COMICS BLEND

 

Uncanny X-Force is heading to a finale with Rick Remender’s Final Execution arc. Sam Humphries (Ultimates, Higher Earth) and Ron Garney will relaunch Uncanny X-Force #1 this January according to Comics Alliance. The X-Force concept has always been a team operating outside the core X-books- outsiders among outsiders if you will.

 Humphries told the site his take on the ‘outsider’ team.

 “One of my favorite things about this book, not just working on it but reading it over the years, is that it delivers a story that you can’t find in any other X-Book. Theres’s a combination of characters and character dynamics, and they go out and find and deal with situations and beings and all sorts of dark secrets that you can’t find anywhere else. Through the different incarnations, we’ve seen that implemented in different ways. You have the Rob Liefeld paramilitary extreme version, you have the wacked-out, nearly psychedelic Milligan/Allred version, you’ve got Rick Remender doing his thing with questions of killing and murder and when it’s okay and when it isn’t.

 Even though it’s a definition, it gives you a lot of room to move within that definition. There’s a lot of different things that you can pick apart in the Marvel Universe, and specifically the mutant universe, that aren’t ever really addressed in the main book. It’s a huge opportunity to do some cool things, new things, to get people excited and present the whole mutant world in a new light.”

The biggest shocker from this interview is the initial roster including a short Canadian guy – without claws!

  “This is not any cast that I think anyone can say they’ve ever seen before. This is not a classic Wolverine, Rogue, Colossus line-up. It’s definitely a new mix of characters thrown together in ways that they really have never encountered each other before.

  The group that we start off with right off the bat is Psylocke, Storm, Puck and Spiral, and we have a few more characters joining the group in the first few issues. In my mind, all those characters are wild cards. They’re all strong personalities, they’re all strong in terms of their powers, they’ve all got dark secrets and they’ve all got a rebellious streak. That to me is a really attractive part of the book, being able to balance all those character dynamics at once.”

Puck…seriously?

“I think Puck is a character that deserves more love. He’s like a Canadian Indiana Jones, he’s an adventurer. He’s also gone out and faced a lot of dark stuff out in the world, but he does it with this wry sense of humor. He’s a guy that despite being short of stature, he always finds a way to kick somebody’s ass. That kind of character who has a wit and determination is fun to write, and I think he’s going to be a good mix with these other characters in the book who all tend to be super-serious all the time.”

For more of the Humphries interview here’s the Comics Alliance link.

Cable and X-Force and a brand new Uncanny X-Force in the Marvel Now? Do you think the publisher is “forcing” too many similar teams on us?

This is not the answer I was expecting after the Killers teaser. I love Storm, Spiral and Puck. I commend Humphries for going for an unexpected roster.

By Editor