I wasn’t worried that there was an artist I’d never heard of before on pencilling duties. But I was worried when I saw that Dean White wasn’t doing the colors (even though his name is on the cover?).

I should have known Remender and the editorial staff wouldn’t let us down, though. It seems that no matter how many artistic changes Uncanny X-Force goes through on its pedal-to-the-metal/almost-always-twice-monthly-for-a-year-and-a-half-now schedule, things still look good and the overall storyline (more of a “saga-and-a-half” by this point) remains the most engaging in superhero comics today. There have been, what, two subpar one-off issues and one subpar arc that wasn’t nearly so bad as it seemed to be coming off of the “Dark Angel” storyline? Not much to complain about in the grand scheme of things. All in all, this title has been the most amazingly consistent, high-quality read you’re likely to get at Marvel these days.

And, thanks to Remender, it remains continually surprising, throwing out radically unexpected changes of setting and character deaths that, while we’re sure they won’t last, still seem organic and super-meaningful.

Perhaps the biggest compliment I can pay to Remender is to point out how, time and again, he tosses out story ideas that we’ve seen a hundred times before, often in awful and/or throwaway stories… and yet under his pen those ideas seem cool and interesting all over again in Uncanny X-Force. This issue is no exception. When I saw what happened on page two and sensed where the story was going, I nearly–nearly–groaned, “Oh, not THIS sort of thing again.” But it works here; it makes sense, and it reveals so much about the characters.

And the art? It’s change of pace, but it still looks equally as awesome as what Noto was doing. Of course, we all pray for the return of Opena. And me personally, I’d rather Esad Ribic came back. But I have to hand it to the editorial: they continue to give us artists on this title who are well-suited to the given storyline.

This issue says “chapter four” on the title page. It may as well say “chapter twenty-eight”. This has all been one amazing ride that hopefully will not end anytime soon. This is the rare title that I’m more than happy to pay $3.99 for twice a month. And if they ever put out an Omnibus collecting the entire series, I’d buy that in a heartbeat too. Despite all of the turbulent changes at Marvel–business-wise and within their fictional universe–it’s good to know that, for now at least, Uncanny X-Force is clearly still on track. This train is running on schedule and I hope the ride doesn’t end anytime soon.