Uncanny X-Force #3 Review

The first two issues of Uncanny X-Force got by on a fairly interesting plot executed with enough style to keep things lively. Unfortunately, both the plot and the creativity have come to a standstill in an issue that feels like four pages worth of content stretched out to fill up twenty. With a slew of high quality Marvel NOW! titles on the shelf -- not to mention more than a few outstanding books from other publishers -- paying $3.99 for this series might not be the best investment.

Writer Sam Humphries has worked himself into a curious position. When a book’s recap page is a three-paragraph wall of text detailing the motives for seven different characters, you can usually expect to be rewarded with an intricate plot for your trouble, but for as plot-focused this story appears to be, little progress is made. There’s also an attempt to flesh out characters with single-page flashbacks accompanied by some weighty narration, but it’s all so on-the-nose that it doesn’t fit with the edgier tone this book strives for.

With the plot in a bad spot, the art does little to help it out. There’s so much back-and-forth talking that artist Ron Garney is never given a real chance to shine. Worse, the big cliffhanger image on the last page is so similar to the previous issue’s that Garney is again robbed of the chance to do something new and exciting. For a book that started off on solid ground, it suddenly finds itself knee deep in quicksand. Humphries and Garney are talented guys, so here’s hoping they grab a vine (that is not a snake) and pull themselves out.

Joshua writes for IGN. Follow him on on Twitter or IGN, where he’s basking in the glow of being crowned the 2013 IGN Comics Cagematch People's Champion!

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