I posted about Rob Liefeld's X-Force #1 awhile back, and have kept picking up issues from the dollar comic bins, having read all the way up to this issue #15, including the crossover event with Spider-Man & Juggernaut early in the series, as well as the 4-part Shattershot crossover event spanning the early 90's X-titles. I must say that free from the bias many harbor toward the lightning rod/whipping boy of 90's comics, Rob Liefeld, I've actually enjoyed the series quite a bit. As stated before, X-Force is all new to me, having missed it all during it's heyday- I knew virtually nothing about the characters before. The action has been good, the story moving at a good clip throughout the series so far, and the artwork pretty over-the-top. It's also interesting to read about Cable & Deadpool so close to their origin- these books are where it all evolved, and that's interesting to me. Liefeld handed pencilling X-Force over to Mark Pacella by issue #10, and Greg Capullo takes over on pencils in this issue #15. Capullo is currently the artist on the New 52 Batman title, and that's interesting because Liefeld is currently pencilling Hawk & Dove for DC Comics' said relaunch. In my humble opinion, these are two successful, talented artists who have really evolved over the years, and have both been successful in their field.
A lot has happened in the first fourteen issues of X-Force, including clashes with G.W. Bridge & S.H.I.E.L.D., Juggernaut, the Mutant Liberation Front, The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, the mysterious Stryfe, and the deadly X-Ternals.
Initially exposed as a traitor, we find here that Domino was actually replaced with an impostor (Deadpool's shape-shifting ex-girlfriend, Vanessa Carlysle- hired by Tolliver). She roasts Deadpool standing over her rescuer, reuniting with Cable to run off after the mysterious Tolliver, the illegal weapons merchant responsible for breaking up Six Pack, Cable's disbanded & disenchanted group of mercenaries.
Racing to the roof, Domino & Cable catch Tolliver's helicopter before escaping, the grim soldier from the future telling Domino to jump before it gets too high up so he can blow it out of the sky, and to reassemble his X-Force for his return later. He teleports onto his ship Graymalkin before hitting the water, leaving Domino crawling to shore, and a partially rejuvenated Deadpool to escape!
Here at the end we are directed to issue #1 of Cable's new solo title, and three of the other X-Titles for the "X-Cutioner's Song" crossover event before reading X-Force #16. I've read Cable issues #1 & #2 in the past week, and found all the "X-Cutioner's Song" crossover issues just this Tuesday- four hours of searching through the dollar comics at two separate V-Stock stores! I was unexpected swept up by this book, Cable, Deadpool, and all the characters in X-Force. This has been fun, and a big part of the adventure is hunting down the back issues in the wild!
More Later- Make It Fun!
X-Cutioner's Song got me into reading comics at the time. I was blown away at the thought of Professor X being killed off, not knowing at the time that it was merely an annual thing to have big crossevers, and the impermanence of any given character's death.
ReplyDeleteReading it for the first time Mario, just before my 40th birthday :D
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