fantastic in these issues, with his usual flair for clean design, vivid colors, and expressive faces. He’s very well-suited to Duggan’s writing style, adept at both action scenes and conveying his humor. He does a particularly good job in giving the five Cuckoos distinct expressions and body language, and in playing off the odd dynamic of the teen Cable meeting Deadpool for the first time while Deadpool was friends with his older self for many years. 

Wolverine #1-5
Written by Benjamin Percy
Art by Adam Kubert (1-3) and Viktor Bogdanovic (1, 4, 5)
Color art by Frank Martin (1-3) and Matthew Wilson (1, 4, 5)

In all my years of reading X-Men comics I have rarely regularly followed a Wolverine solo title, largely because those series seem rather inconsequential and I prefer the character as part of a team dynamic. It’s like how I love cinnamon in an apple pie, but wouldn’t really want to eat cinnamon by itself straight out of the spice rack. Benjamin Percy, however, is a guy who just wants as much Wolverine as he can get and is obviously having the time of his life as the primary author of the character in both his solo series and X-Force. Percy has a firm grasp on exactly what makes Wolverine work and is fluent in the particular cadences of his dialogue, and his enthusiasm for the character is infectious, so much so that the two narrative arcs in this run of five issues are only so-so in plot terms but are nevertheless very enjoyable just for all the great character moments. 

I’m particularly fond of Wolverine’s interactions with Magneto, a man who has caused him great agony over the years that he’s now forced to answer to as one of the leaders of Krakoa. Percy is very interested in the nuances of how these old men who are very set in their ways adapt to an entirely new status quo – they are both going about it in good faith, but there’s only so much of the past you can ignore while working for a better future. 

This mix of “same old” and “totally new” seems to be the narrative crux of this series, and that extends to the art as well, as classic Wolverine artist Adam Kubert is trading off arcs with relative newcomer Viktor Bogdanovic. Kubert’s art is solid as ever, though his tendency towards unusual page layouts is kicked into high gear with these issues. He’s very good at drawing Krakoan landscapes and biotech, and it’s apparent he’s excited by the challenge of working with Pepe Larraz and R.B. Silva’s designs. Bogdanovic’s art is extremely similar to that of Batman artist Greg Capullo, to the point where you could just pretend it’s actually Capullo drawing the book. This is fine, though I’d like to see him evolve more into his own style as he clearly has the raw skills down. 

X-Men + Fantastic Four #1-4
Written by Chip Zdarsky
Art by Terry Dodson and Rachel Dodson
Color art by Laura Martin

Chip Zdarsky is a writer that leads with humor and delight, but always grounds his stories in compelling dramatic questions. To some extent that’s the job of a superhero comic writer, but it’s not tremendously common for people to actually achieve that balance, particularly when Marvel comics that lean humorous are nearly always full of unfunny soy jokes with no narrative stakes. This miniseries, in which the X-Men and Fantastic Four clash over the question of whether or not Reed and Sue Richards’ omega-level mutant son Franklin belongs on Krakoa, presents as a high-stakes story, even if the actual resolution of the Franklin question feels like a shruggy compromise. But even if the ending feels a bit inconsequential, the philosophical clashes are handled thoughtfully and Zdarsky’s handle on the personalities and voices of all the core characters is impressive. Terry and Rachel Dodson, no strangers to either the X-Men or Fantastic Four, do typically excellent work in their ultra-clean and dynamic style. The ending of the story hints at a further conflict between Reed Richards and Charles Xavier down the line, but even without that thread this miniseries leaves me with the feeling that I’d be happy to get more X-Men and/or Fantastic Four comics written by Zdarsky in the future.

Final Execution

“Final Execution”
Uncanny X-Force #31-35 (2012-2013)
Written by Rick Remender
Art by Phil Noto

Most fiction writers have a theme they work through in a majority of their work, and for Rick Remender it’s unbreakable cycles of violence. Remender’s run on Uncanny X-Force, which I would say is the best X-Men story to ever be published as a spin-off title, is a meditation on how violence only begets more violence, and that the notion of “redemptive violence” is just a rationalization. This is a very subversive but totally appropriate story to tell in the context of X-Force, the X-title that was conceived as a hyper-violent “proactive” form of super-team and had fully transformed into a clandestine “black ops” kill squad in the Craig Kyle/Chris Yost run just prior to Remender’s tenure. Kyle and Yost also wrestled with their characters facing trauma and moral rot in their stories, but it was still pretty clear that the primary point of their X-Force was “wow, these baddies are SO BAD, they DESERVE to die.” Their run was conceived during the George W. Bush administration and it’s very much an artefact of that era and the “War on Terrror.” 

Remender began his Uncanny X-Force with a despicable act of “proactive” violence – Fantomex murdering a child clone of Apocalypse in cold blood – and every story that came after that initial arc came out of unexpected consequences of that action. The entire run, which concluded in the extended “Final Execution” arc, is a critique of the very concept of X-Force. The core characters – Wolverine, Psylocke, Archangel, Fantomex, and Deadpool – are all poisoned by their cruelty and unjustifiable killing, and two of them die as a result of their actions. Remender’s cast are all characters who have had their bodies transformed against their will to become weapons for someone else’s use, and in the case of Fantomex, he was born and raised in an artificial environment to be a killer. They all want to act of their free will after having that taken away from them at some point, but can’t extricate “living weapon” from their identities. It’s “if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail,” but these people have adamantium claws, psychic knives, razor wings, and a LOT of guns. 

Psylocke is at the center of most of Remender’s stories because she’s the character with the most moral conflict over what they’re doing and the greatest self-delusion about what she has become. She’s the reader surrogate in some ways – initially on the side of X-Force but increasingly aware that they’ve been kidding themselves all along. At the start of the second phase of “Final Execution,” which is illustrated by the subtle but rather stylish Phil Noto, Psylocke has lost both of her love interests – she was forced to kill Archangel when he was corrupted by Apocalypse’s cult, and Fantomex was executed by the sadistic Skinless Man shortly after he and Psylocke finally consummated their lust/hate dynamic after she’d hit rock bottom emotionally.  She’s a broken person, but she knows why. She just wants to get out of the cycle.

Psylocke’s relationship with Archangel was established in the early ‘90s by Fabian Nicieza in X-Men. It was an inspired match – they’re both from posh backgrounds, but had experienced similar physical transformations against their will. They had similar angst, but also shared a hedonistic streak. Remender’s pairing of Psylocke and Fantomex is similarly brilliant, but for darker reasons. Shortly after the two hook up, Psylocke cruelly dismisses Fantomex by telling him that he is a “living contrivance, a product… a hall of mirrors with no end” and that “there is no YOU to have feelings for.” She’s not wrong about this, but it’s also apparent that she recognizes this because she sees herself in him, or perhaps more accurately, what she fears she has become after the trauma of having her mind and body tampered with so many times over. Fantomex wants Psylocke because she is who he wants to be, and Psylocke lusts for Fantomex because he’s given in entirely to the absurdity and brutality of his nature. 

“Final Execution” is necessarily bleak in the resolution of its primary character arcs. There is some minor joy in Deadpool embracing his best impulses and serving as a demented sort of father figure to the second child Apocalypse, but Wolverine’s storyline ends with an act so horrible it shatters his illusions about trying to be a father figure/role model to the youngest generation of mutants. He knows he’s nothing but a hypocrite, and he’s doomed to live in a constant cycle of violence that will always result in the deaths of people he loves. Wolverine and Deadpool can’t change – the market demands nonstop bloodshed from the both of them, and so the reader is complicit in this terrible loop of misery and destruction. The readership has an endless desire for redemptive violence, and Remender is at least doing his best to show them that it’s a false premise. He’s been doing the same story with different characters in Deadly Class for the past few years, and you can tell he only gets more weary and cynical about this as he goes along.

Uncanny X-Force does end with a “happy ending” of sorts in its epilogue. Fantomex returns to life, but as three clones – he originally had three separate brains, but an error in the cloning made a body for each clone. The darkest aspects of his persona ended up in one body, and his kindest aspects were isolated in a female version of himself. In the end, the primary Fantomex takes Psylocke to meet his “mother,” a fictional construct who raised him in “The World,” the articificial reality where he was created. Psylocke questions the reality of the situation, and Fantomex essentially just shrugs it off. Does it matter? Can they just be happy, even if it’s fake? After all the chaos and pain and death, the only reasonable thing either of them can do in the end is embrace a happy fantasy. Sometimes the only escape is delusion and oblivion.