I have yet another day of comic talkery for your faces to digest.
Pressed for time, I am thankful this one is kind of simple!
The Mast's 30 Days of Comicdom (Day 5): What Is Your Favourite Team?
X-Force.
Formed by Cyclops in a clandestine move that proved to me he was a true leader I could like, THIS version of X-Force are not your Papa's X-Men.
X-Force operated as a black-ops, wetworks team that were put together to eliminate the bad guys before they eliminated THEM. A pre-emptive attack force with licence and preference to kill any and all dangerous enemies they come across. Granted, the people they killed absolutely deserved it, but that is the wonder of the dynamic.
How far can you go? Do the ends justify the means? By brutally hunting and killing people who brutally hunt mutants, age and gender all inclusively, are you as bad? That's why the debate rages on about whether Cyclops was right to form them, or if others were right to find it disturbing.
Originally it consisted of Warpath, Wolverine, X-23 and Wolfsbane. It shifted somewhat over time, but it didn't really have long enough to solidify anything. The series ran for almost 30 issues and, penned by Craig Kyle and Chris Yost, it utterly floored me. I am not a fan of X-Books, Second Coming was a revival of what must have been a decade or more of not liking them. X-Force, however, did not feel like an X-Book.
It was violent, sexy and immensely intriguing all in one. My breath remains bated for the upcoming Uncanny X-Force #1 issue in October. Wolverine and Archangel are still there, but into the fold comes Fantomex, Psylocke and Deadpool! Rick Remender has the chance to knock this out of the part and, along with Duane Swierczynski, re-establish 'Pool as a snarky, corrosive mercenary. I also dig the matching outfits.
Regardless, the volume of X-Force I'm referring to is what I hope Secret Avengers will eventually become an evolution of, with less violence.
I'm sure there will be four trades or so by the time it's all been compiled, but do yourself a favour, ok? Go pick up book one, Angels and Demons, right now. Like, now. Go to Amazon and buy that shit. Chop suey!
You are probably wondering why I didn't pick The Avengers. The reason is because The Avengers are at their best when the roster works for you. I love The Trinity, but it hasn't produced my consistently favourite team.
There's not a great deal you can say about X-Force. There wasn't a massive amount of character development due to all the characters and team members being massively developed. This series was more a showcase of the teams gory privileges and mission statements, and a stark reflection of what Cyclops, one of mutantkind's most rigid heroes, had been forced to resort to.
I enjoyed X-Force way more than ANY team book I've probably ever read save for early issues of The New Mutants. That is why they win as my favourite team!
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Sorry if this one is a bit short, but I realised in writing it that there really isn't much more you CAN say, to be fair.
I really hope you liked it, I love doing it. Stay tuned tomorrow for TWO posts in ONE day. Thursday's Comics, accompanied by some bloggish updates and the latest installment of The Mast's 30 Days of Comicdom! I feel this'll be a short one also as it's a bit of a shit question, but hey, you do what you must, right?
Thanks for reading, following, commenting and spreading the word if you are.
Until next time, peace.
-The Mast
