Tuesday, May 12, 2009

First Issue Spectacular: X-Force

What better way to break in the new blog than with what broke me into comics: X-Force.



Shut up, I was 11.

It was a different time in the summer of 1991, and the industry was driven by the next big thing. Every new issue that came out was promising to be the one that would make you rich, and everyone (myself included) was gullible enough to believe it.

So, in an effort to capitalize on the superstar 'talent' of Rob Liefeld, Marvel canceled the New Mutants and replaced it with a more extreme version of the team with Liefeld behind the steering wheel. Let's see where he takes us.



The story picks up, to my best guess, six months after the events of New Mutants # 100, with the titular team about to raid a stronghold belonging to the Mutant Liberation Front. The MLF are basically the 90s version of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, but more extreme as seen by their leader, Stryfe:



Anyway, fighting ensues, but the bad guys slip through our young heroes fingers. Leaving Cable to mutter what should have been the 'Fresh New Catchphrase of 1991':



The team heads back to their headquarters (an old Sentinel lab) where the kids can train while Cable generally acts like a dick and keeps information from them(Which really, upon thinking about it, isn't that out of line seeing how almost half of the team has some kind of mysterious past that they aren't talking about). Oh, and suddenly Cable has telekinesis.



Honestly that's probably the best part of mysterious characters, you can give them new powers whenever you want and just say they were keeping it to themselves.

And that's pretty much where the first issue leaves our team, just chillin' at home with a leader who isn't telling them anything. This ride never slows down!

It's hard to believe that this series lasted like it did, but I guess it goes to show that you can't underestimate the staying power of Rob Liefeld characters, no matter how much you want to.

Re-reading it, I can't help but to get nostalgic for my favorite X-Team (Shut Up!) even if it encompasses almost everything that was wrong with the X-Books in the 90s.

I'm still waiting until I can sell my three copies and buy myself a yatch....

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