Uncanny X-Force, Vol. 1: Let It Bleed

Uncanny X-Force (2013) (Collected Editions)

by Sam Humphries, Ron Garney (Artist)

The darkest corners of the mutant universe are about to be exposed...NOW!

The X-Men have always been sworn to protect a world that hates and fears them. But the all-new Uncanny X-Force is charged to deal with situations that the X-Men themselves hate and fear! Psylocke and Storm lead a new team of outcasts and scoundrels, including fan-favorite Puck, the villainous Spiral, and the mysterious Cluster.
The first adversary to strike out from the darkness? X-legend Bishop! But what secrets does the man with the "M" on his face bring from the future? And will X-Force be destroyed on their very first mission?

Collecting: Uncanny X-Force 1-6

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Marvel, X Men, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book

136 pages, Paperback

First published July 9, 2013

Reviews

[Baba · Rating 3 out of 5]

7 out of 12 for this interesting spin on X-Force centred around Psylocke, with Storm, Puck, Cluster, Spiral(!!!) and the return of Bishop! Rob Garney's art really did it for me in this series. A solid 7 out of 12 Three Star read.

2018 read

[Sam Quixote · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this book a few days ago and flew through it in one sitting - sometimes this is a good thing, other times, no. In this instance, it was not a good thing. So I decided to try an experiment and wait a few days before reviewing it to see whether I’d remember the actual story of the book or just the characters in the story. Guess what? My experiment proves the latter point - I don’t remember a thing about what happened in the book!

I know Psylocke’s in it, I know Bishop’s in it, and Fantomex x 3, and that’s about it. Maybe Gambit? Oh, Storm was in it! And they were fighting… about something. That’s right and Sam Humphries used Rolling Stone song titles for chapter headings for some reason - maybe he was saying Uncanny X-Force was a rockier alternative to the rest of Marvel’s X-titles which are the Beatles? I don’t know. Adrian Alphona’s art was in this which was weird and awesome as always.

Ok, I’m going to take a look into the book and see what I can glean.

Right away I missed a big character (pun intended) in the book: Puck! What does he do in the book? Nothing! So that’s why I don’t remember him! Spiral? Nope, nothing. Fights Psylocke. About a mutant kid? Whatever. Fantomex is three people… I don’t know. Ok? And he and Psylocke had a relationship… right.

So I just flipped through this book and once again got zero out of it. Some characters appear, they do superhero-y things (fighting with their powers), and the book ends. It’s literally as uninteresting and shallow as that. Is this even still an ongoing Marvel NOW! title? I have no idea but I do know I won’t be seeking out any more volumes in the series (should they exist).

That was my first real-time, stream-of-consciousness review and whether you read this or not is up to you but having read it myself, it feels like I didn’t read it at all. Let It Bleed indeed.

[William Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh cool, they're bringing back Uncanny X-Force. And this team looks pretty off-beat, I like that. Oh man, Garney is doing the art chores? I have to pick this up.

So I did, the first six issues in single issue format and dropped it off of my pull list about three issues too late, in my opinion. What starts out as a great idea with a band of seriously mismatched mutant misfits becomes a tedious and tiresome chore by the end of the 6 issues. Humphries had one too many ideas going into the book, which made for some confusing jump cuts in the first few issues, but then just cannot get off this Psylocke/Spiral beef for the life of him. Like a dog with a bone, these issues become just a big, meaningless fight between the two where nothing is resolved, and we're left scratching our wads as to why the conflict had to span 6 issues almost in their entirety.

I mean, here we have a writer who dug Spiral back up out of the grave and inserted Bishop as the bad guy and has Fantomex running around making love to himself. Sounds great. To me at least. But in the end, I was left feeling like I'd read 10 pages of actual story in a 100 page book.

Storm being on this team is irrelevant, as she does nothing but act as a sounding board for Betsy's internal monologue. Puck is a cool addition and I'll admit is definitely being used the way he should, but we can't help but feel like he's just Comic relief, the way some people use Deadpool.

Seriously, though, can someone explain to Humphries what an "arc" is? 6 issues and no resolution, no actual story, no team and no human interest. Wrap it up, B. Wrap. It. Up.

Of course, Garney's art is spot on for the first three issues and then we have a change of hands and Alphona comes in to do some hack job on what was one of the only redeeming traits of the book. I give it to issue... 17 before cancellation.

Writing: D
Art: B

[Nathan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Where are all these four stars coming from? Seriously you gals and guys know Remender's moved on to Uncanny Avengers and Captain America right?

Well I gave this book a shot although I saw a preview of the art which was okay but not spectacular but I wasn't going to judge this book by its art alone. I read the first to the seventh issue and frankly I don't know what's really going on in this book. From what I gathered there's a girl that multi-armed mutant teleporter, Spiral is protecting from Bishop whose possessed but...AH forget it. Oh and Fantomex and Psylocke are no longer an item yet Psylocke is shown as shared object of affection between Fantomex's three bodies including female Fantomex, Cluster. Oh yeah there's a kiss between them for "shock."

This book is simply strange, it's so different and removed from Remender's X-force it seems the only thing they share are some characters and title. This book actually offended me because of what it did to characters that Remender took time to flush out and define over multiple arcs. This series is not worth your time at all leave it on the shelf.

[Nicky · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the art of this TPB, liked what little I gleaned about the characters and the line-up, but... I finished the book wondering what the heck happened here, whether it has any relevance to any other Marvel plotline I can think of, and whether I would have understood what was going on better with more X-force context. I agree with people who say it was a really fast read, etc, but that's because little is happening. Maybe with some more emotional hooks, like knowing in advance what Fantomex and Psylocke's relationship was, or more about Bishop, or... just about anything.

It's a lovely looking book, but it doesn't seem to be a good starting point. Which is odd, because I thought that was somewhat the point of Marvel Now. Alternately, it's just not a very good comic anyway.

[RatGrrrl · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's been a while since I read any, but I love me some X-Folx. I loved the Astonishing X-Men series that started with Whedon (fuck that guy) and all the Schism stuff, so I understand Wolverine and the new school, but the situation with everyone else was new to me, which seemed to significantly affect how flummoxed and struggling to engage.

Logan is a headmaster, so he can't be mutant back ops, but he can be their Professor X, sending Psylocke and Storm to join Puck in investigating mind control ecstacy. There's a multi-armed space ninja, a little girl in a safe, Bishop doing timey wimey stuff as he is does, there's bad(?) Stands that infect people, dream stuff, and Fantomex and Control are also in here for some reason.

X-Folx has always been a whole lotta WTF and go with it, but this is a lot and absolutely does not feel like a volume 1 of a new series that barely gives any context to anything or anyone, but then a few issues in starts telling the story through huge and boring infodumps. The script seemed like a scattershot mess mess to me that was supposed to be conveying big emotional and significant stuff, but never did I feel able to connect, and I'm someone who has become way too attached, engaged, and bawled more time than I would like to admit at comics in general, but a lot of X-Folx stuff.

Like so many comics, I imagine this must have been running alongside other series because there are jumps and so much unexplained stuff. It just feels like whole scenes are missing and for a TPB it just makes for an incredibly jarring experience.

The art has some moments, but it feels very Marvel house style without much flare. Some of the dream stuff is cool, but from noth a script and art style the dream stuff seems wasted. I found the whole thing extremely dull.

I know I swore off random Marvel stuff without recommendation, but I am addicted to getting stuff from the library and thought I could trust X-Folx to at least be interesting.

(Increasingly feeling like in getting old, grumpy, and my tastes changing, so your mileage may vary)

[Charlotte · Rating 2 out of 5]

Let It Bleed is an odd volume, and I'm not entirely sure what to make of it. For the most part, I did enjoy it. I just didn't really understand it.

Now, I know about Storm and Wolverine, and have some basic knowledge of Psylocke and Bishop, and have even briefly come across Spiral and Fantomex before. I'm still very much new to Marvel comics and am much more invested in the cinematic universe, so cut me some slack, so maybe that's why I didn't follow at all times. I don't know anything about the X-Force, but seeing as how this is a Marvel Now! title I didn't see that as a problem.

And that's where I made my biggest mistake. The Now! branch of comics may be geared towards newer readers, but this very much felt like it was meant for seasoned fans. Or at least new readers who aren't as new as me. There's little to no explanation for Bishop's return, or even where he was or what had happened to him. We get glimpses of Spiral's and Betsy's pasts, but it still feels like you need to read about them individually before jumping into this. Which is fair enough, I suppose, as this volume isn't about them, but they're featured so heavily a little more information would be nice.

There also seemed to be a disconnect between the issues collected in this volume, with the last two feeling very out of place in terms of art style and story. They take a much closer focus on Bishop's mind, which was my least favourite part of the story, and seem to veer totally away from what was initially going on. I get the connection between Bishop and Ginny. Kind of. I just wasn't overly interested in it and cared more about Betsy, Storm, and Puck taking on Spiral to rescue a new mutant.

Maybe I'll continue with this if I ever find volume two, as answers would be really nice. But then again, maybe I'll just leave it.

[AJ Easterday]

DNF at 20%. I could just tell almost right away that this is not the best entrypoint as someone totally new to the Uncanny X-Force. The only character in this I had any familiarity with beforehand was Storm, and if you don't know who the characters are beforehand, you'll definitely be lost because there is too much going on here. Definitely not the comic for me as someone still fairly new to X-Men comics.

[Tiamatty · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this an enjoyable read. It was an interesting line-up, though I felt Puck and Storm both got largely ignored throughout the series, which was a disappointment. Psylocke and Spiral both got some really interesting character work. There's plenty of humour, and plenty of exciting action. The art looks great, and anything to do with telepathy is drawn in a great, clever and unique way, whether it's a mind-controlled bad guy seeing the world as a video game, or Psylocke and Wolverine having a conversation in a landscape filled with sheep. All in all, a fun, enjoyable read.

[Krzysztof Grabowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wczoraj przeczytałem ponad dziesięć pozycji komiksowych Marvela i ta konkretna ubawiła mnie mocniej niż kilka innych, razem zebranych. Czemu? Sposób prowadzenia akcji. Tu się nie bawimy w głębokie przemyślenia, choć cenię sobie to że Psylocke musi sobie tutaj poradzić ze swoją spuścizną, jaka wynika z obecności w uprzednim Uncanny X-force, gdzie robiła dużo gorsze rzeczy w towarzystwie Logana czy Deadpoola.

Tu mamy Storm, Pucka (który kradnie miejscami show), Spyral czy mojego ulubieńca. Tak, wraca Bishop choć ewidentnie nie jest sobą. Za to wygląda świetnie. Potem dojdzie jeszcze Cluster, która bujała się chwilę z Fantomexem. Cel? Pewny sejf, który okazuje się mieć bardzo wrażliwą zawartość, o kt��rą będą się tu toczyły boje. Nie jest to absolutnie nic nowego, ale bawi.

Akcja jest płynna, bez zbędnych przestojów. Nie nudziłem się ani chwili i nic nie wydało mnie się zbędnego. W dodatku podobały mi się relacje pomiędzy herosami. Puck kradnie wszystko. Nawet mamy tu świetnego Wolverine, który robi bardziej za wsparcie niźli bierze udział w bójkach, jak przystało na statecznego dyrka szanowanej szkoły.

Do tego mamy świetną krechę Alphony, która robi tu lwią część pracy, jeżeli chodzi o odbiór. Ilustracje są zwyczajnie piękne. Mamy zjawiskowe kobiety, od których nie chce się odrywać oczu. Świetne moce, których siłę niemal czuć z tych stronic. Nie ma pełnej "piątki", bo w końcówce historia nieco zaczyna kuleć, zwłaszcza gdy już wiemy co z Bishopem. Ale Humphries "dowiózł" ten album. 4.5/5

[Matthew Gilliland · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just didn't care from beginning to end. I would have put it down, but I was reading Cable and X-Force last year and the last omnibus melds these 2 series together so I bought these as well.

It took 6 issues (the whole book) to unite most of the team and think Spiro will be joining.

Psylocke and Storm are known to me.
Puck is a short Canadian pervert. I don't even know what his power set is.
Spiro I know from the 90's X-Men cartoon episodes about Mojo World and finding out that she escaped and is trying to make a life for herself and constantly being hunted for what Mojo made her do seems like it might lead to some good story, but it didn't quite get there.
The trio I don't know enough about and am lost with their story. Who are they? Where did they come from? How/Why did they split into 3 bodies? Where they dating Psylocke? I just don't know.

Bishop: Now this was probably the best part of the book. What happened to him and how did he get possessed by the Demon Bear from the New Mutants movie. That was fun and interesting. I didn't know he dated Storm and can't wait to see what happens when he meets Hope and doesn't remember hunting her through time and trying to kill her.

This book is a set up for the next and is just lacking.

[C · Rating 3 out of 5]

Continuing the great x-read of 2017/18...

I really enjoyed this one. It's a great mismatched team with some exciting twists and turns. We have the return of Bishop (though you would think that Storm and Betsy at least would be a whole lot more ticked at him than they are...), and Spiral (we haven't seen her in forever...). We have Puck being a lecherous jerk in (usually) humorous moments. We have some resolution (well, the beginning of it...) to the Psylocke/Fantomex relationship and its dissolution.

I honestly would have given it four stars if it weren't for the issue in Bishop's head. The prose was just so absolutely clunky in that issue that it felt like it was written by a completely different author. Yeesh, that was some pretty awful writing. (And I still don't feel like I understand how the demon bear from 80s New Mutants ended up in Bishop's head...?)

I see a lot of negative reviews here for this volume and I agree with some of their points, but I honestly enjoyed this one quite a bit.

[Jeff Lanter · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've been on a good run of X-Men comics and I finally found one that made me want to read something else. Uncanny X-Force has fairly decent art and a potentially interesting cast of characters but the actual writing is not great here. Bishop has become a very uninteresting character since the Cable series with Hope and while he is the main focus, even the other side plots just didn't grab my attention. The characterizations of the characters is odd too. Fantomex has a clone that he is in love with which didn't make sense to me and Psylocke is crazy angry. Ultimately, the characters lack depth and motivation which makes the plot not seem to matter. I think by the second issue, I realized that I was not at all enjoying this and powered through but it never got better. I won't be reading anymore of this series since it is pretty short and the author's writing didn't grab me. This is below average and hard to recommend.

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

This new iteration of X-Force looks to be in the same vein as the last but maybe with more of a conscious. I loved the interactions between Storm and Psylocke as they "dealt" with their relationship issues. There were a handful of X-Men villains from the past and I think they missed their mark. Remender's run did similar things but this seemed forced. The inclusion of Puck also does nothing for me. The art by Ron Garney in the first part of the book was amazing. Loved it. The second half suffered without him. Overall, a decent start to a new-ish series but not up to the previous team's standards.

[Nate]

Oof. This wasn’t good. A clear step down from Remender’s Uncanny X-Force and the Kyle/Yost series before it. Flimsy plot, average writing, little of the nuanced characterization emblematic of previous runs. Psylocke is essentially the leader here, with Storm randomly in tow (I guess because she’s friends with Betsy, but her prior problems with X-Force make her an awkward fit). Puck, Spiral, and Bishop also play into the story. The whole thing with the two Fantomexes feels really shoehorned. And all Bishop does basically is scream.

Forgettable.

[Pradivta Ilvansyah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not the best book of the Marvel Now! brand but it's one of the enjoyable one for me.

The return of Spiral is one of the best thing happen in this book (because she didn't appear in the Marvel Universe for a long time) and combine it with beautiful art by Ron Garney makes it more enjoyable to read even though the story is cheesy at times.

Still, for those who want to enjoy a superhero comic that is action packed and filled with lots of good humour you should give this book a try.

Cheers.

[Villain E · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was easily the most interesting ensemble book of Marvel Now. Just look at that cover. Is that Spyral? Bishop is back? So many other books were predictable and obvious in their line-ups.

So I was intrigued right from the beginning. Parts of this I liked and parts I didn't. Psylocke, Puck and Storm felt true (and Storm hasn't been written well in years). I don't know if I buy Spyral's redemption story, and Bishop was a bit over the top. But I want to read the next one.

[Eric · Rating 2 out of 5]

So, this is why we needed two X-Force books at the same time? I guess Cable's team is there to rehabilitate Forge as a character and this must be planning to repair Bishop (good luck)?
Maybe this series gets better, but between the wasted efforts of Cable and X-Force, Thunderbolts and now this, I'm not feeling very generous for the "too cool for school" teams that face the problems no one else is equipped to face.

[Dean · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did like this. it gives most of the context you need to start understanding it.

the cast is an interesting combination although Spiral on the cover in that way is misleading.

I'm not quote sure how the Demon Bear is back. was it destroyed in the original NM story? I guess not.

art change was noticeable but still fit.

there's a young mutant who can manipulate emotions and thoughts of those near them. spiral is pretending the drugs she sells are doing this.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Psylocke is at a loose end after the X Force finishes. So someone sends her an email to tell her to look into drug running. Spiral is involved but it is a lot more complicated than that, a new mutant is involved.

An interesting, action packed read. I like how it shows Spirals softer side. The big bad is introduced for the series, and I suspect it will become interesting. A good read.

[Thomas Hunt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice quick story about Psylocke and Storm vs. Bishop. Interesting to see where they take this new X-force. 1 of 3 books I bought in a series, starting with Uncanny X-Force 1...

[M.i. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting going ons, enough to keep me going.

[Gamal Hennessy · Rating 3 out of 5]

An incomplete story, weighed down by historical X-Men baggage.

[Frans Kempe · Rating 4 out of 5]

The xforce lead by Storm and Psylocke finds Spiral and a new mutant with Bishop coming back from the future possessed by a evil entity.

[Nicole Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic read that delves into Psyhloche's dark past and Bishop's twisted mind.

https://nicolewbrown.blogspot.com/201...

[mel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun read, it's interesting to see another side of the x-men of that run! I really enjoyed the parts in the psychic world. 3.5

[Nate Deprey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun 3.5 stars. I like the make up of this team and Humphries does an admirable job of juggling the different story lines.

[Roberto · Rating 2 out of 5]

Continuación a los primeros x-force, donde presentan un equipo nuevo y una historia descafeinada. El dibujo e Ilustración es más adulto que la primera parte.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

yk what... hell yeah!
new mutants my loves, psylocke has never had a chill day in her life (besides like 4 in paris but yk)

[minna · Rating 4 out of 5]

ok babys first comic book i had fun also i wanna know more about what psylocke and spiral got going on and if i can get in on it too