Comic Review:
X-Force #1
Not Your Older Brother's X-Force!

BY MICHAEL McDANIEL

     I can’t believe that I am writing a review on the first issue of the new ‘X-Force’ series. When that comic title is mentioned, I think of bad, bad comics…bad writing and even worse artwork. In fact, the name Rob Liefeld comes to mind and he doesn’t exactly herald great comics. This new effort from Marvel is not your older, stupid brother’s X-Force. Far from it. The only things in common with the old X-Farce series from Fabian Nicieza/Liefeld are the name of the book and two old members. The rest is actually good. Well, to be honest…really good and that is saying a great deal coming from me as I rank the original series as the quite possibly the worst book in X-comics history!

Why couldn't Marvel put out the new X-Force #1 with a variant Liefeld cover?

     This new series spins out of the ‘Messiah Complex’ Saga which redefines in my mind what an X-Men crossover should be. Cyclops has decided to keep X-Force active in the aftermath of the 13-part crossover to tackle the problems facing mutantkind which still teeters on the brink of extinction. The mission of this new X-Force team is to do the jobs that the X-Men teams can’t or won’t do. This seems to be mainly to be preemptive in their battles and with their foes- taking the fight to the X-Men’s many enemies before they destroy another X-Mansion. Kind of like a Bush/Cheney foreign policy approach you might say- but look how swell that worked out in Iraq. Forget I said that, please?
     Cyke has called Wolverine to Colorado to discuss the game plan. Wolverine is the team leader which isn’t as bad as it sounds. This is a new dynamic for Logan as far as X-Books go. He balks at the idea first which of course is Logan’s nature to disagree with anything put to him. He’s kind of predictable that way. He comes around only after he gets to punch Cyclops. Great teamwork, guys!
     His team? Warpath, X-23, and event the ex-New Mutant Wolfsbane are the initial members of this new X-Force team- pretty much every X-Man with claws or knives and most of these will use lethal force at the drop of the hat. At one point in the book, the ole’ six-clawed, Canadian sizzle-back asks the rest of his squad to walk away from their mission with a heart-felt plea. He bluntly and soberly states that to continue means “crossing” what to him is a familiar line. He even tells them that in the future they might find themselves on the same team with the like of the “Beast, Angel, and the Ice Man, but you won’t be the same as them”. Luckily for us, they don’t follow his advice and the mayhem ensues.

Behold the awesome power of...Nimrod! Wait that's the wrong picture!

     The threat that the new X-Force is after is one of the loose ends left over from the ‘Messiah Complex’ crossover. Mathew Risman and his Mutant-hating Purifiers of the Church of Reverend William Striker have gotten their hands on a real WMD-namely Nimrod. They’ve used it and the head of Bastion to create something even more deadly. What exactly ‘it’ is will play out in the second issue, I guess. Before the maniacal villain can tell us his dastardly plan, he is interrupted by our “edgy” new X-Force team.
     The dialogue between Risman (a cool literary name like Wily Loman from Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman) and his henchmen is downright creepy as they compare mutants to the minions of Satan. When the X-Force team catches up with them, they are the ones getting purified in three to four pages of non-stop blood-letting which includes panels of gratuitous violence like a Quinton Tarrintino film on crack.
      The writers are Craig Kyle and Christ Yost. Sadly, I am not familiar with there work so this is my first conscious exposure to them. The art by Clayton Crain is very top-notch and uniquely stylistic. Coming in at $2.99 for the first issue, it is well worth the price and the subsequent issues are half as good as this- Marvel has a possible hit on their hands. If you like your comics bloody, and brother…I mean bloody, then this one is for you.