X-Force #2 - Marvel Comics

X-FORCE No. 2, March 2019

It is very clear from the frantic nature of this twenty page periodical’s plot, that Ed Brisson’s plan to “drop the reader right in the middle of it” with his “Sins Of The Past” storyline was certainly delivering the goods to this comic’s 32,420 strong audience in January 2019, courtesy of a screenplay which is simply packed full of pulse-pounding pugilism and gun-play as the “more militaristic force to assist mutants” bravely battle “to stop a mutant genocide” in East Transia. In fact, this title’s opening quarter is so ferociously action-packed that it is arguably easy to see just why Warpath’s savage bloodlust disconcertingly carries James Proudstar to the point where Cannonball has to intervene before the Apache cold-bloodedly guts a hapless member of the Transian Armed Forces with his large hunting knife; “X-Force doesn’t do this. We can’t kill when there are other options. There, I knocked him out for ya.”

However, that doesn’t mean for a moment that the “Marvel exclusive writer” simply relies upon endless sense-shattering shenanigans with which to draw in any perusing bibliophile who just happens to have picked up this particular publication off of the spinner rack. Far from it, as Issue Two of “X-Force” additionally provides plenty of intrigue in the form of President Constantin’s secret working relationship with the heavily augmented Ahab, and the senior soldier’s misplaced belief that his son Gheorghe’s grotesque mutation was as a result of direct contact with other contagiously infected Homo Sapiens Superiors, rather than “something in our DNA [which] could have allowed for such an abomination…” This enthrallingly dangerous, yet seemingly mutually-beneficial association provides plenty of character to the facially-disfigured former commandant and provides the grim-faced pair’s rather prickly exchange with lots of enjoyable menace, especially when Roderick Campbell is angrily accused of spouting dangerous Pro-Mutant propaganda when he explains that the military man’s offspring “was always a mutant.”

Just as intriguingly penned is Shatterstar’s marvellously taut relationship with Kid Cable, which at one point actually results in the two ‘heroes’ exchanging blows with one another at a temporary mutant refugee outpost on the Romanian/Transian border. It’s abundantly clear from Ben Gaveedra’s hateful distrust of the adolescent Nathan Summers that as far as Dazzler’s son is concerned everything the young time-traveller does or says will only infuriate the Prince of Blades further and cement the Mojoworld warrior’s belief that he “will never accept” this version of Ol’ Blue Eye. Such dissent within the already hot-tempered team genuinely looks set to erupt at any moment throughout this comic’s narrative and provides the Canadian author’s story-line with a palpable edginess that is debatably hard to stop reading.

First published on the "Dawn of Comics" website.'

Writer: Ed Brisson, Artist: Dylan Burnett, and Colorist: Jesus Aburtov

X-Force #1 - Marvel Comics

X-FORCE No. 1, February 2019

Proudly proclaimed as bringing “the mutant squad together again” for “an all-new, high-octane… adventure”, Ed Brisson’s screenplay for Issue One of “X-Force” must have pleased the vast majority of this comic’s 57,369 strong audience in December 2018 with its mix of break-neck pacing, politically-motivated military machinations and over-the-top gun-play. Indeed, it’s arguably hard to find fault with the Ontario-born writer’s intriguing storyline which simultaneously depicts both the original team of Domino, Shatterstar, Boom Boom, Cannonball and Warpath hunting down “the murderer of their former leader”, and Cable’s “time-travelling younger version” infiltrating a Transian Science and Research Department for the living remains of Deathlok.

But whilst this opening instalment of “a new ongoing series that reunites the squad… for vengeance” seemingly lives up to its Canadian author’s promise that “the team are willing to do things that no one else in the Marvel Universe will”, such as when James Proudstar badly beats up a hapless anti-mutant terrorist despite the man having already surrendered, Dylan Burnett’s penciling debatably is far less impressive, particularly when drawing the likes of Thunderbird’s brother who rather than being portrayed as a proud apache super-hero disconcertingly comes across as a brooding, maladjusted long-haired hulk, whose misshapen form skulks within the shadows; “You said no killing unless necessary. I just hurt him.”

Fortunately however, the “Murder Book” self-publisher’s penmanship still manages to successfully carry this book’s pulse-pounding plot along, and even injects some genuine laugh-out-loud moments into his script courtesy of Nathan Summer‘s poorly thought out mission to retrieve a homicidally deranged Deathlok. The partially disassembled cybernetic soldier’s insane outbursts at his adolescent would-be rescuer are thoroughly entertaining, and in many ways it’s a shame that by the end of this twenty-two page periodical the alternate future assassin has once again attained full control over his “psychopathic human host.”

Somewhat oddly, this publication also contains a separate short story focusing upon Boom Boom entitled “The Big Sleep In” which explains precisely why Tabitha Smith wasn’t present when the rest of X-Force were battling anti-mutant terrorists during a night-time raid upon a warehouse in Queens, New York. Sketched by Juanan Ramirez and penned by Brisson, this tale contains all the explosions any perusing bibliophile would expect from a story revolving around “Doctor Madame McSplode”, but nonetheless rather jars with the look and feel of the comic’s previous narrative.

The regular cover art of "X-FORCE" No. 1 by Pepe Larraz and David Curiel