Review– ‘X-Force’ #1 Looks Great But There’s Problems Under The Hood

Since its creation in 1991 out of the ashes of the former New Mutants book, X-Force has become one of the bedrock X-titles. Nearly every major line-wide relaunch of the franchise has, sooner or later, offered up its own spin on the series. Through the years, a number of different riffs on the concept have emerged, from the initial “hit them before they hit us” approach to the celebrity mutants of Peter Milligan and Mike Allred’s X-Force to the secret murder squad variation to the most recent “mutant CIA” iteration from the island of Krakoa. One of the key ingredients to early success in each new version is the reveal of how the different elements — plot, themes, characters — of series’ pasts are being rejiggered.

On those terms, the first chapter of X-Force from Geoffrey Thorne and Marcus To is mostly successful. It offers a version of a direction that’s been done before in X-Force, but less often than some of the other directions. It introduces a lineup made up of relatively new characters to the X-Force banner, with just a handful who have been on versions of X-Force before. But unfortunately, the execution of those elements is lacking, leading to another lackluster “From the Ashes” launch.

The premise behind X-Force #1 is simple enough: the mutant inventor Forge has created a thingamajig that helps him locate “fractures” that threaten the world. He puts together a team to seal these cracks before they break and doom the planet. Comic book violence ensues. This setup isn’t terribly different from that of the Marvel NOW era Cable and X-Force book, but in the grand scheme of X-Force series, it’s not the most re-used setup.

It’s a premise that has some potential, along with a cast that includes some X-Force stalwarts like Sage, Betsy Braddock and Deadpool (in a guest-appearance tied to the release of Deadpool and Wolverine no less shameless for the fact that Thorne has Deadpool acknowledge it as such in the issue) as well as relative X-Force newbies like Rachel Summers, Surge, and the mysterious Tank. And the whole thing looks absolutely gorgeous. 

In fact, the clear standout of the issue is artist Marcus To’s work. The opening pages, in which Forge is watching a holographic recreation of an old X-Men mission, affords To the chance to draw an assortment of X-Men in their 80s-era glory (and for readers to behold To’s versions of those characters). His action scenes are kinetic and shift perspective effortlessly without being confusing. Everyone looks fantastic in the sharp new red/black/yellow X-Force suits. And To has quietly become the definitive Betsy Braddock artist, to the point that the issue almost suffers just from her not being in it more. 

Outside of the art, however, X-Force #1 has some problems. Character voices are off. Sage’s internal narration reads like ChatGPT, even as her spoken dialogue is more naturalistic (Forge also irritatingly refers to her as “Tessa” throughout most of the issue, despite having called her Sage consistently throughout the Krakoa Era”). Rachel is too quippy.

Deadpool — a character with which many writers struggle to struggle the right balance of metatextuality in his dialogue — is too schticky, though thankfully his role in the book seems to be more of a one-off. Though the overarching plot — finding world-threatening fractures and fixing them — is intriguing, the actual manifestation of it in the issue is a letdown. To draws the hell out of X-Force’s fight with a sentient slime monster, but at the same time, ‘sentient slime monster” isn’t exactly the kind of grand-scale threat implied by Forge’s mission.  

There are enough interesting pieces in X-Force #1 to keep it from being a complete wash. As long as To is on the book, it won’t look bad. Hopefully, as the series progresses, Thorne will get a better handle on the characters and the pieces will be assembled in a way that leads to a better overall story. But as a singular entity, X-Force #1 is another disappointing “From the Ashes” launch.