𝕎𝕙𝕚𝕔𝕙 ℂ𝕠𝕞𝕚𝕔𝕤 𝔸𝕣𝕖 𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝔹𝕖𝕤𝕥 𝔹𝕠𝕠𝕜𝕤 𝕐𝕠𝕦 ℂ𝕒𝕟 𝔹𝕦𝕪?:

ɴᴇᴡ ꜱᴜᴘᴇʀʜᴇʀᴏ ᴄᴏᴍɪᴄ ʙᴏᴏᴋ & ɢʀᴀᴘʜɪᴄ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ʀᴀᴛɪɴɢꜱ & ʀᴇᴠɪᴇᴡꜱ

[ 𝙼𝚊𝚛𝚟𝚎𝚕 / 𝙳𝙲 𝙲𝚘𝚖𝚒𝚌𝚜 / 𝙸𝚖𝚊𝚐𝚎 / 𝙸𝚗𝚍𝚒𝚎 ]

11-06-19 X-Force #1

I usually don’t say a lot about art in my reviews. Usually, in today’s comics the art falls into a few categories:

• Standard and does the job
  
• Standard with poor storytelling so the comic is hard to read
  
• Above-average to excellent but there’s not much that’s unique about it

Because of this, there’s little to say about the art most of the time. The art in this comic is rough around the edges but it’s striking, dynamic and unique. My only complaint is that some characters are a bit too exaggerated. One guy in particular looks like “Bane” and “The Hulk” had a baby. To be fair, though I think that guy was cybernetically enhanced so maybe it makes sense. With that said, I have to ask why the knockoff “Image” 90s-style cover when the interior art is so much better? That cover makes me think “oh a real ho-hum comic. One purely made to leech more money out of me”.

We begin this comic with “Domino” infiltrating some anti-human group. Immediately this group is infinitely more interesting and more menacing than the people in “House/Powers Of X”. We then cut to “Wolverine” and “Beast” as “Wolverine” fights off a monster that attacks “Beast”. Counter to every other “X-book”, “Krakoa” here has a dark side with predators around every corner. This is so much more interesting than the “paradise” the other books portray. At this point, this comic is pretty damn good… Then they start fucking it up…

Next, there’s an info page explaining that “Black Tom” controls plants and is connected to “Krakoa” through them. As always, this could simply be explained in the actual story which doesn’t need to be “stopped” by these info pages. Also, if you’re going to explain something, explain how “Black Tom” has plant-based powers. As far as I knew his power was to shoot energy through a staff. I assume this is a secondary mutation but with this big relaunch, there are a lot of new readers. These comics have done a piss-poor job on filling people on things like this. Anyway, “Black Tom” senses something and goes to warn everyone. This seems to be a false alarm because it’s actually the “Marauders” team on their boat. They’ve brought back a bunch of Russian refugee mutants and very beat up “Colossus”.

Now another info page. This page goes into the “official response” and “unofficial response” to nations that don’t recognize the mutant terrorist ethnostate. The official response is reasonable and sane and the unofficial response is all the stupid nonsense that makes this status quo unbearably stupid. 

Elsewhere we see some of the anti-mutant people from the beginning on a commercial airline flight. We then cut to “Xavier” and “Sage” telepathically discussing the fact that “Domino” has been missing for a while. “Xavier” then takes a fast-travel plant to “Sokovia” where it seems like they’re on board with acknowledging the mutant terrorist ethnostate. There’s then a short scene with “Jean” and a healing guy in a place called “Healing Gardens” healing “Colossus” and the refugees. 

Back with the anti-mutant people see now see they’ve used gas or something to knock out everyone else on the plane. They then jump from the plane down to “Krokoa” below. They look like “The Reavers” but I don’t think they are referred to by that in this comic. Somehow they used “Domino” to get through “Krokoa’s” defenses. “Black Tom” is suspicious about “Domino” suddenly reappearing and start talking in the third person. It’s annoying…

He also calls “Xavier” “boss” and that seems really out of character to me. Then “Xavier” says something that is so stupid it’s exasperating. He says “all mutants can be trusted”… “Chuck” the guy you’re talking to is usually a criminal asshole. Your whole island is filled with terrorist criminals you use to fight. What the fuck are you talking about?! How the fuck can this idiot be this fucking naive or say something this Goddamn stupid! C’mon comic you were doing alright at first!

The anti-mutant people then land and start murking mutants left and right. “Black Tom” fights off a few as “Xavier” runs away. “Black Tom” in the middle of this mentions the “stinking genitals of all Krakoa”. For fucks’ sake with this dialog! Anyway, as “Xavier” runs, we learn that the anti-mutant people have stuff that blocks telepathy. “Wolverine”, “Beast”, and “Jean” join the fight and “Jean” at one point thinks “it’s time to be smart and swift and violent”. Dammit comic, you’re getting dumb. She can just fight them without sounding like an asshole. Then one of the guys shoots “Xavier”. This would be a concern before “House/ Powers Of X” but now we know there are clones of “Xavier” that “Proteus” uses and we know “Xavier” regularly backs up his own mind. So this is nothing more than a cheap cliffhanger and plot point for other books. 

This was so close to being genuinely good, but this terrible status quo is like an anchor the weighs down any good idea in any “X-book” now. This almost feels like the book was too good and someone said “make it stupider” so it wouldn’t completely outclass the other books. Even with all that, this should be the main “X-book”. Besides being kind of violent there’s nothing all that “X-force” about it. It’s got “Jean” and “Beast” on the team for God’s sake! There’s hope with this one. I hope that it isn’t in vain… This one shows some genuine effort so even though I’m on the fence I’m going to give it a pass. C+

Recommendation: One Of The Better Books You Can Buy (Barely)