Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Uncanny X-Force #35 Spoilers

Spoilers: Psylocke visits Brian at Otherworld, asking for forgiveness. Brian says that he discovered in Sr. Bradock’s journals that Fantomex had three brains and the fact that he was able to fight the conflicting voices in his head was a testament to his character. Brian assures that nothing will ever come between him and Betsy again. Psylocke asks him to store the Shadow King and the Apocalypse Armor in Otherworld. At the Jean Grey School, Deadpool meets Evan and says he’ll always be there for him when he needs. Wolverine and E.V.A. visit Psylocke at her apartment in Manhattan, saying they have left something unresolved. Betsy asks what the Old Logan from the future whispered to him; Logan recalls he said that if he didn’t kill Daken, Daken would murder his students. Wolverine, Psylocke and E.V.A. head to the Sky Facility where they meet Deadpool. E.V.A. reprehends Deadpool for starting the mimicking sequence without the proper adjustments. E.V.A. explains that the three Fantomex brains were intact. The mimicker ended up cloning bodies for each of them. Two male (the mostly Fantomex one and a mutant-hating one), and one female (the nice one, Cluster). Jean-Philipe and Cluster take Betsy to visit their “Mother”. Betsy kisses Jean-Philipe, saying that just for once she’d like to imagine a happy ending.

27 comments:

47 said...

I love the ending. I love that jean philipe return and betsy and him get together. an happy ending to such a dramatic run. But i dont understand one thing. It was supost to happen some dramatic stuf to her. right? "something will happen to betsy at the end" but this is good. how she bond with ororo.

jarim77 said...

Surprisingly happy ending for the series. But it is fitting in a way though. Out of all the characters she went through the most in this series. So it's really nice that it ended like that. In fact you could say that Betsy was the real point of view character for UXF.
(Also lol at Deadpool bringing Evan some girlie magazines. I guess they have filtered internet connection at the school).

Cant wait for the next year and the new series.

Chris said...

Wow. Talk about underwhelming. Remender was better off ending this book at the end of the Dark Angel Saga. Final Execution will stand out was one of the most dumb stories of the year. The resurrection of Fantomex was just the cherry on the top of a cake made of failure.

Selene said...

I concur,Chris,so much for a happy ending.Not only has Psylocke been unable to mourn her brother and her lover,now she gives in to her irrational infatuation with Fantomex and a mutant assassin is on the loose.Beyond heinous.Take it away,Mr.Humphries,and do not disappoint us!

Chris said...

Agreed, Selene. Not to mention that whole sorrow bulshit wasn't dealt with. Does she feel sorrow or not, what gives?

Hopefully the male Fantomex won't be featured in the new X-Force, and this is the last he gets anywhere neat Betsy.

PSYBOOM said...

it was perfect! Rick did an amazing job and im happy that Psylocke is getting a happy ending of sorts. she deserves it. love her relationship with her brother. i think its been a while since she felt that sense of family. great job Rick!

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randybear said...

It was refreshing to see Psylocke have a happy ending for once!

sparkysnaffles said...

I agree with Chris and Selene. I mean, personally the pairing of Betsy and Fantomex is not to my taste so I am biased, but I was so underwhelmed and disappointed.

Mostly it's just like she's totally forgotten about her brother Jamie, about Warren and it's like OH, Fantomex is back! To me, it is such a false happy ending as it doesn't ring true for me. Of course I'd love to see her have a happy ending, but for me that happy ending is with Warren.

Or Doug. She needs Doug in her life.

PSYBOOM said...

she hasnt forgotten about her brother or warren but she did give up her sorrow so therefore she cannot grieve over them anymore.

Matt L said...

This is an unrelated information tidbit. X-Treme X-Men is a bit of a silly book but it's been very Dazzler-centric which is nice. Well, Sage has just reappeared and joined the roster as well, in case you haven't been reading it.

Chris said...

Sparky hit the nail on the head. It IS a false happy ending, one which doesn't ring true at all. It is forced.

First we have Betsy completely in love with Warren. Then after Warren dies, she lusts over Fantomex. Then she says she didn't really love Fantomex. And then he dies and comes back ans she's all like I LOVE YOU!!!! I get that people move on, I'd be perfectly fine if this was Betsy lusting over Fantomex, but to be in love with him a few days after she was in love with Warren? No, I can't buy that, and Remender did nothing to sell this "love". He tried too hard to make BetsyxFantomex work, but it just doesn't.

sparkysnaffles said...

That was exactly my problem! Like I said earlier, it's just my personal feelings over this, as I am not a fan of the pairing so of course I'm going to be a little jaded in the first place.

Betsy and Warren are my favourite pairing and they've been through some incredibly hard times, so I just find it very hard to buy Betsy loving Fantomex THAT much, after what she went through with Warren. I'd feel the same if the roles had been reversed and it was Warren immediately diving into a strange love right after *coughHuskcough*.

Still, all that said I am looking forwards all the same to what Sam Humphries is going to be doing with the new book.

Selene said...

I,too,have been an avid supporter of Betsy and Warren since my childhood and while Remender's direction obviously didn't defer to my personal feelings either,I find his handling of Betsy/Fantomex interactions upsetting.Future Psylocke confessed that her attraction to Jean-Philippe was that of neither physical nor emotional intimacy,which makes the pairing all the more difficult to appreciate or accept.Then,there are the inconsistencies with her "inability to feel sorrow",which coupled with her facing Warren together with Fantomex in UXF #18(co-incidence?I think not)was a mere plot-device that he conceived to make it easier for them to get together.Honestly,it seems to me that he undermines the Dark Angel Saga(his own work)here.

I'm clinging to Betsy's last words("just this once")-maybe that kiss was a mere human response after what she had to go through recently and the relationship will end before it begins.I'd give Rick the benefit of the doubt,he must have been very exhausted these last months with all the titles and projects he's had to manage with.

Nic said...

I'm a big fan of Warren and Betsy too but the Fantomex hook up didn't bother me. She killed Warren. He came back not himself. She just reached out to someone who showed a little interest in her. Love comes in different levels. I don't think they are the next power couple or anything. She grew attached to him at a time when her life was shit. She killed her lover and her brother, she just needed a distraction and that grew to a level of love. I don't think it'll last especially that all three brains are in different bodies. She had feelings for something in all three of them. I think that is why Cluster is on the new team. She was the nicest. The dark one will be a villian and the "Jean Phillipe" one will make a guest appearance to help track him down. Still think Storm and Psylocke bond over their broken hearts.

Tazirai said...

As much as I'm a fan of women in comics having a man and being happy an all that. I hate that Psylocke has become a kardashian..
"Whose she with today?"
"Will she kill him?"
"Will he kill her?"
" Out of two assasin's who should propose?"
blah blah blah!

Define her by her skillz, not the man she's currently frakking.
She's basically the female Wolverine now.:P

Humphries do ya thing.

Anonymous said...

I'm in. I like where this issue left off, strangely enough (even though I'm not a huge fan of Betsy & Fantomex as a couple).

I'm not sure who said it, but I agree that a Betsy/Cypher reunion would satisfy something that has been waiting in me since my childhood (I first fell in love with Psylocke and the Braddock legacy when I was about ten...that was many moons ago!)

Anyway and regardless, I'm totally on board for the new X-Force.

FSaker said...

Personally, I like Psylocke and Fantomex as a couple. And it's interesting that now both of them have experienced being swapped to another body (even if Jean-Phillipe's new body is just a cloned version of his original one, so it shouldn't be that hard to adapt - on the other hand, now he only has one brain).

But there are some things I don't get:

1) Fantomex has three brains, okay. Wasn't E.V.A. supposed to be one of them? Why is she still appearing as herself at the same time the three Fantomex appear?

2) Wasn't Fantomex's mother killed in the Deathlok arc in UXF? How come she now appears alive as if nothing happened?

That's quite confusing. But I'm glad that Betsy got some sort of happy ending after suffering so much throughout each issue of this book.

Nic said...

I always thought that E.V.A was Fantomex's immune system or circulatory system or something like that. And I just assumed that "mother" is an android or some kind of hard light projection. Hence why Fantomex would create a similar family for Evan.

Unknown said...

I'm also really confused about Fantomex's mother being alive. My only guess is that she was a virtual contruct like Evan's parents... but then, it makes no sense why Fantomex became so enraged when she died, executing Deathlok-Spidey nasty-style, as I recall. Anyone care to shed some light on this?

Vigmed said...

It'd be my guess that Remender will return to Uncanny X-Force at some point in the future, and he's laying down some groundwork - just in case.

Gotta say, I'm glad his run is over. This last arc felt prolonged, and then this last issue felt rushed. Probably too much on Remender's table and he stumbled.

In the beginning I didn't like Fantomex at all, but up to his death I started to like the guy. Respect. But for Remender to bring him back, ugh, it makes me not want to read his work, and I love his stuff. Like I said, I think he has something planned for a later time and wants to make sure his favorite is around, cause I can't see any writer needing to use Fantomex.

Betsy and Jean-Phillipe always felt too forced. Most of this had to do with Remender revealing as much before anything even really happened, so we became too aware of how unnatural it was.

I could go on and on. Warren and Betsy will always be my favorite couple, they just fit each other so well and they had a lot of history together.

With that said, I was happy to see Betsy happy at the end. And that is all that matters really.

Anna Carolina Vale. said...

In Betsy's defense, she never said that was in love with Fantomex. She only said that had feelings for him, it was Brian the one who supposed that she had fallen in love.

Even if I like to see her with a somewhat happy ending, I still think that Warren and Jamie are going to come back to haunt her.

Still, even if I like the pairing, we cannot deny that what Betsy feels for him was a bit of security. He told her the truth, he wasn't afraid of manipulating her when necessary and he exposed and got himself killed so she could be saved.

I don't think it's love, I think she needed something or someone to lean on, and Jean-Phillipe happened to be the one there.

The same way that it could have been if it was Logan or Deadpool doing it, I think it's easy for her to confuse that with something stronger.

Australian Outback said...

I found the Psylocke-Fantomex tension interesting and well-articulated. It was clearly rooted in a conflict of feelings, which gave dimension to both characters - it demonstrated Fantomex's vulnerable side which made him more nuanced and likable. Clearly he was hurting that Psylocke didn't respond to him the way he wanted, and it demonstrated quite the power struggle in which Betsy was clearly on top. On top. ;) It also gave Betsy the opportunity to clearly demonstrate her commitment to Archangel - Fantomex presented himself at a time when Archangel was still around and she gave him a clear no. Afterwards we got to see Betsy turn the tables on Jean-Phillippe and literally have him at her beck and call. Fantomex got even more interesting when he basically sacrificed his life for her. There is a complex and nuanced relationship there, with Betsy fighting her feelings for him and sacrificing her "legacy" to save the life of this one man that was reduced to his knees for her. This was well-developed and one of the most interesting, multi-dimension 'relationship' stories in comics. It is possible to have feelings for more than one person at a time. Whether or not that's love is not the issue, although that is arguably possible too.

Australian Outback said...

Also, I wouldn't say that the 'happy' ending was forced - it is obviously not a happy ending in the traditional sense. The Rainbows, Puppy Dogs and Sunshine title (that might not be exactly it but I don't remember it offhand and don't have access to the comic here as I'm writing from my phone) isn't meant literally but with irony. There is no such perfect ending, but there can be some measure of peace and resolution by degrees. Betsy's point in saying that for once she'd like to pretend (keyword) that there's a happy end to this is because she knows she doesn't get one. There is no happy ending - just some measure of resolution. She may or may not feel love for him, and that's not important here. She can still have feelings for him. Who wouldn't after all they've been through. They each sacrificed their lives for each other - in his case, quite literally.


The problem I have with this is that I read this in what felt like 3 minutes and it cost 3.99, whereas the writing was much more involved and deeper at the beginning of Remender's run. What's laid out here is arguable what Remender had already planned long before (he obviously knew how he would end this many moons ago) and it felt like he didn't have the time to flesh it out. Seriously, it felt like a third of a comic and not a full issue.

Also - I didn't like how Betsy was so apologetic and teary-eyed. It made her look weak. I would've preferred her to seem more dignified. Not necessarily stoic but not so desperate (even though it is reasonable to be desperate after all that tragedy). Plus, she gave up her sorrow. Is sadness over what she's potentially lost in her relationship with Brian - expressed as a desire for forgiveness - really that different from sorrow? Nope. I don't buy it. Basically she's expressing grief, loss, and sorrow here - all three not very different from each other. That was not well-handled.

FSaker said...

Regarding Betsy's relationship with Fantomex, I agree with Australian Outback that it was interesting. Is it love? Maybe not. But it CAN become love.

Although Betsy truly loved Warren, my opinion is that her relationship with Fantomex has a future, uncertain as it is; her relationship with Warren does not. She suffered to keep his Archangel persona under control, she suffered when she had to fight him, she suffered when she found out his body was revived but the person just wasn't him anymore. I don't know if I'd want her to go back to such kind of toxic love.

In any case, it seems that she won't be dealing with men or love issues in the new X-Force. And that's good; let her heart rest for a while, right?

FSaker said...

As for Brian, I agree, it was strange to see how apologetic she was. But it's nice to see them reconciling, even if he was a jerk to her in the Otherworld arc (but he had his reasons, after all).

You know, ever since I saw that picture of the Marvel: Avengers Alliance "British invasion", I can't stop thinking how cool it would be if Marvel brought back the Captain Britain and the MI-13 book (maybe renamed to Excalibur or something like that) including Psylocke and Union Jack to the team. It would be great to remind the readers that despite her body she is a British heroine, to see her interacting with her brother, and Betsy could even help to increase the book's sales. And now that Wolverine apparently kicked her out of his school (and consequently out of the X-Men), it's not like if she was in many comic books to be featured in just one more...

FSaker said...

*not like she WILL BE in many comic books to be featured in just one more...

Sorry, I used the wrong verb tense in my previous comment.