Broken Frontier

The newest arc of Uncanny X-Force makes the characters pay for their heroics.

Fantomex has been captured by the Captain Britain Corps to face justice for killing a child version of Apocalypse. Following up his masterful Dark Angel Saga with something equally epic would have been tough, so Rick Remender has taken a completely different road. Instead of crazy battles with powerful mutants, he has put his characters in an arena of philosophy - not a place where Wolverine stabbing things will exactly be of much good. The idea of putting Fantomex on trial for killing a potentially world-conquering mutant is not airtight; the Corps seems obsessed with the idea of controlling reality, so it is possible their reason for wanting to execute the only Fantomex in all existence is purely self-serving.

While the return of a Nightcrawler to the X-books seemed like something to be happy about, the Age of Apocalypse Nightcrawler has proven to be quite the downer. He is godless, arrogant, and hates being called Elf. Remender painfully reminds both Wolverine and the reader that this is not the same old friendly Kurt Wagner. Seeing how much of a jerk this new Nightcrawler is was like watching the old one die all over again, and while that experience was hurtful, it sets up a juicy piece of drama between the characters.