Yikes. What the heck happened here?

Up till now, I'd give every issue of Uncanny X-Force either 4 or 5 stars. Each issue of the series has been wonderful, with deep characterizations, meaningful plots, and carefully constructed stylized art. I feel I've gotten a HECK of a lot of value for my $3.99.

But everything about this issue seems very underwhelming and shottily put together.

Let's start with the easiest target: the art. I really enjoyed Billy Tan's art last issue. Many were nervous about him coming on board, but I thought his art in issue #8 fit in well with what Ribic had been doing. In this issue, however, the art looks very amateurish. The characters and costumes look off-model (even compared to what Tan himself drew last issue). The perspectives look awkward. Magneto looks baby-faced and his helmet is too big for him. And, worst of all, the panels here are so damn EMPTY. There's so much bank space everywhere! Was Tan severely rushed or something? It seems like every scene and location in this book had been gone over by a (poorly skilled) Feng Shui interior designer. The whole thing looks way too sparse. I feel gypped.

I also feel gypped (no offense to gypsies) by the storytelling here. Almost half the book is silent and severely, ridiculously decompressed. Do I really need entire pages of Magneto opening an envelope and setting down his drink? At times this read like a PARODY of decompression at its worst and most unnecessary. Of course, silent pages and decompression can be very effective methods in the right circumstances, but here it was a clear case of padding the page count in order to get a full issue out of this.

That brings me to the story. This should have been an 8-page vignette in the back of an annual or something. There's just hardly anything here, and what is here is nonsensical. Remender has done such a great job with characterizations up until now. But here he has Magneto beg other people to do his dirty work for him? When has Magneto ever been afraid to fight his own battles? When the particular battle in question pertains to a personal matter of revenge on Magneto's part, it makes ZERO sense that he'd emotionally BEG for someone else to exact justice for him. It makes no sense! The idea of Magneto discovering X-Force's existence and base of operations is great enough on its own; Remender didn't have to add this "please-fight-my-battle-for-me" rationale to it. If Magneto didn't want to face the Nazi himself, why didn't he just leak the Nazi's location to the UN or to the CIA or something? It makes no sense! Magneto's always been about confrontation and righting personal grievances HIMSELF. The characterization here is just impossible to understand.

Lastly, a couple other, more minor elements bugged me about the issue. Deadpool makes a joke confusing the Shadow King with "The Lizard King" Jim Morrison. But the way the joke is told is very forced. The fact that Deadpool is corrected by Wolverine (an old soul who's never been partial to pop culture at all, not even '60s pop culture) just made the exchange seem all the more awkward, as if Deadpool and Remender both were reaching too far and trying to hard. Secondly, this may sound treasonous, but I'm tired of so many comics with Nazis in them. The Nazis were of course horrible, and there have been many great comics showcasing Magneto's righteous opposition to them. But at this point it's almost a forced-emotional gimmick; it's too easy to include a Nazi as a villain. The death of the old Nazi here was actually the best scene in the issue, but I don't feel that it was even "worth it" to roll out yet another old Nazi for the millionth time just to, basically, warn Wolverine about karma and killing people. Shouldn't Nazis be reserved for more unique and compelling situations? (Besides, there are other historical/real-world villains besides the old German type. Slavery, genocide, and forced labor are still going on in the world, and it would be nice if American comic writers could bring themselves to acknowledge that. Just a thought. Because pretty much everyone who's going to get the lesson about Nazis has gotten by now, and it's just kind of boring to keep hearing variations of the same lesson again EVERY month. Please teach us NEW lessons, comic book writers who care about history and real-world treachery.)

Anyway, I still have high hopes for Uncanny X-Force. I'm hoping that this issue will just be an anomaly. When Remender starts the next story arc, I'm sure the impressively deep storytelling will be back in a big way.