Uncanny X-Force #11 Preview

Uncanny X-Force #11
Written by: Rick Remender
Pencils by: Mark Brooks
Cover by: Esad Ribic

The Story: “Dark Angel Saga” Part 1. Apocalypse is dead. His heir, Archangel, has picked up where his predecessor left off, amassing an army of En Sabah Nur’s greatest servants! The only hope X-Force have of saving Warren Worthington from the dark entity that inhabits his soul, rests in a dimension where Apocalypse, and his technology, took over the world, the solution lies in—The Age of Apocalypse! However, before X-Force can obtain the thing capable of saving their friend, they must defeat The Amazing X-Men!

In Stores: June 1, 2011

        

Uncanny X-Force vs. Armageddon

IGN: In Fear Itself: Uncanny X-Force by Rob Williams and Simone Bianchi, the team tackles an increasing threat from a group of extremists -- the Purifiers -- that believe Armageddon is impending, and they're holding superhumans responsible. We talked with Williams about the correlation between his story and the recent "rapture" theories, the book's ties to Rick Remender's Uncanny X-Force series, and more. Marvel also gave us an exclusive first look at some pages from issue #1, hitting stores July 6, 2011.

        
    

IGN Comics: Fear Itself is a pretty topical event, and it looks like your Uncanny X-Force tie-in mini is keeping that tradition with its theme of Armageddon. With all of the rapture hoopla that just passed, was there any influence from those real-life predictions on this story?

Rob Williams: There wasn't, but the timing's become rather pertinent. I guess this is exactly the type of thing that Matt Fraction and company were feeding off with the core concept of Fear Itself. There's hard economic times for a lot of people, there's always some form of apocalyptic tomorrow just beyond the horizon, whether it was the millennium bug in 2000, the recent predicted rapture, the Mayan 2012 thing. Whether you believe in any of these things or not we certainly live in a world where extreme religious groups are driven to terrible actions by their beliefs. That's where our mini-series is coming from.

IGN: In Uncanny X-Force proper, we're about to undertake a journey that points to the downfall of Angel. Will those story beats be reflected in Fear Itself: Uncanny X-Force?

Williams: Not really. We wanted to make this a self-enclosed storyline that will be accessible to new readers and which will, hopefully, appeal to regular readers of the core book. So we have three issues and a definite beginning-middle and end here. Rick Remender's planted plot threads in the main X-Force series - which I'm loving, by the way - and they're his to complete. I was pretty thrilled to be asked to have these characters for three issues. But the core X-Force story is Rick's.

IGN: X-Force typically operates behind the curtain, unseen. Is their mission throughout Fear itself going to be more overt or still on the down low?

Willaims: They're, by their very nature, a black-ops, covert team. The world, and the majority of the X-family, don't know they exist. That will continue here. Our finale takes place very much out in the open. But in a world where superheroes are commonplace, no-one's going to be able to identify X-Force as a definable team from their actions here.

IGN: Can you tell us what connection, if any, the "Purifiers" have to the God of Fear and The Worthy?

Williams: They're their little thematic children, even though the God Of fear doesn't have a clue about that. But that is enough to cause widespread loss of life, as you'll see in the story. The wider events of Fear Itself cause a lot of people to think that this is the end of the world. That's going to send this particular splinter group off the deep end. They believe that it's not just mutants who are the children of the devil, it's all super-people. And they think that the devil is here and about to take humanity to hell. So it's up to them to save as many souls as they can right now. The God of Fear would be very proud of their actions, I'm sure.

IGN: This tie-in sounds like it has more of a philosophical bent to it than some of the other minis that are coming. Is this something brought about by the nature of the characters?

Williams: It's about the power of belief. We wanted to write a story which dealt with the themes of Fear Itself. To ask what a mutant kill crew are afraid of. The Purifiers believe that the superhumans have brought the end of days down on humanity, that mankind's morality has sunk to the point where we've reached a tipping point to annihilation. And despite how crazy that might sound, X-Force are going to look at themselves, with all the blood on their hands, and wonder if, amidst the crazy, there's a kernel of a point there. There's a meta aspect to the story too - should superheroes, as a concept, really be a kill crew in the first place?

Plus a lot of widescreen action sequences. I kind of wanted this to be a big Hollywood action movie with a theological edge.

IGN: What does Simone Bianchi bring to the table for this book?

Williams: Unbelievable visuals and a ton of energy on the page. Everyone knows how good Simone is - and when I was told he was on this project the whole nature of it lifted. It's a treat to work with an A-list talent. As a writer you always want to play to people's strengths so giving Simone some killer action sequences was the plan. And I certainly think we've done that. There's two sequences in particular which would cost umpteen millions to put on a movie screen. I'm not sure how much Marvel are paying Simone but he's made this book look like a blockbuster.

Psylocke by Mizuki Sakakibara

Psylocke sketch by former Exiles artist Mizuki Sakakibara

X-Men: Schism Teaser

CBR: New Schism teaser released by Marvel :)

X-Men Giant Size #1

    

Psylocke cameos in X-Men Giant-Size #1 in the battle against the Neo.

Uncanny X-Force #10 Art

        

Uncanny X-Force #10 Spoilers

Spoilers: The Shadow King, as Amahl Farouk, visits a newspaper office where he gives a reporter evidence of Warren Worthington and Wolverine killing anyone who is a threat to their agenda. The reporter sees the video of Archangel killing the employer at the nuclear facility and calls his editor, telling him of the evidence he's got. The editor decides to call Warren, as he is the owner of the newspaper. Psylocke warns Wolverine that Warren might be in trouble, so Logan decides to go after him. Archangel meets the editor and kills him, then he collects the confidential files. Archangel then goes to the reporter's house, aiming to kill him too. Wolverine arrives and stops Archangel. They keep on fighting each other, until Psylocke arrives and puts Archangel to sleep, using her psy-knife. Betsy also uses her telepathy to makes the reporter forget everything that has happened. Back in Cavern-X, X-Force decides to seek an Apocalypse servant, in hopes it can be explained how to get rid of the Archangel persona, so the team decides to rescue Dark Beast out of prison. Dark Beast explains that Warren is in ascension into becoming the Heir of Apocalypse, since Apocalypse is dead. The only way to reverse the "ascension" is by cleaning the Death seed in Warren using a Life see. The problem is the Life Seed can only be found at The Age of Apocalypse...

X-Force News From Twitter

Rick Remender just revealed a new Uncanny X-Force cover via Twitter. The art by Esad Ribic features the return of the Final Horsemen from X-Force's first arc. I suspect it's the cover for issue #14, which will be penciled by Jerome Opeña and hit the stores in August.

Remender also told his followers that he and his editors are already working on stories for X-Force second year. It looks like X-Force editor, Jody LeHeup, got approval for bringing in a character they wanted for the role of main villain in Year 2. Remender also talked about locking down a tremendous crossover, but it's not clear if said crossover is planned for X-Force or Venom. In time, X-Force Year 1 will wrap up with issue #18, the conclusion for The Dark Angel Saga.

Meanwhile, Mark Brooks also teased his followers by posting two new panels from The Dark Angel Saga. One with Wolverine, and another one with what looks like MODOK.

    

Carey Extends His "Legacy" to Space & Beyond

CBR News spoke with Mike Carey about his plans for X-Men Legacy.

Issue #250 hits stores in just a couple of months. What can you tell us about the milestone issue?

Our main story in the issue kicks off a new arc that runs until issue #253. It's a story about Legion and some of the things that happen to him as a result of "Age of X" and the restoration of the X-Men's normal reality.

Issue #250 also has a back-up story that sets up the arc that begins in issue #254. It also explains some of the lingering mysteries from "Age of X." Specifically those relating to Revenant; her identity and how she came to be among the X-Men.

I understand this back-up also shines some light on another lingering mystery; the whereabouts of Havok, Polaris and Marvel Girl.

Oh yeah, we see them. Not just in glimpses, they're in the thick of the action. All three of those characters are very cool and fun to write and I've missed having them around -- which is the main reason why I floated the idea of bringing them back in like this.

Since we last saw those three characters, they were in space. Will the arc that begins in #254 take your team to the cosmic corner of the Marvel U?

Yes. The last we heard from them I believe was in "Realm of Kings" and they were on their way home. Obviously they never got there.

So in the story that begins in #254, four of our six protagonists end up in a very remote section of space. They're dealing with a crisis that arose in the aftermath of the "War of Kings" -- the war that was fought between the Kree (led by the Inhumans) and the Shi'Ar. But you don't have to know anything about the "War of Kings" to know what's going on. We're focusing on the destruction wrought in the conflict on some of the remoter parts of the Shi'ar empire. We'll be looking at what that meant for a strategically unimportant but narratively interesting part of the galaxy.

During "War of Kings," Professor X's ex-wife and former Shi'Ar empress Lilandra Neramani was murdered. Refresh my memory -- have we seen Xavier react to that news yet? Does he even know of Lilandra's death and will his feelings about her murder be part of this story?

As far as we know, he has no idea this has happened. And he doesn't find out in this story, although some of the other members of the team do. That means Professor X will find out very soon.

Earlier, you commented on just how powerful the new team in "X-Men: Legacy" is. I'd imagine the space arc will test their mettle with some pretty powerful adversaries. What can you tell us about the dangers they'll face?

We have, effectively, a running firefight going on between two alien groups. One if the Shi'ar, the other is a new and very scary race called the Grad Nan Holt. But we also have a not-very-natural disaster going on around them, which will probably end up destroying both sides. The X-Men are trying to avert this disaster and drawing fire from both sides in the process.

It's fast-paced, action-oriented sci-fi story. The setting is a planet-sized space station which has become a battlefield and is falling apart: imagine someone trying to write Larry Niven's Ringworld in 80 pages -- that's kind of what this is.

Finally, what can you tell us about your plans for "Legacy" following the space arc? We're only a few months away from "Schism," the event story line destined to tear the X-Men apart. Will "X-Men: Legacy" tie-into "Schism"?

Yes, the team will be drawn into the events of "Schism" and we'll see how they respond to things. "Schism" will be a supremely important storyline for "X-Men: Legacy." Everybody on that team is going to have a very powerful response, and Magneto and Professor X in particular are going to have to define their position. The result of that may redefine our status quo a bit.

X-Solicits for August 2011

	Uncanny X-Force #13 & #14 Written by: Rick Remender Penciled by: Mark Brooks (#13) & Jerome Opeña (#14) Covers by: Esad Ribic Variant Cover by: Chris Bachalo The Dark Angel Saga: Part 3 Years ago, Wolverine helplessly watched as Jean Grey, the love of his life, died before his eyes. Years later, he would lose his best-friend Nightcrawler to a similar fate. In order to save our world, can he allow them to die again? X-Force team up with The Amazing X-Men for the final push against the heir of Apocalypse, in a battle Royale that will force Wolverine to make the hardest choice of his life. One world must die!
	Fear Itself: Uncanny X-Force #2 (of 3) Written by: Rob Williams Pencils & Cover by: Simone Bianchi Fear Itself Tie-In With the events of Fear Itself causing worldwide panic, Jonathan Standish and his cell of rogue Purifiers look to take their murderous mission to the next level. Believing superheroes have brought about the end of the world, just how many innocents can these Purifiers kill? How many 'souls' can they save from the devil? And where will they strike next? If ever there was a group worthy of X-Force's lethal talents, this is it. But is there a grain of truth hidden in Standish's askew thinking?
	X-Men: Schism #3 (of 5) Written by: Jason Aaron Pencils & Cover by: Daniel Acuña Variant Cover by: Frank Cho The events of Schism #1 have launched the world into turmoil, and the all-new Hellfire Club is ready to take advantage of the chaos. But when the survival of the mutant race is on the line, just how far will the X-Men go? Once a line is crossed, there’s no going back. The event that promises to tear the X-Men apart at their very core continues, by writer and Marvel Architect Jason Aaron, and superstar artist Daniel Acuña (Wolverine, Avengers)!