A-Force #10 Review and *SPOILERS* - Marvel Monday

No Consequences

Written By: Kelly Thompson
Art By: Paulo Siqueira, Joe Bennett, Rachelle Rosenberg
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: October 19, 2016
Publisher: Marvel

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Well, we’ve come to not only the final issue of A-Force’s Civil War II tie-in but also the final issue of A-Force period. Well, at least this volume. It is a bit unfortunate that the series has to end with the Civil War II storyline. I’m sure fans of the series would have preferred a better ending storyline but alas, it is what it is. Perhaps the ending will still be very satisfying. Anyway, we left the team in the middle of a pulp science fiction type of story as some kind of force is turning people into giant bug like creatures and the one that is responsible is the girl Alice who has turned into a giant bug herself. In addition, the character Elsa Bloodstone has changed into a bug and has Captain Marvel in her claws. How will the series end? Will we finally see a Civil War II storyline with stakes? Let’s find out.

The issue begins with Medusa, Dazzler, and Singularity who are still holed up in the Michael’s home. It has quickly become overrun by bug people and it seems even those that remained human up til now have even changed into bugs. Despite efforts by the women, they are clearly outnumbered and outmatched so they have Singularity teleport them away to wherever Carol and Nico have gone. We then cut to Nico who does what she can to save Carol from the now changed Elsa. However, despite her efforts, Carol now seems to be infected and has already begun to change. Alice tells Nico that she can still save them all by killing her. This is when Singularity, Medusa, and Dazzler finally teleport in.

The group then debates a little bit before Elsa begins attacking once again. Medusa is able to easily hold her off when she is attacked from behind. Dazzler has begun to turn into a bug creature as well and has attacked Medusa. Soon, everyone has changed into a bug creature except for Singularity and Nico who uses her magic to suspend the rest of the group. Then she uses her magic to change Alice back into a regular girl again, hoping that it will result in everyone else changing back as well. However, it becomes clear very easily that it hasn’t worked and Nico can once again only think of one solution. Nico uses her magic and kills Alice. This results in the team and everyone from the town transforming back into humans.

Despite all their fighting in the past, the group comes together and comforts each other. Nico certainly didn’t want to kill Alice, but she had to in order to save her friends. On their way out of the area though, a cocoon forms around Alice’s dead body and suddenly something new emerges. It appears to be a type of human-bug-squid hybrid person and it seems that the one inside it is Alice, alive and well. Carol tries to talk with Alice to bring her in. They say that they want to help her so that she can fully understand her powers but also to make sure that nothing like this happened again. Alice refuses and claims that she is able to control her powers now. Carol still wants to bring her in but she uses a type of camouflage to disappear before their eyes and they’ve lost her.

Back in the town, we find Elsa relaxing in the hot springs of the town. Nico comes by and they talk a little bit. Nico thanks Elsa for helping them and there even seems to be a little flirtation between the two but the scene ends and Nico leaves to attend to other business. She meets with Carol to address the vision that Ulysses had. Nico still believes that she was right and that if she hadn’t come to the town then the infection could have spread. However, Carol still believes that if they had a chance to look at the issue rather than being in the middle of it, they wouldn’t have had to deal with it in the same way that they did. However, the two decide to bury the argument for now and instead the team goes to see Jen (a.k.a. She-Hulk) and wait for her to recover. This is where the issue ends for us.

I’ve only read three issues of this series so I may not be the best person to give some final thoughts but you’re reading this review so I guess I’ll give them to you anyway. This sucks! It’s probably due to Civil War II, but I found the characters stale, unlikable, and stubborn to a point of stupidity. I certainly hope the first seven issues were better than this because holy crap this is the worst. We set up a whole story arc about a prediction of Alice killing someone and she ends up being forced to do so. However, due to a quick little resurrection that has no explanation whatsoever, the whole conflict was pointless. In addition, due to the fact that Alice is able to survive, Nico is able to justify what she did in going against Captain Marvel. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not Captain Marvel’s biggest fan right now but it just felt like that’s where the story was going and instead we got some weird non-ending.

Bits and Pieces

The set up was sloppy and turns out the rest of the story followed suit. The issue is just filled with a bunch of nonsense and has things just happen without explanation. It was poorly thought out and I wouldn’t be surprised if they knew the book was going to end after this storyline and just half-assed their way through it. They picked up the magic score that we all know and love.

5.0/10