The X-Force franchise seems to be one that won't die. I wasn't aware until reading Wikipedia just now that there was a "black ops" version of X-men with Wolverine, Psylocke, Deadpool, and some other randoms, fociussed upon killing a baby reincarnated version of Apokalyse. there is some thief called Fantomax who has been split into three personalities. And, well, other stuff.
Anyway, this series post-dates that series. I bought this because I liked the cover art and because I like both the characters Spiral and Psylocke. The two have been portrayed for a long term as having a deep, deep hatred. I was curious to see how this was going to work in a team setting.
Psylocke has been kicked out of school as a teacher by Wolverine because of this:
Being a telepathic teacher with a great arse must be a tough gig.
Storm has been text-dumped by Black Panther. What does a girl do when her boyfriend gives her the flick? Gets a new hairdo. And so Storm is back to her 80s punk fashion. Not sure mohawks are even vaguely acceptable even to punks nowadays, but whatever.
Spiral is now hanging out in LA selling drugs (kind of). Psylocke goes in for the kill:
But then, Spiral is all, boo-hoo I just want a normal life. And Psylocke lets her escape from hanging onto the ledge of a building. What. The. Fuck? No, no, no. This book was going to be good because you have two characters who hate and would happily betray each other having to work together. Not, "Oh, but for an apron and I would work in a children's hospital helping sick kids!" Huge let down.
Puck, of Alpha Flight fame, is around. Short horny guy. Not much more to say really. Fantomax is about, but I can't really work out what is happening there.
Bishop has been brought back. I never had much time for this character - his first appearance was during a particuarly bad period of writing in X-men. I always thought he was introduced as some sort of ethnic "black people should only date black people" thing, leading to a romance between Storm and Bishop. And his powers! He absorbs energy and shoots it out through his clenched fists. It sounds like something I would have creatively devised when I was 12.
It makes me think the team should go ona spaceship and get into a solar flare so they all develop interesting, pseudo-realistic, but not very useful secondary mutations (Hank McCoy just went through his fourth round of physical shape-shifting) and have to deal with it. Bishop dealing with gills, a dorsal fin, and webbed feet might actually be interesting: Puck with extra fingers and toes: Psylocke with a cat's tail; Storm with a multi-chambered heart and organs to enable her to eat anything. Whatever. Presently, the title seemed mired in continuity, a typical trap of X-titles, and isn't clever nor much fun.
