The 1990’s Strike Back With X-Force #1
by Josh Davison
[*Mild Spoilers Ahead!]
The classic X-Force is back. Domino, Warpath, Shatterstar, and Cannonball attack a warehouse full of Transian terrorists in their search for Kid Cable. They learn that he’s promised them information on the X-Men and the Avengers in exchange for guns, and he uses them to locate their dealer in Transia. X-Force follows this lead to Transia, where Kid Cable is in the process of freeing the captured Deathlok.
In a back-up story, Boom-Boom sleeps through her alarm and must follow the trail X-Force left.
X-Force #1 brings back the clandestine X-Men kill-team to hunt down and Kid Cable and an unknown weapons dealer feeding weapons to a mutant-killing military leader. It’s a relatively straightforward story, and it’s not a bad way to get the gang back together.
I was a huge fan of X-Force by Kyle Craig, Christopher Yost, and Clayton Crain and Rick Remender’s subsequent Uncanny X-Force book. I’ve even read bits of the X-Force, Uncanny X-Force, and Cable and X-Force books that followed during Marvel NOW! That said, I’d never actually read the original X-Force material from the 1990’s.
This book does retain much of the 90’s feeling with brutal violence brought about by numerous guns, explosions, and bladed weapons. The dialogue is decent. There are a lot of threats and pseudo-military speak. It’s about what one would expect.
The art is where things get a bit shakier. Dylan Burnett provides the art in the main story, and it’s a little goofy looking at times. Body proportions are out of whack, and Warpath’s head looks strangely cylindrical. It doesn’t suit the tone for which X-Force is aiming. Jesus Aburtov’s color work looks decent, though. Juanan Ramirez and colorist Brian Reber cover the Boom-Boom story, and it looks a lot better.
X-Force #1 is an alright read. It doesn’t blow me away, but it never gets outright bad. It’s got some decent jokes, the action is solid, and the characters are somewhat interesting. If you enjoyed the original book, you will likely enjoy this one. Feel free to pick it up.
X-Force #1 comes to us from writer Ed Brisson, artists Dylan Burnett and Juanan Ramirez, color artists Jesus Aburtov and Brian Reber, letterer VC’s Cory Petit, cover artist Pepe Larraz with David Curiel, and variant cover artists Rob Liefeld with Romulo Fajardo Jr., Gerardo Zaffino, Leinil Francis Yu with Sunny Gho, Skottie Young, Mike Mignola with Dave Stewart, and Marko Djurdjevic.
