Madpenguin
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A cooler name to match a cooler style.
-
Dec 8, 2011
- by Madpenguin
- posted in Speech Bubbles: Comics & Graphic Novels
Rating:
Following the events that took place on the island of Genosha, the New Mutants are slowly recovering from the wounds of war that involves Warlocks death, and Rahne aka Wolfsbane, choosing to remain on the island. The end of the team appears to be on the horizon. However, the leader of the group Cable, refuses to believe this and is prepared to create a new beginning. He embarks on his on own mission to find new recruits. -summary
+4
This story follows immediately after the three title crossover, X-Men: X-Tinction Agenda. Personally, I feel all large crossovers should have some type of effect on storyline continuity; in this case, either the entire Marvel Universe, or characters in the main story should come away with something different. Usually, Marvel comes through on that end, and in the aforementioned 9 part crossover, the New Mutants were the ones to suffer the most; one could consider that story arc to be, "the beginning of the end". Aptly titled so, the first three stories in this book ends the New Mutants chapter, and the series is renamed into X-Force, with the team taking up a newer, paramilitary entity. Their leader Cable makes it no secret that they are indeed fighting a war, and now it's time to be just as aggressive as the opposition if necessary. This trade paperback collects The New Mutants 98 - 100, X-Force 1 - 4, and Spider-Man 16. These stories were originally written in 1991 by Rob Liefeld, Fabian Nicieza, and Todd Macfarlane.
To say that X-Force was an instant hit for Marvel is an understatement, but I seriously doubt it was a surprise. After all, there was a serious buzz going on about Cable during that time, so much, that about 2 years later or so, he would rank #1 amongst all superheros across comics. Quite impressive for a character who was around for only about a year, and going up against other characters with 30 to 50 years of history. The titles themselves would be very interesting, containing lots of action, new characters introduced, attitude, and surprises. X-Force was able to do what X-Factor couldn't do, and that was completely differentiate from the X-Men. To include, the characters are teenagers that can be related to.
The first three stories are clearly the clean up setting up the foundation for the newly christianed X-Force. They mesh action and drama really well, with a dose of comedy here and there. The last remnants of the team, Cannonball and Boom Boom, appear to have a hard time moving on and this causes them to clash with Cable. During this time, characters both old and new would appear, with the super strong mutant Warpath joining the team, who was a former member of the White Queen's Hellions, the mutants Shatterstar and Feral would make their first appearances, and for the villains, the Merc with the Mouth, Deadpool, would grace us with his wisecracking antics. The last three stories end the series really well.
The X-Force title develops the characters a little more, and sees the team going up against mutant terrorist, and taking on the Juggernaut in a short crossover with Spider-Man. I really enjoyed Liefield's writing, there's nothing cerebral going on here, and the main intent is to provide fun in which he does. Liefeld's artwork, something that would be heavily criticized later on in his career is among the best features in these stories. The character designs have a lot of spunk to them and heavy exaggeration; such as the Juggernaut appearing to be far bigger than what he usually is. The action panels are very entertaining and pretty easy to follow. Now the dialog, hmm, I really don't think it has aged well. There are moments where Cable will toss out some really good lines, while on other occasions in regards to other characters, the witty dialog would feel heavily forced, and as a result, gave off a feel as if it was trying way too hard to be funny. This is actually something that would plague the X-Men titles running around this time.
I can imagine some folks having an issue with the over the top action, and even I would admit that the battle against Juggernaut had a redundant feel. But I think this can be over looked a little since the story never took itself seriously at all. Overall, this part of the series was entertaining during its original run, and it provided stiff competition for the X-Men and Spider-Man titles. Numerous times, it was actually better than the X-Men and these stories hold up pretty well. If you're a fan of the X-Men or completely action oriented stories then this is for you.
Pros:
-Cool characters, action, and artwork
Cons:
-Some shaky dialog at times, may not appeal to the non action crowd at all
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About the reviewer
Madpenguin
Ranked #1
Ranked #1
Member Since:
May 22, 2011
Last Login: Jun 15, 2013 08:21 PM UTC
Last Login: Jun 15, 2013 08:21 PM UTC
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About this topic
X-Force is a fictional Marvel Comics superhero team, one of several spin-offs of the popular X-Men franchise. Conceived by writer/illustrator Rob Liefeld, the team was formed in New Mutants, vol. 1 #100 (April 1991) and soon afterwards was featured in its own series.
The group was a new incarnation of the 1980s team, the New Mutants. Led by the mutant Cable, X-Force was more militant and aggressive than the X-Men. X-Force was successful in the early 1990s. The series' popularity waned after Liefeld left, causing Marvel to implement several reforms in the title from 1995 until 2001 with varying degrees of success.
Low sales on the series prompted Marvel to revamp the title in 2001 with a new cast in the form of a group of self-interested young mutants who were gathered together by a corporation to become media stars and used the name X-Force. X-Force, vol. 1 was canceled with #129 and relaunched as X-Statix, which featured the later incarnation of the team. After X-Statix was canceled with #26, Marvel reunited the original X-Force team for a six-issue 2004 miniseries plotted and drawn by Liefeld.
In 2007–2008, during the Messiah Complex crossover, a new version of X-Force was formed that had Wolverine leading a more militaristic black ops branch of the X-Men, forming the basis for a new X-Force series starting February 2008 by writers Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost, plus Clayton Crain as the artist. The series came to a conclusion in September 2010 as part of the ...
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The group was a new incarnation of the 1980s team, the New Mutants. Led by the mutant Cable, X-Force was more militant and aggressive than the X-Men. X-Force was successful in the early 1990s. The series' popularity waned after Liefeld left, causing Marvel to implement several reforms in the title from 1995 until 2001 with varying degrees of success.
Low sales on the series prompted Marvel to revamp the title in 2001 with a new cast in the form of a group of self-interested young mutants who were gathered together by a corporation to become media stars and used the name X-Force. X-Force, vol. 1 was canceled with #129 and relaunched as X-Statix, which featured the later incarnation of the team. After X-Statix was canceled with #26, Marvel reunited the original X-Force team for a six-issue 2004 miniseries plotted and drawn by Liefeld.
In 2007–2008, during the Messiah Complex crossover, a new version of X-Force was formed that had Wolverine leading a more militaristic black ops branch of the X-Men, forming the basis for a new X-Force series starting February 2008 by writers Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost, plus Clayton Crain as the artist. The series came to a conclusion in September 2010 as part of the ...
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I don't really mind when creative teams change, especially in the case of Marvel, because they allow their writers more creative freedom and they're just not afraid to take risk unlike DC.