After Colossus kidnapped the rest of their team and brought them to his brother in the previous issue, Domino, Sage and Black Tom enact a covert plan in this week’s X-FORCE #44.

PUBLISHER’S PITCH

X-FORCE NO MORE?! X-perience the FALL OF X at its most dire! X-FORCE is captured - but what power could possibly keep them off the grid, and who is truly to blame? With SAGE, DEADPOOL and DOMINO on the outside, will the WOLVERINE SENTINELS beat them to their quarry, or can X-FORCE reunite to take down the enemies of mutantkind once and for all?

REVIEW

Wolverine, Beast, and the “Weapons of X” storyline sucked up a lot of oxygen before this year’s Hellfire Gala, leaving the rest of the X-Force team to play supporting roles over the past few months. Add in Colossus joining the team and the series having to now deal with the far too drawn out mind-control plot, X-Force hasn’t really been able to find it’s footing in quite some time.

With that said, I was pleasantly surprised to see Benjamin Percy give Domino the spotlight and for the issue to get back to X-Force’s roots as the mutant’s version of a black-ops team. Percy also gives Sage and Black Tom some great moments as they help Domino prepare for her mission, though Sage’s acknowledgement of her past drinking problems is an unfortunate reminder of a very random and poorly handled character arc. The Colossus/Mikhail parts of the issue dragged things down. Maybe it’s just personal preference at this point but I’m so over this storyline and cannot wait to see it wrapped up soon.

Robert Gill draws a fun sequence as Domino infiltrates a Moscow bathhouse to gain info on Mikhail’s whereabouts. She escapes an Orchis Wolverine bot by the skin of her teeth, but not before there are some great action panels. The colors by GURU-eFX are vibrant throughout the book and especially during those scenes.

FINAL VERDICT

It was great to see X-Force get back to the basics but it felt like a fleeting issue in the grand scheme of things. I’m really ready for this Mikhail storyline to be over. Mikhail looking to use the mind-control powers on Orchis offers an interesting wrinkle for the larger Fall of X story, but it doesn’t feel like it’s entirely relevant to this series.

RATING: 7/10