X-Force #1 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-FORCE vol 7 #1
“Where Monsters Dwell”
Writer: Geoffrey Thorne
Artist: Marcus To
Colour artist: Erick Arciniega
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Editor: Mark Basso
X-FORCE:
The new X-Force is a team put together by Forge to deal with a hazily defined problem of “fractures” that are causing the world to break apart. Aside from the fact that Forge and Sage were both regulars in the previous run, it doesn’t have much connection to previous versions of X-Force. (In fact, the book was apparently pitched under a different name and assigned the “X-Force” name after the fact.)
Forge is effectively the lead character. When we first see him, he’s replaying some sort of video or simulation of a 1980s X-Men team fighting the Brood, for some reason or other. The art doesn’t really match up with any specific event. Forge is apparently obsessed with this, enough to spend over a day watching it and losing track of time.
Forge’s main project is “the McCoy Project”, which Forge says is inspired by the Beast’s research into mutantdom – i.e., the work that led to him become blue and furry back in Amazing Adventures #10 (1971). Forge claims that the Beast was “tr[ying] to run away from his mutation and stumbled into a power-up”, which is not what happened in the original story – the Beast was just investigating the “chemical cause of mutation”. Perhaps Forge construes any investigation into that topic as some sort of attempt to create a cure. In the context of an X-Force book, any suggestion that Forge is following in the steps of the Beast should probably be seen as some sort of warning.
Forge’s basic idea seems to be to use his powers to create some sort of device that enhances his own powers. In turn, that makes him aware of some sort of problem with fissures that need to be addressed in order to save the world, and also points him towards a solution: create a thing called the “analog” which helps to identify the problems, and form a team to deal with the problems. What links these problems, what caused them, why this particular team addresses them, and why the group has to be kept secret is left unclear – apparently even to the rest of the cast – through Forge seems puzzled when Sage asks him about the reason for secrecy.
I think part of the point here is meant to be that Forge’s powers, even enhanced into a more general problem-solving ability, still ultimately work by getting him directly to the solution by intuition alone. This is why Sage finds Forge impossible to analyses with her usual computational methods, and why he responds to her line “You actually do think of everything” by saying “That’s not how my power works.” If so, Forge doesn’t actually know why his power is pointing him towards these steps, but simply has faith that it will be steering him correctly. Still, his first mission does correctly identify a major threat, and his decision to hire Deadpool for the day turns out to be key to the solution.
For some reason Forge insists on wearing a psi-blocking headband, despite having invited three telepaths onto his team. You’d think people might be a bit more suspicious of this, but presumably his explanation involves yet more of that secrecy and paranoia he’s sold everyone on.
Sage is the narrator for the book, presumably because Forge’s thought processes are meant to be obscure to us, and her purely rational approach contrasts with his. She seems to have had some sort of mental breakdown after the fall of Krakoa. Forge attributes this to her blaming herself for not preventing the fall of Krakoa, but she seemed fairly normal in the latter issues of X-Force and Wolverine, all of which came after that point. Maybe things caught up with her after Orchis was defeated or maybe the actual cause is something else. She certainly seems in a self-loathing mood, though, since she’s checked herself into a Swiss psychiatric clinic under the name “Mademoiselle L’Échec” (“Miss Failure”). She’s babbling nonsense at first, but pulls herself together failure quickly on seeing the analog, which she seems to find fascinating.
Forge insists on calling her “Tessa”, the name which she used when she was undercover in the Hellfire Club back in the 1980s.
Captain Britain and Askani come as a package deal. Betsy isn’t particularly keen to join up for this exercise and wants to spend time with Rachel “in light of recent events”, but Rachel – who decides to start calling the group X-Force – signs up enthusiastically and ropes Betsy in. It’s not clear why Rachel is so keen to get involved, but the vibe seems to be that she’s just looking for something to do. Betsy is played as the senior/serious member of the duo, with Rachel something of a “brat”, in Betsy’s words.
Surge happens to be visiting her family in Japan when X-Force show up to fight Mr Sinister’s creation (see below). She’s recruited into the team at the end of the issue because “the analog wants her”, as shown in the QR-code bonus page. We last saw Surge in a major role in the Bishop: War College miniseries, though she’s had a couple of cameos since.
Tank is a red humanoid thing which has no dialogue and shows up with no explanation. The obvious implication is that he’s a robot built by Forge, but we’re not actually told that in terms, and at this stage he probably qualifies as a mystery subplot which is pretending to be too mundane to call for explanation.
Deadpool has been hired by Forge just for this one mission, against because the analog wanted him. The actual threat in this issue is a grey goo monster which eats everything in sight and will apparently go on to consume the world unless stopped. Forge has brought Deadpool along because – for reasons that are handwaved through with rather unsatisfactory technobabble – eating Deadpool will somehow or other lead to the creature dying harmlessly in three days or so. Forge doesn’t warn Deadpool about this in advance, but it’s entirely possible that he doesn’t actually know why Deadpool will come in handy. Then again, he doesn’t seem particularly bothered about it either.
VILLAINS:
Mr Sinister is behind the company which created the grey goo thing, though it seems to have simply escaped rather than being released as part of any sort of plan – at any rate, Sage assumes it to be an escapee, presumably because Sinister has nothing obvious to gain from letting it out. He may just be a familiar name to attack to a threat-of-the-week monster.
The online bonus page shows a shadow figure monitoring X-Force from a distance. Forge says that X-Force is his machine, and the mystery figure comments “And you, querido, you are mine.” Querido is Spanish for “darling”.
OTHER SPECIFICS:
Page 8: “Hart Home, Florida… The Well of All Things… The Forest of Torment… Sorachi-Shi…” Forge is apparently voicing the names of places associated with the “fissures” problem.
- Sorachi-Shi is the Japanese town visited later in the story; Sorachi is a subprefecture of Hokkaido with no apparent prior Marvel Universe significance.
- Hart Home, Florida seems to be fictitious and new.
- The Well of All Things first appeared in New Warriors #24 (1992), and it’s one of those portals to numerous dimensions. It’s meant to be in Cambodia.
- The Forest of Torment – apparently the team’s next stop – is an obscure Wakandan geographical feature which first appeared in Jungle Action #8 (1973). Despite the exciting name, it’s just a forest.
Page 11 panel 5: “Formo sen formo, ombro sen koloro, paralizita forto, gesto senmovo…” The first two parts of Sage’s speech balloon are quoting from the opening stanza of The Hollow Men by T S Eliot – the first part is translated into Esperanto, and the last bit is in hexademical. The full passage reads (with the translated parts in italics)
Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion;Those who have crossed,
With direct eyes, to death’s other kingdom,
Remember us – if at al – not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men
“If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast. Mr Charles Lutwidge Dodgson wrote that.” Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832-1898) is Lewis Carroll. The first sentence is a quote from Through the Looking-Glass (1871) – it’s a line from the Red Queen, and in full it reads “Now here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!”
Page 13 panel 2: “Half the world’s governments have declared mutants automatic terrorists…” Presumably Sage is exaggerating, since this doesn’t really reflect what we’ve seen in other books (unless she means that it happened recently, during Orchis’s ascendancy).
The Forest of Torment is a good name. There’s any number of real places that are ordinary, or even quite pleasant, with melodramatic names like that. Some Wakandan explorer probably lost their favourite drink bottle there or something.
[…] Source: https://www.housetoastonish.com/?p=10262 […]
Huh. X-Force 1 was not bad, but kind of frustrating. The mystery of Forge’s true motives, the analog, and the general purpose of the team is intriguing. I thought most of the cast seemed a bit off, if not completely out of character. Writers have taken multiple approaches with Forge, from confident but penitent to “crazy” to macho, so a new, darker personality isn’t without precedent. Betsy was alright, but Rachel being the fun one in the relationship doesn’t match how she’s usually portrayed. Sage sounding so different from Percy’s version threw me, even if this version isn’t miles away from previous portrayals.
Marcus To’s art looked good. The plot was a bit iffy, but I chalk some of that up to the sense of mystery the title’s running with. I’ll give the book an arc to hook me.
A lot of mysteries are set up here, and I sincerely hope Thorne is capable of juggling the balls he’s set into motion. He’s good, but sometimes hit-and-miss for my liking. The team isn’t anything -terribly- surprising… but having Forge as the leader/motivational force adds a new element to the usual X-Force shenanigans.
I do think it was pretty assholish of Forge to be all “eh, we’ll feed Deadpool to a monster and let him not-die for three days… see ya later Wade!” because as annoying and mercurial as Deadpool -is-, he doesn’t deserve that sort of treatment out of the blue. Especially when half the time, he’d do it if the X-Men asked him nicely and made him feel wanted.
I notice Betsy’s definitely not doing this under the Captain Britain identity. I wonder if she just wants to be more subtle while running this sort of clandestine operation, or if there’s a backing away from that part of her now that Tini Howard’s no longer pushing it.
(I have to say I do love the portrayal of Betsy and Rachel as Dapper Bisexual and Sloppy Bisexual when they’re in civvies. Both speak to elements of their characters– Betsy’s posh upbringing vs Rachel’s chaotic and traumatic childhood mixed with her more flamboyant Excalibur days…)
I assumed Tank was a previously unseen mutant. So him/it being a Forge construct might be interesting.
In the opening sequence, it was noteworthy that Forge labeled each of the classic ’80s team with what’s essentially their generations.
Team 1: Cyclops (from the Original Five)
Team 4: Storm, Wolverine, Colossus, Nightcrawler (all from the Giant-Size recruiting drive)
Team 5: Shadowcat (joined Uncanny #138)
Team 6: Rogue (joined Uncanny #171)
So that raises the question of who would qualify as teams 2 and 3 in this sequence. Probably:
Team 2: Interim recruits Havok and Polaris, maybe Mimic and Changeling (though they’re rarely considered full X-Men…)
Team 3: Deadly Genesis retconned team of Petra, Sway, Vulcan and Darwin, I’d assume.
Likewise, I assume that breaking down other members from the early days, you’d add:
Team 1: Jean, Angel, Beast, Iceman
Team 2: Thunderbird, Banshee, Sunfire
Going by this numbering, maybe we’d also see
Team 7: Rachel, Longshot, Psylocke, Dazzler, who all joined in the same roughly 2 year period, post-Rogue and pre-Australian Outback.
Team 8: Gambit, Juiblee, Bishop, Revanche, who all joined in the ’90s around the same general period…
I just wonder if there’s any significance to specifying the team generations in this simulation.
The Wakanda reference may be connected to the Resurrection Altar, a device that could create superhuman mutates, andalso functioned asan interstellar portal (Black Panther v. 3 #25).
The Well of All Things also creates superhumans in addition to being a kind of portal. So there’s likely a connection being made here between portals and artificial mutation.
For that matter, ROM’s Neutralizer didn’t just negate energies, but also banishedDire Wraiths to Immortus’s Limbo. So that’s another portal-mutation connection.
Perhaps this is what Forge’s project is about.
Yeah, the Forest of Torment puts me in mind of the Accursed Mountains (which are also not particularly cursed).
Pretty interesting for a team that calls itself “X-Force”. It is probably a good thing that this version had a core concept before receiving that name.
There is an inner tension in Forge as a character, which Thorne seems to be bringing to the foreground; his mutant power is to build devices with no clear limitations to what they can do. While he is clearly a very intelligent man, he is _not_ the sort of supergenius that Tony Stark or Reed Richards show themselves to be – or Beast, for that matter. Yet his creations are more far-reaching than Reed’s. There is a subtle yet persistent implication that he does not actually fully understand how his devices work, at least before he has completed them.
By that reading, Forge is a deeply impulsive and intuitive character (and indeed, his personality is usually portrayed as such) that is sometimes mistaken – even by himself – for some sort of hyper-rational being. Meanwhile, Sage is the real thing.
At first glance, this first issue seems to be setting up a couple of character dynamics to be explored – Sage and Forge, Askani and Betsy. The Analog, despite being Forge’s creation, is also an oracle of sorts for him, literally telling him what he should watch for while apparently giving little detail on what to expect. It is a Mission Creation Engine that assures that the group will have little rest between assignments. This “X-Force” is in a very real sense Forge’s support group in a journey of self-discovery.
There is a fair number of plot points that feel ambiguous. They may be just hurried characterization or they may be visited and explained latter.
Note that Sage says “One picosecond after SHE dies”. Who is she?
Re: why Thorne thinks Beast was trying to cure mutants- I think Thorne is misinterpreting Avengers 140. In Avengers 140, Hank Pym collapses and starts growing out of control. Beast runs to get a cure for mutation he developed while working at Brand. The idea seems to have been that after Beast turned furry, he tried to develop a cure to turn him back human and failed. But even though the cure didn’t work for Hank, it might work for, um, Hank. But Thorne seems to have interpreted that scene as meaning Beast was trying to cure mutants from the start.
Thorne apparently thinks Tessa is Sage’s real name.
Regarding Tank, he does have one line of dialogue: “That is…not good.” The consensus on the internet is that he’s probably Colossus, since he throws Deadpool in a Fastball Special.
Note that Sinister’s latest scheme involves splicing mutant genes with alien biomes. Orbis Stellaris is the Sinister who specializes in aliens. It’s not clear if Sinister is actually working with Stellaris or was just inspired by learning of his existence.
One thing to note- Thorne has said that he didn’t realize that Xavier LITERALLY shot Rachel in the back when he was writing the first couple of issues- he thought it was just a metaphor. We’ll have to see how that affects things.
@The Other Michael- I think “annoying and mercurial” understates just how bad Wade can be- just ask Vanessa, Blind Al or Phil Coulson. (I was going to add Irene Merrywether but that one got undone by time travel.) Still, Forge not getting people’s consent beforehand is what enabled the Adversary to enter the Earth- Forge seems to have forgotten that lesson.
Yeah, Deadpool is a liability as often as he’s an asset, but it’s always been a running theme in his association with team books that he desperately wants to be accepted and included and made to feel welcome. Pestering the previous incarnation of X-Force to be included, wanting to be on Krakoa, wanting to serve on the Uncanny Avengers…
Forge could have had him for the price of a chimichanga plate and a ‘we need you’ and instead chose to pull an asshole move that’s like as not to create bad feelings and which Deadpool didn’t deserve this time. (this time, I say…)
It seemed like it was implied that Deadpool’s advanced terminal cancer (which idk the current status of in the comics, but is a large part of his movie portrayal) was going to be absorbed by the monster and lacking Deadpool’s healing factor, would die from it?
It does seem… odd that Wade would still have a dormant and constantly healing cancer years later when you can do literally anything to him and he heals it with no ill effects. It’s not like when Logan is occasionally depowered that various viruses he’s had and healed from (the Brood comes to mind but there was a pandemic in the Fraction X-Men run too) come back. It’s weird that cancer just doesn’t go away, but maybe there is some justification based on how the disease replicates itself?
Elsewhere online, everyone seems to think this is Tank.
https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Tank_(Mutant)_(Earth-616)
He’s had only had a single appearance in a non x-book in 2019. He was stalking/fighting Miles Morales due to his interdimensional signature and Tank was able to travel interdimensionally himself (and control his own size) until he seemingly died in his first appearance. Interdimensional travel would fit right in with the book’s mission, which feels like Planetary meets Exiles.
@OtherMichael: Only a few characters seem to ever get how much Wade wants to be accepted and made to feel welcome; Logan, Captain America, and Rogue. Everyone else is written as too annoyed by his antics to pay much attention.
Ryan T-As far as I understand it (and I’m certainly not the biggest expert on the character), Deadpool’s healing factor was designed specifically for him while he was dying of cancer, unlike Wolverine’s natural healing factor. Cancer cells, unlike healthy cells, are continually dividing and don’t die off naturally. Without the cancer, his healing factor would regenerate healthy cells uncontrollably, as seen in a comic where the Skrulls attempted to replicate his healing factor in order to achieve immortality. When Deadpool’s healing factor regenerates healthy cells, the cancerous cells start to kill off the healthy cells. Deadpool’s cancer and healing factor are both keeping his body in constant stasis.
Are we sure the “McCoy research” is referring to the 1971 story? And not, say, the Whedon or Morrison runs?
I feel like the pay Deadpool was given was meant to initially seem excessive, but when you factor in how he was used, it’s actually a fair exchange.
I liked a lot about this, but was bugged by a) the unmotivated secrecy, and b) the feeling that this is just not an “X-Force” book.
@Alexx Kay: Yes, it’s the 1971 story. Forge calls up a holorecording of original, nonfurry Hank talking about his intention to make himself normal. How and why ’70s Hank made a holorecording doesn’t come up.
The recent events Betsy mentioned are presumably whatever power loss subplot Rachel has going on. Rachel needs to recharge off her girlfriend in midfight, which doesn’t line up with her usual depiction as a powerhouse.
I used to be bugged by the resilience of X-Force, which keeps being published and relaunched for no obvious reason when better books fail to.
Until I realized that X-Force is an umbrella name for any group of Marvel mutants willing to act without a clear mission, central authority or accounting.
Any ad hoc militia of mutants can call themselves the current incarnation of X-Force if the name is not otherwise being used. At least once in the past, even if is being used already.
To me the name will always be tainted by the 1990s stories, when it was Cable’s little band of lawless killers and very soon ended up being accepted by Xavier as well for any situations where brutal expedience was more confortable than transparency and accountability. That undercut Xavier’s goals enormously, but apparently that was how things would be from then on.
But am I the only one who thought Tank is Colossus in disguise?
With Beast’s “death and rehabilitation,” he is the X-Man with the worst reputation in the post-Krakoa era; it fits that he doesn’t get recognized around.
@Luis Dantas: as a younger reader, I always wondered why Cable and Bishop had those giant guns, but almost never killed anyone. I read X-Force up to issue 25, and the EXTEREME VIOLENCE!!! wasn’t more than what the X-Men got up to. I wasn’t looking for such content, and only stuck with the book because I liked the New Mutants characters and Greg Capullo’s art.
I think the name “X-Force” sounds cool, and gives the reader an idea of what to expect in a way that, say, “X-Factor” doesn’t. I also think a black-ops mutant team that is willing to kill is more marketable and an easier concept to get than “mutant investigators,” “young mutants hanging out,” “a group of characters that were sort of popular once are in a book again, just cuz,” etc.
An analog is a model. Suggests that Forge built some kind of mechanical simulator for the “fissures” problem and solutions.
Forge’s power is intuitive tinkering. He doesn’t leap to solutions all at once or directly.
I’d like to request a return of the descriptions of the cover images. And if Tank is Colossus, people who know him should recognize his nonnative speech pattern even with a voice changer.
It wasn’t until last week’s trailer that I learned that Star Trek has its own equivalent of X-Force.
And of course, they were created… in the 90s.
I’m starting to think it’s just the concept of the black ops outfit, not the catchy names…
Where Monsters Dwell is the title of Marvel’s 1970s series reprinting their pre-FF #1 giant monster stories from books like Tales to Astonish and Journey into Mystery.
The title has been reused for a pulpy miniseries by Garth Ennis and Frank Cho in 2015, and also for an animated Hulk movie, but here it’s probably meant to call back to the original version.
The 1990s were indeed a time of remarkable cynicism.
I am not clear on the reasons, but I believe it connects to Desert Storm.
I wasn’t really engaged with this issue as I was reading it, but now that a few hours have passed, I think I dislike it a lot.
In general, I’m not wild about the story engine of traveling place-to-place, guided by algorithms or magic or whatever, not knowing what the threat is gonna be until they get there. I’m also leery about frontloading a series with so much seemingly-arbitrary mystery; feels like the eventual revelations are rarely enough to justify it.
And that ending was too goddamn stupid for me to just let go of. The monster’s gonna take three days to starve? You’re not worried that in three days it might accidentally absorb something that does give it nutrition? Or that some bad guy might come along and grab it? And letting Deadpool be tortured for 3 days rather than, like, calling Reed Richards is colder than usual for any of the involved characters.
I thought that was Greycrow on the cover.
Also I never read her early appearances and have gone all this time with no idea that Surge was supposed to be anything other than a white girl.
“Also I never read her early appearances and have gone all this time with no idea that Surge was supposed to be anything other than a white girl.”
She’s only very, very rarely portrayed as one – though that’s a whole other mess of a (necessary) conversation.
I like the overly literal take on Sage. It very specifically reminds me of her brief stint on New X-Men (with Bishop), and the energy of her appearances in X-Treme X-Men (which is when I first learned of the character).
I can’t quite put my finger on it, but there’s something that makes me want to see more of the character. Maybe a similar impulse to why I always come back to Cecilia Reyes: the appeal of these characters that never quite fit in anywhere.
I like Forge and Sage as counterpoints. The rest… It feels a bit early to be sure, though the grasp on Rachel and Psylocke does seem kind of vague.
Still, I expected to dislike this an awful lot more…!
Okay thanks at least I’m not a complete idiot.
@MasterMahan Thanks for the pointer.
As to how Hank could have a holorecording, I figure it’s a sliding timescale thing. At this point, the 616 probably had holorecording tech before the Fantastic Four were formed. Alternately, it’s just a simulation, like the opening scene appears to have been.
This wasn’t a fun read. The art is fine, but it came off to me as a high-concept book because it tells you it’s high-concept. Thorne then bogs down the panels with gibberish from Forge and Sage, which makes me skip panels, and I reread this, hoping to like it more. The idea sounded like it was supposed to be that Forge builds a machine to fix every problem, and mutants are now “circuits,” so he’s creating a new machine/team for every situation, but he recruits two people with the same powers. If the monster grows by absorbing mass and Deadpool will regenerate that mass, wouldn’t he be the opposite of the answer?
It just didn’t work for me.