Solid Issue of Generation Hope
Hope gets messiahnapped, Logan goes all "Man on Fire" to get her back, they have a "moment".
The Good
I loves me some Simone Bianchi covers.
This is Ibraim Roberson's first time working on Uncanny and I must say that he makes a mighty strong case for why he deserves to be doing so more often. I loved his work on New Mutants during Second Coming, and I must say that combined with Charalampidis' colors it's truly beautiful and something to behold. It's a shame that Land will be closing things out instead of him.
I really like Hope Summers and love the way that Gillen writes her in this issue. She acts just as you'd expect a young girl trained from birth by one of the Marvel U's greatest survivors to. The fact that Idie and Laurie had to tear her away from checking her guns very amusing and totally in character for her. The way she kept her composure in the face of the Crimson Commandos threats would've made Cable smile like a proud papa.
The Crimson Commando, whoo boy. Honestly, my last memory of this guy was when I got a toy of him and Cyclops in a Hardy's kids meal. Yeah...that long ago. Gillen puts him to good use as a one off villain and Roberson's rapidly deteriorating, weathered depiction of the guy makes him a bit Sympathetic. Kidnapping Hope wasn't the best way to go about things, but he's a desperate man in a very desperate position. The lengths he's willing to go to to get what he needs from hope are very, very extreme and he does some very disturbing things in the pursuit of his aims.
The dialog and interaction between Hope and Logan are well handled by Gillen. Hope chiding Logan for failing to operate with the proper strategy made me chuckle out loud a good bit.
The reason behind Wolverine's standoffish behavior towards Hope and her reaction too it is a truly great character moment for both.
The Bad
Hope's spent all 17 years of her life avoiding ambushes like the one she's caught with in this issue. I just couldn't buy that personally. They got the drop on her way to easily for me. That girl's got a Spider-Sense and Frank Castle's battle instincts all tempered by Nate Grey's 24hr training.
I really, really enjoyed Roberson's art this issue but it was too pretty if that makes any sense. This was a very visceral and violent issue and Roberson's pencils just didn't convey that well. It was as if he was debating between showing the violence or hinting at it, couldn't make up his mind, tried to play it both ways, and failed at both. For example, Hope and the girls are ambushed by Commandos goons while shopping and struck in the face with rifle butts. A few panels later Idie nor Laurie show any visible damage to their faces. Hope has a very swollen black eye when she comes to and by the time she's fleeing Commando's facility with Logan her eye's all better? I know she can siphon the powers of others but she wouldn't heal at that rate. Hope's shot and disfigured by the Commando and I do mean disfigured. Yet we get a peak at her face during the process and it's perfectly fine. His unwillingness to follow through on the grittier scenes really took the power out of the story
I'm sure others have pointed this out at length but I'll talk about it as long as it continues to happen. Idie Okonwko is 12 years old, artists need to stop drawing her as if she's 17/18. It just looks silly, is more than a bit disturbing and is really distracting.
At the end of the day this is an issue of Generation Hope. I don't follow that series because it bored me and I had no interest in the characters outside of Hope after the sub par Five Lights Arc. I for one had no idea that Logan had any ill will towards Hope, I'll assume that's something that's been happening in the pages of Generation Hope.
The Verdict
This issue is filler. It's nothing more, nothing less. But, despite that it's a good story and a fun read. If you're fan of Gillen's Generation Hope title you'll definitely enjoy this. If nothing else check it out to take in Roberson's lush artwork, that stuff is seriously pretty.
