In this thread we discuss X-Force 2019

Admittedly I was sort of looking forward to this series, I don't know, I just enjoyed the old X-Force book when I was a kid and I like some of the more obscure characters that are featured in this book (Cannonball, Warpath, I even sort of like Deathlok) However, it seems to be one of those series that won't exist past 15 or so issues with excessive violence just for the sake of it like latter incarnations of X-Force or the Weapon X book that recently proceeded this that featured Warpath.

I didn't think the book was overall that bad so I suppose I'll list some of the things I found interesting and the much greater amount of things that I thought were pretty bad.

Good.

-The roster is pretty good.

-The idea of the team being framed for murder by a foreign government and being on the run is something a little different for an X-Men title.

-The cover variants are pretty great, but, alas, they are essentially false advertising for a total gap in quality inside. The costume redesigns are good as well and much needed for certain characters.

-The Kid Cable and Deathlok arrangement was a bit interesting.

-The idea of time jumping arms dealer is interesting. Don't F it up, Brisson.

Bad.

-Marvel just can't avoid being woke with having mutants be "refugees" to Transia, which is bizarre because it never explains where the mutants are refugees from. Mutant land?? Anyways, it also doesn't make sense they would seek refuge in Transia considering it is a hot spot for weird activity--like, Chthon (ancient demon) and the High Evolutionary (crazy bad guy) are there, there is also the weird animal people from Wundagore that have had uprisings in the past....it has always been sort of mystical and science fiction-y in its history but I guess Brisson wanted an analogue for a recovering Eastern Bloc country and voila....Transia.

-Kid Cable is a character that is from the past of the future who traveled back from the future to kill himself in the past to probably save his future. LOL X-Men.

- A minor nitpick but Cannonball seems to be second chair to Domino despite Cannoball being the leader of several teams himself and serving under several of Marvel's most high profile leaders, including Captain America when he was an Avenger. This could change as it's only the first issue.

-The art is really, really awful, especially for a major title of a major franchise from a major publisher. I guess it's all subjective but some of it looks like it was drawn by a Sunday funnies artist. I can draw better.

-In the back up story that features Boom Boom her powers are apparently back to what they were 20 years ago, despite evolving a bit in NextWave.

-The art is really bad.

-Domino seems oddly pro mutant when battling mercenaries that were hunting mutants, despite the fact Domino has been a mercenary herself who has hunted mutants. This is sort of another nitpick though.

-Did I mention the art is really bad?

So, that covers most of my thoughts for the first issue, which I thought overall wasn't that bad. I have actually seen that a lot of people actually enjoyed it.

What you think??

Post Script: I really didn't like the art

Well just quickly going over how i went into reading this book. Extermination ended and Brisson said that Ahab and Rachel would be showing up sometime later. I read this, got excited and then promptly forgot that i read this. I then went into the book looking to see Ahab, didn't see him and went looking for other people to be bothered by this at which point I saw Brisson's tweet again and closed my laptop for the day since i'd lost my online privileges.

As for X-Force. The story was good.

Having just read Cable's solo series recently something that really bothered me as the series left the major X-Men plotlines of the 90s was how much time he spent chasing after terrorist that really had only very loose reasons to have gotten his attention. THIS was great motivation as right off the bat were told that there are weapons from HIS future being sold. Which already gives us possible hints at why he showed up here out of what should be his place in the timeline. And it gives us a reason why THESE terrorist are special and have personal stake for Kid Cable.

The dialogue and writing are solid. And pretty much every scene set up a potential future issue. Clearly X-Force is going to have it out with Kid Cable, but Cannonball from the start seemed like he was regretting what he signed up for and who he signed up with.

I love the BoomBoom back issue device with her following up on scenes an issue late. Hope they continue this instead of putting her back with the others because honestly she shined alot more here then she ever would've had she been with the group from the start.

My only issue here, is that they are being forced to team up with Kid Cable way earlier then i expected. Really they could've ended the issue with them fighting Kid Cable and losing him and then finding out that they were wanted. Then it could've added to the tension of the team chasing him for killing Cable with them believing he killed a foreign leader AND got them blamed for it. Now it's like all the tension from X-Force avenging Cable has been thrown out for now because they have a different problem.

It's good, but BoomBoom pushes it to a 4/5 since i really like that kind of framing device. A solid start to this run....though the art is...struggling.

i like the art.

its rather refreshing

i liked it ill go into more detail when not mobile but a solid 4

@koays: Ahab is supposed to show up in issue 3 or so. I believe I saw that on a solicitation.

Why would Cannonball be regretful?? Fighting mercenaries, violating international laws and violently assaulting people is pretty much what they used to do all the time in the original X-Force and being framed for murder also wouldn't be anything new either oddly enough. And he used to do all this with the same people he is working with now sans Deathlok, and I am pretty sure the original X-Force ran into Deathlok in his 90s series.

What do you think Boom Boom's developments being ignored?? She essentially could throw napalm and moved beyond perpetual woman-child in more recent outings which seems to not be a thing in this short story. Could be different as time goes on though.

Kid Cable was probably introduced quickly for the same reason the team is just already assembled from the jump; comics these days have no promise of any longevity whatsoever and could be canceled withing 8 issues, so, you have to jump right in. If the series were like a television show or animated project, and was given a certain amount of episodes it would have likely been different. I suppose you could have had Domino and Warpath still together after the Weapon X series and they seek out Cannonball in the first issue and then go into a Shatterstar recruitment arc from there, but because of the restraints of the modern comic industry you get what you get.

Yeah, I am not sure if I mentioned it but I am not very fond of the art either.

@cattlebattle: Hmm...Feb? Heres hoping this isn't a 6 issue arc then. I can see a little more for this.

Yea but as far as we know hes a reserved Avenger raising a family. His comments about not killing anyone and sorta being ignored by the much more aggressive seeming Domino and Shatterstar make me feel like hes going to have the biggest problem with things the longer this goes on. He's so far removed from X-Force, it's like meeting up with your old friends from the neighborhood and finding out they still spend there weekends drinking and clubbing. Something about that seen made me feel like when they all agreed to go after Kid Cable his idea was to capture and interrogate and theirs was to possibly kill him regardless of the consequences.

Boom boom. I'm honestly just pretty sure they either purposely ignored the powers to give a classic feel or it was just a one off use. Personality wise...I think that was definetly a throwback to what we'd feel was a sort of Tabitha thing to do. Doesnt seem entirely out of character for her to oversleep an miss the big mission by a couple hours and even if the back up issues are played for comedy theres alot of room being left for her to show off her competence.

See I'm not even mad that the team is already together. Just that my whole hype going into this was Kid Cables going after Ahab, and X-Force is after Kid Cable. And 50% of that hype is gone, with a promise that by the 3rd issue we'll start resolving the other 50%. I mean I get that we live in the microwave culture age(its sort of my beef with people complaining about a weekly series like uncanny) but an entire issue couldve been dedicated to X-Force finally catching up to Kid Cable without losing any of the momentum.

It's a define nitpick because it's the first issue and who knows what'll happen. But I feel like it's a missed opportunity to see a Kid Cable versus Cables team moment where both he and the team get to shine.

Lol yes the art is challenging

@koays: Yeah, you can see it here. The covers for this series have been pretty solid so far. If only the interiors were as good.

https://insidepulse.com/2018/11/20/marvel-comics-universe-february-2019-solicitations-spoilers-seeds-of-uncanny-x-men-extermination-continue-in-x-force-with-kid-cable-more/

Eh, I see what you are saying but when he ran with the Avengers he was murdering aliens and violently beating Hydra agents alongside Red Hulk like it was nothing, and according to Marvel's timescale this stuff was happening like a week ago. Cannonball was always more level headed than the other characters on his current team though, probably because he was usually team leader.

NextWave does seem like it was out of canon considering the tone of the series. Still though, bit of a shame. I like to see some characters evolve there powers a bit.

I like long term story telling, as if my constant mentioning of the Claremont days didn't give it away, and I hate all this immediate satisfaction form of writing. It's just the way comics are these days unfortunately. If I were writing this I would tease Kable (ha get it, I combined Kid and Cable, I am a genius) but not have him meet and interact with the tam until at least the third story arc. The first stories should be focused on the purpose of the team and why they are recruiting the OG New Mutant/X-Force members.

Yes, I don't like the art. I think it's awful.

@cattlebattle: Bah...its just too early. We dont know for sure of course, but this reminds me of ALOT of the little short X-runs.

Yea I can see where the writer might just be taping on the levelheadedness as a reminder of older characterization, but I still feel like it could be saying something else considering it's been so long since hes really been around any of these characters who have all pretty much stayed in the same niche.

I feel like the BoomBoom retcon happened before this. Like when she appeared during the San Fran Era she was back to classic powers and people commented on it. This is her first major appearance since then though I think so I guess it could go any direction.

See I'm very middle ground on writing like that. I love having a couple of back up plots running at once but I also know that alot of writers and fans are short term. Like between the time Nimrod showed up in Claremonts run and when they fought him we had Beyonder, Magneto, Selene, and I wanna even say freaking Forge show up. Theres no way that can happen today and every writer who's tried hasn't made it a year. But at the same time I cant stand easy bake oven plots because it's part of the reason X-Force is on like vol 9 or 10 despite having only 1 long run.

Also...I feel like you might have an issue with the artwork here

They need to add more members. At least 2 or 3 more.

@koays: The first time I saw the solicit, it was from a distance and I thought it was Emplate and I got excited, only to find out it was 80's cyborg man with obvious name. I haven't been to keen on him (Ahab) since his return honestly. Nor have I really ever been a fan of the character. Didn't Rachel defeat him permanently in Excalibur?? It was probably open ended. He was certainly touting "I will return in nearly 25 years comic reader time!!!" in his defeat.

You would figure Cannonball would be more hardened by that logic then?? When he was with the Avengers he was captured and tortured by the Abyss and was later sold into slavery by scavengers, all the while violently fighting both earthbound and intergalactic threats. All Warpath and Domino have been doing is running around, growling, and shooting and stabbing henchmen with guns for the past couple of years ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Boom Boom appeared in Yost and Kyle's X-Force after Nextwave and I am pretty certain she still had her napalm powers after that. Could be wrong.

Yeah, those days of that sort of storytelling are done. At least at Marvel.

Off topic, but, I think you might be wrong about Nimrod, after he shows up he battles the X-Men and Juggernaut a couple of issues later. The battle you're thinking of that takes place after Secret Wars 2 is the second altercation after Wolverine stabs your waifu. As for Forge, he shows up a lot earlier than people thinks he does, it's just that he is a background character for a long time before he joins the X-Men. But yeah, you're right about characters showing up and being background characters for years before they "graduate" Cypher was another one who is around long before he is featured.

X-Force has a lot of volumes due to weird decisions. Like Liefeld had weird, almost out of continuity runs, then there was X-Statix, there was also the "Uncanny X-Force" line up with Psylocke and Puck that really didn't need to be named X-Force. I think just "X-Force" has only had 4 or 5 volumes.

Anyways, I just think there needed to be more stories due to things like Shatterstar being in another dimension is his mini, then he suddenly shows up in this series without any mention of anything. Would have been neat if the Weapon X series had a one off, epilogue type issue and the Shatterstar solo tied into the first couple of issue of this series to better ground it before it takes off on its own.

Yeah, I think the art is pretty awful.

only one female member really?

I think that art is abysmal. -_-

The art was terrible.

The whole concept of Kid Cable is just ridiculous in my opinion.

Didn't we already have some Cable timecop stuff recently with him chasing some guy thru time who was giving away futuristic weapons?

I certainly can get behind a reunion of sorts for Xforce and them coming together for a mission but involving another time displaced younger version of an existing character is just...well didn't we just get done suffering thru the O5 era...why do this again.

If the idea of Xforce gathering now is to hunt down Ahab and Rachel then fine. Even the idea of Scott coming back and teaming with Logan to takedown threats like Sinister and others is a good premise for Xforce. Adding the idea of finding Rachel and taking down Ahab, would definitely be a book worth reading and the concept and stories alone could probably give is more than 12-15 issues of a story. I know this is just my preference as far as roster and all but really making a team consisting of: Cyclops. Wolverine. Domino. Magik. Moonstar. Cannonball. Warpath. Boom Boom. and maybe even Havok would be just fine. I know this is following the ridiculous Extermination and whatever the hell is happening in Uncanny but really the whole Kid Cable murdering his older self thing was a waste of time and pages. Simplify this stuff Marvel...there's nothing wrong with telling a straightforward story. Simply, Cable could have died trying to protect the O5 and as his last act sent them back home, Ahab and his hounds killed him, they took Rachel, now the hunt begins.

All in all while some things like the lineup with a few exceptions is pretty cool. The art and the while Kid Cable thing is enough for me to skip buying this

and no Asian representative. :(

@jhazzroucher: Maybe you should read something like "Monstress". Plenty of women, plenty of Asians. Then maybe you could find a forum for that book so you don't have to post on these forums ever again.

I second that suggestion, a plan where everyone wins

Ok so yea My two cents!

The story takes place it appears right after extermination, during that event the crew present here was already assembled. So honestly you dont need a "how they got together" issue as bad as some other books would of, they were called together by Jean to help with the whole Ahab thing, and decided they had to finish that work before they disbanded (they were all old friends and shit)

Cannonball being almost a wall flower in the first issue hurt, he should be the leader of this group. It may still come but we will see.

Kid Cable is a terrible idea, HOWEVER they killed the old cable so this makes it 100 percent better than the 05 already (you know 3 different angels running around wee) It also kind of resets his age so he COULD and i hope he does have more of a father / mother & son relationship with his parents. Its almost like they kind of, sort of, negated him going to the future and blah blah, because now he is the age he should be if that would of never happened (or atleast close, he looks late teens early 20's I asssume by now Scott and Maddie / Jean would be in early 40's maybe late 30's. When he was born scott was for sure early 20's so math can be fudged to work)

Rachel / Cyclops. So we know They are going to end up hunting down Ahab, who still has Rachel so hey this should be the story that leads into her story and possibly adding her to this team which would be totally legit imo, also the way I read the last page or so of Extermination was that Cable was pulling the strings with Ahab and the 05 to help bring cyclops back or ensure he returned or something, and possibly just following Cyclops Orders all together, if that is the case or anything near that, then Shouldnt Cyke be involved with his son, and possibly this story at some point? So now Add Rachel and Cyclops to the team maybe, Cyclops, Rachel, Kid Cable (familiy wee) Cannonball, Domino, Warpath, Shatterstar possibly Boom Boom if she ever catches up lol, and Death lok (blah on him) not a bad line up at all

The Boom Boom side story or whatever was epic, period and her time bomb power makes her so much better than just some generic whatever they upgraded her too. Im glad she was put back to that status but you know thats just an opinion.

Cable Time Cop stuff, meh it could be worst I actually liked that series lol.

Also I know this is being a terrible comic book fan, but if Cannonballs Avenger stuff never gets mentioned Im ok with that.

I do wish there had been more of a cable vs X force stand off, that would of been nice.

Deathlok ... Why?

And finally the elephant in the room, the ART. I hate to say this because traditionally the art is terrible and I get that, but i think its more stylized kind of like Bachelo's stuff than its really bad, and when I seen the preview I just about gagged at the art but as i read the book, it seemed darker and idk seemed to fit and I kind of grew fond of it. So im ok with the art, but totally understand everyone hating it lol

Also As far as women, and minorities in books. Storm is a strong black woman, and she is fucking awesome and should be in an X man book and thats great but a Character regardless should not be shoe horned into a story because they are a certain gender or race, like i said with storm we SHOULD have strong women and minorites but they shouldn't be forced into a story just because they are one or the other. We dont need an Asian or another woman int he story (we have two btw not one, boom boom is for sure in the book and got way more attention then any of the male characters other than maybe cable) I mean who would you put? karama? She was a new mutant but never x force so she has no reason to be there, psylocke? yea shes in the big boy comics doing big boy stuff (and not asain anymore i think lol) You add some one just because of something they your being racist or sexist and it can ruin the story, they picked characters who had a close relationship with Cable (as well as being pretty popular) and it makes sense so yea, kudos to them for that.

Actually, it's fine if there's no asian representative.

Doesnt matter. We still want you gone. Go read Monstress and find a fandom who appreciates you.....we sure dont.

There are more people who want me to stay. I think. Hehehe :)

So back on topic, how bout dat X force!

@mcklayn: I like it. It had a pretty good first issue. I'm pensive about the future, but based totally on outside information with nothing negative that comes from the book itself.

7.5/10

do you think we will see Scott?

@mcklayn: No way. Marvels gonna get his comeback story together first. Maybe by March we'll see him doing the Ressurection press tour.

Good rating for first issue.

I really didn't like the art.

@cattlebattle: I think your right about Nimrod. But I think when Xavier gets jumped in an ally he was already in the present so it's a LONG time for him to be around as a D Plot before working his way up.

The artist is Dylan Burnett. But I think the most high profile thing hes done outside of this is power rangers, and I'm not seeing much beyond the last 2 years. But hey it looks alot like a really sloppy modern Bacaholo

@koays: I think you're wrong. I think it's only about two issues between his arrival and his assault on Juggernaut. You aren't wrong about long term plots and characters, but, Nimrod wasn't around all that long altogether.

I don't like his art. There are some panels that look to be on par with Hagar the Horrible, and I actually feel like that would be an insult to Hagar the Horrible's artist more than the other way around.

I get that vibe a bit, i dont hate it as much as the rest of the forum seems to but I can see why they do honestly. I think its done on purpose, and some of his stuff on Google was pretty good but yea ive seen alot of people insult Bacaholo's art. I would like to see Humberto Ramos come back for a while, his was always simliar to Bacaholo and alot cleaner :-p of course we could just get Bacahaolo back <.<

I would like to see two or three comics drawn by people (including bacaholo himself) with simliar stylized artwork, maybe Baca, Ramos and this guy idk

Ramos is cleaner than Bachalo!!??

*spits drink*

*falls out of chair*

*has seizure*

Jesus Lord, Odin, Yahweh. God almighty, now I have heard it all.

Bachalo's biggest crime is that he draws sort of cartoonishly simplified characters sometimes. Ramos on the other hand thinks that there are 4000 muscles in human neck.

Ramos is cleaner than the guy drawing X force, not Bachalo sorry if i worded it wrong. Bachalo is by far the best he is my favorite X men artist of all time I was just saying that both The X force guy (Burnett I think?) and Ramos art reminds me a bit of Bachalo's style only alot sloppier

@cattlebattle: This is gonna be one of those things where we post the issue numbers and plots going on in that time frame....because I'm totally down for that even if I'm wrong. I'm actually trying to come up with a reason not to go back and read Claremont up to Fall of the mutants...so far all I've got is that I dont wanna read Phoenix saga or the first few issues with Kitty again.

Bachalo is prob my favorite X-artist because hes so stylized that his art is part of the feel of a book. But his last Uncanny run was full of basically single color backgrounds and the same face for everyone in a panel. His crime for me is laziness since his work in the early 2000s was perfect even if it didn't blend as well when next to other X-books, while his last run had me spending hours trying to figure out if Magik, Dazzler, Emma or the Cuckoos were talking and where the hell they were at when they were doing it.

Ramos takes that same cartoony style, but cant draw humanoid figures very well. Comparing the X-force artist to him is more accurate considering the scene where someone's jaw dislodged while there shouting. Still I think for what they got they may as well have just gotten Ramos for this book since he's a lot less distracting with out someone like Colossus to over exaggerate

@koays: I agree, and I mean im not saying that skill wise either one is on the level of Bachalo but the whole Stylized meant to look cartoonie factor i guess, the picture of colossus you put up looks alot like the weird chin the X force guy uses for Warpath lol which also kind of reminds me of...

the way bachalo tends to draw wolverines jaw, you also notice in this picture Spidies head is way to big lol, i still love the art work and like I said i think its done on purpose, just like i think sadly enough most the stuff you dislike about the X force art is more than liklely just his style which again is open to whatever, but I just dont hate it i guess :D

on a side note, I could look at the google results for "Chris Bachalo comics" all day, he really has some awesome stuff

Stephanie Hans should draw X-Force

@mcklayn: @koays: Bachalo has adopted a different style over time, if you look back at his "Shade the Changing Man" or original "Generation X" days, he used to draw more standard type of super hero stuff. He is guilty of sometimes mailing it in though, and he is without question responsible for the more cartoon-y style the X-men comics seemed to feature in the mid to late 90s that led to Madureira and other atrocities which probably contributed to falling sales.

I can never really blame artists for mailing it in with X-men though. Sometimes you have to draw like 9 people just standing around talking....which is sort of boring. This is why artists like Land! who apparently traces or reuses crap or the Dodsons, who just draw every single human anatomy exactly the same, excel and are contacted a lot for the franchise these days.

Bachalo tends to do a lot better when he has a lot of bizarre shit and weird looking characters to draw, his Dr Strange book for example was phenomenal.

It's all subjective of course but I don't like Ramos at all. I think his anatomy is ridiculous, and all the expressions on the characters faces always remind of Calvin & Hobbes for some reason.

Cartoonish style artists have always been questionable for the X-Men title anyways. The X-Men since 1975 more or less was always a more serious book about people with real problems, even in the face of fighting giant demons and robots there still would be the themes of characters dealing with relationships, child abuse, discrimination, religion etc. and it just seems juxtaposed when you have someone like Skottie Young or the Dodsons making the conflict come to life. Artists of the 80s also had more of an impact and input in the storytelling, Bachalo also seems to have this as he has designed a lot of more obscure looking characters (Chamber, Gen X, Children of the Vault, Shiar Death Commandos). Artists these days just seem like hired guns.

Yea he also did skin from Gen X, and Hollow I think his freaking Gen X promo art is one of my fav drawings, it made me so excited for that comic lol

Every time I skim through Deviantart or pinterest part of me gets numbed forever. Why can't they hire better talents as the web is filled with them?

Hmm.

So while I am getting tired of them using the whole "repeat the same exact dialogue word for word in order to continue conflict without really progressing plots" thing, I am liking everything else about this story though.

The enemy General is kinda a badass, and I like how his conversation with our villain this issue basically came off like Vaccination arguments. It's a refreshing use of the "prejudice born of ignorance" story that we havent had in X-Men in about a decade.

I love how their already setting up competition between 3 villain groups and even though the solicits have likely spoiled this upcoming 3rd party...I'm actually very excited to see how this plays out.

8/10 for not doing much here with the heroes, but giving us 2 really great scenes about what's to come.

@koays: Shatterstars reaction is basically every reaction a fandom has when an alternate version of a character attempts to replace the original or affect the history of the original.

“You’re not the real one. You’ll never be as good as the real one. They were awesome! You are just a cheap one-off that will be forgotten once this is all over!”

@pyrofn: Lol yea, they were being extra meta about Kid Cable.

Even the Deathlok conversation was basically like responding to the "Character wouldnt act like that" with "no he doesnt act like that, but he'll grow into it".

It needed to happen to differentiate this Kid Cable story from the O5 arc where they basically acted like they didnt know the fans were mad and doubled down on the nonsense, but I'm hoping they dont spell it out like this again until he does something else actually worth commenting on.

It was better than I feared, but then that's not saying a whole lot.

The art! Arghhh!!

Why the heck is Deathlok involved? This makes zero sense.

Bring back Rachel, she's suffered more than enough the last couple of years. Seriously.

And finally, I'm actually happy seeing Sam being the voice of reason through most of this.

Pretty good. Pretty, pretty, pretty good.

Art is still awful though.

I also wished they had used a different villain other than Ahab. I don't know, it just seems like they are doing this serious story about a government taking advantage of a refugee crisis and in walks this big, hokey cyborg from the 80s, though, I will say this, the way the artist drew Ahab was nice. He looked mangled and haggard.

I almost shat myself when I saw a new villain show up...but, they killed him. I hope the guy he was working for isn't Stryfe though, because they sort of spoiled that with the cover solicitations for the upcoming months if it is. It better not be "kid Stryfe" either.

Warpath calling some mutant a race traitor was also sort of weird. The X-Men usually don't act like that. Shatterstar also seems to have shed his PAD character growth and has went right back to his 90s depiction as well. It's sort of like several characters are just back to their early 90's X-Force versions with any character or power changes ignored. It's like a nostalgia series that exists in it's own continuity which I would be fine with, but, obviously the villains are referring to events that happened in Extermination so it isn't.

The general is right about Ahab's line about mutants gaining their powers through puberty, lol, many mutants gained their powers before puberty.....including ones Ahab has deep knowledge about. Again, it's like this series is in it's own continuity but it's not.

Kid Cable sent him into Transia on reconnaissance to find out where the military was getting their futuristic weapons. It literally says this in the prior issue.

@koays: Like changing the timeline? Oh wait...

Yes, I remember that. But why Deathlok of all characters. He had no ties with the X-men before this. Why not use Danger for example? The X mythos has many characters they could have used.

Deathlok was in Remender's Uncanny X-Force and also taught at the school briefly, well, Deathlok Prime did. I imagine that him being a member of X-Force before is a reason they stuck him on there.

@pyrofn: Lol no. But I mean like out of character even for Cable.

I fear this series is running into the problem that most series do these days that wind up getting canceled early...it just seems padded out with no real progression. I feel like this issue and the last one were just the team punching robots while you get some villainous interactions between the bad guys. Nothing special.

Wasn't Ahab Scottish or English at the very least?? Whatever happened to that. He lost his accent.

Cannonball was acknowledged as the leader in this issue, which was good, he also had a heart to heart with Kid Cable which I had some issues with, but whatever. Kid Cable has really failed to be interesting in this series so far.

Cannonball better not die next issue. He gave that huge diatribe about what was important to him in his life so that could very well be the foreshadowing of his death. Out of all the X characters that float around and do absolutely nothing but punch or shoot things Cannonball actually has an interesting dynamic where he had a kid with a woman who is a part of an intergalactic honor guard, so, that's sort of interesting.

Anyways, killing someone off for the sake of killing them is just another example of desperation when writing, and I guarantee whoever dies bites in a heroic sacrifice. Better not be Sam.

Art is still awful. The guy's style probably works for more offbeat indie comics but it seems out of place in a major X title. I would take Liefeld over this guy any day.

Wow.

Didnt even realize this came out.

Be back with my thoughts

Hmmm...

Ok so I like the issue. It's fun and moves the plot along while stopping to give us a few hints at who Kid Cable is. It's really the first character development scene in the run so I'm liking this issue based solely on that.

Ahab was great. What I've always liked about his character potential was that (as wacky as his premise may seem) he was never a villain that we got to learn about. He was the Cyborg who turned mutants into feral creatures to hunt and kill their own kind...but that was it.

Here we get him at his lowest and get to see who he is and how he reacts in a complicated situation he isnt in control of. He's been captured and imprisoned by a human who is making him work for him. And while we've seen Ahab angry and vengeful toward Rachel and mutants in the past...this is the first time we see Ahab offended. And it's great!

His reaction and payback toward the President is perfect and it makes me hope we get more and more of this Ahab, and actually makes me interested to see how he'll hold his own as a wild card when weve got the President and (almost assuredly) Stryfe going to war for top villain.

That said....outside of the Kid Cable, Cannonball scene and Ahab being awesome that's it for the positives.

I know we've joked about the artwork in this thread. But THIS was the issue that broke my ability to overlook it. Ahabs moment of awesome is undercut by the fact that I know if someone else had penned this it wouldve been more dynamic and less "indie hardcore". The coloring is beautiful and saves alot of the scenes but this really pulled me out of it.

Boomboom is back. Way to soon and without enough explanation. I wanna blame myself and say I was expecting to much with the back issues, but honestly just her getting from the US to a country who's President was assassinated and who are now out to kill all mutants...only to arrive perfectly in time to save the day...smh this is weaksauce.

Boombooms return also suffers in the art department. I mean really I'll take Ramos over this. At least he couldve made the dynamic return and last minute save appear to have some actual tension. These robots looked like they couldve just been ran over.

The team also feels like they aren't really together. I forgot Shatterstar was on the team, and then when I remembered I asked myself why I thought Warpath was with them instead of Shatterstar....then I remembered their both supposedly on this team.

Honestly I'm still VERY interested in the book. I just feel like this book should be much further along then it is. I mean I've been waiting for months for Rachel's fate, and I'm a big fan of Cable....but this book isnt keeping the pressure on like it needs to...especially since it's meant to be a longer run. Maybe 2 issues a month would help this..but it's just not doing enough to keep its self in my mind.

This issue pretty much suffers from the problems of last issue rushing forward the way it did with Boomboom.

It's really all in the background though.

The issue is back to being pretty good with Ahab being hilariously over the top and evil while Cable gets another quick personal moment with the team that couldve lasted longer. I still like the President character for being the awesome nobody villain who is still hanging with the "big leaguers" instead of being reduced to a supporting role.

Rachel, Kid Cable and Stryfes connection is gonna be interesting I think, because theyve gone out of there way to keep Kid Cables discreption of things vague. And since were about to get "the origin of Kid Cable" I'm curious if the plan is to heavily focus on the Mother Askani thing as the future direction for Rachel or if there gonna just do a backstory dump before getting to why Kid Cable is here in the present.